Apple Sued Over MacBook Display Quality

Apple is fighting off another lawsuit, this time over claims that its advertising surrounding Macbook displays are misleading.

The suit was filed May 3 by California residents Fred Greaves and Dave Gatley in San Diego County Superior Court. It claims Apple's assertions that the displays can support "millions of colors" are false, as those colors are made possible through a process called dithering.

Complaints on the displays have appeared on several Apple enthusiast sites, including AppleInsider and MacNN. Several of these posts have been used as evidence in the filing.

Apple has allegedly told those who were complaining that they were being too picky and "imagining" the defects in the display, and the company has apparently refused to look into the problem.

Dithering is a procedure used in computer displays in order to trick the human eye into seeing a color by painting nearby pixels with different shades of a color to produce the desired shade.

Apple says that the displays are capable of 8 bits per channel, which should amount to over 16 million colors without dithering. However the suit alleges that the displays may actually only support 6 bits per channel, which means they would support only 262,144 colors.

Greaves and Gatley are seeking relief and reimbursement as well as class-action status for their suit. In addition, they are asking the court to prevent Apple from using its claims of supporting "millions of colors" in advertising.

Neither Apple nor the law firm representing the claimants were responding to requests for comment.