Are there any CPU considerations while porting iPod apps to iPad?

Question

I'm wondering what are the things to keep in mind when porting iPod apps to iPad, considering the new CPU and capabilites? Would you have recommendations for a newbie before attempting such a task?

Answer 1

You've probably got a lot fewer performance issues to worry about. You'll only really know in two months, when the actual device is available to test on. If you don't go overboard, and make sure to stick with the existing iPhone OS design patterns—loading things as they're needed rather than all at once, that kind of thing—you shouldn't have any problems.

Answer 2

Look at the apps Apple ships with the iPad and with the iPhone (esp. Mail, Photos, Calendar). Compare how they function on each device, how much information they show on each screen, how often you have to leave a screen for a subfunction, etc.

This is what you should worry about. The iPad is way faster than the iPhone so performance would be the least of your concerns. You can never have enough though...

Answer 3

You should test your application on all device(s) that you expect your customers to use. There's no point in guesswork which suggests how much power any given device will have; nor what effect that will have on the runtime of your code. I imagine that over the years, the way that memory is accessed and whether we end up with swappable memory will have a much bigger impact than purely a CPU basis; similarly, whether a device has OpenGLES2 or OpenGLES1 will make a significant difference to the runtime performance of your application.

In summary - don't worry about the differences from a pure code perspective. You should write efficient code in any case, but don't get into premature optimisation until you have measurements of a real-world device (the simulators will show you what works, not what speed an application will run at). But only when you get a real piece of hardware will you know what your app performs like in a real situation.