ScreenSize
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WSJ: Apple testing larger iPhone, iPad screens with suppliers
Rumors that Apple is looking to super-size its upcoming iPhone and iPad lineups are gathering steam, thanks to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal. It cited Apple's suppliers in Asia, who said that Cupertino is testing a 12.9-inch iPad design and prototype iPhone screens larger than the current four inches. While Apple wouldn't comment, of course, that jibes with an earlier Reuters report, which claimed it was considering 4.7- and 5.7-inch iPhone screens. If accurate (and that's always a big if with such rumors), the report doesn't necessarily mean that products with larger displays will ever come to market -- Apple routinely changes specs and tests components during the development cycle. Still, it would be further evidence that the company's willing to bend on its one-size-fits-all screen size policy, which is something that the large-handed (or weak-eyed) among us might appreciate.
Reuters: Apple considering 4.7-inch and 5.7-inch iPhones, $99 model
Apple could be looking to buttress its iPhone range considerably over the next year by adding larger 4.7-inch and 5.7-inch models and a cheaper, $99 handset with a wider range of colors, according to sources from Reuters. The media outlet added that the moves are still under discussion, but represent an attempt to gain back share from arch-competitor Samsung, which has flooded the market with so-called phablets like the Galaxy Note II along with a wide range of inexpensive handsets -- neither of which Apple currently makes. That jibes with earlier rumors of a budget, plastic-bodied iPhone, and CEO Tim Cook didn't exactly deny it when asked if the company was interested in large-screen phones. Still, the manufacturing sources said it's unclear whether the company will actually proceed with any of those plans -- meaning the information should be taken with a very large dose of salt. Update: We reached out to Reuters for a little more clarification on the $99 price for the lower-end device. While they're unsure, they believe that to be a subsidized price.
Why a 7.85" iPad mini makes sense
The iPad mini rumors have been going on a good long time. Here at TUAW, we've long since moved past "will they or won't they." I want to address the "most likely iPad mini" scenario that many pundits have agreed upon. A 1,024 x 768, 7"-ish unit offers a budget, non-Retina scenario that allows minis to run existing iPad software without modification. At seven inches, an iPad mini is workable, as it just (barely) allows the device to retain its base interactive integrity. As Rich Gaywood has long since pointed out, a 7.85" device offers a much better compromise than a 7-inch model, but more about that in a bit. The Retina iPhone was first introduced with the iPhone 4. Its 960x640 display enhanced the screen scale, offering four pixels where each previous generation had one. The point density, however, did not change. "The term 'points' has its origin in the print industry," writes Apple, "which defines 72 points as to equal one inch in physical space. When used in reference to high resolution in OS X, points in user space do not have any relation to measurements in the physical world." Points are the virtual representation of screen geometry, which developers use to address graphic space on the device. With Retina, the iPhone pixel density moved from 163 ppi to 326 ppi, but the point density continued to use the same addresses of 480 x 320 on a 3.5-inch screen. Thus, the physical space on-screen remained static to developers. The base 44 x 44 point hitspot is about a quarter inch (0.27 inches) by a quarter inch on that 3.5-inch (diagonal) screen. This size is the basis for the recommended human touch hit region in Apple's Human Interface Guidelines. It was unaffected by the new Retina technology. And, with the bump to the iPhone 5, the physical geometry remained the same as the vertical point space expanded to match the physical extension of pixels. This is similar to the iPad and iPad Retina. The iPad's screen density is slightly different (264 pixels per inch for iPad Retina vs 326 pixels per inch for iPhone Retina) but the actual size of 44 pixels is approximately the same physically, about a third of an inch (0.33 inches) for the iPad. Now, consider taking the iPad, with its 9.7-inch screen and shrinking it down to seven inches. That's 72 percent of the original size. The 44-point touch area goes down from about a third of an inch to juuuust under a quarter inch, about 0.24 inches. That's close to the iPhone hit region, but not quite there. Everything else squeezes down ever so slightly -- fonts and graphics appear smaller, and everyone over the age of 45 moves the unit a bit farther away. Still, any app that better fosters viewing (I'm thinking of apps like PuzzleCraft that I find impossible to read on the iPhone screen) should improve moving from iPhone to iPad mini, even at a guess of about 183 ppi. Basically, from a developer point of view, a 7-inch iPad mini would just barely work physically -- possibly allowing developers to ship to the new unit without any coding or resource changes. If the size were to drop below that though, Apple's Human Interface Guidelines -- and the apps to support that -- would have to change to accommodate. As far as physical dimensions go, seven inches is the minimum size Apple could ship for a 1,024 x 768 display while retaining HIG integrity. A 7.5-inch screen would come closer to matching iPhone physicality, and eight inches would about equal it. In fact, 7.85 inches would be perfect. That's because 7.85 inches represents the same PPI as non-Retina iPhones (163 ppi). As Rich Gaywood points out, the screen could be cut from the same master sheet of glass on the same manufacturing process, just twice as big in each dimension. At 7.85 inches, the 44-point touch target is the exact same size on the iPad mini as on the iPhones, the screen graphics drawn to the same physical scale, and so forth. In fact, that's exactly what today's rumors seem to suggest will happen. For further reading, both iMore and MacStories offer excellent write-ups from earlier this year.
