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Google Really Spent Some Time Preparing for April Fools’

April 2, 2016 By Matthew Slotkin Leave a Comment

Google spent some time and resources preparing for April Fools’, and the result was hilarious.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – Yesterday was the 1^st of April, or the day when nobody believes anything they see on the internet. George Martin is working on a new saga, the Eiffel Tower is closed indefinitely, and many other “breaking news” flooded the internet yesterday. But Google really spent some time preparing for April Fools’ because their videos were elaborate, and actually quite catchy.

Google Plastic Cardboard

Probably one of the best prank videos that Google released this 1^st of April was the one about Google Plastic Cardboard. As you can see from the video, the innovation from the company comes in transparent, hard plastic with great features.

Not only can it be used for the ultimate high graphics, stereo sound, intriguing plot video game that is called real life, but it can also be equipped with different additional features. Users can choose between analogue and digital clock, reading mode, cinematic mode, landscape mode and even sleep mode.

And from the looks of the video, Google really spent some time preparing for April Fools’. And it’s good that the company feels so secure about its actual product that it can make fun of it with a video that is basically telling users that reality will be a better experience anytime and anywhere.

New Emoji Search Feature for Google Photo

Google has revolutionized the way in which we search for photos in our folders. And since smartphones are equipped with high-resolution cameras, people tend to store thousands and thousands of pictures on their electronic devices.

But what if you forgot the name of the costume your dog was wearing two Halloweens ago, and you really want to show that picture to your date? Fear no more, because there is a new emoji search feature for Google Photos.

realBooks by Google

Some people prefer to read books in their classical format; others like to store them all on an electronic device and save the forests. But the thing with eBooks is that they can’t be displayed one by one in a custom made bookshelf.

Luckily, Google thought about that, and it created realBooks. The idea is simple, they take an electronic device, strip it of any unnecessary feature and allow the upload of a single book. Now people will be able to fill their bookshelves once more.

Self-Driving Bike by Google Netherlands

The self-driving bike by Google Netherlands is believed to be “the best invention since the bike, itself.”

Because there is still a long road ahead for the self-driving car, the engineers in the Netherlands believed that they must take innovation step by step, exactly how it was designed to in the first place.

The self-driving carriage was already invented a long time ago thanks to the “horse” intelligent feature, so the next logical step was the self-driving bike.

Now, parents in the Netherlands can enjoy some extra time for themselves as children hop on their self-driving bike and roam the city. Unfortunately, the transportation wonder was only available yesterday.

Compressing at X

Google really spent some time preparing for April Fools’, and we can see that from the video that tackles the benefits of compression starring Richard Hendricks of “Silicon Valley,” an HBO original sitcom.

In this video, Hendricks talks about the benefits of compression. He explains that writing has been going through a continuous change and compression from the elaborate Egyptian pictograms to the written words and expressions that we use today.

He also tries to address climate change by proposing to shrink the cows so that they won’t release so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Hendricks even has a solution for the self-driving car which is, yes, shrinking.

And these are not the only pranks that Google pulled this 1^st of April. The company also released a video that presents the ultimate app, the missing sock finder available only in Australia. They also created a new app that would send automated emoji replies to your texts, so that users would not bother themselves with the frequent “lol” responses.

Furthermore, they convinced Snoop Dog to take part into a “SnoopaVision” ruse and Japan that they need a new keyboard, the Flick, that feels realer than the impersonal touchscreen.

Google really spent some time preparing for April Fools’ and their hoaxes are more and more elaborate each year. But at least, they have a sense of humor, and they are confident enough of their products to make fun of them once a year.

Maybe next year we’ll see a short video with Atlas destroying humankind in a robot rage episode.

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Reading is Healthy for the Mind and Body

March 17, 2016 By Joe Hennessey Leave a Comment

Book are not only portals towards other worlds, but they are also a way of exercising our brain.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – Reading is healthy for the mind and body, due to the fact that it not only improves brain functions, but it also relieves stress. So if you have a library card and a gym membership one sitting in your wallet, collecting dust, you might want to use the first one. Of course, a balanced lifestyle dictates in favor of the latter, too, but reading is the sport of the brain.

