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Showing posts from October 30, 2011

Understanding Display "Resolution" (Retina display)

When I first heard the "Retina display" of the iPhone explained, the perplexed reaction I had was "what for?"  By the way, "Retina display" is just a marketing term for a density of greater than 300dpi. Display area is probably the most expensive piece of real estate in the world after the Disney Store in New York city's Times Square.  When you have a large spreadsheet to analyze, every pixel is priceless. Why would you want to waste 960x640 of screen real estate at 326dpi?  It's not about discernible (read snobby) people being able to tell the dots when the display density is below 200dpi. For paper printouts, yes, you would want 300dpi or better.  But for an electronic display which is refreshed at 30 times a second?  For an electronic display showing moving images or video? My main beef with high resolution displays on cell phones is that the density is too high.  The density should be reduced to make the display more readable when each

Smartphone Battery Life

Why do the specifications of smartphones still give the maximum number of talk hours?  And this is usually a huge fantastic number of half a month or more.  And there is no other indicator of battery life. As we all know, we use the smartphone more as a computer than as a (voice) phone.  If I had wanted a very good voice phone, I would just get a $20 Nokia simple phone. Smartphone battery life should be stated like laptops.  And no laptop battery can last a day.  Similarly, if you use a smartphone like a computer full time, don't expect it to last a day. From experience, on the first day you bought your smartphone, your usage will be abnormally high.  You discover that the battery life isn't that "good".  As the days go by, your usage drops to a more realistic rate and you will find that the battery can last about a day.

The iPhone 5

I predict that the iPhone 5 will have a much bigger screen, à la the Samsung Galaxy Note.