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Google's Chromecast Audio beams music to multiple rooms
If you're been eyeing Google's Chromecast Audio for your holiday shopping spree, Mountain View just added some new features to sweeten the deal. First, the $35 gadget now supports high-res audio with 96KHz/24 bit lossless playback. This means that if you have the proper audiophile-grade setup, you can expect to hear better than CD quality music coming through your speakers.
High-res imaging satellite shows off with crystal clear pics of Madrid
DigitalGlobe's WorldView-3 satellite has only been in space for less than half a month, but it's already proven itself capable of shooting high-res images just like the company promised. Just a few days after Lockheed Martin flew it to orbit, the satellite quickly went to work, snapping pictures of Madrid, Spain. As you can see in the gallery below, it's pretty easy to spot vehicles, rooftops and landmarks in these images. DigitalGobe says its services can benefit companies and governments that want to assess vehicles and monitor a region's development (housing, infrastructure and road networks), among other things. Conservationists can also use it to monitor natural resources. While these first set of images are already great, the company will start delivering even clearer, closer satellite snapshot to all its customers by February next year.
Samsung Retina-like 11.8-inch tablet in the works according to court docs
If you've been following the Apple vs. Samsung case even casually, you're probably aware that today marked the start of the patent trial in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, with Judge Lucy Koh presiding. And while the proceedings themselves won't necessarily justify an Olympics-level play-by-play, several interesting bits are sure to come to light. Today's nugget relates to Samsung's tablet roadmap, revealing that a Retina-like tablet may be in the works. The P10, as it's been labeled internally, packs a 2,560 x 1,600-pixel, 11.8-inch display, along with WiFi and LTE connectivity. Details are thin beyond that, and it's still possible that Samsung may not have a high-res tablet for us this year -- though with the company's mysterious New York City event coming up in two weeks, followed by IFA later in the month, there are plenty of opportunities in August alone for such an official reveal. Philip Palermo contributed to this report.
Sharp shows off IGZO LCD and OLEDs including a 13.5-inch QFHD screen
Sharp announced earlier this year that it was starting to crank out LCD panels based on new indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) technology and now it's ready to show some off at the Society for Information Display show in Boston. Currently sized for phones and tablets, the first prototypes include a pair of LCDs, one a 4.9-inch 720x1280 display, and the other coming at 6.1-inches with a resolution of 2560x1600. As an example of what will be possible further down the line, it also has a pair of OLED panels, one 13.5-inch 3840x2160 QFHD panel based on White OLEDs with RGB color filters (similar to the LG HDTV recently introduced), and a flexible 3.4-inch 540x960 screen (shown above). According to Sharp the new tech means screens with higher resolutions, lower power consumption, narrower bezels and higher performance touch screens because it enables even smaller thin-film transistors than the ones currently in use. The Associated Press reports it expects to apply the upgrade to production lines in this fiscal year, for now you can hit the source link for a few diagrams and examples of crystalline structures or check the gallery for pics of the other displays. %Gallery-156633%
High-res Mountain Lion art could point to Retina Macs in 2012
Apple developers test-driving the latest Mountain Lion (10.8) release may have noticed some higher-res graphics erroneously popping up in "unexpected places," such as the double-size phone icon that appears alongside an audio chat invitation in Messages. One such dev reported his findings to Ars Technica, as you can see evidenced in the graphic above. This mild slip-up could imply that Apple plans to release Macs with high-density displays later this year, or, at the very least, that Mountain Lion will be Retina-ready. High-res support dates back to OS X Lion, which is reportedly equipped to play nice with HiDPI displays, should they eventually become available. Compatible icons are but a second piece of the puzzle, which could be completed to the tune of deliciously dense 2880 x 1800 (or higher) resolution 15-inch LCDs. Wouldn't you love to see that.
Previously on MV TV: The week of February 11th, 2012
It's time again to recap the best moments from the past week of livestreaming. Each week Massively hosts several livestreams and chats that showcase your favorite titles! Keep an eye on the Massively TV Guide so that you never miss a single event. We show off a large variety of different games and boast quite a few different personalities as well! This week we had some Guild Wars goodness, house construction in RuneScape, more APB: Reloaded action on Tboo Thursday, a bit of Arcane Tranmuting in Runes of Magic with Jeremy, an explanation of magic in Ryzom with yours truly, and some Imp-ownage by Dylan in Star Wars: The Old Republic. And Adventure Mike returns with some Guild Wars and Nexus: Kingdom of the Winds streaming!
PS3 will support 4K stills after a future update, moving pictures remain out of reach
Once you've cleared the $25k or so in your budget that it will take to snag one of Sony's 4K VPL-VW1000ES your next problem will be finding some 4096x2160 res content to view on it. While showing off the new beamer for its Japanese audience at CEATEC today, Sony announced the PS3 will get a firmware update around the beginning of 2012 that will allow it to natively output 4K stills. There's a PlayView "visual magazine" already available on the PlayStation store in Japan that supports 4K and 3D, but this update will bring super high res viewing of your vacation pics, or any other high res image files you can snag, to the living room. While your friends will no doubt be impressed by the museum-quality art gala you're now capable of hosting, we're starting the timer for 4K video sources -- if we don't hear anything concrete at CES then we'll be incredibly disappointed. %Gallery-135571%
SA Photonics high-res digital night vision system makes you look like Hello Kitty's cyborg cousin
Given, it might make you look like the love child of Robocop and a cartoon kitten, but SA Photonics' High Resolution Night Vision System (HRNVS) could mean smoother night flights for the US military. The light weight head mounted display couples high resolution imagery and an impressive 82.5 degree field of vision -- previous devices offered a range of only 40 degrees. What's more, it provides clearer peripheral vision, virtually non-existent halo effects, digital image enhancement, and night vision recording. The headset was designed in collaboration with the US Army and the Air Force Research Laboratory, which means these robo Sanrio helmets might actually get some play. Full PR after the break.
Facebook starts rolling out high resolution photo sharing to users
Facebook is already a popular way to share photo with your 'friends,' but the quality leaves a little something to be desired, to say the least. Well, that's all about to change, as the company has announced that it'll be rolling out high resolution photo uploading to all of its users over the coming weeks. Users will be able to upload and store photos that are eight times larger than what the service now allows (720 pixels). At the same time, the photo viewer will be upgraded to have a lightbox feel -- black background -- for better viewing. Great news, no doubt, for those of us who just couldn't stand another low res shot of someone's baby doing something silly.
YouTube moves solidly into the future by supporting 4K content
It's funny -- we remember the day that YouTube began supporting plain ole HD like it was yesterday, and we're guessing today will hang in our memory banks for quite awhile, too. Over at the VidCon 2010 conference, YouTube officially announced support for videos shot in 4K (a reference resolution of 4096 x 3072), which means that the famed online clip portal now supports "resolutions from 360p to 4,096p" (their words, not ours). Granted, only a handful of humans even have access to a 4K camcorder, and 4K projectors aren't exactly simple to find (or afford), but we couldn't be happier to see YT staying way ahead of the curve here. If you're up for putting a severe strain on your broadband connection (and just pretend that your monitor can actually support a legit 4K feed), feel free to hit that first source link and attempt to watch any of those videos at their "Original" resolution. Godspeed. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]