Depending upon how much you spent on your MacBook, you’ve probably noticed that when viewing the screen from more extreme angles to the left or the right, the picture looks pretty terrible. Some new LED technology that Apple is perfecting might help that, though, improving color accuracy and allowing wider view angles for an array of future Apple devices, including new MacBooks and iPads.
In a new patent application discovered by Apple Insider, Apple details how their new technology would work.
The application explains that though LED light is white, it can have a bluer tint at relatively short distances. As the light travels further from the phosphor layer, it becomes more yellow.
Apple’s solution would address the issues associated with edge-lit backlights for LCD displays by utilizing a “light guide” Coupled with a “light-extracting surface area,” it could compensate for color shift issues found with current edge-lit displays, like those found in Apple’s MacBook Pro notebooks.
A light guide would be “configured to provide for propagation of light received from a light source from a first lateral edge to a second opposite lateral edge. A portion of the received light is allowed to reach the second lateral edge and is retro-propagated back towards the first lateral edge. Multiple light-extracting elements are provided to extract and mix the propagating and retro-propagating light, such that the light emitted from the light guide exhibits improved color uniformity.”
If you’ve been counting on your iPhone or MacBooks’ narrow viewing angle to keep your on-screen data private from peeping over-the-shoulder cafe spies, Apple — through excellent technology — might just be about to make things harder for you.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
8 responses to “Apple Working To Improve Viewing Angles On Future MacBooks And iPads”
How about first making a screen that isn’t so reflective that you can’t use it with a window or light behind you.
I hope to one day use my macbook outdoors and not feel like stabbing it to death…
There is an option to remove the glass…
1. I want a less shiny display on Macs/iPhones/iPads etc, it’s awful to use in light
2. I am amazed at the viewing angle on the existing stuff. it seems great to me even at extreme angles
Agreed. The viewing angle on the current products is extremely impressive.