Relax – Stress and Anxiety Relief for iPhone review

The beginning of the year may be a stressful time for you with the end of the holidays and taxes due soon, so relaxation may not come easily. Relax – Stress and Anxiety Relief is an iPhone app filled with breathing exercises that’s an ideal stress management tool. With this week also being sleep and relaxation week here at iMore for Mobile Nations fitness month, now is the perfect time to take a closer look at Relax.

Relax includes three difficulty levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The beginner levels focuses on 2-stage breathing (inhale, exhale) and introduces 3-stage breathing (inhale, retain, exhale). In the intermediate level, the breathing patters progressively increase the length of the middle retention in 3-stage breathing, and the advanced level develops 4-stage breathing (inhale, retain, exhale, retain).

When you select a level, you can select the length, ratio, and timing. As you make adjustments to the options, the breathing pattern will be revealed at the bottom of the screen with the number of breaths per minute that the exercise will have you do.

When you start the exercise, the breathing pattern will be presented as a pie chart. As the curser passes around the circle, a different calming sound will be played during each section. This makes it easy to close your eyes once you start getting the hang of it. Closing your eyes will bring even more relaxation.

The good

• Beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels
• It does counting for you so that you can focus on awareness and technique.
• Music cues that use distinct tones for each phase of breathing.
• A structured course that gradually reduces your breathing rate as you progress through the sessions.
• Quick start feature
• 5 different music choices
• 3 different color themes (blue, green, and pink)
• Detailed instructions on how to breathe and use the app
• Charts your progress

The bad

• No complaints

The bottom line

I’ve never been one to do breathing exercises when stressed out, but after using Relax, I understand how helpful they can be. Even if you’re not stressed, the breathing exercises in Relax can be beneficial and help keep you in a non-stressed state.

• $2.99 – Download now

Google opens their Maps SDK, lets developers replace in-app Apple Maps

Last night Google updated and opened up their SDK making it possible for any developer to use embedded Google Maps in their apps instead of Apple’s Maps. According to Google’s Geo Developer Blog, some new features are also included in the updated Google Maps SDK for iOS:

This version of the SDK includes support for ground overlays, gesture control and geodesic polylines.

Just like Apple replaced the original, Google-powered Maps app in iOS 6 with a new, non-Google powered version, the embeddable maps made available to developers in iOS 6 were subject to the same change. While users could switch to different maps apps if their wanted to, for developers who wanted to use different maps data, it wasn’t as easy. Now it is, at least more so.

Since Apple’s iOS 6 maps have struggled with point of interest data and overall accuracy, Google will likely find a receptive audience. If any developers are planning on switching, let me know how easy the process is, and how you find it works for your app.

And for users, any apps you hope to see make the switch?

Source: Google Geo Developer Blog

HBO Go app for Android now allows HDMI output

It took a long time for HBO to let customers shift programming from a smartphone onto their TV. But good things come in spades, and after finally enabling AirPlay for its HBO Go iOS app last week, the company has enabled HDMI video output for compatible Android devices. With options like Miracast still in their infancy, Google’s OS lacks a unified, secure, and widespread mirroring technology of its own, so HBO opted to give users a physical solution. Now you’ll be able to tether your Android smartphone or tablet directly to your HDTV and watch the network’s premium content on the big screen. The same luxury has also been extended to MAX Go. Both apps are available as free downloads from Google Play.

You’ll tweet when you’re dead: LivesOn says digital ‘twin’ can mimic your online persona

What if you died, but your Twitter account lived on — tweeting, retweeting, and favoriting things as if it were you? A London-based ad agency is working on an artificial intelligence experiment that will do just that.

Creative digital agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine says it is collaborating with researchers at Queen Mary University in order to create LivesOn, an app that generates a digital “twin” that will learn your preferences in life so that it can eventually impersonate you in death. Users appoint an “executor” of their LivesOn “will” who has the power to switch on the app if the user dies, re-animating his or her digital persona.

“When your heart stops beating, you’ll keep tweeting,” is LivesOn’s tagline. “Welcome to your…

Website allegedly behind hacks of Facebook, Apple, and Twitter says it’s ‘clean now’

The owner of iPhone developer website iPhoneDevSDK says his team has patched a security hole behind malware that infected employee computers at Facebook, making the developer site safe to visit again.

