One of the more subtle changes surfacing in Apple's iOS 7 beta 3 released to developers yesterday is a move to leverage the Retina assets included in iPhone-only apps to improve the viewing experience in "2x" mode on non-Retina iPads such as the iPad mini and the iPad 2. Since the launch of the iPad, Apple has supported the use of iPhone-only apps on its tablet platform, allowing users to toggle between a "1x" mode where the app appears in an iPhone-sized window in the center of the iPad screen and a "2x" mode where pixels are doubled to allow the app to fill more of the iPad's screen. But up until iOS 6, this 2x pixel doubling has been performed on the non-Retina iPhone versions of the apps for non-Retina iPads, expanding a 480x320 app to fill a 960x640 space on the iPad display and resulting in jagged text and blurry images. But with the advent of Retina displays on the iPhone supporting apps at
