Michmutters
Several people on RPS have managed to secure a Steam Deck since Valve’s handheld starting shipping around five months ago. If you’re not so lucky, then good news: Valve say they’re speeding up production and everyone who has currently ordered one should receive their Steam Deck before the end of the year.
Sleep. It can be both an elusive beast, or an insistent guest, nudging at your eyelids at the most inconvenient times of the day. We’re all familiar with the sensation of dread that accompanies the alarm creeping its way into your morning slumber and the perplexity of waking up somehow more tired than when we fell into bed the night before.
While many factors contribute to poor sleep quality, including lifestyle, stress, diet and your environment, there’s one thing that has the potential to make a world of difference—and it can take as little as 5 minutes of your day. That thing is meditation.
Also known as mindfulness, this purposeful practice is considered to have a positive impact on sleep quality. According to Sleep Foundation, “at a biological level, meditation slows the heart rate and breathing and lowers levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.” It is also theorized that “mindfulness may improve sleep quality” and that practicing mindfulness and meditation equip you with the resources to “calm down the nervous system in preparation for sleep.”
So, in an effort to help you set up your mornings for success, we tried some of the most hyped meditation apps on the market. Read on to suss which app works for your own mindfulness vibe.
If a good benchmark for whether we vibe an app or not is diving back in after our research phase, then this app ticks the box. We’ve revisited Smiling Mind multiple times since we downloaded it, and can already attest to positive changes. It might look like it’s angeled toward a young adult audience, and it is, but it also has a wealth of content for adults too. Plus, it features homegrown Aussie voices, which is a treat amongst the US and UK leaders in the market.
We recommend the NAIDOC Week Meditation, led by the iconic activist, actor, author and Indigenous elder and 2022 recipient of the NAIDOC Male Elder of the Year, Uncle Jack Charles. If you’re looking to use your commute time to grab a little bit of mindfulness, dive into the Daily Commute series. We also have our eye on the 21 Night Sleep Program, a series specifically designed to use a variety of tools and techniques to help you build healthy habits for a healthy mind, and get a better night’s sleep.
Free, user-friendly and a great range of local talent—we highly recommend it.
If the idea of having Simon, the Duke of Hastings trickling his smooth Bridgertonesk elocution into your ears is an ideal mindfulness moment, then Calm is definitely the app for you. Featuring sleep stories told by the likes of Regé-Jean Page, Jesse Mei Li, and Cillian Murphy, this app understands the snooze assignment. Don’t even get us started on the Bob Ross-led ASMR tracks for the soothing factor.
Not just for those hoping to catch a few more z’s, Calm has an extensive range of meditation tracks, encompassing Beginners, Work, Anxiety, Self-Care and a Breaking Habits Series. If you’re interested in ongoing wellness and crafting new habits, this series covers a range of aspects including Thinking, Comparison & Busyness. If your frequency is a more calming guided meditation with ambient sound, we love the Sigur Rós Sound Bath Experience.
This app is beloved for a reason. With a stack of guided meditations ranging from Five Mindful Minutes, to the longer 10-20 minutes tracks, Headspace is extensive and has a sense of playfulness that keeps it fresh. Learn breathing techniques from the master of calm, Yoda himself. Or take a more serious approach and start right at the beginning with easy-to-follow stages, from basics to self-reflection and letting go of stress. Specific themes see a range of tracks focusing on issues like managing financial stress, dealing with the complexities of sexuality and dealing with external and internal pressure.
A great app for embarking on a mindfulness journey if you’re a beginner or if there are specific areas in your life you want to craft healthier habits.
Smattered with recognizable voices, the likes of Goldie Hawn and meditation guru Lama Rod Owens, Insight Timer has an extensive range of guided meditations and tracks for a detailed range of topics. From interviews to relationship, sleep and performance-specific tracks, there’s something for everyone.
If you’re already a bit of a meditation buff, the namesake timer is great and allows you to craft your own guide, with interval bells and personalized sounds. It also provides a community aspect, with the option to engage with a public profile. If you just want to focus on your own thing, there’s a private option too.
