BGR:
The display is said to be a 720p HD “monster-sized” screen, and it won’t feature physical Android menu buttons below the screen anymore — everything will be software-based.
The elimination of those four buttons might be the key to integrating a “monster-sized” display. My guess: a 4.5- to 4.7-inch LCD with a 1280×720 pixel format. At 4.5 inches the resolution is 326 ppi and at 4.7 inches the resolution drops to 312 ppi. If I were to choose between the two it would be a 4.5-inch, which would sport the exact ppi as the 3.5-inch Retina Display in the iPhone 4.
Videos captured in 720p HD will be perfectly displayed pixel-for-pixel. If this turns out to be true, then the Google Nexus 4G will be the only modern display where you can enjoy 720p HD video absolutely unscaled, and without wasting a single pixel.
Myriam Joire at Engadget:
Sadly, whether monitoring the live view in 3D or watching at stereoscopic content, the EVO 3D’s qHD touchscreen is a mixed bag. In addition to washing out in direct sunlight, many people have problems seeing the 3D effect on the display even after being coached to slowly pan sideways until the 3D photos or videos “pop” into place. To make matters worse, the 3D effect looks blurry at the left and right edges of the screen, and pinch-to-zoom switches the display back to 2D. MPO files and 3D videos were handled properly by the Sharp 3D TV we tried, but none of our 3D content worked on the Nintendo 3DS. We were able to convert the original JPS files into the anaglyph images shown in our sample gallery by using a simple 3-step Photoshop process. We were also able to upload and watch 3D videos on YouTube by tweaking a few simple settings to generate anaglyph videos. Old-school red / cyan 3D glasses are required to view this type of content. But ultimately, while 3D is fun and whimsical, we can’t help but think it’s just a gimmick. As it is today, the EVO 3D’s dual cameras suffer from too many compromises that affect the quality of both 2D and 3D imaging.
At the end of what seems like a very complex process, the 3D isn’t even that good.
Engadget: A bigger display equals a bigger keyboard equals bigger keys. And that means typing should be easier, too. Of course, there is an upper limit to how big the display can get before the keys are out of reach of your thumbs.
The Motorola Droid 3, or Milestone 3 as it is called in Asia, sports a 4-inch 960×540 LCD. The added pixels should make for watching videos, photos, and playing games a treat. Reading text though could be less-than-ideal on these qHD displays if you have sensitive eyes.
BBC College of Journalism Blog:
If you can broadcast or file from wherever you are without wasting time setting up equipment, then that transforms how you do news. You can develop new angles on a story, create a truly interactive relationship with audiences, fact-check political claims, and provide a stream of updates from where a story is happening rather than from where you can put a satellite truck.
SpeechTrans TM, an app developer with links to speech recognition firm Nuance, has posted screenshots of an app running on what appears to be an iPhone with an edge-to-edge screen.
Grab your iPhone 4. Look closely at how your fingers hang over the display. On an edge-to-edge display that could constitute a touch, a bad user experience design. And the bottom of the display is too close to the Home button resulting in similar unwanted touches on the screen.
Update: Dr. Raymond Soneira, President of DisplayMate, sent this in:
If you magnify the screen shots 3X then it’s then easy to see that the supposed iPhone 5 screen shot is a poorly done cut and paste job from the iPhone 4 screen shot – the screen shot pixels on the frame of the iPhone 5 are identical to the screen shot pixels on the iPhone 4 so they were lifted from the iPhone 4 rather than being from an independent screen shot. Plus the iPhone 5 screen cuts into the Home button…
Edge-to-edge iPhone 5? A fraud.
John Brownlee at Cult of Mac:
It’s a weird thing, but once you get an iPad, using an iPhone just feels hopelessly cramped. All of a sudden, the profoundly rich experience of using iOS and its apps goes from the context of a frame through which you can do anything you want to do to a tiny terminal. Sure, you have access to all the same stuff, but short of two big exceptions — phone and SMS — it’s all done worse than on an iPad with 3G.
I like taking photos and my iPhone is my always-with-me digital camera. The iPad 2 can’t compete with the iPhone when it comes to photography. Not even close. Even if it did, you wouldn’t want to be taking a lot of photographs with the iPad; it’s just too big.
As a display guy, I’m tempted by the lure of larger displays, but not with the iPad. The 3.5-inch Retina Display on the iPhone 4 is much smaller, but it is simply superior. Yes, I realize it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison since one is a smartphone and the other is a tablet. The 326-ppi Retina Display is pure eye-candy. The iPad doesn’t come close. I will say this: I wouldn’t know what to do when the iPad comes with a Retina Display. I might just have to start taking pictures with it.
