Apple may have discontinued its aging Thunderbolt Display, but it hasn’t given up on making external monitors altogether. Sources say the company is still hard at work on a new model that will have its own GPU built-in.
Apple’s new Thunderbolt Display will ship with a built-in GPU that will provide entry-level and older Macs with enough power to drive its super sharp 5K resolution, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans.
The iPhone 7 may be boasting a few more internal modifications than we had thought, but think again if you’re expecting Apple to offer a full-on redesign of the design and form factor it has been using since 2014’s iPhone 6.
That’s according to a new photo posted online, reportedly showing a very familiar glass screen protector planned for the next-gen handset, looking very much like the one employed by the iPhone 6 and 6s.
We’re yet to see the true potential of the iPad Pro’s Smart Connector. Apple has already given us a Smart Keyboard, but it has much more ambitious plans for next-generation covers that add sketchpads for drawing, secondary displays, solar panels, and more.
Foxconn is cementing its importance to Apple by finalizing a deal to acquire a majority interest in struggling iPhone display maker Sharp for a reported 389 billion yen — or $3.5 billion.
The multi-billion dollar bailout of Sharp was originally reported as being completed back in February, only to be placed on hold after previously undisclosed liabilities threatened the deal.
Foxconn is looking to take over more of the iPhone manufacturing process as it has offered ¥625 billion ($5.3 billion) to acquire Japanese manufacturer Sharp, which currently manufactures displays for Apple devices.
Apple is pushing into new territory with the Apple Watch, by making it the first device to come from Cupertino that uses an OLED display. One of the reasons Apple’s never brought OLED displays to the iPhone is they’re more challenging to engineer than long-established LCDs.
Apple hasn’t given us too many details about the Apple Watch’s display yet, other than telling us it’s a ‘Flexible Retina Display’ but the team over at DisplayMate have put the new display to the test, and came away with a shocking discovery: Apple Watch Sport has a better display than the Apple Watch Edition.
The display rating experts at DisplayMate got intimately acquainted with Apple’s bigger than big display over the weekend, and after thorough testing, the LCD experts pronounced Apple’s 5.5-inch display the best performing LCD display they’ve ever tested on a smartphone.
The iPhone 6 did pretty well too in their iPhone 6 Display Technology Shootout report released this morning.
Here’s the rave review they gave the iPhone 6 Plus display:
Two years ago, in my article Why Retina Isn’t Enough, we argued that Apple wouldn’t call an iMac Retina-worthy until it boasted a display capable of at least a 5120 x 2880 resolution.
How time flies. Now, Dell has just announced the first 5120 x 2880 ‘5K’ monitor. And that means similar panels could be coming soon to a 27-inch Retina iMac near you.
With the iPhone 6 set to come in two separate display sizes — a 4.7-inch model, and a 5.5-model — Apple needs to increase the iPhone’s resolution to keep up. But what will the new resolutions be? Up until now, Apple has stuck with 326 pixels-per-inch for all Retina iPhones, but will larger iPhones require higher pixel densities.
Pulling out a spreadsheet, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber worked out the math for what he thinks the resolutions of the iPhone 6 will be. Using the Pythagorean Theorem, Gruber says that he thinks the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 will keep the current iPhone’s 326 pixels-per-inch, but the 5.5-inch model will have an astonishing 461 pixels-per-inch, making it practically Super Retina.
Thanks to abundant casing leaks, we all think we know what the iPhone 6 will look like when it’s released this summer: a 4.7-inch slab of aluminum with stripes on the back denoting where the antenna goes. But do we really? A new report out of Asia says the iPhone 6 could look very different than the leaks we’ve seen so far.
In the past, when Apple has grown the screen of an iOS device — for example, with the transition from the iPhone 4s to the iPhone 5 — Apple has taken pains to keep the pixel density the same. The Retina Display on the iPhone 5 is 326 pixels per inch, just like the iPhone 4s. This makes it easier for developers and helps prevent the widespread fragmentation seen in the Android operating system.
With many rumors pegging the forthcoming iPhone 6 as having a much bigger 4.7-inch display, a practical issue presents itself: what would that mean for resolution and pixel-density? If Apple increases the display size, will they increase the resolution to compete with the likes of HTC and Samsung’s 1080p Android smartphones? And if so, what does that mean for app developers?
