Jul 19
Jul 16
We reported on the possibility of Windows 8.1 receiving automatic desktop scaling a few months ago, but it looks like the next version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system may do a little better than offering automatic scaling. It looks like Microsoft […]
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Jul 12
Jul 11
LG has announced an expansion to its ultra high-definition 4K line of TVs, this time with full-backlit LED 55-inch and 65-inch models. In addition, there has also been unveiled an 84-inch UHD model, which is the first to be made available to buyers in the United States. If you’re in the market for the 84-inch version, you’ll need to shell out a whopping $20,000 and head to LG’s Santa Monica retail store.
The 55-inch and 65-inch ultra high-definition TVs feature 4.1-channel 50-watt sound system that includes what LG calls a sliding speaker, which is mounted on a motorized sound bar that automatically surfaces beneath the panel. As for the display itself, LG used its Nano Full LED backlighting along with an IPS display.
The TVs feature a picture resolution of 3840 x 2160, as well as the Tru-Ultra HD engine that upscales content via a four-step process. In addition, the LA9700 utilized an H.265 HEVC (high-efficiency video coding) decoder, which will make the sets compatible with new 4K standards that may be implemented in the future for streaming and broadcast.
LG Electronics’ senior vice president Jay Vandenbree said: and head of LG’s U.S. home entertainment business. “When we brought the first Ultra HD TV to market last fall, consumer acceptance was surprisingly strong, considering that the 84-inch TV carried a $20,000 pricetag. Now, with a wider range of sizes at more attractive prices, even more consumers can enjoy the amazing picture clarity that Ultra HD TVs provide.”
In addition, the 55-inch and 65-inch models feature the Smart TV offering from LG, which provides features like Cinema 3D and Magic Remote for voice control. The smaller model has a suggested retail price of $5,999, says LG, while the 65-inch model has a suggested retail price of $7,999.
SOURCE: PR Newswire
LG unveils LA9700 series 4K Ultra HD LED 55-inch and 65-inch TVs is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 10
Samsung has unveiled the pricing and pre-order date for its Ultra High-Definition 4K TV F9000 series line of devices, which will start at $5,499 and will be available to pre-order on July 21. This follows in line with its S9 ultra high-definition TVs the Korean maker showed off earlier in 2013, and includes technology that will allow it to be compatible with new UHD standards that will come in the future.
The F9000 line of UHD 4K TVs will be available in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes, with the former having an estimated price of $5,499 and the latter at $7,499. Pre-ordering will go live on July 21 from “select authorized retailers” in the United States, while shipping is expected to begin at an unspecified date in early August.
Both of the models run on Samsung’s Quadmatic Picture Engine, which utilizes a four-step process for delivering images, which is comprised of noise minimization, upscaling to 4K, image enhancement of less-than-4K content, and signal analysis. The upscale conversion takes place for standard-definition content all the way up through full 1080p video feeds. As mentioned, there’s also compatibility with future 4K standards via the Evolution Kit.
The F9000 series features 2.2 channels of 2-way 70watt sound, an Ultra Slim Bezel, and Precision Black Local Dimming technology. The latter feature boosts black levels (as well as constrast) by dimming the darker areas of a picture selectively while leaving the lighter portions alone. There’s also a feature called Micro Dimming Ultimate, which works to enhance the contrast and sharpen the video feed.
As far as software goes, the F9000 TVs feature Samsung’s Smart TV with the Smart Hub interface, allowing for the use of apps, social networks, and more.
Samsung America’s Executive VP Joe Stinziano said: “Revolutionizing the home entertainment viewing experience is a hallmark of the Samsung brand. The F9000 series are Evolutionary TVs that will give consumers great peace of mind in their entertainment investment. Now home entertainment lovers will have the opportunity to truly see and enjoy their favorite shows and movies like never before, in crystal-clear ultra high-definition, and in the beautifully designed 55- and 65-inch sizes they demand.”
