Preview of My Vacation HD for iPad

Forgive me for being a bit quiet - but with good reason.  I have just submitted My Vacation HD to Apple which hopefully will be approved in the next week, and available in the App Store thereafter for $4!  I wasn't immediately onto the iPad bandwagon - there was too much to focus on with the iPhone app.  However, after buying one back in May I quickly went about porting the app.  So what were the main drivers for doing this?

1. The size of the screen.  Showing off photos and trip playbacks will obviously be more satisfying on the 10 inch screen. 

2. The size of the keyboard.  I understand it is not easy to type on the iPhone, regardless of how nimble your fingers are.  I did an article below on Bluetooth keyboards, but the iPad will be another way to type in a journal with normal sized keys.

3. Further security for your vacation data.  You can transfer over holidays from My Vacation on the iPhone to My Vacation HD over wireless or Bluetooth.

4. The Apple Camera Connection Kit can link your dedicated camera to your iPad.  If you have room to take your iPad with you on holiday you can be writing up your travelogue at an idle moment whilst on vacation - perfect for those who are not happy with the photo quality from an iPhone.

Onto the app itself.  All the features have been ported from the iPhone app, although clearly the iPad doesn't have a camera, so all imports are from the iPad Photos app, or from Wi-Fi/Bluetooth transfer from another My Vacation app.  

Here are some screenshots:

Main Vacation/Holiday Summary page

Vacation/Holiday List Page

Playback Presentation

New Travelogue / Blog display

Day Summary screen with audio recording in progress.

No Universal App?  I put a lot of thought into whether to make the app Universal i.e. if you own the iPhone app you own the iPad one.  However, it didn't make sense for a few reasons:

1. The sample trip has higher resolution graphics included to make use of the iPad screen resolution.  This would have significantly increased download times for iPhone users, if all was to be bundled into a Universal app.
2. There is more flexibility in how I could port the common code between the 2 versions
3. There is the ability to create different prices between the apps, in the event of certain new features only making sense on the iPad version e.g. the new blog display.

I understand some of you who have already bought the iPhone version will be disappointed to be asked to pay also for the iPad version.  However, hopefully you'll appreciate it was a significant amount of work to port an app of this type over - it wasn't just a case of stretching everything!  

Finally I should say that development for the iPhone app will definitely continue, and I'm working on those suggestions and bug reports!

Thanks again for your support,

Tony