What is a hard drive?

Need some help understanding your hard drive? We can help! This guide discusses what a hard drive does, how they were created, what types of hard drives exist, and what hard drive properties are particularly important.

Whether you are looking for ways to upgrade your hard drive, trying to buy a computer with the right hard drive, or just trying to figure out what everyone is talking about, read on.

The hard drive’s purpose

In many respects, the hard drive is your computer. It’s where all the data in your computer is stored for the long term — not just the things you save, but all the code required for your operating system, the framework browsers use to connect to the internet, drivers for your accessories, and everything else. When people talk about computer storage, they are talking about the hard drive.

Every hard drive has a certain amount of space. Some of that space is automatically taken up by the things we mentioned—the operating system, and so on (usually around 10 to 20GB). The rest of the space you can fill with the data you download and save, whether it’s a new app or a funny cat picture someone emailed you.

Hard drive space isn’t as important now as it used to be, although it’s still a major indicator of a computer’s quality. That’s because many types of software can be run online from websites, and a lot of today’s data can be stored in the cloud on remote servers that can be accessed without depending on a local hard drive. This has led to the rise of computers like the Chromebook, with little storage space but a focus on streaming and cloud solutions.

Birth of the hard drive

In the very early days, computers didn’t have hard drives at all, so they needed different ways to store data so that it could be accessed when necessary. Those old timey ways included rolls of magnetic tape inscribed with data, and yes, punch cards that could be slotted in and read by the computer.

The first real hard drive was developed by Reynold B. Johnson at IBM, in 1956. Johnson’s team was working with better ways to store data on things like magnetic tape. They created ways to store information (in the form of bytes) on magnetic disks instead, which could be overwritten with new information as desired. This led to the development of an automated disk that could read itself in a manner similar to a record player — except much larger.

The first commercially available version, RAMAC, had a hard drive that was about the size of a kitchen pantry. Eventually things got smaller, and IBM additionally developed early floppy disks (in the late 1960s) that could store and transfer information from computer to computer. These two parts, the automated magnetic disk and the smaller, transferable “floppy” disk, became the backbone of the early hard drive. For many years, the method of storing data remained the same, while great improvements were made in how the hard drive could store, read, and eventually write data on the disk.

Two types of hard drives

Sure, hard drives come in a variety of forms. Some are internal, meaning they’re meant to be connected directly to the motherboard. Others are external, meaning they are made to be carried around and connected by USB. Some can be upgraded, some can’t. But most importantly, there are two core ways that hard drives store data: An older way and a newer way. Understanding today’s hard drives requires understanding both these storage methods.

HDD: HDD stands for hard disk drive, the version that IBM invented as a form of magnetic storage. It uses a magnetic disk that can hold information inscribed in very tiny tracks (again, a bit like a record player). This requires moving parts, specifically heads to read and write data to the disk as needed, and propulsion to spin the disk. It’s a simple method, and so HDDs have become very inexpensive to purchase, especially when creating very large storage setups. For this reason, they are popular in certain databanks and server rooms.

SSD: SSD stands for solid-state drive. There are no moving parts here: Instead, these hard drives use semiconductors that store information by changing the electrical state of very tiny capacitors. They are much faster than HDDs, and can storage information more easily without worrying about parts wearing out. However, they are also more expensive. We can thank SSDs for our modern mobile devices, and they are increasingly ubiquitous in laptops and desktops as well.

Important hard drive qualities

Space: Obviously, storage space is important! Take a look at available specs for computers today, and you’ll see storage options up to 1TB and frequently beyond. SSDs were particularly important for hard drive storage, because they can store data in a much smaller space than HDDs. That’s why we have phones that can hold all our favorite music playlists.

Speed: The speed of a hard drive depends on how fast data can be read or written, as well as the type of connection the hard drive has to the rest of the computer, and how much data it can carry. HDDs were once rated by rpms/revolutions per minute, but SSDs are much faster and don’t need to spin anything.

Physical security: Physical security is usually about durability — whether your hard drive is tucked away inside a computer or an external version you carry around, it needs to be able to resist bumps and jostles, as well as heat and other environmental issues. More advanced hard drives may also have features that help prevent hacking or discourage theft.

Connections: A hard drive may be connected by USB, SATA, eSATA, PCIe, and other connection options. This affects both speed and what the hard drive is compatible with or how easy it is to upgrade. Always watch connections when buying or upgrading!

