Trending December 2023 # Is The Apple Card Worth It? Here’s What You Need To Know # Suggested January 2024 # Top 19 Popular

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Apple Card

Apple Card has been available for several years at this point, and it’s proven to be a very popular credit card. Despite its popularity, however, there are a few things to keep in mind before signing up for Apple Card. Here’s what you need to know.

Apple Card quick facts

Apply and manage directly in the Wallet app on your iPhone

Get a free Apple-designed titanium card

No late fees

No over-limit fees

No foreign transaction fees

Created by Apple with a financial back-end powered by Goldman Sachs

All payments due on the last day of the month

Find out if you’re approved with only a soft credit check

Apple Card Savings Account

Apple Card perks

The Apple Card offers a set of rewards and perks that make it enticing for a few different reasons. The headlining feature is the ability to earn “Unlimited Day Cash back” on every purchase. The amount of that cash back, however, varies by where and how you make that purchase.

3% Daily Cash back on every purchase from Apple Stores, Apple’s website, and all digital purchases from the App Store, iTunes, and Apple services like Apple Music and Apple TV+

2% Daily Cash back on all purchases made using Apple Pay online and in-store

1% Daily Cash back on all other purchases

You can also get 3% Daily Cash back when you buy with Apple Pay at a selection of specific stores and retailers:

Ace Hardware

Exxon

Nike

T-Mobile

Uber Eats

Duane Reade

Mobil

Panera Bread

Uber

Walgreens

Apple Card Monthly Installments

Another of the nice perks of Apple Card is the “Monthly Installments” feature that allows you to finance any purchase of Apple products over time with zero-percent interest.

If you’re an Apple Card user, you’ll see an “Apple Card Monthly Installments” financing option. You can finance pretty much any Apple product using this option, including all of Apple’s primary product categories:

iPhone: Finance across 24 months

Mac: Finance across 12 months

iPad: Finance across 12 months

Apple Watch: Finance across 24 months

AirPods: Finance across 6 months

Apple TV 4K: Finance across 6 months

If you trade in an iPhone towards the purchase of a new iPhone, the value of that trade-in will be instantly deducted from the purchase price of the new iPhone, lowering your monthly installment.

You also earn 3% Daily Cash on all Apple Card Monthly Installment purchases. For instance, if you buy an iPhone 14 for $799, you get the full 3% Daily Cash, or roughly $24, deposited right away, even though you haven’t actually paid for the device yet.

There is no approval process required for Apple Card Monthly Installments. Instead, the balance of your installments counts towards your overall Apple Card credit limit. For instance, if you have a credit limit of $5,000 and you finance an iPhone 14 from Apple, the cost of that iPhone 14 is subtracted from your overall credit limit.

What is Daily Cash?

“Daily Cash” is what Apple calls the cash back that you earn with Apple Card purchases. You earn the Daily Cash right after the purchase posts to your Apple Card balance. This is different than many other cash back cards, which don’t give the cash back until the end of each statement cycle.

By default, Daily Cash is deposited directly to your “Apple Cash” balance. Apple Cash is a separate card in the Wallet app that is effectively Apple’s competitor to other payment services like Venmo and Cash app.

Money in your Apple Cash account can be used for Apple Pay purchases, sent to friends and family via Messages, or transferred to your linked bank account. You can also use your Apple Cash funds to pay down the balance of your Apple Card itself.

Another option available is to have Daily Cash rewards immediately applied to your Apple Card’s balance. This works if you don’t have an Apple Cash account.

Most recently, Apple launched Apple Card Savings Account. This is a new feature exclusive to Apple Card users. You can have your Daily Cash deposited to the savings account instantly, which offers 4.15% interest, and make deposits from a linked bank account.

Apple Card security and privacy

Apple Card also offers a handful of security and privacy features that can help protect your information and finances to prevent unauthorized transactions.

Advanced Fraud Protection: The Card Security Code automatically refreshes every day.

No card number or security code on the physical card itself

Ability to lock your Apple Card via the Wallet app

Real-time transaction notifications via the Wallet app

Is the Apple Card worth it?

