Whether you’re loved up or fed up on Valentine’s Day, this meditation app has the cure

Why it matters to you

Mindfulness is one of the hottest trends at the moment, but you need to choose the right app to really understand and feel the benefits

“I simply don’t have time.” How often do you make that statement? If you’re like us, then pretty often, so if it was suggested that you take a few moments to meditate each day, you’d probably derisively laugh it off as an impossibility. Simple Habit is an app that understands the problem, but knows the benefits of meditation, therefore makes it easy to squeeze it into your daily routine.

Simple Habit contains fast, five-minute mindfulness meditation plans, which can be listened to over headphones at any time, anywhere. The guided sessions are run by experienced meditation teachers, and although five minutes may sound like a short time for meditation — we often consider such a practice to involve siting cross-legged on the floor for hours — with mindfulness, the benefits come after short sessions.

What are these benefits? The app promises better sleep, more focus, improved memory, and crucially, less stress. It’s that final benefit that led Yunha Kim, CEO of Simple Habit, to create the app in the first place. She discovered meditation when stress was at its highest while running her previous startup, Locket, saying learning to meditate “changed the way I dealt with stress.”

Now, she wants others with busy, nonstop lives to reap the same rewards. Apparently, just one Simple Habit session can help focus attention; but obviously, to really get the best from the app, it requires some dedication. Simple Habit says five minutes a day for two to four weeks will really supercharge the initial effect.

Take the stress out of Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day, an annual event where restaurants are packed, flower shops are like Best Buy on Black Friday, and many (many) chocolates are handed out with declarations of undying love. It’s a busy, and sometimes pretty stressful time. Whether you’ve got a date lined up or not, the stresses that come along with Valentine’s Day can quickly be lessened using Simple Habit’s new meditations.

Six new guided meditations are available to coincide with February 14, including those to help you stay calm before a date, maintain a healthy relationship with your partner, or to mend a broken heart. The sessions are around five minutes, so you won’t have to plan too far ahead, but some categories have multiple sessions. Several different members of Simple Habit’s guidance team run the sessions. These are permanent additions to the Simple Habit library, and can be tried out during the 30 day free trial.

Additionally, if you’re without a date this Valentine’s Day, Simple Habit has teamed up with dating app Coffee Meets Bagel to help change that. If you already use Simple Habit as a premium member, then you can claim 1,000 free “beans” to spend in Coffee Meets Bagel, worth $20. Follow this link for more details on the offer. Plus, if you’re new to Simple Habit and want to try the premium version, and get going with Coffee Meets Bagel, then you can get a three-day premium trial of Simple Habit here, especially for Valentine’s Day.

Availability and price

Initially only for Apple’s iOS operating system, Simple Habit is available for Android, and as a web app. The mobile apps are free to download, but to really enjoy the app, you’ll need to pay a subscription. For both iOS and Android, it’s $12 per month, or $100 per year. If you’re really keen, a $300 one-off payment gets you a lifetime subscription. Alternatively, sessions can be purchased individually for less.

The app is packed with content. Meditations address everything from getting better sleep to getting over a breakup, and the available sessions total two years worth of content, with more added each week. Sessions can last for five, 10, or 20 minutes, and there are many different guides, so you’re not always listening to the same person. Beyond the meditation aspect, the app includes podcasts, a calendar to track progress, monthly challenges, and reminders to get meditating.

Hippies

Don’t worry if all this sounds like hippy hokum. There are several studies that show mindfulness mediation can not only reduce stress and anxiety levels, but also to train the brain to get better at multi-tasking, and to free it creatively. Apple has recently drawn attention to mindfulness meditation with the addition of the Breathe feature inside WatchOS 3, which will be released later this year. The Apple Watch app presents breathing exercises, designed to help improve focus and reduce stress.

