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Americans will wager an estimated $3.1 billion on March Madness this year, according to the American Gaming Association.

That’s up 15% over last year, driven in part by increased betting on the women’s tournament. However, despite rapidly growing fan interest, opportunities to legally wager on women’s sports still lag. 

In last year’s NCAA women’s final, superstar Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes faced an undefeated South Carolina team. 

That drama helped it break the record for the most bet-on women’s sporting event ever, plus plenty of promotion.

“The big sportsbooks were putting out prop bets, so you could bet on over-unders, on player totals, whether it be points, rebounds, things like that,” said Gambling.com’s Christopher Boan.

Boan said those bets are an indicator of the increasing value sports betting companies see in women’s college basketball and women’s sports more broadly. 

“Because that’s where the growth is,” he said. “There’s only so many more NFL bettors you can get, only so many more MLB bettors that you can get, whereas there’s a lot more people out there who are maybe going to put a first-time bet on the Phoenix Mercury to win a WNBA title.”

That means there’s been healthy growth, but you’ll still have a harder time finding legal opportunities to wager on your favorite women athletes and teams, especially outside of high-profile tournaments and championship games, said Victor Matheson, an economist at the College of the Holy Cross.

“Those you’re not going to see the same level of participation among the big sports books for the men vs. the women,” he said.

Alicia Jessop, an expert on the business of sports at Pepperdine University, said it’s “a huge missed opportunity” and that there’s a marketing gap at play. 

“Very likely if you live in the United States, you’ve seen a commercial for a sportsbook,” she said. “And I’m willing to bet you that that advertisement featured a male athlete.”

Jessop said companies willing to make bolder investments in reaching women’s sports fans could see a big return. 

Additionally, for growing leagues, sports wagering can be a tool to attract more eyeballs, said Meghan Chayka with the sports data analytics firm Stathletes. 

“If you made a small wager on a game, you’re far more likely to return in the fourth quarter even in a blowout versus an average fan that just flicks their TV off,” Chayka said.  

More viewers mean more ad and sponsorship dollars and lucrative deals for players. However, Alicia Jessop at Pepperdine said high stakes can also increase bad fan behavior, like player harassment. 

As betting markets grow, she says leagues have a responsibility to protect athletes.

Starting today, DJs will have access to Apple Music's catalog of over 100 million songs through more hardware and software platforms. DJs of all skill levels can build and mix sets on AlphaTheta, Serato, Engine DJ, Denon DJ, Numark and RANE DJ. This news follows the initial debut of Apple Music integration with Algoriddim's djay Pro software last year. There's also a new name for the whole initiative: DJ with Apple Music. And yes, a subscription is required.

This isn't to be confused with Apple Music's DJ Mixes, a separate program that began in 2021. The idea there was to attract creators of said DJ mixes and sets to the platform by leveraging Shazam's technology (owned by Apple) to ensure proper royalties were paid out. Now, Apple says, it's giving DJs access to its music catalog so it can be used as a creative tool and so they can easily tap into their personal libraries. There's a new DJ with Apple Music category page in the streaming app with curated playlists, and each platform has its own curator page complete with practice material.

Spotify used to allow integration with third-party DJ apps, but the service stopped doing so in 2020. If you're looking for options, djay Pro works with Tidal and SoundCloud, in addition to Apple Music.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/apple-music-integration-is-now-available-on-more-dj-platforms-140009346.html?src=rss

The Amazon Spring Sale has made me jealous — I'm envious of those who can now pick up Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones at a record-low price, as someone who paid full price for them long ago. Our top picks for the best wireless headphones you can buy are on sale for $250, which represents a 38 percent discount and the best price we've seen. The sale is available on the Silver and Smoky Pink models.

There are few tech products I would recommend to anyone, but Sony's XM5 headphones are one of them. I've raved so much about them that my parents and brother all bought a pair (while my partner uses mine about as often as I do). One of the biggest things for me, as someone who gets headaches easily, is that they're so comfortable. I've worn them on quite a few overnight flights now and can easily keep them on the whole time. 

Speaking of flights, the active noise cancellation is another reason they're a treat for those overnight hauls. The XM5s have double the processors and and microphones for ANC as their predecessor. I once slept two rows away from a crying baby and, with music on, I couldn't hear a thing. Plus, the 30 hours of battery life means I don't have to worry about them dying half way through my travels (my AirPods always need to recharge in their case before I arrive). 

Their excellence on flights isn't the only reason we gave Sony's XM5 headphones a 95 in our review. They're also great for listening to music while working or out for a walk. The XM5s have 30mm carbon fiber drivers and DSEE Extreme, together boosting the sound's quality and depth. My only complaint is that the M5s don't fold up, but especially at this price, they're still such a great buy. 

This discount is part of a larger sale on headphones and earbuds for the Amazon Spring Sale. If the XM5s don't quite meet your criteria, there are other models on sale from Beats, Bose and other brands.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-sony-wh-1000xm5-headphones-drop-to-a-record-low-price-for-the-amazon-spring-sale-123340453.html?src=rss

Anker's Eufy 3-in-1 E20 robot vacuum is $150 off right now, as part of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale. That brings the price down to $400, which is a record low. For those averse to using Amazon, the deal is also available directly from the company.

The E20 made our list of the best robot vacuums, and with good reason. We loved the hybrid functionality, as this robovac quickly transforms into a cordless stick vacuum and a handheld unit. This in no way impedes the overall performance, as we found the automatic cleaning mode to be top-tier.

The self-emptying base also holds a lot, considering its compact size. We praised the proprietary app in our official review, as editing room maps is both quick and easy. All told, it only took the robovac ten minutes to scoot around the house and create an accurate map. 

The suction power of the robotic unit is strong enough for major cleaning tasks, but the same cannot be said of the stick vacuum attachment. The power is on the weaker side. Also, it doesn’t come with a wall mount for the stick vacuum. That costs extra, to the tune of around $30. Today’s savings more than makes up for that.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/ankers-eufy-3-in-1-e20-robot-vacuum-is-150-off-during-the-amazon-big-spring-sale-140020547.html?src=rss

Anker makes some of the best power banks on the market and debuted a few great options earlier this year. That included Anker's Laptop Power Bank, a 25,000mAh portable charger with triple 100W USB-C ports and one USB port. Well, currently, that charger is on sale for $88, down from $110 — a 20 percent discount — as part of Amazon's Spring Sale. 