Now that we’ve run through the benefits and features of Apple Card, we can talk about whether or not it’s worth it.

For a card with no annual fee, the Apple Card has some enticing perks and reward options – especially for people who find themselves spending a decent amount of money with Apple directly.

The Apple Card is worth it if the following things apply to you:

You aren’t concerned about the potential one-time hit to your credit score.

Apple Pay is widely accepted as a payment option from the stores and websites you shop.

You buy products from Apple, the App Store, and Apple Services.

You value the ability to manage everything via the Wallet app on your iPhone.

There’s also a web interface for Apple Card, but the Wallet app is the best way to manage Apple Card.

That’s not to say the Apple Card is a must-have credit card, though. There are similarly competitive cash back options from the likes of Chase, Citi, and Discover. You can also check out options from American Express, many of which offer more enticing rewards as long as you know how to best redeem the Membership Rewards points.

I got the chance to talk with Emmanuel Crouvisier, developer of the popular CardPointers app, about the Apple Card. CardPointers is an excellent app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac to help you maximize credit card rewards.

With the Apple Card the most you can get is 3% back on your purchase, whereas with the cards I’ve mentioned, you can get 5x back in points on some categories like restaurants, gas stations, etc, and those points are worth even more as you can redeem them for things like business class seats to Europe. 

If someone spends $10,000 on their Apple Card in a year they’ll get back at most $300, whereas the same $10k spend on a good rewards card can earn them 50,000 points, and those points can be worth 4c or more with a good redemption, meaning the real value would be $2,000. Literally 7x more value out of using a good rewards card, and that’s what CardPointers helps users do — earn more from every purchase just by paying with the right card. 

9to5Mac readers can save 30% off the normal price of CardPointers and get a $100 Savings Card as a signup bonus.

As always, credit cards are only a wide financial tool if you pay them off every month. Once you start carrying a balance and paying interest, the credit card company is making money off you. The rewards you receive will never outweigh the interest charges.

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Apecoin Staking Is Live: Here’s Everything You Need To Know

It’s official, ApeCoin staking is live, and as of December 12, the first $APE rewards have accrued. But whether you’re an early Bored Ape holder that claimed every subsequent Yuga Labs airdrop, or an NFT enthusiast who only recently purchased their first bit of $APE, staking can seem like a daunting task. A process that has long been a facet of the crypto industry, if done right, staking has the potential to be a significant win for token holders. But if mishandled, it can have catastrophic consequences.

With so much misinformation being circulated throughout the metaverse, it’s become more important than ever for Web3 communities to do their due diligence before jumping on a bandwagon. The same is true with ecosystem expansions like ApeCoin staking. So to clear up any would-be misconceptions and to provide a one-size-fits-all approach to ApeCoin staking, we’ve created a short but effective guide stuffed with everything any Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) member should know.

What is ApeCoin?

First, a bit of background on ApeCoin/$APE. Although at times, the moving parts of Yuga Labs, BAYC, and ApeCoin can seem one and the same, it’s important to make the distinction between each entity. While Yuga and its NFT offering are forever bonded as creator and creation, ApeCoin was created to exist separately from the Yuga empire.

The ApeCoin Logo. Source: ApeCoin

At its core, ApeCoin is the native token for the BAYC universe, not the Yuga ecosystem. Billed as a “token for culture, gaming, and commerce used to empower a decentralized community building at the forefront of Web3,” it was conceived by the ApeCoinDAO, which was formed solely to create and launch ApeCoin.

You can learn more by reading nft now’s full article on the topic here, but those are just the basics of ApeCoin. As a cryptocurrency created for the benefit of BAYC universe inhabitants and NFT holders, ApeCoin is nothing less than the lifeblood of the BAYC ecosystem. And now, those within the BAYC ecosystem can lock up their $APE in a smart contract and reap benefits over time through staking.

What is staking?

Crypto staking has been an integral part of the blockchain ecosystem for years. In its most basic form, it can be thought of as a sort of decentralized, high-yield savings account. With a general savings account, bank members can lock up their funds and receive interest on their balance over time. During this period, banks often use members’ locked-up savings to lend out to others, ensuring that the bank always has sufficient liquidity for use by members.

