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Hugging this pulsating cushion apparently suppresses your anxiety
Fufuly is yet another anxiety-reducing cushion from Yukai Engineering, featuring a gentle rhythmical pulsation as the main therapeutic tool.
FAA planning to let you use your gadgets in flight
I know those flight attendants are just doing their job, but I've always resented being made to "turn off" my iPhone and iPad during pre-flight announcements. Ever since Mythbusters disproved it, I've never believed that there was a problem between my iPad's wireless connection and the airplane's signaling (especially in Airplane Mode, which is what it's for, right?), and I've always secretly suspected that turning things off was just a ploy to make me rewatch those safety instructions yet again. Now, finally, it looks like the FAA is ready to relax those rules, after another report saying that there are no issues between consumer wireless devices, and airplane tools. The regulations themselves date back to the 1960s, when wireless devices were indeed very different, and it's about time these rules were laid to rest. Note, however, that the report doesn't mention actual phone calls -- this change, if made, would only be about turning devices on and off, not full wireless interaction. Certainly, there are good reasons to keep flight passengers quiet and paying attention during pre-flight announcements, and if that's what this is all about, then they should say that. But the "wireless interference" story has always been bunk, and hopefully, if this report is finalized, we should see the FAA turn the rule around officially in a few months. [via @martinvars]
CES: HeartMath's Inner Balance helps you find your center
HeartMath is a company that's been dealing with emotional health and stress relief for several years. While I don't go in for measuring one's emotional state with a gadget, I have to say that visiting HeartMath's booth here at CES 2013 was very disarming. They sat me down, and plugged a clip on my ear that was connected to an iPhone. This is HeartMath's new Inner Balance device, an iPhone-enabled heart rate variability detector that works in conjunction with HeartMath's app to try and reach some sort of emotional center. There is some science here. The ear clip does monitor heart rate information (although accuracy can't really be expected from a measurement like that). When you begin a "session," you're asked to choose your current mood from a wheel of smiley faces. The app then goes into a "breathing" mode and displays a graphic meant to help you breathe easier and relax. As time goes on, the app tracks a few status figures from your body, and fills in a circle with red, blue or green segments, depending on how much more relaxed your body is getting. My circle started red, and then went blue and green pretty quickly, as I focused on my breathing the iPhone's display. I must admit, despite what seemed a lot like pseudoscience to me (though HeartMath's rep shrugged off any suggestions that this was anything but legit), the breathing did seem to help calm me, even on the noisy floor of CES. Once I was calm, the display stayed green, showing that I was making progress. At the end of the session, I was asked to choose from another wheel of smilies, and I choose a face slightly more smiley, indicating that the device had worked. You can log a journal entry for each session, describing how you felt and how it worked. You can also track your progress over time, seeing if the device makes you feel calmer from point to point and session to session. Obviously, there are no guarantees here. Like so many other stress relief products, Inner Balance's effectiveness depends, more or less, on your belief in it. Personally, I get just as much stress relief out of a great iPhone game as I would an app like this, I think. But for the right person, Inner Balance could indeed help you to achieve the state it's named after. The device should be available in February, according to HeartMath, for a price of US$99.
The Soapbox: Using MMOs to relax and unwind
Every now and then, everyone needs to take a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to relax and unwind. The outside world can be loud, and the stresses of work and home life can add up quickly, so it helps to be able to switch off for a while. Some of us find relaxation in sitting down in front of the TV, others in zoning out to their favourite music, and an increasing number of people now wind down with computer games. I've personally found MMOs to be incredibly effective refuges from stress and anxiety, but until now I've never really thought about why that might be. Any game can provide a few hours of escape from the daily grind, but there's something special about MMOs that seems to make them more comforting places to be. Certainly MMOs are manufactured to give a sense of solid progress as you play, a fairness that the unpredictability of real life often can't deliver, but there has to be more to it. Do the music and ambient sounds in EverQuest II's virtual forests and glens produce the same reaction as walking through a real life wood? Likewise, does EVE Online trick us into slowing down, and is spending time in a virtual world just more appealing than slogging along in the real one? In this opinion piece, I look at some of the most relaxing areas and activities I've found in MMOs and try to figure out what makes them tick.
