meditation
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ICYMI: Screaming down a magnetic levitation tube
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Hyperloop One is a concept design to put a high-speed transit line between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, cutting the commute time from two hours to 12 minutes. If the 760MPH speed frightens you, perhaps you'd be more interested in Zero Motorcycles' new lineup, which increased range to 200 miles in one charge. If you're interested in Simple Habit the meditation app, that's here, and a news story from Canada on its immigration website crash is here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Simple Habit guided meditation app is now on Android and the web
If you're desperately in need to de-stress this morning (I can't imagine why) and you're an Android user, there's a new app out there worth checking out. Simple Habit started out as an iOS meditation and mindfulness app with a Netflix-style model -- after signing up for a weekly or monthly subscription, you get access to a huge library of guided meditation exercises. Now, that app is available on Android as well as the web.
Simple Habit aims to de-stress you with 5-minute meditations
Yunha Kim knows a lot about stress. She founded Locket, an app that put ads on the Android lock screen, which was eventually bought up by the shopping app Wish. Starting and running her own company, naturally, was a stressful proposition, so she turned to meditation as a way to center herself. Now, she's hoping to do the same for everyone with a new iPhone app called Simple Habit. It offers five-minute guided meditation sessions that you can do from practically anywhere, each targeted for specific situations.
These Japanese smartglasses are trying to teach me zen
I'm on the subway, my head tilted downward to face my phone. I blink five times, I put my hand on my tummy to "feel" my breathing. To casual onlookers, I look suspicious as hell (or about to cry), but I'm meditating -- so please leave me alone. Yes, there's no lack of meditation apps on both iTunes and Google Play, but a wearable that monitors your body's reactions and offers feedback is rarer. JINS Meme is a pair of Japanese-made smartglasses that look pretty much like normal glasses. I've trained with them and run with them, and now the latest app for the specs is trying helping me to chill the eff out.
A virtual reality game that's good for you and scientist-approved
It's fitting that the morning I first experienced Deep VR at the Tribeca Film Festival, billed by its creators as a meditative virtual-reality experience, I was already approaching peak anxiety levels. At 9:30 a.m., I was behind schedule (for reasons beyond my control) and huddled in a claustrophobic installation space made all the more overwhelming by various camera crews and the booming soundtrack of a heartbeat from the far corner. So when I first strapped the HTC Vive onto my head and a snug-fitting sensor around my diaphragm, I braced for the worst, assuming I'd be hit with a wicked bout of VR sickness. How wrong I was.
JINS smartglasses swap fitness advice for meditation guidance
In a bid to get you focusing at work, Japan-based JINS has announced a trio of companion apps for its Meme smartglasses. The focus isn't on posture or workouts this time, but literally focus -- by monitoring your eyes. These are the same glasses we've been using at the gym, but this time the apps tap into the high-tech sensors found on the nose bridge. Specifically, three-point electrooculography (EOG) sensors that can pick up minute electromagnetic changes from your eyes, detecting when you blink without any cameras involved. The company cites scientific research that shows that frequency and intensity of our blinks represent whether we're concentrating or not, and JINS has built three different apps that track that. Oh, and your posture, too. No slouching.
ICYMI: Smart measuring leggings, 3D-printed Adidas and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-421397{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-421397, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-421397{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-421397").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: LikeAGlove's new smart leggings that measure your body, then match you to the perfectly-fitted pair of jeans just went on pre-sale for $40. A new camera that reminds us of Lytro because of post-photo focusing abilities uses spider eyes as inspiration for its rig of 16 lenses with different focal lengths. But, it'll cost you at least $1,300. So soak that in for awhile. Meanwhile Adidas wants to 3D-print midsoles that are designed specifically for customer's foot contours.
Dear Veronica: Meditation for the masses
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-962843{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-962843, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-962843{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-962843").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Judging from the number of questions I've received on the topic, you guys are curious about ways to disconnect a little bit. Whether that means deleting social media from your devices on the weekends (like we discussed in a previous episode) or trying out a new app for meditation, we're all looking for some answers. This week, I'm welcoming onto the show Dan Harris, co-anchor of Nightline, the weekend edition of Good Morning America on ABC, and author of 10% Happier. In his high-stress job, he faced a lot of similar pressures, and turned to meditation to bring back some balance. It's not all crystals and incense, trust me. Keep sending those questions in to me via email, or by posting on social media using the hashtag #DearVeronica! See you next time.