The new power bank, available in Black and Silver, comes with two USB-C cables and can charge four devices simultaneously. It works with laptops, smartphones, cameras, gaming consoles and more. For example, it can charge an MacBook Air with an M3 chip to 50 percent in 33 minutes. It can also get an iPhone 16 to the same level in just 25 minutes. Plus, its display shows the battery's health and temperature, along with output and input wattage. 

Anker's 140W four-port wall charger is also discounted for Amazon's Spring Sale. You can pick it up right now for $77, down from $90. It offers a display that tracks power usage for each port, fast-charge status and temperature. Plus, it has something Anker refers to as an "odometer," tracking lifetime usage hour by hour. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/ankers-latest-chargers-and-power-banks-are-up-to-20-percent-off-in-the-amazon-spring-sale-130131799.html?src=rss

The next time you join a video call, Otter.ai is hoping its new AI tool will help make things run smoother. On Tuesday, the company introduced the Otter Meeting Agent. It's part of a suite of three new AI helpers designed to assist a variety of different users. The first of those, the voice-activated Meeting Agent, can schedule follow-up calls and draft emails for you. It can also answer questions based on information it finds in your company's meeting database.

"This agent goes beyond simple transcription and empowers users to interact with AI meeting data in real-time to increase productivity," explains Otter.ai. The two other agents the company is releasing today can provide real-time coaching to sales agents during customer calls and live demos to potential customers. Otter.ai says it plans to release more "vertical" agents in the future. They will be designed to assist marketing, recruiting and other job functions.

In the meantime, Otter.ai has begun rolling out the Meeting Agent to all users. As of today, it works with Zoom exclusively, with support for Microsoft Teams and Google Meet arriving in the coming weeks. If you don't have access right away, it may take a few days before the company rolls out the agent to you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/otterais-meeting-agent-can-schedule-calls-and-write-emails-for-you-130048189.html?src=rss

The lowest-paid workers in the economy saw the fastest wage growth by far over the last five years according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute. 

Adjusted for inflation workers in the bottom 10% of the income distribution saw their wages grow more than 15% between 2019 and 2024.

This time five years ago between February and April 2020, about 22 million people lost their jobs, many of them low-wage workers. 

“Workers in leisure and hospitality and retail — all of those industries were essentially shut down,” said Elise Gould at the Economic Policy Institute.

Gould said when things reopened and employers started hiring again, “Workers had a moment to pause. We had, one time in history, better unemployment insurance programs and they could be a little bit choosier.” That meant employers had to pay more. 

This happened across the economy, including for those in higher-paying jobs, to a lesser extent. Wages for these workers have risen about 6% or 7% since 2019, compared to 15% for people in the lowest-paying jobs. 

“It’s also 15% starting from a very low base — if you’re making $10 an hour, 15% growth is a buck-fifty” said Brad Hershbein at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

Hershbein said even with that jump in wages many of the lowest-paid workers are still struggling, and that inflation has hit them particularly hard.

“[Those workers] tend to buy things that are more subject to inflation, and those things also represent a larger share of all the things that they buy,” he said. “Take rent for example, we know that rent is a bigger share of people’s budget at the bottom than at the top.”

Rent has gone way up in the last five years, which Hershbein says has eaten into those wage gains.

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly robot vacuum that can handle both vacuuming and mopping, iRobot’s Roomba Combo Essential just hit its lowest price ever. Thanks to the Amazon Spring Sale, it’s down to $149 from $275, matching the lowest price we’ve seen. It previously dipped to $149 during the holiday season and earlier this year, but it’s unclear how long this deal will stick around this time.

As you can see in our roundup of the best budget robot vacuums, we’ve consistently rated iRobot’s machines highly for their reliability and ease of use. The Roomba Combo Essential is a simple, no-frills option that both vacuums and mops, making it a solid pick for small apartments, dorm rooms or anyone who wants a cleaner floor without spending a fortune.

The vacuum uses special multi-surface brushes to pick up dirt, dust and pet hair from hard floors and carpets. Unlike some budget models that struggle with transitions, this one automatically adjusts to different surfaces, so you won’t have to worry about it getting stuck. When it’s time to mop, the built-in mopping pad wipes down hard floors, tackling light spills and everyday messes. It’s not as advanced as iRobot’s higher-end models with precision scrubbing, but it’s a convenient way to keep your floors looking fresh with minimal effort.

One of iRobot Roomba Combo Essential's most convenient features is its auto-adjusting cleaning power — the robot increases suction when it detects extra debris, so it’s more effective on high-traffic areas like entryways or around pet bowls. It also has cliff sensors to prevent it from tumbling down stairs and a low-profile design that helps it slip under some couches and other furniture for a more thorough clean.

Despite it being an entry-level robot vacuum, the iRobot Roomba Combo Essential comes with app control and voice assistant support, so you can set cleaning schedules and initiate cleaning whether you’re at home lounging on the couch or away on vacation. For $150, this is a solid deal for an iRobot machine that can vacuum and mop, especially considering its usual $275 price tag. If you’ve been thinking about automating some of your floor cleaning, this is one of the most affordable ways to do it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/irobots-2-in-1-vacuum-and-mop-drops-to-149-for-the-amazon-spring-sale-123058730.html?src=rss

If you’re a content creator or YouTuber, Sony, Canon and other camera companies want your business. There are more vlogging-specific models than ever, with several new models having arrived since our last guide, including Fujifilm’s XM-5.

Recent vlogging-specific models include Sony’s new ZV-E1 full-frame mirrorless that launched last year, DJI’s Osmo Pocket 3 and Canon’s compact PowerShot V10. Others in this guide, like the new Panasonic G9 II and Canon’s EOS R6 II are hybrid mirrorless cameras that offer vlogging as part of a larger toolset.

Many have certain things in common, like flip-around screens, face- and/or eye-detect autofocus and stabilization. Prices, features and quality can vary widely, though. To that end, we’ve updated our guide with all the latest vlogging cameras designed for novice to professional creators, in all price ranges. Engadget has tested all of these to give you the best possible recommendations.

Table of contents

• Best vlogging cameras for 2025

• Upcoming cameras

• What to look for in a vlogging camera

Best vlogging cameras for 2025 Best action and portable cameras

If you’re just starting out in vlogging or need a small, rugged camera, an action cam might be your best bet. In general, they’re easy to use as you don’t have to worry about things like exposure or focus. Recent models also offer good electronic stabilization and sharp, colorful video at up to 4K and 60 fps. The downsides are a lack of control; image quality that’s not on par with larger cameras; and no zooming or option to change lenses.

