With the iPad right around the corner, and developers updating their apps to work on the new device, how can you tell whether your apps will work -- and and take advantage of -- the new iPad?
While Apple says the iPad will run "almost all" of the 150,000 apps in the App Store, those apps that aren't designed to take advantage of iPad's larger screen will run in a window or will be "blown up" to fill the screen, possibly resulting in a less-than awesome visual experience.
Of the many ways to tell if your app was designed for the iPad, here are the easiest:
From the app's info window
in your iTunes library, click "Apps." Select any app in your
library and select File > Get Info (or Command-I). The first item
after the first horizontal divider is "Kind:". It will say "iPhone/iPod
touch/iPad app" if it was designed for all three.
We added the red square for emphasis. That's one way to see if your app was designed for the iPad.
From your library in iTunes 9.1
There's even an easier way to find out if your app will take advantage of the iPad's larger screen.
In your library, click Apps. Scroll to the top, if necessary. Your apps should be sorted by the device they're written for.
How nice of Apple to sort our apps by the devices they're designed for. And we didn't even have to use Get Info!
At the top is "iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad Apps." If you see your app's icon there, you know it was designed for iPad, and will work on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
From the app store in iTunes 9.1, or on the iTunes Preview website:
In the case of Apps you haven't downloaded yet (including updates), you can check the App Store to see whether it was designed for the iPad.
Underneath the app's icon, on the left side of the page, look for this phrase:
"This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad"
There it is. All nice and spelled out. Download with confidence!
If one or more of your apps doesn't appear to be designed for both, chances are you can still run the app on the iPad. To find out if your app will work, just try it on your iPad. Since Apple says "almost all" iPhone apps will work probably means that all of your apps will just work, and it'll be someone else who can't get their app to work.
