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However, when Apple is the one pushing the particular technological advance in question (which it very often is lately), then it certainly is appropriate to ack

However, when Apple is the one pushing the particular technological advance in question (which it very often is lately), then it certainly is appropriate to acknowledge fact and reality. Which technology advances has Apple pushed forward? Sounds to me like you have some animus against Apple. I have an issue with people who have technological blinders on -- completely unaware of what has been happening in the industry -- who confuse Apple success with Apple innovation. Apple may have made big media waves with the "Retina" display, but they didn't invent high density displays (and they certainly didn't invent the programming model behind it. If anything they regressed 15 years into the past). They didn't invent tablets. They didn't invent the A5 beyond putting together two A9s and a PowerVR GPU. I could go on and on. What Apple is credited with seldom correlates with the reality.

wtallis 15y ago
Apple may not have invented high-DPI IPS panels, but those panels wouldn't exist outside of the lab today without Apple. Nobody else was willing and able to put up the capital necessary to put that technology into mass production. Certainly, laptop makers haven't been pushing very hard to advance the quality of their displays in recent years, and even desktop displays have been regressing or stagnant at best for the past 5 years. And without Apple, there wouldn't now be a tablet market big enough to matter. Apple decided that high-DPI displays were a priority, and decided that it was worth it to bear the expense of fully doubling resolution just to make the software scaling issue easier. That doesn't qualify as invention, but it certainly qualifies as pushing forward a technological advance.
- huggyface 15y ago
  Apple may not have invented high-DPI IPS panels, but those panels wouldn't exist outside of the lab today without Apple. Smartphones were pushing 300 PPI+ before Apple decided to try to brand it. http://www.tgdaily.com/hardware-features/52181-worlds-smallest-hd-display-hits-1920-%C3%97-1080 http://www.tgdaily.com/hardware-features/52181-worlds-smalle... That display packed 1920x1080 on a miniscule 4.8" display. Further, the iPad was a serious laggard behind much of its tablet competition -- whose greater PPI was never heralded as any great innovation -- but suddenly they play leapfrog and invent a whole new industry? Give me a break.
  - wtallis 15y ago
    That link you posted is talking about a prototype, not a mass-production device. And what smartphone prior to the iPhone 4 had even 300dpi? The closest I can find reference to is a 3.2" 480x800 (291dpi), and back then, Android didn't support higher resolutions. Nobody's claiming that the 1024x768 iPad screen is significant, but the 2048x1536 version definitely is a big advance.
    - tjoff 15y ago
      The only reason that we haven't seen high-resolution display on the consumer market before the iPad 3 and iPhone 4 has to do with software support and nothing else. This was a direct result of the LCD since the resolution on an LCD is fixed the only way a consumer could increase the number of pixels on a device was to get a larger device (display). And Apple have taken the easy way by scaling the solution by four so that scaling the graphics is trivial. Not saying that it's a bad way, it has advantages and disadvantages but doing it the simple way is the quickest way to make way for high resolution devices.
Bud 15y ago
Yeah. Definitely a lot of animus against Apple. You have an issue with people who, unlike you, acknowledge and have respect for the engineering work necessary to take new theoretical pieces of hardware, get someone to build 30 million of them, and combine them into a useful and well-designed product that people want to buy. And you also have your own set of blinders on, which prevent you from seeing that if you can do this months or years ahead of your competition, over and over and over again, you ARE innovating. Your blinders are so effective that you can't even see the straw men you keep setting up and knocking down. Nobody in this thread suggested that Apple "invented tablets" (which is absurd). Apple did invent one that people actually want to BUY, however. And no, Apple didn't invent 300dpi displays; they just got them into a product which still has decent battery life. And no, they didn't invent the concept of more efficient CPUs and assemblages of chips; they just make the right choices faster and smarter than everyone else. In the marketplace, that stuff counts, dude. Deal with it.
- huggyface 15y ago
  the engineering work necessary to take new theoretical pieces of hardware And then you go on and actually discount all of those claims. I would say it was funny but I really think it's just sad. HN is not a site for stupid people, so yes, I DO have an issue with it. If you're reading People Magazine and they herald Apple's "invention" (I remember the breathless commentary about the revolutionary new A5. You probably drank that up), hey have at it. But to see that sort of technically ignorant garbage infecting more enlightened places? Take it to the fan club and save the rest of us the tiring religious proselytizing.
  - Bud 15y ago
    "The rest of us"? Funny, I only hear you bitching, or even disagreeing. Everyone else is too busy playing with their new iPads, I guess. You clearly just can't handle the fact that Apple has succeeded, and you have been driven into twisting others' words, inventing reactions and projecting them onto strangers ("You probably drank that up"), and similar twit behavior. Take it back to grade school.
    - 15y ago

