New project, new labels!

With the majority of the work on the board game project out of the way (bar some document compiling), we've received the second brief. I am to design a game for Apple's App Store. Having never so much as held an iPhone, iPod or iPad, my research started at the very beginning; examining the technical specifications of the devices.

All of the devices mentioned feature multi-touch technology, allowing for 'multi gestures'.

• One finger touch:
• Generally used to move objects from one place to another, via dragging. One finger touches are also used to tap objects, like a button or an app.
• Two finger touch:
• Also called a 'pinch' and most comfortably done with the thumb and finger. This is done to zoom in on images. Reversing the pinch enlarges an image.
• Three/four finger touch:
• Mostly used on Macbooks, three finger swipes allow navigation back and forth between webpages. A four finger swipe activates Expose (application switch menu) or shows the desktop, depending on which way the fingers are swiped.

iPhone - iPhone 4 Specifications:

Display and resolution: 

• 88m (3.5in) glass LCD, 3:2 aspect ratio.
• 480 x 320 px (HVGA) at 163 ppi.
• 960 x 640 px at 326 ppi from the iPhone 4 and onward.

Storage:

• 4, 8 or 16 GB on the original iPhone.
• 8 or 16 GB on the iPhone 3G.
• 8, 16 or 32 GB on the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4.
• 16, 32 or 64 GB on the iPhone 4S.

CPU Core:

Apple iPhones utilize underclocking of more poweful CPUs to preserve battery life. It was found that slower processors caused worse battery performance than a more powerful, but underclocked, processor.

• 620 MHz (underclocked to 412 MHz) ARM 1176JZ(F)-S in the iPhone and iPhone 3G.
• 833 MHz (underclocked to 600 MHz) ARM Cortex-A8 used in the iPhone 3GS.
• 1 GHz (underclocked to 800 MHz) Apple A4 used in the iPhone 4.
• 1 GHz (underclocked to 800 MHz) Dual-core Apple A5 used in the iPhone 4S.

Memory:

• 128 MB DRAM in the iPhone and iPhone 3G.
• 256 MB DRAM in the iPhone 3GS.
• 512 MB DRAM in the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

Features:

• USB 2.0/dock connector.
• Assisted GPS, including earphones with mic (added with the iPhone 3G).
• Voice control, digital compass, Nike+ camera tap to focus. Includes earphones with remote and microphone (added with the iPhone 3GS).
• 3-axis gyroscope, dual-microphone, noise suppression, microsim, rear-camera LED flash (added with the iPhone 4).
• Siri (beta) voice assistant and GLONASS support (added with the iPhone 4S).

All later iPhones retained the features from previous iPhones as well as their newly added additional features.

Camera:

• 2.0 Megapixel, f/2.8. Still images only. iPhone and iPhone 3G.
• 3.0 Megapixel, f/2.8 VGA video at 30 frame/s. Added with the iPhone 3GS.
• Rear 5.0 Megapixel, f/2.8. 720p HD video at 30 frame/s. Added with the iPhone 4.
• Rear 8.0 Megapixel, f/2.4. 1080p Full HD video at 30 frame/s. Added with the iPhone 4S.
• Both iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s have a 0.3 Megapixel (VGA) 480P video at 30 frame/s.

Power:

• All iPhone models use a built in, nmon removable, rechargable lithium-ion polymer battery (LiPo).

iPad/iPad 2:

Display and resolution:

• 9.7 inches (25cm) multitouch display. 1024 x 768 pixels with LED backlighting and a fingerprint/scratch-resistant coating. 

Processor:

• 1 GHz Apple A4 system-on-a-chip. Used in the iPad.
• 1 GHz (dynamically clocked) dual-core Apple A5 system on a chip. Used in the iPad 2.

Memory: 

• 256 MB DDR RAM built into Apple A4 package. Used in the iPad.
• 512 MB DDR2 (1066 Mbit/s data rate) RAM built into Apple A5 package. Used in the iPad 2.

Storage:

• 16, 32 or 64 GB.

Environmental Sensors:

• Accelerometer, ambient light sensor, magnetometer.
• Gyroscope added in iPad2.

Camera:

• 720p HD still and video camera 0.7 MP, 30fps still camera, 0.3 MP. iPad 2 only.

iPads and iPhones as gaming devices:

Two of the clearest advantages the iPad has over the iPhone are the screen size and resolution. The iPhone 4S, being the latest iPhone model, has a resolution of 960 x 640 px at a ratio of 3:2. The iPad, however, sits at 1024 x 768 in a 4:3 ratio. Physically, the iPad is much larger; 9.7 inches vs the iPhone's 3.5 inches. The iPad's build also renders it faster than the iPhone 4, allowing for the development of more advanced and taxing apps.

However, apps designed for the iPhone can be played on the iPad, while iPad exclusive apps cannot be played on the iPhone.

The features of the iPhone and iPad are actually well suited to gaming. The multi-touch screen in particular is very responsive to different kinds of touches; in a hack and slash game a single finger drag could move the character, while a tap on an enemy could be used to indicate a sword slash.