Great for those who have a foothold in classic meditation and want a little help structuring their practice without necessarily being guided. We did find the app a touch clunky though.
If you feel like you’ve tried all of the meditation apps under the sun, and nothing seems to be the right fit, this podcast might be for you. Hosted by Leah Vandenberg, the SBS Great Minds Podcast provides a doorway into a range of meditation practices from around the world. Learn about Filipino Hilot, Japanese forest bathing and Hawaiian ho’oponopono during the bite-sized, 15-minute episodes. Throughout the 18-episode series, you’ll travel the world with Vandenberg and a little closer to home with a wellness practice grounded in First Nations’ connection to Country called Wayapa Wuurrk developed by Gunai Kurnai man Jamie Marloo Thomas.
Great for delving deeper into the art of mindfulness and what that means around the globe, or reigniting your interest if you’re suffering a little meditation fatigue.
This app is astonishingly simple, and does what it says on the box. iBreathe is structured around simple breathing techniques, allowing you to delve into mindfulness from a physical place. There are four key breathing techniques the app follows, including 4-7-8, Ujjayi, Box and Custom. 4-7-8 and Ujjayi are methods of breathing based on the ancient practice of pranayama yoga that works to calm the mind and the body. Box breathing is a super simple and repetitive method that is a great technique to have in your pocket if you’re out and about and life catches you unaware with a cheeky bout of stress. Using simple 4-second cycles of inhale/exhale repetition, the app can help establish a technique you can replicate on demand.
It’s free which is amazing, but there are a few pesky ads that pop up between sessions, but they won’t interrupt your breathing time. You can also pay a small fee to upgrade the ad-free access.
Controversial, but before you go downloading any of these apps that tickle your mindful fancy, we want to pop in a review of something that is kind of the opposite of an app, in a way. The good news is that it’s totally free, does still involve your phone and is something that we have been trialling for a week at the time of writing with great success.
That thing is turning off the notifications on our phones during work hours. Yep, Messenger, Instagram, Tiktok, you name it, we’ve silenced it (except for text messages because if we leave mum unanswered for too long, she’ll worry, you know).
Long review short, this change has made a huge impact on our focus and mindfulness throughout the day, without group chat notifications niggling at our curiosity and FOMO.
If an app for classic meditation isn’t for you, that doesn’t mean the end of the road for your mindfulness journey. There are heaps of ways to engage in mindfulness and support your body to encourage less stress and improved restful sleep. Active meditation and taking time to be in the moment with activities like cooking, walking in nature and going for a swim are also great ways to get back in touch with yourself and simple things like taking a daily multivitamin can have tangible results on your overall wellbeing .
Head over here for Reason Season’s second Morning module on crafting a morning routine you can actually stick to.
To receive all of the upcoming weekly modules for Reason Season straight to your inbox sign up over here, plus go into the draw to win a $4,000 wellness getaway for two.
Image credit: Urban List
Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by Swiss and proudly endorsed by Urban List. Thank you for supporting the sponsors who make Urban List possible. Click here for more information on our editorial policy.
the mobile devices they have become part of our lives, and to date there are many applications that make things easier for us. So much so, that it is possible to learn a new language, increase productivity and maintain a healthy and healthy body with training apps.
In the case of the sports area, they are applications that serve as a guide in the process of improvement of your physical conditionand many of them come with meal plans adapted to each situation.
If you are a fan of sports and you like to maintain a fit body, then do not hesitate to take a look at these apps to do pilates
Previously we showed you the best apps to do yoga and exercises from home, now you will know the best apps to do pilates from iPhone. Will you give?
Below you can see a list of apps to do pilates from iPhone. With them you will have a guaranteed series of low impact exercises that you can do from anywhere and totally free.
