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August 19, 2008

huh

Wanna boost your ambition? Get a bigger display

Posted Aug. 19, ’08, 5:09 PM PT by David Dahlquist
Category | Apple » Huh?

apple display.jpgStephen Malinowski at kk.org made the astute observation that as the per-pixel price of flat screen computer displays continues to drop, the price discrepancies between different sized models of large displays are becoming smaller as well. So he took the plunge and bought a 30” Apple display for his home office on eBay for $1,500.

Since then, he’s realized that there’s more to gain from having a massive display than pure geek cred. After using his 30” display for a few weeks he begin to notice that he was using considerably less paper while working; whereas he used to print out diagrams and other reference material he would need on hand, he now has enough screen space to keep such references on screen while working on other things.

His ambition also grew along with his screen size, oddly enough:

“I began to “think big” about a lot of things: my spreadsheets got bigger, my diagrams got bigger - and more unexpectedly: the size of the kind of thing I thought I could handle got bigger; and because I was much less often having to chop things into smaller pieces so that they could fit, things got simpler.

Who would have guessed that a larger display could increase productivity, lower paper use, and increase ambition? While a $1,500 monitor is out of many people’s price range, if you spend a lot of time working in front of a computer at home, you now have more incentive than ever to make the plunge for a ginormous display; it could end up paying for itself in saved time and effort.


6 Comments

wesg Author Profile Page said:

While I do wish I could have a 30" ACD, my poor MacBook can't even punch out enough frames per second on a 3 year old video game :(. Come on 12" Mac laptop with dedicated graphics!

August 19, 2008 6:41 PM
Stephen Malinowski said:

A couple of comments:

1. I paid a premium to get the Apple display; Dell sells a similar product for a lot less (see the 30-inch models in their "ultrasharp" series).

2. kk.org published a condensed version of my review; the full text (which is much longer and includes diagrams and screenshots) is at http://tinyurl.com/5sj49l

Stephen Malinowski (Music Animation Machine, http://www.musanim.com)

August 19, 2008 7:23 PM
Jack said:

Couldn't you just use Spaces more efficiently with the same result? And for free?

August 19, 2008 7:48 PM
Roberto Felgueiras said:

I can accomplish the same thing with two monitors for a cheeper price and have been for years. References (email, browsers and such) on one side, work on the other. For $1,500 you can get two 23" monitors (or If you already have a monitor, just buy a second one) and you'll end up with a higher pixels-per-inch ratio, not to mention a smarter usage of space. Photoshop full screen on one side, tutorial information on the other. Can't do that on one big one.

August 20, 2008 7:42 AM
Machoe said:

i just wish apple redesign their ACD so it can have an iMac look/feel, bought an imac.. kept my old ACD to use as extended desktop monitor, the extra view i have is a breeze..

August 20, 2008 8:25 AM
Justin said:

I went from dual 17" screens to the 24" iMac. I don't think I could go back to anything smaller. A 30" would definitely be great (and higher DPI than the iMac, as well).

August 20, 2008 7:34 PM

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