Bryan Jones is a retinal neuroscientist, took a microscope and photographed sub-pixel level images of the iPad, the original iPhone, the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 4G. What he discovered was a non-square-shaped pixel structure of the iPhone 4G’s Retina Display. The pixel dimension was measured to be about 102×78µm. Bear in mind Jones noted that he was experiencing difficulty calibrating the microscope and that the measurements are approximates. He also seems to have pictured the iPhones in landscape mode while the iPad was in portrait orientation. Usually the sub-pixel arrangements are red, green, blue going side ways.

Both the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G had a pixel dimension of approximately 500×190µm (when iPhone is in portrait orientation). Both photographs exhibited slight blurriness due to the non-bonded nature of the display in addition to the touch layer adding to light refraction. The iPhone 4 pixel-level photograph exhibited no such blurriness thanks to the optical lamination process that almost eliminates light refraction. But then I got confused.

Jones mentioned the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G has a pixel dimension of 190×500µm. But a paragraph down he lists 176×223µm. I thought it was the sub-pixel dimension but that can’t be; it isn’t a multiple of three. What is this? I’m not sure. So I decided to forget the 500×190µm or 190×500µm dimension Jones mentioned.

I’m going with 223×176µm for the previous iPhones and 102×78µm for the iPhone 4. As you can see these measurements are approximate since the larger pixel from the previous generation iPhones is not exactly four times as large as the iPhone 4: the short side is but the long side isn’t.

Another interesting thing is that two Ph.D candidates from Penn State University took some measurements with a microscope and found the pixel dimension of the iPhone 4′s Retina Display to be 20×20µm (read iPhone 4 Pixels Under The Microscope for more info). That is a significant difference between the two. Go figure.

The bottom line:

Here is the deal though… While Dr. Soneira was partially correct with respect to the retina, Apple’s Retina Display adequately represents the resolution at which images fall upon the retina.

For the complete calculation take a look at Jonesblog’s Apple Retina Display article. And here’s what I concluded in Retina Display I wrote back on June 9th:

So when Jobs said, “It turns out that there’s a magic number right around 300 pixels per inch that when you hold some thing around 10 or 12 inches away from your eyes is the limit of the human retina to differ­entiate the pixels,” he was generally right. He was addressing ordinary folks and for most of us his statement about 300PPI as a limit of visual acuity was not exaggerated.

Ph.D candidates Ryan White and Bryan Gauntt of Penn State University took a very close look at the iPhone 4′s Retina Display using a microscope. They measured the sub-pixel sizes and found the ones in the iPhone 3G to be 13×40 microns. Each pixel would be about 40×40 microns including the two TFT lines among the three sub-pixels. The sub-pixels on the iPhone 4G were smaller by exactly 1/4 at 6.5×20 microns. Pixel dimensions are probably 20×20 microns. Read Retina Display and iPhone 4 for more info. Additional closeups at Engadget.

As reported on DIGITIMES and according to HTC, its Wildfire Android 2.1-based smartphone has the lowest introductory price for the company at NT$11,900 or about US$372. That doesn’t sound so low, but I’m guessing that price is unsubsidized. The HTC Wildfire features a smallish 3.2-inch capacitive touch display with a fairly low pixel count of 320×240, a 5 megapixel camera and is available on Taiwan Mobile. For those that have smaller hands or just prefer something a little smaller than the giant Motorola Droid X (read Motorola Droid X) or the HTC EVO 4G, the Wildfire might just be the right size. In the next few months the HTC Wildfire will hit Australia, Hong Kong, India part of Southeast Asia and South Korea.

Eliminate: Gun Range from ngmoco is the first iPhone 4 game that takes advantage of the built-in gyroscope. The first person shooter game’s control becomes more direct. It is $0.99 and there’s already a newer updated version 1.0.1. Here’s the iTunes Preview page.

Nilay Patel:

E:GR is itself just a simple shooter, but the gyroscope adds what seems like nearly 1:1 motion control to the proceedings — and since you’re moving the display itself, it almost feels like augmented reality.