More: Say ‘om’: Now you can meditate wearing Samsung’s Gear VR

Created with the help of a Harvard psychologist and several mediation teachers, Simple Habit has sessions designed for everyone, ready to prepare the mind for a task, or particular situation. Kim told Digital Trends that a surgeon used the app with success during the early beta test, “to focus better before performing surgery.” If that’s not a glowing recommendation, we don’t know what is.

In the first six months after Simple Habit’s release, people in 115 countries have used it to meditate for a collective total of 20,000 hours.

Download for iOS

Article originally published 06-16. Updated on 02-10-2017 by Andy Boxall: Added in details regarding Simple Habit’s Valentine’s Day programs.

NASA scientists take another step toward getting Mars rocks back to Earth

Why it matters to you

The mission could provide vital information that helps pave the way for a human trip to Mars.

As the rover’s own name cleverly suggests, Mars 2020 is set to head for the red planet in three years’ time.

The mission, assuming everything goes to plan, will see the rover carry out geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, as well as examine the habitability of the harsh environment.

It’ll also search for signs of ancient Martian life, and attempt to make an assessment of the natural resources and hazards for future human visitors. Its work could also lead to the first-ever return of rock samples from the planet.

Landing site

After a recent meet-up with scientists at a workshop in Monrovia, California, NASA has taken a big step toward choosing the all-important landing site for Mars 2020.

The team narrowed the choice from eight locations to three, though the original list included 30 different sites. First up is Columbia Hills, Gusev Crater. “Mineral springs once burbled up from the rocks of Columbia Hills,” NASA said on its site, adding that the discovery that hot springs once flowed there was a notable achievement of the Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, which stopped operating in 2010 after arriving on Mars in 2004.

Jezero Crater is another potential landing site. “Water filled and drained away from the crater on at least two occasions,” NASA said, adding that “more than 3.5 billion years ago, river channels spilled over the crater wall and created a lake.” Scientists believe that “microbial life could have lived in Jezero during one or more of these wet times. If so, signs of their remains might be found in lakebed sediments.”

The third location under consideration is Northeast Syrtis. NASA’s knowledge of the area reveals that “underground heat sources made hot springs flow and surface ice melt. Microbes could have flourished here in liquid water that was in contact with minerals. The space agency adds that the area “holds a rich record of the interactions that occurred between water and minerals over successive periods of early Mars history,” a factor that helped it onto the shortlist.

To help it make its final decision, expected some time next year, the team will further consider various criteria for each of the three sites. These include determining whether the rover would be able to achieve all of the mission’s scientific objectives, and whether it’d be able to move around safely without encountering any mobility issues.

More: NASA finalizes design for Mars 2020 rover

The 2020 mission, which will include drilling through Mars’ surface to gather rock samples, will be the first step in a multi-mission effort to get material from the red planet back to Earth.

Speaking about Mars 2020 last year, Geoffrey Yoder, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said, “This mission marks a significant milestone in NASA’s Journey to Mars – to determine whether life has ever existed on Mars, and to advance our goal of sending humans to the red planet.”

Get over yourselves! The world can’t handle more tech-hating hippie hermits

This weekend, if you find yourself washing clothes in a stream on a rocky mountain, surrounded by all the wonders of nature, you’d take a selfie, right? I would. Then I’d share it for lots of internet points. Soon, though, I’d probably be done with living it it up like it’s 1599, get in my car and drive back home.

Not Guardian journalist Mark Boyle. If he were by my side at the river, he’d no doubt shake his head at my devotion to such frivolous, modern distractions and conveniences. He wouldn’t follow me to my car either. You see, the mountain is his home, because he’s just started a crazy new lifestyle where he rejects technology to live like primitive man did. And oh boy, is he going all-out.

If the daily, constant flood of emails, Twitter notifications, SMS, and calls makes you want to throw your iPhone off the nearest tall building, it can be very tempting to embrace your inner Fred or Wilma Flintstone and disappear to live off the land, just like him. We’re here to urge you to think twice. It’s fine (although a bit weird) for one guy to do it, but if we all get the same idea, things could go very wrong, very quickly.

