I find it somewhat amusing that Macs were singled out as the first and foremost users of so called ‘glossy screens’, in my experience with a large range of laptops, my Macbook has a far less glossy or reflective screen than my neighbors Acer or my best friends Pioneer…in fact, I have never once changed my ‘posture’ as a result of the gloss on any laptops screen…. I have to wonder where QUT gets off labeling a brand of computer unsafe, whilst several hundred other brands use far more obtrusive glossy layers than any Macbook.

Thats pretty lame. I can honestly say that when I use my glossy-screened MacBook I have no different posture than when I use any matte screened computer. I understand some people don’t, but i love glossy screens.

As somebody who was a student at QUT for about 5.5 years (I’ve since left), I’d recommend that everyone disregard this information or at the very least, take it with a truckload of salt.

QUT as an organization are obsessed with covering their own a**es and that’s all they’re doing here. They’re taking this position only so that they can have a ‘told-you-so’ moment of gloating in the future and of course if nothing happens, this notice will fade into history and nobody will remember it.

Also, as Bob Williams mentioned, they are not a very ‘Mac friendly’ university.

Unfortunately, QUT have got it ALL wrong. I am a physiotherapist and a qualified ergonomist and have carried out many ergonomic assessments on office workers who use computers, predominantly PC’s. I have also carried out ergonomic assessments on Mac users and have found NO difference in seating postures or safety concerns when it comes to using a higher quality/higher resolution screen such as the ones Apple provides. Most injuries that this article alludes to are caused by incorrect desk and chair height, the monitor itself (regardless of brand) being too low or placed too high and therefore causing neck and shoulder strain and a general lack of knowledge on desk ergonomics on behalf of the company or institution. It is therefore an unfair accusation to blame such injuries on a brand of monitor. It is more likely that the I.T department are simply unwilling to support and utilise another operating system and want to place blame on a health and safety issue. Clearly, they didn’t realise that their argument is based on gross inaccuracies which and can also be easily disproved with some real medical and physiological FACTS! If such an ergonomic problem does exist, it can easily be overcome by hiring trained ergonomists to set up workstations properly and educating users on desk ergonomics. Afterall, they are a university, education is their thing, right?!

I have to agree with the fact that this QUT warning is absurd. The QUT warning appears to be lacking when the totality of the present PC & Mac display market is taken into consideration. Perhaps QUT should reissue their warning with a more generic spin that addresses all high gloss displays. I would further request that the scientific evidence to support such a claim be made public. Obviously, this warning is based on more than mere corporate opinion, right? So, the supporting evidence should be available on the web – viewable through your high gloss display. Cheers.