“It is clean now,” said Ian Sefferman, iPhoneDevSDK’s owner and operator, in an email to The Verge. Sefferman and his colleagues are still trying to figure out exactly what went wrong and how to keep their site and its 200,000 registered users secure from hackers in the future. Malware found on employee computers at Apple and Twitter also may have come from the site while it was compromised.

“It is clean now.”

“In the short term, we’ve reset all user passwords just in case (though we don’t have any evidence that user data was…

Nvidia’s new Santa Clara campus could rival Apple’s ‘spaceship’ in scope

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang today announced that his company has begun work on a new campus. The building, designed by renowned architecture firm Gensler, will be located “directly across the street” from Nvidia’s current headquarters in Santa Clara, California. “The new NVIDIA building will capture the ambition and imagination of our people,” says Huang. “It will be the symbol, the physical manifestation, of our vision for the company.” The news comes as Nvidia celebrates another milestone; it was founded 20 years ago this month.

The new campus is centered around a massive building separated into two triangular sections. The shape is an appropriate match for Nvidia, with Juang describing the triangle as “the fundamental building block of…

HBO VP shakes up digital team, seeks to help network embrace ‘disruption of media’

Late last year, HBO promoted Otto Berkes, a former Xbox executive, naming him Senior Vice President of Consumer Technology. Berkes played a pivotal role in developing the company’s HBO Go and MAX Go streaming apps, efforts that have helped the premium subscription channel cater to a blossoming digital audience. The promotion made clear that, though it’s not yet willing to let customers cut the cable entirely, HBO is keenly aware that companies like Netflix are actively striving to unseat the network as the home of top-notch TV programming — without requiring a cable subscription. As reported by AllThingsD, Berkes is wasting no time in shaking up HBO’s digital team.

After 2012 election, Republicans learn hard lessons about the power of social media

Young, tech-savvy Republicans are using Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential election to teach more seasoned party operatives the importance of social media in rallying votes, Robert Draper reports for The New York Times Magazine. Draper’s piece is more than just a crunchy political post mortem, offering an entertaining and insightful look at the Grand Old Party’s quest to remake itself for the social age.

One right-leaning digital advocacy firm, Red Edge, has been showing fellow Republicans a presentation on the digital disparity between the two parties. Obama’s Reddit IaMa is among the topics covered:

“Then, once people think we’ve gotten them through the worst,” [Red Edge partner Bret] Jacobson said, “we pile on more —…

Turkish bombing footage shows why Vine may not work for journalism (yet)

In early February, a suicide bomber attacked the American Embassy in Turkey. The moments and hours afterwards were captured on video by Turkish TV reporters and CNN — and by a contributor for news site Al Monitor, who captured some of the first Vine-based breaking news. In a series of Vines, Tulin Daloglu broadcast short scenes from after the blast, showing reporters and police crowded around the area. It was a novel use of the platform, a test case for a potentially new form of journalism. Unfortunately, it was also a prime example of how we’re still not sure how Vine-based news could work.

Facebook rumored to be launching a ‘Find My Friends’ type app next month

Facebook is rumored to be releasing an app that will help you keep an eye on where your Facebook friends are at any given time. The app which is being compared to Apple’s “Find My Friends” is said to be able to run in the background and can automatically update with a user’s location so friends can easily find them. The news comes from Bloomberg who had been speaking with two anonymous people with knowledge of the matter.

The app, scheduled for release by mid-March, is designed to help users find nearby friends and would run even when the program isn’t open on a handset, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public.

The team developing Facebook’s location software is being led by Peter Deng, a product director who joined from Google in 2007, one person said. The group also includes engineers from Glancee, a location-tracking startup Facebook acquired in May, and Gowalla, a location-based social network whose assets were purchased in December 2011, the person said.

It is thought that the new app will help Facebook to sell more ads based on a user’s location and daily routines. While it is not uncommon for current Facebook users to check in and tell the world where they are at any chosen time, the thought of the app automatically updating that information for you and reporting your whereabouts to your friends at all times is something quite different. Of course if true, this will be an optional service and will only be activated if you choose to do so.

Would you be happy to allow Facebook to know where you are at all times?

Source: Bloomberg