The best compact vlogging cameras

Compact cameras are a step-up option from smartphones or action cameras, with larger sensors and much better image quality. At the same time, they’re not quite as versatile as mirrorless or DSLR cameras (and not necessarily cheaper) and they lack advanced options like 10-bit video. For folks who want the best possible quality without needing to think too much about their camera, however, it’s the best option.

The best mirrorless vlogging cameras

This is the class that has changed the most over the past couple of years, particularly in the more affordable price categories. Interchangeable lens cameras give you the most options for vlogging, offering larger sensors than compact cameras with better low-light sensitivity and shallower depth of field to isolate you or your subject. They also offer better control of your image with manual controls, log recording, 10-bit video and more. The drawbacks are extra weight compared to action or compact cameras, extra complexity and higher prices.

Upcoming cameras

If you’re not quite ready to buy, there are some interesting options on the horizon. Canon just teased a camera which could be the R50 V, likely to be a vlogging-focused update to the R50 I recommended. Canon may also announce the availability of the PowerShot V1, a compact camera with a Type 1.4 sensor that’s larger than the 1-inch sensors found on most compact cameras.

Meanwhile, Panasonic just announced the S1R II, a 45-megapixel hybrid camera. Though the high resolution would suggest it’s mainly for photography, the S1R II can shoot 8K video at up to 30 fps and capture 5.7K 30 RAW internally. It’s fairly expensive, but considerably cheaper than other options including the Nikon Z8 and Canon EOS R5 II. That model is now on pre-order and set to start shipping by the end of March — stay tuned for Engadget’s review.

What to look for in a vlogging camera

Vlogging cameras are designed for filmmakers who often work alone and either use a tripod, gimbal, vehicle mount or just their hands to hold a camera. It has to be good not just for filming yourself, but other “B-roll” footage that helps tell your story.

The number one requirement is a flip-around screen so you can see yourself while filming. Those can rotate up, down or to the side, but flipping out to the side is preferable so a tripod or microphone won’t block it.

Continuous autofocus (AF) for video with face and eye detection is also a must. It becomes your camera “assistant,” keeping things in focus while you concentrate on your content. Most cameras can do that nowadays, but some still do it better than others.

If you move around or walk a lot, you should look for a camera with built-in optical stabilization. Electronic stabilization is another option as long as you’re aware of the limitations. You’ll also need a camera with a fast sensor that limits rolling shutter, which can create a distracting jello “wobble” with quick camera movements.

Steve Dent/Engadget

4K recording is another key feature. All cameras nowadays can shoot 4K up to at least 24 fps, but if possible, it’s better to have 4K at 60 or even 120 fps. If you shoot sports or other things involving fast movement, look for a model with at least 1080p at 120 fps for slow-motion recording.

Video quality and color accuracy are other important considerations, especially for skin tones. Good light sensitivity helps for night shooting or concerts, and a log profile helps improve dynamic range in very bright or dark shooting conditions. If you want the best possible image quality and can afford it, get a camera that can record 4K with 10-bits (billions) of colors. That will give you more options when you go to edit.

Don’t neglect audio either; if the quality is bad, your audience will disengage. Look for a camera with a microphone port so you can plug in a shotgun or lapel mic for interviews, or at least one with a good-quality built-in microphone. It’s also nice to have a headphone port to monitor sound so you can avoid nasty surprises after you’ve finished shooting.

You’ll also want good battery life and, if possible, dual memory card slots for a backup. Finally, don’t forget about your camera’s size and weight. If you’re constantly carrying one while shooting, especially at the end of a gimbal or gorillapod, it might actually be the most important factor. That’s why tiny GoPro cameras are so popular for sports, despite offering lower image quality and fewer pro features.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/best-vlogging-camera-151603452.html?src=rss

One of Samsung's CEOs, Jong-hee Han, has died due to a heart attack, according to Reuters and CNBC. He was 63. Han joined the company in 1988 and became the head of product research and development for visual display in 2011. He then led Samsung's TV business before he was named as the head of Samsung DX, which is what the company calls its merged mobile and consumer electronics divisions, in 2021. In 2022, he officially became the company's Vice Chairman and CEO. Han had no experience in mobile before he started leading the company's DX group, but Samsung gave him credit for helping it get to the top of global TV sales for 15 years. 

CNBC says Han was one of the executives who hosted Samsung's annual general shareholders meeting just a week ago and answered questions about the company's poor stock performance. During the meeting, Han apologized to the shareholders, telling them that Samsung "failed to adequately respond to the rapidly evolving AI semiconductor market." He also told the shareholders that Samsung was having difficulties when it came to semiconductor-related mergers and acquisitions due to regulatory issues, but that the company was "determined to produce some tangible results this year."

Based on the notice Samsung published, Han's co-CEO Young-Hyun Jun is now the sole CEO of the company. Jun, who also heads Samsung's semiconductor business, was appointed as Han's co-CEO in November 2024. It's not clear whether Samsung is planning to appoint another CEO in the future. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/samsung-ceo-jong-hee-han-has-died-120029286.html?src=rss

The next feature for next-gen Apple Watches could be AI assistant-boosting cameras. Apple is reportedly working on adding cameras to future Apple Watch models to make them more like AI wearables, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

Unlike the ancient watch cameras from decades ago, I’d expect the camera to be as subtle as front-facing cameras on an iPhone, not the giant units on the back. Cameras may not be for FaceTime calls or photography but could help the Apple Watch support AI features like Visual Intelligence, which can provide on-the-spot information. Gurman previously reported Apple is developing AirPods with a built-in camera for similar functionality.

Do you know which company tried cramming a camera into its smartwatch? This one. That was also over a decade ago.

Engadget

Apple is contending with other Watch issues too: a rumored plastic Apple Watch SE has reportedly hit some development issues. According to Gurman (he’s a busy guy!): “The design team doesn’t like the look, and the operations team is finding it difficult to make the casing materially cheaper than the current aluminum chassis.” It’s been over two years since Apple released the second-generation Apple Watch SE. We even took a second look at the wearable, anticipating` an eventual replacement.

— Mat Smith

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The best tech deals from Amazon’s Spring Sale Apple, Sonos and more.

