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schuey100 · Apr 16, 2003, 11:30 AM

Ok, so does everyone have a white back lit keyboard or blue? From all the promo material I've seen. the keys light up blue but mine are white. Anyone have any idea why this might be? I think I would have preffered blue!

tooki · Apr 16, 2003, 11:32 AM

They're "pure" white, which looks blue when compared to the rather yellow shade of the incandescent light that many photos are taken in.

tooki

schuey100 · Apr 16, 2003, 11:41 AM

Okay, good explanation. BUT it still looks blue.
Just look at the 17" page on Apple. There's a small QT movie.

sonoronos · Apr 16, 2003, 11:48 AM

I'd go into an explanation of color temperature and why you can't have pure white anything, but I'm going to just say that it's white.

It's white, jim.

schuey100 · Apr 16, 2003, 11:50 AM

Originally posted by sonoronos:
I'd go into an explanation of color temperature and why you can't have pure white anything, but I'm going to just say that it's white.

It's white, jim.

hehe

Mohammed Al-Sabah · Apr 16, 2003, 04:21 PM

blue would have been better

mcs37 · Apr 16, 2003, 04:22 PM

Originally posted by Mohammed Al-Sabah:
blue would have been better

Rev B, anyone?

Over Achiever · Apr 16, 2003, 05:04 PM

It's white...and I thought they updated their site so that the movie looks white now...

Anyway I think white is best...but it one can change colors, that'd be cool, because red would work great for me. (Astronomers like red

)

Has anyone noticed that when you take out the battery on the 17", you can see the sleeping light? It's not white!...the LED passes through a green filter! ... so that makes be curious...

jtbowden · Apr 16, 2003, 07:09 PM

I imagine if you could get to the LED(s) that feed into the keyboard fiber optics, you could swap them out for any color you like (ignoring warranty implications). Apple probably used white because it is brightest and easiest to see in the dark. Just a guess. Maybe they aren't LEDs. Can most LEDs vary brightness? I don't recall them doing so. Anyway, just musing...

pamelah · Apr 17, 2003, 01:47 AM

Originally posted by schuey100:
Okay, good explanation. BUT it still looks blue.
Just look at the 17" page on Apple. There's a small QT movie.

They've updated it actually. It shows as white now. My assumption is that the prototype was blue but maybe they decided that the white was more of a contrast and went with their colour scheme? I like the white a lot better anyway. blue is so early nineties lol

Mastrap · Apr 17, 2003, 02:37 AM

Originally posted by tooki:
They're "pure" white, which looks blue when compared to the rather yellow shade of the incandescent light that many photos are taken in.

tooki

Professional photography is always taken with film and light source working together to supply "true" colours. So if it looks blue, chances are it was blue.

Rubens · Apr 17, 2003, 03:57 AM

Originally posted by Mastrap:
Professional photography is always taken with film and light source working together to supply "true" colours. So if it looks blue, chances are it was blue.

That quicktime movie is almost certainly computer generated. It's simply a matter of changing a light source/shader and re-rendering.

Mastrap · Apr 17, 2003, 06:13 AM

Originally posted by Rubens:
That quicktime movie is almost certainly computer generated. It's simply a matter of changing a light source/shader and re-rendering.

Ahh. I didn't know that, in which case apologies.

tooki · Apr 18, 2003, 12:42 PM

Originally posted by jtbowden:
I imagine if you could get to the LED(s) that feed into the keyboard fiber optics, you could swap them out for any color you like (ignoring warranty implications). Apple probably used white because it is brightest and easiest to see in the dark. Just a guess. Maybe they aren't LEDs. Can most LEDs vary brightness? I don't recall them doing so. Anyway, just musing...

Why swap out the LEDs when you could just put a color filter in?

Yes, LEDs can vary brightness. There are two ways: reduce voltage or vary the duty cycle. Apple's throbbing LEDs do the latter. What that means is that the LED is actually being turned on and off (many times per second), and the ratio of "on" to "off" is what creates the perceived brightness. (Persistence of vision allows us to see the "average" brightness as opposed to seeing it flash on and off.) I assume teh keyboard backlighting also uses the duty cycle to vary brightness.

(Varying the voltage would consume more power, I believe... any EEs out there who could elaborate?)

tooki