Published 14:35 05 Oct 2017 GMT

New study reveals your favourite domestic gadget

In a world of autoplay, infinite scroll and artificial intelligence, innovation is king. Our technological progress allows technological progress itself to speed up - in a continuous, eye-widening, face-flapping arc of acceleration. What ensues is a kaleidoscopic carnival of virtual reality, machine learning and increasingly isolated yet feverishly interconnected individuals. Call me a traditionalist, but the thought of sitting alone consuming on-demand content isn’t appealing. For many people, this vacuum of solitude is bliss. But for me, there is something inexplicably comforting about knowing thousands of other people are tuned in at the same time as you. Furthermore, I’m not alone. A new study has revealed that, despite the popularity of smartphones, laptops and tablets, the television is our favourite domestic gadget. This might seem incongruous with the increase of personal tech, with the innumerable pixels illuminating the faces of millennials in darkened rooms, but it is the television - the commanding oblong of shared enjoyment - which came out on top. In fact, 42 per cent of the 5,000 British people surveyed said they couldn’t live without their TV. In second place with 37 per cent was, somewhat predictably, the smartphone. Meanwhile, raising questions over what counts as a gadget and whether one could feasibly afford to eat out every night, only 33 per cent said their fridge was their most indispensable domestic gadget. With 31 per cent, the laptop came fourth, followed by that quintessentially British creature comfort, the kettle. More than a third of respondents stated that they suffered separation anxiety when peeled away from their gadgets and one in 20 stated that they take their kettle on holiday (imagine the pictures). While this seems strange, almost one in 20 fly away with their iron. This means that around one in 10 Brits go on holiday with an iron or a kettle, unless, of course, there is a considerable overlap between the two - which hurts my head almost as much as it would weigh down a suitcase. Weirdness aside, this is a triumph for a cornerstone of consumer electronics and living room furniture arrangement. Of course, the addition of on-demand services has modernised the television. “With technology continuing to improve the at-home viewing experience, it’s easy to see why the TV has come out on top,” states Matt Walburn, the Brand and Communications Director of Currys PC World who commissioned the research. However, it has also dragged the humble box towards a scary new “smart” world where objects watch you - and towards the aforementioned vacuum of solitude. Regardless, a gadget from the early 1900s created by a number of black-and-white inventors is still our absolute favourite. Routed in togetherness rather than individualism, the simultaneous enjoyment of media clearly still holds a place in our hearts. "There ought to be a feature," states a music fan on the Spotify community page, "where I can click on a friend and listen in real time to whatever they're listening to." Well, congratulations. You’ve just invented the radio.

uncategorised5 min(s) read

Published 10:59 11 Jan 2018 GMT

Is smartphone use slowly changing our brains?

