An upcoming version of Android Honeycomb will include a new screen compatibility mode that optimizes non-Honeycomb apps for use on tablets.
When released, the updated Honeycomb will include a button in the system bar that allows users to select between two app-viewing options: stretch to fill screen and zoom to fill screen.
The "stretch to fill" option is the normal layout re-sizing currently in place, while "zoom" is the new screen compatability mode.
According to Scott Main, lead tech writer for developer.android.com, however, most apps look fine on tablets without screen compatability mode, and this new option might actually make certain apps look worse. As a result, Main asked developers with apps that already resize well to tablets to disable the screen compatability option.
"When the user enables this new screen compatibility mode, the system no longer resizes [a developer's] layout to fit the screen. Instead, it runs your app in an emulated normal/mdpi screen (approximately 320dp x 480dp) and scales that up to fill the screen," Main wrote in a blog post.
This would be like viewing an app at the size of a phone screen and zooming in about 200 percent, Main said. "The effect is that everything is bigger, but also more pixelated, because the system does not resize your layout or use your alternative resources for the current device (the system uses all resources for a normal/mdpi device)," he wrote.
In the photo above (click to enlarge), the left-side image is normal re-sizing, while the right is screen compatability mode for an already-optimized app. Disabling the option is done by adding some code to an app's manifest file, which Main outlines in his blog post.
On apps that are not optimized for tablets, screen compatability mode will "improve the app's usability by emulating the app's phone-style look, but zoomed in to fill the screen on a tablet," Main said.