It’s simply not feasible, logical, or even responsible for us all to consider making a go of some hippy, tech-free lifestyle today.

Hardcore survivalist

It’s not the first time this type of experiment has been carried out. Many people have disconnected from the internet or lived without their phones for a week or two. There are even more of those crashing bores who chastise others for a perceived over-reliance on tech, after someone dared to use a phone in their presence. Boyle is different. His new life is no half-measure. He’s living in a cabin built from mud and rocks, with no electricity, no fixed water supply, no shower, no Netflix, no smartphone, no vehicle, no refrigerator, and one assumes, no sanitation.

I’m all for the responsible use of technology, but to shun it and the modern world, borders on madness.

He knows it’s not everyone’s idea of a good time, though, and isn’t saying everyone should rise up, overthrow oppressive virtual assistants, and run out into the fields laughing and smiling like extras from Little House on the Prairie. However, he paints a surprisingly attractive picture of a world without tech. You can almost hear the birds singing in the trees, and smell the fresh countryside in his words.

The spell breaks when you realize that life without technology, in Boyle’s view, means becoming a hermit. His brave old world seems to mean living like Obi-wan Kenobi in Star Wars: A New Hope. Just with the robots and lightsabers replaced by squirrels and branches. It’s this removal from society that is the most uncomfortable part of Boyle’s new lifestyle. It’s actually inevitable. Erasing oneself from both city and connected life today is the same as erasing oneself from the world. Even speaking as an introvert, this sounds pretty unpleasant.

It’s for the best he doesn’t make the whole thing too damn enticing, because as we’ll find out, that would be a very bad thing indeed.

What’s that hole for? Oh …

Let’s go back to me washing my clothes in that stream. I’m finished, and have loved it so much I’ve quickly constructed a hut, which I’ll call home from now on. What next? Food, probably. I’m not Ray Mears, so I have no idea what berries will be a nourishing meal and what berries will see me convulse on the ground in agony. Without the internet, I can’t check, either. Not to worry, my mate Boyle has left me some roots, so I’ll crunch those up. Soon after, I chuck him out so he can begin the long trudge back to his own cabin. It can’t be too close by because that would be convenient, and go against the hermit code.

Next on my list would be to dig a hole for you-know-what before bed, and because I don’t have a job, I have no money for things like toothpaste (I guess I’ll use some grass or something). Then I’ll sleep in close proximity to all the bugs humanity has worked hard to keep out of their houses for centuries. Sounds like camping, only permanently, and much, much worse.

It all sounds like turning back the clock to before the Industrial Revolution. What was that like, you might wonder? Apparently, it wasn’t much fun. “Life for the average person was difficult, as incomes were meager, and malnourishment and disease were common,” says history.com. Sounds lovely.

Boyle’s new off-the-grid lifestyle may sound fascinating, but for rational people, his reality must surely be unpalatable.

The collapse of civilization

No matter how much you despise technology, whether it’s a phone, a car, or a power station, living entirely without modern technology would be incredibly drastic. We imagine you’d have to be really unsatisfied with life, escaping from who-knows-what, or be driven by some grand passion to push boundaries like Boyle to consider it.

Worse, tech haters are dead wrong about life being better if tech didn’t exist.

Tech haters are dead wrong about life being better if tech didn’t exist.

Philosopher Clay Shirky told The Atlantic imagining the world without the internet alone is to imagine it without civilization. “The only credible post-internet visions are all tied to civilizational collapse,” he said. That means things like pandemics, nuclear war, and other apocalyptic scenarios.

Technologist Kevin Ashton, writing in response to those who think technology is bad, says without it and even the most basic tools, most of us would be dead in a few days. “Our bodies,” he argues, “are not configured to survive without the aid of technology.” The humans before us had stronger jaws, big teeth, a lot more hair on our bodies, and considerably more robust digestive systems. You, me, and Boyle aren’t made that way anymore and have evolved in-line with the technology we’ve invented.