Tom Wood

It's hard to think of a form of technology more ubiquitous than a smartphone. According to the 11th annual Cisco Visual Networking Index, by 2021, more people will have access to smartphones than running water or bank accounts. Millennials are often admonished by the older generation for their smartphone addiction. If you believe the word of a bunch of grouchy seniors, Apple is as intellectually poisonous as Mao's China and iPhones are about as dangerous as crack cocaine. Typical vitriol from the same silver-haired crowd who text at a rate of three characters a minute... right? Well, maybe not. As it turns out, smartphones really have changed the way we think, in ways you might never have realised. Even the simple luxury of having Google available at all times has had a profound effect on our collective neural development. So should we blame Steve Jobs for the decline or our mental faculties? Or have smartphones actually benefited our brains? One of the most interesting aspects of smartphones, in psychological terms, is the sheer amount of attention that smartphone users lavish upon them. According to a study published by the Public Library of Science in 2015, 23 adults, aged between 18 and 33, spent an average of five hours a day on their phone. This time spent was then broken up into a total of 85 daily sessions. When the participants were quizzed on their smartphone usage, they consistently underestimated themselves by half. Our phones employ a number of visual and audio cues to condition us, just like Pavlov's salivating dogs, to stop what we are doing in reality and pay attention to networks and cyberspace. Every flash of the screen, every blinking light or text tone or buzzing vibration is a way of diverting our attention. It's got to the point where we are now caught in tic behaviour: always expectant, always checking and rechecking our phones. For some people, this anxiety has graduated into a full-blown phobia - one that's so debilitating that medical professionals have been forced to sit up and take notice. [[instagramwidget||www.instagram.com/p/BbcXpsRnd-x]] "Nomophobia" refers to the irrational fear of being out of cell phone contact, or being away from our phones for an extended period of time. Symptoms consist of respiratory alterations, trembling, sweats, perspiration, disorientation and nervousness. A survey conducted by SecurEnvoy showed that that 77 per cent of young people reported low-level anxiety when they were separated from their mobile phones. According to the same report, psychological predictors in someone suffering from this phobia were attributes such as "self-negative views, younger age, low esteem and self-efficacy, high extroversion or introversion, impulsiveness and sense of urgency and sensation seeking." So smartphones are clearly addictive and demand our attention, like an irresistibly cute puppy pawing at us from the floor, which has a knock-on effect on our concentration. But are phones also affecting our memory? Apparently, the fact that we have more-or-less unlimited access to search engines means that our powers of recall and cognition have been worsened. It's not that we're getting stupid: we're just more likely to devote brainpower to the wording of our search enquiry than to actually solving the problem ourselves. According to a 2011 paper, experiments showed that people who have internet access made less effort to remember things. It used to be that we would rely on peers or relations to recall information for us, and if stumped, we could consult experts, or so-called "trans-active memory partners." But now, with smartphones providing us with unlimited internet access, we have no need for human interaction when dealing with pesky conundrums. If we want to know the name of an actor in a movie we saw 10 years ago, who invented the vacuum cleaner, or how to spell the word "bureaucracy", all we have to do is consult our magic answer machine. As co-author Betsy Sparrow put it: "We are becoming symbiotic with our computer tools. The experience of losing our internet connection becomes more and more like losing a friend. We must remain plugged in to know what Google knows." [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ4o1N4ksyQ]] Phones are even beginning to change our brains on a biological level. Recently, researchers from the Institute of Neuroinformatics at the University of Zurich have used electroencephalography to investigate and compare the brain activity of smartphone users and non-smartphone users. These EEG readings revealed an unexpected difference in the action potential and resting potential of motor neurons; particularly those related to hand and finger control. Based on electrical readings delivered via diodes attached to participants' heads, smartphone users had more EEG brain activity in response to mechanical touch on the thumb, index and middle fingers: the fingers most often used in conjunction with touch screens. So is there any hope left for the human race? Or are we simply destined to spend the rest of our lives staring at a screen? Well, phone use isn't necessarily a bad thing. In moderation, smartphone use can have a positive impact. Experts call this the "Goldilocks spot". According to researchers Andrew Przybylski and Netta Weinstein, a survey of 120,000 British 15-year-olds found that moderate tech usage correlated with positive mental health. There was only a negative correlation for very heavy users: more than five hours a day in total. We can't uninvent smartphones: the technology is here to stay. But we can train ourselves to relinquish bad habits and use them more responsibly. Learn to put your phone down or leave it in your pocket, maybe even switch it off for an hour or so every day. Because there's a time and a place for Whatsapp and Instagram, and sometimes you just need a few seconds to breathe, and the resolve to ignore the puppy begging for attention. Featured illustration by Egarcigu