SOURCE: BusinessWire
Samsung F9000 UHD 4K TV series pricing and pre-order date unveiled is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 02
The Apple Thunderbolt Display is long overdue a makeover. Revealed in July 2011, the 27-inch monitor has watched generations of MacBook come and go – and, until this year at least, the Mac Pro stagnate with no compatibility whatsoever – and, despite the iMac aesthetic it originally echoed being significantly upgraded last October, still languishes with its original design. Sometimes, with Apple, you have to be patient. The company has, for the most part, a yearly refresh cycle, but the Thunderbolt Display is (in tech terms) old. Still, that arguably just gives Apple the chance to do something particularly special with the new Thunderbolt Display – so here’s my wish list.
The current Thunderbolt Display makes most sense when paired with either a MacBook Air or Pro, or the Mac Mini. Its 27-inch, 2560 x 1440 resolution LED-backlit IPS panel still looks great, even several years after its original debut, though it’s undeniably lacking in pixels compared to the Retina technology Apple is rolling out on its MacBook Pro notebooks.
What it hasn’t played nicely with is the existing Mac Pro, which until the upcoming 2013 iteration has lacked Thunderbolt support. Instead, Apple has kept the older, 27-inch LED Cinema Display around, effectively identical bar the use of a Mini DisplayPort connection.
The new Mac Pro, the stubby cylinder announced to great fanfare at WWDC 2013 last month, in fact introduces Thunderbolt 2 to Apple’s range (and the tech world at large). Delivering twice the bandwidth of Thunderbolt, by combining the two 10 Gbit/s channels into one, 20 Gbit/s pipe, it’s capable of full 4K UltraHD resolution and, in fact, of simultaneously displaying it on an external screen while also transferring it.
So, Thunderbolt 2 would be the first thing on my shopping list for the new Thunderbolt Display, not least because that extra bandwidth would be useful for turning the monitor into a hub. Since Thunderbolt (1 and 2) supports daisy-chaining up to six devices from a single host port, the use of the newer connection type means even more potential for high-bandwidth applications routed through the display.
The current Thunderbolt Display offers a gigabit ethernet port, FireWire 800, a second Thunderbolt connection for daisy-chaining, and three USB 2.0 ports. A humble upgrade would see that USB switched for the faster USB 3.0 standard.
“A wish list needn’t be humble: I want an external GPU”
Still, a wish list needn’t be humble, and so what I’d really like to see is the Thunderbolt Display gain its own external GPU. We’ve already seen some attempts at Thunderbolt-connected external graphics – Lucid showed off one, based on AMD’s Radon 6700, back in September 2012; it was capable of boosting a standard ultrabook from native 28fps to 89fps – but the argument for including it in the new monitor makes even more sense when you look at how the rest of Apple’s range is developing.
On the one hand, you have the MacBook Air, most recently upgraded with Intel’s fourth-gen “Haswell” Core processors. Now, Haswell is great for battery life – we comfortably exceeded Apple’s own 12hr runtime predictions, and that’s likely to get even longer when OS X Mavericks arrives later this year – but it doesn’t do much for graphical crunching. How much better to be able to plug in a new Thunderbolt Display and instantly get the benefit of extra GPU power when you most likely need it, right on the desktop.
The MacBook Pro is more GPU-potent from the start, thanks to its discrete chipset, but it too could still benefit from the addition of standalone graphics support where no compromise for power consumption would be required. The GPU in a new Thunderbolt Display could count on a mains power source, and as such not have to sacrifice any potency in the name of prolonging runtimes.
It’s with the new Mac Pro 2013 that such a display enhancement makes most sense, though. The compact diminutive workstation comes with dual-GPUs out of the box, but from the moment Apple first previewed it there were questions as to how upgrade-friendly the double Radeons would be. In fact, the whole Mac Pro redesign shifts from internal improvements to the benefits plugging in external components can bring, whether that be more storage, optical drives, or something else.
So, rather than swap out the onboard graphics, plugging in a new Thunderbolt Display could simply add to them. Mac developer Guy English wrote at length last month about the potential for parallel GPU processing (something AMD itself has been talking about consistently for its last few product cycles too, as part of its Heterogeneous Computing drive) and how the new Mac Pro will open up a fresh age of enormous compute power, along with Apple’s apparent shift away from pure benchmark boasts and toward the sort of real-world applications of today.
