4 ms·

Tweak the iOS simulator device size

41 points by jamesjyu 14y ago

MiguelHudnandez 14y ago
I'd love to see more about how to reverse engineer this information.
- bcherry 14y ago
  I think it's most likely this wasn't reverse engineered, but was somehow leaked by an engineer at Apple. But, if you wanted to try, you can open the simulator binary in a text editor (/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhone Simulator) where you'll find a bunch of strings towards the bottom, including: * minVersion * capabilities * width * height * eagle * giraffe * forceEagle * forceGiraffe * canTether * homeOriginX * homeOriginY * homeOriginXHalfsize * homeOriginYHalfsize * productFamily * monkey * dogcow * squirrel I'm not sure how one would have known to look there, but once you do it's kind of obvious that eagle/giraffe are related to customizing some sort of width/height. Based on the other strings, they definitely belong in the .plist, so it's pretty straightforward to figure things out. I have no idea what squirrel, monkey, and dogcow are for.
- dcope 14y ago
  It's pretty simple with a disassembler. For instance... http://cl.ly/image/330V1S0y3i1S http://cl.ly/image/330V1S0y3i1S
  - Zev 14y ago
    A disassembler won't tell you that "giraffe" means "simulated device height"
    - seabee 14y ago
      You have to be creative - giraffes are tall, eagles have wide wingspans. I can only assume future iPhones gather nuts for winter hibernation.
    - dcope 14y ago
      Obviously not. It's up to the tinkerer to figure that out (which is clearly possible by tracing around). Again, this is pretty trivial with a disassembler such as Hopper that can generate pseudocode.
  - Scene_Cast2 14y ago
    What disassembler is this?
    - duskwuff 14y ago
      Hopper - http://www.hopperapp.com/ http://www.hopperapp.com/
thought_alarm 14y ago
That's great, but the only app that takes advantage of the taller screen is Springboard. All other apps, including your own, will be sized to 640x960.
- esolyt 14y ago
  Apps that have scrollable views such as Twitter should be able to automatically expand to fill the screen and look good.
  - frankus 14y ago
    Should be able to, but I'm assuming there's some kind of Info.plist key that needs to be set (Checking iOS 6 springboard now…)
esolyt 14y ago
Retaining the horizontal resolution and screen size was a wise choice. Apps usually have content that users scroll vertically. So most apps won't have to change their assets for the new iPhone. Games, however, do not use the native UI elements so they probably will be problematic. I am not an iOS developer though. Perhaps someone who knows better can explain what impact this resolution/size change will have.
- tathagata 14y ago
  Apple is introducing auto-layout in iOS 6, which will make it relatively easy to design apps which scale to different resolutions. There were at least 3 talks on auto-layout at WWDC 2012.
  - esolyt 14y ago
    Only new apps will be able to use auto-layout. I was talking about the backwards compatibility, that is whether existing apps will work well.
    - tathagata 14y ago
      From the couple of talks I heard, I think Apple said something about auto-converting 'at runtime' in iOS 6 existing guide-based layouts into the new auto-layout thing based on constraints.
      - tathagata 14y ago
        I keep forgetting that I am bound by an NDA. Can't say nothing more.
    - xuki 14y ago
      If your app was well-designed, you have to handle the double status bar on iPhone anyway. This change is pretty much the same as the double status bar. So: well-designed app might not need to do anything at all.

41 points by jamesjyu 14y ago

MiguelHudnandez 14y ago

I'd love to see more about how to reverse engineer this information.

bcherry 14y ago
I think it's most likely this wasn't reverse engineered, but was somehow leaked by an engineer at Apple. But, if you wanted to try, you can open the simulator binary in a text editor (/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhone Simulator) where you'll find a bunch of strings towards the bottom, including: * minVersion * capabilities * width * height * eagle * giraffe * forceEagle * forceGiraffe * canTether * homeOriginX * homeOriginY * homeOriginXHalfsize * homeOriginYHalfsize * productFamily * monkey * dogcow * squirrel I'm not sure how one would have known to look there, but once you do it's kind of obvious that eagle/giraffe are related to customizing some sort of width/height. Based on the other strings, they definitely belong in the .plist, so it's pretty straightforward to figure things out. I have no idea what squirrel, monkey, and dogcow are for.
dcope 14y ago
It's pretty simple with a disassembler. For instance... http://cl.ly/image/330V1S0y3i1S http://cl.ly/image/330V1S0y3i1S
- Zev 14y ago
  A disassembler won't tell you that "giraffe" means "simulated device height"
  - seabee 14y ago
    You have to be creative - giraffes are tall, eagles have wide wingspans. I can only assume future iPhones gather nuts for winter hibernation.
  - dcope 14y ago
    Obviously not. It's up to the tinkerer to figure that out (which is clearly possible by tracing around). Again, this is pretty trivial with a disassembler such as Hopper that can generate pseudocode.
- Scene_Cast2 14y ago
  What disassembler is this?
  - duskwuff 14y ago
    Hopper - http://www.hopperapp.com/ http://www.hopperapp.com/

thought_alarm 14y ago

That's great, but the only app that takes advantage of the taller screen is Springboard. All other apps, including your own, will be sized to 640x960.

esolyt 14y ago
Apps that have scrollable views such as Twitter should be able to automatically expand to fill the screen and look good.
- frankus 14y ago
  Should be able to, but I'm assuming there's some kind of Info.plist key that needs to be set (Checking iOS 6 springboard now…)

esolyt 14y ago

Retaining the horizontal resolution and screen size was a wise choice. Apps usually have content that users scroll vertically. So most apps won't have to change their assets for the new iPhone. Games, however, do not use the native UI elements so they probably will be problematic. I am not an iOS developer though. Perhaps someone who knows better can explain what impact this resolution/size change will have.

tathagata 14y ago
Apple is introducing auto-layout in iOS 6, which will make it relatively easy to design apps which scale to different resolutions. There were at least 3 talks on auto-layout at WWDC 2012.
- esolyt 14y ago
  Only new apps will be able to use auto-layout. I was talking about the backwards compatibility, that is whether existing apps will work well.
  - tathagata 14y ago
    From the couple of talks I heard, I think Apple said something about auto-converting 'at runtime' in iOS 6 existing guide-based layouts into the new auto-layout thing based on constraints.
    - tathagata 14y ago
      I keep forgetting that I am bound by an NDA. Can't say nothing more.
  - xuki 14y ago
    If your app was well-designed, you have to handle the double status bar on iPhone anyway. This change is pretty much the same as the double status bar. So: well-designed app might not need to do anything at all.