In this episode of TechPowerUp News, NVIDIA's driver update distribution change, and how it could affect you; Apple's new 5K 27-inch and 4K 21-inch iMacs; and dat a...I mean ASUS ROG G752 gaming notebook.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today a new OWC Memory Upgrade Kit with up to 32GB of memory for the Late 2015 Apple iMac 27" with Retina 5K display announced today by Apple. OWC 1867Mhz DDR3 memory, compatible with the new iMacs, will begin shipping on Friday, October 16. While the new iMacs are available in configurations up to 32GB of memory, OWC is testing for support of up to 64GB of memory.

New iMac owners seeking to max-out their RAM can select the 32GB OWC memory upgrade from OWC and save $336 compared to the 32GB factory cost of $600. For even more savings, iMac with Retina 5K display owners can trade-in the two factory base 4GB memory modules.

Apple is readying a new generation of iMac desktops, which it plans to launch in Q3-2015, likely at its September press event. The new Macs are expected to come with faster processors (likely Intel "Skylake,") faster DDR4 memory, and an increase in display resolutions across the board, including a 21.5-inch model with 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) resolution, besides its 27-inch 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels) model. The display panels in these macs will feature a new LED phosphor material called KSF (K2SiF6:Mn), which improves color saturation. The displays will offer 30-bit (10 bpc) color depth, with the ability to produce 1.07 billion colors.

Apple today updated the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display with the new Force Touch trackpad, faster flash storage, longer battery life and faster discrete graphics, delivering even more performance and capabilities to the MacBook Pro line. Apple also today introduced a new $1,999 configuration of the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display featuring a breathtaking 14.7 million pixel display, quad-core processors and AMD graphics, and lowered the price of the top-end iMac with Retina 5K display to $2,299.

"The response to the new MacBook and updated 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display has been amazing, and today we are thrilled to bring the new Force Touch trackpad, faster flash storage and longer battery life to the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Customers love the groundbreaking iMac with Retina 5K display, and now with a new lower starting price, even more people can experience the best desktop we've ever made."

Dell plans to launch the first consumer 5K monitor some time in December 2014, priced at just under $2,000 a pop. This comes in the wake of Apple launching the first consumer product with a 5K display, its latest iMac Retina all-in-one desktop. Dell's UltraSharp UP2715K is a 27-inch display with 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels) native resolution, which lends it a staggering 218 ppi of pixel density. Compare that to the 157 ppi of 28-inch Ultra HD monitors. 5K is four times as many pixels as WQHD.

The UltraSharp UP2715K features a 10-bit IPS panel, with 99 percent Adobe RGB and 100 percent sRGB palette coverage, and a 12-bit LUT. It offers viewing angles of 178°/178°, 8 ms response time, 350 cd/m² maximum brightness, and 1000:1 static contrast-ratio, with dynamic mega-contrast. The display needs two DisplayPort connections for sufficient bandwidth, to beam those many pixels at 60 Hz. There's also a mini-DisplayPort, but using that would either cap resolution at 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz, or drop refresh-rate at the native resolution.

Apple today unveiled the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display, featuring the world's highest resolution display with a breathtaking 14.7 million pixels. At this amazing resolution, text appears sharper than ever, videos are unbelievably lifelike, and you can see new levels of detail in your photos. With the latest quad-core processors, high-performance graphics, Fusion Drive and Thunderbolt 2, iMac with Retina 5K display is the most powerful iMac ever made - it's the ultimate display combined with the ultimate all-in-one.

"Thirty years after the first Mac changed the world, the new iMac with Retina 5K display running OS X Yosemite is the most insanely great Mac we have ever made," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "With a breathtaking 14.7 million pixel display, faster CPU and graphics, Fusion Drive, and Thunderbolt 2, it's the most beautiful and powerful iMac ever."

Even as 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) is beginning to enter the consumer mainstream, with 28-inch displays being priced around $600, and Apple toying with 5K (5120 x 2880), with its next-generation iMac Retina desktops, Japanese display maker Sharp threw a spanner in the works, by unveiling a working prototype of its 8K (7680 x 4320 pixels) display, at the CETAC trade-show, held in Japan.

Two of the industry's biggest graphics processor makers, NVIDIA and AMD, reacted similarly to the development, calling 8K "a great challenge." Currently, neither company has a GPU that can handle the resolution. 8K is four times as many pixels as 4K. Driving an Ultra HD display over DVI needs two TMDS links, and DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0 have just enough bandwidth to drive Ultra HD at 60 Hz. To drive 8K, both NVIDIA and AMD believe you would need more than one current-generation GPU, the display should connect to both cards over independent connectors, and somehow treat the single display as four Ultra HD displays. We imagine Sharp demoed its display at a very low refresh rate, to compensate for the bandwidth limitation. After 10 years of Full-HD tyranny, display resolutions are finally beginning to see their normal rate of development. It's time now for GPU developers and display interconnects to keep up.

