Apple Patent for Resolution Independent User Interface
The old assumption that displays are 72dpi has been rendered obsolete by advances in display technology. Macs now ship with displays that sport native resolutions of 100dpi or better. Furthermore, the number of pixels per inch will continue to increase dramatically over the next few years. This will make displays crisper and smoother, but it also means that interfaces that are pixel-based will shrink to the point of being unusable. The solution is to remove the 72dpi assumption that has been the norm.
According to the patent application, traditional user interface designs are created for specific resolutions. In order to support arbitrary resolutions, images have to be up or down-scaled which may introduce blurring or artifacting. They propose a method to describe the user interface objects in a "procedural" and resolution independent manner.
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Furthermore, I think we will see a lot more ctrl + Zooming going on in the future - but an automated style - that didn't pixelate or break up (if you understand this). i.e. I hope it kind of focuses. Like spaces, but all in one place. Just an idea. Who knows. I could be talking ass.
i use the zooming feature all the time when laying in bed and using my imac from a distance.
hahaha.
oh well.
I just worry things are going to get too small for us to read - unless we have 50" screens to compensate. One friend already commented on how things on my MacBook feel smaller and higher res compared to his iBook.
Furthermore, I think we will see a lot more ctrl + Zooming going on in the future - but an automated style - that didn't pixelate or break up (if you understand this). i.e. I hope it kind of focuses. Like spaces, but all in one place. Just an idea. Who knows. I could be talking ass.
That's exactly what a resolution-independent GUI is intended to address!
As resolutions increase, there's more pixels on-screen, so GUI elements of a fixed number of pixels per physical inch become smaller (the problem you're describing, and how OS X's GUI currently operates).
A resolution-independent GUI has the ability to cleanly re-scale or dynamically recreate GUI elements to compensate. As resolution increases, the number of pixels used to draw each GUI element increases so that elements have the same relative size between resolutions. Obviously, at higher resolutions they'll look much crisper, since there's more pixels available to describe them.
Think of it as being similar to a game like Doom 3. As you crank up the resolution, the area you can see doesn't increase so that individual elements are smaller. Rather, the clarity with which characters and environments increases.
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