By Brandi, 9 January, 2012
Forum
iOS and iPadOS
So, I keep hearing about something in the iPad called 2x mode. What is that? I noticed in some of the apps that some of the features don't seem to be available as they are on the iPhone. For example, when I use Pandora on the iPhone, I can edit my stations and pick a new station to listen to from from a list of genres. On the iPad, these features seem to be nonexistent. Could this have something to do with the 2x mode thing? Maybe I need to find a different version of some of these apps that would work better on the iPad? Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.
Comments
2x mode
2x mode is intended to make apps that have been designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod a little easier to use on the larger screen of the iPad.
If an app is described as universal, it means that it will display in full screen on whatever device you are using. Some apps will look and work exactly the same on any device, whilst others will have a different interface on an iPhone than they do on an iPad. This latter approach enables the developer to make the best possible use of whatever screen size is available. However, this can have implications for us VoiceOver users, as it means that the accessibility of an app can vary depending upon the device you are using. For example, I have the universal version of iPassword. On the iPhone it works very nicely, but on the iPad it has a completely different interface that has some major problems (enough to make it unusable). Maybe Pandora is simlar.
But, getting back to your actual question about 2x mode <smile>
Some apps are designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod. These may be described as 'native' iPhone and iPod apps. In most cases they will still work on an iPad, but will not scale to fill the screen. However, when using one of these apps on an iPad, a button is displayed on the screen that enables you to toggle between 1x and 2x display modes. The former will display the app at exactly the same physical size as it would be when used on an iPhone, the second will double the size so that it mostly fills the iPad's screen.
I guess that the implications for a VoiceOver user mostly depends upon how you like to navigate apps. If you only ever swipe through page elements and controls, their physical location on the screen doesn't really matter. However, if you like to have some spatial awareness of where things are on the screen, then you will need to adapt accordingly.
In the case of Pandora Radio, I don't use it myself, but see that it is only available as a universal app. Unfortunately there is no way to make it use the iPhone variant when run on an iPad.
Ok