ICYMI: A creepy mechanical centaur, flying R2-D2 and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-976485{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-976485, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-976485{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-976485").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: The nightmare-like genius of Theo Jansen's Strandbeest inspired a Segway-like inventor to get creepy with personal transport. Comic-Con attendees will of course see R2-D2; but this time, he'll also be flying overhead. And a new 3D-printed robot is inspired by a species of mussel to jump and bounce without breaking.
Zen out with Oceen's relaxing sounds and guided meditations
Oceen, free with in-app purchases, has all of the tranquil sounds that you expect with a relaxation app, plus guided relaxations to set your mind at ease. Only one guided meditation is available with the free version, which is disappointing. The App Store is saturated with relaxation apps and the meditation feature is what makes this worth the download. It would be nice to see at least two more guided relaxations available for free. The free "short break" relaxation walks you through the basics of meditation. I should note that the developers make a point of saying the relaxations are not the same as meditations, but as a 15 year practitioner of yoga, I can't tell the difference. There are 13 meditations available for purchase with prices that range anywhere from US$5.99 to $9.99. The length of each varies; some are a few minutes, while others are roughly 20 minutes. For $49.99, you can buy a yearly subscription that unlocks all of the app's relaxations and features. Each meditation comes with a free demo allowing you to try it out before you buy it. This almost makes up for the lack of free full mediations. Some of the demos are around three minutes in length, so you can get some of the benefit without purchasing the full relaxation. Oceen comes with only four relaxing sound. You can layer these sounds with the guided relaxations or listen to them on their own. I like this feature. It adds an extra dimension to the relaxation process and helps to cancel out any noisy distractions. In addition, you get four videos for free that also layer with the sounds and relaxations. There is a video of the sea, the beach, a fire and also one of sitting ducks – which I guess is relaxing to some people. I always find the videos associated with these apps to be a bit pointless. While I may want to listen to music or white noise in my downtime, I've never found staring at an image of water on my iPhone to be particularly tranquil. I'd rather the developer ditch the videos in the free version and add on more meditations and sounds. You do not need to purchase the full version of the app to unlock all of the sounds and videos. You can access all of them when you purchase an individual guided relaxation. For the most part, the app's effectiveness depends on whether or not you enjoy the voice of the meditation coach, Gwen Hoffman. That comes down to personal preference. I wasn't that impressed, but maybe you will be. As a free app, there's not much to Oceen. To get the full effect, you'll need to spring for some, if not all, of the in-app purchases.
Free Sleep Sounds - get some shut-eye or relax with this free app
Free Sleep Sounds (free!) joins a pretty crowded field of apps designed to help you sleep, relax or meditate. The app contains 25 well-recorded environments in stereo in categories like Ocean, Rivers and Streams, Wind, Fire, Birds and more. A unique feature is the ability to created blended mixes of any of up to six tracks, so you could hear wind along with the crickets. The app can run in the background. Free Sleep Sounds also shows you some nice images taken around the world to accompany the sounds. There is a sleep timer, and the tracks nicely fade out so they are not jarring. I tried Free Sleep Sounds with headphones as well as on a Bluetooth Stereo speaker, and found the audio quality quite good. Using this ad-supported app is easy enough, but it has the most intrusive and obnoxious ad placement I have seen in years. The screen bounces with notifications, and many of the ads are animated and distracting. It is the LAST thing I would want to see in an app designed to help me relax. If you look at the screen at all, anxiety replaces any soothing effects the soundscapes are designed to create. At times I wanted to throw my iPhone out the nearest window. The same developer offers a paid app that is actually a pretty good deal. While it is on sale for US$0.99, Sleep Sounds HQ offers more than 600 relaxing sounds. Some of the categories are a bit weird, like Industrial and Trains; not the kinds of soundscapes I would think of first if I needed to get some rest. Still, there is so much to choose from and the lack of ads makes Sleep Sounds HQ seem the better deal. I would suggest trying the free app and see if you like the sounds and features; if you do, migrate to the paid version. I am sure that was the developer's intention in the first place... My favorite sleep/relaxation app is still Naturespace. It's a free app with a lot of in-app purchases, but the audio is first rate, and the free version has some great soundscapes. Naturespace is designed for headphone listening and has special settings for earbud listeners, but it sounds fine over external speakers. Sleep Sounds and Naturespace both provide natural sounds, which I prefer to synthesized soundscapes. Free Sleep Sounds requires iOS 6 or later. It's not universal, and it is optimized for the iPhone 5.
