Won't retina display become more a problem than an improvement for users?

[Surfinette]

Hi everyone,

Ok, retina display will be great for watching HD movies or very hi-res pictures...

But what about "low" resolution movies and pictures (and by "low" resolution, I mean normal/decent res for ipad2 or web display): won't they look ugly on the ipad3 just simply because artifacts that your eyes could not see on the ipad2 will turn clearly visible on the ipad3?

I've been downsizing my photos and my family HD movies to be able to fit enough of them on the ipad2 ( if not, even 64 Go ipad might be too small), and i'm scared that these won't look as nice on the ipad3 as on the ipad2 because i'll now be able to notice the artefact that were created when lowering the res of my pics and movies...

The other issue I'm afraid of with upgrading to HD resolution images is that streaming HD movies will require much higher bandwith than before: this means of course 3G is definitely out of the question (too bad 4G has not hit my country yet and won't for some time), but we may also encounter many issues using wifi because we'll need max wifi strength to be able to stream HD movies, which is often not the case if you are not sitting right by your rooter or if several family members are streaming together or if you are using your ipad in an open hotspot.... Similarly, downloading HD stuff will take much much longer than non-HD especially on wifi (and we don't have ethernet connecting option with our ipads...).
And I have a bit the same question for apps: will dev have to upgrade them to adapt to retina display, and their size will turn much much bigger (but our ipads don't have infinite capacity)?

So all in all I'm questionning whether it is that wise to upgrade to ipad3 or whether I'm just raising a stupid question (i won't notice any difference when watching my "old" "low" resolution pictures on the ipad3)?
Also, on a slightly related note, I'm wondering why Apple did not increase the size of the whole ipad range with the introduction of the retina display, because with all these HD items now eating much more space, 128Go or 256Go would not be a luxury...

Surfinette
(about to upgrade to a 64Go iPad, but wondering if v3 is such a wise choice after all)

 

[Lyndon23]

Take a look at this:

GoFlex Satellite Wireless | Seagate

May at least solve your storage capacity issues for HD media.

 

[Surfinette]

Take a look at this:

GoFlex Satellite Wireless | Seagate

May at least solve your storage capacity issues for HD media.

Thanks I was not aware of such device that could prove very handy for many usages (notably when travelling as my non HD iPad is already pretty full and I always need to feed more stuff, pics, movies in my ipad when travelling!).

But in essence and to come back to my original question, if retina means getting this external storage device becomes even more important than before, then it means introducing complexity for users who will have to deal with two devices instead of one, two attery chargers, etc... Quite a pain in the xxs and killing part of the ipad's philosophy for simplicity

 

[Lyndon23]

Sure, I agree with you. In an ideal world, Apple would have updated to at least 128gb internal storage. I guess they have to balance features against cost. Also they like to keep something up their sleeve for the next 'must-have' iPad update ;-)

 

[lique831]

I believe the size problem will be an issue. The apps that Apple upgraded last week have already doubled in size. That's precisely the reason why I changed my mind about the 32GB and switched to a 64GB. I suspect that next year they will need to offer a bigger iPad.

 

[Seadog]

The cost of the new retina screen is said to be the reason for the lack of a SSD upgrade. A catch 22. The new sceen may warrant more memory, but then the cost would go up to where it cost more to the customer. So if you have a 32 Gb SSD on a previous model, then the new model will require more memory management or a larger SSD. I would have liked to go to 64Gb, but one look from my wife was enough to decide on memory management.

 

[Kaykaykay]

But what about "low" resolution movies and pictures (and by "low" resolution, I mean normal/decent res for ipad2 or web display): won't they look ugly on the ipad3 just simply because artifacts that your eyes could not see on the ipad2 will turn clearly visible on the ipad3?

I haven't seen the new iPad screen, of course, but I think that will be the case. In cases with crummy originals to start with, it will be like watching an old movie on an HD screen -- you'll see the imperfections more clearly, lol. But it's a tradeoff, and will depend on what you view. PDFs should be crisper, high-quality movies will be sharper, etc. If you take a photo with the new iPad's 5MP camera, you'll probably notice the graininess more. But if you take photos with a better camera and load them on iPad, you should see nice, sharp images, unless you've not focused properly to start with.

 

[Bennettb]

So k, do I understand you correctly. If I take pictures with the new camera they will still be grainy, just like they are on the 2, but now it will be because of the screen not because of the camera. This is why I was going to get the new one. I really wanted a better image of photos taken with my iPad. Darn!

 

[Kaykaykay]

So k, do I understand you correctly. If I take pictures with the new camera they will still be grainy, just like they are on the 2, but now it will be because of the screen not because of the camera. This is why I was going to get the new one. I really wanted a better image of photos taken with my iPad. Darn!

The camera will be better, but so will the display. You'll have to decide whether it's improved overall. Most top-selling smart phones come with 8MP cameras now, while new iPad's camera will be 5MP, for comparison's sake. MPs aren't everything, of course. But I don't claim to be a photo expert.

 

[miket5au]

So k, do I understand you correctly. If I take pictures with the new camera they will still be grainy, just like they are on the 2, but now it will be because of the screen not because of the camera. This is why I was going to get the new one. I really wanted a better image of photos taken with my iPad. Darn!

That is not going to be a problem. A 5MP image will be a higher resolution than the iPad 3 screen. They will look fine.

(5MP=2560x1920)

 

[Seadog]

The camera will take the best pictures viewable on the iPad. It would only be when you take a small section and blow it up that you may see grainy views. The high pixel counts are only useful when taking pictures destined to be blown up to several times larger than normal. At times, high resolution can be counterproductive. For a device like the ipad, 5 Mp is probably optimum. Eventually software will become available that will have the ability to take a 5 Mp image and make it equivalent of a 25 Mp image.

 

[Kaykaykay]

Depends how you take and edit photos. YMMV.

I find that I blow up many photos, because I crop them for better composition and such, especially for shots I've taken on the fly. Better pictures were a key reason that I upgraded to an iPhone 4S, which has an 8MP camera. MPs aren't the deciding factor for photo quality, though. Apple has built in tech that helps users take better photos, which I won't try to regurgitate and likely get wrong anyway.

 

[iRaptor25]

Its like some of you guys have never viewed an image above its native resolution.
DVDs look better upscaled on HDTVs than they do on SDTVs. I enlarge photos on the PC all the time. Play games under my max PC resolution to improve framerate.

The iPad's resolution was perfectly fine for the size of the screen, everything will continue to look fine on the same size screen. 720p video certainly won't be this ugly thing you can't watch.

The only negative concern with retina is 16 gig owners may have far more trouble managing their storage, we'll have to see how that really plays out.

 

[Seadog]

I do not think the iPad cameras will ever be considered more than a nice extra. The screen size is great, but the iPad is too big to effectively handle in a lot of photography. The retina screen will mean some adjustments, but should not be a major inconvenience. I have a 32 Gb model now. In making my decision of what size to get, I looked at my usage graph. I have 6 Gb in apps, the same in music, and over 12 Gb free. So even if my apps double in size, I will still have a healthy reserve. And about half of my apps are rarely used, so they can be taken off the iPad. If they become desired in the future, I can always download them from my computer.

 

[Nightstar]

There are some program that may benefit from the larger screen. Can think of two right now. One is Dr Kronos ( Medical ) using their forms and onLive office suite.