Android 4.4 KitKat for two weeks: A detailed review

A Whole New Look

The moment you first see the new home screen in KitKat, the improvements are apparent. The fonts appear smaller and more slender, while several newly redesigned app icons have grown a bit in size.

The biggest visual change for most users, while still subtle, is likely to be the addition of a more fully transparent background to the top status bar, the on-screen buttons on the bottom of the home screen, and the app drawer.

The result is a user experience that seems a little more unified and grounded in the home screen(s) and is somehow warmer – it's kind of nice not to be launching apps from the black void of a background-less app drawer.

This line of thought also carries over to the revamped lock screen in KitKat, which now offers more complete control over media that's playing without having to go through the unlocking process, and also displays album art attractively in another nice visual touch.

Other small aesthetic tweaks can be found throughout KitKat, notably a new look for the clock app and the download manager, which now comes with an optional grid view.

Another change that might make sense from a holistic design perspective but needlessly removes some handy bits of functionality is the move to "de-blue" a number of icons throughout KitKat. For example, in the status bar, the Wi-Fi and cell network activity icons no longer turn blue to indicate the presence of data connectivity. Instead, they're always gray when present and there's no longer a means of checking your network data status at a glance. Previous actions like keyboard presses that may have previously resulted in blue highlights have also gone gray in KitKat.

The new lock screen displays album art of
currently playing media

A few other features are newly hidden in this update, which caused a little confusion for me. The widget drawer in KitKat has been divorced from the app drawer and is accessed by long-pressing on any blank area of a home screen, which will bring up Google settings, wallpapers and widgets.

There's also no immediately obvious way to add home screens. It has to be done by selecting and dragging an app, either from an existing home screen or the app drawer, to the right edge of the screen, which then either scrolls to the next screen to the right, or creates a new one. But what if you want to add a new home screen all the way to the left, you ask? No dice, and here's why:

Google Now Has A New Home

From the home screen, if you swipe left, you'll always eventually land on the Google Now screen displaying all your personalized cards and the search bar.

KitKat has baked Google Now, search and voice control deeper into Android than ever before. On the Nexus 5, once you're past your lock screen you can say "OK, Google" at any point to trigger Google Now's voice control and start barking out commands and searches.

If you've got a Moto X, which is just beginning to get the KitKat update as of this writing, you'll be able to activate voice control without even touching the device, so long as it's powered on.

As mentioned earlier, you can also adjust settings for Google Now, search and voice control by simply long-pressing on any home screen empty space.

While the left-most Google Now home screen can't be removed, KitKat does allow for management of any home screen replacements that you might install. You switch between them in the "Home" section of Settings.

Revamped Apps

A number of native Android apps get new treatments in KitKat, starting with Hangouts, which has swallowed text messaging in the process. This is probably my least favorite "improvement" in Android 4.4 – combining SMS and Google Hangouts (which itself had already swallowed Google Talk and Chat in earlier versions) isn't intuitive at first and it can be confusing to know which method of communication you're actually using to contact someone.

Did you just SMS or IM your cousin about the movie that starts in five minutes? In Hangouts it's easy to confuse the two, leading to potential headaches. Combining these functions into one app isn't necessarily a bad idea, but it's not well-executed in the current iteration.

The next big change is seen in the phone app, which attempts to shift the focus away from the dialpad, encouraging you instead to search for contacts and businesses via both the web and locally on your device. The dialpad is still there, but it's just not the first thing you see, and when you click on its icon, it overlays itself over the search window instead of taking the full screen.

When you receive a call that isn't in your local contacts, Google now introduces its own form of caller ID by cross-checking the incoming call number with Google Places. So if the call is coming from an existing business, it's likely that you'll be able to see which one is calling you in KitKat, which is a nice little bonus.

The email app in KitKat has also been refreshed with nested folders and better navigation, and there's also a new app for Photos, which is actually kind of strange because it's basically the same as the old Gallery app, but with the updated KitKat look. What's strange is that the old Gallery app is also still here in 4.4, but the camera app has been broken out to stand on its own. So enjoy the extra place to browse your photos, I guess.

Other notable apps and app changes include the inclusion of Quickoffice, which is quite a nice little add as a native app. Android Device Manager provides the ability to find or wipe your device should it be lost, and you'll also find a full-screen "immersive mode" (like that already seen on lots of Samsung devices), a new emoji keyboard and printer support using Google cloud print for apps.