5 minutes of Pilates: more than 70 sessions of 5 minutes to train
An app with more than 70 sessions where it will not be necessary to spend a lot of time a day, especially if you are a very busy person. Each activity has a duration of 5 minutes and you can do 1 daily taking into account the rest time.
their interface is comfortable, minimalist and intuitive and each of the exercises are guided by a 3d modeling. In the image they explain in detail how to do each movement correctly. In addition, it integrates a chronometer capable of announcing the last seconds of each exercise.
Despite being free, it has a premium version (monthly or yearly) including multiple functions.
The Pilates Class: series of exercises with different levels of difficulty
If what you are looking for is intense pilates classesyou must take into account The Pilates Class. it has to series of exercises with different levels of difficultywhich range from beginner to professional.
The time of each session will depend on what level you are at, since it can vary between 5 and 60 minutes. In addition, it has a series of quite useful options such as adding exercises to a favorites list, training history, selecting the routine that best suits your time, and much more.
As if that were not enough, the routines will be guided by a pretty short video sponsored by the trainer, and when you click on the exercise, it will display information that describes how to do the exercise correctly.
Pilates Anytime Workouts – 3,700+ high-quality pilates workouts
Pilates Anytime Workouts is one of the best pilates apps available for iPhone. It has a wide library with over 3,700 pilates workouts high quality and quite intense, fun and not monotonous at all.
In addition, you will have access to hundreds of programswhich you can practice and do as many times as you want and at the time that best suits your activities.
their interface is quite intuitive and has striking options among which stands out how to download exercise video tutorials and watch them calmly no internet connection.
U Pilates: pilates training system to reduce ailments
Pilates It is a sport with multiple benefits for the body and mindY U Plates is a mobile application that helps you in the process.
Thank you training systemyou can reduces back painimprove posture and even have a stronger pelvic area by investing a few minutes of your time a day.
Each of the videos shows a exercise routine and usually last between 20 and 40 minutes. Best of all, you can schedule the routine of your choicewhich will be reminded through an alarm so you don’t miss any activity.
Pilates exercises: more than 50 pilates exercises explained with GIFs
With Pilates exercises no need to be in one optimal physical condition to start the exercises. So if you have never exercised in your life, you can start with this mobile application.
The application has more than 50 exercises availablewhich are very well explained and are accompanied by a GIF that will show how to do the exercise correctly.
Es pilates app integrate to comfortable stopwatch which shows the number of calories lost and the total time of the session in each routine.
Pilates: programs and routines to tone your body
Pilates is an application with intense exercises, efficient and with little investment of time. their interface is minimalsince on its main screen it will show a series of programs and routines to tone various areas of your body (abdomen, buttocks, legs and more).
Each exercise is accompanied by a description indicating how to do the move and the muscles being worked. Best of all, the app features its own counter, its progress bar and the total number of exercises which has the series.
Wispence: workouts from anywhere
One of the main functions of the app Wispence: Workout for Women is that you can do Workout routines from anywhere. That is, it will not be necessary to go to a gym to do each of the series.
The app integrates the monitor your progresswhere later the number of calories lost in each sessionthe amount of water you have drunk, the time spent exercising and much more.
In addition, it integrates various training programseach one with its level of difficulty and you will even have access to a effective eating plan.
Pilates – Lumowel: a virtual trainer that will guide and advise you
finally found Pilates–Lumowella mobile application aimed at those users with little time to train, but who still want to stay active.
With this app you will have training sessions of 5 minutes for beginners and 10 minutes for the more advanced.
their interface is one of the simplest, however, perfectly fulfills all its functions. In addition, with it you can select what days of the week do you want to train and once configured, the system will show you notifications to remind you to do the day’s session.
The Amazfit T-Rex 2 was announced globally last May and became official for the Brazilian market at the end of June, arriving under the proposal to serve users who usually practice extreme sports and visit extreme scenarios, but who do not want to abandon their technology partner.
But does all this durability and resistance reflect the overall quality of the smartwatch? Here’s what you can see below in our full review!
economy and market
May 29
technique
April 09
construction and design
Sold in a box reminiscent of traditional watches, the T-Rex 2 comes with its manual, certificates, and charging cable with magnetic screws; A group we are used to seeing for this type of product.