Brewing up a nice cup of tea, cozying up on the comfy chair or in the corner of a couch and opening up a good book is a perfect scenario for a lot of people. And it’s not just a relaxing way to spend an afternoon, according to various research, reading is healthy for the mind and the body.

Apart from expanding your knowledge and escaping into wondrous worlds, picking the minds of famous authors while playing made-up games or exploring the nine circles of Hell, there are several physical benefits of burying yourself in an excellent book.

Reading Reduced Stress

Reading a good book (and by good book we understand any work of fiction or non-fiction that is appealing to the reader) for more than six minutes can reduce the levels of stress with 68 percent.

Researchers at the Sussex University discovered that a person than engages in reading is able to shake off stress much quicker than a person who decides to walk it off or rock it off.

Reading Improves Your Memory

The director and president of the Haskins Laboratories at Yale, Ken Pugh, discovered that reading engages different parts of the human brain. When browsing the pages of a book, we wire up associative learning areas, as well as language, vision and a couple more.

This means that reading a book is as good for the brain as Dwayne Johnson’s regime is for his brick-tight muscles. Furthermore, researchers at the University of Chicago discovered a link between reading and slower memory decline rates.

Reading Makes You More Empathic

Researchers at Emory University found that the memory center is not the only part of the brain that we “work out” while reading.

It seems that reading makes you more empathic with other people because fiction allows you to develop and train your imagination to work better.

Re-Reading Is Therapeutic

All voracious readers have a book that they turn to whenever they have the blues or feel like life is not making sense anymore.

And there is a scientific explanation for that. It seems that re-reading a book at different times in a person’s life leads to a beneficial type of self-reflection. So why spend money on therapists when you can pick up that worn out copy of *insert favorite book title here*?

Reading Increases the Attention Span

Children benefit from this the most. Because stories have a traditional frame, it allows them to better grasp the notion of order. They learn to follow the natural steps of a situation, and they train their brains to focus on something for a longer period of time.

So next time you have some spare time to kill, just pick up a book. Reading is healthy for the mind and body and as Stephen King said,

““Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.”’

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Books Are Better Than Tablets

March 12, 2016 By Ryan Harris Leave a Comment

"Reading from an electronic device in bed"

Reading from a tablet affects the brain, tricking it into believing that it is daytime.

(Mirror Daily, Unites States) – Books are better than tablets when it comes to reading before going to sleep. Researchers found that people who read from a book experience more sleepiness than individuals who use a tablet for the same activity.

This is not the first time somebody claims that books are better than tablets. But it is one of the first experiments that scientifically proves the affirmation.

Janne Gronli, the lead author, and researcher at the Bergen University in Norway declared that the study found that when it comes to a good night’s sleep, books are better than tablets.

In order to reach these conclusions, she gathered a sample of sixteen volunteers. All of them were nonsmokers, familiar with both physical books and tablets, and had no psychiatric, medical or sleep disorders. The ages of the participants varied from 22 to 33.

The volunteers were asked to adopt a regular sleeping pattern before the experiment so that the results would be relevant. After that, the researchers measured the participants in three separate nights.

In the first one, they measured their sleep activity so that they could have a point of reference. In the second, the volunteers were asked to read for half an hour from an iPad, and in the third they repeated the activity, only this time using a book.

According to the result, the night in which the participants read from an actual book, they felt sleepier, and their brain was ready to engage in the restful activity. But when they delighted themselves with the electronic version, their brains were more alert, and it took them longer to reach the REM stage after the sleep onset.

Books are better than tablets because tablets use blue light which tricks the brain into thinking that it is daylight outside, and it should become alert and ready for action. But the study was realized on a small sample, and further research is needed in order for the scientists to declare that books are better than tablets when it comes to before-sleep activities.

Furthermore, there are a couple of illuminating devices that use blue light as well. So, in a future study, researchers have more variables to take into consideration.

Other members of the scientific community are defending Apple products saying that the company already released new night time features that diminish the amount of blue light used by the device, thus allowing the user to go to sleep faster.

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