Paul Miller, Pixel Density Enthusiast
By Nilay Patel 
posted June 11th 2010 12:49PM
posted June 11th 2010 12:49PM
Big thanks to everyone at the TWiT network for handling the video on Engadget Podcast #200, and special thanks to Robert (@ranhalt) for sending in the screencap!
Get out of the closet!
@dajimmers seriously, he must pay a fortune to live in that shoe box.
@dajimmers
"I am not Harry Potter." hahaha
@dajimmers
"Switch to the other box!"
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j180/cyb3rglitch/the_other_box.png
:P
You aren't a pixel density enthusiast unless you had a Dell Axim X50v pocket PC on-order as soon as you read "VGA" and realized it wasn't just a mis-typing of "QVGA."
@Leindurstit Then I guess I qualify! The only thing I liked that thing for is enjoying the Pixel Density (watching 640x480 divx movies)
@Leindurstit I didn't have one, but I drooled over it.
I make up for it, though, today. My main computer is a ThinkPad T60p with a 2048x1536 15.0" display swapped in (177 PPI,) I own an IBM T221 (3840x2400, 22.2", 204 PPI,) and I have an HTC Touch Pro (640x480, 2.8", 282 PPI.)
It was funny.....amazing how fast the person was generating the caption. Classic
Will the video of the podcast be posted?
Did TWIT actually write this!? Hehehe
@hammydbest They did, within seconds of Josh mentioning it. They were really on the ball, and it was awesome. A new favorite has joined engadget in my bookmarks.
@dajimmers yh... i watched some of it... but it was really late here in the uk so... zzz.... :(
I'm with you, Paul! It's all about the motherfrakin' pixels!
Paul's also "the guy who ate a meat stylus in front of a live audience." Respect.
@Richard Lai
Meat stylus 싫어. Glad they finally have a purpose though. I wanted to send a pic I caught when they were stacking them high at E-Mart a week after you guys broke the story, then I realized I didn't have a cable for my dumbphone and my iPhone's (1G) touchscreen is broken where the camera button is. :(
@Richard Lai Oh, also, IIRC the iPhone is the latest phone to advertise with the meat stylus in a commercial...if it wasn't the iPhone it might've been the Galaxy A, but I think it was indeed the iPhone.
@Richard Lai LOL...I'd give you +1 in the comment ratings if I could
Lol ya definitely one of my favorite moments of the podcast for sure
The Jersey Shore has GTL (Gym, Tan, Laundry), but we have PDE (Pixel Density Enthusiast)...lol. Thanks guys for the great work and laughs you bring us.
PDE aside... call me crazy but i like the fact that Apple went quad times on the pixels and kept the screen size the same. everyone raves about the EVO screen, which is fantastic. but in terms of staying uniform, and keeping it easy on the developers for scaling sake. i think that goes further than one might give credit for. when i saw the white version in somebody's hand (josh?) it looked so small and light-weight, which is exactly what i want on the go. i also like the size of the Droid/NexusOne/Incredible... but going beyond that i draw the line. and finally consider another point made in the podcast. iOS4 may not be ground-breaking... but it is a perfect step forward bringing solid features, and improving over the last offering. you aren't going to get radical leaps as time moves forward, but we all expect and get 'refinement'. bug squashes, speed gains, usability improvements, etc. and i look forward to some work in the 'notifications' arena now that Apple have re-secured employment of that guru from Palm. can't wait to get my grubby hands on one of these things.
@Eugene Rushmore they couldn't do anything else! they wanted a higher resolution but they couldn't choose any other thing than 960*640 because the iOS is not scalable,and they couldn't choose any bigger screen because then current apps would have a very low dpi(lower than current 160) so they get forced to do this ridiculous act,waste resource(battery,cpu,gpu) and hurt developers
@Eugene Rushmore
you hit the nail on the head angry jesus, retina display is nothing more than a by-product of Apple's linearity, Developers won't even have to lift a finger when iPhone4 is released, they of course have the option to remake their apps with higher resolution images, but old apps on the new phone will work, right out of the door, and beautifully at that...
@arash hurt developers? you weigh your options on any given platform when creating an app, then decide whether to invest your time or not. fortunately for them, if you want a 'larger' playground you can move to the iPad. and developing for both of these devices will be worth your investment in terms of potential $ return. i like a good argument, but are you saying Apple wanted a larger screen? or a higher resolution? they quadruple the res, and you say they wanted even more? at some point you have to create a product and draw the spec-lines in the sand and go with it... right?
@arash
not everyone wants a giant tablet/phone mashup so there really is no need to bump up the screen size. Like you said however changing the res extra-linearly would've messed things up, im pretty sure the ipad shows the os IS scalable.
@Eugene Rushmore look i repeat the story, the 320*480 was way behind competitors,ok? so they wanted a higher res than 320*480. now you say ok there's a high res standard at 800*480. but they couldn't make it 800*480 because iOS does not support app up scaling. so they get forced to double the resolution. what does it mean? that means current apps will get a 2X zoom,will fit well in the same 3:2 aspect ratio with 160dpi and new apps would get designed for 960*640 in 326dpi. ok so now that we have the new iphone in 960*640 lets make screen bigger to use that high res,but they couldn't,why? because then old apps will get lower dpi,the old app are running in 480*320 and in the same 3.5 inch they will have the good old 160 dpi but if you make screen bigger new apps will benefit from more working space but the old ones will get a lower dpi in for example 4" and will look stupid. me as a photographer know what dpi is good for eye. i never print more than 200dpi for exhibitions why? because there's no difference between my 200 dpi prints and my wealthy friend's heidelberg printed 3500 dpi images for human eye. look at this : http://www.have-camera-will-travel.com/field_reports/the_300_dpi_print_myth.html
and why does it hurt developers? because they should design a higher res game that doesn't use any more space because its in the old 3.5 inch. if you are not convinced just say.
@tobsmonster2 if you have windows or mac osx in a 800*600 monitor, apps will run well in it,now if you have the same os and the same apps in a 1920*1200 display the same apps will run well again,thats an os with app scaling support.
This is amazing.
That was fun :)
Really liked the hookup with the TWiT network for the podcast. Great job all.
Best podcast ever.
why was Paul in a closet the whole podcast? It was quite hilarious when josh couldn't spell PDE. Can we have more video podcasts?
Will the video be available to stream or download?
Plaid Shirt Enthusiast or I'm a Lumberjack and I'm ok......
I must be tired. I swear when I first read the headline, I saw "pixie dust enthusiast"
The guys at Twit worked really fast when Josh gave the cue. It was really spontaneous.
How did I miss this?! thanks for the plug, glad to be of help.