Sunday, June 14, 2009

Laptop glossy screens hazardous to your posture?

I knew it!!! I've always been a fan of the matte screens. I'm not keen to look at a mirror when trying to see my laptop screen. But I guess that's just me. (Not to mention the fingerprint magnets that glossies are.) I watched with incredulity as Apple followed the bad lead taken by PC laptops, going to glossy screens. Everyone seemed enamored of glossy. And Apple crept further and further into glossy hell. They still do. It's unlikely that this news item will alter the future enough so that I'll even be able to pay extra for a matte screen on my next laptop (c. 2013).

Mac laptop glossy screens hazardous to your posture?

I guess I'm not the only one who has no use for glossy Mac laptop screens.

5 comments:

LeeTramp said...

Of course, laptops themselves are the worst thing to happen to posture since the creation of the computer. The keyboard and monitor are way to close: either you are looking too far downward, or the keyboard is way too high. Laptop users should have an external keyboard and mouse, at least in the location where you use it the most.

See Cornell U "Laptop Ergonomics" .

And I won't even go into how Mac has consistently focused on appearance over ergonomics for decades (well, I guess I just did), so it doesn't surprise me that they have done away with matte screens.

Dean Baird said...

No ergonomic metric ranks higher than the "it just works" factor. And Macs blazed the trail in that regard. They've never been in any danger of losing that lead.

But hey, it's a large nation. Some people get great satisfaction working hard to get their rigs to do something that Mac users can do with a tap of the trackpad. That's OK. Different strokes...

Stevie Ray said...

For those of you who just can't live with a glossy portable computer screen, I suggest wearing a well-used pair of safety goggles like those used in high school chemistry labs.

WORKS FOR ME!

Dean Baird said...

Ya know, with the right grit of sandpaper and some patience, a glossy screen could be corrected.

cheap computers said...

The keyboard and monitor are way to close: either you are looking too far downward, or the keyboard is way too high.