Formatting: Hard drives may be formatted to work with particular operating systems or for other precise purposes. Typically you can reformat a hard drive to fit your own needs, but it’s a good idea to check how the hard drive has been formatted if you are making a purchase decision.

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North Carolina police force asks Google for data from devices near crime scenes

Police in Raleigh, North Carolina, have been quietly issuing warrants to Google, requesting account data from mobile devices that are tracked as coming close to crime scenes, according to a report on WRAL. According to court records, the police department has requested Google provide location data from mobile in at least four investigations. The data obtained from these investigations have resulted in one arrest.

While law enforcement increasingly rely on data from smartphones and other smart devices to solve crimes, the warrants from the Raleigh Police Department are unique as they do not request information from a specific device, but instead request information from any device that has come close to the crime scene.

The warrants appear to request data within a certain location range for a specific time frame. One warrant shows the Raleigh Police Department requesting data “located within the geographical region defined as within 150 meters of the GPS coordinates 35.785556, -78.617145” for two specific date and time ranges.

From the initial anonymized data, investigators can create a map of the crime scene and surrounding area. Once the map has been created, investigators will see coordinates for each device within the boundaries. They can then look for patterns that may be of interest and request additional warrants for additional identifying information such as names and birth dates.

The news raises some pretty serious security and privacy concerns for smartphone users. Instead of requesting data for specific suspects or persons of interest, the Raleigh Police Department’s practice of issuing blanket warrants ensnares everyone within a particular area. The practice can also be viewed as a potential violation of an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The use of blanket warrants by the Raleigh Police Department is the most recent example of law enforcement using questionable methods to conduct investigations. After the San Bernardino, California attack in 2015, the FBI tried to force Apple to unlock shooter Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone 5C. The case was later dropped when the FBI found an alternate way to access the shooter’s phone.

In addition to GPS location data provided by most smartphones, it’s also easy, but less accurate, for carriers to track your movements by triangulating data from nearby cell towers. In 2017, Google admitted that it tracked location data on Android phones even when Location Services was disabled. The tech giant later reported that it suspended its collection of cellular location data.

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You can try games before downloading them with Google Play Instant

Google Play Instant was launched last year as a way for developers to bring a native app experience to users without those users having to install anything. In other words, all users had to do was hit a link within search results, and the “app” would load on their phone — then it would disappear from their device when they exited the app. Now, Google is extending that service to games.

Discovering new Instant games is actually pretty easy. Simply head to the Google Play Games app, head to the “Arcade” tab and hit the “Play” button on a game you would like to try. There, you will also be able to see things like news and YouTube videos related to the game. You can also head to the Google Play store and hit the “Try now” button. Not all games support the new feature — at launch, you will be able to try Clash Royale, Words With Friends 2, Panda Pop, and more.

According to TechCrunch, Google had to make a few changes to Instant apps for it to make sense for games. For starters, it had to increase the limit of Instant from two megabytes to 10, which makes sense considering the fact that games just require a little more juice. For those that have reasonably decent internet connections and modern phones, those 10-megabyte apps should still load relatively quickly and function perfectly fine.

In general, the feature is clearly aimed at encouraging users to try more apps — and ultimately buy or download the apps that they like. People prefer being able to “try before they buy,” and often that “in-app purchases” label can scare potential downloaders away.

As time goes on, we will likely see more Instant apps and games. It offers a clear advantage for developers, who have more of an opportunity to introduce their apps to users without those users having to commit to downloading an app, and it offers an advantage to users, who can try apps before they download them. For now, the project is a closed beta, however, Google will be opening it up to more developers later this year, so expect to start seeing that “Try now” button more and more often.

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Next-gen smoke grenade hides soldiers from enemy eyes — and thermal sensors, too

Waldemar Blazej Nowak / EyeEm / Getty Images

If you’re a civilian, smoke bombs are something you might associate with fun hijinks on the Fourth of July. If you’re in the military, however, a smoke bomb may just save your life by providing you with a dense cloud of smoke cover when you need it the most. The only problem? While smoke bombs may cover you by reducing visibility, smart sensors are increasingly able to look beyond what is visible to the human eye by analyzing the infrared (aka thermal) region of the spectrum.

That’s where U.S. Army researchers may have just changed the game. Presented at the 255th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), they describe the creation of a totally new kind of smoke that can foil both the human eye and infrared detection.

