Why's everyone want 16x9 on the iPad?

I don't get it. There's lots to like (and dislike) about the iPad, but I just can't understand at the people complaining about the screen not being 16 x 9, as though that's a big strike against it. One commenter wrote:

4X3 not 16X9 . . . Are you kidding?

Umm...really?

I happen to like 16x9 for movies, but if they'd made the screen 16 x 9, the iPad would have been long and thin. If you're watching movies, sure 4x3 seems like a big waste, but web surfing, typing in documents, and having something that if comfortable as a hand-held; I don't think the 16x9 aspect ratio would work as well. It will be either too narrow, or two long.

Now if you're going to give them grief about video playback, it should be about the resolution of the screen: 1024 instead of 1280 if a bit of a downer. If the screen had been 1280 x 960, then you could play 720P video without scaling (1280 x 720.)

Of course, Apple's limited by the screens that are available (and cost) so I'm not even willing to write the thing off because of that short coming. But 4x3? Complaining about that just seems crazy.




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