The event is called 2 Weeks of Light and will see many Twitch livestreamers go through a series of challenges and dares to get the audience actively involved. The goal is to reach $50,000 for the computer labs. The donations page opened ahead of the event, and money is already rolling in. Currently, 2 Weeks of Light has raised a little over $4,000. To sweeten the deal for viewers, the event is holding a giveaway where you can win a gaming chair or some Elgato streaming equipment....

Ultra HD resolution provides four times as much resolution as full HD, and HDR content offers enhanced brightness, contrast, and color performance. A separate set of specifications unveiled by the UHD Alliance in 2016 takes these specs a bit further. It’s called Ultra HD Premium. What Is Ultra HD Premium? Developed by the Ultra High Definition Alliance (UHDA), a working group of more than 30 industry brands, Ultra HD Premium is a badge or logo that is meant to tell consumers which TVs, displays, or video content are designed to deliver a more robust HDR and UHD experience....

Devices that adhere to the USB 2.0 standard have the ability to transmit data at a maximum speed of 480 Mbps. This is faster than the older USB 1.1 standard and much slower than the newer USB4 standard. USB 1.1 was released in August 1998, USB 2.0 in April 2000, USB 3.0 in November 2008, and USB4 in August 2019. USB 2.0 Connectors USB Type A: These connectors are technically called USB 2....

Overall Findings USB-C and Lightning (not to be confused with Thunderbolt) are protocols used for connection, communication, and power supply. Although both cable types are primarily for charging devices like smartphones and tablets, you can also use them for digital transfer tasks such as uploading or downloading movies, music, photos, and more. USB-C is considered by many to be the current standard for charging and transferring data. However, every iPhone and iPad since September 2012 has come with a Lightning cable....

What Is USB4? Since USB4 is based on the Thunderbolt 3 standard, it’s twice as fast as the USB version before it, and it includes the video bandwidth of DisplayPort 2.0. USB4 devices and cables won’t look any different from your typical USB 3 device, but behind the scenes are a few improvements that catapult it over previous versions, things you’ll especially care about if you’re an avid gamer. Devices began hitting the shelves in 2021....

A good example of these differences can be seen when comparing an OEM and a retail hard drive. The retail version is often referred to as a kit because it includes the drive cables, installation instructions, warranty cards, and software packages that configure or run the drive. The OEM version of the drive only includes the hard drive in a sealed anti-static bag with no other materials. Sometimes it’s referred to as a bare drive....

A lot of displays support VRR, which is primarily used to deter unwanted visual issues like flickering or creating what looks like tears on the screen. It’s a fairly common feature these days, but up until now, it hasn’t had an industry-standard number to aim for—unlike, say, screen resolutions. What VESA is doing is providing that standard by way of a series of tests it’s calling “Adaptive-Sync Display Compliance Test Specification” (Adaptive-Sync Display CTS)....

How: The Byte app is available for iOS and Android. Simply shoot or upload a short video to the service and browse other videos from creators all over. Why Do You Care: The evolution of a video format begun by Vine and continued (more successfully) by TikTok is just beginning. Now Vine’s co-creator Dom Hoffman is back with Byte, a (you guessed it) 6-second video app you use pretty much like Vine and TikTok....

How: You can watch them on YouTube and other sites without waiting for the weekend. Why Do You Care: If you’re not a sports fan, it can be fun to see what ads will make history. It’s not just beer and car companies who advertise during the show, either. This year, tech giants like Microsoft and Google have dropped their ads almost a week before the Super Bowl itself. So have smaller companies, like Squarespace, who have had an ad presence during the game for years....

One of the most exciting things to come out of the Apple Silicon transition is the parity of features between the Mac and iOS. Now that both platforms run on the same chips, Apple treats its computers as one big system with different hardware features. Just like the Mac has desktops and laptops, and iOS has long had phones, tablets, a watch, and so on, now it’s more like there’s one big Apple OS, with various devices within it....

Snapseed is a Google acquisition acquired to beef up Google’s photo capabilities. Now it’s a Google app with powerful photo-editing filters you can use on your smartphone or tablet. Some see Snapseed as a response to Instagram, but it is intended to be part of a continuing effort by Google to improve its photo-editing and to share software in general. Nik Software — the company that initially made Snapseed — developed a wide range of photo filters and plug-in products, specializing in high dynamic range (HDR) filters....

Relationship Between 802.11a and 802.11b The original IEEE designations have been renamed to avoid confusion among consumers. Although their new designations are unofficial, 802.11b is referred to as Wi-Fi 1, while 802.11a is called Wi-Fi 2. This new naming structure, introduced in 2018, currently extends to Wi-Fi 6, which is the official designation for 802.11ax, the fastest and most recent technology. 802.11a and 802.11b were developed at about the same time....

The initial idea that telephony returns to is the POTS (plain old telephone service), technically called the PSTN (public switched telephone network). This system is being fiercely challenged by and to a great extent yielding to Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, which is also commonly referred to as IP Telephony and Internet Telephony. Voice Over IP (VoIP) and Internet Telephony These two terms are used interchangeably in most cases, but technically speaking, they are not quite the same thing....

A file system can be thought of as an index or database containing the physical location of every piece of data on the device. The data is usually organized in folders called directories, which can contain other folders and files. Any place that a computer or other electronic device stores data employs some type of file system. This includes your Windows computer, your Mac, your smartphone, your bank’s ATM—even the computer in your car!...

Netbooks were introduced in 2007 and retailed for around $200 to $400. This low cost made netbooks a popular choice for people who didn’t want the expense and hassle of buying and lugging around laptops, which were more expensive and heavier than they are today. The term netbook was coined by Intel while it was marketing its low-power Centrino Atom processor, used in all first-generation netbooks when they came out in 2007....

VPNs are popular because they provide a way to browse the internet without giving away your identity, location, or data. When data is encrypted inside the VPN tunnel, ISPs, search engines, marketers, and others can’t see or track your activities on the web. How a VPN Network Protects You VPNs protect you in three main ways: Disguises your real IP address and location: After connecting to a VPN service, you go to the internet from a new gateway server....

A TV series usually requires heavy production costs, celebrity actors, and large media companies. A web series requires a camera, an idea for a show, and people to recite the scripted or unscripted lines. Who Can Create a Web Series? Anyone with a camera and an account on a video sharing platform can create a web series. Some web series are written and filmed by amateurs and require minimal cost for equipment and special effects....

An internet connection with a larger bandwidth can move a set amount of data (say, a video file) much faster than an internet connection with a lower bandwidth. Bandwidth is typically expressed in bits per second, like 60 Mbps or 60 Mb/s, to explain a data transfer rate of 60 million bits (megabits) every second. Why Bandwidth Is Important to Understand It’s easy to dismiss bandwidth as a technical term that doesn’t really apply to you unless you like to play around with tech products or set up internet hardware....

The “Bluetooth” name is taken from a 10th-century Danish king named Harald Bluetooth, who was said to unite disparate, warring regional factions. Like its namesake, Bluetooth technology brings together a broad range of devices across many different industries through a unifying communication standard. Bluetooth Technology Developed in 1994, Bluetooth was intended as a wireless replacement for cables. It uses the same 2.4GHz frequency as some other wireless technologies in the home or office, such as cordless phones and WiFi routers....

What Does Data Roaming Mean? Roaming refers to the continued data service you get when you go outside your mobile operator’s coverage area. In other words, you’re roaming when you move away from your covered zone—the area where your wireless carrier provides data services. You can continue accessing the internet or making calls when traveling internationally because of cooperative agreements between your cellular provider and other network operators. However, fees are usually involved for international usage....