The widescreen iPhone -- not so widescreen
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jan 17th 2007 8:15AM
posted Jan 17th 2007 8:15AM
You know how Steve Jobs and Apple like to boast of the iPhone's ability to function as a "widescreen iPod?" Well, anyone who sat in Moscone Center to witness the holy unveiling surely noticed the screen cropping (letterboxing) that occurred when Steve played Pirates of the Carribean. That's because the iPhone isn't "widescreen" as the term is customarily understood outside of the reality distortion field -- it is not a 1.78:1 (16x9) aspect ratio. Rather, the display utilizes a 1.5:1 aspect ratio. That puts the iPhone somewhere in the proprietary zone between the NTSC or PAL television standard 1.33:1 (4x3) and a proper widescreen 1.78:1 (16x9) aspect ratio like that thrown off Apple's new Apple TV. As demonstrated during the Jobsnote, true widescreen videos can be zoomed to fill the iPhone's screen but only at the expense of cropping the left and right-hand side video. Will this, uh, clarification or other nits prevent the first batch from selling out? Oh hells no. But at least now you know the truth.
That is a horrible touch interface. It allowed you to use gestures and could recognize two fingers for certain actions but the usability and intuitive fulid motions weren't not there. That Onyx demo wouldn't have been impressive BEFORE the iPhone launch, and certainly come close to the iPhone in any way.
Try again, applesucksLeo. Maybe one day you'll have an ati-Apple post that actually holds water.
You call that better? Give me a break.
Movies released on PSP were either left letterboxed at their original aspect ratio (just like the Pirates screenshot above) or were zoomed/cropped. At least iPhone gives you a choice...
I have to say the screen shots are quite misleading. The lower video image is not a 16:9 image. Its probably closer to 2.5:1. So its a bit rich to be referring to the 'truth'.
@thuzzles
2.35:1 is one of the most common ratios for movies so I'm not sure how you think the shots are misleading. Personally given the form factor etc. I'd be watching move TV (which of course is 4:3 or 16:9) so this would not be AS big of an issue for me though. I can't see myself sitting staring at the tiny screen for a full length film.
This iPhone stuff is getting really old, and I'm an Apple fanboy. Could you at least file this stuff under engadget mobile?
Its just like watching a widescreen movie on a 16x9 television, you still get cropping on the top and bottom of the screen, very few movies are truly 16x9, and those are mostly animated films.
The more and more I hear about the iPhone the more skeptical I get. Once you get past the initial WOW factor there are a couple things that will prevent me from buying.
1. All signs point to cingular charging through the nose monthly to use all the phones features
2. Phone only available with a 2 year agreement
3. Not unlockable
4. No 3G
The iphone looks to be a great device but I'll be passing on the first generation
"1. All signs point to cingular charging through the nose monthly to use all the phones features"
Which signs? Which features? During the whole presentation, I didn't see a single feature that Cingular could charge for specifically.
"2. Phone only available with a 2 year agreement"
I am not going to complain about this before I see the contract conditions.
"3. Not unlockable"
I'm really curious as to who started that rumor.
"4. No 3G"
But WLAN. I still consider WLAN the better choice at this point. I can surf the web for free over WLAN when I'm at home. If I have a 3G-phone without WLAN (like the Treo), I _always_ have to pay for surfing the web.
There's WLAN service on many flights nowadays. Show me a flight where you are allowed to use your 3G phone to surf the web.
@ JinKazama
1. Please back up stupid statements with urls to fact driven articles.. before you continue to pass along BS information. I dont see why they would charge more for phone and internet service for iPhones than the Blackjack.. or anyother bundle.. The idea that Cingular would be the one controlling the functionality of the iPhones is completely obsurd.. You think Apple would let the carrier determine how users are gonna use Apples device? Apple through them a bone by officially going with them. Apple could have chosen what ever carrier they wanted.
2. Last time i checked Cingular only does 2 year contracts. New Hi-Tech phones never come out as pay as you go...and very few carriers offer 1 year contracts (another reason i like Tmobile).
3. Umm from what im informed it is the Law that the phone be able to be unlocked, i assume to prevent a monopoly.
4. "No 3G"... this is the only solid proper argument that you've listed and that people have been complaining about since they saw/heard that fact... Congrats!
Ummm...all Cingular contracts are two years. Apple has nothing to do with this
Another mark against the iPhone. Boo hoo hoo.
