Both those resolutions maintain the exact same 4:3 aspect ratio as the current iPad, while also being to able to display multiple iPhone 4 apps side by side in their native resolution, and being able to display HD videos and content in it's resolution. The current resolution (1024x768) can not do either.
1024x768 times 1.25 = 1280x960. Apple could easily take advantage of the dual core gpu rumored to be in the next iPad to perfectly scale all iPad 1 apps by 1.25. Apple could also release a tool that allows app developers to very rapidly up-convert all of their apps to 1.25 their original resolution with minimal effort.
There's a multitude of reasons why a resolution of 1280x960 makes much more sense than the current resolution of 1024x768...
1. 1280x960 is exactly double the iPhone 4's resolution (640x960). It could display two iPhone 4 apps in their native resolution side by side. That can open the iPad up to a lot of useful functionality, and multitasking in a new way. They could make use of the dual core cpu and gpu to display two iPhone 4 apps side by side simultanously. Facetime/skype someone while browsing the web. Browse the web while checking your emails. There's a lot of neat possibilities.
2. 1280x960 is perfect for 720p movie playback. 720p content plays at a resolution of 1280x720. Many movies, videos and tv shows including all the hd content in iTunes are optimized to play at that resolution. Being able to natively display that resolution (with two slim horizontal black bars), would allow for optimum picture quality without any of the pixelation and artifacts that occur when you scale a video to something other than it's native resolution.
For very similar reasons, a resolution of 1920x1440 also make a lot of sense for the iPad. And that resolution would allow Apple to claim that the iPad has a retina display at a distance of just 14 inches or so while playing back 1080p videos in their native resolution and displaying 3 iPhone 4 apps side by side in their native resolution.
Not using a resolution of 1280x960 for the original iPad was a mistake by Apple, and one that Apple could and should easily correct with the iPad 2. It's comparable to Apple's oversight in not including a facetime camera and 512mbs of ram in the original iPad. They are fixing both issues with the iPad 2 and Apple will hopefully correct this oversight as well.
The rumored resolution of 2048 by 1536 is unrealistic for a couple of reasons. For one, it's prohibitively expensive to get a touch screen at that resolution. Not even $3000 Macbook Pros pack in a screen with that high a resolution, and this is without being multitouch. In addition, that resolution creates numerous challenges to content makers and app developers since so few images and so little content is available at such high resolutions and having games running at that resolution would significantly tax both the graphics card and the gpu. Lastly 2048x1536 is just a really odd resolution for a display. Even websites will look odd, and in some cases will be very poorly formatted to display at such an odd and high resolution. 1280x960 however is very doable, 1920x1440 would likewise work very well.
Before someone mentions pixel doubling. Pixel doubling doesn't work. The iPhone 4 had exactly double the resolution of the iPhone 3G/3GS. Yet, this didn't cause them to look as nice as they do on an iPhone 3G/3GS
Even with pixel doubling, iPhone 3G/3GS apps look horrible on the iPhone 4, far worse than they ever looked on the iPhone 3G. Pixel doubling doesn't have the advertized effect, the old apps still look horrible, so it's pointless. These resolutions scale old apps the same way pixel doubling does, they would look no worse. In fact, with some post processing/anti-aliasing using the GPU, they could look far better.
Lastly, the iPad's bezel is smideon too think and a 10" screen sounds far better than a 9.7" screen does. Apple could and should upgrade to a 10" screen in the future higher resolution iPad while keeping the iPad the same size and simply cutting down on the bezel slightly.
1024x768 times 1.25 = 1280x960. Apple could easily take advantage of the dual core gpu rumored to be in the next iPad to perfectly scale all iPad 1 apps by 1.25. Apple could also release a tool that allows app developers to very rapidly up-convert all of their apps to 1.25 their original resolution with minimal effort.
There's a multitude of reasons why a resolution of 1280x960 makes much more sense than the current resolution of 1024x768...
1. 1280x960 is exactly double the iPhone 4's resolution (640x960). It could display two iPhone 4 apps in their native resolution side by side. That can open the iPad up to a lot of useful functionality, and multitasking in a new way. They could make use of the dual core cpu and gpu to display two iPhone 4 apps side by side simultanously. Facetime/skype someone while browsing the web. Browse the web while checking your emails. There's a lot of neat possibilities.
2. 1280x960 is perfect for 720p movie playback. 720p content plays at a resolution of 1280x720. Many movies, videos and tv shows including all the hd content in iTunes are optimized to play at that resolution. Being able to natively display that resolution (with two slim horizontal black bars), would allow for optimum picture quality without any of the pixelation and artifacts that occur when you scale a video to something other than it's native resolution.
For very similar reasons, a resolution of 1920x1440 also make a lot of sense for the iPad. And that resolution would allow Apple to claim that the iPad has a retina display at a distance of just 14 inches or so while playing back 1080p videos in their native resolution and displaying 3 iPhone 4 apps side by side in their native resolution.
Not using a resolution of 1280x960 for the original iPad was a mistake by Apple, and one that Apple could and should easily correct with the iPad 2. It's comparable to Apple's oversight in not including a facetime camera and 512mbs of ram in the original iPad. They are fixing both issues with the iPad 2 and Apple will hopefully correct this oversight as well.
The rumored resolution of 2048 by 1536 is unrealistic for a couple of reasons. For one, it's prohibitively expensive to get a touch screen at that resolution. Not even $3000 Macbook Pros pack in a screen with that high a resolution, and this is without being multitouch. In addition, that resolution creates numerous challenges to content makers and app developers since so few images and so little content is available at such high resolutions and having games running at that resolution would significantly tax both the graphics card and the gpu. Lastly 2048x1536 is just a really odd resolution for a display. Even websites will look odd, and in some cases will be very poorly formatted to display at such an odd and high resolution. 1280x960 however is very doable, 1920x1440 would likewise work very well.
Before someone mentions pixel doubling. Pixel doubling doesn't work. The iPhone 4 had exactly double the resolution of the iPhone 3G/3GS. Yet, this didn't cause them to look as nice as they do on an iPhone 3G/3GS
Even with pixel doubling, iPhone 3G/3GS apps look horrible on the iPhone 4, far worse than they ever looked on the iPhone 3G. Pixel doubling doesn't have the advertized effect, the old apps still look horrible, so it's pointless. These resolutions scale old apps the same way pixel doubling does, they would look no worse. In fact, with some post processing/anti-aliasing using the GPU, they could look far better.
Lastly, the iPad's bezel is smideon too think and a 10" screen sounds far better than a 9.7" screen does. Apple could and should upgrade to a 10" screen in the future higher resolution iPad while keeping the iPad the same size and simply cutting down on the bezel slightly.
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