Prevost
10-31-2003, 04:33 PM
Palm's 320x320 screens and software allow the user to choose the "zoom" mode in the display, meaning that you can either view the fonts of a document in its "natural" scale (usually, too small to be usable in real world conditions), or to magnify the LOOK of the fonts making them the size they would be in a 160x160 display (good size to be easily readable) using the "spare" pixels to smooth the fonts and WITHOUT the need to change font point size.
Considering this, let me say that, as probably you already know, I don't believe going beyond 320x240 in PPC to, say, 640x480, is going to make better devices, at least for some uses. Granted, probably many of you that use extensively your ppcs for web browsing will say that you'll finally be allowed to see the full web page without scrolling, but how legible will that be? I'm sure some will say it's pretty much legible, or even "go get your reading glasses", but that will NEVER be as readable as 320x240 in the small screen of a PDA. For sure, Pocket Word and Excel will render unusable...I can tell you they are actually unusable in 320x320 AT NATURAL SCALE.
And this is probably the main concern here: Windows seems to me supporting screen fonts only in NATURAL SCALE. If it's so and keeps so in the future, then PPC resolutions will never really surpass Palm resolution in what I figure out must be the main concern of PDAs: usability, meaning with this the way the device interact with the natural capabilities of the human body. I mean, they MUST go along with natural "settings" of the human body (as that saying the natural distance humans instinctively set a paper to read it is about 10 inches from his eyes).
If keeping a reasonably legible fonts is the goal, then PPC is NOT going to be finer than 320x240, at least with the current software. Just hope when PPCs capable of 640x480 displays are the common, both software and hardware is going to support using display at 320x240 at choice. I suppose it's going to be so, but also hope it's not as unhandy as it is in Windows.
I guess this is the same reason Mac displays are so far better, clearer, than Windows displays.
Considering this, let me say that, as probably you already know, I don't believe going beyond 320x240 in PPC to, say, 640x480, is going to make better devices, at least for some uses. Granted, probably many of you that use extensively your ppcs for web browsing will say that you'll finally be allowed to see the full web page without scrolling, but how legible will that be? I'm sure some will say it's pretty much legible, or even "go get your reading glasses", but that will NEVER be as readable as 320x240 in the small screen of a PDA. For sure, Pocket Word and Excel will render unusable...I can tell you they are actually unusable in 320x320 AT NATURAL SCALE.
And this is probably the main concern here: Windows seems to me supporting screen fonts only in NATURAL SCALE. If it's so and keeps so in the future, then PPC resolutions will never really surpass Palm resolution in what I figure out must be the main concern of PDAs: usability, meaning with this the way the device interact with the natural capabilities of the human body. I mean, they MUST go along with natural "settings" of the human body (as that saying the natural distance humans instinctively set a paper to read it is about 10 inches from his eyes).
If keeping a reasonably legible fonts is the goal, then PPC is NOT going to be finer than 320x240, at least with the current software. Just hope when PPCs capable of 640x480 displays are the common, both software and hardware is going to support using display at 320x240 at choice. I suppose it's going to be so, but also hope it's not as unhandy as it is in Windows.
I guess this is the same reason Mac displays are so far better, clearer, than Windows displays.