This year’s Amazon Spring Sale is in full swing, and as promised, a ton of household, fashion and outdoor gear has dropped to record-low prices. Tech isn’t a huge focus — that’s usually a Prime Day thing — but there are certain devices and tech bargains.

Such as the recently upgraded M4 Mac mini. Not only does it come with a powerful M4 chipset but it also includes 16GB of RAM in the base model. Also: A perennial Engadget headphone favorite, Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones are $250 (that’s $150 off). They’re comfortable, have great sound quality and powerful active noise cancellation. Also, they’re not in-ear buds.

Continue reading.

The 560-pound Twitter logo has sold for $34,000 Larry was one of the most iconic symbols Engadget

Twitter may be dead, but the 12-foot tall bird logo from its San Francisco headquarters will live on. On top of the $34,375 winning bid, the unknown buyer will also be responsible for costs to move the sign from the San Francisco storage facility. That alone will be no small feat. The sign is 145" x 105" (roughly 12 feet by 8 feet) and weighs 560 pounds. What if the winning bidder was MySpace Tom?

Continue reading.

Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro review Stylish, tempting price, limited availability. Engadget

If you’re OK with Nothing’s limited US warranty, the $379 Phone 3a is a great budget device. It offers a superb screen, fun design and a surprisingly impressive camera package for the price.

Then there’s the $459 Phone 3a Pro. It’s got a huge camera unit, which I’m not a fan of, but that provides the space for a solid telephoto camera — unheard of at this price. For once, the Pixel A-series has competition. Read on for carrier compatibility, camera testing and more.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111503742.html?src=rss

The good news when it comes to buying monitors is that there has never been more choice, with numerous options for every type of use ranging from productivity to content creation to gaming. The problem is that all that choice can make it challenging to decide which one is best for your particular needs and budget.

In this guide we can help you make that decision and show you which factors are most important, whether they be color accuracy, size, ergonomics or refresh rates. We used that information to gather the top picks, including options from our own monitor reviews, to help you find the one that best fits your needs.

Table of Contents

• Best monitors for 2025

• Factors to consider before buying a monitor

Best monitors for 2025

Factors to consider before buying a monitor Panel type

The cheapest monitors are still TN (twisted nematic), which are strictly for gamers or office use. VA (vertical alignment) monitors are also relatively cheap, while offering good brightness and a high contrast ratio. However, content creators will find that LCD, IPS monitors (in-plane switching) deliver better color accuracy, pixel density, picture quality and viewing angles.

If maximum brightness is important, a quantum dot LCD display is the way to go — those are typically found in larger displays. OLED monitors are now available and offer the best blacks and color reproduction, but they lack the brightness of LED or quantum dot displays. Plus, they’re expensive. The latest type of OLED monitor, called QD-OLED from Samsung, is now common among gaming monitors. The most notable advantage is that it can get a lot brighter, with recent models hitting up to 1,000 nits+ of peak brightness.

MiniLEDs are now widely used in high-end displays. They’re similar to quantum dot tech, but as the name suggests, it uses smaller LED diodes that are just 0.2mm in diameter. As such, manufacturers can pack in up to three times more LEDs with more local dimming zones, delivering deeper blacks and better contrast.

Screen size, resolution and display format

Where 24-inch displays used to be more or less standard (and can still be useful for basic computing), 27-, 32-, 34- and even 42-inch displays have become popular for entertainment, content creation and even gaming these days.

Nearly every monitor used to be 16:9, but it’s now possible to find 16:10 and other more exotic display shapes. On the gaming and entertainment side, we’re also seeing curved and ultrawide monitors with aspect ratios like 21:9. If you do decide to buy an ultrawide display, however, keep in mind that a 30-inch 21:9 model is the same height as a 24-inch monitor, so you might end up with a smaller display than you expected.

A 4K monitor is nearly a must for content creators, and some folks are even going for 5K or all the way up to 8K. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll need a pretty powerful computer with a decent graphics card to drive all those sharp pixels. And 4K resolution should be paired with a screen size of 27 inches and up, or you won’t notice much difference between 1440p. At the same time, I wouldn’t get a model larger than 27 inches unless it’s 4K, as you’ll start to see pixelation if you’re working up close to the display.

One new category to consider is portable monitors designed to be carried and used with laptops. Those typically come in 1080p resolutions and sizes from 13-15 inches. They usually have a lightweight kickstand-type support that folds up to keep things compact.

HDR

HDR adds vibrancy to entertainment and gaming – but be careful before jumping in. Some monitors that claim HDR on their marketing materials don’t even conform to a base standard. To be sure that a display at least meets minimum HDR specs, you’ll want to choose one with a DisplayHDR rating with each tier representing maximum brightness in nits.

However, the lowest DisplayHDR 400 and 500 tiers may disappoint you with a lack of brightness, washed out blacks and mediocre color reproduction. If you can afford it, the best monitor to choose is a model with DisplayHDR 600, 1000 or True Black 400, True Black 500 and True Black 600.

Where televisions typically offer HDR10 and Dolby Vision or HDR10+, most PC monitors only support the HDR10 standard, other than a few (very expensive) models. That doesn’t matter much for content creation or gaming, but HDR streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other services won’t look quite as punchy. In addition, the best gaming monitors are usually the ones supporting HDR600 (and up), rather than content creation monitors – with a few exceptions.

Refresh rate

Refresh rate is a key feature, particularly on gaming monitors. A bare minimum nowadays is 60Hz, and 80Hz and higher refresh rates are much easier on the eyes. However, most 4K displays top out at 60Hz with some rare exceptions and the HDMI 2.0 spec only supports 4K at 60Hz, so you’d need at least DisplayPort 1.4 (4K at 120Hz) or HDMI 2.1. The latter is now available on a number of monitors, particularly gaming displays. However, it’s only supported by the latest NVIDIA RTX 3000- and 4000-series, AMD RX 6000-series GPUs.

Inputs

There are essentially three types of modern display inputs: Thunderbolt, DisplayPort and HDMI. Most monitors built for PCs come with the latter two, while a select few (typically built for Macs) will use Thunderbolt. To add to the confusion, USB-C ports may be Thunderbolt 3, and by extension, DisplayPort compatible, so you may need a USB-C to Thunderbolt or DisplayPort cable adapter depending on your display.