Server issues preventing iOS 5 updates for many - TUAW recommends a dose of zen
Sometimes, bad upgrades happen. Multiple users are reporting an error 3200 or 3002 when they try to upgrade to iOS 5, or getting a warning about ineligible upgrades. Some others are encountering other scary, silly, or exasperating iTunes hurdles on the path to bringing your iOS device into the latest firmware. The 3200 and 3002 errors are the most pernicious and widespread of the problems we've heard of today, and they're most likely due to Apple's servers being overwhelmed by literally millions of users all trying to upgrade at once. Personally, my 10.7.2 upgrade has had "About 3 hours left" now for, well, hours. You can spend the rest of the day tearing your hair out over this... or you can take a few deep breaths, take a break, put down the iPhone, and go do something else. The chances of everything resolving quickly over the next hour or two are slight. Relax, go outside, breathe some air, give thanks for your blessings, and try again later tonight or maybe tomorrow. iOS 5 and iCloud will still be there.
Biofeedback anti-stress pen: a great idea that's not so great at reducing stress
We've all known for quite some time that the pen is mightier than the sword, and now science has given us a pen that is mightier (sort of) than the stress of that TPS report your boss needs right now. A student at Delft University in The Netherlands will receive his PhD this week for research that led him to create just such a pen. Based upon the obvious premise that people play with their writing utensils when anxious, the pen uses motion sensors instead of more conventional means of stress detection. When the pen detects stressful movements, internal electromagnets provide corresponding counter-motion feedback to stop your nervous tics. During experiments, the pen did diminish test subjects' heart rates around five percent, but according to feedback none of them actually "felt" less stressed. The pen isn't yet commercially available, and given its dubious value as an actual stress reliever, we would look to more satisfying methods to aid the relaxation process.
The Five Rs of Character Revitalization
So I've talked recently about life as an RPer, and how we seem to interact with our characters just a bit differently. Sometimes, whether we like it or not, a certain character and their back story just grab hold and won't let go, and we find ourselves coming back again and again, just to see where the story leads. Of course, sometimes the character goes just the opposite way, and no matter what you do, your stories fall flat and you don't feel enthusiastic about logging on. It may be because you can't stand the character's personality anymore, it may be because your normal group of friends has hit an RP rut or even taken a break for a while themselves, it may be a variety of other things. Recently, Anna of Too Many Annas wrote a pretty awesome article about how to refresh a flagging RP character using 5 Rs: Relax and Rest, Reintegrate, Refresh the Character, Retcon, and Reroll/Reskin.What's sort of cool about this list is that you can even apply a lot of the principles to characters in general, even if you're a non-RPer. Anna's covered the RP angle pretty well, so I'll mostly focus on this other angle.
Keep your New Year's resolutions: a Holiday Gift Guide
Ahhhh, New Year's resolutions. You promise that you're going to take better care of yourself, improve your life, and then you usually break all of those resolutions by January 2nd. This year's going to be different, right? Here are some gift ideas to help you keep your 2009 New Year's resolutions. Weight Loss Unless you're the lean and mean marathon Mac man and real-life action figure Adam Engst, you could probably afford to lose some weight. Resolving to lose a few pounds is a classic New Year's resolution, and one that's very easy to break. Fortunately, there are some Mac and iPhone applications that can help you to stay the course: CalorieKing Nutrition & Exercise Manager for Mac OS X -- This US$45.00 application has a huge food database and makes it simple to drag-and-drop caloric information into a food diary. Exercise tracking and a weight log are included as well. BeFit -- TUAW covered the debut of this US$15.95 Mac application earlier this year, and it remains a good program for tracking what you put in your mouth. Remember, you can get BeFit at half-price if you're a current Jon Brown Designs customer.