“Because of the advancement of sensors beyond the visible region, we need new, high-performing obscurants in the infrared region,” lead researcher Zach Zander of the U.S. Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, said in a statement. “Each obscurant can absorb or scatter light at a given frequency. Most of the smokes that we use do well in either the visible or IR range. The objective of this program is to create what we call a bispectral obscurant, which works to block visible, as well as infrared, detection.”

Traditional army smoke grenades are made using a toxic material called hexachloroethane. The new smoke, on the other hand, is made of a type of terephthalic acid, a known visible obscurant, along with a metal organic molecule called UiO-66 that is able to absorb frequencies in the infrared range.

In a proof of concept demonstration, the new type of smoke grenade was exploded in a 249-cubic-yard chamber lined with sensors. It was then closely monitored at both visible and infrared wavelengths. While the results were impressive at showcasing its resistance to both visible light and infrared sensors, team members think they will be able to further improve the overall effectiveness by changing the recipe of the pyrotechnic portion of the grenade.

In the long term, the researchers hope to create a “Swiss army knife” of smoke grenades in which it’s possible to use a single grenade to block out a wide spectrum of different wavelengths. This would be especially useful in a military setting where it is crucial to be able to minimize the amount of equipment each soldier has to carry.

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IBM’s latest computer is a blockchain-ready CPU smaller than a grain of salt

IBM kicked off its Think 2018 conference today with a bombshell announcement: It has made the world’s smallest computer, and it’s designed from the ground up to work with the blockchain. The computer itself is smaller than a single grain of salt, coming in at 1 millimeter by 1 millimeter and reportedly has about the same computing power as a 1990s era CPU.

“The world’s smallest computer is an IBM-designed edge device architecture and computing platform that is smaller than a grain of salt will cost less than ten cents to manufacture, and can monitor, analyze, communicate, and even act on data,” IBM claims. “It packs several hundred thousand transistors into a footprint barely visible to the human eye and can help verify that a product has been handled properly throughout its long journey.”

Impressive as it is, for its size, it’s not the kind of chip you’re going to see in a mobile device any time soon, it’s made for something a little different. These microscopic CPUs are designed to be disposable. They’ll spend their lifetimes stuck to products in transit to ensure they arrive where they need to without being tampered with.

“Within the next five years, cryptographic anchors — such as ink dots or tiny computers smaller than a grain of salt — will be embedded in everyday objects and devices,” says IBM’s Arvind Krishna. “They’ll be used in tandem with blockchain’s distributed ledger technology to ensure an object’s authenticity from its point of origin to when it reaches the hands of the customer.”

Essentially, these CPUs will be embedded in tags or product packaging, and they’ll log every movement the product makes, from shipment to delivery. They could also be used to ensure the authenticity of luxury goods.

“These technologies pave the way for new solutions that tackle food safety, authenticity of manufactured components, genetically modified products, identification of counterfeit objects, and provenance of luxury goods,” Krishna continues.

So, it’s fair to say the breakthrough here isn’t just the size of these computers, it’s their potential use. Think of them like the bar codes on items in the grocery store. But instead of communicating price info, these CPUs could tell you everything about the product — where it was made, by whom, and where it’s been.

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Is the HTC Vive Pro too expensive, or the right price for the right hardware?

NurPhoto/Getty Images

This morning, HTC announced the pricing details for it’s new VR headset, the Vive Pro. The upgraded headset will cost $800 when it ships on April 5, with pre-orders starting today. Before you can even get excited, though, we have to ask — is that way too expensive?

People have been clamoring for a higher-resolution VR headset for years now. The primary reason is the increased pixel density, which should translate to a much more experience and realistic experience with fewer graphical oddities. While we’ve yet to test it in-depth, we did go hands on with the headset at CES this year, and we were pretty impressed with the overall experience.

But remember. What we’re talking about is just a headset. You still need a powerful PC that can actually run it. So, would you pay $800 for just a VR headset?

The @htcvive Pro will cost $800. Is that way too expensive? #HTCVivePro

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— Digital Trends (@DigitalTrends) March 19, 2018

At $800, it’s the most expensive headset since the original Vive at launch. For that much, you can buy all sorts of things — let’s say, a 55-inch 4K smart TV, or even a great new laptop.