Even the residents of Green Bank, West Virginia — the National Radio Quiet Zone, where no connected or electrical devices are allowed — don’t exist in some time warp. They have modern homes, toilets, jobs, stores, vehicles, and, well, civilization. If you’re looking for a way to escape city life, and the pressures it sometimes brings, then arguably Green Bank and its surrounding towns is the right place to go.

Dead by dawn

Why would it be bad if we all headed out into the wilderness? One last time, let’s imagine I’m happy in my hut, have worked out what food makes me vomit, got myself a prime bit of grass and a little stream, and am slowly but surely converting others to mine and Boyle’s way of life. The cities are emptying, and the countryside is filling up, as we revert back to the way we were before. What a wonderful new world.

Well, perhaps not. Ashton says even if we do master the basic art of survival without technology, and everyone else wants the same thing, the world won’t be a better place. “Imagine doing all these things in competition with other people and species, all trying to find natural shelter, naturally potable water, digestible food, and to keep their families alive.’ He asks, “How long could you survive?”

Mark Boyle

I’ve seen enough episodes of The Walking Dead to know it probably wouldn’t be very long. The idyllic days of washing my clothes in that mountain stream would get a lot less idyllic if I’m constantly watching out for someone sneaking up behind me, ready to bash in my brains in for the seeds in my pocket.

I’m all for the responsible use of technology, but to shun it and the modern world, borders on madness. Boyle’s experiment is fascinating, but one I’ll watch from afar. It seems the rest of humanity would be wise to do the same.

Banking app hack leads to theft of $3,000 through card-less, smartphone operated eATM

Why it matters to you

Just because we consider our smartphones to be secure, doesn’t mean we should be less vigilant when using them to access bank accounts and new eATMs

Do you use Chase Bank’s eATM machines, the ones which operate using your smartphone as identification? There are reports gathering criminals may have figured out a way to circumvent security measures, and steal money from your account. While not widespread, the stories do involve large amounts of money, and should serve as a reminder about the importance of good information security.

The most recent story to come to light actually happened in November last year, where $3,000 was fraudulently taken from a Chase bank account via an eATM and the Chase mobile banking app. In a letter to local news site cleveland.com, the Chase customer, on finding the money missing from his account, was informed his account had been “hacked” using these services. The customer was also locked out of his account, which Chase said was due to multiple attempts to access it with an Android smartphone, a device he didn’t use.

More: Chase Bank adds fingerprint identification to its Android app

Chase’s eATM machines differ from a traditional ATM by not requiring a card. You can access them using codes provided in the Chase phone app, a two-step verification style method which many may already be familiar with from for their Google account, Twitter account, and many others. That sounds more secure than a simple card and PIN system, so how was the account compromised?

It’s not absolutely clear, but another case does suggest the eATM may make it easier for thieves already attacking an online banking account to get their hands on cash. In this report from January, a customer lost $2.900 through an eATM, after the victim’s online banking details, and associated phone number were all altered, which then facilitated the theft using a card-less ATM. The similarity in the amount stolen in each case here is due to the higher, $3,000 daily withdrawal limit offered by some Chase eATM machines. A larger case featuring card-less ATM fraud was recently cracked, and anecdotal evidence of other eATM fraud cases appears on Reddit.

Should you be worried about using these machines, or smartphones for banking generally? No, not if we remember the basics of protecting our identity and accounts. Criminals have always, and will always, try to find ways into our bank accounts. Card-less ATM machines are becoming more common, with Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and other international banks all introducing the system. Chase Bank has also made alterations to improve security,

There’s a danger, due to our growing familiarity and comfort using smartphones to make transactions either online, in-app, or through a mobile payment system, that we will forget all the usual advice on security still applies. Strong passwords, avoiding public Wi-Fi, lowering withdrawal limits, adding two-factor authentication where possible, and opting to receive message and email alerts of account activity all help avoid becoming victims of this type of crime.

