App Attack: Keep calm and carry on with Expectful
There are plenty of pregnancy apps out there that focus on a baby’s stages of growth, tracking fertility and ovulation cycles, and there are even wearables to monitor contractions. But sometimes, moms tend to forget about nurturing their mental health — that’s where Expectful steps in.
The app provides guided fertility meditations for women trying to conceive, or women preparing for birth and delivery. When creating Expectful, the team devoted a lot of time researching what they refer to as “mind/baby connection” — the way women’s emotions during pregnancy affect the baby’s development and growth later on.
The team used studies such as the Quebec ice storm — where women who were pregnant during the storm were left without power for long periods of time, creating high stress levels.
“Their findings showed the infants and children of women pregnant during [the Quebec ice storm] had impairments in IQ and language skills, which were sustained even as they got older. Although this example speaks to an extreme level of stress, typical levels are normal and can still promote fetal development,” Anna Gannon, Expectful’s community guide and editorial lead, told Digital Trends.
So what’s Expectful’s solution to reduce these types of stress levels, and other struggles during pregnancy on both parents and children? Meditation. Through meditative sessions, the app attempts to ease depression and anxiety to avoid any negative effects on the baby.
According to other statistics found on the company’s site, research showed 50 percent of women were less likely to give birth early if they participated in mindfulness training compared to women who didn’t. Another study discovered meditation can also help reduce pain by 40 percent with meditators also experiencing lower pain sensitivity.
Gannon said the Expectful team interviewed women in different stages of their pregnancy and gathered data on the challenges or obstacles they faced during each trimester. Using this data, they worked with a psychologist and a team of licensed hypnotherapists to create meditation sessions.
The interface is super simple to use and visually-pleasing due to the use of light colors and an easy-to-navigation structure. All the sections are clearly separated, and each session includes a description of what to expect while meditating.
Of all the main categories on the app — preparing to conceive, trimesters one through three, motherhood, and urgent care — I started with preparing to conceive. The categories are further divided into emotional awareness, physical awareness, and couples meditation, with specialized sessions for each section. I’m not pregnant or preparing to conceive (for an extremely long time, trust me) but I already have anxiety and nightmares about the entire process — why not start mentally coaching myself early.
Under the preparing to conceive section, I noticed the sessions are specifically focused on strengthening the relationship you have with yourself — topics like inner connection, forgiving judgement, and releasing anger. The point is to allow yourself the chance to release any negativity you’re holding on to, and begin the journey with an open mind.
Meditation has always been an activity I struggled to enjoy because I don’t have the patience to sit still and shut my brain off, but the 10 and 20 minute sessions you get to choose between were bearable. One aspect I really enjoyed is how well-rounded the sessions are. The topics are realistic — they don’t sugarcoat the reality of how rough pregnancy can be, and the range of emotions you’ll experience. But the app provides you with a calm voice to guide you through all of it, giving you a chance to collect your thoughts and stay in the present.
Once I moved on to the different trimesters, it seemed as though the sessions started to build upon the strength you’ve formed with yourself — and started to encourage you to focus on how you’ll apply that power to the relationship with your baby. The motherhood section emphasizes letting go of fear that might arise knowing you’re now responsible for another human being. This includes anything from practicing patience, and releasing expectations, to trusting yourself.
When I asked my co-workers — who are mothers themselves — on the experience of being pregnant, they all agreed the first time was definitely the scariest. They expressed that because it was all so new, the pregnancy was all they would think about and at times, obsess over. However, once the second time came around they were too busy taking care of their first child to have any time to really overthink the pregnancy.
While having loved ones around to comfort you during the new journey can obviously help, they might not always know the right thing to say or do. Pregnancy will always scare me, but Expectful — available on iOS for free — might actually convince me to download more mediation apps to use on a daily basis.
Venmo is apparently working on a physical debit card
Why it matters to you
Venmo is looking for new ways to stay relevant and create revenue, and a physical debit card may be the way to go.
In this day and age, the general shift is away from the physical and towards the digital, but it seems that the tables may be turning once again. According to a new report, Venmo is testing a physical debit card that would make it easier for people who store money in their Venmo accounts to turn around and use these funds to make purchases at brick and mortar stores.
As per Recode, Venmo’s test has been largely internal thus far, with employee Venmo feeds apparently confirming these trials. How can you tell? Apparently, some of these employees have been making Venmo purchases at physical stores, like Chipotle and Taco Bell, or other retail locations. Truly, nothing goes unnoticed these days — not even your personal spending.
If all this proves true, it would certainly be a departure from Venmo’s bread and butter, which has historically remained solidly in the digital sphere. After all, the whole point of having a money transferring app was to get rid of physical tender, like checks or cash. But it would seem that Venmo wants to be relevant in all spheres, and that includes the tangible one, too.
According to Recode’s source, this physical Venmo debit card would be linked directly to a Venmo account balance, which means that you wouldn’t have to wait to transfer this money into a bank account before spending it (especially since that takes a day or so). And while PayPal, Venmo’s parent company, recently introduced a feature to compete with Zelle called Instant Transfers, which promises to move money from a PayPal account into a bank account in a matter of minutes, there is a nominal fee associated with such a feature.
Another potential benefit, Recode points out, is the potential for revenue generation. Merchants must pay a fee on debit or credit card transactions, which could finally mean a source of income for Venmo (which is otherwise free for most users).
A Venmo spokesperson has remained cagey on the report, saying only, “We will continue to test, introduce and expand features that allow people to use Venmo to pay friends and shop. We have nothing to announce at this time.”