More Support

The new look and apps are the big news in KitKat, but there's also some added support for certain uses that don't make headlines on their own, starting with Bluetooth Message Access Profiles that are frequently used to connect a smartphone to the head unit of a vehicle.

Infrared blasting is also now supported to turn your phone into a remote control for certain devices like set-top boxes.

For fitness freaks, step counting is now built in to Android to allow your phone to act as a pedometer and interface with apps like Moves on the Nexus 5.

Finally, some new power-saving features allow KitKat to be less demanding on devices. On the Nexus 5, a special low-power mode can allow for up to 60 hours of continuous audio playback, and new location modes allow you to keep track of your whereabouts when you need it and without having to manually toggle GPS and network settings to save battery when you don't.

Final Thoughts

KitKat is an iterative update for the most part. It doesn't introduce anything revolutionary, but it is an interesting next step in the evolution of Android. The aesthetics of the mobile OS are much improved, and we get a glimpse at where Google is heading with integrating core services like search and Google Now.

Perhaps most impressive is that the improvements were made while also making Android leaner than its predecessors. KitKat is optimized to run on devices with as little as 512 MB of RAM to help facilitate expansion into emerging markets where flagship phones with top-of-the-line specs are less common.

With a point update as impressive as this, it shall be exciting to see what's in store for Android 5.0.

Review: Samsung Galaxy Round (SM-G910S)

The Galaxy Round looks like the Galaxy Note III quite a lot. As said before, the handset uses a screen with a slight curve – the curve is almost not noticeable is certainly minimal. The screen type is the same as the Note 3’s, namely a 5.68-inch Full HD 1080p Super AMOLED display. What’s striking about the Round is how nice it feels when held in the hand. That’s a result of Samsung hang bent the back of the device along with the screen – oh, and the back is the same as the Galaxy Note 3’s, a plastic cover but with a leather pattern with faux stitching that makes it feel more premium than any other Samsung smartphone in recent years. Elsewhere, the Galaxy Round remains basically the same as the Note 3, but lacks S Pen functionality.

Here are some pictures of the design from the Galaxy Round plus some comparison pictures with the Galaxy Note 3.

More on: Sammoblie

Fast & Furious mini version!

Post by Interesting Things.

What happens when you ask international architects to redesign the bus stop?

Consult the English-language branch of Wikipedia as to the whats and whereabouts of Krumbach, and you will discover that it is a small Austrian market town nestled in a region of some archaeological interest, that it was beset by plague and cholera in the 16- and 1700s, and that its first fire station was founded in 1884 (disclaimer: citations needed). What you won't learn, though surely it is only now a matter of time, is that the town has been the focus of seven architectural practices who were invited to submit bold new takes on the humble bus stop.

Local association kultur kumbrach invited architects from Belgium, Chile, China, Japan, Norway, Russia and Spain, all of whom responded within four weeks, Der Spiegel reports. The resulting designs, curated by Austrian architect Dietmar Steiner under the banner Bus:Stop vary from practical shelters to avant-garde sculptures. One, a design nearer the useful end of the spectrum from Chilean architect Smiljan Radic, has been built already. His enclosed design is more like a minimalist take on a railway station waiting room, though with a birdhouse on the roof.

It's unclear whether the remaining designs, depicted in both visualizations and 1:7.5 models, will be built. Health and safety advisors may have something to say about the submission from Japan's Sou Fujimoto, which appears to comprise an exposed stairway to nowhere surrounded by a thicket of narrow vertical uprights.

The remaining submissions, from Belgium's dvvt, Russia's Alexander Brodsky, Spain's Ensamble Studio, Norway's Rintala Eggertsson, and China's Wang Shu, can be seen in the gallery.

via: gizmag

La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Magic Tube!!!

Tooth paste as a hand sanitizer
Want to make your hands germ free? Take a drop of toothpaste and mix it with a little water, apply this mixture to your hands. The mixture would not only work as a disinfectant but would also help you get rid of the dreadful smell of the onions and garlic if you have diced one.

Piano Cleaner
Constant tickling on the ivory piano keys can turn them dirty. You can clean them up, the same way you clean your teeth. All you need is a brush and toothpaste, brush the keys of the piano well and then rub them with a damp cloth. If toothpaste can work on human teeth, it can also work well on elephant’s teeth (ivory). Toothpaste is equally good as a cleaner for modern pianos with plastic keys.

