First OS X 10.9.3 beta includes new 'Retina' resolution option for 4K displays

Late yesterday, Apple seeded the first beta of OS X 10.9.3 to Mac developers. The beta seemed insignificant, with no mention of any changes or new features; just a brief request that devs focus their testing on audio and graphics.

But as it turns out, there is at least one notable difference in the beta: a new 'Native' Retina resolution option for 4K displays. This enables users with compatible displays to use OS X in a noticeably sharper Retina mode at 60Hz…

MacRumors reports:

"The compatibility was first discovered by Twitter user @KhaosT, and was tested with both the Late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro and redesigned Mac Pro in conjunction with Dell's UltraSharp 24 Ultra HD Monitor.

To this point, OS X compatibility with 4K displays has been known to be somewhat erratic, as AnandTech revealed in December that Sharp's 32" 4K display supported only one scaled resolution at 2560 x 1440. Furthermore, it was discovered that Apple had chosen to render text, menu and UI elements in the same manner as the Retina MacBook Pro, resulting in small and difficult to read on-screen elements on a 4K display. Various other 4K monitors were also found to be not properly supported."

The enhancement not only bodes well for current 4K display users, but it could also serve as an indication that Apple plans to release higher-resolution hardware of its own soon. Both the iMac and Thunderbolt Display are due for updates.

Hong Kong Film New Action – 4K Movie Power

"Hong Kong Film New Action – 4K Movie Power" is organised by Create Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Film Development Council, and co-organised by the Association of Motion Picture Post Production Professionals (AMP4) and Hong Kong Productivity Council. The event with its focus on the future of 4K Movie, consists of two workshops, A thematic symposium and an exhibition booth displaying the related technologies, will be held during Filmart. Various aspects of 4K Movie such as production, post production, cinema & global delivery will be covered.

Workshop Entrance Overview

A. 4K Digital Movie Making

• Date: 21 March (Fri) & 22 March (Sat)
• Time: 0900 –1800/ 0900-1900
• Venue: A001, HKDI  • Fee (HKD): 600 • Seats: 150

B. Professional 4K Movie DIT and DMT Workshop

• Date: 22 March (Sat) – 23 March (Sun)
• Time: 1430 –1700/ 0900-1900
• Venue: A001, HKDI

& 

• Date: 24 March (Mon)
• Time: 0800-1600
• Venue: Comix Home Base, Wan Chai • Fee (HKD): 2,400 • (Interested party who would like to join both workshops can have 50% tuition fee covered of the class '4K Digital Movie Making') • Seats: 30

Admission Requirements

1. Permanent resident of HKSAR
2. Strong interest to join the digital cinema industry
3. Basic knowledge of digital movie production and distribution

First Come First Serve ! Full detail download the pdf here. You can register online here.

Source: HKCPUG

Asus Zenbook NX500 4K ultrabook on the way

Asus is reportedly working on a new 15 inch ultrabook with a 4K, Ultra HD display. It's called the Asus Zenbook NX500 and the laptop reportedly an aluminum body, an anti-glare display, and Bang & Olufsen audio.

The Zenbook NX500 wouldn't be the first 15 inch ultrabook from Asus. It'll likely replace the aging Asus UX51 line of ultrabooks which have measly 1080p touchscreen screens and Intel Ivy Bridge processors.

Details about the new model are pretty scarce, but it seems likely the laptop will have an Intel Haswell CPU, and I wouldn't rule out a discrete graphics card to help power the Ultra HD display (Intel's integrated graphics could probably get the job done without any help, but Asus tends to charge premium prices for its 15 inch Zenbooks, so the new model will probably have the premium specs to match).

I've always been a bit wary of lumping 15 inch and large ultrathin notebooiks into the same category as smaller “ultrabooks,” when they can weigh as much as 5 pounds. But an Asus laptop that measures less than an inch thick, weighs less than 5 pounds, and has a 4K display certainly sounds like something to keep an eye out for.

Via Notebook Italia
  

Taiwanese 4K TV Panel Makers Taking Lead, Says NPD DisplaySearch

NPD DisplaySearch just published its predictions about which companies will be making the most 4K TV panels in 2014, according to which Taiwanese manufacturers will for the first time have overtaken Korean brands by producing more than half of the world's panels.

The study shows Innolux and AUO to account for 58% of global 4K panel shipments in 2014, followed by Koreans LG Display and Samsung Display, which, combined, fall well behind at 25%, followed by Chinese brands, ChinaStar and BOE, at 14%.

The sudden surge among Taiwanese panel manufacturers can be attributed to high demand from the Chinese market, where 4K panels are used in entry-level and mid-range TVs. ChinaStar is expected to sell 90% of its 2014 4K panels to the biggest Chinese TV makers (TCL, Hisense, Skyworth, Konka, Changhong, etc.), while BOE, Innolux and AUO plan to ship the majority of their panels (70%, 57% and 56% of their stocks, respectively) to the same brands. Koreans LG and Samsung, on the other hand, are opting to save their Ultra HD panels for only their highest-end TV models like the LG LA970V and Samsung F9000, resulting in lower annual volume.