Apple is considering a buyout of a division of Renesas Electronics that specializes in display chips for smartphones. The buyout would give Apple engineering expertise to help improve the iPhone’s display “sharpness and battery life,” according to Japanese business site Nikkei.
Apple already orders all of its liquid crystal display chips from Renesas, and the Japanese company is responsible for powering about a third of the world’s small to midsize LCDs. Instead of using the chip division of Renesas like an outside contractor, Apple wants to bring it in-house.
We’ve seen concepts of the iPhone Air before, but I can’t think of one I like more — or that I think looks more plausible — than Joseph Farahi’s 5.1-inch iPhone 6 concept. This actually looks like a device Jony Ive could design.
Foxconn Electronics is to begin producing high-resolution OLED smartphone displays starting in 2015, according supply chain sources in Taiwan. The company has reportedly reached a deal with Taiwanese panel maker Innolux, which will undertake the production of the 4- and 5-inch screens.
The Oculus Rift has quickly grabbed the hearts of gamers with it’s amazing 3D tech, but it looks like Apple has been thinking along similar lines as the company has dreamed up a variant of a wearable 3D display that would be perfect for gaming.
Apple was awarded a knockout patent today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a head mounted display that would allow users to view media and play games on a bigger screen than their mobile device’s built-in display. The Apple goggles are much more sophisticated than just a display strapped to your face, as each screen can be lined up with your eye and adjusted for corrected vision if you wear glasses.
You’ve probably heard that the new iPad mini with Retina display has a significantly smaller color gamut that the larger iPad Air, but how does it compete against rival tablets like the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon’s new Kindle Fire HDX?
According to the experts at DisplayMate, not very well. In fact, the new iPad mini came a “distant third” in their tablet display shootout, thanks to Apple’s “inexcusable” decision to use old technology.
“Apple was once the leader in mobile displays, unfortunately it has fallen way behind,” DisplayMate says.
Do you remember how last week, the iPad mini with Retina Display was said to have been delayed to November because of LCD burn-in issues with Sharp’s IGZO display panels? It appears the rumor was true, because the iPad mini does have image retention issues.
We’ve already heard that the new iPad mini may be in short supply at launch due to low yield rates of its Retina display, and that has now been confirmed by supply chain sources in Taiwan. Sharp and LG Display simply cannot produce the panels fast enough, according to reports, and so Apple may not have enough units to meet the initial demand later this month.
If you switched from an iPhone to an Android-powered smartphone because you felt a 4-inch display was just too small, then Apple may give you a reason to switch back next year. Several industry experts are predicting that the Cupertino company will step up its pursuit of high-end Android smartphones by finally introducing a larger 5-inch display with the iPhone 6.
When it comes to smartphone displays, how many pixels is too many? Most of us believe the current crop of 1080p displays shipping with today’s flagships provide more than enough for our handheld devices, but Chinese manufacturer Vivo disagrees.
The company has begun teasing the Xplay3S, its new smartphone that will become the world’s first with a 2K display.
The fifth-generation iPad will use the same touch-panel technology as the iPad mini to allow it to become thinner and lighter, according to “people with knowledge of the matter,” who have been speaking to The Wall Street Journal. The device is expected to look just like the iPad mini, with narrow bezels and a significantly thinner shell, but it will maintain a 9.7-inch Retina display.
We’ve already seen a whole bunch of iPhone 5S components over the past few months—they’ve even been shown off in hands-on videos—but these high quality images show the changes Apple has made to its Retina display when compared to the iPhone 5 model.
Apple’s next-generation Retina MacBook Pros, which will be equipped with Intel’s latest Haswell processor, may not arrive until October, according to a new report from China Times. The machines were expected to make their debut in September, but due to yield issues affecting its high-resolution Retina display, Apple has had to delay the launch.
AOC’s new USB-powered, 16-inch LCD display may be a godsend for travelers who occasionally need a little extra MacBook screen real estate.
The AOC screen plugs into a USB 3 port (and only a USB 3 port), and just like any other external monitor can either mirror or augment a MacBook’s screen. The screen’s resolution is 1366×768, which covers an area of 15.6 inches — not quite the resolution of the standard 15″ MBP’s screen, but not that far off.