Fix Nail Holes
We know nail holes make your walls look bad and you might need some professional help to fix them. Wait! Try toothpaste. You can easily fill the nail holes with toothpaste, let it dry and touch it up with paint. Problem solved!

Excellent Stain Remover for Clothes
Ink, lipstick, ketchup! Dropped them on clothes? Don’t worry! Toothpaste will make these stains vanish in a minute. Just apply some tooth paste on these tough stains, scrub them, rinse well and poof! They are gone.

Quick Remedy for Pimples
Need a quick remedy to treat those pimples? Simple! Apply toothpaste on the pimple at night and wash it in the morning. By morning, it will be gone. Toothpaste effectively absorbs the oil from the pimples, making them dry and flattens them. Keep in mind that this remedy shouldn’t be used more than once a week as it can make your skin over dry. Also do a patch test before applying as some people might get skin irritation by using it.

Makes your CDs Scratch less
Oops! There’s a scratch on your important CD. No problem! Put some toothpaste on it and wipe it off with a piece of clean cloth.

Tooth paste as Jewelry and Cutlery Cleaner
Now you don’t need to take your gold and diamond jewelry to the jewelry store to get them polished when you have toothpaste at your home. Take some toothpaste and brush your piece of jewelry with an old tooth brush, rinse with water. It will make them sparkling clean. You can clean up your silver cutlery in the similar way.

Can serve as your shoe polish
Toothpaste can serve as your shoe polish. It can help remove scuffs from your leather shoes. Apply some of it on the area that has been scuffed and rub it with a soft piece of cloth, then wipe off with a clean damp cloth. Your shoes will turn good as new. It can also clean the rubber area of your fleets or sneakers.

Works as crayon remover from walls
Your little one has been showing his art skills by drawing on the walls? Now you don’t need to cover that with paint. Just apply a little toothpaste on the area where crayons have been used and rub it with a damp rag.

Deodorize Baby Bottles
Baby bottles develop sour milk smell after being used constantly. To deodorize your baby’s bottle use a little toothpaste and scrub it really well with the bottle brush. Make sure you rinse it thoroughly afterwards.

Effective for Burns and Insect Bites
People working in kitchen usually get their fingers or hands burnt. Unfortunately, if it happens next time, put some toothpaste on the affected area. The key component, Eucalyptus found in toothpastes will soothe the burns. (Personal experience)

Nail Cleaner
Next time you can do your manicure at home. At least you won’t need a professional help to fix your nails. The teeth and nails are made up of similar material. So just the way you clean your teeth you can clean your nails as well. Just switch your tooth brush with a nail brush and clean up those nails thoroughly.

Works as a Defogger
Professional swimmers use toothpaste to defog their swimming goggles. Just apply some toothpaste and rub with a clean damp cloth, they will turn clear.

Sticks Posters
Can’t find glue to paste those posters on the wall? No worries. Stick them up with toothpaste; it won’t even damage your walls.

Removes water marks
Need to get rid of those water mark rings that have spoiled your furniture? Use toothpaste. Rub the mark with soft cloth and it’ll be gone in a few seconds.

World's Largest Umbrella In China

"Robobaby" gives teens an idea of what parenting is really like

There's a popular educational exercise in which teens are required to take care of a bag of flour for several days, as if it's a baby. The idea is that by having to lug that bag around with them everywhere they go, while keeping it from getting damaged, the kids will realize how much responsibility is involved in raising an infant. As any parent will tell you, however, there's a lot more to baby-raising than just safely lugging them around. That's why products like Realityworks' RealCare Baby were created.

We recently spotted the latest version of the interactive mannequin, RealCare Baby 3, at the International Robotics Exhibition in Tokyo. Although it's not the only device of its kind, it is one of the most recent to hit the market, and definitely among the most technologically-advanced.

The mannequin (or robot, or doll, or whatever you want to call it) is designed to be used in a training program for teens or other people, who either want to get ready for having their first child or need to be made aware of the sacrifices that would be involved in doing so. As such, it comes with a lesson plan that can be administered by someone such as a counselor.

The baby itself weighs about the same as a real infant of its size, and contains various sensors and other electronics. It will spontaneously start crying at any time of the day or night, and must be tended to by one of its "parents" within no more than two minutes – any longer, and their tardiness will be noted in an onboard data logger.