Says Debra Yang of DisplaySearch, "the 4K display demand from their related TV brands is critical to the ability of Samsung Display and LG Display to compete effectively within the growing 4K TV market. The ability of the Korean panel makers to expand 4K panel production is dependent on their success in securing more 4K display clients, beyond satisfying the needs of their own 4K TV brands."

"The rise of the 4K TV market is mainly driven by the supply side, while leading TV brands are concerned about the value proposition of 4K TVs. While some TV brands are considering increasing their 4K TV shipment targets, we continue to see a mismatch between 4K TV panel supply plans and consumer purchasing expectations."

Sony Xperia Z2 4K video recording from the air

As everyone knows, any story that goes a helicopter instantly improves. And it is not the same stroll through Barcelona to test the latest camera or mobile to portray and save the city from the sky.

Aware of this, Sony Mobile chose to celebrate in style-pun intended-the arrival of your Xperia Z2 at the Mobile World Congress and took the helicopter ride press. A good opportunity to premiere the video recording mode with 4K counts based on Android and this is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding new smartphone.

It is true that, from a strictly technical point of view, are not the best circumstances for this test: a crystal interposed between the camera and the landscape, the harsh light of midday, it was three in the afternoon-the constant shake a helicopter ... But the truth is that it was one of those proposals that is hard to resist.

Half an hour of flight and travel back and forth between Barcelona and Montserrat-record we try to best-in 4K. Are We Ranked footage? Not as much as one might fear a priori, with a rate of about 400 MB per minute of recording. Something that logically implies that it has a rather high compression applied with corresponding effects on the fine details of the image.

This first test gives a fairly predictable results. The quality is good, at the height of the best Full HD video that can be obtained with a smartphone, but four times larger (3840 x 2160 points). After all, for that matter.

Video recorded with Sony Xperia Z2 in 4K resolution. To see it in this resolution, select "2160p 4K" option in YouTube quality settings.
 
That 4K is here to stay is evident. Take more or less sneak into homes, but so far as the recording devices are doing their homework.

But it is a mobile, of course, so you are also limitations there. For example, there are obvious problems with the dynamic range and the rolling shutter effect, clearly seen especially in the higher levels of jitter. The new image stabilizer does its job, but it is true that in such extreme conditions can not expect miracles.

But does it make sense to record 4K video with a mobile? Is the obvious question whenever a device with this functionality hits the market, and the new Xperia Z2 is no exception. While it is true that without some resolution of this TV can do, the good news is that YouTube already allows us to store the videos on this pending resolution have a display conditions. 

In any case, there is only 4K. Record clips with this resolution can also be an advantage when performing post production and full HD video mount leveraging that excess pixels to improve the bottom line.

Actually this is the same debate at the time lived around high resolution. That 4K is here to stay is evident. Take more or less sneak into homes, but so far as the recording devices are doing their homework. Sure like to have some advance too.

LG G Flex Android 4.4 update to add 4K video support

We have a very promising indicator for owners of the LG G Flex smartphone today, as it appears that the Android 4.4 update will add 4K video support. The phone famed for its curvaceous and flexible design arrived last November and launched on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, so this will be welcome news.

 

Although the addition of 4K video hasn’t been confirmed by LG, a reliable source according to Phone Arena, has tipped this information. This is reinforced by a User Agent profile that indicates the G Flex as offering 2160p video.

The same source also says that 120fps slow motion video will NOT be supported with the Android 4.4 update. An XDA member has already come up with a mod enabling an LG G2 with stock Android 4.4 to shoot 4K video as well as 120fps slow mo.

However, owners of the LG G Flex will only have to update it to Android KitKat to receive 4K video capabilities. It’s not yet clear exactly when the Android 4.4 update will roll out to the phone, but we’ll be following developments on this and will keep readers in the loop.

In the meantime it would be interesting to hear what owners of the LG G Flex think about 4K video on the way with the Android KitKat update? Do send us your comments to let us know.

4K & 4G LTE Rockchip RK2388 Tablet Processor Due In April

Rockchip is launching a new generation of processors for tablets this year and the new R3288 is coming in April it appears. The CPU is supposed to integrate 4G LTE network support and we’re expecting it on affordable tablets.

This is actually one of the first quad core Cortex A12 SoC product on the market and the CPU relies on a powerful quad core Mali T76X GPU. This allows for H.265 decoding, 4K video and as we said, 4G LTE. We’ve been hearing rumors about 4K display tablets for a while now, but we haven’t even seen the 2K models yet.

Since theoretically even lower end CPUs have 4K support, it would be high time for device makers to release such slates. Traditionally Rockchip has rivals like Allwinner, MediaTek and such, so expect similar processing solutions from them, or even better.

Source: Tabletnews

Future is fuzzy for 4K, ultra-high-definition TVs

4K programming has finally arrived for UHD TVs -- slowly.

Samsung's curved 4K ultra-high-definition TV uses the Internet streaming services of Comcast, Netflix, and Amazon for content.