Staking is essentially the same and asks users to lock up their token holdings to be used for liquidity to receive interest over time. One major difference between traditional savings and token staking (other than the fact that one is crypto/blockchain-based and one is not) is that interest rates for staking are often much higher than those for bank savings. While this is common knowledge to those who have engaged in decentralized finance (DeFi), general Web3 enthusiasts might be shocked to find that, while banks offer an average of 0.19 percent interest on savings accounts, even the lowest level of ApeCoin stakers could earn roughly 3.83 percent in a single year.

How to stake ApeCoin

So, how do you stake ApeCoin, and how do you start accruing interest on your staked tokens? First, let’s get the most important piece of information out of the way. Only ever trust information from the official ApeCoin, Yuga Labs, or Bored Ape Yacht Club Twitter accounts. Similarly, only ever stake ApeCoin via chúng tôi or with trusted centralized exchanges like Binance that have been confirmed through official ApeCoin channels. These channels include those of prominent blockchain infrastructure company Horizen Labs, which is responsible for the ApeCoin staking system buildout.

Starting December 5, $APE holders had the option to pre-deposit funds in preparation for rewards accrual to begin on December 12. With that period now over, rewards for staked $APE are now live and accruing, and all ApeCoin or BAYC NFT holders can join in on staking. Unfortunately, due to regulatory concerns, ApeStake is not available to residents of the United States, Canada, North Korea, and more (see the full list here).

Until secondary staking channels have been established with additional centralized exchanges, users of these geoblocked territories will need to either stake by way of Binance, directly via the open-source smart contract, or by using a VPN. For those unfamiliar, VPN stands for “virtual private network.” A VPN works to protect users’ online activity and privacy by hiding their true IP address and creating a secure, encrypted tunnel to access the internet. By and large, utilizing a VPN to engage with staking on chúng tôi has been the most popular workaround by users in the U.S. and Canada.

But, once a user has gained access to ApeStake, staking is as easy as connecting a software wallet and validating a transaction. But while ApeCoin staking benefits can be significant, they are not created equal for all within the BAYC universe. Depending on how much $APE you hold, and whether or not you own a Bored Ape NFT (or Kennel Club Dog or Mutant Ape), your benefits could vary greatly.

ApeCoin staking rewards

When staking $APE, users will have to decide which pool to allocate their holding. To begin, there are four primary staking pools, accessible to those with either BAYC (or related) NFTs and $APE tokens. Within the first year of staking, 100 million $APE will be released across staking pools as rewards. Here’s what that looks like divided up:

$APE Staking Pool: 30,000,000 $APE Tokens

BAYC Staking Pool: 47,105,000 $APE Tokens

MAYC Staking Pool: 19,060,000 $APE Tokens

BAKC Staking Pool: 3,835,000 $APE Tokens

While staking $APE directly is relatively straightforward, those hoping to stake their BAYC or related NFTs will need to take part in a commitment process beforehand. To complete this process a holder will need to own the NFT(s) at the time of staking, commit the NFT(s) utilizing $APE, and designate their paired pool if applicable. It might as well be noted that whether you stake an NFT or just straight-up ApeCoin, you’ll need $APE to engage with the staking system.

The initial staking period will feature the following staking caps and future period caps will be voted upon by the ApeCoin DAO.

BAYC: 10,094 $APE

MAYC: 2,042 $APE

BAKC: 856 $APE

It’s also incredibly important to note that if a BAYC NFT holder sells their NFT while it’s committed, they’ll lose all of their staked $APE. ApeCoin strongly recommends that users uncommit their NFTs before selling, stating that users should “think of a BAYC or MAYC [NFT] like a box that holds $APE. If you sell the box, the new owner gets the box plus all of its contents.”

All in all, the most important takeaway for those looking to stake their tokens is that knowledge is power. Always triple-check the source of information and the websites/services you use. To learn more about ApeCoin staking, including how to keep your assets safe in the process, visit the official ApeCoin website here, in addition to chúng tôi to get started.