Once the parent gets to the baby, they must pick it up in a gentle manner, supporting its head as they do so. If they're rough with it, it will start crying louder, and the logger will once again make a note of their transgression. They then need to determine why it's crying – it could need changing (it comes with two sets of diapers), it could need feeding (it also comes with a bottle and breast-feeding device), it could need to be burped, or it could simply be fussing and need to be gently rocked.



Along with responding properly to its cries, parents can't just forget about the baby when it's quiet. If it's allowed to get too hot or too cold, if it's left too long in one item of clothing, or if it's kept in its optional car seat too long, parents will earn demerits. Additionally, they can't just pawn off its care on someone else. For the duration of the lesson, they're required to wear a tamperproof RF bracelet. A receiver in the baby recognizes the signal of that specific bracelet, and won't respond to the actions of anyone not wearing it.

When the lesson period is over, data is downloaded from the logger to a PC or Mac, to be assessed by the administrator with the parent. Should students need some specialized education, Realityworks also offers a Drug-affected Baby, a Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Baby, and a Shaken Baby.

Imperial College develops cancer-sniffing Intelligent Knife

Dr. Zoltan Takats of the Imperial College London has developed one very sharp knife – and we're not referring to its keen edge. The Intelligent Knife (iKnife) is equipped with a nose and a brain that can sniff out cancer as it cuts. Using a mass spectrometer to detect chemical profiles associated with tumors, it enables instant identification of cancerous tissue and helps surgeons to make sure that all of a tumor has been removed.

Cancer is obviously something you want to catch early and get rid of completely at the first opportunity. Removing tumors is the simplest and often the least harmful way, but surgeons need to ensure they've removed all of the cancerous tissue to prevent the disease from reestablishing itself.

Unfortunately, cancerous tissue isn't always obvious by sight and laboratory tests are needed. During an operation, this means leaving the patient waiting under anesthetic while the tests are run. Even then, the results aren't always reliable. According to Imperial College, one in five breast cancer patients must undergo surgery a second time.

The iKnife uses electrosurgery; a common technique developed in the 1920s designed to reduce bleeding in particularly bloody operations, such as liver resectioning. The knife is subjected to an electric current, which heats tissue so fast and at such a temperature that the knife cuts through and cauterizes the tissue to prevent bleeding. Not surprisingly, this produces a cloud of unpleasant smoke, which is sucked away.

However, this cloud also contains all sorts of useful information about the tissue being burned through, so Takats hit on the idea of hooking an electrosurgical knife to a mass spectrometer, which would analyze the smoke and produce a profile of the chemicals that make it up. Some of these chemicals or their combinations are indicative of cancerous tissue.

Once the prototype iKnife was constructed, the next step was to teach it what to look for. This involved using the device to burn tissue samples collected from 302 surgery patients and building up a library of profiles of thousands of cancerous and noncancerous tissues from various organs of the body. As the iKnife cuts through tissue, it matches what it “smells” against this library and alerts the surgeon as to what it finds in about three seconds. This is a considerable improvement over the half hour needed for conventional laboratory tests.

The iKnife has been used in tests in 91 operations, where it showed 100 percent accuracy when compared to conventional tests. According to Imperial College, the next step will be clinical trials where the surgeons will be allowed to see the results in real time instead of after the operation, as was the case in the tests.

“These results provide compelling evidence that the iKnife can be applied in a wide range of cancer surgery procedures,” Dr Takats says. “It provides a result almost instantly, allowing surgeons to carry out procedures with a level of accuracy that hasn't been possible before. We believe it has the potential to reduce tumor recurrence rates and enable more patients to survive.”

Takats sees the iKnife as having broader applications beyond cancer surgery. Mass spectrometry is a rather general tool and Takat says that it could be used to identify tissues with inadequate blood supply, the presence of certain bacteria, and might even be of use to the local butcher in telling beef from horsemeat.

The results of the iKnife project were published in Science Translational Medicine.

Trees benefit from radiant heat and nutrients in urban areas

Many people view urban areas as hostile for plants – concrete stifles root growth, and pollution from vehicles makes it difficult to gain nutrients. A study conducted by The Earth Institute at Columbia University not only discredits those theories, however, but suggests that urban environments have a lot to offer plants to promote growth.