Bargain alert: If you’re quick, a Valentine’s Day Honor 6X bundle can be yours for $250

Why it matters to you

A metal smartphone with a dual-lens camera that only costs $250? That’s the Honor 6X, and you need to know about it

Huawei’s Honor phones have always been strong competitors at their budget price points. Last year’s Honor 5X delivered exceptional cameras, a metal unibody, and a powerful processor for a palatable $250. At the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Huawei’s keeping a good thing going with a new Honor phone — the Honor 6X.

How to buy one

Pricing starts at $250 for the Honor 6X 3GB and $300 for the Honor 6X 4GB. However, Honor regularly holds flash sales and sweetens the deal with special offers, so always check to see what’s available through the company’s own online store before buying one.

More: Our review of the Honor 6X

At the time of writing, there’s still time to pick up the Honor 6X as a special Valentine’s Day bundle, where for $250 you get the phone and an Honor selfie stick, a case, and a pair of Honor Engine earbuds for free. The offer is only found on Honor’s own online store.

In the U.K., the 3GB/32GB Honor 6X costs 224 British pounds through Huawei’s vMall online store, or it can be purchased on Pay As You Go, or with a monthly contract with Three UK. It’s priced at 200 British pounds on PAYG, or with monthly tariffs starting at 16 British pounds.

The Honor 6X comes in gold, silver, and gray. In addition to the United States and the United Kingdom, the phone is sold in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq.

What you need to know about the Honor 6X

The Honor 6X was not a mystery, exactly. It launched at an October 2016 press event in China. But Huawei’s broadening its availability in January, beginning with the U.S. and Europe and expanding to other regions in the coming weeks.

More: Lenovo Moto Z and Z Force review

It’s a beauty to behold. The slim, sleek Honor 6X boasts a unibody aluminum design that weighs 162 grams and a curved glass edge that measures a mere 8.2mm in thickness. The display, a 5.5-inch full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) panel of the LCD variety, reaches 450 nits and has a 0.3-second response time — a 42 percent improvement from previous Honor models.

Under the Honor 6X’s machine-polished hood sits Huawei’s custom Kirin 655, an octa-core processor comprised of four high-powered cores clocked at 2.1GHz and a second set of energy-saving cores at 1.7GHz. A tertiary i5 coprocessor handles lighter tasks like speech recognition, music playback, sensor processing, and location tracking. Both are paired with up to 4GB of RAM and internal storage managed by Huawei’s smart file system, which automatically prevents file fragmentation and optimizes read and write speeds.

Three cameras

The Honor 6X’s silicon is not the only highlight. Huawei’s new handset packs a rear camera with a 1.25μm pixel size, built-in noise reduction algorithms, and a Sony sensor capable of honing on subjects in 0.3 seconds. And it’s the first in the Honor series to pack a dual-sensor rear camera; a 12-megapixel sensor handles color data, while an adjacent 2-megapixel monochrome snapper measures brightness levels. Its software combines the two to produce an image that Huawei says is much brighter and crisper in low-light conditions than your average phone camera.

More: Huawei’s Honor to launch modular smartphone with no speaker or camera

The dual-sensor design allows for other effects, too. The Honor 6X’s camera can refocus (within an aperture value of f/.95 to f/16) on subjects in the foreground after the picture has been taken, and automatically convert pictures to monochrome. Huawei’s accompanying software supports low-light shots, long exposure, and custom filters.

The front-facing camera and fingerprint sensors are nothing to scoff at, either. The Honor 6X’s 8-megapixel front camera features a 77-degree lens for wide-angle selfies and a built-in “Beauty” mode that recognizes and fixes blemishes. The Honor 6X’s fingerprint sensor also supports swipe gestures; swiping left and right flips through pics in a photo album, for instance, while a series of taps snoozes alarms and places calls.

