O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: stereo

  • Rumor: 12.9-inch “iPad Pro” to incorporate stylus for user input

    stylus

    The rumored 12.9-inch “iPad Pro” could be getting a stylus to go along with it.

    Per AppleInsider, well-regarded analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities said numerous stylus-related patents filed by the Cupertino-based company and his own research lead him to believe the iPad maker will launch a stylus in the second quarter of this year to compliment the 12.9-inch so-called “iPad Pro.”

    “Given that it’s more precise than a person’s fingers, a stylus can be more convenient to use than the combination of keyboard and mouse in some cases,” Kuo wrote. “Therefore, we believe Apple’s stylus will improve the user experience of 12.9-inch iPad.”

    (more…)

  • HandBrake updated to 0.9.9

    Handbrake, Eric Petit’s incredibly useful open-source DVD ripping/conversion utility, has been updated to version 0.9.9.

    The new version, a 9.1 megabyte download, offers the following fixes and changes:

    General:
    – Improved HandBrake pineapple icon by Matt Johnson.

    – Improved Retina-resolution icons within the application, by Nik Pawlak (http://nikpawlak.com).

    Core:
    – Blu-ray (PGS) subtitle support.

    – Works with Foreign Audio Search.

    – Can be Burned-In.

    – Can be passed through to MKV (but not MP4).

    – Additional video framerates (30, 50, 59.94, 60 fps).

    – Double framerate (“bob”) mode for the deinterlace and decomb filters.

    – Better audio remix support.

    – Additional mixdowns: 6.1, 7.1, 7.1 (5F/2R/LFE).

    – CLI users should note 6ch becomes 5point1.

    – Better-than-Stereo sources can be upmixed to 5.1.

    – Discard one channel from Stereo sources.

    – Mono (Left Only), Mono (Right Only).

    – Allow the selection of higher audio bitrates where appropriate.

    – Allow the selection of lower audio samplerates where appropriate.

    – 8, 11.025, 12, 16 kHz.

    – Audio dithering (TPDF) when converting to 16-bit FLAC.

    – Use libavcodec for DTS audio decoding (instead of libdca).

    – DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete support.

    – All graphical interfaces: support for x264’s preset, tune and profile options alternative to the Advanced panel (which is still available).

    – HandBrake-specific option to ensure compliance with a specific H.264 level.

    Updated built-in presets:
    – Take advantage of x264 preset/tune/profile support.

    – Removed increasingly suboptimal and irrelevant Legacy presets.

    – Assorted bug fixes and improvements to the core library (libhb).

    Updated libraries:
    – x264 r2273-b3065e6.

    – Libav v9.6.

    – libbluray 0.2.3.

    Windows:
    – User Interface has been re-written in WPF.

    – Includes many small UI enhancements.

    – Switched to .NET 4 Client Profile (smaller download for those who don’t have .NET 4 fully installed).

    Mac:
    – Assorted bug fixes including better support for Retina displays.

    – Prevent sleep during encoding and scanning for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

    – Drag & Drop files onto the Main window or application icon to scan.

    – Nicer progress indication on the dock icon.

    – Preview window improvements and bugfixes.

    – Updated Growl to 2.0.1.

    – Notification Center support (when Growl is not installed).

    Linux:
    – Assorted bug fixes and improvements.

    – Use some system libraries rather than bundling (fontconfig, freetype, libxml2, libass, libogg, libvorbis, libtheora and libsamplerate).

    Command Line Interface:
    – Audio option (-a) will ignore invalid input tracks and encode with only the valid ones.

    – Allow use of hh:mm:ss format when specifying p-to-p start/stop time.

    Advanced audio options:
    – Enable level normalization when downmixing (disabled by default).

    – Disable audio dithering or select a specific algorithm.

    HandBrake 0.9.9 requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 or later to install and run.

    If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback, please let us know in the comments.

  • Apple announces updated, slimmer, Ivy Bridge iMac

    It may not have been the absolute centerpiece of the show, but it still looks nifty.

    Per Macworld, Apple on Tuesday released a new, thinner iMac. The company reengineered the iMac’s internals and display, and Apple says the display system is 45 percent thinner and 8 pounds lighter.

    The new iMacs are available in 21.5- and 27-inch models, with displays that support native resolutions of 1920-by-1080 pixels and 2560-by-1440 pixels, respectively. Previous models of the iMacs had a 2mm air gap between the glass and the display; that gap has been removed in the new iMac. Apple now laminates the display directly to the glass, and the company says the full lamination will improve optical quality.