In a style reminiscent of Casio’s popular G-Shock watch, made of polymer alloy with a silicone strap with a classic pin buckle, the overall suggestion of the Amazfit watch is resistance.
With military MIL-STD certification, the model is capable of operating in extreme temperatures, from -40 to 70 degrees Celsius, as well as enduring – in tests – 240 hours of exposure to moisture, 96 hours of salt water spray, ice and freezing rain; Plus the ability to indulge in pressure up to 10 atm.
Until he put his durability to the test, The form has already been sent into space upon reaching the stratosphere, being exposed to an average speed of 290 km/h and a temperature below -64°C, and returning to Earth in a fully operational state , thanks to its GPS.
Available in four variants: black with gold, black with silver, green and beige, the new T-Rex comes with a 1.39-inch round AMOLED screen with a pixel density of just over 460 ppi, ensuring great color viewing and high definition of the elements displayed in the interface.
Our only criticism here goes to the proximity between the screen glass and the edge of the case. Because it’s so close, and because the glass doesn’t have any kind of dedicated certification, we were worried about the screen being easily scratched or even broken during some of the more drastic activities.
In any case, the screen has an automatically adjustable brightness and Always On mode, which makes the screen always visible and active, which brings the operation of the smart watch closer to the operation of a normal watch; Something that may sound silly, but this increases the practicality of not having to keep rotating your arm, touching the screen, or pressing a button to tell the time all the time.
but this is not all. Unlike most watches that have passed through our seats, in addition to touch, the entire system can be interacted with through the buttons distributed on the sides of the watch. One button to go up, another button to go down, one to go back and a fourth to select the highlighted item.
This approach, combined with the resistance guaranteed by all of its certifications, can guarantee the most extreme users – the wearable target audience – a great experience even in the most extreme environments; It will ensure perfect mobility even with the watch completely submerged.
System
And if the durability of the case does not disappoint, we can say the same about the sensors built into the T-Rex 2. In addition to the aforementioned proximity sensor, the watch is also equipped with a dual-band GPS with support for five satellites: GPS, gyroscope, compass, altimeter and barometer; Navigation and location basics.
Equipped with Bluetooth 5.0 and embedded with Amazfit’s proprietary system – Zeep OS, the wearable still supports widgets, which end up expanding its usability, but still doesn’t allow it to be framed in the same section of a smartwatch, of course. reality.
These widgets, which can be accessed through the App Store on Zeep, extend the usefulness of the watch by another centimeter, being very accurate. Forget Spotify, Strava, Google Fit, etc.; Here you will find options such as calculator, water time, dental cleaning, etc.
The only apps out there that communicate with third parties are Notify for Gclock, Notify for Maps, and GoPro. The first two, to interact with the Google Watch and Maps apps, and the third, to control the GoPro.
Unfortunately, the restrictions do not stop there. Contrary to what happens even on cheap watches from the brand, it is not possible to answer calls from your smartphone via T-Rex, only to reject them; The same is true for notifications. Here, it can only be viewed, but the response will remain limited to the smartphone.
However, when making a comparison, we can say that the Amazfit model is an upgraded Mi Band 6, but it is not a smartwatch. And within his suggestion of him, we can say that he does everything relatively well.
Navigation in Zeep OS happens smoothly, without any kind of stuttering and the feature set is quite complete for activity monitoring. It is possible to track your stress levels, heart rate and blood oxygen, monitor your sleep hours and track the levels of your training sessions.
And speaking of training, we have a nice difference here! In addition to the 150 available sports, which include – believe me – even board games, the watch is able to automatically detect dozens of strength exercises, as well as some sports, which show in the application the muscle groups worked during the exercise; surprising thing. A positive point for Amazfit
Still talking about the app, here we have Zepp – the direct successor to Mi Fit; That, despite the change of name and interface that it received thanks to the small confusions that Xiaomi generates with its subsidiaries, it maintains the good qualities of its predecessor, with a simple and intuitive appearance.