What Is Movies Anywhere? Here’S What You Need To Know

Read more: Best streaming services

Today, the service supports many digital film stores and some TV and internet services. Here’s what you need to know about Movies Anywhere and how you can sign up to use this handy service.

What is Movies Anywhere?

As we mentioned earlier, Movies Anywhere is a Disney-controlled digital movie locker service. It enables supported digital films to be synced up to several online storefronts when they are purchased. Comcast cable TV customers can also watch them on their set-top box with its Xfinity service. In addition, there are apps for the service that are available for a variety of platforms, and you can also watch all of your supported films on the web via the Movies Anywhere website.

Where is the service available?

At the moment, Movies Anywhere is strictly for US consumers. There’s no word if Disney plans to expand the service to other parts of the world.

No. Movies Anywhere is not a storefront all by itself. It’s a service that serves to sync up your movie purchases from several different storefronts. For example, if you buy Avengers: Endgame on iTunes, the film will now also appear automatically in any of the other supported digital storefronts that are linked to your Movies Anywhere account.

Here’s the current list of digital storefronts that you can link together with your Movies Anywhere account?

iTunes – Apple’s digital movie store.

Google Play Store – The Android-based digital film source from Google.

YouTube – Also owned by Google; any movie purchased on Google Play Store also shows up on your YouTube movie library, and vice versa, regardless if they support Movies Anywhere.

Amazon Prime Video – The digital storefront owned, obviously, by Apple.

Microsoft Movies & TV – The storefront owned by Microsoft is mainly for Windows 10 and Xbox users.

Vudu – Fandango owns this storefront.

Xfinity – This is just for Comcast cable TV customers.

Verizon FiOS – Subscribers of Verizon’s FiOS Internet and TV series can use it.

DirecTV – For users of AT&T’s satellite TV service.

What movie studios don’t currently support Movies Anywhere?

As of this writing, Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM/UA are not supporting the service. That means if you want to buy a Star Trek, Transformers, Hunger Games, Twilight, or James Bond film on one of the Movies Anywhere-supported storefronts, they won’t automatically show up in the rest of your libraries. Hopefully, their boycott of this service will end shortly.

Do any TV shows support Movies Anywhere?

The answer, oddly enough, is, “Mostly, no.” As the name suggests, Movies Anywhere is supposed to be a movies-only digital locker service, so if you buy a season of your favorite TV show, even if it comes from one of the supported Hollywood studios, it will stay in the storefront where you bought it. That being said, a minimal number of TV miniseries and movies are indeed supported by the service.

iOS/Apple TV

Android

Amazon Fire TV/Fire tablets

Chromecast

NVIDIA Shield TV

Roku-based TVs/set-top boxes and sticks

Microsoft’s Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X consoles

In addition, you can watch your library of films at the service’s website on your Windows or Mac PC. It supports Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge browsers. Linux-based PCs do not support the Movies Anywhere site.

If each person on the same account is watching a different movie, the Movies Anywhere website or app allows up to four simultaneous streams at once. It also supports up to two simultaneous streams of the same movie at once on one account. Keep in mind that your movie library can also be streamed on all of the supported digital storefronts as well, just in case four streams at once is not enough.

Does the Movies Anywhere app support 4K and/or HDR streaming?

If you bought a 4K digital movie, it will stream at that resolution on the app, assuming your device or platform can support it. However, the app currently only supports movies with the HDR10 standard. It does not support movies that use the competing Dolby Vision HDR standard.

Can I continue watching a film on Movies Anywhere where I left off on another device?

Yes, you can! If you watch a film on, say, the Roku app and stop in the middle, you can continue where you ended in the movie on, for example, the Android Movies Anywhere app.

After you log into your Movies Anywhere account, you can view which movies are available to share via Screen Pass. Just go to your My Movie section, and then you can see the My Screen Pass Eligible Movies list.

Pick the film you want to share with someone else, and on its details page, tap on the Screen Pass button.

After that, follow the screen instructions to send the movie you picked to someone else so they can watch it for free.

You also have the option of sending your entire list of eligible Screen Pass movies to someone, so they can pick which one they watch to watch for free.

