Facebook could be spreading unhappiness through society as well as keeping people connected, research has shown.

The number one social networking site is strongly associated with declines in well-being, psychologists claim.

Scientists found the more time people spent on Facebook over a two-week period, the worse they subsequently felt.

In contrast, talking to friends on the phone or meeting them in person led to greater levels of happiness.

‘On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection,’ said study leader Dr Ethan Kross, from the University of Michigan in the US.

‘But rather than enhance well-being, we found that Facebook use predicts the opposite result – it undermines it’.

The researchers recruited 82 young adults, all of whom had smartphones and Facebook accounts.

To assess their personal levels of well-being, participants were sent questions by text message at five random times each day for two weeks.

The ‘experience sampling’ technique is a recognised reliable way of measuring how people think, feel and behave in their day-to-day lives.

Participants were asked how they felt ‘right now’, how worried or lonely they were, and to what extent they had been using Facebook or interacting with other people directly.

Writing in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE, the researchers said higher levels of Facebook use correlated with greater loss of well-being.

Volunteers were also asked to rate their level of life satisfaction at the start and end of the study.

Over the two-week period, satisfaction ratings were found to decline the more people used Facebook.

‘This is a result of critical importance because it goes to the very heart of the influence that social networks may have on people’s lives,’ said University of Michigan neuroscientist and co-author Dr John Jonides.

There was no evidence that people were more likely to log into Facebook when they felt bad, said the researchers.

In addition, loneliness and Facebook both had an independent impact on happiness.

‘It was not the case that Facebook use served as a proxy for feeling bad or lonely,’ said Kross.

Further research is planned to look at the psychological reasons for the negative effect of Facebook on well-being.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

Today many modern cars have onboard computers that record data about speed, air bag deployment or failures, braking and other mechanical functions. This information can sometimes help to determine the cause of a car accident.

Police can establish for example how fast a car was travelling at the time of impact from recording devices onboard the vehicle. These recording devices are much like the black boxes everybody has heard about in aeroplanes.

Data recording devices, or black boxes, in both your car and in the car at fault, are one of the many tools experts can use as evidence to help determine fault for a car accident.

Nearly every car being manufactured right now comes with a little added bonus by way of a tiny recording device nestled under the centre console. And if you’re looking to keep your driving habits under wraps, you might want to start worrying.

As many as 96 percent of the cars mass-produced in 2013 include event data recorders, or EDRs, yet the existence of these small “black box” surveillance devices are rarely known among the automobile drivers whose data is being collected with every quick turn of the steering wheel.

This following story from the USA indicates how these will affect court cases in the future, and this includes Australia:

Despite widespread ignorance of EDRs, they could soon become mandatory. The US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is asking that the installation of EDRs in light passenger vehicles be mandatory starting September 2014, and opponents are already attempting to raise awareness in order to make auto drivers aware that their sudden speed bursts and even seatbelt data is being collected and could be easily shared.But with little safeguards in place, the still emerging technology is raising a lot of questions about what can legally be collected and who can access that information.

But what kind of data is recorded exactly? Standard EDRs don’t log the identity or actions of specific persons in cars, per se, but they are able to provide investigators insight with what happened moments before a collision. When they were first rolled out, though, that wasn’t the plan.

Depending on the type of EDR, these black boxes can record the speed of a vehicle, the crash force at the moment of impact and an array of other information about the automobile’s inner workings.

Other information that can be collected and then shared includes whether or not the car’s brake was activated before the crash, the state of the engine and whether the vehicle seat belt was buckled before an incident.

A smart personal injury lawyer would send a letter to the driver at fault and to that person’s insurance company immediately after a car accident warning them against destroying or tampering with the black box, if the information stored electronically could be used to establish fault for a car accident.

If you have been injured in a car accident and want all the compensation you are entitled to, then call us now on 1300 302 318 to arrange a free no obligation appointment or email us your enquiry for a free online case assessment within 12 hours.