But right now, if I were to pick just one between a 3G iPad (plus Nokia dumbphone) or an iPhone 4, I’d pick the later for photographs, portability, and the superior display. Plus I only have to care for a single device, instead of two.
Nokia Conversations: The Nokia N9 sports a 3.9-inch AMOLED display that looks like it will provide an exquisite visual experience. Another component that I’m very interested in is the camera. The N9 packs a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens. This isn’t the first collaboration between the two companies; the N73, N8, N86, N90, N95 smartphones all had Carl Zeiss optics. Most will agree that the iPhone 4 has one of the best camera system of any smartphone so I’m not so certain to what degree a Carl Zeiss-branded lens impacts photo quality.
Apple has realized that a hard key provides a better actuating experience than a soft key. With iOS 5 the volume up key will act as an actuator, a feature first seen on the original Camera+ iPhone app. I’m actually quite excited. Nokia is going the other direction: the company has removed the excellent half-pressable hard key and now is going with a soft button and continuous auto focusing. I think Nokia is making a big mistake here.
One area where the N9 beats the iPhone 4 is image capturing speed. From turning on the camera, getting the viewfinder ready, focusing on the subject, and finally capturing the image, the N9 takes just 2.6 seconds. The iPhone 4 takes three seconds; the HTC HD7 takes 8.3 seconds. From the chart above it looks like the N9 is even faster than the Canon S95. The image capturing speed of the N9 is impressive but that soft-button only actuator will seem “old-school” when iOS 5 comes out.
CNNMoney: According to IDC, Apple’s share of the U.S. smartphone market share increased 12.3 percentage points to 29.5% in the first quarter of 2011. Android’s share on the other hand dropped from 52.4% to 49.5%. Needham’s Charlie Wolf:
In our opinion, this is just the beginning of Android’s share loss in the U.S. The migration of subscribers to the iPhone on the Verizon network should accelerate this fall when Apple coordinates the launch of iPhone 5 on the GSM and CDMA networks. The iPhone could also launch on the Sprint and T-Mobile networks.
In a note issued early Monday, Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore is telling clients to expect both — an iPhone 5 and an iPhone 4S.
“With Nokia and RIMM struggling,” he writes, “the time is right for Apple to aggressively penetrate the mid range smart-phone market (i.e. $300-500 category) to dramatically expand its [total addressable market] and market share.”
As Apple has done in the past, the old iPhone model will go for quite a bit less when a new iPhone model is introduced. Unlocked iPhone 4 prices would also come down. No surprise there.
Examine the history of the iPod to see how this will play out. They’ll press technologically at the high end, and they’ll expand into the mid-range market with lower priced models. Why not now?
The high end iPod touch was announced after the iPhone. Apple didn’t press technologically at the high end with the iPod touch. It was more that Apple stripped the iPhone down. Although I have voiced differing opinions about this before, I think Apple will continue with a single iPhone model introduction. Why?
Choice. I think having the choice of a $49 iPhone 3GS and a $199 iPhone 4 is good enough. We don’t need more choices. Soon enough we’ll have the choice of a $99 iPhone 4 and a $199 iPhone 4S. The iPhone 3GS might be offered for free at that time if there are any leftover. The Android smartphone market has too many choices and I think that’s a problem not only for customers but for developers, too.
The iPad is a different story. When Apple integrates a Retina Display into the next iPad there is a likely chance that the starting price will not be $499. And this is important. $499 has become a symbolic price point. A point that shows Apple can make the very best tablet and for $499 while making more money than others. Apple will bifurcate the iPad line by adding the iPad Pro: keep pushing the frontiers of the high end while making sure the $499 entry point is kept. The evolution of the iPad is not difficult to ascertain because the writing is on the wall with the iPhone 4. Apple will continue building on its Retina Display brand to distinguish itself from the rest.
Khoi Nguyen, Enterprise Mobility Group Product Manager at Symantec via eWeek:
Apple’s certification and rigid control over what applications can be posted on the App Store protected users, Nguyen said. The iTunes App Store acts as a certificate authority to sign the app and is the only source for non-jailbroken iOS devices. Google’s “less rigorous” system helped trigger the increase in Android malware because it was easier to get malicious apps onto the Android Market, Symantec found. Luckily for Google, most Android malware to date hasn’t had a significant impact on users yet.
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