Go tent camping now in Wurm Online
In a game that allows you to carve out a swath of wilderness and create a home, it seems strange that Wurm Online previously lacked anything between the "sleep on the hard ground" and "set up shop in a full cabin" territory. Well that's all changed thanks to the addition of tents, including a newbie variant that is handed out at the start. Wurm's also updated the game to include timber frame walls for houses. The team spent some time in this week's news post to talk about upcoming projects, including a pavilion-style tent, progress with collision detection on bridges, a meditation animation, and the Xanadu release. [Thanks to Tom for the tip!]
The Summoner's Guidebook: Performing under pressure in League of Legends
"Clutch" is one of those universal skills that I never really developed. In ranked or tournament play or any time when the outcome of a League of Legends match "matters," the ability to perform under fire can make a huge difference. But I am not one of those people who can claim mastery in this skill. I mostly rely on improving my overall play level, which naturally improves my ability to play under stress. However, coping with stress in tough situations is important. If I'm in a bad situation and my play gets worse, that's no good even if my skill level is high. I want to step up when the chips are down, not struggle.
Productivity Tip: Take a break
In the past couple of installments of TUAW's productivity tips, I've discussed a number of ways to keep you focused on your tasks. Managing those tasks will be the next big-picture topic, but this week I wanted to keep it short and simple, just like your breaks should be. Yes, you should take breaks, especially if you are a knowledge worker and/or you have to focus on tasks which require a great deal of problem solving. There's a lot of evidence that shows our brains need frequent rest in order to function at their best, so don't skimp on the breaks even if you are worried about a deadline. Why is this important? Aside from how you should really be taking a vacation, your brain can suffer from decision fatigue. While you're busy processing your inbox or responding to emails, your brain is getting quite the electro-chemical workout. As with any of our organs, after a while it tires out. Just like a physical workout, you should allow for a cool-down period to let your brain rejeuvinate itself. At AOL we're quite fond of naps, too. Timing breaks As I discussed in my article on timers, you should aim to take a quick break after a period of intense focus. Pomodoros are set up for this purpose, giving you 25 minutes of task time plus a five-minute break. I've read of 90-minute work sessions followed by a 30-minute break time (which allows time for a walk or run or yoga), but ultimately you'll have to experiment and see what works for you as a person and in your job. I like to take frequent breaks. The key to timing your breaks is definitely scheduling them around those periods of intensity. Again, your brain gets worn out after too many decisions in a fixed amount of time -- let that thing cool off! The time of your break should be somewhat proportional to the period of intensity, however. Five minutes after 25 makes sense, as does 30 after 90. Taking an hour nap after 20 minutes of email is a bit much, however. Types of breaks Now, do you need to rest or do you need to re-energize? One allows things to cool down, while the other is more like a warm up. Often we just need to rest our eyes, or just stretch to shake off the tightness of sitting for too long. For short breaks I tend to make sure I have a bottle of water, then go gaze out a window for a few minutes. Or, since I work at home, I'll go spend a few minutes washing dishes (a very peaceful activity, honestly). These short breaks help refocus you later, and serve as a brief cool-down for your brain. Be careful not to overdo it; tidying your desk or going to the break room might seem like a quick rest, yet you're still making all sorts of decisions, leading again to decision fatigue. A better short break fully disengages your brain for a bit. Staring is actually good. Stretching is even better, and there are lots of exercises you can do, even in a cubicle. The more you allow your body to work, the better it will be able to assist your brain. Anything that literally "takes your mind off of things" is good, which means social media checking is likely bad as you're likely to see things which make you angry as well as happy on any given day. Naps are excellent, but most people don't use them correctly. Here's a great primer, and here are some tips from the Mayo clinic. I have found that a 25-minute or less nap has made me feel more energized in the afternoons if I am not already sleep deprived. If I