Some developers undeterred by a larger iPhone screen
Recent rumors suggest the next iPhone will rock a bigger screen, moving from its current 3.5-inches up to 4-inches. Though users may be clamoring for a larger display, this new hardware could cause problems for developers who will have to design for several screen sizes. GigaOM talked to several iOS developers about the potential for fragmentation and discovered most are cautiously optimistic about this change. The overall consensus is that Apple will provide tools to make the transition from a smaller to a larger display as easy as possible for developers. Many point to the original iPad and the retina iPad as examples of how Apple has handled this transition in this past. If you're interested in the developer's individual responses, you can read them on GigaOM's website.
WSJ: Apple moving towards larger iPhone screens
The idea of a smaller iPad has been rattling around the tech rumor mill for many a month now, but the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen? That's sacred surely? Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, apparently not. It's reporting that those ever-famous "people familiar with the situation" have told it that Apple has ordered screens that are larger that the ones used in the flagship phone so far. There's no specifics on size, with the sources only going as far to say they are "at least" four inches. Apple, however, has declined to comment -- no surprises there -- but perhaps now is the time to start the office pool. Just hope you don't land on the "4-inch iPad" square.
Visualized: HP's all-in-one PCs over the years, one from 1983
HP's TouchSmart sub-brand and its other AIOs should be no stranger to many PC advocates, but in case you've never come across one before, the company's laid all of them out on one side of its Global Influencer Summit in Shanghai. Models range from the TouchSmart IQ770 launched back in 2007, all the way to the recently shipped Z1 workstation and even the just-announced t410 Smart Zero Client; but the real gem of the booth is that little beige HP 150 right in the middle -- it's one of the first-ever touchscreen PCs, dating back to 1983, powered by an 8MHz Intel 8088 chip, ran MS-DOS and cost a mere $3,995. Whilst on the topic, HP's Vice President of Industrial Design Stacy Wolff shared some interesting stats: his team found that much like laptops, there are very different screen size preferences across different regions, with the US showing strong interest in 20-inch and 23-inch HP AIOs, whereas China much prefers 20-inch over 21.5-inch and 23-inch. With the big jump in AIO market penetration in each region between 2008 to 2012 (almost doubled in Japan and the US; and an even bigger leap for other markets), HP predicts that these machines will continue to steadily increase market penetration across more price points -- this was illustrated with what it conveniently calls the "AIO wedge" on a chart. Feel free to take a gander at our gallery for more tidbits.
HP's most popular laptop screen sizes: 15-inch in the US, 14-inch in China
Here's another interesting tidbit from today's HP event in Shanghai: according to Kevin Frost, Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Notebooks Business Unit, 15-inch is currently the most popular laptop screen size in the US, while the folks in China prefer 14-inch offerings. Oddly enough, Kevin wasn't keen on explaining this phenomenon, but he added that 17-inch laptops also do well in Europe and the US, but not in China.
How apps might work on an iPhone with a bigger screen
The Verge has an interesting article on the iPhone and how Apple could boost the screen size from 3.5-inches to a luxurious 4.0-inches without disrupting apps in the iOS App Store. The Verge argues that all it would take to design an iOS-compatible, 4-inch retina display is to change the aspect ratio of the iPhone display from its current 3:2 to a larger 9:5. This would result in a screen that was 640 x 1152 and, as they show in screenshots, would scale current iOS apps nicely. Judging by the results from our recent "You're The Pundit" post about display sizes, a majority of our readers (44.8 percent) would appreciate a bump in display size, while a respectable 36.2 percent would like the iPhone to stay the same.
Shocker: consumers are buying larger screen HDTVs
We've heard some pretty outlandish claims about the recommended screen size for the "average" American den, but a new writeup over at Channel4 is suggesting that even Europeans are gravitating towards larger sets. Reportedly, Sharp is estimating that "the average size of TVs bought across Europe will increase to 60-inches by 2015," and moreover, retailer Comet has stated that the "average size of its TV screens has increased to 30-inches from 25-inches two years ago." Of course, it's not like this is all that surprising -- after all, the general rule of thumb (for better or worse) in TV buying is that bigger is always better. Couple that with the tanking prices across the HDTV board and you've got a recipe for big-screen upgrade fever. Notably, Comet also proclaimed that it had seen a 7,000-percent (yes, that's correct) uptick in sales of 50-inch sets over the past two years, and needless to say, that category has become the outfit's fastest growing. Hey, who needs 32-inches when that 80-incher is within budget?