Even with the slimmed-down design of the current iMac, there’s certainly room in the 27-inch model for an extra GPU or two. In fact, since it’s my wish list and I can add what I like, I’d probably take up a little more of it with some onboard flash storage, adding to the internal capacity of whatever Mac is plugged in. We’ve already seen that Thunderbolt (1) external drives with solid-state memory can be as fast as internal drives; certainly enough to manipulate high-resolution video from, without any performance hit compared to when dealing with locally-stored files.
The biggest question is resolution. Right now, the 27-inch iMac runs at 2,560 x 1,440; Apple changed the panel sandwich itself in late-2012, optically-laminating the various layers together so as to improve visual quality, but the sheer number of pixels hasn’t been changed for some time. Despite ongoing rumors of a Retina iMac, for one reason or another – likely price and component availability – we’re yet to see it happen.
In an ideal world, Apple could step up to Ultra HD resolution (3,840 x 2,160) and blow our eyes away. Thunderbolt 2 certainly supports it. However, there’s a dearth of 27-inch Ultra HD panels out there right now; the closest you get, really, is Sharp’s 31.5-inch IGZO Ultra HD screen, which we’ve seen begin to show up in commercial monitors.
Apple is already believed to have an “in” with Sharp, which could certainly give it some leverage for snapping up the coveted panels. That would make for a big Thunderbolt Display 2nd-gen, however, both in terms of price and desk size. One possibility, then, could be a return to the days of multiple Apple display size options: perhaps a 27-inch version, running at the existing resolution, and then a larger model delivering Ultra HD for those that have the depth of wallet for it.
Whether Apple opts to cater to the cash-strapped, Ultra HD seems a case of “when” not “if”; after all, Phil Schiller already billed Final Cut Pro X with 4K support as being one of the key developments for the 2013 Mac Pro, even illustrating it during the WWDC keynote with a shot of a triple display setup powered by the workstation. If Apple doesn’t give its highly-paid top tier developers (and traditional Mac Pro audience) the monitors to match, someone else will, and I can’t see the canny Cupertino firm allowing itself to miss the opportunity.
The new Mac Pro tells, among many things, the story of Apple’s fresh attitude to modularity. Fitting everything bar the kitchen sink into a single box – and leaving room for twice as much again – is the old way; better, Apple seems to be saying, to take advantage of high-speed interconnects like Thunderbolt 2 to grow more organically, adding external components piecemeal as needed.
Apple could simply refresh the Thunderbolt Display with a new casing and the second-gen connection. It’d probably sell plenty, too. Still, I can’t help but wish that some of the company’s ambition filters down from the team responsible for the new Mac Pro, and the new Thunderbolt Display 2 becomes more than just a screen.
Dear Apple, here’s what I want from the new Thunderbolt Display is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 02
Sharp is keen to disabuse ASUS of the assumption it will have the best Ultra HD display news today, one-upping the PQ321Q with a 4K2K pen-enabled touchscreen. The Sharp PN-K322B, set to hit the market on June 30, monopolizes your desk with a 32-inch 3,840 x 2,160 IGZO LCD panel that can be sketched on,
Jun 27
We first got a look at Toshiba‘s upcoming Ultra HD 4K TVs in January at CES, with the company providing a lot of specs, but nothing in the areas of pricing, with availability being pegged as “summer 2013.” It has been a solid six months, and both the price tag and the launch date of
Jun 26
Jun 12
Mac Pro 2013 Final Cut Pro X update confirmed: Is a 4K Thunderbolt Display next?
Posted in: Today's ChiliApple will release a new version of Final Cut Pro X tailored to the 4K capabilities of the new Mac Pro 2013, the company has confirmed, refueling rumors of an updated, far higher resolution Thunderbolt Display to match the workstation’s graphics capabilities. The new Mac Pro, previewed during Apple’s WWDC keynote on Monday, will arrive
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