haven't had enough sleep that day already, I tend to get a headache later and feel sleepier. That said, naps can be very effective when done properly. I have found a short walk or run, or even time with a Kinect game, helps the afternoon doldrums significantly. A few jumping jacks or standing on your head can also get the blood flowing. Apps to help For simple breaks, I like to use Due's timers and have set a 5, 10, and 15 minute timer as default break times. Siri can do this in a pinch as well. For naps I use Naturespace (which has a timer), or Pzizz, a longtime Mac app which was ported to iOS some time ago. Pzizz is, in my opinion, the best napping app; it guides you into a restful state much like hypnosis, can be set for various times, and can be configured in numerous ways while still using a set of sounds and tones which help lull you to rest. Other TUAWers enthusiastically recommend Andrew Johnson's apps and audiofiles for guided rest periods. Meditation is a good rest plan, and we've already mentioned a few apps for this. I'm currently using Mind, which is as simple a meditation timer as you're likely to find. There are also a number of exercise apps on the store, including some niche products like Healthy Break, which adds simple stretches to a break timer. I haven't had much success with these, as I tend to look up things online, learn them, and have a few I do over and over again. It's best to discuss your options with your doctor or trainer (if you're lucky enough to have a trainer). Conclusion While you can push through a day with no breaks, you will wind up making worse decisions as time wears on, and as those decisions wear you out. As your productivity and quality of work decrease, you become less efficient. The best way to combat this: get plenty of rest to begin with, and allow yourself breaks through the day. By setting timers for breaks and having a collection of short activities to break to, you'll set yourself up to stay productive longer than before, with better results.
Spiritual Guidance: From Power Word: Solace to Power Infusion, the latest on holy and discipline priests
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen dabbles in shadow. Since its introduction, the new level 45 priest talent, Power Word: Solace, has undergone several changes. First, it had the percentage of mana it returned per cast reduced from 2% to 1.5%. A little over a week after that, the percentage was buffed back up to 2% while the cast time was simultaneously nerfed from 1.5 seconds to 2 seconds. Then just last week, the cast time was lowered back to 1.5 seconds, while the amount of mana returned was lowered to a mere .7% per cast. Pretty crazy for one little spell, right? As you'd expect, a lot of discussion has come up over the changes, with one thread on the official forums leading it all. In it, the original poster asks for an explanation behind the nerfs, saying that even though he hated using Power Word: Solace with a fiery passion, the talent was necessary for healing priests. Ghostcrawler (Lead Systems Developer Greg Street) responded soon after, explaining that the developers don't want Power Word: Solace to feel like the only option healing priests have, and they will nerf it until priests consider Mindbender and From Darkness, Comes Light viable alternatives.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: A look at the level 90 priest talents
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers the healing side of things for discipline and holy priests. She also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. On my journey to level 90, the new priest talent Divine Star was what I found myself looking forward to the most. When the ability had first been announced at BlizzCon 2012, a few commenters suggested that the spell would probably behave just like Prismatic Barrier, an ability from League of Legends. Prismatic Barrier allows your character (specifically the character Lux) to throw her wand to a targeted location, shielding any allies standing in the wands path, then return to your character. When the wand returns, it returns to Lux's current location, as opposed to the location where she was standing when she first threw it, thus allowing you the potential to heal several different players in the two paths of the wand. The prospect of being able to do this in WoW had a huge appeal to me because it required a certain degree of raid awareness that went beyond just staying out of the fire. Using it to its full potential would mean knowing where everyone in your raid was and positioning yourself in optimal locations to get the best of it. In League of Legends, these types of abilities are called skillshots because they require good aim and timing to be effective. I loved the idea of having that in WoW.
