Nokia has been known to do some very innovative things with their phones especially in creating new technology (see their flexible display). So it's with great interest to see them explain their "ClearBlack" screen system to the masses--or at least attempt to.
For those who don't know, Nokia uses ClearBlack screens on a few of their phones, including the Lumia 710, 800 and 900 series. In simplest terms, it's a circular polarizer that sits between the GorillaGlass and LCD/AMOLED screen, resulting in glare-elimination, higher contrast and better readability due to the elimination of reflected light. It is similar to wearing polarizing sunglasses and that effect but is much more complicated.
In the post on Nokia Conversations, they explain the multiple layers in ClearBlack and what they do:
There’s both a linear polariser and retardation layers between the surface of your phone and the display. When light hits your screen, this is what happens:
- It hits the linear polariser, this vertically polarises the light. (Polarising means – roughly – aligning the wave vibration in a particular direction).
- Then it hits the circular polariser retardation layer. This converts the light again, making it right-circularly polarised
- Then it hits the screen and bounces off it, switching the rotation of the light to leftist.
- It goes back through the retardation layer. When this happens, the light becomes horizontally polarised.
- Finally, it hits the linear polariser, since the light is horizontally polarised at this point it can be blocked entirely by this optical solution.
We almost wrapped our head around that explanation. It's certainly complex and from our usage, we really like the result--seriously, go check out the Lumia 710 at your local T-Mo store to get an idea. Anyways, it's great to see such unique and proprietary technology coming to Windows Phones.
Source: Nokia Conversations; Thanks, Residing, for the heads up

We're going to see tons of game delays this year and that's OK
We'll be seeing a lot of games delayed throughout 2021, more than were delayed in 2020. Right now, you should only depend on playing things that were originally supposed to release last year. Here's why that's OK.

AMD's Radeon RX 6000 GPUs have arrived. Here's where to find them.
AMD's Radeon RX 6000 GPUs aren't easy to find, and you might be wondering which models are available where. Check out the retailers and models you can expect to buy when stock normalizes.

These are the biggest PC announcements from CES 2021
CES 2021 was different in that it wasn't held at a physical location. Instead, companies relied on press kits and virtual presentations to showcase all the new products. We've rounded up the best PC-related announcements in case you happened to miss the show.

These are the best GPUs for playing Escape from Tarkov
Looking for a new GPU to play Escape from Tarkov? Here are our top picks for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, from both NVIDIA and AMD.