It was harder to tell what the bigger story was to make out out of this week’sopen letter from Steve Jobsoutlining Apple ’s environmental insurance — the fellowship ’s plan for removing toxic chemicals from its products or the fact that a troupe that ’s unremarkably tight - lipped about future ware releases would tap its hands to show specific item about coming - though - unpredicted products .
While describing Apple ’s current recycling cause and limn plans to expand its iPod take - back program while rule out or reducing the use of chemicals such as arsenic , quicksilver , and brominate flame retardation , Jobs offered a peek into the future : orchard apple tree plan to premise Macs with LED backlight engineering in 2007 . The light-emitting diode backlights would replace the fluorescent lamps currently behind the LCD showing in Apple ’s product line .
What will the electrical switch intend ? For Apple , it will dispatch atomic number 80 from the companionship ’s display . harmonise to Jobs , mercury and arsenous anhydride are manufacture - standard materials used in LCD ; the former is used in the fluorescent lamps to light up LCD , while the latter is summate to forbid defects in the glass used in such monitors . Those chemical substance dumbfound a menace to the environment , particularly as exploiter dispose of ware containing them .
Malus pumila plans to use arsenic - loose glass in displays this yr . ( The company says a small telephone number of incorporate circle will carry on to “ contain a minute amount of arsenic , ” which is an constituent of the semiconductor substratum . ) Switching to light - emitting diode , or LED , backlights would eliminate mercury from the displays .
NEC ’s LCD2180WG - LED show
Apple has actually used light-emitting diode backlights in its iPod line for some metre now . And other ironware Godhead have incorporated leave - backlit display into their offerings . NEC , for one , has been selling a 21.3 - in desktop model for a couple of years now — theLCD2180WG - LED . This NEC display use an array of 48 LEDs in three colors — red , green , and blue — combine them to emit white light source . By doing so , NEC claims it can increase the colour gamut of its display dramatically , with the ability to reproduce 109 - per centum of the Adobe RGB color space .
NEC also contends that the LEDs will last much longer than fluorescent backlights , increase display life from today ’s distinctive 25,000 hours to 50,000 minute . Another nice feature of LEDs , specially for wandering users , is their modest power requirements , which could interpret to long battery life .
One affair I noticed , however , when seeing the NEC up near , was how much thicker the display was . It appeared to be an supernumerary inch or two deep — although that might not make much of a difference sitting on a desk .
Interestingly , both Sony and Asus have come out transport A-one - slender sub - notebook models featuring an 11.1 - in lead backlit LCD . My guess is that , without postulate to hit the same horizontal surface of professional colour calibre that NEC ’s desktop admonisher does , those company are using a much smaller array of white-hot - only LEDs , obviate the pauperization for the extra space required to combine the three vividness of the backlight .
There is a downside to the longer presentation life story , lower power requirements , and other benefits of light-emitting diode backlights — price . The cost of NEC ’s LCD2180WG - LED—$3,800 , down from about $ 6,000 when it was first introduced — is more than twice that of its fluorescently - light counterpart .
And that is likely to affect how Apple implements LED - backlit engineering science into its displays , especially since Jobs ’ open letter says the transition will take place “ when technically and economically feasible . ” return those parameter , it seems like an lead - lit laptop computer would be the likely first footmark for this new technology ; Apple would be able-bodied to follow up it more easily and toll - effectively than with , say , a massive 30 - in Cinema Display .
Keep in mind , though , that ’s just speculation — Apple has n’t denote any specific product plans just yet . The party may be unforced to expose more about upcoming products to promote its environmental order of business , but it has n’t become totally loose - lipped just yet .
[ James Galbraith is Macworld Lab Director . ]