The Pirates of the Caribbean movie that was being shown was 2.35:1, and the demonstrator showed how to double-tap the screen to switch between full video or zoom and crop a bit. I thought it was pretty nice, even if the screen is 3:2, and it's still a widescreen. If you say the industry standard is 16:9, then Apple must also be lying when they advertise all of their machines as widescreen because they have 16:10 ratios.
This is crazy. If the phone was 16x9 it would be a skinny rectangle. All other widescreens (lcd monitors, tvs, portable players) are in this "half wide, half regular" aspect ratio
Wrong. _Most_ of them are in about 1.5 ratio (HVGA (480x320), for example, or some others), just like the iPhone.
But not _all_; the Nokia 770, N800, and N810 internet tablets have 800x480 (16:9.6) displays, so they're between TV widescreen (16:9) and PC widescreen (16:10), and capable of displaying 16:9 video stretched to full-screen with little distortion.
As these devices do overlap some in market segment with the iPhone and iPod touch, Apple is actually promoting a less wide-screen product as "wide-screen", and the everyone-else-does-it defense no longer applies.
The first "widescreen" PowerBooks were the same way: "wider" than standard 4:3, but not as wide as 16:9. I think it only became feasible when they released a 17" model. Not sure if it's the same way on the MacBook Pros.
However, for the record, the "Pirates" movies are shot at the even wider 2:35:1 aspect ratio (to look more epic), so there would really be no way to watch this particular movie in its original format without the dreaded black bars.
At 2.35:1, most movies are significantly wider than "widescreen" (16:9 or 1.78:1) anyway, so even if the iPhone was 16:9, it'd still have to do the zoom+crop thing if you wanted to use the full height of the screen at the expense of losing the sides.
Viewing a 16:9 video will result in black stripes top and bottom, but much less significant than in the 2.35:1 example shown.
Um so? Watching DVDs on a TV does the same thing, and if you want it to do fullscreen you have to zoom in, but at the same time it crops the image.
Besides, the movie theaters also do the letterboxing.
You can't make everyone happy. The screen can only be ONE dimension ratio. Not all movies are made at 16:9. Someone will always be left out, The Office crowd or Ben Hur fans or someone.
That said, I'm surprised the dimension they picked wasn't 16:9.
Tell me of one screen on the market that is 16x9
"Tell me of one screen on the market that is 16x9"
The Cowon A2 is 16x9
I was under the impression that the PSP's screen was 16:9 WS.
also the creative zen vision w
FIC has a linix phone that was releazsed (annoinced) last year, and its cool and if you dont like it then you bang a koala bear!
Actually, LCD monitors and laptops with the widescreen label are generally 16:10, not 16:9. The aspect ratios were expanded vertically to allow PCs to comfortably show two-page spreads in a word processor. Televisions and HDTV signals, on the other hand, use 16:9. A little math shows that the iPhone has a comparative screen ratio of approximately 16:10.33, which makes it a little taller than an equivalently sized PC monitor, but not too far off.
As Joe V mentioned, many movies are filmed at 2.35:1, which is why a lot of films still have letterboxing even when played back on a widescreen television. They're really not a friendly size for any display smaller than a projector.
Thuzzles,
Those are the screen shots straight from Jobs' keynote. Interestingly, if the film had been sourced from iTunes as you might expect from a Disney film used in a Macworld keynote, then it would have a 640x480 resolution or 1.33:1 (4x3) aspect ratio on the iPhone. As such, the black bars would be left and right of the film, not top and bottom.
Thomas
And i still want one.. maybe ill wait till the second generation..
Ya, I agree with Frank. Why can't they release a hard disk based video ipod that uses the multi touch, etc... without the phone and excuses for waiting until June?
@ MPG
Show me a plane that flies at a height where you can pick up a WLAN Signal!
At May's release of iPhone, I bet iTunes Music Store re-releases their video lineup optimized at 1.5:1
There is no way to "optimize" 16:9 material to 1.5:1. It would have to be pan and scanned to do that.
16:9 material is optimally viewed at 16:9. The real problem is the iPhone and iPod display is just to small to really appreciate some films either in 16:9 or 4:3.
What gets me is the size, 8GB. That's laughable for being a "widescreen video iPod".
Otherwise I'm not surprized. Most widescreen monitors aren't 16x9, they're 16x10. And most films are recorded in anamorphic widescreen, so they can fit on various sized outputs.
And 16x9 isn't considered the "Standard widescreen". It's the majority, but not the standard.
