Quitting Facebook makes you happy, YouTube launches YouTube Music, Firefox lands on iOS devices, Beats Music is getting killed off, and the alarm clock that slaps you awake each morning.
Are you feeling miserable? Stressed out? Angry at your friends and family? Then you need to Quit Facebook! At least according to the results of a study conducted by the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. Yes, it’s a real place. As is the Happiness Research Institute.
According to Quartz, the study focused on 1,095 people who used Facebook on a daily basis. Half of the group carried on using Facebook as normal, while the other half was told to quit Facebook for a week. At the end of that week both groups were asked how they felt about life, and the results are interesting to say the least.
Quitting Facebook increased happiness and decreased worrying. In total, 88 percent of those who quit Facebook reported feeling happy as opposed to 81 percent of those who carried on using it. And 41 percent of those who quit Facebook reported feeling worried as opposed to 54 percent of those who carried on using it.
With a small sample size and short quitting time these results should be taken with a liberal pinch of salt. However, they at least suggest some correlation between the use of social networking and moods. So, if you’re ever feeling particularly down, taking a break from Facebook could prove to be all the pick-me-up you actually need.
YouTube has launched YouTube Music, which it describes as “YouTube built just for music”. YouTube Music comes in the form of a smartphone app, and offers a slightly different experience than Google Play Music. Although the same songs are present on both, YouTube Music focuses on the videos, and adds a bunch of live performances (and more) into the mix.
YouTube Music is available completely for free, but YouTube hopes you’ll be sufficiently enamored with the service to subscribe to the controversial YouTube Red. Doing so removes the ads and lets you watch videos offline. Red or not, YouTube Music builds recommendations based on which videos you choose to watch. Hopefully keeping you watching for longer.
YouTube Music is available both on Android and on iOS, but only in the United States for the time being. Sorry, everybody else, but YouTube obviously hates you, at least for now.
Mozilla has brought Firefox to iOS, finally launching a mobile version of its ever-popular Web browser for Apple’s operating system. This means iOS users have a new alternative to explore, as Firefox goes up against Safari, Chrome, Opera, and others. However, being so late to the party means Firefox might struggle to steal market share from its rivals.
People are increasingly browsing the Web using their smartphones, which means it’s essential for the likes of Google and Mozilla to produce mobile versions of their products. Just as with Chrome, creating a Firefox account means you can sync the browser — including tabs, passwords, and history — across all of your devices.
Mozilla announced Firefox for iOS with the punctuation-light promise that “Firefox for iOS lets you take your favorite browser with you wherever you go with the Firefox features you already love including smart and flexible search, intuitive tab management, syncing with Firefox Accounts and Private Browsing.”
Firefox is free on iOS and available through iTunes.
Beats Music will cease to be a thing at the end of this month, with Apple shutting it down on November 30th. Why? Because Apple doesn’t need two music streaming services, so it wants all Beats Music users to switch to Apple Music sooner rather than later.
It helps that Apple Music is now available on Android as well as iOS, as this should mean no Beats Music user is left out in the cold.This also means that the three-month free trials of Apple Music currently being offered to all new users are going to prove very popular.
And finally, if you need help getting out of bed in the morning, Simone Giertz may have the solution. Giertz has invented a face-slapping alarm clock, which beats you around the head when it’s time to get up. OK, so it isn’t perfect, but the core idea is solid enough.
Personally, I prefer to be roused from the land of nod gently rather than with force bordering on out-and-out violence, but each to their own. As can be seen in the video, this definitely isn’t suitable for anyone with long hair. Because I hear being scalped isn’t much fun. [H/T Boing Boing]
Did quitting Facebook have a positive effect on you? Will you be trying out YouTube Music? Are you likely to use Firefox on your iDevices? Are you a Beats Music user holding out from switching to Apple Music? How do you wake yourself up each morning?
Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.
Image Credits: Jeff Djevdet via Flickr
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