Anyway, regardless of the name, with the information collected by the T-Rex 2, Zepp can keep a complete log of user data, keeping a record of the steps taken, the physical activity sessions performed – visualizing the muscle groups working, the rate Heartbeat, stress and oxygen indicators, sleep records, etc.
With the wearable properly connected via Bluetooth, the app also allows you to make more advanced adjustments including taking measurements, setting alarms, making adjustments to monitor sleep and stress, setting goals, and tracking your period, as well as the option to choose from new screen dials.
In addition to the dials available by default through the watch itself, it is possible to select and synchronize a new disk from a partition built into Zepp itself. This one has several options available, with screens divided into categories such as “Classic”, “Training and Health”, “Technology”, “Multiple Information”, “Realism” etc.
zip
Developed by: Huami Inc.
FREE SHIPPING
Size: Varies by platform
drums
Owner of a 500 mAh battery that can be charged in about two hours, Amazfit promises autonomy of up to 24 days for the T-Rex 2; This is an impressive number in theory. But what about practice?
In our tests, in moderate use, without Always On, with a few training sessions, heart rate tracking, continuous sleep monitoring, and sporadic measurements of oxygen and pressure, the watch was able to stay offline for about 20 days. Integers – The value of it closely matches the Brand Promise.
Therefore, an autonomy that does not exceed expectations, thanks to the Amazfit itself, but it is good if we take into account similar models and even simpler activity monitors.
Is it worth it?
It was announced by Amazfit at the end of last June with a suggested price of R$1,540, considering that the T-Rex 2 is a good option that – given the options on the market – could be something more difficult than damaging the watch by immersion in salt water.
Understand that the device could be great for a very specific audience, those who like to venture out in the middle of trails or climbs, promising resistance hard to see in other options on the market, as well as providing a battery befitting of those. who intends to spend one week away from civilization.
However, taking into account the proposed price, depending on the use, it may be better to buy, for example, the Galaxy Watch 4, which can already be found around 1200 R$. And in adventure time, cover your Samsung watch with one of these tough cases, which can be found for under 200 BRL.
Of course, this will not bring good certifications or autonomy of the T-Rex 2 to the Samsung watch; But nothing is being done, either, that will bring the full suite of South Korean smartwatch features to the Amazfit model.
With all the cards on the table, choosing a T-Rex becomes a matter of specific needs. Do you want to spend a week in the woods, without electricity, and want to have a watch on your wrist that will take a beating? The Amazfit model might be the best option. But if that’s not your case, other – smarter – options might sound better.
But what about you, what do you think of the new Amazfit watch? Tell us here in the comments! As usual, the best prices for the model of the Chinese giant, as well as some of the mentioned models, can be found in the cards below. I’ll stop here, hug and until next time! 😉
Renderings of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5
Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy Watch 5 on August 10, and a series of images published by 91mobiles offer the best preview of the watch’s design yet.
The images are the typical renders you’ll see on an online retailer’s website, showing off the Watch 5 series from all angles.
They are most useful as a way to decide whether you would be more interested in the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 or Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, the two key models Samsung is likely to introduce in just under two weeks.
The base Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 has a slighter appearance, the Pro version more a severe metal rim around the display.
These pics also suggest the black Galaxy Watch 5 will have more of a sporty leaning, although all members of this family are likely to have similar core features.
Renderings of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5
There is also no sign of a rotating bezel in the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, which has been a defining feature of this series since the beginning. It suggests the watch may have a redesigned version of Samsung’s watch UI, which was still partially constructed around the rotary bezel controller in the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4.
Without a rotating crown to replace it, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro will have to rely on touchscreen control unless the screen surround acts as a capacitive touch surface to allow for gesture controls without moving parts.
The images also show off the watch’s colours: lilac, cream and dark gray for the Galaxy Watch 5, black and grey, or perhaps sage green, for the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro.
Samsung also uses a different strap style for the two models. The base Galaxy Watch 5 has a classic watch strap, the Pro a clasp.