Alright iPhone fanboys, quit trying to justify it. Yes, PotC is shot at 2:35.1, and just like every other movie put on DVD, will still have black bars when shown in 16:9. But the fact remains that the iPhone DOES NOT have a widescreen display. In the interest of disclosure, I use Macs at home (by choice) and at work (video editing), but once in a while you have to accept the fact that not everything Apple puts out is perfect.
You think "every other movie put on DVD" is in 2:35:1 aspect ratio? That's absurd!
And you're a video editor? Either you're lying about your job, or you must not be very good at it.
OK, who here could not figure out that 480x320 does not equal 16:9? Maybe he should have called it a wider-screen iPod.
UM...what crap is this? Engadget is always blatantly anti-Apple its ridiculous. And it gets sickening how much they boys love Microsoft, even if they make crappy products. If any screen is opitmized for 16:9 you know how crap 4:3 TV will look? I don't see how this is even Apple's problem...its a pretty standard "widescreen" display ratio and they didn't try to hide it during the presentation. And like someone before already said...at least they added a zoom function for those who insist on filling up their screens.
UM...what crap is this? Engadget is always blatantly anti-Apple its ridiculous. And it gets sickening how much they boys love Microsoft, even if they make crappy products. If any screen is opitmized for 16:9 you know how crap 4:3 TV will look? I don't see how this is even Apple's problem...its a pretty standard "widescreen" display ratio and they didn't try to hide it during the presentation. And like someone before already said...at least they added a zoom function for those who insist on filling up their screens.
Good call, Engadget.
How can you possibly put a positive spin on no 3G? I have a motorola Q with EVDO and I would NEVER downgrade to another smartphone without highspeed net. And no, WLAN doesn't count. I don't use my phone at home to surf the web. EVDO is great for the times you are away from home.
This report is retarded..... IN THE KEYNOTE STEVE SHOWED THIS.
Why is this news....why is this news 2 weeks later.
Why is this new or news? Since Jobs himself demonstrated it at the Keynote, it's hard to make out that this is some kind of shortcoming or sneaky trick on Apple's part.
Please can we lay off the iPhone until at least April..?
I really hope Apple have some kind of big announcement next month to divert all the blog space from the iPhone.
That's what I'm talking about. Why is this news now, when it was demonstrated last week as part of the iPhone presentation? Engadget is losing my respect as a tech news source and is just trying to stir up a controversy to boost buzz. You call this journalism??? I call it a sacrificing your true opinion of a product to generate more buzz. You don't have integrity. This week you say it's cool and next week you say it's crap and the next week you'll say it's cool. You guys at Engadget have turned into buzz whores and can't be relied on anymore for speaking your true opinion. I think I'll look for a better tech blog that I can trust.
I'm just so glad I won't have to see the fanboys with yet another Apple money suck around here, Vermont does not and likely will not have Cingular until 2009. So, if you are a Vermont AppleFanfoy, no iPhone for you.
What's the big deal? PDAs have been 1.5:1 for years.
I wish Apple would release a newer Video iPod without a phone. The iPhone will sell but not as many as most think.
I don't need another phone and I sure as hell don't want to bundle my phone with my iPod. I have a BB 8700c that my employer pays for with unlimited data--so I wonder if Mr. Jobs plans on releasing a non-phone iPhone-ish product?
Does anybody know if there is a widescreen "video iPod only" planned? I dont care about the phone/internet functionality and I was watining for the next gen iPod :(
APPLE BASHING ALERT
Call the police
Call the SWAT team
These blasphemous goons must be put away for LIFE!!!!!!
The point which is stated in this article is that the iPhone is NOT Widescreen. Just because the screen of any phone or media player is "wide" doesn't mean you can advertise it to "widescreen". Widescreen = 16:9.
So... According to your logiv, all those millions of 16:10 LCD notebooks and monitors out there are no longer "widescreen"?
I want to echo what other have said about your iPhone's "widescreen" bashing. Is it wider than 4:3? Yes. And noticibly so. Gee, guess that means it's a WIDESCREEN. It may not be 16:9, but it's damn close, and to the best of my knowledge, the iPhone has never claimed to have a specific screen ratio.
"Pirates" aspect ratio is among the WIDEST of movie film standards of formatting at 2.35:1 and no one on the planet supports that ratio natively, producing edge-to-edge, undistorted viewing on a fixed screen's full display area. You WILL get black bars top and bottom, even with the most expensive HDTV in the world. About the only way you can successfully accommodate is with custom modifications or a front projection system splashed onto a wall.
I guess this makes good blogging fodder for Engadget though.
