standards

How a ‘Playboy’ Centerfold Became Part of the Creation of the JPEG

Lena Sjööblom posed for Playboy in 1972 and forgot about it. Little did she know her image would become the standard for computer image recognition.

Culture Samantha Cole Nov 20

What Is UWB and Why Are Apple and Samsung Suddenly So Interested In It?

Wifi, Bluetooth, and NFC are well-established specs in modern smartphones, and if Samsung has its way, UWB is going to be next. Samsung Chief Technology Officer KJ Kim outlined Samsung’s view of UWB, or Ultra-Wideband, on the company’s website, describing it as a transformative technology that can help facilitate wireless data transfer, upgrade smart home…

Gadgets Sam Rutherford Oct 12

Why More and More Video Monitors Are Relying on USB-C

Just when it seemed that we’d all settled on one industry standard video input/output to make use of, along comes another one to complicate matters—you’ll now find USB-C competing with HDMI and other ports on modern computing and gaming monitors. Here we’ll explain why that’s happening, and what the pros and cons could end up…

Gadgets David Nield Jun 24

Why All the Smart Home Platforms Suck and How They’re Going to Fix Them

If you buy a smart home device right now, it’s more than likely it’ll work with Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant, or maybe even both—but while these digital assistants are adding a layer of convenience on top of a living space full of sensors and gadgets, they aren’t really the smart home platforms we should…

Gadgets David Nield Feb 4

USB-C Is a Mess—How to Navigate It

USB Type-C, or simply USB-C, sounds fine in theory—a single port to handle charging, data transfer, video output, and more, and one that’s reversible too. Three years down the line from its introduction, you’ll find it on most smartphones and many laptops, but its apparent simplicity isn’t the whole story. Here’s what you need to…

Gadgets David Nield Jun 20

The Battle Between Wireless Charging Standards Comes to a Merciful End

Wireless charging has been held back by poor tech for many years, but now we’re seeing major manufacturers integrate it, and it’s becoming a viable option. The biggest hurdle it currently faces is that there are two standard versions of the technology, making it difficult to offer chargers compatible with everyone’s device. But in an…

Tech News Rhett Jones Jan 8

What the Coming USB 3.2 Standard Means for You

Just when you thought you could chitchat with authority about USB standards at your next dinner party, a new one comes along to shake everything up again. The latest USB 3.2 standard is going to be confirmed in September, and here’s what that means for your laptop, your phone, and those new USB-C cables you…

Gadgets David Nield Aug 17

This Is How Different ‘One Drink’ Is in Countries All Over the World

You can order the same drink at bars all over the world, but how much booze each order is really going to get you depends a lot on where you are. A new study out today in the journal Addiction surveyed the different alcohol contents of a single drink in 75 different countries. What they…

Tech News Ria Misra Apr 12

The Next Version of DisplayPort Will Drive 8K Monitors With HDR Video

You probably take the DisplayPort on your laptop for granted, but the folks that develop the standard have been working hard to make it perform way better—and the next version will allow you to drive an 8K display with HDR video, if you ever happen to own one. This will be the first spec bump…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Mar 3

What Is HTTP/2?

Have you heard? HTTP/2 is finally finished. That means that pretty soon webpages will load faster; connections will last longer; servers will respond to requests with more content. What’s not to like! But hold on a sec: What the heck is HTTP/2, again? Put simply, HTTP/2 is a very overdue upgrade to Hypertext Transfer Protocol,…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Feb 18

New Video Standard Will Allow 8K Laptop Screens

If you think your 4K laptop drips with graphical power, remember that all things are relative—and a new video standard will allow laptops to make use of 8K screens. The Video Electronics Standards Association has unveiled the Embedded DisplayPort 1.4a. It’s a new video transfer format, and it uses compression to squeeze more data into…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Feb 10

Nest and Friends Are Giving the Internet of Things a Fresh Start

A consortium of companies just announced a new wireless networking protocol for the home called Thread. It’s designed to help build low-power, wireless mesh networks so that devices can seamlessly connect to form a true internet of things. In a way, Thread promises to create little mini internet for your home. Based on the players…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Jul 15

Why We Can’t All Just Settle on One Stupid Standard

Standards, formats, protocols. There are thousands of them! Probably! I’ve never counted, I’ve always been too buys slamming my head against a wall. But you know what? Even the road to gadget compatibility hell is paved with good intentions. Right before it’s repaved with terrible, pigheaded greed. [xkcd]

Books & Comics Brian Barrett Jul 20

What Is Thunderbolt?