MG Siegler:

Rather than dragging your finger around the screen to tell your gun where to aim, you simply tilt the iPhone itself. Sure, you could sort of do this previously with the compass built in to the iPhone 3GS — but trust me, this is much, much better.

The possibilities! Check out the videos on Engadget and TechCrunch.

Starting today, June 25, 2010, you can pre-order Motorola’s Droid X at Best Buy. The price is a penny under $200 plus all those taxes with a two-year agreement. (A quick aside: those taxes might be a good thing since there is a rumor that the US might shift to value added taxes or VAT that becomes hidden in the price of the goods and services you purchase.) The good thing about pre-ordering the Droid X from Best Buy instead of Verizon Wireless is you don’t have to worry about sending in that time-consuming mail-in rebate. The Droid X will be available at Best Buy stores on July 15. Read Motorola Droid X for more info. PS: I can’t seem to find Droid X on Best Buy’s website; only the non-X Droid is showing up.

MiFi takes 3G signals and gives you a WiFi connection. FaceTime works on WiFi because it needs the bigger bandwidth. Well, it turns out FaceTime works using MiFi, but barely. Videos of the attempts can be found on Engadget. What this means to me is with a bit more tweaking of 3G network throughput (reliability too!) and a bit more ingenuity injected into better video compression we could possible see FaceTime become available on both WiFi and 3G soon.

There is an article on kottke.org with interesting quotes from David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (Amazon) related to the initial popularity of videophones and then the rapid fallout. The reasons for excitement over video phone calls are many. What resonates with me is the ability to see the faces of loved ones when you are away from them. Of course if you simply wanted to chat via video there were many options available to you before Apple’s FaceTime was introduced, but not something that worked well on a smartphone. In the book, Wallace points to three reasons why people switched back to voice: emotional stress, physical vanity, and “a certain queer kind of self-obliterating logic in the microeconomics of consumer high-tech.” A video call will demand more from us in terms of attention and appearance and some will be stressed out because of it.

Got an iPhone 4? Got no one to use the FaceTime feature with? Apple’s got your back. Dial 1-888-FACETIME (1-888-322-3846) if you want to FaceTime with an Apple employee who will show you the basics and some advanced tips. Available from 8am to 8pm CDT.

MacWorld:

… the highest scoring of all the smartphone cameras that we tested, was none other than the iPhone 4. Next in the rankings was the Droid X, followed by the EVO 4G, the Samsung Galaxy, and way at the bottom, the iPhone 3GS.

It is interesting to note that both the Droid X and the EVO 4G sports a camera with 8 megapixels, three more than Apple’s iPhone 4 with just five. More megapixels doesn’t mean better quality photographs. The 1/3.2-inch CMOS image sensor in the iPhone 4 is special with its backside illumination, which shifts the circuitry from the front to the back allowing the photons to reach the photoreceptors with less blockage. And more light means better photos. The iPhone 4 also takes good pictures in low light for a smartphone. The 3.85-mm lens on the iPhone 4 feature a fixed aperture of f/2.8 with shutter speed and ISO automatically adjusted. According to MacWorld it seems the ISO ranges from 80 to 1000 with exposure as fast as 1/10,000 of a second to 1/15th a second.

Also of note is the video quality rankings:

While its image quality was impressive, it was the iPhone 4′s video capabilities that really stole the show in our lab tests. Of the eight devices we rated for video, only the Flip Video M2120 scored higher.

The iPhone 4 even bested Sony’s DSC-WX1 in video quality.

Korea Telecom (KT), one of three major carriers in South Korea and the only one that carries GSM phones like the iPhone 3GS with plans to carry the iPhone 4, has shared with The Korea Herald that HTC plans to switch from AMOLED to LCD for its smartphones. The reason? The AMOLEDs that the company is using is in shortage and it can’t get enough. KT originally planned to launch the Nexus One in late June but because of the change from AMOLED to LCD, KT had to delay the Nexus One launch to late July. It will be interesting to see how KT handles the launches of both the Nexus One and Apple’s iPhone 4 in the same month (read Nexus One Lands in Korea via Korea Telecom for more info).

