Brian Fagioli

Computers and sports have historically been viewed as separate -- at least from a stereotypical point of view. It used to be perceived that there were jocks and nerds, and that computers were reserved for the latter. Over time, however, computers have gone so mainstream that they are ubiquitous in pretty much every sector. Hell, Microsoft's awesome Surface computers are seen on the sidelines of NFL games.

Today, Microsoft and the NCAA announce a partnership to further marry sports and computers with the Bing-powered March Madness basketball bracket experience. The NCAA is also releasing a new universal Windows 10 app! Sports fans -- and bracket gamblers -- should absolutely love the experiences created by this partnership.

Friends and colleagues often tell me I am a bit of a hypochondriac. As soon as a virus makes its way to the news, I am convinced I have it. Hell, I even bought respiratory face masks from Amazon in case Ebola somehow spread to Long Island! Ultimately, I end up looking foolish -- my fears were for naught.

The Zika virus has me worried, however, and this time, sadly, my fears are warranted. Carried by mosquitoes, the virus itself is usually fairly harmless to the infected, but can spread globally. The true devastation caused by Zika is birth defects for babies, such as microcephaly, caused by virus-infected mothers. Luckily, Google is working to fight the Zika virus by contributing money and resources and, more good news, the resulting platform will be open source.

Back in the 1990's, my first-ever computer came with a 4GB hard drive. At the time, this was absolutely massive -- my computer-literate friends told me I would never need a bigger drive in my lifetime. Obviously, this thinking was wrong -- 4GB is considered rather small for a flash drive nowadays. Heck, when it comes to technology, never believe anything is "good enough", or that things won't get better and faster.

Today, Samsung begins shipping an SSD that makes large HDDs looks worthless by comparison. You see, the PM1633a is the world's largest solid state drive, with a capacity of 15.36TB! No, you aren't dreaming -- this is real.

Regardless of sex or gender, everyone deserves to be heard. Nothing is more frustrating than feeling powerless and unimportant. By having an outlet to express yourself, you can gain self esteem, and ultimately, grow as a person.

Unfortunately, one of the most oppressed groups throughout history, women, have sometimes been made to feel powerless. They often make less money than men in the workforce, and frequently have to deal with sexual harassment and 'mansplaining'. Things can get even worse than that, including violence. Luckily, services such as YouTube can give voices to women that may not be heard otherwise, and today, Google is celebrating that fact.

While some people decry the use of cloud storage as unsafe, I love it. All of my important files get saved to Dropbox, so they are forever safe. With that said, I'm no dummy -- redundancy is key. I regularly mirror my online storage to a portable USB hard drive just in case. This is important for backup purposes, but it also helps me retain some control over my data.

Portable hard drives are great, as they can be connected to both desktops and laptops. Unfortunately, many of them are bulky and utilize mechanical HDDs, making them potentially slow, hot, or vulnerable to bumps and jitters. When Samsung introduced its Portable SSD T3 at CES 2016, I knew I wanted one to store my files. Today, this beautiful feat of engineering and design becomes available to consumers.

When DVDs were first released, I was dubious that they could best the amazing quality of VHS. A trip to my local Nobody Beats the Wiz for a demo changed my opinion, however. Subsequently, the mainstream release of HDTV, Blu-ray and ultimately 4K have kept me excited and anticipating more. Heck, some companies have even released 5K displays, but I digress.

As many consumers are just beginning to embrace 4K in their homes, it is already old news. Today, the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) announces the publishing of DisplayPort Standard Version 1.4. Why is this exciting? Because it essentially ushers in the 8K era at 60Hz!

Since I am not a hardcore gamer, when I build my computers, I do not put a huge focus on raw graphics power. Don't get me wrong, having a top-of-the-line GPU would be great, but just isn't worth the money for me. With that said, I don't want anemic hardware either -- I aim for balanced value.

If you are a casual gamer on a budget, AMD's APUs are a godsend. For a paltry amount of money, you get a CPU and GPU in one (with an upgrade path). Not only do you save money, but get respectable performance too. Today, AMD announces its fastest APU ever, the Wraith-cooled A10-7890K. For those that prefer buying a dedicated graphics card, the company also reveals its 'fastest multi-core Athlon' ever, the X4 880K CPU.

The ARM-powered Raspberry Pi computers have a been a godsend to tinkerers, students, HTPC enthusiasts, and more. The inexpensive devices have proven quite useful for many projects, and continue to push the envelope on what can be achieved for little money. The $5 Raspberry Pi Zero, while very limited, is quite the feat of engineering.

For the most part, however, Raspberry Pi computers have largely been Linux affairs. While open source technologies shine on these devices, Microsoft has been embracing the hardware since this time last year with its Windows 10 IoT Core operating system. Earlier today, the newest revision of the hardware, Raspberry Pi 3, was announced. If you are a Windows fan, you may want to pick one up, as Microsoft announces a Preview of Windows 10 IoT core for the latest Pi. Can Microsoft's OS beat out Linux for Raspberry Pi 3 dominance?