After that, follow the screen instructions to send your Screen Pass movie list to someone else so they can pick and watch one for free.

The company says about 80% of the Movies Anywhere library will support Screen Pass; some studios will not allow certain titles to be loaned out, at least for now. The loaned movies can be watched on every Movies Anywhere app, except for the Roku version, although Movies Anywhere may fix that soon.

Polygon Makes Major Announcements; Here Is What You Need To Know

Polygon partners with Eclipse to launch its new Sealevel Virtual Machine.

A new upgrade for Polygon zkEVM will be released with added integrations.

Polygon [MATIC] recently made a major announcement that will likely increase the network’s capabilities and offerings. The blockchain has partnered with Eclipse to launch a new software that will allow Solana apps to migrate to Polygon or go multichain. 

But the question is- Why should an investor care about this partnership?

🔥 Get ready for a game-changing collaboration between @EclipseFND and @0xPolygon to unveil Polygon SVM – a customized rollup to bring Solana’s Sealevel Virtual Machine to the Polygon ecosystem.

— Polygon Daily 💜 (@PolygonDaily) February 24, 2023

Well, to answer that we need to know SVM first. The software named Polygon Sealevel Virtual Machine (SVM) is a customized rollup to bring Solana’s Sealevel Virtual Machine to the Polygon ecosystem.

Any project developed on Solana will be able to smoothly leverage the capabilities of Polygon’s scaling solution using the newly announced SVM. As per Polygon, the testnet for Polygon SVM is expected to go live during the first quarter of 2023. 

How much are 1,10,100 MATICs worth today

New update for Polygon’s zkEVM

Not only SVM but there was interesting news for Polygon’s much-awaited zkEVM as well. Reportedly, there will be an audit-upgraded testnet for zkEVM.

This release will be a part of the security audit program that was announced back in December 2023. As per the official announcement, the new testnet will come with performance improvements as well as support for Etherscan and FFLONK.

Etherscan is one of the most popular block explorers for searching and browsing verified Ethereum blocks and transactions. With the integration of FFLONK, there will be significantly improved verifier performance.  

Next week, there will be an audit-upgraded testnet for Polygon #zkEVM. The coming testnet will feature:

— Polygon ZK (@0xPolygonZK) February 24, 2023

Realistic or not, here’s MATIC market cap in BTC’s terms

What was MATIC’s response like?

These updates did not have an impact on MATIC’s chart, which was painted red, thanks to the bearish market trend.

According to CoinMarketCap, MATIC’s price registered a decline of more than 6% in the last 24 hours, and at press time, it was trading at $1.27 with a market capitalization of over $11 billion.

The same remained true with MATIC’s on-chain performance, as most of the metrics looked bearish.

For instance, MATIC’s MVRV Ratio registered a downtick lately.

Meanwhile, CryptoQuant’s data revealed that the net deposits on exchanges were high compared to the 7-day average, which is a negative signal as it indicates high selling pressure.

In addition to that, MATIC’s active addresses also decreased. Thus, suggesting fewer users were participating in the network.

Nonetheless, a few of the metrics were working in MATIC’s favor. The network growth remained consistently high throughout the last week.

MATIC’s popularity also increased, as was evident from the spike in its social volume. Its exchange reserve was also declining, which was a bullish signal.

Interestingly, MATIC has remained popular among whales, as it recently became one of the top 2000 Ethereum whales’ most used smart contracts.

Therefore, despite the current negative price action, the possibility of a trend reversal can’t be ruled out considering whales’ interest and the aforementioned updates. 

What It Means To Have ‘Undetectable’ Hiv—And Why You Need To Know

It’s been almost 40 years since the start of the AIDS epidemic, when hundreds of people began contracting deadly infections that doctors had no idea how to combat. It took until 1983 for researchers to identify the virus that was causing their symptoms: human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. After years of medical testing, protests, and millions of deaths the world still hasn’t emerged from the epidemic. But it’s getting closer: Since their peak in 2004, AIDS-related deaths have shrunk by over half, and new HIV infections have reduced by 40 percent since 1997.

