It might seem counterproductive that a professor who researches the effects of technology on society would put his cellphone on mute.

Yet that's exactly what Simon Gottschalk, Ph.D., a professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, does during his time away from work.

Disconnecting from technology, says Gottschalk, allows him to do the things that really matter, like hanging out with his family, walking in the park, and sometimes, doing absolutely nothing.

Doing nothing, says Gottschalk, has benefits for productivity, health and forming true social connections.

“There's a lot of research that shows when the brain is at rest and is not distracted by so many different sources of stimulation, then new thoughts are possible. The brain starts thinking differently and starts focusing differently on one's environment," he says.

Doing nothing can seem counterproductive in our goal-oriented culture, but doing nothing isn't being lazy, says Gottschalk. In a recent study by the National Institutes of Health, improved memory and ability to learn a new skill were found to result from taking short mental breaks when learning new tasks.

“We're human beings and we need time to recreate and recharge ourselves," says Gottschalk. "It's not wasted time. It's time we really need to function and remain sane."

Some of the most productive people in history relied on down time to spark creativity.

“Einstein was known to stare into space for hours. What appeared from the outside as doing nothing was his mind working in different ways," says Gottschalk. “Because he was staring into space and his mind wasn't constantly distracted, then (he) could approach problems or approach questions completely differently."
Doing nothing can also prep us for better sleep, by reducing the external stressors of the day, says Gottschalk.

Different Approaches. Doing nothing means different things to different people. Meditation is one of the oldest forms of quieting your mind and body. And some things can interfere with our ability to zone out. Here are a few pointers for giving your mind a rest.

• Disconnect from technology. Before we can take a mental break, we need to unplug, Gottschalk says. “Disconnecting keeps us from trying to be involved in so many activities and being distracted all the time," he says. Gottschalk suggests turning off or muting your smartphone whenever possible.
• Let go after work. If you've had a rough day on the job, it's even more critical to decompress. If your boss or coworkers are negative or abusive, relaxing right after work can be the key to a better night's sleep, according to a study published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. Those who could take their minds off the workday through relaxing activities such as yoga, walking or chilling to music, slept better than those who ruminated on workplace incivility.
• Doodle away. Remember that teacher who yelled at you for doodling in class? Well, he should've encouraged it instead. Doodling increases blood flow to the brain's medial prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for regulating our feelings, thoughts and actions, according to preliminary research by Drexel University. Doodling, and to a lesser extent free-drawing and coloring, activates the brain's reward circuit that controls emotion and motivation. These 15- to 20-minute art sessions also offer a confidence boost. In a post-study survey, participants perceived themselves as having good ideas and being able to solve problems.
• Skip the binge watching. While you may be tempted to tune out with your favorite show, marathon viewing isn't exactly doing nothing. A University of Michigan study found that young adults age 18 to 25 who binge-watched shows regularly suffered fatigue, insomnia and poorer sleep quality, even though they reported sleeping seven hours and 37 minutes on average. If you watch one episode, chances are you might keep going unintentionally. The researchers found that binge watching kept subjects mentally alert, which may have contributed to their poor sleep quality.
• Protect your private time. It's important to keep work separate from family time and leisure activities, says Gottschalk. Set boundaries with coworkers, family and friends about your availability. Disconnecting from technology comes into play here, too. “Research suggests, for example, that mere anticipation that you will receive work-related emails after work increases your stress level. And that will increase burnout and increase many physiological consequences of stress," says Gottschalk. His recommendation: Put your smartphone on mute and have an automatic response message that says you'll return the call or email during normal business hours.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a trend that was already well underway: employers letting their workers perform their jobs remotely, from home, most or all of the time. But even if you and your employer both know exactly where you live and work, you may be surprised to learn that state departments of taxation can have some very different ideas about where "here" is. As a result, Texans, Utahns, and Arkansawyers who work for New York- or Massachusetts-based companies will have income taxes withheld from their paychecks, even if they've never set foot in the home office.