Along with snappy Sandy Bridge processors and beefy GPUs, Apple’s new MacBook Pros have a superfast, versatile new I/O tech called Thunderbolt. Whazat? https://gizmodo.com/all-about-the-new-macbook-pros-2011-5769132 Thunderbolt is a new standard for connecting peripherals to your computer… If your laptop is untethered and on your lap right now, it’s only there temporarily. Our machines still spend most…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Feb 24

The Future of the Internet Has a (Kickass) Logo

To help prod along our slow, inexorable march towards the HTML5 web standard, and because everything today needs branding, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has unveiled a snazzy new HTML5 logo. The biggest surprise? It’s pretty controversial! https://gizmodo.com/giz-explains-why-html5-isnt-going-to-save-the-internet-5461711 What’s got web developers up in arms about the orange and black crest? The issue’s not…

Tech News Brian Barrett Jan 18

iPads and iPhones To Get MIDI Support With iOS 4.2

What a pleasant surprise! The fellows over at Create Digital Music have discovered that iOS 4.2 will allow iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches to support MIDI devices over both USB (via camera connection kit) and Wi-Fi. The above video shows what the 4.2-ready version of Pianist Pro will be capable of, and Create Digital Music…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Nov 4

Apple Foregoing USB 3.0 For Light Peak in Early 2011?

CNET reports that Intel’s Light Peak, a high-speed connection standard capable of transferring data at 10 gigabits per second, will be arriving sooner than expected: sometime in the first half of 2011. And Apple’s poised to be an early adopter. According to CNET’s industry source, Light Peak is “now on track to appear in products…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Nov 4

Researchers Claim They’ve Created the Perfect 3D Human Ear Model

Researchers at the National Physics Laboratory in the U.K. have modeled what they believe to be the perfect human ear. It will replace the “flawed” one created by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 1990. Perfect headphones for everyone! Why create better 3D ears? Well, as a standard, the model helps gadget companies create headphones. Or…

Tech News Jack Loftus Oct 17

It’s Time To Make Standardized Ratings For Gadgets

Earlier today, the Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed off stickers that would give car buyers standardized info on a particular model’s fuel economy and environmental impact. Gadgets should have standardized ratings, too. https://jalopnik.com/new-fuel-economy-window-stickers-chock-full-o-numbers-5625482 When buying gadgets, comparison is paramount. There are inevitably a hundred TVs that fit the general requirements…

Gadgets Kyle VanHemert Aug 30

H.264 Will Be Royalty Free For Internet Video Forever, Kinda, Mozilla Still Doesn’t Care

MPEG LA, the group that licenses the h.264 video codec, has extended its royalty-free use (for free internet video) from 2016 until, well, forever. Update: Kinda. But Mozilla thinks the better part of forever could belong to Google’s WebM format. https://gizmodo.com/h-264-will-stay-royalty-free-for-free-internet-video-th-5463728 The announcement serves as MPEG LA’s not-so-indirect response to Google’s announcement of their own…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Aug 27

standards

How a ‘Playboy’ Centerfold Became Part of the Creation of the JPEG

What Is UWB and Why Are Apple and Samsung Suddenly So Interested In It?

Why More and More Video Monitors Are Relying on USB-C

Why All the Smart Home Platforms Suck and How They’re Going to Fix Them

USB-C Is a Mess—How to Navigate It

The Battle Between Wireless Charging Standards Comes to a Merciful End

What the Coming USB 3.2 Standard Means for You

This Is How Different ‘One Drink’ Is in Countries All Over the World

The Next Version of DisplayPort Will Drive 8K Monitors With HDR Video

What Is HTTP/2?

New Video Standard Will Allow 8K Laptop Screens

Nest and Friends Are Giving the Internet of Things a Fresh Start

Why We Can’t All Just Settle on One Stupid Standard

What Is Thunderbolt?

The Future of the Internet Has a (Kickass) Logo

iPads and iPhones To Get MIDI Support With iOS 4.2

Apple Foregoing USB 3.0 For Light Peak in Early 2011?

Researchers Claim They’ve Created the Perfect 3D Human Ear Model

It’s Time To Make Standardized Ratings For Gadgets

H.264 Will Be Royalty Free For Internet Video Forever, Kinda, Mozilla Still Doesn’t Care

ICE Reportedly Acknowledges Its Use of Notorious Graphite Spyware

Intel Jumps On Board Elon Musk’s Terafab Chipmaking Project

Anthropic’s New Model Is So Scarily Powerful It Won’t Be Released, Anthropic Says

Musk Asks Court to Give Potential Winnings in OpenAI Suit to OpenAI’s Nonprofit

Pro-Iran Hackers Target Critical U.S. Energy and Water Infrastructure

‘She-Hulk’ Was Apparently One of Marvel’s Most Successful Shows

The World’s First Eye-Tracking Smart Glasses Are Intriguing and Unpolished

Noah Hawley Is Remaking ‘Terrified,’ Which Shouldn’t Happen

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

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