Story source: http://gclaw.com.au/news

Google has unveiled a slimmer, more powerful tablet computer on its Nexus brand and a thumb-sized device that lets popular mobile gadgets feed online content wirelessly to television sets.

The ramped-up second-generation Nexus 7 by Taiwan-based Asus made its debut along with a Chromecast dongle that plugs into television sets to let people easily route online content to big screens.

Mario Queiroz, head of Google TV, said Chromecast ‘won’t clutter your entertainment cabinet. It simply disappears behind your TV once it is plugged in.’

The new connector device went on sale for $US35 online at Google play and will also be sold through Amazon and Best Buy in the United States.

‘Cast’ icons built into applications for online video services YouTube and Netflix let people use smartphones, tablets or laptop computers to easily direct online videos to television screens, a demonstration showed.

‘If you know how to use YouTube on your phone, you know how to use YouTube on your TV,’ Queiroz said while describing the vision behind Chromecast.

‘Any device in your home can become a remote control for the television.’

Google also made available a software kit for developers to synch mobile apps with Chromecast. Online radio streaming service Pandora is among those with Cast application features ‘in the works,’ according to Google.

Google is also working to let people ‘cast’ online content from Chrome web browsers to televisions.

Content fed to televisions is delivered directly through home internet connections, with smartphones, tablets or laptops serving essentially as remote controls, according to Queiroz.

‘We are paving the way for more apps to come,’ he continued. ‘Over time, we expect the technology to be embedded in a range of devices from our partners.’

The Nexus 7 ramps up Google’s challenge to Apple’s iPad with a slimmer tablet to be easily slipped into a pocket or handbag and allow easy access to rich online content or services.

Nexus 7 prices will start at $US229 and top out at $US349 in the US market.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

The number of car accidents caused by either mobile phone usage, either texting or talking on a mobile phone whilst driving, or social networking long into the night have been a major factor in  a majority of car accidents increasing the number of personal injury compensation Claims.  

Some of these facts include young drivers with an addiction to electronic socialising, who are increasingly at risk of being injured in a car accident caused by driver fatigue.

There is an increasing number of teenagers who have been involved in car accidents because they’re so tired from staying up all night using their electronic devices.

According to authorities, people under the age of 30 account for nearly two thirds of accidents involving sleepy drivers.

The car accidents are most likely to occur early in the morning or late at night. There is usually only one person in the car, and often only one car is involved.

Distraction has also been identified as a contributing factor in 22% of car crashes and near crashes and 71% of truck crashes (and 46% of near crashes) in naturalistic driving studies.

Using a mobile phone whilst driving is highly distracting and increases your risk of a crash four-fold.

Despite the dangers and illegality, approximately 25% of recently surveyed Queensland drivers reported using their hand-held mobile phone on a daily basis to answer or make calls, as well as read text messages, while 14% reported using their hand-held phone to send a text message on a daily basis.

The Facts

Driver distraction is one of the main causes of road crashes, estimated to account for approximately one quarter of car crashes.

Using a mobile phone while driving (especially texting), is highly distracting.

A person using a hand-held or hands-free mobile phone while driving is four times more likely to have a serious crash resulting in hospital attendance.

The legislation – How it affects you

It is illegal in all Australian states and territories to use a hand-held mobile phone while driving. This includes talking, texting, playing games, taking photos or video and using other phone functions.

Using a hand-held mobile phone is also illegal when your vehicle is stationary but not parked (when stopped at a traffic light).

It is illegal to use a hands-free phone while driving if it causes you to lose proper control of your vehicle.

Learner and P1 drivers are not permitted to use a hand-held or hands-free mobile phone while driving.

The most common types of crashes associated with mobile phone usage are “run off the road” and “rear end” crashes.

To read more on the facts about car accident statistics, click on the link.

If you or any member of your family or friends is involved in a car accident it is important to be fully aware of your rights and what compensation for personal injury you may be able to claim.

GC Law are personal injury experts and they can help you assess your potential claim, you can even use their Free Case Review process to start your compensation claim. 

