Engadget published a pair of explainers tackling the small mysteries of the ports we use every day.

First up: USB-C. The cables are now ubiquitous — especially since Apple adopted the port across its lineup — but the piece digs into whether the "C" in USB Type-C actually signifies anything in particular, or is simply the next letter in the connector-naming sequence.

The second explainer covers port colors. USB ports ship in a surprising range of hues — eye-catching orange and purple among them — but the plain black port is the most common and carries its own meaning about the port's capabilities. Together, the two pieces are a quick literacy course in reading your own hardware: the shape of the connector and the color of the socket both encode information most users never decode.