https://twitter.com/MilesForrest/status/212386067406536704
Yes, we’re there again: post Apple keynote complaints time!
Now, I’m not picking on Miles here, but he just happened to have his tweet at the top of my stream when I was thinking about writing this.
Basically, the complaints about the new MacBook Pro display announced today revolve around the following:
- The new display doubles the standard resolution of the past MacBook Pro (1440×900 to 2880×1800).
- The new HiDPI mode in the custom build of OS X Lion will pixel-double older applications (so use four pixels in the space of where here used to be one) … thus giving you the logistical space of the old 1440×900 screen.
- Apple still has available a higher-res screen on their older line of MacBook Pro, the 1680×1050 screen, but no comparable Retina complement.
- Sadness ensues.
What I say is this: cry me a river. This is Apple taking a big leap and stating that this is where they are going to be moving in the future. I would expect that next year you will see the MacBook Air move to Retina displays (for sure) and maybe even the iMac and display lines as well.
They might add more resolutions in the future, but I would not bet on it. The rumors around how the new display dialogs work is that they are deemphasizing the numbers and instead focusing on incremental changes of how things actually look.
However, not all is lost. The update to Final Cut Pro X shows how the new pixels could be used by having the preview area be 100% pixel-for-pixel 1080p, which is pretty remarkable. I’m guessing it will take some work, but there are tons of opportunities to change how a person can interact with their screen now that there are so many pixels available.
One thing that will be interesting is to see how gaming will work on the new display. That is a TON of pixels to push, and if you just scale it, the results might not be the greatest.
This is Apple pushing forward and there are going to be bumps along the way. That’s the best part.