Apple's next iMac desktop could flaunt the company's "Retina Display" moniker, which stands for pixel density that matches that of your retina. Apple's idea of Retina display on a 20-something inch desktop is 5K, which is 5120 x 2880 pixels, or four times the resolution of WQHD (2560 x 1440), or sixteen times HD (1280 x 720). Early betas of Apple's OSX "Yosemite" feature references to display resolutions upwards of 5K, including 5760 x 3240, and 6400 x 3600.

At 27-inch, 5120 x 2880 would give the Mac a staggering 217 ppi of pixel density, which is not very far from the 263 ppi which 9.7-inch iPads offer, with their 2048 x 1536 resolutions. To put 217 ppi into perspective, a 28-inch Ultra HD display offers 157 ppi, and Apple's current 27-inch iMac with WQHD display offers just 108 ppi. A mainstream 24-inch full HD (1920 x 1080) display offers just 91 ppi. The GPUs that drive these next-gen iMacs are anyone's guess. Both current-generation AMD, and NVIDIA's new GTX 980 cap out at digital resolutions of 4096 x 2160.

Apple today introduced a new 21.5-inch iMac starting at just $1,099, making the world's leading all-in-one desktop even more affordable. Featuring a stunning ultra-thin design, brilliant display, Core i5 processors and the world's most advanced operating system, the new iMac is the perfect entry-level Mac desktop.

The new 21.5-inch iMac features a 1.4 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost Speeds up to 2.7 GHz, Intel HD 5000 graphics, 8 GB of memory and a 500 GB hard drive. All iMac models include next generation 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and two Thunderbolt ports and four USB 3.0 ports for excellent expandability and support for high-performance peripherals.

Other World Computing, the world's leading destination for cutting-edge and easy-to-install Mac and PC upgrades and accessories, announced the immediate availability of the OWC Memory Upgrade Kits from 8GB to 32GB for 2013 iMac 27" models that became available today. OWC's kits offer memory configurations not offered by the factory as well as savings of more than $240 compared to same-size factory options. Like all OWC Memory Upgrade Kits, a 'how-to' install video and OWC Lifetime warranty are included.

What it does: upgrading the memory of this iMac gives you more options and better performance. It's a low-cost improvement that gives Apple's latest OSX-including the upcoming Mavericks release-the space it needs for maximum performance. For hundreds less than what Apple charges, users can select an OWC upgrade to unlock the machine's true potential. Installation takes just a few minutes, and OWCs iMac Memory Upgrade Guide makes it easy to select the right memory for any Apple iMac model.

Apple today updated iMac with fourth generation Intel quad-core processors, new graphics, next generation Wi-Fi and faster PCIe flash storage options. The updated iMac brings the latest technology to the stunningly thin design and gorgeous display of the world's leading all-in-one desktop.

"iMac continues to be the example that proves how beautiful, fast and fun a desktop computer can be," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Inside its ultra-thin aluminum enclosure, the new iMac has the latest Intel processors, faster graphics, next generation 802.11ac Wi-Fi and faster PCIe flash storage."

Apple announced a GPU Replacement Program along the lines of its HDD Replacement Program, dating back to 2011, for mid-2011 iMacs, which had its run at the markets from May 2011 to October 2012, more specifically, iMacs equipped with AMD Radeon HD 6970M. Apple says that both the 1 GB and 2 GB variants of the graphics boards inside these iMacs could fail. Telltale signs include artifacts on the screen, including white or blue vertical lines or a solid black display. Apple is offering free repair and replacement for affected iMacs, and refunds to people to paid to get the issue fixed, prior to this announcement.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, today introduced the OWC Mercury Helios+E2 Thunderbolt SSD Solution. The bootable 'all-in-one' storage performance and expansion solution offers owners of Thunderbolt technology enabled Macs and PCs sustained read/write data throughput up to 617MB/s from up to 960GB of OWC Mercury SSD capacity; two Thunderbolt interfaces for connecting multiple Thunderbolt devices; and two eSATA 6Gb/s expansion ports for connecting up to an additional 32TB or more of external storage/backup capacity.

Singapore based Strontium Technology launched premium solid metal USB drives called Ammo. The new Ammo USB Flash Drive with a shiny metallic lustre is available in gold and silver colour finish. The gold finish drive is actually plated with real 24 carat gold giving it a rich appearance.