However, these images don’t tell the full story. Samsung is expected to launch both 40mm and 44m versions of the standard Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, while the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro will likely have a 46mm watch face.
My presumption is we’re looking at the 46mm and 44mm versions here, leaving the 40mm models out of the picture.
.
A series of interactive beauty events are coming to Sydney this month.
This July, Westfield Parramatta will play host to YSL Beauty Zone, an immersive experience offering a range of free interactive beauty and gaming pop-ups.
You’ll be taken through YSL Beauty’s new skincare, makeup and fragrances, with expert makeup artists offering tips for at-home skincare and make-up application with deluxe samples available to take home as well.
For the first time in Australia, visitors will also get to experience YSL beauty’s new Rouge Sur Measure Custom Lip Color Device, an all-in-one app-based innovation combining beauty and technology that allows you to create up to 1000 customizable lipstick shades.
There’s more to see than just beauty though, with a UV printing service dedicated to monogramming your YSL Beauty products or personalizing them with one of YSL’s custom prints. There will also be an interactive dance game and music game at the pop-up, so go along for a chance to win your very own YSL beauty deluxe samples to take home.
YSL beauty Zone is now open at Westfield Parramatta and will run until Sunday July 31. Entry is free.
This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with YSL Beauty.
YouTube is making it easier for creators to post Shorts by allowing them to repurpose their existing videos.
“Attention Shorts creators: to make it easier to create even more new content,” the company says(Opens in a new window) in its announcement, “you can now convert up to 60 seconds from your own existing long-form YouTube videos and turn them into Shorts using all the same editing tools that you know and love (text, timeline editor, filters, etc.). “
The feature isn’t limited to converting a 60-second clip from a longer video into a Short. YouTube says that creators who select a clip that’s less than a minute long will be able to “shoot additional videos with the Shorts camera as well as upload more videos” from their galleries as long as the resulting video remains less than 60 seconds long.
Reducing the amount of effort required to create Shorts could encourage more YouTubers to embrace the medium, but YouTube seems to recognize that probably isn’t enough incentive on its own, so the company is also making it so that any Shorts generated from someone’s existing content will link back to the longer video.
“Shorts created from VODs will link back to the original long-form videos so that people watching your Short can see the original video too,” YouTube says. “Importantly, only you as the original creator will be able to import your long-form videos into Shorts as this tool is not available for other creators to use on your content.”
YouTube says the ability to create Shorts from existing videos is rolling out now on both iOS and Android.
Sign up for What’s New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning.
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.
Last week we took a look at the basic ideas behind what Google Wave is, how it works, and how it is set to take email into the 21st century.
That’s nice to help you get an idea of where to start. But there’s nothing like some direct examples to help wrap one’s mind around how new tools can make the life you know better. So here we have suggestions for what you and your colleagues could be doing in Wave right now that would be much more effective than email, IM, or your average Google Documents collaboration.
Collating a meeting agenda is often considered a low-priority task, which leads to meetings that waffle on, or never quite get to the heart of important matters. Using Wave, an agenda can be compiled by everyone involved, and some pre-meeting comment can even be made so the meeting can get to what really matters. The minutes of meetings can be taken directly into the same wave, as well as actionable decisions, and any discussions that can’t be completed in the meeting time available can be wrapped up in the wave later. That’s a lot of power to make meetings faster and more effective.
There are team-based Twitter style tools (like Yammer) that can let you keep shared internal status updates. Or you can use IM, or shared documents, to run collaborative to-do lists. Wave can bring the essentials of these ideas to a single forum. In one wave a team could keep an open, shared list of to-do items, with comments to and from other team members on where they can help each other get things done. The threaded commenting system in Wave means it will be very clear to all team members who is saying what and who is offering help. When something is done, the strike-through character formatting option can make it clear that certain milestones have been achieved.