To conduct the research, The Earth Institute researchers planted seedlings in the spring of 2007 and 2008 in three sites around New York. Those locations included an area in northeastern Central Park, near 105th street; in two forest plots in the suburban Hudson Valley; and in more rural surroundings near the Ashokan Reservoir in the Catskill foothills, about 100 miles (161 km) north of Manhattan. Over a five-year period, researchers observed an eight-fold increase in biomass in the urban-grown seedlings.

Researchers attribute the increased growth to high temperatures (particularly at night), carbon dioxide concentrations and atmospheric nitrogen deposition. Saplings planted in Central Park developed a lower root-to-shoot ratio, which reduced below-ground carbon costs to the plant. To compensate for the root development, urban seedlings allocated more growth to leaves than the rural-grown seedlings. This resulted in a ten-fold greater photosynthetic area but the same photosynthetic capacity of foliage as the rural plants.

The findings mark a step toward understanding how nature and urban environments mix. "With human influence spreading across the globe, nature and urban environments are inseparable. The key is that plants can adapt to these changes in their environments, and in this case, really thrive in a human environment," said Stephanie Searle, lead author on a report of the study. Searle is currently a researcher at the International Council on Clean Transportation in Washington DC.

The report's authors weren't surprised by the results. "Our hypothesis was that the oak seedlings would grow faster in the city due to the higher nighttime temperatures," said Searle. Two previous studies on growth of poplar trees in Biosphere 2 conducted by Principle Investigator Kevin Griffin and co-author Matthew Turnbull, plus a previous study on poplar growth in urban environments by Jill Gregg, laid the groundwork.

The research did uncover new findings, however. "We were surprised at the magnitude of difference in growth between trees at the urban versus rural sites," Searle said. "Also, we had hypothesized that the urban seedlings would grow faster specifically because of their higher photosynthetic capacity boosted by higher temperatures, and this turned out not to be true; these plants got a head start by simply investing more resources in the leaves rather than roots compared to the rural plants."

While the findings reinforce the importance and potential of trees and other plantings in urban environments, many cities including New York City already make great efforts to create green spaces. Central park's 843 acres (341 hectares) are landscaped with trees, though many were knocked down in severe lightening storms in the summer of 2009.

"We believe that the 'urban heat island' effect may help trees in the city grow faster and thrive, but most trees in New York City are planted, so the fact that there are so many trees is really thanks to a great job by the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation," Searle commented.

Now it's up to New York City – as well as other urban areas – to capitalize on the advantages of tree growth, and keep cities green.

The paper on the research was recently published in the journal Tree Physiology.

Schwerin Castle, Germany

Manners BEFORE knowledge!

In Japanese schools, the students don't get ANY exams until they reach grade four (the age of 10)! Why?

Because the goal for the first 3 years of schools is NOT to judge the child's knowledge or learning,but to establish good manners and to develop their character!

Yes, that's what our scholars taught us: Manners BEFORE knowledge!

Should this method be implemented all over the world?

Two research groups create active invisibility cloaks

Sometimes everything can seem to happen at once. The new game in town is active invisibility cloaks (AIC), which use electronics and antennas to generate a cloaking field to hide an object. Two types of active cloaks have just been revealed (excuse the pun). While being impressive feats of technology, such cloaks could easily be defeated in practice.

Earlier this week, a research paper from Andrea Alu's group at the University of Texas demonstrated that any passive invisibility cloak (e.g., one just depending on the properties of metamaterials) would not only fail to achieve invisibility under broadband illumination (for example, white light), but would actually cause the cloaked object to stand out more strongly than when it is uncloaked.

A natural question to ask is if there are any other possibilities. In fact, there are. An active cloak uses sensors, electronics, and antennas to actively generate an electric field near the surface of the cloak that interferes destructively with the radiation scattered from the cloak and contents. This electric field will be called a cloaking field. In the past few days, Professor George Eleftheriades' EE research group at the University of Toronto has revealed a working model of an active cloak, while Prof. Alu's group has worked out a new approach for making active cloaks.

In essence, if the cloak transmits the exact opposite of the light being scattered from the cloak, it will appear as if there is no object there. Even the shadow behind the cloak, which results from the illumination that is scattered from the front of the cloak, is removed. Such a cloak is as broadband as the sensors, electronics, and antennas can handle.

Sounds good, but what's the catch? Turns out there are two catches. First, to successfully use an active cloak you need to characterize the light that is scattered from the target. Until this is known, the cloaking field required to cancel out the scattered illumination can't be determined. Second, you can't design your cloaking field from local measurements at the site of the antenna. Measurements from around the cloaking device are needed before the signals to be sent to the antennas can be properly calculated and generated.