Color bit depth

Serious content creators should consider a more costly 10-bit monitor that can display billions of colors. If budget is an issue, you can go for an 8-bit panel that can fake billions of colors via dithering (often spec’d as “8-bit + FRC”). For entertainment or business purposes, a regular 8-bit monitor that can display millions of colors will be fine.

Color gamut

The other aspect of color is the gamut. That expresses the range of colors that can be reproduced and not just the number of colors. Most good monitors these days can cover the sRGB and Rec.709 gamuts (designed for photos and video respectively). For more demanding work, though, you’ll want one that can reproduce more demanding modern gamuts like AdobeRGB, DCI-P3 and Rec.2020 gamuts, which encompass a wider range of colors. The latter two are often used for film projection and HDR, respectively.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/best-monitor-130006843.html?src=rss

College admissions rates fell with the widespread adoption of the online Common App in the early 2000s. Add more recent changes to admissions — like universities no longer requiring standardized test scores and then changing their tune, a Supreme Court ban on affirmative action — and high schoolers and parents have been left with whiplash and confusion. That’s where independent college counselors come in.

As Nicole LaPorte wrote in Town & Country, the field has grown into a $3 billion industry. LaPorte is also the author of the book “Guilty Admissions,” which chronicles the Varsity Blues scandal.

“Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal spoke with LaPorte about the world of independent college counselors. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Kai Ryssdal: Could you define a term for me here? What is an “independent college counselor”?

Nicole LaPorte: Yes. An independent college counselor is a counselor that works outside of a high school. You can hire them to provide a service for your high school student or maybe even your middle school student to walk them through the college admissions process, everything from looking over their essays and filling out the application. Just helping out with all of this stuff that these kids need to do to apply.

Ryssdal: I’ve had four kids go through the college application process. Could I hang out a shingle tomorrow and say, “Here I am. I’m an independent college counselor”?

LaPorte: You absolutely could, and you’d probably be very good.

Ryssdal: No, no, because the truth is, my wife did all of them, but that’s a whole different thing.

LaPorte: Yeah. I mean, sort of the dirty secret of college counseling is that you do not need a certification. You absolutely can set up shop.

Ryssdal: How much for those parents of kids who are confused and anxious, and, you know, parents probably who are confused and anxious? How much is it going to cost?

LaPorte: There’s quite a range. The numbers that get the big headlines, of course, are the super-, superhigh numbers, and that can go up to $200,000. That’s not for, you know, a month of counseling, or even a year of counseling. That’s counseling that starts in middle school. So that’s say, from eighth to 12th grade. You know, at that point it becomes almost like a concierge service where the counselor is perhaps mapping out visits to colleges and doing a lot more than just, you know, editing an essay.

Ryssdal: Let’s say I don’t have 200 large to spend on my kid before they even get to college. What’s the, you know, sort of average going price?

LaPorte: Yeah, the average is about $6,500 and you know, when you get into New York and LA and San Francisco, these more expensive places to live, it goes up to maybe 15 grand. Again, that’s over a couple of years. That’s not just for a couple of months or even one year. But it’s expensive, there’s no way around that.

Ryssdal: I’m obliged to point out here, as you say in this piece, you know, the schools know this. This is a service that’s available to a teeny, tiny fraction of the tippity, tippity, top of the income spectrum. And it brings with it a whiff of elitism that is inescapable.

LaPorte: Absolutely. I mean the numbers that I was just citing alone tell you what segment of the population we’re talking about. And, yeah, colleges admit this. I talk about Christoph Guttentag, the longtime Duke admissions officer, and he admits that this is absolutely a luxury, and it’s giving advantaged kids another advantage.

Ryssdal: Not only are the parents deeply interested in this, but as you point out in this piece, venture capital firms are interested in this. There’s a company that you talk about in here that raised some, you know, high tens of millions of dollars funding round.

LaPorte: Yes, I mean, I will point out that that’s not the norm.

Ryssdal: Fair enough, but the idea that VC is interested in this should tell you something.

LaPorte: Well, I think it speaks to just how this has come to dominate media headlines and the cultural interest in this, particularly amongst, yes, elite members of the population. And, you know, it’s a $3 billion industry. I just think that number alone, you can’t ignore that. But again, that’s a rare example.

Ryssdal: With the observation here that not everybody, and probably most people don’t and shouldn’t want to have the need to go to this tiny piece of higher education because you can get a good college education lots of places. Do these companies have the secret code?

LaPorte: They would like you to think that. Well, it’s funny, because you look at their websites and there’s all kinds of promises and statistics, much of which is very hard to discern and get behind and prove. But then when you actually speak to them, and I think virtually all of them, in probably the first meeting with a family, will say we cannot guarantee admission to X school. So no, there is no secret sauce, but again, it’s just providing an advantage.

Late last year, Eric Hamm was feeling uneasy about his job security. He was working as a maintenance mechanic at Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas and aware of President Donald Trump’s plans to make big federal budget cuts. So, he applied to an opening for a city forester in Cortez, Colorado. In January, he was offered the job. 

“I actually turned it down,” Hamm said. “Saying we want to stick around [in Big Bend], we want to help the park, and we want to get the benefits that come with being part of the federal system.” 

About a month later, Hamm’s wife Kelon Crawford’s job was one of thousands cut in the first wave of downsizing under the Department of Government Efficiency. She also worked in the park as a physical science technician and was five months pregnant. Hamm said it felt like a betrayal. 

“It was kind of a no-brainer for me. I don’t want to work for an organization that’s going to do that to people,” Hamm said. 

So, he called the city of Cortez back. “I felt like I was coming back to them kind of with my tail between my legs,” he said. 

But the position was still open and the city was happy to extend Hamm another offer. Now, Hamm, Crawford and their two dogs are packing their things, selling their house in Texas, and prepping for a move to Colorado. In other words, the federal government’s downsizing is the city of Cortez’s gain. 

Other states and localities have the same idea. Officials in Maryland, New York, New Mexico and Kansas City are among those launching recruitment campaigns targeting federal workers and adjusting hiring procedures to scoop up some badly needed talent. 

“We feel like tapping into this applicant pool that we, up until now, have had limited success in recruiting from is a real opportunity,” said Brenna Hashimoto, director of the state of Hawaii’s Department of Human Resources Development.

Hashimoto’s department is enthusiastically recruiting workers affected by federal layoffs and budget cuts and fast-tracking their hiring. She said it’s seen a “tremendous response” so far, with more than 1,600 new applications for around 60 high-priority, hard-to-fill positions like research statisticians and IT specialists. 