On the other hand, the Vive Pro has by far the best on-paper specifications of any headset so far. There are some obvious places where that money could have gone, most notably the pair of QuadHD displays (1400 x 1600 per eye). The headset also comes with built-in headphones, upgraded from the Deluxe Audio Strap, which HTC currently sells for $100. There’s other tech that HTC has packed into the package too, whether that’s extra microphones or cameras to enhance in-app immersion. On top of that, the bundle still includes the external Lighthouse sensors, along with the Vive controllers.

From the results so far, you can see that while there are some people who would be willing to pay for the increase in resolution, many simply can’t afford to get into VR at this level.

While Oculus heads in the direction of more entry-level buyers with its stand-alone Oculus Go headset, HTC seems intent to capture the attention of early adopters and VR enthusiasts. You’ll have to stay tuned to get our full review of the Vive Pro, but for now,  it seems destined to be a bit out of reach for the average person interested in VR.

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First U.S. cryptocurrency ban outlaws Venezuela’s ‘Petro’ coin

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro (Photo: Getty Images/Fedrico Parra)

The U.S. executive branch issued an executive order prohibiting the use or purchase of Venezuela’s Petro cryptocurrency, claiming the currency was issued unlawfully in an effort to circumvent U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, and in particular the President Nicolás Maduro’s regime.

“All transactions related to, provision of financing for, and other dealings in, by a United States person or within the United States, any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token, that was issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela on or after January 9, 2018, are prohibited as of the effective date of this order,” the executive order reads.

The ban comes after Maduro created the cryptocurrency in an effort to stem the tide of rapidly rising inflation. According to Bloomberg, the inflation rate will likely hit 13,000 percent by the end of 2018. The destabilized economy has created a humanitarian disaster and the oil-backed cryptocurrency reportedly hasn’t helped matters — despite Maduro’s claims to the contrary.

“President Maduro decimated the Venezuelan economy and spurred a humanitarian crisis. Instead of correcting course to avoid further catastrophe, the Maduro regime is attempting to circumvent sanctions through the Petro digital currency — a ploy that Venezuela’s democratically elected National Assembly has denounced and Treasury has cautioned U.S. persons to avoid,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said.

Whether or not this will actually have an effect on cryptocurrency markets remains to be seen. Maduro claimed to have sold around $5 billion in Petro cryptocurrency, but it’s unclear if that is actually true, or if it was a statement made to drive up interest.

“Since most cryptocurrencies are not actually backed by anything real, cryptocurrency speculation is based on the greater fool theory — I can buy this at $100 because there is someone who is a bigger idiot who is going to buy it at $200. When you take the U.S. out of that equation, you reduce the interest and potential for that speculation,” Russ Dallen of Caracas Capital told Bloomberg.

What does this all mean for you? Well, as long as you don’t have any of Venezuela’s Petro in your portfolio, you don’t have anything to worry about. If you do, you might be stuck with it, because this executive order makes it very clear that any transaction involving Petro — even selling it as a result of this ban — is currently prohibited for U.S. citizens.

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Samsung CF791 ultrawide curved gaming monitor review

Research Center:
Samsung CF791

When you’re seated in front of a curved ultrawide monitor, games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided just commandeer your entire field of view, pulling you into another world. Walking the neon-bathed streets of a futuristic Prague while rain pours in thick, heavy sheets, it’s easy to lose yourself.

It’s no wonder these monitors started to really pick up steam in the latter parts of 2016 — and they’re poised to take over the market entirely in 2018. Prices are going down, performance is going up, and companies like Samsung are rolling out ultrawide curved monitors to match growing customer demand.

The Samsung CF791 is one such monitor. It’s a 34-inch, ultrawide monitor with a curve deep enough to wrap around your entire field of vision. Those specifications on their own would be impressive, but the CF791 has another trick up its sleeve: Quantum dots.

Yep, this monitor is filled to the brim with those nanocrystal semiconductors that bend light to their will and deliver unparalleled color depth, contrast ratios, and all sorts of other stimuli for your retinas. Quantum dots are supposed to deliver sharp, accurate colors at a much lower price than their OLED competitors, and the Samsung CF791 retails for $750. Its original retail price was $1,000 but it’s come down a significant amount since its initial release.

Is the Samsung CF791 worth the price of entry? Let’s find out.