Engadget fails to do it's research again.. How pathetic! Clearly this movie has an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Check its stats on Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pirates-Caribbean-Curse-Black-Pearl/dp/B00008KDHH
Nobody sells a portable device with such a screen aspect. And what a waste of space it would be anyways to have such a narrow verticle field of view. Thomas Ricker has iPhone envy is about what this translates to.
Wooooooow, Steve Job's nerd army is out in force...
@Nick
"1. ...I dont see why they would charge more for phone and internet service for iPhones than the Blackjack..."
If they planned to charge the same why didn't they just come out and say so? According to them the rate plans are to be announced at a later date. The URL at your request...
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/10/cingular-kicking-rear-and-taking-names-for-iphone/
which to me says they'll be a little different/higher! Offering the current data plan rates for the iphone would be a selling point, the fact that no pricing has been announced speaks volumes.
"2. Last time i checked Cingular only does 2 year contracts. New Hi-Tech phones never come out as pay as you go...and very few carriers offer 1 year contracts (another reason i like Tmobile)."
As a proud owner of a Cingular ONE YEAR CONTRACT you're wrong. All carriers I have ever dealt with have one year contracts (cingular, Verizon, Alltel) They are located in the fine print or not advertised at all. You have to ask for a one year deal, the caveat is you pay $50-$100 more for yor phone.
"3. Umm from what im informed it is the Law that the phone be able to be unlocked, i assume to prevent a monopoly."
The digital rights copyright law you speak of has many, many loopholes that carriers have already begun to get around i.e. the link below.
See "Availability" and "Critical Must Know"
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/10/cingular-kicking-rear-and-taking-names-for-iphone/
did you read the part about only able to work on the cingular network...which means yeah you can unlock it but it'll be USELESS! I have a joke for you, "What is an unlocked phone that can only be used by one carrier called?"...LOCKED!!
Got anymore smart a@@ responses?
Agreed. Almost no wide-screen TV or Gadget is actually movie-widescreen. LCD's and Plasma's can do 16:9, but movies are shot in 2.35:1, so 99% of TV's will show a letterbox on top and bottom unless you crop the sides.
I'm sorry but I don't agree. Widescreen is a specific ratio, a screen not respecting this ratio must not be called widescreen, and i don't see why any portable or mobile based media player cannot respect this ratio, we are not talking about the screen resolution but about the ratio. To have full screen on the iPhone playing a 16:9 or 4:3 movie, you'll have to convert the movie before.
Sorry, but I don't understand why widescreen is supposed to be a specific aspect ratio. Maybe people assume it is, but it isn't true, many of the same people complain that their Cinemascope-filmed movies don't "fit" their widescreen HDTV. Go check out some movie dimensions, the two major movie formats are around 2.35:1 and 1.85:1, and there are several others, I think Cinemascope can be as much as 2.5:1, but 2.35:1 is generally the one that's most accepted.
HDTVs are often 1.77:1. Most "widescreen" computer monitors are 1.6:1, and many portable devices are 1.5:1. If you want to say that widescreen is a specific aspect ratio, then please tell me which one is "truly" widescreen. I really don't think using the common LCD 1.5:1 panels disqualifies it from being widescreen, and I think Palm and other PDA makers have promoted them as such. I don't know of any movie that was made to these "device widescreen" aspect ratios before the devices of that size existed.
I have to say, people are idiots when it comes to this 'widescreen' stuff. Even on a 16:9 screen you would have black bars with most movies. Get over the 16:9 fetish. These are PORTABLE devices, not GD movie theaters. If Apple had put a 16:9 screen in, either the screen would be overall smaller or the device would be taller, and we'd still see Wil O'Neal retards complaining about it.
The whole tone of this story is rubbish and I'd call out engadget (who usually do a very fine job) as this is a poor show and the shots are completly misleading. They're not only different aspect ratios but different shots as well. If you're going to do a story like this take some time and show us how much we'll be missing on the iphone's screen compared with a 16:9 widescreen by means of an overlaid rectangle with a 16:9 ratio. Ten minutes in photoshop could have done that.
Yeah right !! Who cares if the actors are all fat or all skiny ?? Who cares if you get black bars on top and on bottom of the screen ?? And also, who cares if you get the left side and right side cropted ?? Well, I would say me. That's why I usually convert my movies before putting them on my Qtek for viewing when they are not in the right format. And also, when I view 16:9 movies on my widescreen TV, I don't have these ratio problems. Again, nobody's perfect, but don't claim what no portable device claimed until now.