    Besides the new design, the other marquee feature of the new iMac is the Fusion Drive, which is a hybrid storage technology that combines flash storage with a hard drive. The Fusion Drive comes with 128GB of flash storage used mainly by the operating system to provide fast performance. The hard drive portion of the Fusion Drive is available in 1TB or 3TB capacities.

    However, the Fusion Drive isn’t part of Apple’s standard configuration for the iMac—it is a build-to-order option. Apple has yet to release upgrade pricing for the iMac models with a Fusion Drive, though it’s worth noting that the 1TB Fusion Drive upgrade for the 2.3GHz Core i7 Mac mini is US$250.

    As seen with the Retina MacBook Pro, Apple is relying on Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 for connectivity. The iMac has two Thunderbolt ports and four USB 3.0 ports, as well as a gigabit ethernet port. FireWire is no longer offered on the iMac, and users of FireWire devices will need an adapter.

    The iMac also features a built-in FaceTime HD camera, dual microphones, stereo speakers, built-in Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0. The optical drive is no longer included, and the SDXC card slot that was located next to the optical drive can now be found on the back of the iMac, between the headphone jack and the USB 3.0 ports.

    The 21.5-inch iMacs have only two RAM slots and support a maximum of 16GB of memory. The 27-inch iMacs have four RAM slots and support a maximum of 32GB of memory.

    The new iMac is available in the following four configurations:
    US$1299: 21.5-inch model with a 2.7GHz quad-core Core i5, 8GB of memory, a 5400-rpm 1TB hard drive, and 512MB nVidia GeForce GT 640M graphics.

    US$1499: 21.5-inch model with a 2.9GHz quad-core Core i5, 8GB of memory, a 5400-rpm 1TB hard drive, and 512MB nVidia GeForce GT 650M graphics.

    US$1799: 27-inch model with a 2.9GHz quad-core Core i5, 8GB of memory, a 7200-rpm 1TB hard drive, and 512MB nVidia GeForce GTX 660M graphics.

    US$1999: 27-inch model with a 3.2GHz quad-core Core i5, 8GB of memory, a 7200-rpm 1TB hard drive, and 512MB nVidia GeForce GTX 675M graphics.

    The 21.5-inch models will be available in November, while the 27-inch models will be available in December.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

  • Apple announces 13-inch Retina Display MacBook Pro

    You’ve been waiting for this for a long time now.

    Per AppleInsider, Apple on Tuesday took the wraps off its redesigned 13-inch MacBook Pro, featuring a high-resolution Retina display.

    Apple executive Phil Schiller noted that the 13-inch MacBook Pro is Apple’s best selling Mac in its entire product lineup. With that in mind, the company has high expectations for its new MacBook Pro with Retina display.

    The pixel count on the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is so high that it is now the second highest resolution notebook, ahead of all competitors’ models with larger 15 or even 17 inch screens, the company said. The new screen features rich color, deep blacks, a 29% higher contrast ratio, a 75% reduction in reflection, uses IPS for 178 degree viewing, and delivers 300 nits of brightness.



    “The 13-inch MacBook Pro is our most popular Mac, and today it gets completely reinvented with a new thin and light design, fast flash storage and a gorgeous Retina display,” Schiller said. “With vivid colors, razor sharp text and more pixels than anyone else’s 15 or 17-inch notebooks, the Retina display completely changes what you expect from a notebook.”

    The new model weighs just 3 lbs, almost a full pound lighter than the previous 13-inch MacBook Pro, and is 0.75 inches thick, 25% thinner than before and the lightest ever. Schiller noted that the MacBook Pro’s Retina display has more than 4 times as many pixels than its predecessor.

    The 13-inch Retina display has a pixel density of 227 pixels per inch. It also uses IPS technology for a 178-degree-wide viewing angle, and has 75 percent less reflection with 28 percent higher contrast than the current generation.

    Beyond the screen, it has a FaceTime HD camera, dual microphones, stereo speakers, a backlit keyboard, and glass multi-touch trackpad, as well as the new MagSafe 2, dual Thunderbolt ports and USB 3.0.

    Schiller said the “most exciting” part of the computer is on the inside: It’s been re-engineered from scratch, with asymmetric battery technology, Intel Core i5 or i7 “Ivy Bridge” processors, and Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics.

    It also has up to 7 hours of battery life and comes with 8 gigabytes of RAM. Like its 15-inch brethren, the new MacBook Pro is only available with flash storage, which can be upgraded to 768 gigabytes.

    The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is available with a 2.5 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz, 8GB of memory and 128GB of flash storage starting at US$1,699; and with 256GB of flash storage starting at US$1,999. Configure-to-order options include faster dual-core Intel Core i7 processors and flash storage up to 768GB. Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options and accessories are available online at apple.com/macbook-pro. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is available today through the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.