In the wake of the pandemic, dozens of major companies are embracing employees' desire to stay remote, increasing their support for working from home permanently. Some businesses have even closed offices or let leases lapse, counting on a physically distant, flexible workforce to reduce their real estate needs.

In many ways, this can be a win/win: employers can save overhead costs on expensive square footage in high-demand cities, and employees can save time and money by skipping the commute and dialing in from, basically, anywhere they want. New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are expensive; maybe you want to move to Montana and dial in from the woods or get a nice little ocean-view place in Florida. Unfortunately, as far as the state is concerned, your beachside cabana may as well be squarely in the middle of Manhattan, and you will be taxed as such.

Even before COVID, living in one state but working in another was common in many of the biggest US metropolitan areas. Many commuters into New York live in New Jersey or Connecticut, for example, and vast numbers of workers in Washington, DC live in Maryland, Virginia, or sometimes even farther out in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, or Delaware. Kansas City sprawls into both Kansas and Missouri, so traveling across city limits can mean crossing state lines. Any major city near a border likely has loads of workers that saunter over that line every day.

From a tax perspective, that's tricky because both the state where you perform a job and the state where you actually live are going to want to try to tax your income. Still, only one state at a time can, and most jurisdictions with a lot of overlap have agreements worked out with their neighboring states that make it easy for workers to take state withholdings and pay state tax where they live. (I, for example, only had to fill out one short form when I worked in downtown Washington, DC to make sure my taxes were properly withheld across the river in Virginia.) 

However, the increase in remote work means as offices downsize, some employees are now migrating to areas of the country where there are not tax agreements in place, leaving individuals to try to muddle through multiple states' tax codes on their own. Even more challenging: states are losing money hand-over-fist due to the pandemic and are likely to be more aggressive about chasing down every dollar they can claim.

Seven states – Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, and Pennsylvania – have so-called "convenience" rules on the books that require any work performed for an employer based in their state to be taxed as if the worker performing the job is in their state, no matter where the employee is located. Those states are still attempting to collect tax from telecommuting workers, and other states are fighting back.
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New Hampshire,  one of nine states that do not have an income tax, is suing neighboring Massachusetts over its convenience rule. Four other states – New Jersey, Connecticut, Hawaii, and Iowa – are supporting the suit.

Google might be about to disrupt the business card — and it’s starting with a trial in India.
In a new blog post, the company announced it is rolling out its ‘people cards’ across the country. It’s like a business card that will appear on top of Search when someone looks up your name. Google first began trialing the feature about six months ago, and it seems it’s finally ready to make it more widely available.

Up until now, you could only find detailed information about celebs and well-known public figures on Search, but the latest change will make it possible for civilians to control what people see when someone searches their name.

“If you’re a business professional, performer, or anyone looking to build up your online presence, you might have a website, social profiles, and other information spread across many sites,” Google product manager Lauren Clark said. “If you’re just getting started, you may not have a website or much of an online presence at all.”

“Today, we are solving these challenges with a new feature called people cards,” she added. “It’s like a virtual visiting card, where you can highlight your existing website or social profiles you want people to visit, plus other information about yourself that you want others to know.”

To create a ‘people card,’ you need to simply log into your Google account, search for your name or “add me to Search,” and then follow the prompt. You can then choose a profile pic (it will default to your Google account avatar), craft a description for yourself, and also add social media links and contact details.

In case you were worried about your privacy, the feature seems to be opt-in – and you can always delete your card if you so wish.

Google will allow only one card per account to prevent malicious actors from impersonating real people. It’ll also ask you to authenticate your account with a phone number. In case fraudulent cards slip through the cracks, there’ll also be a dedicated button to report them.

Alright, but what about people who share the same name, you might wonder. Well, Google says there will be a module that lets you compare people based on their location and profession, which should make it easier to find the right person.
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That said, there are specific challenges ahead of it. The fact that Google highlighted the numerous measures it has taken to prevent abuse makes it abundantly clear that the company foresees certain issues with the new feature. If it manages to stop users from gaming the system to gain an unfair advantage, ‘people cards’ can kill the business card as we know it.

