Apple hardware engineers talk iMac color depth, new accessories, and more in new interview

To go along with the release of its new iMac and accessories, Apple has given unprecedented access to its Input Design Lab to journalist Steven Levy, who was able to interview members of Apple's iMac and accessory team, along with SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller. The interviews touched on many details, including getting the sound right on the new Magic Mouse 2.

Senior Mac hardware director Tom Boger talked about the color technology in the displays of the new iMacs:

"We've given these a wider color gamut. Basically means they have a bigger palette of colors they can display," he says. All high-end displays aspire to represent the full range of colors that the human eye can possibly see, which is a giant technological challenge. The previous industry standard was called sRBG (Standard Red Blue Green), which captured a pretty good chunk of the color spectrum. Currently, Apple's Retina displays deliver 100 percent sRGB. "We are very proud of that — a lot of monitors don't even do a hundred percent of sRGB. So that was really good," says Bogar.

In building its new displays, Apple explored, but ultimately passed on quantum dot technology because it required a toxic element, cadmium. They instead found a custom LED solution.

Apple's VP for Ecosystem Products and Technologies, Kate Bergeron, also talked about redesigning the Magic Keyboard, the new model of which is smaller, but with bigger keys.

Though the key caps on the Magic Keyboard are larger than on the previous version, Bergeron also revealed that one prototype had even bigger keys. "We did a lot of development early on and probably went down a path that was more extreme than it needed to be, so we backed up a little bit." The result, she says, is very minimalist. "We made the surface area as much of the keys as you can, and minimized the border around that keyboard to take up as little space on the desktop as possible. It weighs less than the one before, and it maintains rigidity."

You can read the entire set of interviews at the link below.

Source: Backchannel

Joseph Keller

Joseph Keller is the former Editor in Chief of iMore. An Apple user for almost 20 years, he spends his time learning the ins and outs of iOS and macOS, always finding ways of getting the most out of his iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.