Apple Sued Over "Millions of Colors" Display Claim
Apple is facing another class action lawsuit, this time regarding the latest release of 20-inch iMacs and their inability to properly display "millions of colors."
The lawsuit was filed by Chandra Sanders, a Texas resident and unhappy Apple owner. In her lawsuit she claims that Apple knows that the iMac monitors can only display 252,144 true colors, despite constantly marketing the iMac as displaying "millions of colors" on its Web site and in marketing material.
Should Apple Be Turning Red Over This?
The merit of the case against Apple are a bit fishy. Apple uses a tech slight of hand in the way it creates colors. It tricks you into seeing millions of colors by using illusions of sorts. To create a desired shade, the iMac shows flickers between similar shades at high speeds to give the illusion of a desired shade.
My first reaction was the obvious "big deal," but the difference between 262,144 true colors and the million plus is supposedly "crippling" for video and picture editing because the lack of smooth colors.
The lawsuit mentions that the 27-inch iMac is not affected by the color differential, which is mighty peculiar. As stated earlier, the problem lies with the monitor, so why would Apple use such different monitors for the 20-inch and 27-inch iMacs?
Wouldn't it be great if Apple mailed 737,856 color swatches to Sanders. Despite being April Fools, I don't think Apple has that kind of a sense of humor.
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Most monitors are only only capable of displaying three hues (Red, Green, and Blue). The eye is tricked into seeing more because they are so close together and displayed at different brightnesses. My take is that the level of brightness (which is often 256 levels), is limited perhaps to 128. I do not believe people could sue Apple over the flickering between the two brightnesses or else anyone can sue over the base three hues themselves. As long as the eye is perceiving what is meant to be seen, I don't "see" a problem.
Although in this case, Apple has 64 levels of brightness. 128 still leads ~2 million colors.
You don't "see" the problem because it is around us 24/7, in every direction we look. We see it in our government, in our schools, in our news sources, in our friends, our families and ourselves. Sometimes it means nothing, sometimes it means everything. We see it all the time, we acknowledge it and accept it as part of life. It exists and knowing that it exists doesn?t make it go away and it doesn?t make it right. Therefore, every now and then, we must take note, least we forget, that all we experience is nothing more than a distortion of the truth.
RULES 1 AND 2 dkluge504!!!!
WOW, so many words and so little information
Wow, a 27" iMac? I wasn't aware Apple made 27" iMacs... *rolleyes*
Hudson, you ought to learn a little about the subject matter before you pronounce the merits of the case to be "a little fishy". LCD manufacturers use 3 different technologies to make LCD screens, TN, MVA/PVA, and IPS. TN screens are the least expensive, only employ 6 bits/color, & display a max of 262K colors, while the more expensive PVA and IPS are 8 bits/color and can display 16.7 million colors. When Apple introduced the 20-inch iMacs they employed IPS (actually a variant, S-IPS) screens made by Phillips. S-IPS has a wider color gamut than TN or PVA and is generally found only on expensive monitors used for medicine or pro video/photo editing. So it was a big deal that Apple was using the premium screens on iMacs, and if Apple switched the S-IPS screen for a cheapie TN but kept claiming the screen shows "millions" of colors, that's potentially actionable. BTW, pretty much all mfgs misrepresent TN screens as capable of "millions" of colors--Samsung is just as vulnerable as Apple
All monitors only produce red, green and blue; it is varying degrees of hue, saturation and lumenence that give you the millions of displayed colors. Those colors are actually being displayed by varying those things, not by bouncing between levels, in which case the perceived color is not actually being displayed.
Well, I "see" a problem here. The question is, "How many colors does the thing display?" The question is NOT, "How many colors does the thing trick your eyes into perceiving?"
They ought to just tell people what's actually going on. Something like, "Our technology uses 256,000 actual colors, but produces the effect of millions of colors...", would be accurate, fair and -- wonder of wonders -- TRUE!
When are consumers going to get sick of paying through the nose to get lied to? When is it going to matter that companies are selling you something at a premium that they don't actually provide?
It's time for consumers to stop getting punked like this!
This isn't a matter of how many colors the thing can display, this is a matter of lies, damn lies, and Steve Jobs reality distortion field.
Holy crap! Are you people seriously proposing that they put, "Our technology uses 256,000 actual colors, but produces the effect of millions of colors," ?!? You have GOT to be kidding me! How is this even a discussion?
This CANNOT be anything more than a painfully obvious ploy of some dolt bent on making a quick buck in a culture of ambulance chasing lawyers and thousands of well-meaning doctors forking over millions in malpractice insurance.
Do corporations and societies need accountability? Are there people out there bent on deception sure, and there is no shortage of corporations seeking nothing more than the almighty dollar no matter the cost, absolutely, but I'm sick & tired of lazy, greedy, money-grubbing, nit-pickers with nothing else better to do with their lives than make big deals about nothing, waste all of our time, and refuse to earn an honest wage.
It turns out that most LCD displays suffer from this, unless you up the ante and get a pricier one. I read an article that lays it out pretty well...
http://compreviews.about.com/od/multimedia/a/LCDColor.htm
It comes down to quality verses performance. Most people (except pro users) would opt for better performance for watching movies or playing games. The 6 bits per pixel allow for faster response times. Pro users would rather 8 bits per pixel for the quality, but that comes with a price.
This is less a problem with Apple, and more something that the LCD industry needs to address. It is interesting to note that a 1680x1024 screen only has 1.7 million pixels, so what are you going to do with the extra 14.3 million colors exactly?