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Animated code art uses all of its colors just once
You probably know that the screen on your computer or phone can display millions of colors, if not more. However, have you wondered what it would look like if you tried to represent all of those colors in a single piece of art? Well, you're looking at it. Qubit researcher and math guru Mike Swarbrick Jones has posted a code-driven animation that shows all the colors in a 24-bit RGB palette exactly once. The technique (which relies on mapping colors to voxels, or 3D pixels) produces a kind of "rainbow smoke" that, as you can see in the clip below, is rather hypnotic -- it's tempting to watch it on a loop and meditate. While this won't produce a masterpiece, it's proof that a good idea and the right calculations can lead to some truly eye-catching (not to mention mind-bending) visuals.
Technics has a hi-fi music download service, too
In order to give its high-end audio wares the proper content to offer pristine listening, Panasonic's Technics brand is building its own hi-fi music store. Launching in the UK and Germany next year, Technics Tracks will serve up a library of 24-bit FLAC audio files, a number of which will boast a 92kHz sampling rate. In addition to the high-resolution selections, a collection of 16-bit/44.1kHz CD-quality tracks will be available as well via the service being tooled by 7Digital -- an outfit that operates a high-quality download repository of its own. Of course, Neil Young's Pono service and player are on the way as well, and with Tidal's recent launch, your high-resolution listening habit can now afford to be a bit more selective. When it arrives in Janurary, Android, iOS and desktop apps will be available for shopping and organizing cloud-stored music until you're ready to download.
Wolfson WM5110 audio chip outputs 'studio master' sound, may appear in next Galaxy S (ears-on)
What you're looking at above is a demo board carrying a next-gen Wolfson WM5110 audio chip for smartphones. This bit of silicon isn't in any market-ready handsets just yet, hence the DIY setup, but given Wolfson's well-cemented partnership with Samsung there's every chance this'll be the audio hub in the next Galaxy S, as well as potentially in other manufacturers' phones coming out in 2014. One of the WM5110's headline features is the ability to handle high sample rate music tracks at 24-bit and 192KHz, aka "studio master" or "better than CD quality" sound. Such skills are generally reserved for pricey standalone DACs like iRiver's AK100, which allows Wolfson to claim that this is the first implementation for inside a smartphone. We have an ears-on video for you after the break, but it's not much use for judging audio quality -- the event was too noisy even for us to attempt that, so we'll just wait to do another audio round-up in more controlled conditions -- but at least there's some proof of principle. On the other hand, if you're unconvinced as to whether 192KHz is even a worthwhile spec to have in smartphones, then read on to learn about some of the WM5110's other abilities, which have a more practical bent.
Aperion Audio Intimus 4T Summit touts uncompressed surround sound without the cords
See that little box next to those huge speakers? That's Aperion Audio's ticket to what's reportedly a no-compromise approach to wireless home theater. The Intimus 4T Summit Wireless is billed as the only system of its kind to transmit uncompressed 24-bit, 96KHz audio to its 5.1- or 7.1-channel speaker array without having to string wires across the living room. There's no interference and no more than 5ms of lag, even when that wunderkind box is processing Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio. Aperion is still touting an easy setup that can create a sweet spot in awkward spaces. If you like the idea, the only real catches are the $2,999 and $3,499 prices for the respective 5.1- and 7.1-channel systems -- although the outlay may be worthwhile to cut the clutter without sacrificing the finer details of Blu-ray movie soundtracks.
Apple and other music retailers purportedly looking at 24-bit, high-fidelity audio downloads
Digital downloads, at least pertaining to music, have come a long, long way. The iTunes Music Store in particular has surpassed Walmart as America's leading seller of music, and it's evolved from a DRM-laden mess to a restriction-free(ish) marketplace with higher-than-average bitrate support. But it seems that 256kbps simply isn't high enough. According to unnamed "executives involved in talks," Apple -- as well as a few other digital music retailers -- are currently in discussions with labels to "improve the quality of the song files they sell." Essentially, these retailers are hoping to hawk 24-bit audio rather than the compressed 16-bit files available today, possibly with a price premium attached. The real trick, however, won't be coercing the labels to cooperate, but to retool future devices to actually play back 24-bit files. iTunes itself is already capable of handling 'em, but the iPod, iPhone and a slew of other handheld devices aren't. The report doesn't mention how close to a deal anyone is, but we're guessing it'll be sooner rather than later. Here's hoping the iPhone 5 ships with 128GB of capacity -- we're going to need an awful lot of space to handle those lossless Police albums.