Ammo Flash drive comes in a sturdy brushed metal casing with a sleek look keeping in mind the demands and requirements of discerning users who want a high quality and high class product. The sleek and robust design works not only with Windows platform desktop PC, notebook PCs and Apple iMac and MacBook as well. The highest quality NAND flash memory component used in the Ammo USB drives offer maximum reliability and sustained fast data transfer rates.

Apple today announced the all-new iMac will be available on Friday, November 30. Featuring a stunning design, brilliant display with reduced reflection, faster processors and an innovative new storage option called Fusion Drive, the new iMac is the most advanced desktop Apple has ever made. The 21.5-inch iMac will be available through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. The 27-inch iMac will be available for order through the Apple Online Store and will begin shipping in December.

In the coming years, Apple could end its partnership with Intel for supply of CPUs, according to a Bloomberg report, citing Gartner research. The company plans to make a transition from x86 to ARM for its Mac product line, which includes MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, and Mac Mini. Such a transition would be similar to the one Apple took from PowerPC to x86 machine architecture, across 2005-06. According to the report, Apple's engineers are confident of designing an ARM-based chip of their own that's powerful enough for mainstream personal computing on Mac products. Apple's engineers foresee a convergence of technologies between mobile devices (such as the iPhone and iPad), and Macs. Currently, Apple designs its own processors for iOS devices, which are ARM-based.

Apple's new iMac and MacBook Pro owe their sleek, slim design to the lack of optical drives, a feature consumers found very much wanting, which can still be overcome using external USB optical drives. In an interview with Tom's Hardware, Apple senior VP of global marketing, Phil Schiller stressed the importance of letting go of optical drives. "These old technologies are holding us back. They're anchors on where we want to go," he said. "We find the things that have outlived their useful purpose. Our competitors are afraid to remove them. We try to find better solutions - our customers have given us a lot of trust. In general, it's a good idea to remove these rotating medias from our computers and other devices. They have inherent issues - they're mechanical and sometimes break, they use power and are large. We can create products that are smaller, lighter and consume less power."

On how newer media like Blu-ray don't quite make optical drives an obsolete component, given that it's fast taking over as the mainstream physical home video medium, Schiller said that customers have stopped asking Apple for Blu-ray drives, and that it comes with its own set of issues that make it unfit for desktops and notebooks. "Blu-ray has come with issues unrelated to the actual quality of the movie that make [it] a complex and not-great technology…So for a whole plethora of reasons, it makes a lot of sense to get rid of optical discs in desktops and notebooks." Apple, with its iTunes service is one the leading digital content distribution businesses, including movie rentals and purchases.

An increasing number of Apple iMac customers are facing troubles with Seagate-made 1 TB hard drives their iMacs shipped with, since 2011. Apple responded with a free no-questions-asked hard drive replacement program for affected customers, but evidently believes some customers may be using faulty Seagate hard drives from even before 2011. The company stretched its hard drive replacement program to cover iMacs purchased between October 2009 and July 2011. "Apple has determined that certain Seagate 1TB hard drives used in 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac systems may fail," said Apple.

The company is holding a list of iMacs by their serial numbers, which are likely to be affected by faulty hard drives. Customers who registered their iMacs have already been contacted, while others are presented with an online tool that lets you check if yours is one of those affected iMacs. Apple and its Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) are tasked with carrying out these free replacements. Customers will now be covered by replacement protection for three years, that's up to April 2013.

PNY Technologies, Inc. ("PNY") today announced the launch of a new line of ThinkSafe Portable Laptop Locking Systems -- specifically engineered with patented technology to work with Laptops, Ultrabooks, and MacBooks. Designed for personal and business use to keep your device secured while in public locations, from dorm rooms and offices to tradeshows and display rooms, PNY offers a convenient and discrete locking solution for your laptop devices.

The PNY ThinkSafe family of products includes the Laptop Locking System, the MacBook Locking System, and the Security Clamp. The Laptop Locking System -- designed to be universal -- was engineered to work with Laptops, Ultrabooks, and MacBooks. The MacBook Locking System -- designed to work with Apple products -- was engineered to work with the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iMac. The ThinkSafe Portable Security Clamp provides a secure anchor point for your Laptop, Ultrabook, or MacBook, complements both of the PNY Locking Systems and also works with most cable locking systems in the market today.

QNAP Systems, Inc. announced today a partnership with TappIn, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of GlobalSCAPE, a leading innovator of secure information exchange solutions for businesses and consumers. TappIn by GlobalSCAPE's secure content mobility solution will be available to QNAP's customers using the storage vendor's popular NAS devices. Tapp In provides a secure, integrated service for customers to receive on-the-go access to digital contents stored on a QNAP Turbo NAS device from any web-browser, tablet, or smartphone, including Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows Phone 7, and Kindle Fire. QNAP customers simply register for TappIn and begin accessing their contents on any Turbo NAS device via a TappIn web application or mobile apps.