Why would you want to watch a movie on such a small screen??
"Why would you want to watch a movie on such a small screen?"
Hundreds of thousands of people communte on public transportation every day, millions will fly. On my last trip I saw 4 movies on my son's PSP. It's better than reading the airline magazine. Believe me many people will watch the iphone.
Go watch the keynote again. Yes, Steve said it was a "widescreen" iPod. He didn't say it was 16:9. during the keynote where he showed Pirates, he switched it from its native mode to letterboxed mode.
Thanks a lot Sherlock for that un-noticable fact. I suspected it would not be just like watching a movie in the theater for which I paid 10 bucks, but I just couldn't prove it. NOW... the world will know.
This story is stupid. We don't need Engadget to tell us what's a wide screen. The iPhone screen is much wider than on other portable players, and it is widescreen. If you don't think this is wide enough for you to play those 2.35:1 movies, then you have no other choice. My 32" LCD TV shows most of the movies with black bars because they are just too wide.
I hope Engadget will stop making stupid comments about iPhone just to drive traffic.
I don't see why this is news. This was shown in the keynote, which was the most easily accessible Macworld keynote ever. Like always, it was available on the Apple website, as well as the first time (I think) as a video podcast which can be downloaded for free from the iTS. On the Apple website, there is also a stream for just the introduction (which is basically the whole keynote, anyway). Any one who is this interested in the iPhone should have at least watched the introduction of it.
Apple website (quicktime stream):
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/
iTS (video podcast):
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=212293773
C'mon. How come people are just figuring this out. I saw this in the keynote when Jobs was showing off Pirates, then he zoomed out and I gasped. Its not the end of the world though. Did everyone in the room blackout during the video playback part of the iphone demo? This isn't actually new and Cnet already has the on their website.
Can't understand the bashing of the article. The widescreen aspect-ratio is 16:9 or wider for movies and gadgets (like a tv or PMP) and 16:10 for computer monitors. The iPhones aspect ratio is 15:10. So - wider then 4:3 - but not a widescreen as the word is commonly used.
So Apple stretched the truth - but who's surprised? Apple stretch the truth, that's what they are good at. They lost me when they started talking about "the worlds most advanced smartphone" which IMHO is a pure lie.
What is wide?
you guys are effin' ridiculous.
nobody would want a screen on a phone at 16:9!
Yeye, whine down on the iPhone.......
You said something bad about Apple ?
Aren't you afraid of getting SUED by Apple ?
Some Bloggers got really big trouble in the last days. Screw Apple.
I don't think I'd call it a proprietary aspect ratio. 1.5:1 is actually pretty common for PDAs. I think my Tapwave from two or three years ago uses the same resolution and screen size. The same is probably true of the Palm T|X. It's probably using another off-the-shelf panel like most other portable device makers do.
4:3 is standard but appears squarish to must of us but it is inherently widescreen. We just don't think of 4:3 as widescreen because we were trained by tube televisions with curves to think 4:3 is square when it is not. However even this is apparent when you look at old arcade machines like pac-man where the tube is turned to appear taller. The tubes in those arccade machines are not taller, they are 4:3 turned sideways! (I guess that would make it 3:4?) Remember these are the same screens at the same aspect ratio we had been looking at for most of our lives.
With that said I agree with the industry at large that any screen significantly wider than it is tall to be widescreen. This would include all the Gamboy Advances, iPod video's, PSP's and Zune's of the world. The iPhone is no different.
Since I've converted most of my media to 480x272 (same size and "16x9" ratio as the PSP; Archos 404, 504 and 604; etc.) and the iPhone is 480x320, I don't see how this creates any sort of an issue other than I'll have additional space at the top and/or bottom of the screen. So, what's all the fuss about?
Bwahahahah.....Steve Jobs just took a shit on y'all apple fan boys....AND YOU LOVE IT!
Why does everyone complain about the iPhone news? Just skip over the news you dont want to read. Get Firefox and put the RSS feed in you bookmarks toolbar, then only click on the articles that are of interest to you.
Dude, you're full of shit.
There's no such thing as universal widescreen standard.
My monitor is 1.6:1. My digital camera is 3:2. Some movies are 1.85:1. Others are 2.35:1. etc.
For any ratio, there will be some movie that won't play right.