This flows on from the more basic idea of to-do and task tracking. If the whole team is working on separate parts of the same document, or contributing facts and statistics to a report, this can all be done directly within the wave instead of through external document creation tools. Wave is particularly effective at letting a team brainstorm ideas without having to pull everybody away from other work to do it. As ideas come to people in their own time, they can be dropped into the mix.
We’re building up the layers of collaboration here. Events and seminars can be some of the more daunting business jobs, but Wave has additional tools for making it simple. If decisions must be made, or attendance needs to be collated, there are special extensions for Google Wave that can let people vote ‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘Maybe’ on an idea, or include Google Maps in the document for directions . Tasks and presentations can be tracked as above, and if things feel too unwieldy it is easy to copy a section of a wave and split it into its own separate discussion where that work can continue.
As mentioned last week, there are still more tools available for automating Wave. New features are being created daily, and for something still in its early infancy it’s a credit that there are so many valid ways to use it to improve the way you work right now. Invites are now fairly easy to come by – ask around your network of colleagues and contacts and you should be on Wave in a matter of days. #
Seamus Byrne is a technology journalist and the founder, director of creative, and host of Byteside.
A study on the physics discovery titled “Automated discovery of fundamental variables hidden in experimental data“has been published in the journal Nature Computational Science.
Researchers from Columbia Engineering have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) program that could derive the fundamental variables of physics from video footage of physical phenomena. The program analyzed videos of systems like the swinging double pendulum, which researchers already know four “state variables” exist for; the angle and angular velocity of each arm. Within a few hours, the AI determined there were 4.7 variables at play.
“We thought this answer was close enough. Especially since all the AI had access to was raw video footage, without any knowledge of physics or geometry. But we wanted to know what the variables actually were, not just their number,” said Hod Lipson, director of the Creative Machines Lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Two of the variables it identified correlated with the angles of each arm. However, the other two were unclear, as the program interprets and visualizes the variables differently from how humans intuitively understand them. However, as the AI was making accurate predictions about the system, it is clear it managed to identify four valid variables. The researchers then tested the AI on systems we don’t fully understand, like a lava lamp, and a fireplace, identifying 8 and 24 variables, respectively.
“I always wondered, if we ever met an intelligent alien race, would they have discovered the same physics laws as we have, or might they describe the universe in a different way? Perhaps some phenomena seem enigmatically complex because we are trying to understand them using the wrong set of variables. In the experiments, the number of variables was the same each time the AI restarted, but the specific variables were different each time. So yes, there are alternative ways to describe the universe and it is quite possible that our choices aren’t perfect,” Lipson said.
You can read more from the study here.
.
The Pixel 2 is an almost five-year-old phone, but it introduced a feature that I miss more and more with each passing year. It was called Active Edge, and it let you summon Google Assistant just by giving your phone a squeeze. In some ways, it’s an unusual idea. But it effectively gave you something sorely lacking on modern phones: a way to physically interact with the phone to just get something donate.
Looking at the sides of the Pixel 2 and 2 XL, you won’t see anything to indicate that you’re holding anything special. Sure, there’s a power button and volume rocker, but otherwise, the sides are sparse. Give the phone’s bare edges a good squeeze, though, and a subtle vibration and animation will play, as Google Assistant pops up from the bottom of the screen, ready to start listening to you. You don’t have to wake the phone up, long-press on any physical or virtual buttons, or tap the screen. You squeeze and start talking.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23905792/akrales_220727_5337_0013.jpg)
We’ll talk about how useful this is in a second, but I don’t want to gloss over just how cool it feels. Phones are rigid objects made of metal and plastic, and yet, the Pixel can tell when I’m applying more pressure than I do just holding it. According to an old iFixit teardown, this is made possible by a few strain gauges mounted to the inside of the phone that can detect the ever so slight bend in your phone’s case when you squeeze it. For the record, this is a change my human nervous system is incapable of picking up on; I can’t tell that the phone is bending at all.
