Do you have any evidence that the brightness of a fully-on iPad screen “hurts eyes”?
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The human visual system adapts to the level of illumination it is looking at, so the times when eyes “hurt” are basically only when going from being dark-adapted to suddenly looking at something bright: for example, going from a darkened movie theater out into a sunny day. If you turn an iPad on in a completely darkened room, it might seem bright when first looked at (even this is not going to do any lasting damage, and is just a temporary annoyance), but if you spend more than a few minutes reading, your eyes will adapt to whatever its brightness is, and it shouldn't really be a problem.
> The human visual system adapts to the level of illumination it is looking at
Anecdotally false. On really bright summer days (and on sunny days in the winter with a lot of snow), outdoors are too bright for my visual system. I have to squint or my eyes will hurt, no matter how long I stay outside to adapt.
Anecdotally this is true for at least some of the people I know as well.
The fact that bright light can still annoy you just shows that there is an upper limit (and there is a lower one too, obviously) -- not that it doesn't work.
You’re absolutely right. I didn’t intend to imply that excessively bright stimuli (such as when the ground is snow or concrete or sand and the sun is directly overhead), couldn’t be too bright even when adapted as far as possible.
What I meant (and should have stated more precisely/clearly, not using the word “only”) was rather that, at the intensity of an iPad screen, adaptation should make any hurting stop. The iPad screen is several orders of magnitude dimmer than the brightest sunny days. Light adaptation takes us pretty darn far.
What the fuck? You're reading this on a screen right now. You and everyone else reading this thread likely read text from LCD screens for at least half of your waking hours!
What about a tablet formfactor suddenly makes backlit LCD screens completely unbearable?
I find reading on LCDs really quite unpleasant. I tolerate them because I have to for working, but I would never choose to read a book or other lengthy static content on them.
What about a tablet formfactor suddenly makes backlit LCD screens completely unbearable?
we're talking iPad here. I haven't used one in direct sunlight, only in a bar one evening, but I do have an iPod touch and new Macbook Pro with glass (or mirror) display. Few downsides to Steve's obsession with glass:
- as I said, no matter how bright is backlight glass becomes mirror in sunlight (M̦̆̆BP is mirror even in low light)
- thus backlight has to be driven at very high power, regardless of conditions
- baclights' low setting is still much higher than on similar non-glass devices which makes said devices painful on the eye in the dark (same applies to my HTC EVO, especially for you Apple fanboys)
The iPad (and iPhone 4) use a new type of screen with IPS technology. [1] I find it to be much nicer on the eyes than a regular display. It also works really well in direct sunlight, as long as you don't reflect the sun directly into your eyes. Sort of like reading a glossy magazine outdoors.
