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How Apple hides the iPad’s dirty little secret with an optical illusion

8 points by rriepe 17y ago

kvs 17y ago
Not sure what you're saying about Apple's presentation. There seems to be enough horizontal, straight-facing images on their iPad pages. http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/ http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/
azgolfer 17y ago
I've always thought wide screen was strange. Didn't it originally come from projecting from two movie cameras side by side ? It's terrible for closeups in movies. It seems to me the human eye 'viewport' is somewhere around 4:3
- bartl 17y ago
  I've always assumed that widescreen was adopted because it's a convenient format for theaters: theater rooms are easily far wider than they are high. So it's a convenient way to get a larger image, in a room that is not too excessively high.
- lurkinggrue 17y ago
  It was adopted due to compitition with television. Like that are doing now with 3D movies. TV was going to put movie theatres out of business. (At least how exec's thought)
bitwize 17y ago
No secret. When I saw it, I thought "Oh, they're going back to a 4:3 screen. How nice." Widescreen displays make it easy for panel manufacturers to skimp on resolution while keeping the same diagonal size.
- CWuestefeld 17y ago
  I don't get the attraction of the 16:9 thing for TVs, either. In my family room I've got a limited amount of horizontal space (barring replace a $1500 piece of furniture as well). Switching to HD will really just mean that I have a smaller picture, because with a fixed horizontal measurement I can only make the vertical measurement smaller to fit the aspect ratio.
- eru 17y ago
  I also like 4:3. (Of course for TV the best aspect ratio is the one your content comes in.)
- gdee 17y ago
  I don't know if they were being nice or not but I think they pretty much also had to make it 4:3. I have a convertible netbook (Gigabyte T1028X) and its wide screen is ugly in vertical orientation. Books look really weird formatted that way. Web pages too. The only saving grace is that I can dock an OSK at the bottom and the remaining area is more or less 4:3 and I get the keyboard there too, at the same time. That's handy at times. But still looks ugly. So seeing how beautiful is important to Apple and how they want it to be usable in any orientation, I don't think they had a choice.
- rriepe 17y ago
  I wish I had caught it! I'm on the design side of things and feel a bit slow after missing it. I considered writing on of which resolution is better for the device, but I figure I'll leave that up to the test of time. I do think 4:3 is a great way to launch it.
tdoggette 17y ago
The site is down. Does anyone have a mirror or a summary?
- TheThomas 17y ago
  The site is back up now.
- aka- 17y ago
  google cache: http://66.102.9.132/search?q=cache:matchstrike.net/strikepad/2010/01/how-apple-hides-the-ipads-dirty-little-secret-with-an-optical-illusion/ http://66.102.9.132/search?q=cache:matchstrike.net/strikepad...
- rriepe 17y ago
  Really sorry about that. We're trying to get it up ASAP.

8 points by rriepe 17y ago

kvs 17y ago

Not sure what you're saying about Apple's presentation. There seems to be enough horizontal, straight-facing images on their iPad pages. http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/ http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/

azgolfer 17y ago

I've always thought wide screen was strange. Didn't it originally come from projecting from two movie cameras side by side ? It's terrible for closeups in movies. It seems to me the human eye 'viewport' is somewhere around 4:3

bartl 17y ago
I've always assumed that widescreen was adopted because it's a convenient format for theaters: theater rooms are easily far wider than they are high. So it's a convenient way to get a larger image, in a room that is not too excessively high.
lurkinggrue 17y ago
It was adopted due to compitition with television. Like that are doing now with 3D movies. TV was going to put movie theatres out of business. (At least how exec's thought)

bitwize 17y ago

No secret. When I saw it, I thought "Oh, they're going back to a 4:3 screen. How nice." Widescreen displays make it easy for panel manufacturers to skimp on resolution while keeping the same diagonal size.

CWuestefeld 17y ago
I don't get the attraction of the 16:9 thing for TVs, either. In my family room I've got a limited amount of horizontal space (barring replace a $1500 piece of furniture as well). Switching to HD will really just mean that I have a smaller picture, because with a fixed horizontal measurement I can only make the vertical measurement smaller to fit the aspect ratio.
eru 17y ago
I also like 4:3. (Of course for TV the best aspect ratio is the one your content comes in.)
gdee 17y ago
I don't know if they were being nice or not but I think they pretty much also had to make it 4:3. I have a convertible netbook (Gigabyte T1028X) and its wide screen is ugly in vertical orientation. Books look really weird formatted that way. Web pages too. The only saving grace is that I can dock an OSK at the bottom and the remaining area is more or less 4:3 and I get the keyboard there too, at the same time. That's handy at times. But still looks ugly. So seeing how beautiful is important to Apple and how they want it to be usable in any orientation, I don't think they had a choice.
rriepe 17y ago
I wish I had caught it! I'm on the design side of things and feel a bit slow after missing it. I considered writing on of which resolution is better for the device, but I figure I'll leave that up to the test of time. I do think 4:3 is a great way to launch it.

tdoggette 17y ago

The site is down. Does anyone have a mirror or a summary?

TheThomas 17y ago
The site is back up now.
aka- 17y ago
google cache: http://66.102.9.132/search?q=cache:matchstrike.net/strikepad/2010/01/how-apple-hides-the-ipads-dirty-little-secret-with-an-optical-illusion/ http://66.102.9.132/search?q=cache:matchstrike.net/strikepad...
rriepe 17y ago
Really sorry about that. We're trying to get it up ASAP.