Whether you found Active Edge useful probably came down to whether you liked using Google Assistant, as illustrated by this Reddit thread. Personally, the only time I ever really used a voice assistant on a daily basis was when I had the Pixel 2 because it was literally right at hand. The thing that made it SW convenient is that the squeeze basically always worked. Even if you were in an app that hid the navigation buttons or your phone’s screen was completely off, Active Edge still did its job.
While that made it extremely useful for looking up fun facts or doing quick calculations and conversions, I’d argue that Active Edge could’ve been so much more useful had you been able to remap it. I enjoyed having the assistant, but if I had been able to turn on my flashlight with a squeeze, I would’ve had instant access to the most important features of my phone no matter what.
This version of the feature actually existed. HTC’s U11, which came out a few months before the Pixel 2, had a similar but more customizable feature called Edge Sense. The two companies worked together on the Pixel and Pixel 2, which explains how it ended up on Google’s devices. That same year, Google bought HTC’s mobile division team.
Active Edge was not Google’s first attempt at providing an alternative to using the touchscreen or physical buttons to control your phone, either. A few years before the Pixel 2, Motorola was letting you open the camera by twisting your phone and turn on the flashlight with a karate chop — not unlike how you shuffled music on a 2008 iPod Nano. The camera shortcut came about during the relatively short amount of time that Google owned Motorola.
As time went on, though, phone manufacturers moved further away from being able to access a few essential features with a physical action. Take my daily driver, an iPhone 12 Mini, for instance. To launch Siri, I have to press and hold the power button, which has become burdened with responsibilities since Apple got rid of the home button. To turn on the flashlight, something I do multiple times a day, I have to wake up the screen and tap and hold the button in the left-hand corner. The camera is slightly more convenient, being accessible with a left swipe on the lock screen, but the screen still has to be on for that to work. And if I’m actually using the phone, the easiest way to access the flashlight or camera is through Control Center, which involves swiping down from the top-right corner and trying to pick out one specific icon from a grid.
In other words, if I look up from my phone and notice my cat doing something cute, he may very well have stopped by the time I actually get the camera open. It’s not that it’s difficult to launch the camera or turn on the flashlight — it’s just that it could be so much more convenient if there were a dedicated button or squeeze gesture. Apple even briefly acknowledged this when it made a battery case for the iPhone that had a button to launch the camera. A few seconds saved here or there add up over the lifetime of a phone.
Just to prove the point, here’s how fast launching the camera is on my iPhone versus the Samsung Galaxy S22, where you can double-click the power button to launch the camera:
Neither phone handles screen recording and previewing the camera very well, but the S22 gets its camera app open before I’ve even tapped the camera icon on the iPhone.
Unfortunately, even Google’s phones aren’t immune to the vanishing of physical buttons. Active Edge stopped showing up on Pixels with the 4A and 5 in 2020. Samsung has also done away with a button it once included to summon a virtual assistant (which, tragically, happened to be Bixby).
There have been attempts to add virtual buttons that you activate by interacting with the device. Apple, for example, has an accessibility feature that lets you tap on the back of your phone to launch actions or even your own mini programs in the form of Shortcuts, and Google added a similar feature to Pixels. But to be perfectly honest, I just haven’t found them reliable enough. A virtual button that barely ever works isn’t a great button. Active Edge worked pretty much every single time for me, despite the fact that I had a beefy OtterBox on my phone.
It’s not that physical controls on phones are completely gone. As I alluded to before, Apple lets you launch things like Apple Pay and Siri through a series of taps or presses on the power button, and there’s no shortage of Android phones that let you launch the camera or other apps by double-pressing the power button.
I’d argue, though, that one or two shortcuts assigned to a single button cannot give us easy access to everything we should have easy access to. To be clear, I’m not demanding that my phone be absolutely covered in buttons, but I think big manufacturers should take a cue from phones of the past (and, yes, from smaller phone makers — I see you Sony fans) and bring back at least one or two physical shortcuts. As Google showed, that doesn’t necessarily require adding an extra physical key that has to be waterproofed. Something as simple as a squeeze can be a button that lets users quickly access features that they — or in the Pixel’s case, Google — deem essential.