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Samsung’s latest Unpacked event has taken place, revealing a whole new range of AI-powered Galaxy products, including the launch of the all-new wearable Galaxy Ring.
The passive health tracker for your finger collects your data to give you an overall energy score, a sleep score and personalized wellness tips based on your health goals.
Also unveiled were two new foldable phones, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6, and a new extreme sports-focused Galaxy Watch Ultra, intended to rival the Apple Watch Ultra.
Ever dreamed of speeding up the clock? Ruth Ogden, professor of temporal psychology at Liverpool John Moores University, discusses her research showing that looking ahead to Christmas or Ramadan can ‘speed up our sense of time’.
While the research focused on major dates such as Christmas and Ramadan, Professor Ogden says it could also apply to smaller occasions, such as going out for dinner or meeting up with a friend.
It can also help us draw conclusions about what this means when a negative event occurs.
Research shows that the brains of night owls function better than those of morning people.
Dr Raha West, NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, and lead author of the study, explains how they used data from thousands of people to investigate the “complex relationships” between sleep duration, quality and chronotype – which is categorised in the study as “morning sleep”, “evening sleep” or “intermediate sleep type”.
Participants underwent tests that assessed their intelligence, reasoning ability, reaction time, and memory.
And the rest
NASA discovers an icy ‘super-Earth’ that may be home to alien life and Microsoft raises Xbox Game Pass prices by up to 25%.
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Here’s a fully automated transcript of today’s episode:
Hi, I’m Rochelle Travers and this is The Standard’s Tech and Science Daily podcast.
Soon we will discuss how to speed up your sense of time.
Let’s start.
Samsung’s latest Unpacked Event has taken place, revealing a whole new range of AI-powered Galaxy products, including the launch of the all-new wearable Galaxy Ring.
The passive finger tracker collects your data to give you an overall energy score, a sleep score, and personalized wellness tips based on your health goals.
Interestingly, you can use double-squeeze gestures to remotely take photos and snooze or stop alarms.
And just like with a smartwatch, you will receive an inactivity notification if you have been sitting still for too long.
Two new foldable phones were also unveiled, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6, as well as a new extreme sports-focused Galaxy Watch Ultra, intended to rival the Apple Watch Ultra.
Have you ever wanted to speed up the clock?
Listen carefully.
Research has shown that looking ahead to Christmas or Ramadan can speed up our sense of time.
We found that over 70% of people in the UK and Iraq felt that annual events such as Christmas and Ramadan were approaching faster each year.
People feel like these events happen faster than they think, even though they know they happen every year.
That’s according to Ruth Ogden, professor of temporal psychology at Liverpool John Moores University and lead author of the study.
They conducted a survey of over 1,600 adults in the UK and Iraq. In this survey, they asked participants about their memory function, how much they liked Christmas and/or Ramadan, how much they thought about time, and asked them for information about their daily lives.
We found that people were more likely to feel that time was passing more quickly towards Christmas and Ramadan if they were really looking forward to those events, if they were thinking about time a lot. But what was more interesting to see was that this was also the case if they had poor memory, that is, they were not or less able to plan for future events.
People who had trouble remembering what to do in the future felt like Christmas was getting closer each year.
While the research focused on major dates such as Christmas and Ramadan, Professor Ogden says it could also apply to smaller occasions, such as going out for dinner or meeting up with a friend.
It can also help us draw conclusions about what this means when a negative event occurs.
You think about negative events in your life.
A good example is when you are in the hospital waiting for the results of a medical examination, or when you are waiting for your doctor to call you back, or when you are waiting for a scan.
The time between knowing you need to take a test and getting the results is a very long time. It goes very slowly.
We think this is because you are super stressed, but also because you are only focused on getting information.
So it really disrupts the things that you do in your life.
You don’t do the normal things you would do to distract yourself from the passing of time.
And that slows down our perception of time enormously.
Professor Ogden says there are things you can do if you want to gain more control over your sense of time.
Keep a routine.
When we lose our routine, we feel lost in time.
So keeping a schedule and keeping track of what you need to do and when you need to do it is a really good way to be on time.
Time distorts most when we feel very extreme emotions. For example, think of the idea that time slows down in a car accident.
Daily life is full of stress and tension.
So try to stay calm and keep things in perspective. That way you prevent time from passing by.
I think one of the most important things to take away from our research is that people who have trouble remembering what to do in future events are more likely to feel like time is passing quickly.
So if you want to experience a slower, more peaceful passage of time, you need to be aware of the planning you need to do and stay on top of the tasks needed for future events.
The findings are published in the journal Plos One.
New research suggests that evening people have better brain function than morning people.
What we already know about this topic is that the quality of your sleep can affect your cognitive abilities, and we also know that both very short and very long sleep durations can be detrimental to your cognitive function.
That’s according to Dr Raha West, a clinical researcher at Imperial College London and lead author of the study.
But what we know less is whether your biological clock, what we call chronotype, and whether you are more of a morning person or an evening person, is related to your performance on the cognitive test.
The team studied data from thousands of people in the UK Biobank study to explore the complex relationships between sleep duration, sleep quality and chronotype. In the study, this chronotype is categorised as morning sleep, evening sleep or intermediate sleep type.
Participants underwent tests that assessed their intelligence, reasoning ability, reaction time, and memory.
The researchers analyzed data from nearly 27,000 people and compared their performance on the tests with their self-reported sleep duration, sleep patterns, and sleep quality.
In the population we studied, we saw that people who prefer to go out in the evening perform better on cognitive tests.
I want to emphasize that our study involved older adults, as the datasets included participants aged 40 and over and the average age was around 71, 72 years.
Those who slept between seven and nine hours each night performed best on the tests.
The academics also found that night owls and people with average developmental levels had better cognitive functioning.
However, Dr. Raha stressed that these findings do not mean that anyone should try to change their natural sleep patterns.
Although we saw that the evening people performed better on the test, our finding is based more on an association than on causality.
I think everyone should strive for the right amount of sleep, good quality sleep, not too short, not too long, but also recognizing the moments when you’re most cognitively awake and taking full advantage of those.
Let’s move on to the ads.
A planet that may be home to alien life is coming soon. Microsoft is raising the prices of Xbox Game Pass.
Welcome back.
NASA scientists have discovered an icy super-Earth that may be home to alien life.
New research on the planet LHS 1140b has shown that it may have an atmosphere and possibly even liquid water, making it one of the most promising places to look for life.
LHS 1140b orbits a low-mass red dwarf star about one-fifth the size of our sun.
Scientists are particularly excited because they think the star is in the Goldilocks zone. The star is neither too close nor too far from its parent. This means that liquid water could be present.
And finally, bad news for gamers: Microsoft is raising the prices of Xbox Game Pass by up to 25%.
The gaming giant, which bought studio Activision Blizzard for a record $69 billion in 2023, says the monthly cost of PC Game Pass will rise by two pounds to £9.99, while its premium service Ultimate will rise by two pounds to £14.99 a month.
Game Pass will also replace the standard subscription on Xbox consoles in September. This means Xbox gamers will now need to subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate if they want access to new games on the day they release.
This comes after Microsoft announced that its most anticipated new title, Call of Duty Black Ops 6, would be available immediately to Game Pass subscribers.
You are informed.
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