Story source: www.gclaw.com.au

Apple has unveiled its hotly anticipated iTunes Radio Service, as the iconic maker of the iPhone moved to challenge streaming music operators such as Pandora and Spotify.

The free internet radio service features over 200 stations ‘and an incredible catalogue of music from the iTunes Store’, Apple said in a statement as it opened its annual developers conference in San Francisco on Monday.

The ad-supported free music service is set to launch later this year and ‘offers music fans access to thousands of new songs every week, as well as serving up exclusive music from new and popular artists before you hear them anywhere else’, an Apple statement said.

The service will be integrated with Apple’s personal voice-assistant software program Siri, so users will be able to find out ‘Who plays that song?’ or ask the program to ‘Play more like this.’

‘iTunes Radio is an incredible way to listen to personalised radio stations which have been created just for you,’ said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services.

‘It’s the music you love most and the music you’re going to love, and you can easily buy it from the iTunes Store with just one click.’

Google has urged Australian and New Zealand companies to copy its famously chilled-out working practices, saying it makes for happy, creative employees and better business.

Google’s Australian headquarters in harbourside Sydney is a den of zen: an Aladdin’s cave of cool where you’ll sooner see a flying pig than a business suit, and the furnishings are soft enough to make a wolverine purr.

Want a nap halfway through the day? Sure, sit in the nearest sleep pod and have 40 winks.

Sick of hearing your colleague wittering on about his baby’s first burp?

No worries, tuck yourself away in one of the cocoon-like work pods.

Or head to the games room – where you can play pool, table tennis or the guitar.

Google’s been working like this for years – in line with common practices at America’s leading bluechip tech companies, including Apple, Facebook and Twitter.

It’s borne out of a belief that relaxed workers do better, are more able to solve problems, are more creative and more likely to succeed.

And it’s a method Australian and Kiwi companies could follow, Google believes – not only in terms of physical space, but also more flexible approaches to IT policies, full use of social media on work time and the ability to work from home.

‘People want to work the way they live; people don’t want to step back in time as they walk through the office door,’ Google Australia’s industry director, Claire Hatton, said.

Ms Hatton said a relaxed office space encourages collaboration, and easy-going IT policies lead to happier employees and better business.

‘Making it easy for employees to connect, work and share together makes a whole heap of sense and it also makes them happier,’ she added.

‘At Google, we believe collaboration is intrinsically linked with innovation – that’s why we’ve designed our offices the way we have.

‘The same philosophy that we extend to our design space also extends to our technology policies.’

She said some Australian and Kiwi companies – Air New Zealand and Westpac among them – have recognised that a relaxed approach works, with policies enabling staff to ‘access information on whatever device they want to, wherever they are, at whatever time they want to’.

Ms Hatton was speaking at the launch of new Google-commissioned research, carried out by consultants Deloitte, which claimed Australian and New Zealand business leaders are in a ‘war’ to attract skilled employees.

The report said relaxed working practices, especially IT polices, is key to attracting and retaining skilled workers.

Buzz has continued to build about the social media giant Twitter’s launching of a new music app.

Key ‘influencers’ have already been given a sneak preview of the software ahead of a public roll-out, expected within days.

Tech site AllThingsD said the music service, originally mooted for a Friday launch, was expected to be launched on the weekend at the Coachella music festival at Indio, California.

Early on Saturday, Wiz Khalifa, who has nearly 10 million follows, tweeted: ‘Man this new Twitter music app is insane!’

On Thursday Ryan Seacrest wrote: ‘Playing with twitter’s new music app (yes it’s real!)..’

He added: ‘Lovin the app … shows what artists are trending, also has up and coming artists …’

The speculation surrounding the launch comes after Twitter confirmed it had acquired the emerging music software firm We Are Hunted.

The San Francisco-based music firm was launched in 2007 in Australia, and allows its users to follow emerging music trends and artists.

Its software continuously updates lists of top music around the world.

