Quote:
Originally Posted by
zanshin 
For those thin-skinned enough to find my earlier post egregious, allow my retort.
I've looked at Mac computer screens since I did professional publishing on a Mac Plus. I've hung nearly every brand of monitor made off their video ports, even 19" grayscale portrait monitors that had to be clipped to an accelerator board hanging off the mobo of a Mac SE. I lived with my office lights dimmed and a view of the skyline blocked because of the glare off a Mitsubishi 21 incher was intolerable.
I can't see how anyone can think that the elimination of a professional graphics monitor and its replacement with a consumer model is anything but an abandonment of a market Apple has endlessly courted since the dawning days of desktop publishing and computer illustration. But now instead of offering the "perfect display working in coordination with your printed output via ColorSync" (as they did in the not-so-distant past), they tout the inclusion of speakers worse than ones you can get from BestBuy for $10.
Several snarked about introducing politics in the forum, but there was no political reference in my post. Al Gore's primary accomplishment as a board member of Apple, Inc. was to convince the company that they needed to appease the growing list of "environmentalists" who were taking them to task. This has resulted in a near endless campaign of how much greener a company they are, despite the fact they make stuff that devours energy almost constantly. As for Mr. Gore's own environmentalist beliefs, his recent move to $9MM mega-sq. ft. bachelor mansion situated on the very coast he said will rise by 25 feet should be an indication of how much faith he has in his own work. The photo of him in his Washington office seated in front of THREE 30" Apple monitors, plus a fax machine, a big laser printer and a wall-mounted 40+" plasma TV all running should indicate his concern for how much energy products like that consume. In my opinion, he's become a fraud and a huckster, and that has nothing to do with his past political service to his country.
I cannot fault Apple for their decisions to chase the burgeoning consumer electronics market rather than the professional computer graphics and video development teams -- these are sound business decisions, and are hardly new to any business. Sophisticated technology designed to effectively and efficiently meet professionals' needs ALWAYS costs extra money, and is often a niche market. The problem is that Apple always claimed to be on the side of these people, and in years past worked in concert with them to develop products that met their needs. Now they are run by steely-eyed businessmen with sharpened pencils who know that a $250 share price is better than accolades by a group of professionals.
As to you dolts who believe that a $999 display is overpriced for what it delivers in a business situation, and that expensive tools are nothing but toys for the rich -- there is no argument that would placate your ignorance. My Mac Pro and 24" EIZO display are among the least expensive of my tools. Perhaps it's time you started finding out why a TV show like "Jersey Shore" --that only paid the 8 cast members $25,000 to split between them -- has a production budget close to a half-million dollars. These aren't toys, and they cost money if you want the end result to look right.
Oh, the thin skin of the thin-skin-accuser!
What you call the elimination of a pro level display is no such thing to me. As I have said, for my uses the glossy displays are just as good, perhaps better than the matter displays. Of course, your mileage may vary. I am using my iMac 27" to do graphics work as we speak (okay, well I was doing work until I started reading this post again...). Everything is fine. I am upstairs in a room with 2 windows in it and it is a sunny day. No problems here! This is a great display as far as I'm concerned. Much nicer than many much more expensive displays that were considered pro graphics models a few ears ago.
Perhaps you are upset that as technology progresses the difference between PRO and CONSUMER begins to blur. I would have laughed at the idea of using an iMac for Pro work a few years ago, for good reason. Now there is plenty of horsepower in an iMac for my purposes. Same is happening with displays now. LCD tech has come a long way. This weird (non)issue with glossy screens is just a symptom of your need to feel superior, in my not-so humble opinion. How can you feel validated if you don't need some kind of rare-earth uber-monitor to do your PRO work on? Fact is, for most pros, the 27" glossy will get the job done just fine. If you really are a pro, you will figure it out. You figured it out with grayscale monitors in the past...
As for politics, your claim of no-politics is ridiculous. After you claim the Al Gore comment was apolitical you launch into quite the Gore hypocrite tirade. Environmentalist is a political issue no matter how deep you bury your head in the sand, thus the comments ARE political. Don't get me wrong, I understand and appreciate the criticism. Al Gore, even if his mind is in the right place, is a deeply flawed individual who is certainly not 'walking the walk'. All that aside, the comment was and is political and there is really no call for it. The glossy glass was not Al Gore's call. Perhaps the Aluminum bodies, perhaps the innards made without VOCs & such. if you notice, the 30" ACD has not protective panel of any kind over the LCD panel. In the case of the glossy displays, there is the LCD panel underneath and then a glossy glass protective panel over that. That uses MORE resources to manufacture and so I think Al Gore would have suggested against that particular design choice if he had any opinion at all.
If there is one thing we agree on it is this: our Macs & displays are the cheaper of the tools used for our work. There are people where I work who use millions dollar proofing devices to do their color work. With that kind of hardware at their disposal to dial in color I am more than happy to leave the high-end color work to them since no display apple could sell me would put me in their league.
