This year's “S-upgrade” to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus should introduce “the biggest camera jump ever,” as Apple pundit John Gruber claimed on his Daring Fireball blog. Numerous rumors have pointed to a resolution upgrade in the form of a twelve-megapixel camera on the back.
Thursday, an unconfirmed internal document that surfaced on Chinese microblogging website Weibo suggested that the back-facing camera of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will also capture video in 4K resolution.
Apple requested 4K video content from Sony Pictures back in 2013, according to recently leaked documents. WikiLeaks on Thursday dumped another 200,000+ documents stemming from last year's staggering Sony hack, and so far at least one Apple-related story has been uncovered.
AppleInsider points to a materials access letter from Culver Digital Distribution, an entity associated with Sony Pictures, that serves as a formal agreement for "testing and/or preparing" 4K film and television content for non-exclusive distribution. And it has Eddy Cue's signature on it.
If you purchased Apple's new fifteen-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display and Force Touch trackpad, congratulate yourself as you're the proud owner of Apple's very first notebook capable of driving external displays in glorious 5K resolution.
The new 15-inch MacBook Pro also support single-stream 4K screens at a 4,096-by-2,160 display resolution at 60Hz, another first for Apple.
So you thought the new 4K television you paid ridiculous amounts of money for during Christmas was going to be supported by Apple soon enough? Sorry bud, maybe a couple more years.
Apple scoopster John Paczkowski of Buzzfeed reports that when Apple's next-generation Apple TV is released to the market later this year, it will lack 4K video capability, even as the television industry grasps onto the new technology that provides a more detailed and immersive viewing experience.
The Video Electronics Standards Association, or VESA, announced yesterday an update to the Embedded DisplayPort standard used in notebooks, desktop computers and other devices.
An improvement over the current DisplayPort 1.2a, the Embedded DisplayPort Standard 1.4a paves the way for notebooks, tablets, smartphones and all-in-ones with screen resolutions of up to 8K, or a whopping 7,680-by-4,320 pixels.
First gadgets using the new standard, based on Intel's upcoming SkyLake chipsets, are expected to hit the market by 2016.
Joining Netflix which offers 4K (or Ultra HD) video and video sharing websites like Google's YouTube and Vimeo that offer streaming in 4K resolution, Amazon on Tuesday said its Prime subscribers can stream select television shows and movies in the high-quality 4K picture resolution.
These Ultra HD movies and TV shows are accessible through the Amazon Instant Video app on compatible Ultra HD smart TVs, including models from LG, Samsung and Sony, with more added next year.
The online retail giant did not say when Prime customers can expect to stream 4K content through mobile Instant Video apps.
While some photography apps in the App Store — such as the $49.99 Vizzywig 8xHD — make shooting film-like 4K footage on an iPhone a reality by taking a series of individual eight-megapixel images in rapid succession, the general public and techies alike are totally unaware that the latest iPhones are actually capable of rendering 4K 3,840-by-2,160 pixel video.
And who could blame them? After all, Apple's been conspicuously mum about it. But as it turns out, the A8 chip ticking inside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus provides enough oomph to seamlessly handle 4K content playback.
The surprising discovery was made public last week by Softorino (via TUAW), the developers of WALTR, a new Mac app which makes it easy to upload and convert any video or audio file to an iOS-friendly format for native playback on iPhones, iPads, iPods and Apple TVs.
While it makes little sense to render massive 4K videos on the 1,334-by-750 and 1,920-by-1,080 pixel resolution screens of the respective iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones due to inevitable downsampling, the very fact that the A8 processor can handle 4K content is important on many levels.
Apple is said to be releasing a 27-inch iMac with Retina display and a new high-resolution 27-inch Thunderbolt Display by the end of the fourth quarter of 2014, Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes reported Friday citing a report from Taiwan-based display researchers WitsView.
The upcoming Thunderbolt Display should feature a 5K resolution of a whopping 5,120-by-2,880 pixel versus the 2,560-by-1,440 pixel resolution on the current Thunderbolt Display.
As many of you know, I'm rocking a 13" Retina MacBook Pro, and I love it. The screen is killer, it's fairly fast, and it's portable.
But as I begin to take on more "intense" projects, I'm starting to realize that I simply don't have enough screen real estate to be the most productive I can be. I need an external monitor.
The problem is, and if you're a current Retina MacBook owner you've no doubt faced a similar conundrum, most of the popular external displays pale in comparison to the Retina display. Even Apple's mighty Thunderbolt Display, with its 27" screen and 2560x1440 native resolution, looks downright grainy when placed side-by-side with the Retina screen of a MacBook Pro.
So what to do? You could hold off until Apple finally decides it wants to get with the program and offer a Retina capable Thunderbolt Display, or...or...or! You could get a ultra-HD 4K capable monitor right now and enjoy a "Retina" experience.
That's exactly what I decided to do. Inside, I'll break down some of the pluses and minuses of my latest pickup, Dell's ($799 on Amazon) 24" ultra-HD display, the UP2414Q.
Perhaps the key headline feature of the newly-released OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 is proper support for external 4K monitors. Previously, Mavericks would render text, icons and other user interface elements as-is, so everything appeared tiny due to the densely packed pixels on 4K monitors.
OS X 10.9.3 uses pixel-doubling to enable a true Retina experience where the size of the user interface does not change, it's just a lot sharper because OS X has a lot more pixels per square inch to work with.
Apple has now refreshed its support document with detailed information regarding compatible 4K monitors, display modes, video interfaces and Macs...
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...
Google's hasn't enjoyed much success with VP8, a video codec it developed back in 2010 as a H.264 replacement for efficient video streaming. The Chrome browser supports VP8 codec out-of-the-box (so no plug-in required), but Google's plans for VP8 domination were shattered by literally non-existent support from major industry players.
As a result, VP8 has never gained hardware-acceleration because chip makers opted to stand firmly behind H.264, an industry-standard video codec Apple's devices support natively and on the silicon level.
At next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Internet giant will be showing off YouTube streaming in a 4K resolution of 3,840 pixels by 2,160 lines via its brand new royalty-free video codec, VP9.
This time around, Google has lined up an impressive list of industry players who will back the new format. Notably absent: a certain fruity company...