The Smart Home market is currently badly fragmented because each vendor has been focusing on creating a separate ecosystem with devices that are difficult or impossible to connect with those of their competitors.
This situation may be about to end with the announcement of a new project called Project Connected Home over IP.

In a surprising move, Amazon, Apple, Google, along with the Zigbee Alliance have announced a joint effort to define a new standard that would remove those barriers by increasing interoperability and simplifying development for smart device manufacturers. They will join Zigbee Alliance members such as IKEA, NXP Semiconductors, Samsung SmartThings, Schneider Electric, and Signify in contributing to a project that aims to increase trust and adoption of smart things.

The new project is essentially a way to certify that whatever smart device you buy will work with your existing home setup and connect with your smartphone or voice assistant of choice. In other words, it will allow smart things to speak a common language, so they know what the other devices do and how to interact with them, hopefully, governed by better, end-to-end security and privacy protections.

The success of this project hinges on the idea that if companies build their products to connect using Internet Protocol-based technologies, it will be easier for consumers to invest in building up mixed ecosystems that are "secure, reliable, and seamless to use."

The companies involved will take an open-source approach, so each will bring some of their smart home technologies to the table so that a common protocol can be developed as quickly as possible with relatively lower costs. That includes Amazon's Alexa, Apple's HomeKit and Siri, Zigbee's Dotdot, and Google Weave and Thread.

Once that new standard is ready, it will work alongside existing connectivity standards such as Wi-Fi, cellular, and Bluetooth Low Energy. A logo on the boxes of smart things will make it easy for consumers to discern what devices are guaranteed to work with each other, and this should also make things easier for manufacturers who no longer need to worry about which standards to support. Similarly, developers will be able to follow a standard for "lifecycle events such as provisioning/onboarding, removal, error recovery, and software update."

Before you get too excited about the new development, keep in mind that a preliminary draft will be completed by the end of 2020, so we'll probably have to wait until at least 2021 to see this project bear fruit. And be ready to buy new smart things if you want these benefits, as existing ones won't necessarily be able to work with the new protocol.
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The new industry group will initially focus on physical safety products like smart locks, gas sensors, smoke alarms, security cameras, smart electrical plugs, and thermostats. Then they'll move on to cover most other smart home and commercial devices.

Following its release of a pocket-sized handheld camera late last year, DJI – the Shenzhen-based tech company best known for its drones – has recently launched its first action camera, the Osmo Action. While the new camera is a latecomer to the game, it should compete well with similar products, such as the GoPro.

Design and Hardware.The Osmo Action doesn’t stray too far from conventional action camera design – it is small, rectangular-shaped and made of rugged composite material that combines plastic and rubber.
It is waterproof, shockproof and, at 124g, can be easily mounted on top of helmets, skateboards or bicycle handlebars.

There’s a 12-megapixel fisheye lens with a wide 145-degree field of vision. All of this is standard fare for action cameras and is neither better nor worse than GoPro’s Hero 7 Black in any meaningful way.

There is, however, one stand-out feature: in addition to the main screen on the backside of the camera, there is a secondary front-facing display, which has never been offered before on an action camera.

Having a front-facing screen improves shooting selfie videos significantly as it allows the user to see precisely what they’re recording. It makes so much sense in today’s selfie-centric vlogger generation that, in hindsight, it’s baffling why GoPro has never thought of this before.

The camera has three hardware buttons – power, shutter, and mode switch – and a responsive main screen that supports swiping and tapping. The bright, 2.3-inch main screen is large enough to let the user easily tweak shooting modes and settings.

The camera runs on a relatively small 1,300mAh battery, which offers about 90 minutes of recording time, but it is removable, and thus, interchangeable. The footage is stored on a micro-SD card, which is not included with the camera.

Software.The Osmo Action can connect to DJI’s Mimo app, available on both iOS and Android, and once linked; the camera can be controlled remotely with a mobile device. However, the device’s touch screen interface is so intuitive that most reviewers found little need to sync up the app.