uncategorised2 min(s) read

Published 10:58 13 Oct 2017 GMT

Researchers reveal the sneaky thing women are doing in homes all over the world

Tom Wood

You have probably heard it said that you don't truly know someone until you live with them. After all, most of us are perfectly capable of faking good manners and charm over the course of an hour long dinner date, but covering up some of our more irritating habits over the long term is a pointless and nigh on impossible task. Inevitably, laziness kicks in and we tend to revert to type; leaving the toilet seat up, failing to take out the bins and generally leaving scenes of utter devastation in our wake as lurch from room to room like some one man wrecking ball. Living with others; either friends or a potential life partner, requires compromise on all sides if you are to have a happy home life, rather than a tour de force of passive aggression culminating in the bin being emptied into your bed after months of siege. We'd all rather avoid the carnage, wouldn't we? Of course, many of us learn these skills of adaptation and compromise at college, when we thrust into the unknown with people we have never met before; it is then that we can get all the milk-stealing, fridge raiding and washing up failures out of the way, before we end up living with a significant other. As the winter months draw in and the leaves fall off the trees, so too the temperature falls, leaving many of us poor souls shivering in our own homes, no matter how many layers we wear, nor how fur-lined our improbably expensive slippers. Now, speaking personally, I do not do well in an empty house. Like some sort of unfortunate lab specimen, I wither and slow down to a snail's pace, unable to function as I would in more temperate climes. Perhaps I am not alone, because new research has found that the temperature of the house is an issue that a third of couples disagree on. More astonishingly still, the study found that four in 10 women go rogue, and, unbeknownst to their partner, turn the heating up on the sly. Dastardly! Picture the scene. You're curled up on the sofa watching some Christmas blockbuster or another - shivering, obviously, but determined to outlast the bleak midwinter without sending your energy bills through the roof. Freezing, but slightly smug as you imagine the incremental savings you're making by resisting the urge to adjust the thermostat, your brief reverie is interrupted as your girlfriend stands up suddenly. "Where are you going?" you ask, a little startled. "Oh... Just.. The toilet" she replies, with a reassuring smile. Imagine your chagrin then, when, returning suspiciously quickly, she sits down next to you and pretends not to notice as the temperature of the flat creeps suspiciously up over the coming minutes. You shouldn't hold it against her, though, because a separate study has found that women's hands are on average three degrees colder than men when exposed to cold. Science: fixing relationship disputes in 2017.

uncategorised5 min(s) read

Published 22:45 06 Jan 2018 GMT

10 Inventions from the last decade that millennials couldn't live without

Tom Wood

In this high tech age where kids as young as eight or nine have some kind of social media account, it's easy to take a lot of modern inventions for granted. We've become so used to simply incorporating the latest app or software update into our lives that we barely remember what life was like before them. If you think this is an exaggeration, just look through this list of 10 inventions and innovations from the last decade and tell yourself - honestly - which ones you could cut out of your life.

1. Uber

Maybe it's just because I live in a city where owning a car is actually more expensive than paying rent, but nearly everyone I know has used Uber at least once in their lifetime. In fact, Uber has become so popular that the word is now pretty much a verb in its own right. Missed your last bus home? Uber it. Too drunk to find your way to the train station? Uber it. Didn't want to be the designated driver this week? Uber it.

2. Whatsapp

Before the days of iMessaging and Facebook Messenger, I used to get through my pay-as-you-go credit on my Samsung flip phone within a matter of days. Now, however, all you need is a decent amount of mobile data on your contract and you can Whatsapp anyone to your heart's content. Admittedly, it has an annoying habit of crashing every now and then, but it's still the primary method of communicating for most people - especially those who are sending messages between countries.

3. Airbnb

Speaking of different countries - remember how expensive it used to be to take a holiday? If you wanted to stay in the city center of the place you were visiting, you had to cough up hundreds of dollars in order to avoid staying in anything that wasn't a one-star youth hostel. Now, however, you can get an authentic experience staying in someone's second home for a fraction of the cost of a top hotel. And, really, who needs a complimentary breakfast or some fancy origami-shaped towels when you've literally got a whole apartment to yourself that's within walking distance of everywhere you want to visit?

4. Snapchat

Sharing experiences of your travels - or, you know, just your #vegan dinner - got a whole lot better once Snapchat came about. It's basically the simplest form of keeping in touch with someone. Back in ye olde days, people had to send a carrier pigeon (or a text message or whatever) and a detailed description of their lives to the ones they cared about in order to keep them updated on what was going on. Now, you just take a dumb picture of your dog and whack in an avocado emoji and boom, job done.

5. iPad

For a lot of people, the release of the iPad was the "wow this really is the 21st-century" moment. We already had smartphones and e-readers and laptops, but the iPad basically combined all those things into one magical tablet. And, while not everybody has one, they're still one of the most iconic pieces of tech from the last decade.