USB-powered Animal Massager just might be a bit weird
Attention all trinket lovers, your next must-buy piece of garbage has just arrived. For years, mom 'n pop stores (not to mention Cracker Barrel Country Stores) have raked in serious profits selling wooden animals with round knobs for feet, but now those manual farm-derived masseurs are likely out of a job. The USB Animal Massager ups the ante in a serious way by getting powered by USB, meaning that you won't even have to lift a finger as you watch that dog, panda or pig go to town on your toes or aching back. $10 spells relief (and embarrassment, but whatever).[Thanks, Fanny]
MC Square X1 relaxation DAP heads to America
Considering just how little vacation we Americans manage to take (and how stressed that usually leaves us), the only thing surprising about MC Square's X1 relaxation DAP coming here is how long it has taken. Nevertheless, those interested in picking up a snazzy new DAP and rocking some totally unhip goggles need look no further, as this system utilizes lights and sounds to "induce positive brain waves" and purge those negative vibes from your noggin. As for the player itself, it offers up a paltry 512MB of internal storage space, a miniSD expansion slot, image / text file viewer, voice recorder and an oh-so-vital biorhythm indicator. 'Course, for $399.99, we'd probably just pick up a new console, call in sick, and look a lot less foolish when ridding ourselves of Earthly burdens.[Via ZatzNotFunny]
Vyro Games' PIP wants to relieve your stress
Having trouble finding the time or place to relax? Feel constantly wound up? Looking for a way to have fun and relieve stress? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be alive. Additionally, you may also be interested in Vyro Games' PIP -- or Personal Input Pod. The premise of the device is simple: via Bluetooth, the teardrop-shaped biofeedback sensor relays your stress levels (measured in electrodermal activity, or sweat production) to software on a mobile phone, where it's used to control a simple game. The outcome of the game is dependent on how relaxed the user can get, and the program continuously monitors the player's stress levels and reacts accordingly, helping them develop control over the relaxation process. No word yet on price, or when the PIP will be available... but we're not going to stress out about it.[Via Impress]
Takara Tomy's UMINE projector induces R&R
Takara Tomy's been known to offer up a few oddities, and while the UMINE projector (shown after the jump) may not be the most cockamamie device to escape its labs, it does reek of something sold on a shameless late-night infomercial. Regardless, this portable toilet, er, mood projector reportedly beams images of beach scenes, waterscapes, and various other soothing atmospheres onto your ceiling or wall, which apparently helps you to divert your attention from the demands of reality (or yearn for a vacation). Of course, we've all ideas that this thing doesn't really turn your entire room into a theoretical paradise as the images so perfectly depict, but it might not be a half bad way to zone out for just $84.[Via AkihabaraNews]
Friday Video: Konami Say Relax
We were unable to embed this week's video for you, but we just ... can't seem to get too upset about it. It must be all the inner peace we're feeling. We suggest you head over to Konami's Dokodemo Yoga page and watch the introductory video for yourself. It's hard to miss-- just click "play movie."Let the soothing music wash over you. It's no problem if you don't know Japanese. The narration will just be relaxing white noise for you. Just let the week's stresses dissipate. Maybe have some tea. Not being yoga practitioners ourselves, we have no idea if it's actually calming, but the video sure is.
Ronda's Media Chair revokes desires to visit the outside world
If you think the weekend was meant for kicking back in your ZipConnect Massage chair, or that uber-comfy Aeron apparatus for those fortunate enough -- we completely agree -- but Ronda's Media Chair makes even the most technologically advanced seats look like child's play. Sporting a stylish, modern design with questionably tall armrests, the Media Chair comes pre-loaded with a personal computer and a good reason to never leave the safe, familiar confines of your living room. Hanging off a polished aluminum swing arm is a fanless PC packing a 1.0GHz Intel Celeron processor, 512MB of RAM, Intel's 855 GME integrated graphics set, 20GB hard drive, built-in stereo speakers, USB 2.0, and the obligatory Ethernet / WiFi connections. You also get a 10.4-inch 800 x 600 resolution display, mini keyboard with integrated mousing device and "background illumination," and can get connected even in remote locations thanks to the optional UMTS unit. While we aren't quite sure how much coin you'd have to lay down to pick up this masterpiece of furniture design, we're sure the feeling of having everything you need all within arm's reach is indeed priceless.[Via Uber-Review]
