4 ms·

Retina 5K iMac: Powerful Proof of the PC Renaissance

22 points by vwoolf 12y ago

bko 12y ago
> All those pixels make for a luxuriously sharp picture. Text sparkles and images pop, and when you to switch back to a computer with a normal screen, your eyes beg you to reconsider. At least, mine did. Years of staring at bad screens has turned my eyes into ruined orbs, but now, finally, I’d encountered a computer display that was good to them. I've been told by an optometrist that higher resolution may cause eye-strain and it makes some sense although I read that many prefer higher resolution displays. I can't find any reliable resources either confirming or rejecting my suspicions. Is this question settled yet?
- mmagin 12y ago
  I suspect you have to avoid the temptation to use smaller fonts.
- g_lined 12y ago
  Given a retina display aims to copy the sharpness we see in our every day lives from real objects, I would suggest it doesn't intrinsically carry a risk of tiring your eyes, in the same way as we don't get tired seeing all day long even though the edges of everything we look at are generally sharp. Rather in the sense of drawing on a drawing board, or reading books, ones eyes do get tired. Given that OSes are in their infancy when it comes to giving us the tools to properly manage size and resolution, it could be that some tasks are more tiring than they used to be.
- dippyskoodlez 12y ago
  I would imagine he's comparing to the typical resolution changes on Windows where everything is significantly smaller. OS X scaling does much better at replicating a normal image, and personally I find it much more comfortable of an image to stare at for extended periods.
_almosnow 12y ago
The chromebook? A hit? ... Nothing better than unbiased journaling with morning coffee.
- ddoolin 12y ago
  I wouldn't say it's completely unbiased. They have a larger share of the education market than iPads. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2855768/why-chromebooks-are-schooling-ipads-in-education.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/2855768/why-chromebooks-are-s...
- DominikR 12y ago
  According to Amazons top 20 best selling laptops, Chromebooks do quite well. A Chromebook is in the second position and Chromebooks take up 6 spots in this list. http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Laptop-Computers/zgbs/electronics/565108 http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Laptop-Comput...
- dippyskoodlez 12y ago
  They have sold quite well. I'm not sure where, but.... all numbers point to yes.
hkarthik 12y ago
This speaks to something I predicted a few years ago: professional workstation machines will go up in price substantially as the economies of scale start to disappear for the major manufacturers producing them. The only way for them to build them sustainably will be to increase margins by raising prices. By 2016, we may be paying close to $4K for such machines.
- omarforgotpwd 12y ago
  Maybe, maybe not. Economies of scale for many of the parts will increase dramatically, not to mention all the other economic factors (i.e. change in cost of transporation, manufacturing, etc) that you're not considering.
- dba7dba 12y ago
  i respectfully disagree. The professional 'workstation' in this case is just packaged in a way that forces up the cost arbitrarily.
- ElectronCharge 12y ago
  A couple of points: First, the 5K iMac isn't a "professional workstation" by most measures. In particular, it doesn't include ECC RAM or a "pro level" GPU. I wish ECC would become ubiquitous across all PCs, but it looks like the industry is stubbornly leaving that as one of the few real "pro" differences. That's not to say you can't do serious work with a regular PC, just that it's not considered sufficient for high-end engineering and science tasks, where a flipped bit could mean disaster. The specs of the Mac Pro fit the bill for that, along with workstations from other manufacturers like Dell and HP. Since all but the "pro" GPU are also server components, prices shouldn't go up appreciably, and in fact will probably continue to slide as manufacturing techniques improve. High-end PCs will remain affordable, the components used for them have many uses and will be mass-produced in large quantity for the foreseeable future. One interesting area is displays, where it's hard to see smallish (48" or less) 4K TVs not encroaching on the computer display market heavily.
Elementchapter 12y ago
I dont think we'll ever get rid of laptops and desktops. I think they'll just evolve and keep with technology and lifestyle demands.

22 points by vwoolf 12y ago

bko 12y ago

> All those pixels make for a luxuriously sharp picture. Text sparkles and images pop, and when you to switch back to a computer with a normal screen, your eyes beg you to reconsider. At least, mine did. Years of staring at bad screens has turned my eyes into ruined orbs, but now, finally, I’d encountered a computer display that was good to them. I've been told by an optometrist that higher resolution may cause eye-strain and it makes some sense although I read that many prefer higher resolution displays. I can't find any reliable resources either confirming or rejecting my suspicions. Is this question settled yet?

mmagin 12y ago
I suspect you have to avoid the temptation to use smaller fonts.
g_lined 12y ago
Given a retina display aims to copy the sharpness we see in our every day lives from real objects, I would suggest it doesn't intrinsically carry a risk of tiring your eyes, in the same way as we don't get tired seeing all day long even though the edges of everything we look at are generally sharp. Rather in the sense of drawing on a drawing board, or reading books, ones eyes do get tired. Given that OSes are in their infancy when it comes to giving us the tools to properly manage size and resolution, it could be that some tasks are more tiring than they used to be.
dippyskoodlez 12y ago
I would imagine he's comparing to the typical resolution changes on Windows where everything is significantly smaller. OS X scaling does much better at replicating a normal image, and personally I find it much more comfortable of an image to stare at for extended periods.

_almosnow 12y ago

The chromebook? A hit? ... Nothing better than unbiased journaling with morning coffee.

ddoolin 12y ago
I wouldn't say it's completely unbiased. They have a larger share of the education market than iPads. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2855768/why-chromebooks-are-schooling-ipads-in-education.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/2855768/why-chromebooks-are-s...
DominikR 12y ago
According to Amazons top 20 best selling laptops, Chromebooks do quite well. A Chromebook is in the second position and Chromebooks take up 6 spots in this list. http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Laptop-Computers/zgbs/electronics/565108 http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Laptop-Comput...
dippyskoodlez 12y ago
They have sold quite well. I'm not sure where, but.... all numbers point to yes.

hkarthik 12y ago

This speaks to something I predicted a few years ago: professional workstation machines will go up in price substantially as the economies of scale start to disappear for the major manufacturers producing them. The only way for them to build them sustainably will be to increase margins by raising prices. By 2016, we may be paying close to $4K for such machines.

omarforgotpwd 12y ago
Maybe, maybe not. Economies of scale for many of the parts will increase dramatically, not to mention all the other economic factors (i.e. change in cost of transporation, manufacturing, etc) that you're not considering.
dba7dba 12y ago
i respectfully disagree. The professional 'workstation' in this case is just packaged in a way that forces up the cost arbitrarily.
ElectronCharge 12y ago
A couple of points: First, the 5K iMac isn't a "professional workstation" by most measures. In particular, it doesn't include ECC RAM or a "pro level" GPU. I wish ECC would become ubiquitous across all PCs, but it looks like the industry is stubbornly leaving that as one of the few real "pro" differences. That's not to say you can't do serious work with a regular PC, just that it's not considered sufficient for high-end engineering and science tasks, where a flipped bit could mean disaster. The specs of the Mac Pro fit the bill for that, along with workstations from other manufacturers like Dell and HP. Since all but the "pro" GPU are also server components, prices shouldn't go up appreciably, and in fact will probably continue to slide as manufacturing techniques improve. High-end PCs will remain affordable, the components used for them have many uses and will be mass-produced in large quantity for the foreseeable future. One interesting area is displays, where it's hard to see smallish (48" or less) 4K TVs not encroaching on the computer display market heavily.

Elementchapter 12y ago

I dont think we'll ever get rid of laptops and desktops. I think they'll just evolve and keep with technology and lifestyle demands.