6. Spotify

I'm just about old enough to remember the days before MP3 players, in which you had to basically make a mixtape for your walkman if you ever wanted to listen to your favorite songs without constantly swapping CDs over. When MP3 files did eventually come about, though, you then had to fork out loads of money to buy them or rely on some sketchy pirating site which would inevitably give your computer three billion viruses. But now we have Spotify, meaning that, not only can you listen to almost any song at any time, you can also discover new stuff that you would never have come across on the radio.

7. Fingerprint ID

All I'm going to say about this one is that I no longer have to worry about my kid sister stealing my phone and wearing down the battery by watching a ton of YouTube videos. It has other uses, too, of course, but this one is why I'm grateful for it.

8. Instagram

Want a place where you can see millions of pictures of cute animals, stalk your favorite celebrities, and indulge your own narcissism by posting 14 selfies that you simply had to take because the lighting was so good? Yeah, of course you do. We all do. And that's why Instagram is amazing.

9. Banking apps

Ok, before you pipe up and say that this is a really boring invention on a list of cool ones, consider this scenario: what if, every time you had to pay back your friend for that pizza, or transfer your dad that money he lent you for the rent, you had to go to the bank? Or write out a cheque? Or go to the bank because the cheque you'd written somehow got lost, and so you had to do it all over again? Moving money around has become so simple now, and it's probably doing a lot of good with helping people keep track of their finances, too. So it deserves some recognition.

10. 4G

Obviously, all of the above are super cool inventions. But barely any of them would be anything without 4G. The super quick internet connection has revolutionized the way we communicate and surf the web, and is often faster than WiFi. We used to think 3G was good, but it's got nothing on this.

If you can honestly say that you can get through a week - no, a day - without somehow utilizing one of these inventions, then you're probably in a minority amongst your peers. Plus, you're missing out on loads of good Snapchats.

uncategorised4 min(s) read

Published 15:15 06 Mar 2018 GMT

Science has discovered something amazing about couples who binge watch TV together

Tom Wood

You know, most relationship advice I read these days seems to be obsessed with forcing couples off the couch and into the great unknown, and I can't for the life of me think why. Ask any agony aunt to diagnose the issues inherent in your relationship, and odds are that she'll recommend you unglue your backsides from the sofa, switch off the TV and go outside. You need to grab it with both hands and wring the fun out of it like water from a wet towel. Unless you're both skydiving, rock-climbing and kayaking together, it seems the experts will tell you that your relationship goals are sorely lacking. What a load of nonsense. This is just my personal opinion of course, and I'm no kind of Casanova, but some of the best times I've ever had in relationships have been when we're both curled up and snug in a comfy chair, swaddled in blankets, binging some boxset together and eating fast food. So what if it's not glamorous or adventurous, it's what we like to do, so why shouldn't we? And that's before even getting into the whole "Netflix and chill" issue. I've been advocating the couch potato and TV lifestyle to other couples for years, and I've always been shot down in the past. But now it seems that science has actually proven me right after all, and empirically determined that there are relationship benefits for couples who enjoy binge-watching TV together. A study entitled "Let’s stay home and watch TV: The benefits of shared media use for close relationships", which was recently published in the Journal of Personal and Social Relationships, claims that spending time watching TV with your nearest and dearest could actually prove profoundly beneficial to your relationship. Dr. Sarah Gomillion of the University of Aberdeen, in collaboration with colleagues Kerri Kawakami and Shira Gabriel, surveyed 259 participants who were in relationships that had lasted 16 months on average. The college student couples were asked to detail their mutual friends and the social groups they share, what media they enjoyed consuming together, and their overall satisfaction and commitment to their relationship. The Guinea pigs who boasted better-quality relationships also reported that they had more friends in common, and that they enjoyed more shared media together. However, these benefits were boosted even further when those same couples didn't have as many friends in common. This means that, for those pairs, watching TV together was a useful bonding mechanism when couples didn’t share friends or social groups. Basically, when you lack people in common, you can compensate with media that you mutually enjoy, and binge watching TV is the most efficient method of achieving this. [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbdBoveX4SY]] A second study examined another 131 college students who were in relationships, and focused on their shared friendships. Approximately half of the 131 participants were asked to discuss "Friends they share with their partners, including the activities they engaged in with mutual friends and friends of their partner with whom they had grown close.” The rest focused on the friends that they and their partner didn't share, and then both groups were surveyed about their motivations to share TV viewing in conjunction with their relationship satisfaction. For the participants who felt like they shared fewer social connections (in contrast to those who boasted many), sharing media benefited the relationship more and brought them closer together. The paper's abstract notes: "Sharing a social identity is a key component of interdependence in romantic relationships. In particular, sharing a social network of friends and family members with a romantic partner enhances relationship quality, but maintaining an integrated social network is not always possible. When people lack a shared circle of friends with their partners, sharing media like TV shows, books, and movies with partners may compensate for this deficit and restore closeness ... Our findings showed that when people lack shared friends with their romantic partners, sharing media predicts greater relationship quality and people become motivated to share media with their partners. These studies show that shared media can enhance interdependence and allow people to compensate for lacking a shared social network in the real-world." However, before you invest in a subscription for another 10 or so streaming services, bear in mind that the above study, while focusing on television, only really proves that sharing enjoyment of something with your partner can bring you closer together when you don't have friends in common. But you could be enjoying any activity together: metal detecting, mini golf, juggling or historical reenactment - your hobbies could be as random as can be. But if you both enjoy them, that will make you happier and more communicative. So if someone is nagging you to go for a jog or an expensive dinner date, you can take comfort in the fact that your TV viewing is actually justified. Happy watching!