But Liz Farmer, a researcher with The Pew Charitable Trusts, said matching those workers’ federal salaries and competing with private sector offers will be tough. 

“I would expect that to be a concern, and something that states and localities don’t necessarily have an advantage of,” Farmer said. “However, one of the things that government has always had going for it is this idea of a job with purpose.”

That’s true for one federal worker we’re calling Ann — her middle name since she fears retaliation at work. 

“I’ve spent my entire career either in the military or in federal service,” Ann said. “It’s an important part of who I am, the ability to serve and to give back.” 

But federal budget and staffing cuts have Ann looking for an exit strategy. 

“Every day or every couple of days, something happens. We lose contractors that do critical work. We find out we lost funding for X, Y or Z,” she said. “It’s mentally and emotionally really taking a toll on everyone.” 

Ann has an interview lined up for a state government job in Pennsylvania, where she lives. The work is comparable. The base salary? Not even close. 

“I’d be looking at a $60,000 pay cut. So that’s really ouch,” she said. 

Pennsylvania’s governor has ordered state agencies to weigh federal work the same as state experience in hiring as part of its push to scoop up federal workers. If Ann gets the job, she’s counting on that to help narrow the salary gap so she can afford to keep working for the public. 

Eric Hamm, the former National Park Service worker, says he’s not taking a pay cut at his new municipal job in Colorado. 

“But it’s hard to beat federal benefits,” he said. 

With their baby due in three months, Hamm and his wife won’t get the paid parental leave they were counting on; their health insurance won’t be as good; Hamm’s military service won’t count for retirement purposes the way it would if he stayed with the federal government. On top of that, his family is struggling to find housing in their new and much more expensive city. 

“So in a lot of ways, we’re hurting,” Hamm said. 

He’s grateful he gets to keep working outdoors and serving a community, but the move from federal to local government work comes with big sacrifices for Hamm’s family. 

We got some fresh data Monday about how companies are doing and how they’re feeling. The S&P Global Purchasing Managers Index is based on surveys of folks at firms across the U.S. According to a preview, the index rose in March but paints a picture of a divided economy based on how it’s doing now and how it thinks it will be doing in the future.

If you ask businesses in the service economy — the diners and hair salons — how they are doing in March, they generally say better than January and February, which were terrible. Terrible because of terrible weather — polar vortexes, snowstorms in the South.

“You know, your tourism sectors and restaurants and so forth. Just people not wanting to go out,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. S&P Global puts out the PMI. So in March, the weather got better and service businesses did better.

“Manufacturing is a complete opposite,” said Williamson.

Companies in the manufacturing side of the economy had a great start to the year. “They were ramping up production to get shipments out ahead of any possible tariffs,” he said.

That bump’s over. In March, manufacturing sank back into the swamp of malaise and periodic contraction it’s been in for more than two years. The cost of inputs for manufacturers is at a 31-month high — see tariffs. But despite all that, manufacturers in March were the most optimistic about the future that they’ve been in years.

“That reflects this more protectionist environment that manufacturers are saying, hey in the long run this is gonna help us,” said Williamson.

Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, is not so sure that it will.

“Tariffs, they’re going to cut into economic activity and the dollar is likely going to appreciate, which doesn’t really bode well for U.S. manufacturers,” said Sweet.

Tariff anxiety did help sour the mood in the service economy, though. That and the cooling labor market and slowing wage growth. “When that occurs, it’s not a great barometer for what’s ahead for services,” he said.

And confidence there around how this year will go fell to its lowest level since 2022. The service economy employs more than 80% of workers in the U.S.

Netflix has announced that it's adding support for HDR10+ streaming, on top of the existing HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats that are already offered on the streaming service. HDR10+ should offer greater visual fidelity on a per-frame basis for Netflix's frequently dark original programming.

The company is enabling HDR10+ with the AV1 codec, the specification originally released in 2018 that's gradually become the standard for streaming 4K video without gobbling data. Netflix first adopted AV1 as a way to help customers save data while watching on their phone, but the compression tech works just as well for streaming large HDR files. Netflix is enabling HDR10+ on select popular titles now, and hopes to eventually offer all HDR content in the new format. Anyone with a Netflix Premium subscription and a device that supports both HDR10+ and AV1 (which includes most modern mobile phones and tablets) should be able to watch compatible content in HDR10+.

After 4K, high dynamic range (HDR) has come to define the look of modern TV and movies, particularly on streaming. HDR content makes clear the stark differences between the light and dark parts of an image. The under-exposed, muddy quality of modern streaming TV is frequently due to an expectation that audiences will be viewing on a device that supports HDR. Without it, you can't see anything. With it, you can pick up all the various shades of gray that have become the norm in prestige TV. 

Netflix first rolled out support for HDR in 2016 with the debut of Marco Polo, and in the years since, has made supporting Dolby Vision and HDR10, the most common HDR format, the norm on its service. If you've been watching Netflix on a display that already uses Dolby Vision, you likely won't notice a difference, but if you're TV only offers HDR10+, adding support for the format should make watching everything a little bit better.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflix-will-stream-shows-and-movies-in-hdr10-on-supported-devices-222134243.html?src=rss

We humans are suckers for free stuff. And it can cloud our ability to judge the true value of a deal. 

That’s why credit card rewards can be so alluring — free concerts, flights and airport lounge access? Yes, please. Spending more earns you more, and housing is most Americans’ biggest monthly expense, so it’s understandable that the country’s 42 million rental households might be tempted to plunk their credit card on the first of the month.

Just 4.5% of rent payments were made on credit cards in 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, but the market sees opportunity here. About one in four apartments have integrated credit card-style rewards into their payment systems, and there are new specialty credit cards designed for rent and mortgage payments.

All this might make it tempting to charge rent, but the risks are less obvious. Before you pay rent with plastic, consider the following.

Convenience fees add up fast

Do you want to pay 3% more for your rent? If you pay with a credit card, many landlords are likely to tack on fees. 

With the national median rent at $1,689 per month in February, according to real estate brokerage Redfin, the costs for the typical renter paying via swipe would be not insignificant: about $50 extra each month, or $600 for the year. 

Most businesses that accept credit cards have already embedded the “swipe fees” into the prices they charge to customers, but landlords largely haven’t done the same yet.