Around this time last year, TV manufacturers trumpeted the arrival of 4K ultra-high-definition televisions. The pricey and often humongous TVs pack in four times as many pixels as top-of-the-line HD sets.

But new technology often faces a chicken-and-egg problem. Even if you bought a 4K UHD TV, what would you watch on it? Very few movies support the new resolution. Some Blu-ray players promise to convert regular high-definition video to something approximating ultra high definition, but such techniques are stopgap solutions while TV makers wait for Hollywood to catch up. Instead, online companies such as Netflix and YouTube have taken the lead.

"This year, we started to see delivery of 4K content, but what might be surprising to some is that [4K] streaming video will likely be first," says Steve Koenig, director of industry analysis for the Consumer Electronics Association.

On Feb. 14, the second season of "House of Cards" premiered on Netflix in 4K. The video-streaming service will also present all five seasons of "Breaking Bad" and many of Netflix's future original series in 4K.

YouTube has embraced a new way to encode video, one that will make it easier to handle ultra high definition. And Samsung teamed up with Comcast to create an online 4K video service that will run on Samsung TVs.

To enjoy this superior picture quality, you will need a UHD TV and an Internet connection of at least 15.6 megabits per second, according to Netflix. That's in line with some cable-modem speeds, but well beyond a DSL connection.

Cramming all that data onto a disc has been a problem for Hollywood. A 4K movie takes up about 100 gigabytes, according to Samsung. Most Blu-ray discs top out at 25 gigabytes. DVDs hold only 4.7 gigabytes. The group behind Blu-ray recently approved discs that can handle a full 4K movie, but studios have been slow to turn them around.

Right now, there's little reason to rush. The average TV size in the United States jumped from 22 inches in 1997 to 39 inches last year. But from a normal viewing distance, the human eye can't see the difference between HD and UHD until you get to 50- or 65-inch televisions. With current UHD TVs costing thousands of dollars, Hollywood can take its time – and the chicken-and-egg problem continues.

This article originally published at CSMonitor

Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 4K tablet hands-on review

We check out the performance of Qualcomm's new ARM-based super chip for tablets

Mobile World Congress 2014 saw a wave of new processors appear on the scene. This kicked of with Intel, when it launched a major offensive into the smartphone market, unveiling its dual-core Merrifield and quad-core Moorefield Atom processors. Not wanting to be outdone by the PC heavyweight, Qualcomm answered back, unveiling its latest top-end Snapdragon 805 64-bit processor.

Performance

On paper the Snapdragon 805 is pretty impressive. Built up of four Krait 450 cores with a maximum clock speed of 2.7GHz, the chip also integrates an Adreno 420 GPU and 128-bit memory interface. But a chip by itself is never the whole story, and it's all about how it works with the other parts and software in the device.

We got to test the Snapdragon running inside several demo Android tablets at Qualcomm's MWC stand, and we were very impressed by how well they ran. Trying out the first tablet with a variety of pre-installed applications, the device was lighting fast. We were particularly impressed with how well it dealt with heavier, more demanding tasks such as 1080p 3D gaming.
We're guessing this is due to the chip's upgraded Adreno 420 GPU, which is listed as offering 40 percent better performance than the older 320. It's also likely a consequence of the fact that the Adreno 420 GPU supports new hardware tessellation and geometry shaders for 4K rendering.

Hardware tessellation is a feature traditionally only seen in discrete GPUs for PCs and it has only recently been incorporated into DirectX and next-generation games consoles such as Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's Xbox One. For us the feature's inclusion on the Snapdragon 805 is sign that Qualcomm is working to further close the gap between PCs and tablets.

4K ultra HD resolution display

We noticed the biggest Snapdragon perk on a second tablet, which had a 10.1in 4K ultra HD 3840x2160 resolution display. This display quality is only possible on the tablet thanks to the advanced GPU and CPU combination in the Snapdragon 805, and we have to concede that the 4K display is a serious technical achievement.

Viewing a variety of images on the device, we found it one of the crispest and sharpest displays we've seen on a tablet. From, what we've seen of the test device so far, the display easily beat the iPad Air's performance. Holding the tablet as close to our face as we could, we still couldn't discern individual pixels on the screen.

As an added bonus the Snapdragon 805 also offers 4K video playback, featuring support for the hardware 4K HEVC (H.265) decode for mobile. Sadly, we didn't get a chance to test this during our hands on.

Chances

There's currently no word about when the first Snapdragon 805 tablets will be go on sale, but from what we've seen of the Qualcomm demo devices, we're pretty excited. The demo tablets we tried seemed lightning fast and, while we didn't get a chance to benchmark them, they did seem to offer substantially improved performance on Qualcomm's previous Snapdragon 800 processor.

That said, the real question isn't how the Snapdragon 805 compares with the 800, it is how it will match up to the performance of Intel's Moorefield. We're yet to get a chance to test this, but with Dell, Lenovo and Asus confirmed to be working on devices using the upgraded Atom chips, hopefully we won't have to wait long to do so.