The camera can capture videos at a wide range of resolutions, from 720p up to 4K/60fps. Shooting in lower resolution, such as 1080p, allows the camera to bump the framerate up to 240fps, ideal for capturing fast-moving moments.

Performance.Electronic image stabilization (EIS) is crucial for action cameras as they’re meant to shoot on the move, so it’s just as well DJI has years of experience writing EIS algorithms for its high-flying drone cameras.

The camera’s EIS mode is called “Rock Steady,” and it can be activated with a couple of taps. The reason DJI gives the option to toggle EIS on or off is that there are trade-offs.

Footage with “Rock Steady” on have a slightly smaller field of vision (digital cropping is essential for EIS) and dynamic range suffers due to lack of HDR (high dynamic range). You should turn the mode off to get the best video quality and colors if you’re shooting with the device in a stationary position, but anytime you’re moving, turn it on as the difference in fluidity and stability is drastic.

Conclusion.
At $380, the Osmo Action initially seemed expensive for someone who might not participate in extreme sports and who has tested fully capable smartphones for around that same price range.
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Extreme sport participants who like to document their adventures used to have their options dominated by GoPros. At $349, DJI’s Osmo Action is offering a cheaper alternative to the GoPro’s Hero 7 Black at $420, and you get the front-facing second screen. Not surprisingly, GoPro has now reduced the price of the Hero 7 to $349! The Osmo Action may have just taken GoPro’s throne.

Google has won approval to bolster work on its Minority Report-style touchless technology, which enables electronics to be controlled by hand gestures.

The Federal Communications Commission has approved Google’s plans to use more powerful sensors for its Project Soli initiative, first unveiled in 2015. The radar-based technology is now poised to kick on to the next level after Google was given special permission to use higher frequencies for its tests.

When Google first showcased the tech in 2015, it came under the X Labs banner and was focused on smartwatches, with specific gestures replacing a physical tap on the touchscreen. For example, it was possible to rub two fingers together in the vicinity of the watch to cycle through menus or turn up the volume of media.

Now the company could expand the operation to enable the sci-fi like air gestures we’ve seen in films like Minority Report and the Iron Man franchise, on larger screens and devices. The waiver granted by the FCCcould also be highly beneficial to tech users with mobility, speech, and tactile impairments.

In a statement (via Reuters), the FCC said: “The ability to recognize users’ touchless hand gestures to control a device, such as a smartphone, could help people with mobility, speech, or tactile impairments, which in turn could lead to higher productivity and quality of life for many members of the American public.”
The regulator also said there’s little chance of Google’s Project interfering with other spectrum users and has approved the tech for use on aircraft.
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Google hasn’t commented on the news yet, but it’ll be interesting to see what the company has in mind for Project Soli moving forward. Hopefully, we’ll find out more in 2019.

Do you ever wonder how long you spend reading emails or doing research? A little device named Tiller may be able to get you an answer.

Tiller is a small puck that plugs into your computer to help track your tasks. Tap it, and it’ll start timing you. Tap again, and it’ll stop. Spin the wheel on top, and a minimal interface will pop up on screen, letting you scroll from one task (say “emails”) to the next (maybe “writing” or “coffee”).

This new puck comes from a small Australian design firm named Joan. The Tiller is Joan’s first hardware product, and the company’s been working on it for more than two years. The idea came out of the company’s own desire to better manage and track its time. “We were trying to run the business better,” says Nick Hallam, one of Joan’s co-founders. “Apps weren’t working.”

Tiller is targeted mainly at freelancers and workers who take clients – accountants, lawyers, designers, consultants – and need to bill by the hour. 

There’s also a dot of light in the center of the device, which lets you know it’s recording and serves as a reminder. “I don’t know how many times I get up, see my light’s on” and remember to pause it, says Hallam. “We definitely believe the hardware makes a big difference.”
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Tiller is launched on Kickstarter, where it’s looking to raise $68,000 AUD (around $54,000 USD) to fund the run. Tiller units sell for around $89 USD to $119 USD to Kickstarter backers, and they’ll eventually cost $129 USD when the product leaves Kickstarter.

