High Res
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Sleevenote is a high-res music player designed for album art
Tom Vek (yes, that Tom Vek) has designed a music player, one he hopes will break the curse of gadgets designed by musicians.
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.
Google offers up more high-res places in Maps / Earth, intros additional 45-degree imagery
Google's mapping offerings are getting a little bit better this week. The software giant's announced the addition of a slew of high-res aerial and satellite images for 17 cities and 112 countries / regions -- it's a long list, so your best bet is accessing the source link below to check out all of the offerings. Google's also adding 45-degree imagery in Maps for a total of 51 cities -- 37 in the US and 14 outside -- letting you check out the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the buildings of Madison, Wisconsin from an all new angle. Forget the plane tickets -- all you need for your next vacation is a browser and an overactive imagination.
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.
ASUS MWC teaser video 'Twice the Detail' hints at higher-res tablet display
What's not to love about a short video insinuating something marvelous may be coming soon -- especially if it means a hi-res screen on a tablet, à la that purported Retina Display we saw a few days back. We have to give ASUS credit for this one, as it's teasing us with a clip titled "Twice the Detail, Twice the Fun." The vid's lead actors are a plethora of colorful marbles and a beige box that's very reminiscent of the form factor we're used to seeing on slates. And, let's not forget to mention the quick cameo by the famed Google search bar, a weather widget and a few other walk-in icons like YouTube's own. Could it be a case of the "Mo Pixels, Mo Problems Detail?" It may be a teaser for that Transformer Prime TF700T we saw carrying a 1920 x 1200 LCD at CES, but then again, it might not. Either way, we'll find out for sure when we arrive in Barcelona for MWC. In the meantime, take a virtual jump past the break to check out the full 17-second clip.
SWTOR Senior Community Manager responds to high-res texture concerns
Many keen-eyed Star Wars: The Old Republic players noticed that, while there were "low," "medium," and "high" options for the game's texture quality settings, there seemed to be only two different sets of textures, and neither of them includes the high-resolution textures seen in the game's cutscenes and conversations. As it tends to go with the MMO community, the forums were soon filled with cries of "WTFM8?" And thus did BioWare's own Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid appear on the scene to clarify what exactly was happening. The low-medium-high texture quality scale is, he says, a bug, and the medium choice was never supposed to exist. So yes, the game has only two sets of textures, low- and high-resolution, but even the high-resolution textures don't look as shiny as the ones featured in SWTOR's cutscenes. And so the chorus repeated, "WTFM8?" Reid drops a ton of technical information to explain why players can't run around with conversation-quality textures 24/7, but the fact of the matter is that an MMO could potentially have anywhere from one to who-knows-how-many people on-screen at any given time, and BioWare "discovered that using [...] 'maximum resolution' textures on in-game characters during normal gameplay could cause severe performance issues, even on powerful PCs." That's the short of it, but if you'd like the full, unadulterated technical breakdown, just head on over to the official forum post for more info and screaming.
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%
Pix4D turns your 2D aerial photographs into 3D maps on the fly (video)
Assuming you own a Sensefly Swinglet CAM or some other high-res camera-equipped UAV, you could be just minutes away from turning your plain old 2D aerial photos into comprehensive 3D maps. Pix4D, a new software program coming out of EPFL -- the same institute that brought us this race of altruistic robots -- takes images shot using an aerial drone to render 3D maps in the cloud in just 30 minutes. Users upload images taken with their flying machines, at which point Pix4D kicks into action, defining high contrast points in the phots and pasting them together based on those points. It then renders a 3D model, overlays the graphics, and spits out a Google Earth-style map. So what's with this 4D business? Well, its developers claim that users can easily see the progression of any model by deploying their Sensefly drone whenever they see fit, throwing the added layer of time into the mix. You can see the fruits of Pix4D's labor in the video after the break.
Chicago's Adler Planetarium to start projecting 8K by 8K images from this July, put cinema screens to shame
Okay, so it's not quite 8K video, we're not there yet, but the Adler Planetarium and its brand new Grainger Sky Theater are about to show us what 64 megapixel images look like on a big screen. Described as the "largest single seamless digital image in the world," the picture inside the planetarium will come from 20 projectors hooked up to 45 computers processing data, and should provide the most lucid and captivating view unto our universe that one can get without actually exiting the Earth's atmosphere. The new show kicks off on July 8th, having been put together with aid from NASA and IBM among others. Jump past the break for the full press release.
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.
Google Art Project offers gigapixel images of art classics, indoor Street View of museums
Google's been hard at work over the past 18 months on something not many of us have been paying attention to lately: art. Specifically, the search giant has hooked up with 17 art museums around the world to offer tours of their internal galleries, using its familiar Street View tricycles, while also doing high-res images of 1,061 artworks that may be viewed on the newly launched Art Project web portal. Also there, you will find 17 special gigapixel images -- 7,000-megapixel versions of each participating venue's proudest possession. The resulting level of detail is nothing short of astounding and we've got videos of how it's all done 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]
iPhone 4G display put under a microscope, 960 x 640 a lock?
You've seen it in San Jose, you've seen plenty of it in Vietnam, and now, apparently, you're seeing the iPhone 4G display waving at you from the center of Europe, namely the Czech Republic. We haven't been able to corroborate that these fellas do indeed have a legitimate next-gen iPhone part in their paws, but hey, that's what they claim. The guys from superiphone.cz have gone above and beyond the leaker's call of duty, by taking the supposed next-gen screen under a microscope and figuring out its pixel density and display technology. According to them, the new iPhone will sport an IPS panel, much like the other handheld device Apple introduced this year, with a cool 960 x 640 resolution. This quadruples the total number of pixels from the iPhone 3GS -- making rescaling of current apps a straightforward affair -- while also giving Apple the right to claim the highest pixel density yet seen on a phone. You'll find similarly zoomed-in pics of the Nexus One and iPod touch screens at the source, and the answers to all your iPhone-related questions at WWDC in a few days' time.
Ocarina gets a spit-shine
Who needs all the "newness" of E3 when you can relive a masterpiece of days gone by? A team of modders went to the trouble of improving a selection of screenshots from Ocarina of Time, with sharp textures and ultra-high resolution. At the end of the day, these graphics are technically far behind most of the games released this generation(key word: most), but since we all lovingly play Ocarina of Time on a regular basis anyway, a sharp upgrade like this would be just what the doctor ordered.Check out the full set of new and improved screens here, with an ambient melody drifting over the flash page as you compare the original shots with high-res and cel-shaded versions.[Via Go Nintendo]
GDC08 exclusive: Mova brings lifelike motion capture to Unreal Engine 3
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Incredible_facial_animation_video_running_in_real_time'; Traditional, point-based motion capture (the kind brought to you by guys in black suits with reflective balls) has been great for developers that want to capture basic skeletal motion for their in-game characters. But for realistic facial work, even setups with hundreds of reflective dots leave developers with rough, blocky data that requires a lot of post-production work to even start approaching the uncanny valley.Enter motion capture company Mova, whose Contour Reality Capture system uses an array of cameras to create 100,000 polygon facial models that are accurate to within a tenth of a millimeter -- no special reflective balls required. At this year's GDC, the company is trying to attract the game industry's attention by unveiling examples of their facial modeling running in real-time on the popular Unreal Engine 3. Continue reading for exclusive, real-time video of the technology and excerpts from an interview with the Mova founder Steve Perlman.