All that technology is rather energy efficient, luckily. The Honor 6X’s 3,340mAh battery should last up to two days on a single charge, Huawei says, or up to 11.5 hours of video, 70 hours of music, and eight hours of gaming. And it supports 5V/2A power delivery, meaning fast recharge times.

The Honor 6X launched on the eve of the Honor brand’s third anniversary, which now reaches more than 74 different countries and regions, and topped $6 billion in global sales in 2016.

Article originally published in October 2016 by Kyle Wiggers. Updated on 02-13-2017 by Andy Boxall: Added in latest Honor offer, and news of the Honor 6X’s availability in the United Kingdom.

Fitbit’s entire 2016 lineup is discounted for Valentine’s Day

Fitbit is offering a 25% discount on its fitness trackers in time for Valentine’s Day.

Ahead of Valentine’s Day, Fitbit is discounting its 2016 product lineup. The discounts range from $20 to $50, with the sale lasting until 9 a.m. PST, February 15. You can pick up the discounted products either from Amazon or directly from Fitbit.

Here’s what’s on sale right now:

• Fitbit Charge 2 – $129 – $20 off
• Fitbit Alta – $98 – $31 off
• Fitbit Flex 2 –
• Fitbit Blaze – $149 – $50 off

The discounts are valid on all sizes and color options. If you’ve been holding out on a deal on Fitbit’s latest activity trackers, now is the time to act.

See at Amazon

How to add complications to your watch face on Android Wear 2.0

Watch faces aren’t just for looks anymore — now they can give you tons of useful information.

Android Wear 2.0 brings a ton of new features to your smartwatch, but one of the more noticeable is the addition of customizable “complications” on your watch faces. Complications are a two part system — watch face developers can design their faces to have open slots of the complications, and app developers can surface parts of their apps to integrate as complications.

As the Google Play Store on your Android Wear 2.0 watch starts to fill with freshly updated watch faces and apps that include complications, you’ll want to spend a little time customizing things to make the most of the new capabilities. Here’s how you can get it done.

Press and hold on your watch face to enter edit mode.

• If the watch face supports complications, it will launch into an editor with options.
• If you don’t see the editor, the watch face has not yet been updated to support it.

Scroll down to Layouts where you’ll see multiple options for the number and arrangement of complications.
Tap the complication layout you want to select it and go back to the edit mode.
On the watch face, you’ll notice empty spots with + buttons — tap them to add a complication to that spot.
Scroll through the list of available complications to find one you like, tap to select it.

• Some apps may provide more than one complication, and will show all options when tapped.

Repeat by tapping other complication slots until your watch face is completely filled.

• To replace a current complication, just tap that spot to go back to the picker.

And that’s it! Your watch face will be looking great (and personalized) after you spend a few minutes configuring your complications. Once you’ve configured a watch face with complications, they will stay in place on that watch face until you change them again — even if you switch to another watch face.

Android Wear

• Everything you need to know about Android Wear 2.0
• LG Watch Sport review
• LG Watch Style review
• These watches will get Android Wear 2.0
• Discuss Android Wear in the forums!

Verizon’s trade-in offer for its unlimited plan includes a free Pixel, LG V20, or S7 edge

Get the latest flagship phones for free when you trade in your older device and switch to Verizon’s unlimited plan.

Verizon is bringing back its unlimited plan for $80, or $45 per line for four lines on a family plan. You’ll be able to use high-speed LTE until 22GB, following which your data speeds will be de-prioritised in the case of network congestion. The plan also includes hotspot tethering up to 10GB, and comes with free calling to Canada and Mexico.

To incentivize its unlimited plan, Verizon is offering a new trade-in plan through which you can pick up a Pixel, LG V20, Galaxy S7, S7 edge, Moto Z Droid or Moto Z Force Droid, or the latest iPhones for free.

To be eligible, you’ll need to switch from your current carrier to Verizon’s unlimited plan, and be willing to trade in any of the following handsets: Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+, Samsung Galaxy S7, Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, Samsung Note 5, LG G5, LG V20, HTC 10, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 7, or the iPhone 7 Plus.