Adjustable elegance

Before you even turn it on, the Samsung CF791 cuts an elegant figure. A broad aluminum-colored disc supports a glossy white armature that seems to effortlessly hold the display aloft. It’s not often that a monitor’s adjustable stand is appreciably different from all the others on the market. It has a simple job — hold the monitor up, keep it from wobbling, and don’t be a pain when you need to adjust the height or angle.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

It’s a straightforward, but thankless job, and you only ever really notice the stand if it’s misbehaving — if your display is wobbly, or if it never manages to stay at just the right height. Curved monitor manufacturers sometimes cut corners here, and offer stands that are nice-looking but inadequate, or stable but overly large. With the CF791, Samsung establishes a comfortable middle ground.

The base is large, but not too large. It provides stability without overreaching and taking over your whole desk. Despite the size of the base, it never seems overbearing, and the stability it brings to the monitor is a welcome addition. Ultrawide curved monitors have a bad reputation for being wobbly, due to their size, but the CF791 proves a steady hand.

A narrow, articulated armature clad in glossy white plastic sprouts from the back side of the base. This arm holds up the monitor, and accounts for the CF791’s impressive adjustability. Every monitor is adjustable in some way or another, usually just a little up and down with some give to tilt it forward or back. Usually, these adjustments produce audible clicks or require some muscle to get just right.

Even when bright, vibrant rose-reds contrast well against stark, snowy whites.

Again, the Samsung CF791 manages to improve on a simple aspect of the user experience that is very easy to ignore. Adjusting this monitor’s big, curved display is easy. Not just that — it’s pleasant, which is a weird thing to say. When you pull the display toward you, angling it up or down, the arm moves with just the right amount of resistance before settling into its new position.

Once adjusted, the stand is remarkably stable. Tapping or nudging the display doesn’t change its position, nor does bumping the table or desk it sits on. The display itself only wobbles noticeably when directly jarred, or if you start shaking the table.

Familiar faces

The CF791 features a standard array of connections and ports, including two HDMI 2.0 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, and one USB port, alongside built-in speakers. It’s also VESA compatible, another nice, standard addition.

Basic configuration is handled with a set of familiar on-screen menus accessible via the jog button on the back-right side of the monitor. It’s responsive, and makes clicking through the menus easy enough, but like most jog buttons, you’re going to end up hitting the wrong setting now and then. It’s not exactly a precision instrument.

The menus themselves are easily navigable, clear, concise, and surprisingly robust. There are a lot of options here. You can adjust your brightness, contrast, and individual color levels, also configure which version of HDMI or DisplayPort you want the monitor to be running (1.4 or 2.0) on each of the input ports, and you can toggle AMD’s FreeSync on or off.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The CF791 supports a 100Hz refresh rate, even without AMD’s FreeSync, in case you don’t have an AMD video card. It’s a nice addition and definitely puts the CF791 in competition with other gaming monitors.

The speakers get the job done, but they’re nothing to write home about. Playing music through them, you’ll end up losing most of the bass, and games don’t fare much better. Gunshots are sharp and snappy, but deep rumbly sounds get lost in translation.

In search of content

It’s impossible to discuss the Samsung CF791 without mentioning its overwhelming size. This is a big monitor. With a 34-inch diagonal wingspan, as well as a 3,440 x 1,440 resolution, the CF791 has a comfortable 110 PPI. The deep curve makes the already impressive presence of the monitor even more dramatic. Just putting it on your desk makes your workstation look like a futuristic command center.

Before we even cracked open our colorimeter and set about calibrating the CF791, we had to find some video content to test it with. This isn’t a 4K display, and it’s not 1080p. Of course, 1440p content is easy enough to find, but at an appropriate aspect ratio to really leverage the CF791’s ample screen space? Not so much.

That’s actually something of a larger problem for the CF791. Games support its odd dimensions with ease, but streaming services like Netflix, HBO Now, and Amazon Video had trouble scaling video content without losing quality. HBO Now, in fact, had the most trouble scaling to the CF791’s enormous and unusual size, zooming in on one corner of the video and chopping off the rest.

You might have better luck if you hooked up a game console or downloaded your favorite streaming service’s official app instead of streaming from your browser.

This isn’t the monitor’s fault, and it’s a symptom you’re going to see on any monitor with a resolution a little outside the norm. If you’re in doubt, it’s best to just use 4K content on this monitor — browsers and streaming services are better at scaling down than they are at scaling up.