Safe sex practices and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medications have prevented many further infections, and the evolution of antiretroviral (ART) treatments have stalled the virus from replicating in people who already have it. Beyond allowing people with HIV to live completely normal lives, these drugs also prevent them from transmitting the virus to others once they reach an undetectable viral load. But in many communities, people living with undetectable HIV statuses still face stigma that marginalizes them as “dirty” and unsafe to have sex with. Here’s how the science disproves that.

To understand why someone who is HIV positive but whose infection is undetectable can’t transmit HIV to a sexual partner, it’s vital to understand both how the virus itself infects the body and how medications work to combat it. Left unchecked, the HIV virus hijacks CD4 immune cells, a type of white blood cell responsible for fighting off infections, to make more copies of itself. As their viral load (number of virus copies per milliliter of blood) skyrockets, an afflicted person’s number of CD4 cells plummets, leaving them vulnerable to opportunistic infections. Once the CD4 count dips below 200, HIV has caused AIDS.

The first antiretroviral drug used to treat HIV was called AZT. Originally developed in the 1960s as a cancer treatment, AZT interfered with DNA replication in a person’s HIV-infected, CD4 immune cells to prevent the virus from taking over their immune system. But it was also incredibly toxic, causing anemia, nausea, insomnia, and weakened immune systems in many patients. Over the past few decades, researchers have developed antiretrovirals that are far more effective and less damaging, says Christopher Hall, vice president of medical affairs for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

“The evolution has been to a pill that is extremely well-tolerated, taken only once a day,” Hall says. “That’s just an incredible development.”

ART medication gives the cells a hand in combating HIV, which prevents it from replicating. A patient’s viral load then begins to decline while their CD4 count returns to normal. Originally, scientists thought that no matter how low their viral load was or how healthy they were, someone living with HIV could still give the virus to a sexual partner. But by 2000, studies began showing that below a certain threshold, that risk was incredibly rare.

While each person diagnosed with HIV has their own treatment timeline, almost all providers will have their patients begin taking ART medication as soon as they’re diagnosed. Hall says that’s a shift from how things used to be: Doctors would wait to determine whether their patients were ready and able to take the drugs (the original meds needed to be taken up to four times a day and caused a slew of side effects).

Because modern-day ART medications have so few drawbacks, a patient can start treatment right after their diagnosis and immediately see their viral load drop. Hall says that’s also important for combating the stigma that HIV is a death sentence, because at this point, it isn’t.

“We want to say, ‘Hey, you can get on top of this right away. This is going to be easy for you to manage, relatively speaking. We’re going to help you,’” Hall says.

Depending on the patient’s condition, they’ll return to the doctor after about a month to discuss how they’re tolerating the medication. The provider will run tests on their kidney and liver function and check for anemia. They’ll also run a viral load test, which scans for any genetic material associated with HIV in the bloodstream to determine the number of virus copies per milliliter of blood. Once the medication has done its work and that number reaches 200 copies per milliliter (usually after about 6 months), a person is considered undetectable.

But why do doctors say “undetectable” if the virus can still be detected by the test? Hall says that’s a function of how specific viral load tests have become over the years. When a test that can only measure as low as 200 copies per milliliter arrives at that result, it’s likely that the patient could have an even lower viral load than that. But because the test can’t measure anything lower than 200, they’re deemed undetectable.

Viral load tests get more specific by the day: Hall says some are still in the works that can get as precise as 1 to 5 copies per milliliter range. The tests he uses in his clinic can see down to 20 copies per milliliter, but he says that doesn’t mean his undetectable patients are more undetectable than those who’ve used the 200 copies per milliliter test.

“There’s some nuances to it,” Hall says.

Two hundred is still the golden number for people living with HIV, because that’s the most specific test that was used in the studies that proved an undetectable person can’t transmit the virus. Hall says below that point, an HIV-negative person with a healthy immune system can easily fight off a couple hundred viruses as opposed to the millions contained in a milliliter of blood from a newly diagnosed person. Our skin and mucous membranes do an excellent job protecting us from invaders, even HIV.

“HIV is inefficient enough that, when present in low numbers, infection can be avoided,” Hall says.

