I think you're overestimating the impact of these issues. Cost is anyone's guess, so I agree this may be a potential blocker. But technology is constantly evolving. The iPhone 4's Retina Display is more power efficient than the earlier panels despite having a higher resolution. There's still a lot of potential in better screen tech. GPUs are also getting more efficient, so are chip manufacturing processes. And not every app would have to immediately use the higher resolution.A retina display on the iPad fails pretty hard by these standards. It would cost a lot. It would suck up more power in itself. It would require beefier CPU/GPU to run, sucking more battery life, and possibly making the product thicker or run hotter. And developers would have to do more work to add even higher resolution imagery, and you fragment the user base by having some applications that won't be able to run on the older, less-beefy-CPU hardware.
I didn't mention the SoC, I said it has the same GPU: PowerVR SGX535.The 3GS doesn't even use the same chipset as the iPad. ~623 MHz vs. 1.1 GHz. Also, don't forget the $2,000 you'll spend to buy new graphics cards.
Not the same scenario as what happened with the iPhone.Currently the app store supports:
Older gen Ipod touch and Iphones (480 x 320)
Latest gen Ipod touch and Iphones (960 x 640)
Latest gen Ipad (1024 x 768)
I see there is an argument that "If apple implement a new resolution it will fragment the market". Well the market is doing fine just now post IP4 release so how does that argument make any sense?
Apps download to iphones old and new are seamless and work - it will be the same for the ipad should the resolution be improved.
Not quite, that isn't the problem.Of course, I guess Apple could move away totally from any bitmapped graphics and totally over to vector based graphics.
Then they could change the screen res to anything they liked at any time and everything would always look 100% perfect.![]()
Yeh, I don't see the ipad getting a retina display anytime soon...
If Apple betters the pixel density without at least doubling it both ways, that would mess up the resolution of the previous gen apps.
Not quite, that isn't the problem.
If Apple uses any resolution that isn't an increment of the original (2x, 3x, etc.) then you'll have problems scaling. As an example, say you've a control with uneven dimensions like 101x101 and the screen of the iPad is 1536x1152 (50% more than current), when scaled by 1.5x you get dimensions of 151.5x151.5 which just can't happen.
It's not about whether the graphics are smooth or not, you just can't have a half pixel.Not if you use a totally vector based graphics system.
As you are no doubt aware, there are two ways of doing graphics Bitmapped and Vector
Adobe Photoshop = bitmapped
Adobe Illustrator = vector.
I believe the icons on the Mac are vector as are modern typefaces so that you can scale them to any size you like and they always remain smooth with no jaggies at any size.
As then all a graphic is, is a set of mathematical coords and curve instructions.
I think someone said, SOME of the iPads graphics elements are vector based, but not all of them.
This is how we can change monitors on PC's and Mac's and games, fonts etc all look at their full detail despite any variety of different screen resolutions.
It's not about whether the graphics are smooth or not, you just can't have a half pixel.
What happens to a button that is 101x31 pixels on iPad 1, but is scaled to 151.5x45.5 on 2... you can't ever use half a pixel, so it either needs to exceed its bounds by half a pixel, or be rounded down, either way it won't look right, or as intended.
I've been thinking about this and I think I've found the optimal resolution for iiPad. If you increase the amount of vertical and horizontal pixels both by 25% you'll end up with a resolution of 1280 by 960. If you think about this resolution it has many benefits. First off, Apple could boast that there are 50% more pixels than on the original iPad. Secondly, if apple ever wanted to do such a thing, they could run two native iPhone retina apps side by side on the iPad, (which i think would be very cool and a new level in multitasking). And third, this is a feasible resolution for an A4 processor to put out.
Let me know what you think, but I have a feeling you'll be seeing this resolution the next time apple decides to upgrade the screen.![]()
This is the one of the most interesting ideas I've read on this board.
The ppi for the standard of "retina" would be virtually impossible.
It's not coming.
This is only the 1st gen iPad, so if retina did theoretically come, devs would pretty much drop support for the original iPad altogether, because all future graphic sets would rely on retina standard.
There will be no resolution bump, sorry to burst your bubble.
NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.