Other than a handful of user-created videos on YouTube, finding content at a native resolution large enough to fill the CF791’s display was pretty difficult. It’s something you’ll want to keep in mind, especially if you plan on using this monitor primarily for media. Worse comes to worst, you’ll just find black bars on either side of whatever you’re watching, or you’ll have to temporarily lower your monitor’s resolution to accommodate the video content.

Once we did track down some appropriately sized video content, 4K or 1440p, the Samsung CF791 exceeded our expectations in the most spectacular fashion. When you put it to work, this monitor is breathtaking.

Simply astonishing

From edge-to-edge, the CF791 delivers rich, velvety colors. Watching a movie trailer, colors just cascade across the screen, reds leap out against deep, inky blacks, whites are sharp and stark. These colors don’t run, they don’t bleed, they are precisely where they need to be and they never stray outside the lines. Even when bright vibrant beet-reds are contrasted against snowy whites, the CF791 never misses a beat.

It’s easy to see why — right out of the box, the CF791 sports an impressive 940:1 contrast ratio and displays 100 percent of the sRGB spectrum, and 85 percent of the AdobeRGB spectrum.

What does that mean in practice? It means this monitor looks great, without tweaking a single setting. Pull it out of the box, plant it on a desk, fire it up, and you’re done. You don’t need to mess around with contrast settings to pull the most out of this monitor — it’s not shy, it doesn’t need coaxing.

Compared to Samsung’s previous 34-inch curved monitor, the S34E790C, the CF791 is an improvement on an already great product. The new design all but eliminates the bezels around the screen, deepens the curve, and shatters the S34’s impressive contrast ratio of 740:1 with its own 940:1 contrast ratio. Gamma is fairly middle of the road, coming in at 2.1.

Brightness maxes out at about 299 lux, and black levels are appreciably deep — moving up to only .33 at full brightness, and 0.0 at the lowest brightness setting. What does that mean for your display? Just that your highlights and lowlights, your bright patches and shadows will remain nicely differentiated no matter your brightness setting — a credit to the CF791’s fantastic contrast ratio.

Samsung CF791 Compared To

LG 32UD99-W

HP Z38c

Dell Ultrasharp U3818DW

LG 38UC99

Dell S2716DG

BenQ PD3200U 4K Designer Monitor

LG 34UC89G

BenQ EX3200R Gaming Monitor

Dell U3417W

Samsung CFG70

BenQ PV3200PT

Acer Predator Z35

Eizo Foris FS2735 gaming monitor

LG 34UC98 monitor

Philips 276E6ADSS LCD monitor

How did Samsung do it? Well, that contrast ratio is the result of those quantum dots, which handle color much more efficiently than standard LCD displays. They’re essentially molecular-sized prisms that bend light to different colors (frequencies) depending on their size. These nanocrystal semiconductors act as a filter between the LCD’s backlight and the display, ensuring that colors go where they need to, when they need to, and nowhere else.

Those quantum dots manage to push the CF791 ahead of the competition, without inflating its price tag. For instance, the LG 38UC99 boasts an impressively high brightness level of 300 lux, and a 38-inch screen, but it’s 660:1 contrast ratio doesn’t come anywhere near the CF791’s impressive 940:1 contrast ratio.

Speaking of contrast, the CF791’s contrast ratio easily eclipses what we saw out of HP’s more recent ultrawide, the Z38c — which topped out at 630:1. That’s particularly impressive because the CF791 came out in 2016, and the Z38c came out in early 2018. The Z38c does feature slightly better color accuracy, coming in at 2.01 average color error to the CF791’s 2.38. It also beats the Z38c in color gamut, hitting 85 of the AdobeRGB spectrum, compared to the Z38c’s top score of 74 percent.

Even more than a year down the road, the CF791’s quantum dots make its colors sharper, more vibrant, and more accurate. Let’s see if we can make them work a little harder with some calibration.

Wait, it gets better

Normally, calibration can help gloss over a monitor’s shortcomings — you can give that color accuracy a boost, and fix off-kilter gamma, but that’s usually about it. Expecting anything other than a minor improvement is unrealistic — most of the time.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The Samsung CF791 is just full of surprises. While the out-of-the-box color accuracy is not ideal, coming in at 2.56 (anything lower than 1.0 is undetectable to the human eye), running it through a basic calibration lands you nearly pitch-perfect color accuracy — about 1.08, which is just a few decimal points away from professional-grade color accuracy. Thanks, quantum dots.