Samsung’s got Super AMOLED and now Sony has Super TFT LCD. Not surprising since LG Display (LGD) has Super IPS and Samsung also has a Super variant of its PVA LCD. Super is in, I guess. The Super TFT LCD will be going into HTC’s new smartphones and ones that are already on the market sporting AMOLED displays. According to KT, Sony’s Super LCD consumes less power than regular LCDs, features a higher resolution than SMD’s AMOLED but has a lower contrast ratio.

There is a shortage of Samsung Mobile Display’s 3.7-inch PenTile Matrix-based AMOLED boasting an equivalent RGB 800×4800 pixel format (read Nexus One PenTile Matrix OLED Display and Nexus One “Resolution” Debate Continues for more info). I have no doubt Samsung is doing all that it can to supply its important customers such as HTC with the AMOLED displays but there is also a clear and strong incentive to keep as much as it can for its own Samsung-branded smartphones. SMD has an annual capacity to manufacture about 35 million mobile-sized AMOLED panels and a SMD spokesperson said the company is running its AMOLED production line at full capacity. The Galaxy S from Samsung sports SMD’s Super AMOLED display (read Samsung Galaxy S with Super AMOLED for more info) and is expected to post sales of 10 to 15 million units in the second half of this year according to Sung-in Kim, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities based in South Korea. That means about 57 to 86% of SMD’s total AMOLED production capacity could be used up just for Samsung’s Galaxy S in the second half.

It isn’t surprising that Samsung recently announced that it is building the world’s largest OLED manufacturing plant. Production capacity would go from 35 million AMOLED panels a year to 30 million 3-inch equivalent AMOLED panels per month. The Gen 5.5 OLED line will be finished in July 2011 (read Samsung Mobile Display To Invest US$2.1 Billion For OLED Plant for more info).

HTC’s Desire, Droid Incredible, Nexus One all sport SMD’s AMOLED display. According to KT the Google Nexus One manufactured after July will incorporate Sony’s Super TFT LCD and be distributed worldwide. Interestingly enough SMD isn’t the only company not being able to meet demand; the Retina Display used in the iPhone 4 and manufactured by LGD is also experiencing shortages. About two million Retina Displays (read Retina Display for more info) per month are being shipped according to Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw.

Mitsubishi is enlarging its LaserVue line. LaserVue is unique in that it uses lasers as the light source. The LaserVue L75-A91 is a 75-inch behemoth, measures 66.4×41.7×15 inches (WxHxD), weighs 154 pounds, and sports a 1920×1080 pixel format. Resolution is a bottom-scrapping 29.4 PPI. I would have expected a Quad HD (3840 x 2160) pixel format for a mediocre resolution of 58.7 PPI. There is a first-ever Cinema Color mode and StreamTV Internet media.

The L75-A91 consumes just 128 watts and exceeds the new Energy Star qualifications by 50%. It is old but in Power Consumption: LCD vs. Plasma I noted a Sony 46-inch 1080p LCD TV consuming 269 watts. You can see that Mitsubishi’s 75-inch LaserVue completely demolishes it. Like I said that was a while back so I decided to look through Sony’s newest 3D LCD TV models and came up with the biggest and baddest: the 60-inch BRAVIA LX900 Series 3D HDTV. It sports a 60-inch LCD with an edge-lit LED backlight and a 1920×1080 pixel format. And it consumes 228 watts when in operation, much better than last year, but still quite a ways from the 75-inch LaserVue.

Connectivity options include four HDMI-CEC inputs. L75-A91 is 3D-ready. The optional 3D Starter Kit (3DC-1000) includes two pairs of active shutter 3D glasses, a 3D emitter, 3D adapter with remote, an HDMI cable and a sample Disney 3D Blu-ray disk; it will be available in July. The L75-A91 has a MSRP of $5,999. Steep yes, but the smaller 60-inch from Sony isn’t cheap either at a penny less than $5000.

DisplayBlog is written and produced by Jin Kim. Subscribe via RSS.