Dave Watt, outreach manager for the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS, fields all kinds of conspiracy-like questions from folks who are uninformed about HIV, down to whether or not mosquitoes can transmit the virus (they can’t, he says, otherwise everybody would have HIV by now). Over a decade ago, he founded the Friendly campaign, which aims to counteract the fear-based messaging that often surrounds the virus. Even after the CDC formally endorsed the “U=U” campaign (which asserts that undetectable HIV is untransmittable) in 2023, Watt says it can be tough to help people understand that medical truth.

“While science can’t say it’s impossible, that’s just not how science works,” Watt says. “We used to say ‘low risk’ or ‘minimal risk.’ And now the studies have shown that there really is no risk.”

In 2023, the groundbreaking PARTNER study, a large, international research initiative that studied 900 serodiscordant couples (i.e. one partner had an undetectable viral load and the other tested negative for HIV), found that even after multiple years of condomless sex, not one person transmitted the virus to their partner. A number of clinical studies have since verified this, and scientists say the risk of an undetectable person transmitting the virus to their HIV-negative partner is effectively zero.

ART can’t cure HIV—with today’s treatment options, an undetectable person will always test “positive” for the virus. And during the antiretroviral onslaught, the virus will retreat into “sanctuary” areas like the rectum or cervix, allowing it to begin replicating again if the person stops taking the drugs. The ART drugs can’t access those “sanctuary” areas very well, so they can’t eliminate every last virus left. But, when taken diligently, the meds keep HIV so well at bay that, effectively, they may have the potential to end the epidemic without scientists finding a definitive cure.

The concept of treatment as prevention (TasP) emphasizes the importance of immediately treating anyone diagnosed with HIV in order to get them to undetectable status as quickly as possible. Once they become undetectable and continue taking the medications, they’ll be unable to transmit the virus any further. If everyone living with HIV gains access to these lifesaving drugs, they can stop the disease in its tracks. But even when communities do have the resources, fear can stop them from seeking treatment.

Hall says when people fear the consequences of getting HIV and don’t realize that it’s no longer a death sentence, they’re less likely to get tested in the first place. This delay makes their conditions more difficult to treat because the virus has had a longer amount of time to take hold on their immune systems. But telling people that, at the end of the treatment, their risk of infecting others is essentially nonexistent can be a powerful tool in lifting that stigma.

Governments also have to catch up with the science. In the U.S., 29 states have laws that criminalize people living with HIV, whether it’s not disclosing their status to a sexual partner or being punished for physically transmitting the virus to their partners. Nine states have measures that enhance prison sentences for sex crimes when a person living with HIV is involved. In some cases, these sentences may be harsher than ones for murder.

“Stigma continues to be the greatest challenge in ending the epidemic,” Hall says.

Dvi Vs Hdmi Vs Displayport – What You Need To Know

Did you know that your computer monitor has several ports on it to connect to your computer? You might wonder why there are so many and what’s the difference between them.

These video connections mostly have initials for names, so we’ll sort this out for you. Let’s learn all you need to know about DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort video connectors.

Table of Contents

You may wonder why we’re not talking about USB-C and Thunderbolt video connections. It’s true that USB-C can carry video and DisplayPort and HDMI are working on having their specs work through USB-C, but it’s not that popular yet.

Thunderbolt is also gaining popularity, but don’t confuse it with mini DisplayPort as they use the same connector. We’ll go in-depth on USB-C in an upcoming article.

Video Specification Terms You Need To Know

It makes sense that video specifications have a lot of details. A picture seems to be worth a thousand specs. For most of us, these are the most important specs to know.

Maximum Total Data Rate: Like Internet data rates, the maximum total data rate determines how much information it transfers per second. Generally, the higher the data rate, the higher the image quality.

Color Format: The colors on screens are made by combining just a few basic colors. RGB pixels are the most well-known, using red, green, and blue in different combinations and brightnesses to deliver different colors. 

The more modern format is YCbCr, where Y is the brightness, Cb is the blue difference, and Cr is the red difference color, or chroma, component. Simply, the Cb and the Cr are mixed to give the color and Y controls how vibrant the color is.