wtallis 15y ago

Apple may not have invented high-DPI IPS panels, but those panels wouldn't exist outside of the lab today without Apple. Nobody else was willing and able to put up the capital necessary to put that technology into mass production. Certainly, laptop makers haven't been pushing very hard to advance the quality of their displays in recent years, and even desktop displays have been regressing or stagnant at best for the past 5 years. And without Apple, there wouldn't now be a tablet market big enough to matter. Apple decided that high-DPI displays were a priority, and decided that it was worth it to bear the expense of fully doubling resolution just to make the software scaling issue easier. That doesn't qualify as invention, but it certainly qualifies as pushing forward a technological advance.

huggyface 15y ago
Apple may not have invented high-DPI IPS panels, but those panels wouldn't exist outside of the lab today without Apple. Smartphones were pushing 300 PPI+ before Apple decided to try to brand it. http://www.tgdaily.com/hardware-features/52181-worlds-smallest-hd-display-hits-1920-%C3%97-1080 http://www.tgdaily.com/hardware-features/52181-worlds-smalle... That display packed 1920x1080 on a miniscule 4.8" display. Further, the iPad was a serious laggard behind much of its tablet competition -- whose greater PPI was never heralded as any great innovation -- but suddenly they play leapfrog and invent a whole new industry? Give me a break.
- wtallis 15y ago
  That link you posted is talking about a prototype, not a mass-production device. And what smartphone prior to the iPhone 4 had even 300dpi? The closest I can find reference to is a 3.2" 480x800 (291dpi), and back then, Android didn't support higher resolutions. Nobody's claiming that the 1024x768 iPad screen is significant, but the 2048x1536 version definitely is a big advance.
  - tjoff 15y ago
    The only reason that we haven't seen high-resolution display on the consumer market before the iPad 3 and iPhone 4 has to do with software support and nothing else. This was a direct result of the LCD since the resolution on an LCD is fixed the only way a consumer could increase the number of pixels on a device was to get a larger device (display). And Apple have taken the easy way by scaling the solution by four so that scaling the graphics is trivial. Not saying that it's a bad way, it has advantages and disadvantages but doing it the simple way is the quickest way to make way for high resolution devices.

Bud 15y ago

Yeah. Definitely a lot of animus against Apple. You have an issue with people who, unlike you, acknowledge and have respect for the engineering work necessary to take new theoretical pieces of hardware, get someone to build 30 million of them, and combine them into a useful and well-designed product that people want to buy. And you also have your own set of blinders on, which prevent you from seeing that if you can do this months or years ahead of your competition, over and over and over again, you ARE innovating. Your blinders are so effective that you can't even see the straw men you keep setting up and knocking down. Nobody in this thread suggested that Apple "invented tablets" (which is absurd). Apple did invent one that people actually want to BUY, however. And no, Apple didn't invent 300dpi displays; they just got them into a product which still has decent battery life. And no, they didn't invent the concept of more efficient CPUs and assemblages of chips; they just make the right choices faster and smarter than everyone else. In the marketplace, that stuff counts, dude. Deal with it.

huggyface 15y ago
the engineering work necessary to take new theoretical pieces of hardware And then you go on and actually discount all of those claims. I would say it was funny but I really think it's just sad. HN is not a site for stupid people, so yes, I DO have an issue with it. If you're reading People Magazine and they herald Apple's "invention" (I remember the breathless commentary about the revolutionary new A5. You probably drank that up), hey have at it. But to see that sort of technically ignorant garbage infecting more enlightened places? Take it to the fan club and save the rest of us the tiring religious proselytizing.
- Bud 15y ago
  "The rest of us"? Funny, I only hear you bitching, or even disagreeing. Everyone else is too busy playing with their new iPads, I guess. You clearly just can't handle the fact that Apple has succeeded, and you have been driven into twisting others' words, inventing reactions and projecting them onto strangers ("You probably drank that up"), and similar twit behavior. Take it back to grade school.
  - 15y ago