The CF791 also avoids a common pitfall of curved ultrawide monitors — the dreaded light bleed. Throughout our tests, even when we were trying to reproduce some common light bleed, the CF791 maintained its inky darkness even with a fully black — but active — screen. No light bleed around the corners, none along the top or bottom edges. In this regard, the CF791 is again able to run circles around some of its high-end competitors like the HP Z38c and the LG 38UC99 which fared better than most curved monitors, but still had some unsightly light bleed around the curvature of the screen.

Before you even turn it on, the Samsung CF791 cuts an elegant figure.

Calibration might ding your contrast just a bit, though. In our tests, the precalibration contrast ratio of 940:1 went down to 910:1, which is a fairly negligible loss given what you stand to gain in color accuracy. Brightness and black levels remained pretty much the same, pre- and post-calibration, but those gains in color accuracy are definitely worth the trouble of calibration.

If you don’t have access to a professional colorimeter, worry not. You can check out our calibration guide here for some tips on how to get the most out of this — or any other — monitor.

The Samsung CF791’s color accuracy manages to edge out a few rivals, including the Samsung S34E790C, which comes close, but doesn’t quite match the CF791’s stellar accuracy. In fact, the CF791’s post-calibration color accuracy actually comes close to the accuracy you’d find on a professional-grade monitor like the BenQ SW2700PT, which features out-of-the-box color accuracy of .84.

Warranty information

The Samsung CF791 comes with a standard one-year warranty for parts and labor, covering manufacturer defects in materials and workmanship, but only guards against noncommercial use. It’s not an unusual warranty, it’s just a little sparse. The Acer Predator Z35, for instance, features a three-year warranty, which is much more common for high-end monitors.

If you purchase a CF791, you might want to pick up some kind of device insurance or extended care plan from a trusted retailer — the included warranty has a lot of caveats.

Our Take

Ultrawide curved monitors are impressive to behold. They just look great. They’re aesthetically pleasing, they create a luxuriant workspace that supplants typical two-monitor setups, and they’re immersive. Size and scope often compensate for any shortcomings a typical ultrawide monitor might have.

The Samsung CF791 isn’t a typical ultrawide monitor. It doesn’t really have any shortcomings. It doesn’t need to compensate for anything, because it delivers in every way you need it to. It’s a gaming monitor that upgrades your workspace, and a workspace that delivers stellar gaming performance. But it’s a little over a year old now, let’s see if it’s still a good purchase.

Is there a better alternative?

Simply put? No, there isn’t a better alternative. The CF791 sits comfortably in the Goldilocks zone when it comes to price, performance, and picture quality.

There’s the Acer Predator Z35, if you need a blisteringly fast refresh rate, but you’ll lose out on that deep curve and the rich contrast provided by the CF791’s quantum dot display.

The DT Accessory Pack

SteelSeries Rival 100 optical gaming mouse

$31.83

SteelSeries Arctis 5 gaming headset

$90

Razer BlackWidow Chroma Clicky Mechanical gaming keyboard

$130

Similarly, you could pick up the LG 38UC99, a 38-inch IPS monitor, which delivers an immersive experience with a massive panel, but less-than-impressive contrast. It’s also significantly more expensive at $1,300. That’s almost double the CF791’s current price of $750.

How long will it last?

We’re in a unique period when it comes to consumer technology, particularly monitors. Resolutions continue to ramp up, year over year, but for most uses, we’ve reached a comfortable plateau. For instance, 4K displays have trouble with icon scaling and text because of their overwhelming pixel density. On the other hand, 1440p is a happy middle ground between 1080p and 4K — it’s a safe place to be for quite a while.

The Samsung CF791 has two major advantages that will contribute to its longevity. Its size, which is unlikely to be eclipsed any time soon, even more than a year after release. After all, monitors might keep getting bigger, but desks sure don’t. You only have so much space available for a monitor, and the CF791 just barely scrapes the ceiling on that front.

Second, the resolution and pixel density are pitch-perfect for text. Pixel density is high enough that text and icons aren’t visibly pixelated — they’re sharp and smooth like a pen stroke — and the resolution is capable of approximating 4K content without too much difficulty. After all it’s only 400 pixels shy of 4K.