Neither company indicated their plans, but the We Are Hunted site strongly hinted the deal means Twitter will be launching a long-rumoured music application.

‘There’s no question that Twitter and music go well together,’ a statement posted on the wearehunted.com site said.

The new music app is believed to rank music based on personalised trends and trigger points, including what Twitter accounts are followed.

The AllThingsD report said users will be able to listen to clips of music from inside the app, using third-party services and watch music videos from Vevo, which is operated by Universal Music and Sony.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

Big music labels, steep freight costs and import taxes are being blamed for the higher prices Australians pay for everything from software to songs.

Global technology giants Apple, Microsoft and Adobe copped a caning on Friday at a federal parliamentary inquiry for slugging Australians up to 80 per cent more than people in other countries for their products.

The tech giants offered a range of explanations but failed to impress, with more than one MP branding their responses ‘evasive’.

Microsoft Australia managing director Pip Marlow said it was the global software giant’s right to charge what it thought the market would bear for its products.

‘We don’t operate on a single global price because we don’t believe every market is the same,’ she told the committee in Canberra.

‘We believe we are competing lawfully to win our customers’ business every day.’

But committee deputy chairman, Nationals MP Paul Neville, accused Microsoft of charging what it could ‘get away with in any particular market’.

‘You haven’t offered us any cogent reason other than your company policy why you are charging more in Australia,’ he said.

A recent study by consumer group Choice of 200 hardware and software products found Australians paid on average 50 per cent more than overseas customers.

Apple vice president for Australia, New Zealand and South Asia Tony King said what Australians paid to download digital songs, films and TV shows was determined by arrangements with the music labels, TV networks and movie studios.

Those content owners had different charges for content distributed in different countries.

‘The cards, so to speak, are in the hands of the folks who own the content,’ Mr King said.

Mr King said Apple was more than aware Australians were angry about it.

‘We are hearing comments in Australia that, frankly, make us uncomfortable,’ he said.

Mr King said exchange rates, local freight costs, import duties and local sales taxes also influenced the prices for computers, laptops, tablets and mobile devices.

Adobe’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Paul Robson, said Australians were blocked from accessing the software company’s US website – where prices are lower – to offer a more ‘personalised experience’.

Allowing Australians to buy the cheaper, although identical, product from Adobe’s US website would have an impact on global corporations’ willingness to invest in this country, run local operations and employ staff, he said.

Both Adobe and Microsoft talked up the use of cloud computing products, saying they offered more similar pricing between Australian and US customers.

The three technology giants were all called to appear before the committee after refusing to give evidence voluntarily.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

Some people can’t stand it, others can’t live without it.

Twitter turned seven on Thursday and with more than 200 million active users, the social media platform has no shortage of friends to celebrate with.

It’s come a long way since March 21, 2006, when web developer and Twitter creator Jack Dorsey sent the first tweet: ‘just setting up my twttr’ (twttr was the platform’s early name).

Now roughly 4600 tweets are sent every second.

Ordinary Australians have embraced the site along with celebrities, athletes and politicians, with results that have ranged from amusing to disastrous.

Our most popular tweeter is actor Hugh Jackman with about 2.18 million followers.

The Wolverine star is still a long way from challenging the world’s most popular tweeter, Justin Bieber, who has a whopping 36 million followers.

The first Australian politician to join Twitter was Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young in 2007, but it was another politician, Kevin Rudd, who in 2011 became the first Aussie to exceed one million followers.

Mr Rudd remains our most popular public officer holder on Twitter, which isn’t bad for a backbencher.

Other federal politicians who’ve embraced the platform include Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Environment Tony Burke, the opposition’s Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Joe Hockey, Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt and independent MP Rob Oakeshott.

A growing tendency for MPs to abuse each other via Twitter has led to calls for a ban on tweeting in federal parliament.

Elite sportspeople have also muscled in on Twitter but some athletes are probably wishing they hadn’t.