innovation3 min(s) read

Published 10:22 30 Apr 2024 GMT

New life-sized robot helper that can do household tasks and even cook leaves people divided

Asiya Ali

A human-like AI robot, that is eerily good at mimicking movements, has sparked a debate among social media users.

A Chinese tech company named Astribot has unveiled its latest advancement, which is powered by artificial intelligence.

The Shenzhen-based organization has been developing the robot, known as S1, for years and plans to release it commercially later this year.

According to Astribot, S1 is much faster and more powerful than your average human.

Watch the demonstration video below:

The humanoid can carry out movements with a top speed of 10 meters per second, and hold a payload of 10 kg per arm. For comparison, an adult male can reach speeds of roughly seven meters per second.

In a demonstration video shared to show S1's abilities, the robot is seen performing mindblowing tasks such as repairing a piece of furniture, flipping a sandwich in a frying pan, pouring drinks, folding clothes, and operating a vacuum cleaner.

The clip highlights how technology has advanced so much that these robots can become the house employees of the future.

Many people were left fascinated by S1, stating that human-like AI robots should only be introduced to perform daily tasks.

One user wrote: "Yes. This is what robots need to be. Not looking or behaving like a human. They are great at this kind of thing," and another agreed, noting: "Exactly, gets bit creepy if they are too human-like."

"They should look like friendly machines we can get home and can trust. that's the crux of it which apparently many robotics companies seem not to get for some reason," they explained.

A third exclaimed: "HOLY S**T this is incredible," while a fourth added: "Probably the best one I have seen in terms of speed and dexterity. Really cool."

GettyImages .jpg VnAG

The new human-like AI robot has sparked a debate among social media users. Credit: NurPhoto / Getty

Meanwhile, others expressed fear toward the invention.

"While I do love this, we’re looking at a future where the poor/unskilled compete for a dwindling number of jobs driving wages downward," someone said.

Hospitality tech company Loman AI spoke out about robots in commercial kitchens and revealed that it will become a common sight in the industry.

“New improvements in robotics, AI, and how robots see and understand their environment, let them do complicated cooking tasks safely,” it said, per News.com.au. “The cost of these robots is going down, making it easier for more restaurants to start using them.”

The company believes that soon, robot chefs will be able to create their own recipes.

GettyImages .jpg OoD

Astribot plans to release S1 commercially within the year. Credit: Tomohiro Ohsumi / Getty

S1 "can learn, think and work like people," adding: "They can use human tools and equipment to help people complete boring, difficult or dangerous tasks," per Astribot.

The site also notes that the parent company, Stardust Intelligence, was founded by Lai Jie, who also worked with Tencent Robotics Laboratory, Baidu, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.