Once you trade in, you’ll receive the full retail price of any of the aforementioned devices (up to $792) in the form of bill credits over the course of 24 months. Verizon is rolling out a second offer through which you can get your hands on the latest flagships by paying $5 a month after trading in one of the following devices: Apple iPhone SE, Samsung Note 4, Samsung Galaxy S5, LG G4, LG V10, or the HTC M9.

Here’s the breakdown on the new unlimited plans, straight from Verizon:

• $80 for unlimited data, talk and text on your smartphone with paper-free billing and AutoPay.
• $120 for two lines and $160 for three lines for unlimited data, talk and text on your smartphone with paper-free billing and AutoPay.
• $45 per line for four lines ($180 total) with unlimited data, talk and text on your smartphones and tablets with paper-free billing and AutoPay.
• Need more than four lines? Add an additional line, up to 10 lines, for $20 per line per month.

When it comes to Wi-Fi mesh networks, more isn’t always better

Are a handful of Plume Pods better than 3 Google Wifi pucks? Maybe.

There are a lot of ways to get a radio signal from one place to another. This is as true for your home Wi-Fi setup as it is for any other radio equipment. When it comes to mesh networking, there are two distinct types of setup being offered by a growing handful of companies. Trying to sort out what’s best for you and your house can be tough.

More: Do I really need a mesh network?

If you decide that a mesh network is what you need to get good Wi-Fi everywhere you need it, you have quite a few choices. They all are a little different but are designed to be placed around your house so you’re always in range of a good, strong Wi-Fi signal. While the concept is the same — several small “stations” close to the places you need them — the number of stations (nodes) you need depends on how your house is laid out.

The wireless signal coming from a mesh access point is like a sphere or a bubble.

Inside this bubble, you have a strong connection to the network. This works great if you can get a network mesh node in a spot to spread that bubble around where you need it. Then you put another bubble in another spot to cover more places. It’s a great way to spread the Wi-Fi around your house, but not be blasting it to the neighbor’s house where it can interfere with his Wi-Fi. Anyone who lives in a crowded building with a lot of Wi-Fi networks can tell you how difficult it can be to have a good signal because all the channels we use for Wi-Fi are crowded.

More: How Wi-Fi mesh networks work

A setup like Google Wifi has a small number of network nodes. They transmit a strong signal in all directions and two or three nodes (plus the one attached to your router) will cover most houses. They are excellent products that work better than advertised and most anyone who buys into them will be happy with the results. Other products like Netgear’s Orbi or eero are similar — fewer units with each having a (relatively) large range of coverage.

An alternative way of doing things is with a product like Plume’s Pod system. Plume Pods are tiny. They plug directly into an outlet and have a small signal bubble. You put a Pod everywhere you need one instead of placing one in a spot that can cover multiple rooms. The result is the same — when you’re in range of a network node you have a good Wi-Fi signal.

Your house will decide for you

You want Wi-Fi where you need it. Maybe you want it in the bedroom, the living room and the kitchen. You’re not concerned about blanketing the garage or storage closet or anywhere else with Wi-Fi. Plume’s Pods could be great for you.

Small, short-range Wi-Fi nodes are like a light bulb. One for every room.

The Pods are small, use very little power and have a completely separate channel they use to talk to each other so they aren’t using the bandwidth you are for watching a movie or getting online. That means you can use as many Pods as you want. I’m sure there is a limit somewhere, but it’s not going to be reached in your home.

They also have a very small range. They are designed to be dropped in the room you need Wi-Fi in. Plume compares them to a light bulb — one in every room. That’s a perfect analogy. It’s a good thing and a bad thing.

Google Wifi’s much larger range per node can be a problem if you have to place them too close together.

Ideally, your phone or TV or whatever you’re connecting to Wi-Fi will pick the strongest signal it can attach to. You tell it to connect to MYNETWORK and give it a password, and it connects to MYNETWORK when it finds it. With two powerful satellite nodes in close proximity, it might not connect to the closest one.