Anything that's more than 4:3 _is_ widescreen.
that movie is in theatrical widescreen, which is wider than 16:9....geez
thuzzles and several others are right.
that movie is Cinemascope 2.35:1 aspect. The vast majority of movies are 1.85:1. That is a lot closer to the 1.78:1 aspect ratio of widescreen (16:9) TV's. So even on a HD mastering of a 1.85:1 movie you're losing a bit off the sides as they only seem to
be "letterboxing" Cinemascope" films.
It is a tad baffling that they chose this 1.5:1 ratio for the iPhone screen, but with a 1.85:1 movie
it won't be as noticeable.
Did you really expect the iPhone screen to have a Cinemascope aspect ratio screen? I'm pretty sure no such
monitor even exists!
Using that graphic is just troll baiting.
Who cares?
Everyone knows this phone is gonna gonna bomb.
on a side note: The Zune 2 is reportedly going to be amazing...I'm still in the market for a good mp3 player...so I'm waiting for the Zune 2.
Engadget -- not so aware of what is widescreen.
Assuming you have a plasma or LCD widescreen HD TV, do you see black bars when you watch Pirates of the Caribbean (or any other big budget Hollywood movie)?
Yes? But your HD screen is widescreen isn't it? Maybe it shouldn't be. So, should we redefine widescreen as having an aspect ratio of 2.35:1?
While most newer TVs are usually 16:9 (1.78:1), computer displays vary greatly. Many widescreen laptops are 1.5 to 1.6.
Conventionally, the term "widescreen" on a laptop refers to an aspect ratio wider than 4:3 (1.33:1).
The iPhone, being more a computer than a plasma, fits the latter definition. I don't see why this is a story.
Engadget -- not so aware of what is widescreen.
Assuming you have a plasma or LCD widescreen HD TV, do you see black bars when you watch Pirates of the Caribbean (or any other big budget Hollywood movie)?
Yes? But your HD screen is widescreen isn't it? Maybe it shouldn't be. So, should we redefine widescreen as having an aspect ratio of 2.35:1?
While most newer TVs are usually 16:9 (1.78:1), computer displays vary greatly. Many widescreen laptops are 1.5 to 1.6.
Conventionally, the term "widescreen" on a laptop refers to an aspect ratio wider than 4:3 (1.33:1).
The iPhone, being more a computer than a plasma, fits the latter definition. I don't see why this is a story.
Engadget writers need to go to film school, or get a clue about lenses.
1.85:1 - shot on standard 16 - 35mm film and cropped
2.5:1 - animorphic, image is "squished" to a square via a lens onto 35 mm film. When you see lens flairs (helicopter lights are ideal) they're oblong or oval - not true circles - because of the "compression" to a square 35mm film then expanding out via another lens for projection.
And yeah 16:9 DOES NOT EQUAL Animorphic.
For a bunch of geeks you all seem to be lacking simple spatial-observation powers.
The iPhone is a widescreen device. Pirates was shot in Cinema Wide which is wider than 16:9 so yes it is a widescreen display
I heard Zune completed bombed, captured like what, 2% market share? iPod has over 70% market share. Good luck with Zune 2, lol.
Michael
It's called Cinemascope. The extra wide screen format the studios concocted to battle the advent of television along with VistaVision.
Widescreen does NOT equal 16:9. Widescreen is a term used for displays that are wider then 4:3.
some laptop monitors are advertised as widescreen but they're not 16:9.
portable dvd players have non 16:9 'widescreen' monitors.
iPhone IS widescreen because it is wider then 4:3.
And a lot of movies these days aren't 16:9 either, even the example of 'pirates' is NOT 16:9, it's even wider.
1. If "locked" phones are illegal, as I read earlier, how come companies such as "tracfone" can release prepaid phones, and the like, that most certainly can't be re-initiated into a real network. Admittedly there might be different rules for pre-paid services... but there's no blanket law against all phone locking.
2. I don't have much to say about it except I tend to agree more with those who maintain that "widescreen" doesn't imply a specific number-by-number ratio... it just means it beats a standard screen by some measure, whatever that happens to be.
Besides, you get used to the letterboxing or the cropping or whatever once you've watched for 5 minutes anyway, you never think about it again once the initial aggravation is over.
Maybe they did goof up making their screen. But it's still one heck of a phone considering all the software functions it's capable of... it doesn't deserve extra criticism just b/c it's an Apple. I mean, other companies have made bad calls before.
that screen looks wider than MY cellphone screen. and my ipods screen.
hell i had a widescreen projection tv that still played widescreen movies with a letterbox back in two oh oh two.
so what the hell are you talking about, sir?