Retina display coming ‘Back to Mac,’ too
Apple has been telegraphing this move quite literally for years, though the release of the Mountain Lion beta has given the effort and rumors fresh legs. What began as monster icons several years back has gained OS-level hooks that are visible in the latest developer preview release of OS X 10.8. Retina display arrived first on the iPhone, then iPad and now it’s coming back to the Mac.
When Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard shipped, 512 pixel app icons were part of the baggage. Even on Apple’s largest 30-inch Cinema Display, that’s still a bit more than overkill.
However, with the iPhone and now iPad both sporting retina displays, it’s perhaps only natural that Apple brings that hyper high pixel density to the fairer platform.
That said, Ars Technica has been trolling around inside the second developer preview release of OS X Mountain Lion, a.k.a. 10.8, and discovered big icons are about to become the norm throughout the Mac operating system.
A new clue found within in the latest developer release of OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) suggests that 2012 may bring us the “summer of retina display Macs.” A source with access to the latest Mountain Lion preview alerted Ars that double-sized graphics have popped up in some unexpected places, once again suggesting that Apple may be close to releasing MacBooks with high pixel-density screens.
Further, a knowledgeable yet unnamed source quoted by Ars “speculates” this means Retina display equipped MacBooks will be arriving rather sooner than later.
“I would interpret it to mean that Retina [MacBook] is close; perhaps concurrent with the release of OS X 10.8,” said the insider.
Surprised? I’m not as it seems inevitable at this point…
Are you ready for Retina on the desktop?
Will the real Retina display ready icon please stand up?
