Yesterday Apple announced it will only allow Retina ready apps for the AppStore starting from 1 may 2013.
Now, I do not want to put any more pressure on the kettle but … …
I hadn’t heard that but I’m not surprised. I really want Xojo to get with the App Store game because it’s a great way for a lot of us to make money.
App Store, not Mac App Store (yet…)
I have to add it is not clear it only counts for iOS or both iOS and OS X.
Out of practice: it at least quadruples your income. So yes, AppStore is important. 
This is definitely just an iOS App Store requirement, not a Mac App Store requirement.
Although it’s obviously going to be a Mac thing soon enough as well. Regardless, without Retina, Apple won’t even touch your apps for inclusion in their featured sections on the App Stores.
Predicting Apple’s moves is a losing game.
But retina has been available a lot longer on iOS (2010, with the iPhone 4 I think). I’m sure the Mac App Store will eventually go “retina-only”, but OS X retina is less than a year old and they only have 2 retina Mac models, so I don’t think they will do it this year and next year might be a stretch.
Regardless, as long as you can build for Cocoa you can create retina apps using Xojo without much trouble.
Comments like that will start almost religious-like flame wars that will never end. That would be akin to saying, “You use Xojo. It’s toy therefor your application must suck. You should really use C++ because it’s SO much better.”
Denigrating anyone’s use of a product as ‘worship’ is kind of insulting. I do not feel like I’m being ‘led by the nose’. I made a choice and it’s been okay for many years now.
If Windows works for you then please, feel free, to keep using it. I like some things in Windows. B
I didn’t point that comment at anyone in particular nor did I say everyone. I merely made an observation, and that observation I think is correct. When you are developing for the Apple / Mac / App Store you have a lot more rules in place that must be followed and I think it can be very restrictive at times. Pardon if I offended anyone.
Bob did a religious answer.
Melvyn, I use OSX, Ubuntu and Windows. From the user experience POV I prefer OSX, using a Mac is a smooth good experience. For server tasks and desktop content focused on government: Linux. To satisfy the largest market share possible I’ll write for Windows.
I like the Mac too, great hardware and OS. But my point was the experience is more restrictive, more of “this is the way it will be done” compared to Windows. And when I see an announcement like, “Apple announced it will only allow Retina ready apps for the AppStore starting from 1 may 2013” it only reinforces that opinion. A whopping 5 weeks notice? Thanks for the lead time on that. But as Bob mentioned, I phrased it badly.
Not entirely correct btw
It’s not like this should be a ‘surprise’ to any Mac developer paying attention. It’s been in the works ever since Retina display Mac’s came out (June 2012). The fact is that you can Retina-ize your apps today in Xojo. Perhaps not easily but it can be done since Ohanaware (and others) has a number of Retina capable apps in the Mac App Store.
Retina requires a Cocoa build. PList entries. Multiple sizes of graphics and mechanisms to load the appropriate graphics depending on screen type. I would argue that RS/Xojo is late to the game in that Cocoa is just coming out of beta. If it had come out of beta LAST SUMMER like it was originally promised I’m sure Retina support would have been added by now. I would bet that it’s a huge priority for R2.
I’ve been around Apple for nearly 30 years. Apple Giveth and Apple Taketh Away.
[quote=5878:@Paul Lefebvre]Predicting Apple’s moves is a losing game.
But retina has been available a lot longer on iOS (2010, with the iPhone 4 I think). I’m sure the Mac App Store will eventually go “retina-only”, but OS X retina is less than a year old and they only have 2 retina Mac models, so I don’t think they will do it this year and next year might be a stretch.
Regardless, as long as you can build for Cocoa you can create retina apps using Xojo without much trouble.[/quote]
It shouldn’t be any trouble though, I want Xojo to be a modern RAD tool - I shouldn’t have to buy other apps (like App Wrapper, which is very good) and plugins (like MBS) and I shouldn’t have to use declares to get full-screen Mac apps (literally years after the feature was introduced) or libraries like MacOSLib (which is great) and so on. I want to create modern apps in an integrated development environment! Of course, these things take time to implement and I know Xojo Inc are climbing many mountains at the moment but I don’t want these things to be seen as optional extras. If you want to make a quality high-selling Mac app these days, such things are essential, not optional.
As long as you can connect a non-Apple, non-Retina display to a Mac system, they can’t go this path for the MAS successfully. And, until the availability of Pro-level Color monitors (Flanders Scientific, HP Dream Color, Ikegama, JVC, etc.) are “Retina” capable, Apple would be further eroding their professional M&E customer base.
Yes, they can. They announced, they will do.
Your software must be Retina ready, that does not mean that your software will not work on non-retina displays.
This means that if you have a retina display attached, your software will look as good as an retina display can show.
But this means too that your production tools (IDE/compiler) must be ready for the task. 
They announced for the App Store, (iOS), not the Mac App Store… And even there, the requirement in the HIG is for using the entire display area on the iPhone 5. iOS developers have been required to offer the high resolution icons for Retina for quite a while for App Store approval.
I’m working with an OS X project that will be long before heading to the Retina (@2) path for graphics. So far, the review process has been uneventful for the author and we’ve seen no mention of a Retina requirement for OS X apps.
Exactly, Tim. This “require retina” thing from Apple is for iOS apps only. Not for OS X apps. Xojo doesn’t yet create iOS apps, so most of this discussion is moot.
With that said, you can create OS X retina apps with Xojo now.
I know everyone would like this to be completely integrated into the IDE (so would I), but don’t let the lack of integration stop you from creating retina apps now. All you need are 2x images, a simple plist change and a Declare to determine if you’re running on a retina display.
I wrote a blog post about this last year and the steps are also covered in User Guide Book 4: Development. I just realized there’s no example project for this, though. I’ll get that added.
Paul, some of us were trying to make a more general point that we would like Xojo to embrace the app stores and all that that entails. We need to get the new IDE out of the way first and then iOS compilation but I would like to see a change in the next year or so from Xojo Inc in the direction of more modern desktop apps.
Us alpha and beta testers more than likely know how to make retina OS X apps and use plugins to get other functionality that modern apps are expected to have, even though it can be a hassle sometimes. But kids checking out Xojo for the first time will be asking questions like “so I can make a retina-ready app that uses iCloud storage, the Notification Center, a menu bar extras icon and send my app to the App Store?”