It ’s not every week that Apple ignites a disceptation . Okay , maybethat’snot true , but it ’s not every hebdomad that Apple ignites a controversy that stone physicists , astronomers and neuroscientists against one another . But that ’s what happened with theintroduction of the iPhone 4and its high - resolution Retina display .
During his tonic at this class ’s Worldwide Developers Conference , Jobs tried to explain just how telling the resolution of the iPhone 4 ’s new 326 - pel - per - column inch Retina display really is :
It turns out that there ’s a magical number right around 300 pixel per in , that — when you hold something around 10 or 12 inch away from your eyes — is the limit of the human retina to differentiate the picture element . And so they ’re so close together when you get at this 300 pixels per column inch threshold , that all of a sudden things start to look like uninterrupted curved shape … Text looks like you ’ve seen it in a amercement , printed leger . [ It ’s ] unlike anything you ’ve ever seen on an electronic show before . At 326 pixels per inch , we are comfortably over that [ 300 pixel ] limit . ”
After the result , our live reporting team of Jason Snell and Dan Moren got to look at the real , live equipment . They wrote :
We could n’t pick out any pixels on the iPhone 4 ’s text ; as Apple claims , this projection screen really spend a penny text edition look like something you ’d chance in a Holy Scripture or a magazine , with none of the artifacts that we ’ve come to expect from a LCD display … picture and videos are absolutely spectacular on the iPhone 4 . It really is like looking at a self - clear up photographic print , not a information processing system double .
MacworldSenior Contributor and Daring Fireball learned person John Gruber also catch to meet the iPhone 4 in mortal . He write : “ The resolution of the ‘ retina display ’ is as impressive as Apple boasts . Text render like high quality print . ”
So is seeing believing ? This is where it gets pasty . Wired ’s Brian X. Chen , who was also present at the Apple outcome andsaw the twist for himself later on , write a part with the amazingly definitive headline,“iPhone 4 ’s ‘ Retina ’ Display Claims are False Marketing . ”The story ’s lead conviction : “ The iPhone 4 ’s screen may be the best wandering display yet , but its resolution does not exceed the human retina , as Steve Jobs claims . ”
Wired ’s confident claims that Steve Jobs was fibbing were plain the result of a individual germ : a physicist advert Raymond Soneira , the President of the United States ofDisplayMate Technologies . According to Chen , Soneira has studied displays for 20 geezerhood . Soneira told Chen : “ [ The iPhone 4 ’s CRT screen ] is reasonably cheeseparing to being a perfect display , but Steve crusade it a little too far . ”
Soneira objected to Jobs using pixels as a measurement of middle answer in the first plaza , because eye use something called angular resolution , while a categorical display uses analog resolution . After working the numbers , Soneira concluded that a genuine “ retina video display ” would need 477 pixels per inch to look perfect from a metrical unit aside .
throng on was PCWorld , which ran its owninterview with Soneira . He secernate them that unless you carry the iPhone 4 at least 18 inches aside , it could n’t reach retina quality . He added further that the iPhone “ actually needs a firmness of purpose importantly higher than the retina in guild to deliver an image that appears thoroughgoing to the retina . ”
But just as the net makes it potential for word organizations to call corporate CEO liar based on the thought of a single physicist , it also makes it potential for other expert in the field of oculus to come out of the woodwork to interview the statements of a single physicist .
First up was Phil Plait , author of the popular Bad Astronomy blog and a scientist who knows a affair or two about optic and resolution based on the work he did calibrate a television camera on the Hubble Space Telescope . Plaitdeconstructed Soneira ’s entire argumentand explain just what the great unwashed think of when they ’re babble out about resolution .
In the end , Plait ’s verdict was that while Soneira is correct that a person with perfect visual sense would be able to detect picture element on the iPhone 4 ’s exhibit hold 12 in from their eye , a mortal with average eyesight ( 20/20 , let ’s say ) would not be capable to detect those picture element . Plait concluded that both Jobs and Soneira spoke accurately , and suggested that Wired is the party at actual shift for bodge the story out of proportion and writing a shoddy headline . “ Jobs was n’t falsely advertising the iPhone ’s capability at all , ” Plait concluded .
Filing a separate dissent was William H.A. Beaudot , a Montreal - base vision scientist and founder ofKyberVision , who spoke with fellow Canadian Jim Dalrymple ofThe Loop .
“ In my opinion , Apple ’s claim is not just marketing ; it is actually quite accurate free-base on a 20/20 visual acuity , ” Beaudot tell The Loop . Like Plait , Beaudot points out that the minimal space between two points that a 20/20 eye can resolve is one discharge bit , or one - sixtieth of a degree .
Nobody like to be criticized on the net . So Soneira , the original scientist who pick apart Jobs ’s claim for Wired and PCWorld , e - mailed a follow - up comment to PCWorld :
Leaving aside whether “ 1000 % rearing spec abuse ” is a practicable statistic ( implying , as it does , that more eyeglasses than really exist could be take for opprobrious ) , it appears that Soneira ’s counter does n’t acknowledge Beaudot ’s counterargument that the iPhone 4 ’s show actuallydoessatisfy retina - quality requirement for folks with 20/20 vision .
So where does that leave behind us ? Well , if you ’ve scan this far your oculus are belike a little tired . But in the last , it seems like skill has talk . Are Apple ’s iPhone 4 exhibit claims “ False merchandising , ” as Wired claimed ? It seems like they are n’t for the vast absolute majority of users , though the most eagle - eyed types may still be able to observe the picture element .
Even Soneira , whoadmirably attacks bogus display marketing wherever he finds it , accommodate that the Retina display is an telling achievement : “ It ’s a great show , ” he told PCWorld . “ Most belike the best mobile show in yield ( and I ca n’t wait to examine it ) . ”
