As someone who has used a retina display in daylight, it is unusable (bring up a black terminal, it is a goddamn mirror). It only compares favorably with the notoriously horrible apple glossy displays... well know for having some of the worst imaginable glare problems (unusable in many office overhead lighting situations). How the author found this better than the matte screen is beyond me.<p>That all said, I am happy about Apple pushing forward on a decoupling of resolution from perceived size... it is long overdue. That combined with apples supply chain clout, I can't wait to see more ultra-high resolution screens everywhere.
Does anyone else think it weird that the first mainstream hi-res displays weren't pushed by Microsoft? Let me explain...<p>Back when WPF was still called Avalon, Microsoft were pushing the technology as a solution for the soon-to-be-arriving high-dpi displays (which, we were assured, were right around the corner). As an example, see a contemporary blog post: <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/marcelolr/archive/2004/12/03/274213.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.msdn.com/b/marcelolr/archive/2004/12/03/274213....</a><p>Given that Microsoft were (are?) deseperately trying to hold back the tide of web-based applications, wouldn't displays like this, combined with tchnology such as WPF, have been a killer feature of a desktop OS? And hence, shouldn't they have been a high-priority for Microsoft?<p>So why did Apple get there first? Why didn't Microsoft research/fund/introduce these high-dpi displays?<p>Edit: More links from a Coding Horror post from the same year: <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2004/11/trapped-in-a-bitmapped-world.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2004/11/trapped-in-a-bitmap...</a>
As someone who has been waiting for a higher resolution laptop screen for years, what apple has done is a godsend. At least now other laptop manufacturers will take high res demands seriously.
I'm always surprised when I see internet reviews where people talk about no longer being able to see individual pixels. I can't see individual pixels even if I look closely at my screen... and everyone I've talked to in person has said the same thing.
As someone who has pretty good eyesight (for the time being at least), I am pretty excited about the prospects of coding in the terminal with a super HD screen (I hate having to buy into Apple's marketing speak). Right now I struggle to have three 80 coloumn wide text files open in VIM on my Lenovo X201, and most other people have a real hard time reading the small font on my screen, while I have just gotten used to it. A super HD screen would mean vertical and horizontal lines of code for me without sacrificing the readability issues of going down in font size, assuming I can adapt to the smaller text.
In my old 16 inch notebook I cannot notice pixels at all. And font rendering is just fine. Ok I have an eye problem but still I fail to see the point of having very high resolution on a small screen. What is the catch?
The intro/overview are a complete load of codswallop... Touting increases in DPI as game changing couldn't be farther from the truth.<p>Nevermind the painting of apple as innovators.
Actually, it's the end of the high-resolution PC, since there's no point in adding more detail if your eyes are physically unable to detect the difference. Also, we're already able to buy 3D displays, so that's another 'old' technology too. Smart 3D TV's - old.<p>I imagine someone's going to be selling 3D contact lenses soon, so all surfaces will be 3D video devices. The next step is to make <i>them</i> intelligent...
I kind of want Retina display, but I made a promise to myself that my next laptop would be a Linux laptop. Perhaps I could run Linux on a Macbook Pro, but it would look like this: <a href="http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/06/what-does-ubuntu-look-like-on-a-retina-display-bad" rel="nofollow">http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/06/what-does-ubuntu-look-lik...</a><p>How long until other desktop environments catch up?
It's not an mp3 player. It's an ipod.<p>It's not a PDA. It's an iphone.<p>It's not a tablet laptop. It's an ipad.<p>It's not a high resolution display unit. It's a retina macbook.
Retina displays are suddenly the buzzword. Is it a new concept? No. Do we really need it? Debatable. Do we want it? Undeniable. Credit where its due once again to the Apple marketing machine...