In short, the Samsung CF791 will last an awful long time. It’ll outlast most of the components in your PC, and continue to deliver immersive gaming experiences long after you replace your brand-new video card.

Should you buy it?

Yes, you should. It’s expensive, but for what you get, it’s a good deal. The Samsung CF791 will outlast your current gaming rig, and if you’re buying it for a general use PC, it’ll last even longer — as a workspace, 21:9 is fairly cutting edge.

Samsung has outdone themselves with the CF791, and with a below average retail price, this is one monitor you don’t want to pass up.

Hate needles? These microscopic ones painlessly dissolve drugs in your skin

University of Texas at Dallas

Outside of tattoo conventions, few people would honestly say that they enjoy getting stuck with needles. As a result, researchers have been hard at work to develop alternatives — ranging from combining all our shots into one long-lasting injection to a needle-free device which blasts drugs into the body at Mach 0.7. New research coming out of the University of Texas at Dallas adds another pain-saving option to the list: A 3D-printed dissolving microneedle array, which could offer a far less daunting alternative for the needle-phobic among us.

“Microneedles are very tiny needles that can deliver drugs and vaccines into the body through the skin,” Jeremiah Gassensmith, assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, told Digital Trends. “They’re very small, so they don’t hurt, which makes them desirable as a way to replace traditional syringes. We are interested in making them out of materials that get embedded in the skin and dissolve over time releasing drugs or vaccines slowly.”

Usually producing microneedles would require specialized equipment in the form of a cleanroom. The issue is that this is not something that many smaller companies have access to. “We basically found a way to cut out the multimillion-dollar clean room with a $1,000 Lulzbot,” Gassensmith explained. “We print microneedles, do some post-print processing on them to make them super-sharp, and then we show we can load small molecules into them and release them into the skin over time.”

So far, the microneedles have been tested on pig skin, where they were shown to be capable of delivering a sample dose of dye molecules beneath the skin, similar to how a drug might be delivered in the body. By applying a slight sideways force, more than 80 percent of the needles break off in the skin. They then deliver their drug payload over time as the needles dissolve — due to being made of the non-toxic polymer polylactide, the same material already used in dissolvable stitches.

“We’d love to get plastic filaments that are loaded with specific drugs that are typically only effective when administered by IV,” Gassensmith said. “Instead of getting multiple shots, your doctor would print out a therapeutic microneedle patch and mail it to you and you could apply it yourself at home. One of the great advantages of microneedles is you don’t need to be trained to use them. They’d be great for deployment where formulating IV drugs would be a hassle, like in delivering vaccines to developing countries. The 3D-printing technology is ready to be commercialized right now, and we are actively working on finding candidate drugs to use for our spools.”

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Google is making it easier to manage your podcasts straight from the Google app

Google is getting better at helping you keep track of your favorite podcasts. Google first brought podcast support to Google Play Music in 2016, at which point users were able to search for and play podcasts straight from Search. Now, it looks like Google will be both improving podcast support from the Google app, and bringing some of that functionality to Google Assistant — meaning you’ll be able to manage your podcasts using only your voice.

According to a report from Android Police, Google is rolling out improved podcast support to the Google app now. Once live, you’ll find that searching for podcasts will show a new “Subscribe” button right below the name and icon of the podcast. You’ll also be able to tap on the “More episodes” tab to see a list of the episodes, as well as to subscribe, and to add an icon for the podcast to your home screen.

There are even more features for podcasts in general. For example, if you tap on the podcast icon on the top left of the display, you’ll see a list of all the podcasts you’re subscribed to, as well as trending podcasts, and a card to continue podcasts you were listening to earlier. You can also add shortcuts to specific podcasts to your home screen, or add a shortcut to a list of all your podcasts.

What may be even cooler is how you can control these features using Google Assistant. For example, you can ask Assistant to “continue last played podcast,” meaning you don’t have to go digging around within the app to find the podcast and continue playing it.

The new podcast section could still use some tweaking. For starters, we can’t find a way to download podcasts just yet, a feature that could be very useful for users who don’t have unlimited data plans or who often find themselves in areas with little data coverage. It would also be nice for there to be a desktop version of the feature — especially for those who use their computer to work and want to be able to listen through it instead of through their phone. Still, it is nice to see Google giving podcasts some much-need TLC — after all, Google Play Music’s podcast support is a little limited.

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