“It is rarely worth it to pay a convenience fee,” said Emily Thompson, an editor at the credit card rewards travel site The Points Guy. Transaction and processing fees almost always cost consumers more than the value of rewards they receive in return, she said. 

The Bilt Mastercard allows renters to earn rewards without paying fees. For now, Bilt covers the cost of sending rent to the landlord, in the hopes that cardholders will swipe for other expenses as well. That’s what got Ken Tse, a budget analyst and lifelong renter in San Francisco, to sign up for a Bilt credit card.

“Instead of paying rent to my landlord, I just pay it to my credit card company, and I set up an automatic payment,” Tse said.  

Rewards are tricky to value 

Credit cards rewards programs can be hard to understand You might have accrued thousands of points, but the cash value of a single point is typically just a penny or two. Points’ values can fluctuate depending on how you redeem them, and the terms set by your credit card issuer and its partnered airlines or hotel chains. 

Then there are annual fees that many credit cards charge in exchange for high value rewards. The American Express Platinum Card charges a $695 annual fee, for example, and offers up to $1,500 of potential benefits. Earning them all might push the cardholder to spend in ways that may not align with their lifestyle or budget.

Thompson told us she’s met people who opt for high-fee cards because of their airport lounge access, with unlimited free food and drinks. They don’t always realize you have to travel frequently and fly to airports with the proper lounges for that benefit to pay off.

“Are you spending $700 in airport alcohol out of pocket? Because if not, this is not a good value,” Thompson said. “Just buy your own airport drinks. You’re gonna save $600 a year.” 

Put another way: “if you weren’t going to spend money on the benefit [with cash], you’re not saving any money by getting it on your credit card,” Thompson added.

Tse said he earns about $7.34 in rewards every month by charging his rent to a Bilt credit card. While Bilt doesn’t currently charge an annual fee, it surveyed customers earlier this year, hinting that it may add new tiers charging $95 or $550 per year. Tse said he’d stop using the card before paying an annual fee that high, because the approximate $88 in rewards he could earn in a year wouldn’t offset the fee. He’d essentially be paying Bilt to use their product, he said.

Rewards can change, usually for the worse

Just as inflation eats away at our spending power, credit card rewards tend to become less robust over time. 

“Very few things in life get cheaper and more valuable as time goes on, and credit cards and points and miles are no exception,” Thompson said.  

At the beginning of the year, Thompson said she saw some credit cards raise fees without adding rewards or benefits. Other cards kept fees static, but cut their costs by dropping benefits like airport lounge access or statement credits for certain subscriptions.  

When the Bilt credit card first launched, for example, users received two points for every dollar spent on rent; now it’s just one. 

Carrying a balance negates any rewards

Banks issuing credit cards expect consumers to rack up balances that they don’t pay off at the end of the month, so they can charge them interest, and they use credit card rewards to encourage spending on their cards over their competitors. Researchers found that interest on balances generated more revenue for banks than swipe fees. 

When Wells Fargo partnered with Bilt to co-launch the Bilt credit card, the bank expected that card holders would carry balances for 50% to 75% of what they spent, The Wall Street Journal reported.  

“The biggest mistake that I see is people using a credit card for the rewards and then carrying a balance and paying interest on their purchases,” Thompson said.

That math will never make good economic sense, she said. 

The average credit card interest rate was 22.80%, according to Federal Reserve data from November 2024. Meanwhile, typical rewards are worth between 1% to 5% of the spending required to earn them. 

“Everything that we have, as far as earning rewards and maximizing your rewards, only exists as a value proposition if you’re paying off your bills in full every month,” Thompson said.

Nearly half of all American credit cardholders carry debt month to month, according to Bankrate, but two thirds of them are still trying to maximize credit card rewards. 

“If you can’t make [rent] this month, like, what’s the chance you’re not going to make it next month? And then you’re going to pay interest on that?” said Lulu Wang, an assistant professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management. 

 “People are always overly optimistic about their ability to pay off debt.” 

Two instances when paying with a credit card might make sense

When budgets are tight, Wang said paying a credit card fee might be preferable to sending a landlord a late payment. 

“You can imagine not being able to pay your rent is a bad signal,” said Wang. 

“So maybe you just float it on your credit card until a week later, when you get your paycheck, and then you pay it off. You pay a 3% [fee] of whatever your rent is. It sucks, but it at least means that it won’t show up on your rent history record as having a late rent payment.”

Thompson said that paying rent with a credit card can also help consumers reap new card bonuses worth hundreds of dollars, sometimes more than $1,000. Welcome offer windows are the only time, she said, that the value of rewards will typically outweigh the cost of transaction fees for using a credit card to pay rent. 

If credit card users all paid their bills in full every month, there would be fewer downsides to maximizing rewards. But there would also be little incentive for credit card issuers to continue paying out generous benefits. Wells Fargo was losing a reported $10 million per month on the Bilt credit card partnership in part because cardholders were more fiscally prudent than the bank had estimated; their balances, The Wall Street Journal reported, amounted to 15% to 25% of what they charged.

That’s a good thing from a personal finance perspective but bad for a credit card issuer who relies on interest revenue to generate profits.

Rates of homeownership stalled out for Generation Z and millennials in 2024. A Redfin report released Monday showed that ownership hovered around 26% for older Gen Zers and 55% for millennials, instead of increasing like they did for Generation X members and baby boomers last year. 

While the younger half of the population made gains in homeownership during the pandemic, that momentum has flatlined. 

Tyler Klene, a 33-year-old from Denver, started his search a year ago, first with standalone houses. 

“Even something that was like a single-bedroom, little bitty thing, I couldn’t afford that anywhere that I wanted to live,” said Klene. 

So he expanded his search to townhomes and condos that seemed to fit his $300,000 budget. But with homeowners association and other fees, “that just made them out of reach,” said Klene. 

After a year, he’s mostly given up. 

“These high interest rates, the low amount of inventory, it’s creating this barrier where it’s harder for young people to advance in terms of homeownership,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist of Redfin. 

Fairweather said those elevated interest rates are making it even harder for first-time buyers. “They are borrowing most of the money to purchase the home,” she said.  

Uncertainty around interest rates is discouraging buyers, said John Paasonen, CEO at mortgage services firm Maxwell. 

“What we saw across all segments, but particularly millennials, just the pumping on the brakes to say, ‘What’s going to happen?’” said Paasonen. 

Younger people are waiting and seeing as they continue to trail their parents’ generation in terms of homeownership, which can be an important financial milestone. 

