The current size of a “Cover” image, the optional large photo or other image that runs across almost the entire width of a Facebook page open in a browser window, is 851 X 315 pixels.

Besides the fact that this is an odd size in and of itself, it is vastly too low resolution for a wide variety of current devices displaying Facebook by either a browser window or the Facebook stand-alone app.

We are not talking about only the very new hiDPI, high-resolution or hi PPI devices hitting the market. Using the Facebook app on an old-school iPad 2 with the wimpy resolution of 1024×728, the app stretches the 851 pixel wide cover photo to the full width of the iPad 2, or 1024 pixels, when using the tablet in the horizontal position. This makes all cover images in the Facebook App for iPad look bad, or pixelated.

Therefore you have Facebook creating a new app that now does run on millions (maybe hundreds of millions) of devices, their app developers have the cover photo run the entire length of the device’s screen, and Facebook does not update/up-res the size of the image one can upload for a cover image.

This is not to mention the newer hiDPI (Retina) iPad and all the newer Android-based tablets that are also hiDPI that will want between 1400 and 2048 pixels to render that cover pict in all its visual glory. Even if Facebook were to compress a bit more, they at least need to give their users the needed pixel width in image uploads to allow for proper looking images.

Compounding the oddity of Facebook not upping the available resolution of the all-important cover image, you have all the various “ultrabooks” and other newer laptops with very many pixels per inch or PPI. The entire new line of Macbook Pro’s with Retina display that are 220 PPI. By next year every major manufacturer of laptops will have models with high-resolution displays, and most do right now. Hell, Intel warns of impending high-resolution explosion!

Facebook, fix this now. Flip the switch. Cannot believe this blog article is needing to be written at this time, over a full year after the initial release of the Facebook App for iPad.

UPDATED 12-13-13:

It is one thing to be born into an electronic interactive world, it has always been there for you; and it is one thing to have already been an adult, lacking the extreme learning abilities and child-like amazement of a new mind; and it is an entirely other experience to have been a young child EXACTLY when electronic interactive interface was let loose upon the world, and it was not with the personal computer and later the internet.

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It appears that some of the main graphic images used in Apple’s iTunes Store are of a lower visual quality than in the recent past. Look for some of the classic representations of image compression—noise, loss of edge clarity and tone roughness. Compression artifacts are especially recognizable in small and medium sized text.

Image quality changes appeared sometime around August 24-27, but this date range is unconfirmed. The alteration in image quality is consistent across multiple configurations including OS X, Windows and iOS on the iPad (iPhone images seem to still be very hi res).

The change in quality is obviously based on the amount of compression being applied. Apple may have chosen to forgo a bit of image clarity for a faster user experience. The change is not drastic, and most users may not even notice the subtle compression artifacts. This might speed up iTunes, but at the loss of a great looking experience for those of us who noticed…

Update: It seems this was simply a 48 hour hiccup, and all is back to normal—i.e. high-quality images back on iTunes.

I like to dabble in the visual design arts, and one of the input devices for my computer is a Wacom tablet. Specifically, a Bamboo Pen & Touch, allowing both an Apple-Trackpad-like experience, including all the gestures as well as the typical Pen-Mode input method. The touch interface works satisfactory, but not great or even well. The cursor movement is not smooth as it is with both the Apple Trackpad and with the same Wacom tablet while using the supplied pen. This may be a driver/software issue or it could be hardware. However, for most who buy any of the Wacom tablet line, using the device as a touch device is most likely a secondary concern to the input of the pen, where Wacom and their tablets do it the best.

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• Easy set-up.

• Low-cost.

• Highly-configurable.

• 100% Stainless steel (or brass).

• Widespread availability.

• Almost invisible.

• Cable grouping far less likely to fall behind desk.

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The iOS apps listed below are simply the best currently available for the iPad and they are all highly rated. Some of these iPad apps are not well known—a few under-appreciated and or rare iOS gems are included in this list. the iPad apps presented here are in no order of importance.

