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After 'Retina', what's next? 'Retina 3D'??

post #1 of 13
3/7/12 at 3:44pm
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After 'Retina', what's next? 'Retina 3D'?? How can Apple improve upon the retina display on the ipad and iphone, or has mobile screen tech maxed out for the foreseeable future?
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post #2 of 13
3/8/12 at 2:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Commodification View Post

After 'Retina', what's next? 'Retina 3D'?? How can Apple improve upon the retina display on the ipad and iphone, or has mobile screen tech maxed out for the foreseeable future?

3D might be an option and they can do a 10-bit display but I think it's probably maxed out for now. The improvements from here on in are probably going to be battery related. They had to dramatically increase the battery capacity this time round to keep the same battery life from 25Wh to 42.5 Wh. That is going to have a significant impact on charging times.

Basically, with the same 10W plug, the iPad 2 will charge its 25Wh battery in 2.5 hours at best (real-world is over 3 - http://gizmodo.com/5535631/the-faste...charge-an-ipad ). The new iPad will take 4.25 hours to fully charge at best and real-world will likely be over 5 hours, meaning you will pretty much have to keep the new iPad on charge all night, every night to ensure a day's usage.

Personally, I'd buy the iPad 2 for that issue alone, plus it's $100 cheaper.

The other tech we are aware of is the tactile stuff so that's a possibility for future development.
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post #3 of 13
3/8/12 at 5:11am
That is I suspect that Apple will zero in on other elements of the iPad for improvement because there wont be a lot to do screen wise.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Commodification View Post

After 'Retina', what's next? 'Retina 3D'?? How can Apple improve upon the retina display on the ipad and iphone, or has mobile screen tech maxed out for the foreseeable future?

Foreseeable no, the next 2-3 years yes. This screen represents a major advancement for Apple as such they will stretch out its use for a couple of generations. However display tech is under rapid development so I have no doubt that there will be something better in the future.

Right now though Apple is likely to target internal improvements for iPad. It appears as if power usage is rather high in this model. That is a bad thing for portables. Did they do a die shrink here? It is starting to look like no, that is actually shocking but does explain the bigger battery.
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post #4 of 13
3/8/12 at 12:24pm
Once resolution exceed the human eye's ability to distinguish pixels, there's no reason to continue to increase that particular spec.

Further improvements can be made, however, for contrast, off-angle viewing, color gamut, color accuracy, power consumption, uniformity of brightness across the screen, thickness and weight. I expect all of those to get bumps over coming product cycles..

So they'll continue to improve the hardware, sure, but the iPad is the screen, as far as the user is concerned. Now that it's about as good as it can get (incremental improvements notwithstanding) the real action moves to software and services. We've got our pixel free window. I'm interested in what landscape Apple is building.
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post #5 of 13
3/8/12 at 1:32pm
OLED or something that's going to deliver fantastic contrast and color gamut along with very little power draw.

3D is thrust upon consumers because display vendors won't put in the work to simply increase the quality of displays so jokes like 3D are cheap "look at me" hokey solutions.
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post #6 of 13
3/8/12 at 7:40pm
3D screens work by splitting the left and right pixels/light. That's going to cause slight problems in tablets if you want to hold it in landscape AND in portrait position. The Nintendo 3DS for example has a resolution of 800x240 but in 3D mode it effectively gives you 400x240 per eye.

You'd have to have a 3D screen that could adjust the splitting depending on which way the tablet was turned. The resolution would be cut in half either horizontally or vertically. The display would also not be as bright. They tend to use 20-25% more backlight. Otherwise they could just make the 3D work in ONLY landscape mode or ONLY portrait mode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_barrier
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post #7 of 13
3/8/12 at 11:07pm
  • hmm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

3D might be an option and they can do a 10-bit display but I think it's probably maxed out for now. The improvements from here on in are probably going to be battery related. They had to dramatically increase the battery capacity this time round to keep the same battery life from 25Wh to 42.5 Wh. That is going to have a significant impact on charging times.

You're saying that just to annoy me aren't you? Assuming a good implementation, it can improve shadow detail given the annoying distribution of shadow values in a gamma corrected image.

Edit: for anyone who doesn't know what I mean, I've wanted to see Apple correctly implement 10 bit displayport drivers for years.

Quote:
Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post

OLED or something that's going to deliver fantastic contrast and color gamut along with very little power draw.

3D is thrust upon consumers because display vendors won't put in the work to simply increase the quality of displays so jokes like 3D are cheap "look at me" hokey solutions.

Errmm... hmm .... you know LED in general isn't perfect, and color is actually one of the bigger issues. Getting a balance in color stability relative to power draw and heat dissipation is actually tricky with LED.
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post #8 of 13
3/17/12 at 11:10pm
Thread Starter 
So I guess we won't be seeing Apple heading towards 3D screens anytime soon. I don't think most people want to reduce their screen's resolution for 3D.
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post #9 of 13
3/18/12 at 11:40pm
I think we will see improved image quality and display tech outside of resolution

Better contrast, deeper black levels, higher color saturation. All worthwhile pursuits.
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post #10 of 13
3/19/12 at 7:16am
Better power consumption is number 1 on my list.
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post #11 of 13
3/20/12 at 9:11am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Technarchy View Post

I think we will see improved image quality and display tech outside of resolution

Better contrast, deeper black levels, higher color saturation. All worthwhile pursuits.

One thing I like is that Apple doesn't seem to go on a spec war. Deeper blacks and high saturation doesn't make for a better product. Much of the time they make it look worse. Wider gamuts require quite a lot of fine control in terms of color management. Even then they tend to push up perceived display to display color variation. With black levels, there's a balance between deep black levels and good shadow detail. Some of the really absurd contrast ratios come with downsides, and you can see this in consumer displays. It's entirely possible to have a 400:1 or 500:1 contrast ratio (actual, not on paper) with a display that looks excellent. I know that sounds weird.
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post #12 of 13
3/23/12 at 4:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Commodification View Post

After 'Retina', what's next? 'Retina 3D'??

No, it is "retina" for the Macs. Or so I would like. But I have no idea if it is feasible cost-wise.
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post #13 of 13
3/23/12 at 7:14pm
Personally, I believe that haptics will be offered in the future via the pixels themselves.

Essentially, take the glass right off the iPad and or iPhone its self and make the pixels rise and fall according to what keyboard and buttons you have up. Make each pixel slide up and down as an individual pin that is mapped as either North or South magnetically. Essentially you'd have a magnet under the display that flashes a magnetic signature to match the UI to the display reading. Cover the screen in HzO and call it a day.

The next step is haptic feedback.
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