Both of these requirements cause a response delay, the time interval between first sensing a source of illumination and the cloak's generation of an effective cloaking field. Even given infinitely fast electronics, the response delay is going to be similar in size to the time it takes light to cross the longest dimension of the cloak.

An example of where an active cloak would function quite well is to hide from a Doppler radar system. The Doppler effect tells us that light scattered off a moving target changes in frequency by an amount proportional to the relative speed between the source of the waves and the target. A change in speed of 15 m/s (34 mph) will change the frequency by one part in ten million.

Fourier analysis tells us that it takes time to notice so small a change in frequency. In particular, to be able to detect that 15 m/s change in speed, a 10 GHz Doppler radar would have to have a pulse containing ten million oscillations to be sure we would notice that one of them was missing. As a result, the pulse would have to be about a millisecond in length.

Given that the Doppler radar has a sensitivity set to measure a pulse a millisecond long, it won't notice that an active cloak takes a handful of nanoseconds to sense the pulse, and generate an effective cloaking field for the target. The portion of the pulse that is not effectively cloaked is simply too short to be detected.

What sort of cloaking job is difficult for an active cloak? It is when the radar (also including light) avoids sending out any pattern or similarity which can be predicted by the cloak's electronics. As the cloaking field cannot be generated until the pulse is sufficiently understood to erase its scattering from the cloak, any foreknowledge of the radar pulses makes the job of generating a cloaking field easier.

Assume that the radar illumination takes the form of pulses having constant interval, frequency, strength, and shape. In that case, the cloak's electronics could learn that each pulse is the same, so it only needs to pump out a predetermined cloaking field at the fixed pulse interval to cloak the target. This does assume that the target doesn't change shape or position – unlike the passive metamaterial cloaks, the external fields do penetrate into the region containing the target. Accordingly, we want to avoid giving the cloak such cues.

Arguably the worst case is if the illumination appears at random intervals, the short pulses have randomly varied frequency, width, and shape, and the wavelength is short compared to the volume that is being cloaked. These characteristics accomplish the befuddlement of an active cloak in separate ways. Clearly, by avoiding random intervals the cloak cannot initiate a cloaking field in advance of the arrival of an illumination pulse – even it it knows the shape of the pulse in advance, it doesn't know when the pulse will arrive, causing an unavoidable and perhaps lengthy response delay.

Similarly, if the pulses have different nominal frequencies, the cloak will take some time to detect what the frequency is, and figure out an appropriate cloaking field. If the pulses have different widths, they will include different bandwidths of frequencies around the nominal frequency. This is very confusing, as you may have to monitor the entire pulse to see if there are hidden signals within it.

This brings us to the effect of pulses of variable shape. If the pulse has a constant intensity save for a narrow region at the middle of the pulse, there will appear a short burst within the pulse where the frequency spread of the pulse suddenly increases. This cannot be prepared for, so an active cloak cannot effectively hide a target from such a doctored pulse – some of the scattered signal (or an improperly matched cloaking field) will leak out of the cloak, making it visible. Remember that the cloaking field, if not properly matched to a scattered field, is roughly as easy to detect as would be the scattered light from the object; if they were not the same size, the one couldn't erase the other.

To sum up, the Achilles heel of an active cloak is its response delay – it cannot respond to randomly changing radar pulses quickly enough to effectively cloak a target from detection. To reduce the ability of a radar to find a cloaked object is likely possible, to achieve perfect cloaking is not. What we still have to learn is how closely an active cloak can approach perfection against an attack which is random in several different directions. At this point, however, the new active cloaks are not, as many in the media are announcing, "an invisibility cloak that works." At least not in my book.

Video games can be good for kids

Don't feel guilty for stuffing Sonic in the Santa sack - video games can be good for your children's mental health.

In fact, according to the director of QUT's Games Research and Interaction Design Lab, Dr Daniel Johnson, playing video games as a family can help you build stronger relationships with your children.

Dr Johnson and his gaming research group at the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) combed through 200 papers and reports from around the world to find out when and how video games can have a positive effect on the wellbeing of young players.

They discovered that the types of video games a young person plays is less important for their wellbeing than how they play videogames - and who they play them with.

Their research challenges the belief that video games breed socially isolated, aggressive and lazy teenagers.