For many people, walking around with a water bottle all day is a way of life. Not only is it reassuring that your thirst can always be quenched, but it is very healthy too. Once you get away from all of the sugar-filled drinks, and even worse, the artificially sweetened beverages, you may feel much healthier.

Unfortunately, water bottles can be very bad for the environment. While some can be recycled, a good amount of them can end up in landfills. Not to mention, the process of making the plastic can have a large carbon footprint. A good solution is opting for an in-home water filter and carrying reusable bottles. Today, Amazon announces a very high-tech filtration pitcher -- the Wi-Fi-enabled Brita Infinity. Yes, it connects to the Internet. Why? To re-order filters through Amazon Dash, of course!

Millennials love using emojis, so the smiley faces and symbols must be childish and silly, right? Nah, there is nothing wrong with these young folks or their fancy emoji -- each generation likes to have its own identity. Smartphones, emojis, and apps like Snapchat are totally cool and arguably uniquely theirs.

But what if I told you that emojis could 100 percent ruin your life and cause all sorts of problems? What if I told you that using certain emoji will turn you into a drug addict or even worse, a hipster? Well, don't believe any of that because it isn't true. What is a true story, however, is that emojis are becoming a contributing factor when some people are accused of crimes. Holy cow! One person is only 12 years old and being charged with what is essentially a terrorist act. Is the charge valid, or ridiculous?

When it comes to computers, thin is in. With every passing year, it seems laptops, tablets and other devices become more svelte. Some people decry this design direction, saying what we have is "thin enough", and yeah, I get that, but manufacturers should never become complacent. As long as the thin nature doesn't compromise the overall experience, I'm all for it.

Today, Transcend announces a super-thin 1TB M.2 SSD that is designed with a focus on Ultrabooks. Remember folks, PC manufacturers need to source thin and light components in order to keep pushing the envelope. A thin high-capacity drive such as this, while not super-fast, can definitely find a home in some future computers. This all-new 1TB variant joins the existing capacities of 32GB-512GB.

The ongoing dispute between the FBI and Apple is absolutely chilling. It shakes me to my core to think our government wants to force a company to write code under the guise of anti-terrorism. Quite frankly, the oft-argued opinion that supporting Apple in this regard is anti-American is not only wrong, but insulting. My soul still aches from 9/11, and I love America, but I also support Tim Cook and the company's fight to protect our civil liberties.

But forget my opinion -- major tech companies, such as Google and Microsoft, are standing up and pledging support for their competitor, Apple. Now, open source darling, Mozilla, is voicing its support too. Taking it a step further, however, the Firefox-maker is also proposing basic principles for government surveillance -- sort of like a bill of rights for encryption and surveillance.

Getting developers to create apps for Windows 10 Mobile is very much a chicken and egg scenario. Developers are hesitant to dedicate resources to a platform with such few users, while users don't want to use a platform with no apps.

To try and alleviate this app problem, Microsoft came up with a scheme called "Bridges", to help developers easily port their Android and iOS apps to Windows. Today, sadly, Microsoft is killing the Windows Bridge for Android. With the iOS bridge being the final exciting "Bridge" attraction, Windows 10 Mobile consumers should probably just buy an iPhone instead. Right?

Buying a monitor can be quite the daunting affair. Not only are there many styles to choose from, but various resolutions too. While 4K monitors are all the rage, some operating systems, such as Windows 10 and some Linux distros, are not optimized for higher resolutions. Text and icons will appear small, and increasing sizes in the OS can cause some programs to display blurry text. In my experience, only OS X scales well to high res monitors.

Keeping that in mind, it is understandable if you are willing to put up with those concerns, as images, movies and games can be absolutely gorgeous on high-resolution screens. Today, Philips announces a beast of a monitor -- 34 inches, curved, with a resolution of 3440 x 1440. While less than 4K, this resolution offers a very wide view.

Last year, I bought my first iPhone. Shockingly, the base model still came with a paltry 16GB of storage. Since this was my first-ever such Apple smartphone, I decided to go nuts and splurge on the massive 128GB. Since I store my photos in the cloud, and stream music and movies, I have come nowhere near filling it up. I should have bought the 64GB, but I digress.

Of course, my situation is not the same as everyone else -- some people truly need 128GB or more. Unfortunately, Apple does not offer more than 128GB -- yet. This may change, however, as Samsung announces crazy fast 256-Gigabyte Universal Flash Storage for mobile. The high performance should make these 256GB modules very popular with manufacturers. This will certainly show up in Android devices, but could Apple select it for the upcoming iPhone 7?