iMac with Retina 5K display

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Move over 5K iMac, 8K displays are on the way next year

Ben Lovejoy Feb 10 2015 - 5:42 am PT

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The 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display may have the highest resolution screen in the world today, but it seems Apple will have to up its game next year if it wants to retain that title: 8K displays are expected to arrive sometime in 2016.

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has announced Embedded DisplayPort standard version 1.4a, which uses a new compression standard to support higher resolution panels, together with greater color depth and faster refresh rates. The new standard allows manufacturers to pipe around four times as much data to displays to support panels with resolutions of up to 8K.

The standard will also benefit machines with lower-resolution screens by enabling displays to be thinner, and extending battery-life in laptops by reducing the power required to transfer data to them.

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Amazon won’t charge extra for 4K content on Prime Instant Video

Nov 13 2014 - 4:04 pm PT

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(Update: We may have gotten a bit too excited about this announcement. While Amazon hasn’t officially commented on the matter, you’ll likely need a UHDTV with HEVC decoding to watch Amazon’s 4K offerings.)

Its been said before, but 4K may finally be on the cusp of breaking through. Ultra high-definition TVs from major brands are dropping like crazy and Apple pushed out a 5K iMac just a few months ago. The hardware is there, but the content from a pricing and availability perspective is still lagging behind.

We took a step in the right direction when Netflix began offering 4K content, but quickly took a step back once we found out it came with strings attached.

Fast forward to this week. Amazon has promised there will not be any additional fees for Prime members for streaming 4K content. Before the end of this year anyone with a Prime account and a UHD display/TV will be able to gaze at Alpha House in beautiful 4K without forking over any additional cash. Selection will be extremely limited and filled with Amazon exclusives at first, but more titles will be continually added.

Of course, access to streaming 4K content is in addition to other Prime benefits like free 2-day shipping and unlimited photo storage. Sign up for a free Prime trial or student account.