Resolution: It’s a bit like dots per inch (DPI), but for video. Just as a printer with a high DPI makes a clearer image, a monitor with higher resolution makes the clearer video. You’ll see a resolution formatted like 2048 x 1080. The first part is the number of pixels wide and the second part is the number of pixels high supported.

Different resolutions can also have names like 2K, 4K, 8K, and even 10K. The higher the number in front of the K, the clearer the image. The K represents 1024 pixels. So 2K means 2 x 1024, 4K is 4 x1024, and so on.

ResolutionDimensions in PixelsPixel Count720p (HD)1280×720921,6001080p (Full HD)1920×10802,073,6002k2048×10802,211,8404k (Ultra HD)3840×21608,294,4008k (Ultra HD)7680×432033,177,600

Refresh Rate: Video works somewhat like animation. It’s a series of still images, displayed rapidly to give the illusion of movement. The refresh rate is how rapidly the images get drawn. It’s measured in Hertz, which means times per second, loosely. The higher the refresh rate, the smoother the motion in the video.

What is DVI?

It’s an odd-looking connector with the most pins of the group. DVI (Digital Visual Interface) is more of a group of display connectors than just one standard connector. DVI is the oldest of the 3 connectors, having been around since 1999. It took us from analog connections through VGA or SVGA to a digital connection, improving the display quality dramatically. 

DVI-D Dual Link has a maximum data rate of 7.92 Gbit/s, supports only the RGB color format, and has a maximum resolution of 3840×2400 at a 30 Hz refresh rate. It’s rare, but in some configurations, it may support audio as well.

What is HDMI?

You’ve seen HDMI before as it’s popular for regular TVs and computer monitors. The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a digital connector with a variety of physical formats. Type A is the format you’ve likely seen on TVs and monitors.

Type C is the mini HDMI which you may have seen on smaller devices like cameras. Type D is the micro HDMI that you’ve likely seen on some phones, GoPro cameras, and newer RaspberryPi computers. Type E is used in cars, as it has a locking tab to keep it from coming loose because of vibrations.

There are several versions of HDMI that have different specifications. The newest version is 2.1, and it has a maximum data rate of 43 Gbit/s, supports RGB and YCbCr color formats, carries 32 audio channels, and supports a resolution of up to 7680×4320 at a 120 Hz refresh rate.

What is DisplayPort?

The newer of the connectors, DisplayPort (DP) is a versatile digital connector. DP can carry data other than videos, such as USB and audio. There are two DP form factors. The standard connector looks like a USB connector with one corner shaved off. It also has a locking mechanism that prevents loose connections. The mini DP resembles a shorter USB printer connector, like a square with two corners shaved off.

Like HDMI, there are different versions of the DisplayPort specification. DP is currently at version 2.0. It supports up to 77 Gbit/s data rate, RGB, YCbCr, and monochrome color formats, and resolutions up to 15360×8640 at a 60Hz refresh rate.

Which is Best – DVI, HDMI, or DisplayPort?

Like most things, the best tool depends on the job for which it’s needed. DVI is common in office monitors but is on the way out. You probably won’t see this on your home PC, so it’s a non-issue but still good to know about.

HDMI is like a multi-tool with its capabilities and has been around longer than DisplayPort so it has a better representation in the market. Its mini and micro formats make it ideal for smaller devices. Most home theater devices like TVs, DVD players, and PVRs have HDMI ports. With resolutions up to 8K and 120Hz refresh rate, it’s also good for gaming.

DisplayPort has the highest specs of the three connectors and is becoming more popular in home video devices, but still doesn’t have as much of the market as HDMI.  DP does everything that HDMI does but can manage a higher resolution and refresh rate. You can daisy chain some monitors with DisplayPort for dual monitors.

DisplayPort is ideal for large format video like digital signage and also for gaming, but unnecessary for most home video. Also, DisplayPort signals are only good for about 9 feet of cable, whereas an HDMI cable can be up to 90 feet long.

So Which Is Best?

Each type was designed for different purposes. You now have the knowledge to research and decide for yourself. Well, you and your wallet. What’s your favorite, and why? We’re open to learning more too.

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