Not wishing to complain, but I find it very odd that this isn't one of the most important - as in, get it out tomorrow style - features of the build environment.

I'll justify this by saying that every month that an app - while being able to recognise the device it is running on - cannot produce a customised display and functionality appropriate for the device it is running is a month which leads App Store users to thinking that the app's developer is trying to squeeze more money out of the end user.

Personally, I have a game in-dev which I would love to have run on both devices (it will use dynamic content scaling for 3GS->iPhone4, of course) but would be much improved if the one build could show a more complex and challenging game on the larger screen.

Having said all that, I do love building with Corona and am eagerly awaiting the new features. If anyone at Asnca reads this; please don't feel deflated as I really do have a lot of faith in, and personal investment riding on, your work!

Matt.

Forgive the noob question, but what exactly is a universal iphone/ipad build? Specifically, what are you asking for that's not what dynamic content does? Isn't that what dynamic content already does, adjusting the graphics for different displays?

As for having different features on different devices, you can detect the device using display.contentScaleX - refer to this post for how to do that:
http://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2010/12/08/dynamic-retina-spritesheets-heres-how

As of right now, if you build for iphone, when using the app on the iPad you have the 1x 2x button to simply double the size of the iphone app. This usually looks horrid. It also sees the iPAd as an iphone, so no dynamic content scaling for you.

If you build the same app for iPAd, you'll see it scaled to normal size automatically and looks much better (even if it has black borders). Try it out for yourself with the samples.

A universal build works on both devices natively. Though I've become less convinced about the wonders of doing this. I do remember from some of my econ classes that it is beneficial for the monopolist (you have the monopoly of your app) to use price discrimination when he sells in 2 different markets that have different demand curves. Plus I'm already getting perilously close to 20MB after supporting retina graphics, support for iPad would certainly push me over the top.

However in some cases this is very useful and there's really no reason not to have it as an option.

aha, so what you're saying is that the ipad behaves differently when running an app built for iphone (ie. you picked iphone in the build settings) and when running an app that was built for ipad, and dynamic content scaling only kicks in for the latter. I didn't know that, because I don't have an ipad myself.

Yes; if you look at apps like tweetdeck they display one layout for the small screen, another for the large - it's not just a difference of resolution but usability. The extra quality provided by dynamic scaling isn't really applicable here, but good to have.

Matt

Universal binaries are scheduled for next release if everyone here survives the holidays ;=)

C.

Carlos, thank you - that is literally the best news I've had all month!

Just to confirm, the API will indicate that the device platform is iPad/iPhone via the usual method (system.getInfo("device")) and the display.contentWidth/Height values, yes?

Is it safe to assume that there will be a new option on the build menu? Will the list simply include iPhone, iPhone4, iPad, iPhone/iPad or will it simply be iOS and let the coder determine the target platform? If it is the latter, how would we choose to build for a specific platform and block others, for those who need to force App Store customers to get the right build version?

Hmm, that ran longer than I expected - but regardless of the answers I can't wait for the new SDK!

Matt.

Any news about a universal build option?

Just in case anyone is following this thread but hasn't seen the roadmap... universal iPhone/iPad apps released 1-25-11.