Finding iPad generation in Monotouch - ipad

Question

I need to determine what iPad version my app is running on before setting up an openGl surface.
If it's running on the old iPad 1, it is way too slow to enable antialiasing, while on iPad 2+3 there should be no performance issues, so I need to detect this first.
Any ideas on how to detect the iPad generation using Monotouch?

Answer 1

Thanks Joachim, your hint led me to the following solution, which I have tested on physical 1 - 3 generation iPads, and it should also be able to detect other Apple devices:
public enum HardwareVersion
{
iPhone2G,
iPhone3G,
iPhone3Gs,
iPhone4,
iPod1G,
iPod2G,
iPod3G,
Simulator,
iPad1G,
iPad2G,
iPad3G,
Unknown
}
[DllImport(MonoTouch.Constants.SystemLibrary)]
static internal extern int sysctlbyname ([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string property, IntPtr output, IntPtr oldLen, IntPtr newp, uint newlen);
public static HardwareVersion getHardwareVersion()
{
string HardwareProperty = "hw.machine";
// get the length of the string that will be returned
var pLen = Marshal.AllocHGlobal (sizeof(int));
sysctlbyname (HardwareProperty, IntPtr.Zero, pLen, IntPtr.Zero, 0);
var length = Marshal.ReadInt32 (pLen);
// check to see if we got a length
if (length == 0) {
Marshal.FreeHGlobal (pLen);
return HardwareVersion.Unknown;
}
// get the hardware string
var pStr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal (length);
sysctlbyname (HardwareProperty, pStr, pLen, IntPtr.Zero, 0);
// convert the native string into a C# string
var hardwareStr = Marshal.PtrToStringAnsi (pStr);
var ret = HardwareVersion.Unknown;
// determine which hardware we are running
if (hardwareStr == "iPhone1,1")
ret = HardwareVersion.iPhone2G;
else if (hardwareStr == "iPhone1,2")
ret = HardwareVersion.iPhone3G;
else if (hardwareStr == "iPhone2,1")
ret = HardwareVersion.iPhone3Gs;
else if (hardwareStr == "iPhone3,1")
ret = HardwareVersion.iPhone4;
else if (hardwareStr == "iPod1,1")
ret = HardwareVersion.iPod1G;
else if (hardwareStr == "iPod2,1")
ret = HardwareVersion.iPod2G;
else if (hardwareStr == "iPod3,1")
ret = HardwareVersion.iPod3G;
else if (hardwareStr == "iPad1,1")
ret = HardwareVersion.iPad1G;
else if (hardwareStr == "iPad2,1")
ret = HardwareVersion.iPad2G;
else if (hardwareStr == "iPad3,1")
ret = HardwareVersion.iPad3G;
else if (hardwareStr == "i386" || hardwareStr == "x86_64" || hardwareStr == "x86_32" )
ret = HardwareVersion.Simulator;
// cleanup
Marshal.FreeHGlobal (pLen);
Marshal.FreeHGlobal (pStr);
return ret;
}

Answer 2

You can find the hardware version using P/Invoke to sysctlbyname.
It's slightly complex though, so I'd recommend you use the code available at Xamarin's Wiki and extend it with iPad2 (iPad2,1) and above yourself. Perhaps also update the wiki with your changes :)