Do you name your hardware? I think you should call it John.
If you need an obnoxious, not quite blind but not really able to see, tester, you can fly me over to stare at your new toy. I’m not busy the next couple of weeks.
If you need someone to test on the Sony Vaio Z series (fully specced), please feel free to FedEx me one.
Eh? Crichton? Thomas?
That’s incredibly generous of you and I shall bear that in mind. 
I do what I can to help.
That and it is almost vacation time which is always trying due to the presence of “the family” whenever I start finding something fun to do (like mowing the grass, painting the barn, cleaning the loft). You would be doing them a favor…
Keith,
As soon as you can will you answer two questions. First, how does Scrivener look on the new pro in its present yet to be updated state. And second, can you give us any kind of time frame for how long the update will take to push through. It can be a wide margin of time. I just want to know if getting one is a waste of my time at this date.
Thanks,
John
My Pro has shipped but I’m guessing it’s coming from China so will probably be another couple of weeks. There’s no reason to think that Scrivener is going to look bad on it, though - it’s going to look the same as almost every other non-Apple program at the moment, with scaled-up graphics that just look a bit blocky around the edges. I can’t really say how long it will take to update the graphics, though - a couple of months? Maybe more? It depends how long it takes the graphic artist. It’s a big job. We have dozens of 32x graphics, each with a 24x variant, all of which will need 64x and 48x variants. Then there are hundreds of other graphics used for things such as the formatting bar, the footer bars and so on… I’ll have my own work cut out for me too. And a higher priority is getting Mountain Lion ready and getting 2.3 out the door in the next month or so.
And when is Apple going to update Pages to be Retina display compatible? I really want to see how Pages is handling the toolbar graphics. Having both a small and large variant of toolbar graphic is handled by having two sizes of image within the same file, but with the Retina display it seems that this trick is now being used to resize images for the Retina display… The Apple documentation has yet to make it clear how to handle multiple sizes of toolbar image and different images for different resolutions - the two seem to clash. So it would be really helpful to see a real-world example (iLife apps, which have been updated, don’t use different sized toolbar icons, so they aren’t any good as an example).
I would guess it’s going to be a few months before you start seeing all your favourite programs being Retina display ready.
All the best,
Keith
Thanks for the reply! I cancelled my order just now. It appears I won’t be helped that much at the moment by spending all that money. It’s disappointing, but I guess most things have growing pains. It feels like Apple should have waited, but my guess is the computer needs to be out and selling to really push people to do updates.
Please keep us advised as to your overall impression of the computer when you do eventually receive it.
Thanks,
John
KB: When you say “Blocky round the edges”… is that in comparison to native Retina software (fine) or would it appear blocky in comparison to running on a non-Retina screen? I’d assume only the former? Can anyone with both Retina and Non-Retina iPads confirm?
Bear in mind that I haven’t seen Scrivener running on a Retina screen yet (other than via Air Display on my iPad 3, which is so tiny it doesn’t show anything, really). But I would say it would look blocky in comparison to both. This is because, on a Retina display, every pixel on a normal display will be represented by four pixels. So the toolbar graphics and suchlike will look slightly more blocky in comparison to other graphics in the program that are drawn in code or by the system, and so these internal contrasts will make it look more blocky than on a normal display where everything is that blocky… Er, probably. Like I say, I’m just speculating.
That’s the thing. The technology to support Retina displays has been built into OS X since Snow Leopard. But who is going to pay thousands to a graphic designer to create loads of new graphics when there isn’t a single hardware device out there that will use them, and when there’s no guarantee Apple won’t do something different in the end? So now that the hardware is out there, developers have an incentive to start cashing out on new graphic files. I wonder if that’s one reason Apple has stuck to introducing this in one machine for now, too - it gives developers the incentive to update their graphics, but the period in which it takes developers to do this won’t inconvenient too many users because it’s only one new (and expensive) computer that supports these graphics in the line up, and it gives Apple time to refine the tech for their other machines…
Okay, so if I"m reading this right…
The worst reasonably expected case is that it’ll look exactly the same as it does now, but with better looking menus and toolbars, andy you have upside potential as software gets updated.
It appears Scrivener will actually look worse on the retina screen until it is updated. The screen replaces one pixel with four so it goes from a circle to a square more or less. Round shapes converted to squares won’t look good.
KB Do you know if text will look good at the moment, or is the update required to make it look good. I don’t know programming, but I have read a certain type of text is designed to be upgraded by the computer and look good now. Can you explain if this is true provided you know without having received the computer?
Thanks
John
As mentioned above, it should only look worse in comparison to other graphics on the Retina display, not necessarily in comparison to non-Retina displays. If the four pixels on the Retina display take up exactly the same physical space as one pixel on a regular display, then one pixel on the regular display taking up four on the Retina display will look the same on both screens in the image is the same physical size. Moreover, remember that very few apps have been updated for a Retina display yet, so Scrivener won’t look worst compared to most other apps, only to the handful that Apple has updated so far (and it hasn’t released many yet, beyond Aperture and iLife apps).
Test is rendered by the OS, not by graphic files, so no update is required to make it look good. The only graphics that require updating are those that rely on image files built into an application package; anything drawn using code (such as text) doesn’t need any updating. (Because the program just says, “draw a curve here”, and on a Retina display OS X will use twice as many pixels - or four times as many pixels, rather - to draw it.)
All the best,
Keith
Well, it arrived! The screen is amazing. The graphics in Scrivener - the ones in the toolbar and binder - definitely look a little fuzzy. Text is incredibly clear, though, everywhere.
I have to say that had it not been for needing this machine to test the graphics on, though, I would never have bought it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful machine, but it feels enormous and very heavy compared to my beloved MBA11.
All the best,
Keith
Thanks for the info. That’s very helpful. Too many reviewers have given very vague info on the reality of what is and isn’t fuzzy and how that affects use of apps etc. This is very helpful and doesn’t sound like its too bad to use.
I have a 13 and 11 inch air because I broke the thirteens screen and couldn’t wait on the repair. I like both and switch back and forth when one feels too cramped or too big. 13 is also the 2010 non backlit keyboard and I type fast, but I don’t formally know how to type. I’m too slow that way.
I agree a fifteen is quite a step up in size and weight even if they made it lighter. I know the back of my 13 screen flexes in far more than my 11. The 11 is very stiff. It played a role in my breaking the screen through the back of it. I’m betting they will have a very hard time making a 15 air that is strong enough using aluminum.
I will wait to see if an 11 or 13" air retina comes out. That will be sweet if it does.
Is this the sort of thing that would show up on a screenshot?
Feel free to just send it on over stateside when you’ve finished looking at the graphics… 8) You know, for further testing.
$5 raffle?
Oh, you poor thing… 
Not surprising really … about 4 times the weight? But on the other hand, I’m sitting here thinking, “If I’d known this was coming out, I wouldn’t have bought my new 17” MBP — getting on for twice the weight of this new one, I think — last November."
And it’s for reasons of weight that I’ve only brought my 13" MBA with me for this time in China. I do miss having the screen space of the MBP for some purposes, though. I don’t think of the 17" as a laptop, leave alone a notebook; it’s a “moveable desktop”!
Mark