Save 33% on these wallet-sized stands for your phones and tablets
The past decade has seen us all steadily rely on our smartphones and tablets for all our entertainment purposes. In 2017, you can get away with watching all your favorite TV shows, movies, and YouTube content wherever you are on your smartphone or tablet.
Get a three-pack of stands for all your devices! Learn more
It’s great and convenient but has also led to other problems like trying to find a way to prop up that phone or tablet for hands-free viewing. There are a number of accessories you can slap on your phone that gives you that extra functionality, but what if you could have a convenient kickstand that fits in your wallet?
That’s where this great deal from Android Central Digital Offers comes in. You can get a 3-pack of slick wallet-sized stands for just $19.99. These cards fold flat, but can be set up in seconds whenever you need. The adjustable aluminum support bar pops into nine different slots, giving you a wide range of viewing angles to choose from. While the size is small, these portable stands will support your phone or a tablet (up to 11-inches) in either landscape or portrait mode. Leave one in the kitchen so it’s always there for following along with recipes, or in your bedroom for those late-night YouTube binges.
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Typically a 3-pack of these stands would sell for $30 but thanks to this deal from Android Central Digital Offers you can get yours for only $20. Keep one for yourself and give the other two away to friends or family, or horde them all for yourself. The choice is yours!
OnePlus 5’s camera shows us the delicate balance of setting and meeting expectations
It’s tough to hype up a phone while also keeping things realistic.
With the launch of the OnePlus 5 this week, we got to see a perfect example of what a delicate balance companies navigate in setting expectations and delivering on promises. OnePlus has always talked a (strategically) big game about many aspects of its phones — this year, it was all about the camera. Even during the launch event, at which point reviewers had been using the phone for over a week, the presenters espoused the wonderment of the new dual camera setup.
The only ‘issue’ here is the camera not reaching the great heights OnePlus claimed.
Reviews of the OnePlus 5’s camera were slightly mixed, but in general came to the consensus that it’s merely good, not great — and not challenging phones like the Galaxy S8, LG G6 and HTC U11. That’s a problem, but not necessarily one with the camera itself — it mostly stems from the marketing of the OnePlus 5 that centered around the cameras and set unreasonably high expectations. It’s a fine line: as a company, do you play it cool and then over-deliver? Or do you talk a big game to boost sales and run the risk of coming up short?
I think this time OnePlus overextended itself a bit too much in terms of claims about camera performance. Cameras are really hard to get right, and just about impossible to perfect, even for companies that have been at this for a whole lot longer than OnePlus. That’s what made this strategy so risky — despite the OnePlus 5’s camera actually being pretty good, the deck was stacked against OnePlus launching a game-changing camera experience.
Despite the hyper-analyzing of the camera performance this week, I still stand by the conclusion in my review:
Measuring the OnePlus 5 on its main camera alone, it’s a capable shooter that improves from last year but also doesn’t perfectly match up to the top-end flagships out there today that can offer better, more consistent performance in a variety of shooting conditions. The secondary camera gives a small bump to the OnePlus 5’s overall camera experience, enabling new shooting options and a fun-to-play-with Portrait Mode, but it really doesn’t seem like adding this second camera was worth losing OIS (and perhaps larger pixels) and the potential for better photos out of the main camera.
For a $479 phone, that’s definitely good enough. Seeing improvement from last year and generally good camera performance is what you expect for that price. The only “issue” here is the camera not reaching the great heights that OnePlus claimed it would.
Now, on to a few more points from the week that was:
- For even more OnePlus 5, be sure to listen to our latest podcast — Daniel, Alex, Michael Fisher and I talk for well over an hour on the phone.
- Now that Bixby Voice is out in the world for more people to test, we’re starting to get a feel for what this service will really be like. Let’s see how much it improves prior to a proper consumer launch.
- Regardless of how good Bixby Voice ends up being, it’s hard to see things any other way than Samsung dropping the ball not having it ready to launch with the Galaxy S8, though. This is way too late — and I’m sure it’s been bothering a lot of people internally at Samsung.
- Then there’s the bigger question: even if Bixby Voice is great, does that make us at all want to use Bixby Home or Bixby Vision? Because those continue to be lackluster products.
- On a personal note, my brother Kris and his wife Alisa got married on Friday. Not only are they wonderful for each other, but it’s quite amazing how they have brought together two very large families. The future’s going to be great.
That’s it for now. Have a great week, everyone.
-Andrew
WhatsApp is becoming a top news source in some countries
WhatsApp might not be all that popular in the US, but in some places, it’s fast becoming a place where people can safely share and get the latest news. According to a study conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, more and more people are beginning to rely on the messaging service instead of on its parent company, Facebook, for news. Sure, 47 percent of the survey’s 71,805 respondents from 36 countries still go to the social network to find out what’s happening in the world. But the percentage of people using Facebook for news has dropped in more than half of the 36 countries compared to last year.
Next to 47 percent, the percentage (15) of respondents who said they use WhatsApp to get the latest in current affairs sounds positively tiny. However, when divided by country, the app’s numbers become much more impressive:
Over half of the Malaysian and 46 percent of the Brazilian participants said they use WhatsApp for news. The service seems to be especially popular in Chile, Singapore, Hong Kong, Spain and Turkey, as well. But why exactly are people beginning to turn to the chat app when they want to see what’s new? To start with, some carriers in those countries bundle free WhatsApp access with mobile subscriptions. The study says it also helps that the service has end-to-end encryption, making it more appealing to places like Hong Kong and Turkey, where it’s dangerous to voice out anti-government sentiments. In addition, Facebook’s reputation recently took a beating, since it waited a long time before it even started conjuring up solutions to combat all the fake news shared on the social network.
Via: CNET
Source: Digital News Report
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