"Our research showed that playing video games can improve a young person's mood, help them reduce their stress levels, and promote feelings of competence and autonomy," said Dr Johnson, from QUT's Science and Engineering Faculty.

"Playing video games with others in particular increases a person's brain activity, improves their social wellbeing and helps them feel more connected with others.

"If you're trying to reach out to the teenager in your house, spending time with them playing a cooperative video game you both enjoy could be the bridge you're looking for - and you'll likely feel the same positive impacts on your wellbeing, too."

Dr Johnson cautioned that excessive or obsessive video game play and technology use was not good for mental health as this could lead to negative outcomes such as anxiety and insomnia.

But overall, his team's research found:

- moderate (non-excessive) levels of playing are associated with positive emotions and improved mood, improved emotion regulation and emotional stability and the reduction of emotional disturbances

- playing video games can be a healthy means of relaxation, stress reduction and socialising

- people who play video games in moderation have been shown to have significantly less depressed mood and higher self-esteem compared to those who don't play or who play excessively.

More than 95 per cent of Australian homes with children aged under 18 have one or more devices for playing video games.

"One of the most important things you can do as a parent is to ensure you and your child engage thoughtfully with what you are playing," Dr Johnson said.

"Look for games that encourage creativity and cooperation and that are age appropriate."

Dr Johnson will present the results of a range of studies conducted by the QUT Games Research Lab as well as the Young and Well CRC's findings at a Videogames and Wellbeing lecture at the University of Sydney on Tuesday 19 November.

His presentation will also explore: the genres, modes of play and experiences during play that influence wellbeing; the predictors of obsessive and harmonious passion for play; and the differences in brain activity associated with playing with humans versus Artificial intelligence (AI) controlled teammates.

"People talk a lot about technologies being good or bad for us - phones, social media, video games - but it's never that simplistic," said Associate Professor Rafael Calvo from the University of Sydney's School of Electrical and Information Engineering and host of the talk.

"Technologies impact our wellbeing in positive and negative ways, depending in part on how they're designed.

"The fact is, we need to start measuring and understanding this impact better so we can design future technology that actively promotes wellbeing and human potential."

Dr Johnson said his team's future research will in part focus on what constitutes a healthy or moderate amount of play for people at different ages and how best to leverage the wellbeing benefits of video games in a therapeutic setting.

Study finds electronic cigarettes can cause health problems too

Researchers from the University of California, Riverside, have some bad news for smokers looking to put a halt to the filthy habit by using electronic quitting aids. After examining various aspects of a handful of commercially-available electronic nicotine delivery systems, the team concluded that so-called e-cigarettes are unsafe and pose a health risk. They are now calling for such devices to be withdrawn from sale pending a rigid safety evaluation.

Electronic cigarettes give users a dose of nicotine without burning tobacco. They're made up of a battery, an atomizer, and a cartridge containing nicotine and propylene glycol. When someone takes a draw, a sensor activates the battery which changes the tip of the device red to simulate smoking and also heats the atomizer. This vaporizes the chemicals and the e-cigarette then delivers a dose of nicotine into the user's lungs.

Such devices are readily available in shopping malls throughout the U.S. but there's been "virtually no scientific studies on e-cigarettes and their safety," according to Prue Talbot, professor of cell biology and neuroscience. The research team from University of California, Riverside decided to find out exactly how safe so-called e-cigarettes are and purchased products from five companies.

They examined the design, accuracy and clarity of labeling, nicotine content, whether the devices or cartridges leaked and looked for defective parts. How the devices and components were disposed of at the end of their useful lives, whether any errors were made in filling orders, and the quality of the instruction manual and what claims were made while advertising, were also scrutinized.

The team found numerous issues including lack of essential warnings, poor or confusing usage instructions and a lack of information about what exactly is contained in the e-cigarettes. Kamlesh Asotra of the University of California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program - which part-funded the study - confirmed that "virtually nothing is known about the toxicity of the vapors generated by these e-cigarettes."

They discovered various documents which made claims that could not be scientifically substantiated and, although the researchers found specific design differences between the brands, most of the cartridges were found to leak, which could lead to exposure to a dangerous and addictive chemical. Manufacture was unregulated and environmentally-sensitive disposal methods lacking.

The study concluded with the researchers stating that e-cigarettes pose a health risk to users and are urging regulators to consider their removal from the market pending a rigid safety evaluation.

The results from the study have now been published online at Tobacco Control.

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