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Using Apple’s latest version of its web browser, Safari 4.0 beta in Microsoft Windows, one cannot help but notice the differences in font rendering philosophies (and algorithms) between Apple’s OS X and Windows. With the latest version of Safari for Windows one can switch font rendering methods on the fly–from the Mac OS X style to Window’s font rendering style.

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As I continue to hack my way through an attempt to blend my website with a new WordPress-Powered “True” Blog (as opposed to my current non-Blog, or false-Blog,  which is really an Articles section only calling itself a blog because ‘blog’ is currently more trendy of a term than ‘articles’), I find it necessary to throw up a few very quick blog posts for testing purposes. As usual for me, I am once again backing my way into the code from the design…

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Repost of a blog written in April of 2009. New-found relevancy with the launch of the iPad just days away… Cannot afford Apple’s new iPad? Well, Apple also has a lower-powered, pocketable, iPad Mini available for less than $200. If you thought an iPod Touch was just for music, its time you take another look at this wonderful little gadget who’s success in the marketplace most likely had a large role in the advent and production of Apple’s much-hyped iPad.

Here is the secret: The iPad is being hugely-hyped, the iPhone was massively-hyped, but the iPod Touch entered into the marketplace with little fanfare, and was largely seen as a device for kids—focused on music and games. Realistically, an iPod Touch is very much like a mini iPad, and the upcoming generation (4th) will most likely see the same, custom-made, ARM-based processor,  Apple’s A4—even if clocked at a lower speed than the iPad—which runs at 1Ghz.

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The official Digg app for the iPhone / iPod Touch became available on Wednesday in many parts of the world, but was not available in the US until approx. 11pm east coast time. It has been near half a year since Kevin Rose first publicly mentioned a Digg app for the iPhone. Presumably, the reason for the slowness in releasing the app is because Digg has been targeting their resources on a complete overhaul of the Digg.com website, focusing more on real-time information, images and “social media,” to compete with the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

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While most folks want to have a debate between Microsoft’s Office and Apple’s iWork, I have fallen in love with the new kid on the block in the Mac-world, IBM’s Lotus Symphony. Unlike Office and iWork, Symphony is free, which is a huge plus in the new economic scenario that companies and individual users find themselves in right now. I like the clean, lightweight and straightforward interface of Lotus Symphony. While this suite of productivity applications was released for Microsoft’s Windows and Linux a bit more than 2 years ago, I believe that the (still relatively) recent release for the Mac OS X Leopard (Intel only) might be the kick-start this set of applications needs—Linux has a small market share and most people in the Windows world are imprisoned by Microsoft’s hegemony.

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This past article is being re-posted and continuously updated on this WordPress-powered blog so people can post comments and questions. This article was originally published in December of 2008.

My most recent and fresh complaint with Apple has to do with an annoying clicking sound coming from the hard drive (HDD) of my early 2008 Macbook. This is not to be confused with a much louder and constant clicking sound of a soon-to-fail HDD. This is a more subtile, yet annoying click that is most obvious when the computer is not under heavy processing use. I just purchased this product directly from Apple as a refurbished unit. Although the machine is technically a refurbished unit, it is actually completely new, at least the HDD was, as that is easy to check. This “click” sound is yet another example of when a “bug” is actually considered a “feature.”

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If you are having issues with your Bluetooth mouse, keyboard or BT in general on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, I recommend downloading and installing the just-released software for the new Apple Magic Mouse.

Yesterday, when I saw that piece of software posted on the internet, its size perked my interest—checking in at 64mb compressed and 149mb uncompressed for the Snow Leopard version. At that size, this software update must contain more than a mouse driver. Keep reading →

Also included in this “top 10” list is one app so good it is worth the near $10 price and the inclusion in this listing. As a bonus, this article also features ten other free apps worth an honorable mention, for a total of 20 iPhone / iPod Touch must-have apps.

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