A vending kiosk company in Wisconsin plans to implant a microchip into each of 50 willing employees so they can more easily open doors, buy snacks, log in to computers, and use office equipment The bizarre experiment conducted by Three Square Market will make it the first U.S. business to implant chips in its workers.

“Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc.,” 32M CEO Todd Westby said in a company press release.

Each participating employee will have the RFID and NFC-based chips implanted between their thumb and forefinger. The devices are no larger than a grain of rice and are capable of storing and recognizing small amounts of digital information. Similar products are found in transit cards, pet trackers, and even some passports. NFC is also found in smartphones and most commonly used to purchase items at stores or vending machines.

A company representative explained how someone can use their chip to buy snacks from its kiosks, or “micro markets.”

“We’ll come up, scan the item. We’ll hit pay with a credit card, and it’s asking to swipe my proximity payment now. I’ll hold my hand up, just like my cell phone, and it’ll pay for my product.”
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It’s important to point out that no one is required to get the implant, and the company claims there is no GPS tracking inside. Three Square Market will pay for each of the tiny $300 devices and will start chipping its workers at a company party on Aug. 1.

The average driver would be willing to pay nearly $5,000 more for a fully self-driving car, a new report finds.
Researchers from Cornell University found that the average U.S. household is prepared to pay $3,500 for some automation and $4,900 for full automation on top of the normal price of a car. That number varies widely from household to household—a large group of people were willing to pay above $10,000 for a self-driving capability, while many others wouldn't pay anything for it, according to the study in Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies.

"Automation of personal transportation is becoming a reality at a faster pace than anticipated," the study's lead author Ricardo Daziano said in a statement. "To plan for and analyze the large impacts of automation, policymakers and car manufacturers need to understand the market. Our study is an initial attempt to quantify how households currently perceive and economically value automated vehicle technologies."

To find out how much people valued different features, the researchers surveyed 1,260 people across the U.S. about hypothetical vehicles with different prices.
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The study also found that the demand distribution for self-driving technology was evenly spread between high, modest, and low interest, so researchers suggested that auto dealers should create flexible sale options for automation features as they become more available on the market.

Around 21 million fitness trackers were sold in 2016 and the 2017 forecast by Gartner is 25 million, with the promise of monitoring and improving activity levels.

Devices and health apps that advise people to walk 10,000 steps a day could be doing more harm than good, scientists have warned.

Dr Greg Hager, an expert in computer science at Johns Hopkins University, said many apps and devices had no real evidence base and that a one-size-fits-all approach could be harmful for some people.

Dr Hager told delegates at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston that the 10,000 steps doctrine was based on just one study of Japanese men dating back to 1960.

“Some of you might wear Fitbits or something equivalent, and I bet every now and then it gives you that cool little message 'you did 10,000 steps today’,” he said. 

“But why is 10,000 steps important? Is that the right number for any of you in this room? Who knows? It’s just a number that’s now built into the apps.

“I think apps could definitely be doing more harm than good.” 

In 2013, the NHS established a Health Apps Library to provide patients with a choice of health and treatment software and GPs were encouraged to recommend apps to their patients.

Yet the University of Liverpool found that just 15% of those listed for depression were proven to be effective.
Dr. Steve Flatt, of the university’s psychological therapies unit, who co-authored the study published in the BMJ, said: “This field is currently in its infancy and can currently be likened to the snake oil salesmen of the 1860s.

Simon Leigh, a health economist who co-authored the BMJ paper, said: “A GP, endocrinologist or other fitness specialist would unlikely recommend 10,000 steps for most people.” 

Research last year by the University of Pittsburgh concluded that people who used a wearable technology device lost less weight than those undertaking standard weight loss techniques.

Dr. John Jakicic said not everyone was physically capable of doing 10,000 steps. “If you are elderly or infirm then this is not going to be good for you,” he said.
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“We need to be careful about relying solely on these devices. However, there is a place for these, and so we need to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater in my opinion.”