Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple, Macbook Pro, MacBook
Apple settles out MacBook class action lawsuit
Almost a year after those two photogs first tried to bring a class-action suit against Apple for supposedly underperforming colors on MacBook and MacBook Pro LCD screens, our own Mike Rose has been proven right -- Apple has "quietly settled" the suit, and presumably Apple didn't have to pay much: the plaintiffs apparently had trouble finding other people who had purchased the laptops solely for the "millions of colors" claim.Which makes sense -- why would you need any more than a few hundred thousand colors on a single screen? Of course, the drawback here is that we'll never find out if you really can get millions of colors on a MacBook screen, as the photographers wanted. For all we know, they might actually be technically correct -- widely recognized as the very best kind of correct.
[Via Engadget]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dan said 11:27PM on 3-26-2008
Wow, it's been ages since I was sent to a dead Geocities link. Oh the memories...
Reply
Byron Doyle said 11:44PM on 3-26-2008
I think it's ludacris that they would sue at all over the millions of colors thing. The human eye can't even distinguish as many colors as a modern video card is capable of producing, so how would they be able to tell?
Reply
Marcos El Malo said 1:22AM on 3-27-2008
I think it's Tupac that you're this ignorant about professional use of color on computers, and yet still feel qualified enough to comment. Some might say that your uninformed opinion is quite MC Hammer, given that some P Diddy pros actually use 10 bit/channel and 16 bit/channel color spaces on high end work in the Ice Cube film FX and Snoop Dog print worlds, yo.
Byron Doyle said 2:08AM on 3-27-2008
*sigh*
I *am* one of those professionals. I use 16-bit channels all the time for print purposes. I simply posted to point out the stupidity of the suit–yes, Apple did not deliver hardware as advertised, but frankly, it doesn't really matter that much as long as the dithering process works. Now as Ryan pointed out, since the dithering process is sub-par, this does make a difference, because it produces visual artifacts that you can see. I'm sorry that sarcasm doesn't translate well through the interwebs, but it doesn't mean that you can be a troll.
doc said 4:31AM on 3-27-2008
Ludicrous : adj
Idiotic or unthinkable, often to the point of being funny.
He made a ludicrous attempt to run for office.
Synonyms
(idiotic or unthinkable): laughable, ridiculous
Byron Doyle said 4:49AM on 3-27-2008
Heh Opera doesn't spell check my text fields, and apparently neither do I. :D
Ed said 8:04AM on 3-27-2008
Marcos - funniest post this month, period.
Byron - that's not him trolling, that's you making a tit of yourself. Twice.
Gareth Burleigh said 4:48PM on 3-27-2008
"I think its Tupac" had me laughing so hard I woke my baby up.
Thank you Marcos
Gareth
Aaron Davies said 12:43AM on 3-27-2008
The Rainbow Brite icon is cute, but the Photoshop jobs has some rough edges--a bit of her ponytail is covering up the menubar. Unless that machine is running Leopard with menubar transparency hacked way up, that's impossible. :-)
Reply
adisor19 said 12:50AM on 3-27-2008
WoW. I read the article and some of these comments and I'm speechless. Apple advertised the LCD panels to be 8bit and instead shipped 6bit panels. HOW THE HELL CAN YOU NOT SEE THE PROBLEM HERE ?
Adi
Reply
Lyle said 1:16AM on 3-27-2008
i Cannot connect my ipod touch to itunes this message is displayed everytime i try to connecting it to the computer."error OxE8000022" its quite annoying someone please help me? i cant access anything!
Reply
Jose Guerra said 1:12AM on 4-05-2008
Cannot connect my ipod touch to itunes this message is displayed everytime i try to connecting it to the computer."error OxE8000022" its quite annoying someone please help me? i cant access anything!
i have the error oxe8000022 instaling the jailbreak liberty+
how can i fix the software of my itouch
Ryan said 1:31AM on 3-27-2008
The "millions of colours" argument isn't the point. All 6-bit LCDs only display a subset of the available 16.7 million available in the 24-bit range. The eye is fooled by the use of dithering techniques, and most manufacturers do this well enough to not be noticeable.
The problem is that Apple's dithering is sub-par, and so many cases colour banding is obvious, particularly in images with smooth colour gradations.
Reply
Cycomachead said 8:36PM on 3-27-2008
too true!, look at the TUAW background as a prime example!
doc said 4:23AM on 3-27-2008
I think the suit is ludicrous because of the fact that a professional photographer should not be even considering a macbook as a work platform. I parallels them using a Cybershot level camera as a professional camera. It's not that Cybershots are bad cameras I happen to own several but if I'm getting paid I'm bringing my 5D and 40D. The prosumer market is flooded with wedding video guys trying to edit using GL2's and iMovie.
Use the right tools for the right job.... thats why it's called a MacBook and not a MacBook Pro. BTW no self respecting shutterbug uses a lappy as a proofing computer. It's still a good CRT or LCD and a Greytag-Macbeth colorimeter for calibration... You see this colorimeter cost like $10K small change if you are a true professional photographer.
Reply
dexter fillmore said 8:47AM on 3-27-2008
you say "thats why it's called a MacBook and not a MacBook Pro; from the post: "underperforming colors on MacBook and MacBook Pro LCD screens"
doc said 2:07PM on 3-27-2008
Thats exactly why I said no notebooks for proofing. You need a CRT and maybe a really high end LCD with a colorimeter.
Cycomachead said 8:33PM on 3-27-2008
Ok first: The macbook is an awesome computer. The only thing holding it back is the integrated graphics which is actually not to shabby for things like Aperture and Lightroom. I edit RAW files in Aperture 2 on a 1st gen 2.0GHz CD MacBook - I'm not a pro but it's a fine system.
Both notebook lines claim to offer millions of colors, so this applies to both.
The difference here is between the 6Bit and the 8Bit screen. The 6 can display
262, 144 colors (or somewhere around there...) or 16.2m inaccurate colors using software called dithering. The 8 Bit ones can do a full 16.7m colors that look good provided you profile and calibrate the display (another topic). These extra colors become more noticeable with calibration and make for a better calibration - and yes you can tell the difference, depending upon the picture. Obviously, black background will look black on both computers...
Now the issue is the type of LCDs used in laptops are TN film. These are cheap and small and have good response times, yet aren't 8-bit. The Apple Cinema Displays are S-IPS type which have very good color reproduction and reasonable response times. They're also bigger and more expensive. There are also some median display types which are 8-bit. However, the problem is there are very few made for laptops. There's also the fact that a simple advertising clarification would clear a lot of this up.
Now let's not get started on the LCD vs CRT display because each has is pros and cons and both are good. Have you seen an Eizo monitor?
Katy Cartee said 5:56AM on 3-27-2008
YAY FOR RAINBOW BRITE!!!! :D
Reply
db cooper said 8:43AM on 3-27-2008
The MacBook screens are dithered which looks awful even if you're not a professional photographer or photoshopper. I can't believe the apologia over this - a $400 Dell has a better LCD screen than a $1200 MacBook. It's unacceptable. Apple is lucky it has a fanbase of noncritical users with bad eyesight.
Reply