Darkfall alignment changes incoming
Alignment in Darkfall has long been a sore spot for the game's devoted playerbase. Aventurine's original implementation allowed for players to farm one another at will and basically offered no real penalty for doing so. According to a new activity report on the Darkfall Epic Blog, all that is about to change. Aventurine's Tasos Flambouras states that "alignment changes are going in. Enough with killing other players, this won't improve your alignment any more." So just how does a bad Agonian man (or Mahirim) lose that negative alignment? The devs are implementing a new mechanic centered around Chaos Churches where players can "repent their negative alignment away." Said churches are located in the game's neutral cities (i.e., those not aligned with any of the title's warring races). The activity report doesn't go into a whole lot of detail, but Tasos does indicate that there will be a spotlight feature dedicated to the new mechanic in the near future. Aside from alignment, this week's report also hints at fishing-related modifications, specifically those made to player ships to allow for scalable catches based on the safety of the waters, as well as additional protection against attacks from player swimmers. Finally, there's a bit more info about meditation tweaks and a mention of increased drop rates for books, scrolls, and attribute consumables.
Darkfall activity report hints at game-changing expansion
It's been pretty quiet in Darkfall land since the first of the year, and whether that's because the devs have been hunting wabbits or hard at work on the game's next patch is a question that is addressed in the latest Aventurine activity report. There's a new patch in the works, tentatively scheduled for sometime next week, and it's bringing "significant changes" to the offline leveling system that was introduced late last year. How significant? For starters, additional skills will be available for meditation and the overall gains will see a substantial increase according to Aventurine's Tasos Flambouras. Aside from the patch, the dev team continues to forge ahead with Darkfall's next expansion, and it is shaping up to be (quite literally) a world-changer. Flambouras outlines the team's high-level approach which "involves a complete overhaul and dramatic streamlining of the world and complete redistribution of all its features," as well as a "completely level playing field for all players." Details on these sweeping statements are vague at this point, but Darkfall will clearly be undergoing some huge changes when the expansion debuts in the second quarter of 2011. Finally, the activity report touches on long-standing issues like the grind, character progression, endgame content, and the alignment system. If that's not enough for you, there's also a hint about a drop rate increase on books, scrolls, and stat potions, leading us to conclude that big things are afoot in the world of Agon. Stay tuned.
The Light and How to Swing It: The relationship between intellect and spirit
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Every Sunday, Chase Christian invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. Feel free to email me with any questions you want answered. "Stack intellect." All you had to do was ask any question about holy paladins in Wrath, and you'd receive that infamous answer. Intellect was the solution to all of our problems, and it was through intellect that we conquered our corner of the healing game. Intellect allowed us to cast indefinitely without ever running our mana wells dry, and intellect allowed us to cast our most powerful heal without even a moment's pause. It was a matter of fact. Holy paladins would simply overheal in massive amounts, and nobody cared. I suppose intellect was only half of the problem. Holy Light clearly scaled too well as our gear improved. It was meant to be expensive but powerful, a necessary evil for dire situations. Once the scare of running out of mana was debunked, there was no reason not to use the most potent tool in our arsenal. While the developers may still blame the imbalances in Icecrown Citadel on the extra tiers of gear they had to add to accommodate heroic raid encounters, when an errant DPS class' performance scaled out of control, they were quickly reined in. Holy paladins' power was left unchecked because we were merely healers. The hammer would drop on us in Cataclysm, anyway.
Darkfall offline skilling coming this week
Ready for offline skilling in Darkfall? Ready or not, it's on the way with this week's patch, according to Aventurine's latest activity report. In addition to the hotly debated advancement mechanic, the devs are also tweaking the sea fortress schedule and updating auto-stacking on equipped items. The activity report, written by Aventurine's Tasos Flambouras, also makes mention of several important pieces of player feedback that the devs are working to address. Balance issues brought on by bunnyhoppers, one-man clans declaring war, and additional types of craftable ships are all on the internal discussion table. Flambouras also uses the activity report to clue us in to the importance of player feedback. "We're not talking about long-term hopes when we say we're looking into something or working on an issue. If we talk about it, there are developers assigned to it and community liaisons following up on progress," he writes.