“Homeowners have about 40 times, you know, the wealth of renters,” said Daniel McCue, senior research associate at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. 

But Mauricio Soto, a real estate agent in Oregon, is optimistic that young people will figure it out — they have well-paying jobs and time on their side.

“If millennials, Gen Z, they understand and they know how important it is to save money for the future, definitely they will be in a really, really good position.” 

He said young people should start saving and earning interest as early as they can to prepare for homeownership. 

This week marks one year since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after it was hit by the Dali, a container ship. When the bridge fell, six construction workers died, the channel to the Port of Baltimore was blocked for over 10 weeks, and the region lost a major commercial thoroughfare.

In February, the state of Maryland released the design for a new bridge that will go where the Key Bridge stood. The design is still in its early stages, but the new bridge has an expected life span of 100 years. That means this bridge will have to accommodate not just the ships and trucks of today, but those a century from now. 

One change to the new bridge? It’s going to look different from the old one.

“The old Key Bridge was truss, a kind of design that looks like, kind of a cage, and that is holding up the roadway,” said Rick Geddes, who studies infrastructure policy as a professor at Cornell University.

Geddes said truss bridges were very common back in the 1970s, when the old Key Bridge was built. The new bridge will be a kind Geddes said is more commonly built now — what’s called a “cable-stayed bridge.” 

“You have very tall towers, and those towers hold cables, and the roadway is suspended under the towers via those cables,” said Geddes. “And so the cable-stayed design allows the center span to be longer.”

The center, or main span, of the bridge goes over the shipping channel. The old Key Bridge’s main span was about 1,200 feet. The new one is expected to be at least 1,600.

The new cable-stayed bridge is still in the early stages of the design process. (Maryland Transportation Authority)

“So the likelihood that a big ship is going to veer out of the channel and hit a part of the bridge is reduced by the fact that you have towers much — about a third, which is a lot — wider apart than under the old bridge,” said Geddes.

The deck of the new bridge, where the road is, will also be about 45 feet higher than the old one. That could allow bigger ships to pass underneath.

“Today, right now, there are certain cruise ships that cannot serve the Port of Baltimore, because they’ve gotten very large,” said Paul Wiedefeld, secretary of Maryland’s Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the project.

Will the new bridge accommodate the biggest ships?

“Mmmm, probably not the biggest in the future,” he said. “I mean, you have to think of it in this scale, the Port of Baltimore versus other ports.”

Wiedefeld said the Port of Baltimore does have plenty of room to grow, but there are some geographical limits. 

“You know, it’s tight. It’s within a very dense urban environment,” he said.

But, as with other kinds of infrastructure, there have been big advances in bridge-building technology in the last half century.

“You’re building a bridge for 100 years, so you start to use materials that can last much longer,” said Wiedefeld. 

For example, there are better coatings for metal that protect against corrosion, said civil engineer Maria Lehman, who recently worked on a different bridge designed to last at least 100 years — the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge over the Hudson River in New York, which opened in 2018.

Also, she pointed out, you can now embed sensors in a bridge that will give a heads up when something is off.

“You get an alarm, ‘Hey, you should check this out.’ Things that normally you may not notice with a visual inspection, because it’s going on at the steel level,” said Lehman.

Lehman said from an engineering standpoint, you can address a lot of different outcomes — but you’re on a budget.

“You really have to think about risk, which is the probability of failure times the consequences of the failure,” said Lehman. “And where is that sweet spot, where you’re investing enough that you’re meeting the risk, but not too much, because there isn’t an unlimited pot of money to be able to do this.”

In the case of the new bridge in Baltimore, there’s also not unlimited time. Maryland’s goal for opening the new bridge is Oct. 15, 2028. 

And forecasting what shipping and trucking will look like in 2128 is hard, said Ben Schafer, who studies civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

“If there’s another new idea that you and I can’t really even conceptualize right now, and that becomes the most important way to move goods around, there’s not an easy way to get into that sort of prediction,” said Schafer.

The best engineers and planners can do is rely on current standards. One of the groups that works to develop these standards is the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, or AASHTO.

“We take the data and the information that’s available to us, the research that’s available to us, and we do the best that we can to project forward as to what may be occurring into the future,” said Kevin Marshia, the director of engineering for AASHTO.

Basically, trying to take into account how commerce may change in the years to come.

The Trump administration has made some changes to two pillars of the American housing market: the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. Or, as they’re better known, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Last week the administration fired 14 members of the boards of directors at the two corporations. Fannie and Freddie have been under government-run conservatorship since the late 2000s housing crash, but the White House is reportedly considering a plan to re-privatize them.

Fannie and Freddie do not lend people money to buy homes.

Instead, they buy mortgages from the lenders that originate them, so those loans — and the risks associated with them — are no longer on those lenders’ books. 

Then they bundle up the mortgages into neat little snackable securities, and then sell those snacks to pension funds and insurance companies and other big investors around the globe.

“They’re important because they’re the grease basically that makes the whole mortgage finance system work, and they’ve been incredibly successful at it,” said David Dworkin, CEO of the National Housing Conference, which pushes for more affordable housing.

Fannie and Freddie’s big value-add is the federal government acting as a backstop. If a homeowner defaults on a Fannie or Freddie-backed mortgage, the investor who owns it still gets paid.

Dworkin said that lowers mortgage risks and mortgage rates.

“The mortgage that you get is going to have a lower interest rate than it would have otherwise, probably about half a percent,” said Dworkin.

Last year Fannie and Freddie backed about 40% of all securitized U.S. mortgages. It’s not exactly clear how the administration might go about ending their government-run conservatorship.

Mike Fratantoni at the Mortgage Bankers Association said re-privatization could have an upside.

“We think when they’re out of conservatorship, it’ll help them to be more innovative, more responsive to the markets, but it needs to be done cautiously,” said Fratantoni.

The government selling its stake in Fannie and Freddie could also yield hundreds of billions of dollars for Uncle Sam.

But Andrew Fieldhouse at Texas A&M’s May Business School said we’ve seen this movie before — like, before the government had to bail out Fannie and Freddie when the financial system choked on those mortgage-backed security snacks.

“The pre-2008 status quo in which Fannie and Freddie’s upside gains were privatized, going to shareholders and management and any big downside losses were backstopped by taxpayers, was problematic,” said Fieldhouse.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie, declined a request for comment.