According to new research from International Data Corporation (IDC), the volume of digital information may balloon from 2.7 zettabytes this year -- the equivalent of filling 2.7 billion of Apple Inc.'s priciest desktop iMacs to capacity -- to 8 zettabytes by 2015. The explosion of digital content is paralleled by the proliferation of devices on which people can access it. As this market's demand continues to increase, QNAP's integration of TappIn by GlobalSCAPE into its NAS devices will provide a solution for its customers that allows comprehensive local storage, and enables simple and secure content mobility, helping QNAP to continue its trend as one of the top providers of NAS and unified storage devices in the industry.

New demand from all-in-one desktop PCs combined with requirements for new processors, lower power consumption and a thinner, smaller storage alternative to existing 3.5-inch hard disc drives (HDD) will help create a viable market for 2.5-inch HDDs beginning next year, according to an IHS iSuppli Storage Space market brief from information and analysis provider IHS.

Shipments of 2.5-inch HDDs to all-in-one PCs are forecast to reach approximately 1 million units in 2013, up from virtually zero this year. Shipments will then increase to 3 million units the following year and move up steadily until they hit some 7 million units in 2016. The HDD market for all-in-one PCs will continue to be dominated by 3.5-inch discs, with shipments by 2016 estimated at 31 million units, but growth will be much slower for the segment during the same period.

G.SKILL, the worldwide leading high performance memory designer, has released the 32 GB DDR3 1333 MHz laptop memory kit for Apple iMac 2011.

The G.SKILL 32 GB Mac laptop memory kit, consists of 4 matched 8 GB DDR3 sticks, has passed G.SKILL's rigorous compatibility and reliability tests with the latest Apple iMac 2011 machines for guaranteed performance. Taking the full advantage of 4 memory slots on iMac 2011 machines, G.SKILL 32 GB Mac memory kit is the best-in-class memory solution for Professional graphic, video and audio editing and other professional applications.

Launched yesterday as a developer-preview, Apple's OS X "Mountain Lion" will support fewer Macs than its predecessor, probably because of increases in hardware requirements for smooth operation that older Macs can't quite guarantee. The support list for Mountain Lion looks like this:

• iMac (mid 2007 or later)
• MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, 2008), (13-inch, plastic, Early 2009 or later)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, 2.4/2.2 GHz), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
• Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

As you can see, some x86 Mac models are out of the support list, including importantly, the pre-Unibody plastic Macbook Pros. Perhaps Apple will support Mac OS X "Lion" with security updates for a lot longer.

Welcome to the TechPowerUp 2011 PC technology Christmas special. We hope that you will enjoy reading it while tucking into your turkey, Christmas presents and a little too much wine... In this article, we go through the technology of 2011 that has had the most significance, the most impact and was generally the most talked about. It's not necessarily the best tech of 2011 which is the most significant though, since lemons can be just as significant as the ground-breakers in how they fail to deliver - and the backlash that goes with it.

January: Intel Sandy Bridge i5 & i7

Released on January 9th, the new Intel Core i5 & i7 processors were based on Intel's second generation Core architecture built on a 32 nm production process (HEXUS review). They included an IGP (Integrated Graphics Processor) physically on the same piece of silicon along with HyperThreading. These new dual and quad core processors soundly beat all previous generations of Intel processors in terms of processing performance, heat, power use, features and left AMD in the dust. Therefore, Intel badly needed some competition from AMD and unless you have been living under a rock, you will know how that turned out in October with the launch of Bulldozer. Sandy Bridge was a sound win and is generally considered to be the only architecture worth considering at this point. The i5-2500K is currently at the sweet spot of price/performance. It comes at a stock speed of 3.3 GHz, but typically overclocks to an amazing 4.5 - 5 GHz with a decent air cooler and without too much difficulty in getting there. Models in the budget i3 range were released at various times later. See this Wikipedia article for details.

Iomega, an EMC company and a global leader in data protection, today announced the completion of its new Mac-oriented hard drive line with the launch of the new Iomega eGo Mac Edition Portable Hard Drive, an on-the-go stylish drive with plenty of storage that can withstand drops and still travel easily in a pocketbook or briefcase.

Combined with the recent launches of the Iomega Helium Portable Hard Drive and the Iomega Mac Companion Hard Drive, Iomega now has a complete new line of portable and desktop hard drives for Mac users. All three new drives are formatted HFS+ for compatibility with Mac computers right out of the box, making them perfect complements to today's Apple notebooks and desktops.