Retina Display Icons

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aj2005sfa Author

Level 1

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Retina Display Icons

I noticed that while you are installing an app, the icon shows as being a high res icon. Then when the app finishes installing, (if the developer hasn't submitted an updated icon) the icon goes back to looking low res. If the high res icon is available somewhere, why can't it be used by default? After all, I care more about my icons then the graphics in the app.

Along these same lines, when you view your icons with cover flow in iTunes, the icons are VERY high res. Why can't Apple just pull from these pictures when deciding which image gets displayed? How hard would it be to automatically recognize if a retina icon exists and if it doesn't, to automatically make one from another image?

Posted on Aug 5, 2010 6:43 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 5, 2010 7:04 AM in response to aj2005sfa

Yes, thats true.

All of the icons in iTunes are nice and big. Surely they could be used automatically?

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Answer 2

Aug 5, 2010 7:12 AM in response to aj2005sfa

I noticed some apps do have this icon problem. It's up to the developer to update the iTunes Store app icon and the installed app icon though. You would have to consult with the developer either from their support page or adding a rate with comments they would eventually read.

Apple only enforces it if "The app doesn't work as advertised".

I did notice a few having the different icons. One would be MapQuest. They have a high res App Store icon, but a low res installed app icon.

Mint Personal Finance has a low res App Store icon but a high res installed app icon. (which is weird as being the vice-versa).

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Answer 3

jonpilon

Level 1

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Aug 18, 2010 5:51 PM in response to Joe Z in VA

I feel as though the problem with this isn't the developers not updating the icons to high res, but either they are not getting installed properly or the iPhone is caching the old icons in some cases.

The reason I think this is because as was mentioned before, while the app is updating it shows a very high resolution image for almost all the apps I am downloading, but once it has installed and the loading bar goes away, the apps go back to looking blurry and hard to read.

It's confusing that the app has a high res icon while updating, but not once it's installed they go back to normal.

Some clarification as to why this is happening would be welcome.

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Answer 4

Sep 20, 2010 3:56 PM in response to aj2005sfa

This is something that has bugged me since i got the iphone 4. Maybe its my keen eye for detail or even slight OCD but i hate that some of the icons don't show in hi-res. It's obvious that this can't be left to the developers to sort out as there will always be a few app icons that won't get updated. Surely apple can take this onboard and do something about it?
I noticed that apples own 'remote' app does not show in hi-res when downloaded. Seems crazy that they havent even update their own icons.

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Answer 5

Injector

Level 1

77 points

Sep 20, 2010 4:30 PM in response to aj2005sfa

You care more about the graphics of the icon than the graphics in the app itself? ***?

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Answer 6

mmorri12

Level 1

9 points

Sep 20, 2010 5:46 PM in response to Injector

i understand what the OP is saying. I too have some older icons that just look sloppy next to the ones updated for the retina display. I hope all APP makers will eventually put out an update for retina display support.

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Answer 7

Joeydoit

Level 1

0 points

Sep 20, 2010 5:55 PM in response to aj2005sfa

The developers have to do that. Apple makes the ones in the store look so good because they have control over it it's an app. But they give the developers the power to change the icons. Like Redmondpie updated their icon to retina recently.

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Answer 8

Oct 1, 2010 10:13 AM in response to Joe Z in VA

I have been struggling with this, too. In fact I uninstalled and re-installed a handful of games where I received an update including a new hi-res icon, but the old icon persisted on my phone. Scrabble, Oregon Trail, and a few others. In particular I tried this with Oregon Trail several times, because not only is the revised icon hi-res, but also different. It appears in iTunes in the app tab with the new icon, and even shows the new icon on the mock-up of my home screen during install, but then midway through, the icon pops back to the old low-res version.

Wierd. iTunes bug, maybe? Perhaps 10.1 fixes this?

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Answer 9

Dec 6, 2010 6:41 AM in response to aj2005sfa

Are we sure that this is a developer related issue?
There are some apps that claim to have new optimized icons for retina display, but the hi-res icon only shows itself during download. When the app is ready on the iPhone, the icone becomes low-res.

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Answer 10

frikova

Level 1

0 points

Jan 20, 2011 7:26 AM in response to aj2005sfa

Just came here to say that this happens to me too, and is annoying.

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Answer 11

Jan 20, 2011 1:01 PM in response to John_Berkowitz

Pretty sure now that this is a developer issue. I mentioned Scrabble, above. Scrabble recently released an update that specifically mentions the Retina Display icon. So I think the developers need to specifically assign icons to different uses, such as iTunes, iDevice, etc.

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Answer 12

Feb 27, 2011 12:28 AM in response to aj2005sfa

Any method to fix?

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