New iPad makes even old movies look good

— -- The splendid screen on the brand new iPad that goes on sale Friday is getting lots of attention — and deservedly so. It is indeed a display worth raving about.

But you may be left wondering whether there's enough content out there to do it justice and how older material will look. The answer is "yes," there is plenty to view and even more coming. And as for how older, non-HD material looks on the iPad: not bad.

In the relatively early days of the high-definition era, when folks starting migrating from bulky analog tube televisions to larger flat screens, some standard TV fare actually looked pretty rotten. Back then, you were moving to a display with more pixels, or picture elements. But the number of pixels per inch, or pixel density — a standard measure of sharpness — got worse.

The 9.7-inch Retina display, as Apple calls it, on the new iPad has 2048x1536 resolution and 3.1 million pixels. That's four times the number of pixels on the iPad 2 and a million more than on an HDTV. And Apple says the pixels are packed so tightly together that your eyes, at a reasonable distance away, can't distinguish between them — leading to a sharper picture.

In my tests, even with an older classic movie such as The Graduate, which I streamed through the Netflix app, was easy on the eyes, though not supersharp. But the high-definition movies and music videos I downloaded through iTunes, or streamed through the likes of YouTube and Vevo, were simply stunning.

The Retina display does wonders for those who look at pictures on their tablet, read books, play games and surf the Web.

Resolution is only one part of the story, says Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies. "Improved color saturation is just as important." Though he hasn't tested the new iPad, Soneira says this resolution/color saturation combination makes the Pad an unbeatable tool for professional and office applications and medical imaging. "It will also be great for anyone that needs to refer to detailed documents and manuals, such as field service technicians, warehouse workers and pilots," he adds

For the average consumer with an iPad, it's more about entertainment or learning. Many app developers are updating or introducing apps to exploit the Retina display. Take Amazon. On one level with its Kindle Fire tablet, the online bookseller competes with Apple. But on Thursday, Amazon updated its Kindle for iPad app to take advantage of the latest display. Fonts are crisper, and the book covers in the Kindle library are brighter and sharper.

With new visual effects, Solar Walk: 3D Solar System Model from Vito Technology is another freshly updated app that looks sensational on the latest iPad. Other apps that have been optimized for the Retina display include Martha Stewart Cookies from Callaway Digital Arts, and SketchBook Pro from Autodesk.