Google Wifi’s more powerful signal means it needs more room.

This isn’t a big deal for something stationary like your TV or a game console. You’re not moving either end of the connection. But the phone in your pocket can move from one end of the house to another, and it can get confused about when it’s time to grab the stronger signal because it’s already connected to a strong signal. As you move around it can get better or worse, and you can end up scanning and hop from one node to another which can affect your network speed.

None of that happens with Plume’s Pod system.When you leave the living room, a light bulb doesn’t shine through the walls to the bedroom, and a Plume Pod is like a light bulb.

If you have a big house but it’s laid out in a way where mesh satellite nodes are too close together (the Google Wifi app does a great job making sure you place them far enough apart, but it’s not perfect by any means) you could see problems. You fix those problems by moving the nodes further apart, or by using more access points with a smaller range.

This can be tough in something like a tall, narrow townhouse or row house where a mesh point on each floor will get crowded, but one on the top floor and one on the lowest floor might not cover everywhere. Long, narrow homes can pose the same problem. Think about where a 40-foot bubble will fit without the centers of two of them being too close together.

Either method can give you awesome Wi-Fi throughout your home. If you’re not in a situation where you would have two powerful mesh points close to each other, look to things like features and price to help you decide.

See at Plume

Google Hardware

• Google Wifi review
• Google Home review
• Everything you need to know about the Chromecast Ultra
• Chromecast vs Chromecast Ultra: Which should you buy?

Google Wifi:

Google
Amazon

Google Home:

Google
Best Buy

Chromecast Ultra:

Google
Best Buy

How to play the Pangolin Love Valentine’s Google Doodle

Love is in the air at Google, as it’s Valentine’s Day on the 14 February. To mark the occasion, Google has come up with another one of its fun Doodle games. This year’s one sees you play as a Pangolin, a mammal native to Africa and Asia, on his quest to reach his girlfriend on the other side of the world.

The game starts with a cut-scene showing our hero receiving a card from his girlfriend asking him to come and see her, but he realises he doesn’t have a present. He notices other Pangolin that are in love eating cake, playing music, dancing and receiving flowers, so he tries to do the same.

Google

There are four levels to the game, each one set in a different country, and each one has a different task. You start in Ghana where you need to collect cocoa beans to make a cake. It’s a platform style game, and you simply use the left and right arrow keys of your keyboard to move the hero around the world. It’s very similar to games such as Sonic. You also need to press the spacebar to jump or hold it down to jump higher. You’ll need to avoid obstacles that look like circular saws. If you hit one, you don’t lose any items you’ve collected, but you are stunned for a short period of time and you only have 3 minutes to complete each level (4 four minutes on the final level).

Each level does show an obvious path to follow, but there are often items hidden behind walls that disappear when you approach them, so make sure you investigate everywhere before moving further to the right. Once you’ve reached the end of a level, you won’t be able to go back. If you don’t manage to collect all the items, you can choose to replay the level.

Google

The second level is set in India and asks you to collect song notes to learn a song. This level is slightly different because for the most-part you’re underwater. You still need to use the left and right arrows and spacebar, but you need to keep pressing it to swim upwards and back onto dry land.

Google

China is the destination for level three, and it features Chinese lanterns which you can use to swing to different platforms. When you jump towards a lantern, you need to press spacebar again to attach to it and press it again to release.

Google

The final level is set in the Phillipines, where you have to collect flowers to make a bouquet. In the first three levels you need to collect 150 items, but in the final level that increases to 300. There are many more platforms and avenues to explore so be sure to use the full 4 minutes of allotted time. This levels combines everything from the previous three, swimming, jumping and swinging. 

Once you reach the end, you’re united with your lover, but you trip and fall under the weight of all your gifts. Fortunately, she doesn’t mind, she’s just happy you’re there. If only real love was just as simple.