Stephanie Rice’s homophobic tweet celebrating a Wallabies Tri-Nation win over South Africa in 2010 – ‘suck on that faggots’ – cost her a lucrative sponsorship with car maker Jaguar.

Former Wallaby David Campese landed in hot water and was forced to apologise last year after posts questioning why a female reporter should cover the rugby.

And the Australian swimming team’s 2012 Olympics belly flop was partly blamed on athletes spending too much time on the site.

But it’s not only sports personalities who are prone to Twitter gaffes.

Fairfax columnist Catherine Deveny was sacked for tweeting ‘I do so hope Bindi Irwin gets laid’ during the 2010 Logies.

The same year the Queensland Liberal National Party expelled 22-year-old member Nick Sowden for a racist tweet comparing Barack Obama to a monkey.

Queensland Federal Coalition MP Andrew Laming was castigated in January for a post suggesting Aborigines and Pacific Islanders involved in a violent race feud in Brisbane were only interest in ‘welfare on tap’.

And Victorian Labor MP Steve Gibbons was forced to apologise last November for calling deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop a ‘narcissistic bimbo’.

The outspoken MP found himself in hot water again for a tweet referring to Australia Day as ‘invasion day’.

Companies aren’t immune from Twitter fails either, as Qantas learned in 2011 when its #QantasLuxury campaign backfired spectacularly.

Instead of tweeting their ‘dream inflight experience’ users hijacked the hashtag with jokes at the airline’s expense.

The red-faced PR team later admitted it was not the response it was expecting.

But the platform can also be a force for a good, as shown during disasters such as the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires and the 2011 Queensland floods.

Twitter was used by emergency workers and other organisations to get alerts and updates to people on the ground.

Twitter says about 35,000 tweets were sent in January 2011 using the #qldfloods hashtag and the site also connected flood and bushfire victims with people offering assistance.

The lack of a Twitter company presence in the country has been a source of major frustration for politicians and police inundated with complaints about online bullying.

But those frustrations might be allayed with the company tipped to open its first Australian office this year.

Exactly when is not yet clear. What is clear is that Twitter is here to stay.

Facebook has started transforming the stream of updates from friends at home pages into a ‘personalised newspaper’ with news ranging from the personal to the global.

The News Feed on home pages at the leading social network has been revamped to get rid of clutter and present ‘bright, beautiful’ stories whether they are insights from friends or trending news of the day.

‘I think there is a special place in the world for this sort of personalised newspaper,’ Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said in introducing the overhauled News Feed.

‘It should have a front page and top news section or let you drill down into any topic you want.’

Facebook began rolling out the new News Feed ‘very slowly’ at its website reached by desktop or laptop and planned to begin adding it to its smartphone and tablet applications in the coming weeks.

Each News Feed will automatically be tuned to the interests of individual Facebook users, according to technical lead Chris Struhar.

Pictures in the feed will be gleaned from posts by friends or online pages people have indicated they ‘like’.

If a Facebook user follows pages from CNN or other professional media organisations, top shared or trending stories are displayed.

Music or film lovers should see News Feeds touting fresh developments regarding bands, stars, movies, songs or other related subjects.

Struhar told AFP ‘we hope you get all you need’ without having to leave Facebook.

While the amount of content shared at Facebook has soared, the amount of time people have to spend at the social network remains limited, inspiring the drive to more efficiently connect people with news they most care about.

‘Of course we all want to share with our friends, but we want updates from our favourite publications, artist, world leaders and more,’ Zuckerberg said. ‘This is the evolving face of News Feed.’

News Feed will give more prominence to major stories being shared by friends in the social network; trends at third-party applications such as Pinterest or Instagram, and weave in important personal bits such as a cousin with a new job.

‘When I wake up in the morning and see all my friends are sharing the exact same news story or video, I know it must be something big,’ said Facebook director of design Julie Zhuo.

‘You get a richer, simpler, more beautiful News Feed focused on the things you care about, what your friends are saying, and what is trending.’

Story source: www.bigpond.com