Smartphones During Family Time May Impact Your Kids' Emotional Well-Being: Study
HIGHLIGHTS
Do you spend more time on your smartphones?
Beware, your child's social-emotional well-being could be at stake
It may lead your children to show more frustration, hyperactivity
Do you spend more time on your smartphones or watching television and engage less in family activities at home? Beware, your child's social-emotional well-being could be at stake.
According to researchers, technoference - the term they used to define everyday interruptions in face-to-face interactions because of technology devices - may lead children to show more frustration, hyperactivity, whining, sulking or tantrums.
"Children may be more likely to act out over time in response to technoference as opposed to internalise," said Jenny S. Radesky from the University of Michigan in the US.
The study showed that in almost all cases, one device or more intruded in parent-child interactions at some stage during the day.
Moreover, parents who use their smartphone to escape the stress of their child's bad behaviour may be making it worse because when on their devices, they have fewer conversations with their children and are more hostile when their children try to get their attention.
Using technology to escape child's tantrums deprives parents of the opportunity to provide meaningful emotional support and positive feedback to their children causing them to revert to even more problematic behaviour which only added to their stress levels, likely leading to more withdrawal with technology, and the cycle continues, the researchers explained.
"These results support the idea that relationships between parent technoference and child externalising behaviour are transactional and influence each other over time," said Brandon T. McDaniel from the Illinois State University.
"In other words, parents who have children with more externalising problems become more stressed, which may lead to their greater withdrawal with technology, which in turn may contribute to more child externalizing problems," McDaniel added.
The study published in the journal Pediatric Research, included data from 172 two-parent families that is a total of 337 parents who had a child, aged 5 years or younger.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 August 9 Launch Date Reiterated; Gear S4 Said to Accompany New Phablet
HIGHLIGHTS
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 launch reiterated
It is rumoured for August 9
Samsung Gear S4 is expected to come alongside the new Galaxy Note model
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is anticipated to debut on August 9 at an "Unpacked" event in New York. Ahead of any formal announcement, a report from South Korea has reiterated the launch date that was rumoured previously. It has also separately been reported that alongside the new Galaxy Note model, the company is launching the Gear S4 in August. This new smartwatch will be the successor to the Gear S3. Unlike the previous model, the new offering is said to have an application processor built using Panel Level Packaging (PLP) to enable a thinner profile along with a cheaper price over the predecessor.
Citing people familiar with the development, Korea Herald reports that Samsung is set to launch the Galaxy Note 9 as its another premium flagship on August 9, two weeks earlier than the Galaxy Note 8launch. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman tipped the same launch schedule earlier this month, also citing people familiar with the matter.
Apart from the launch schedule, ETNews separately reports that Samsung will bring the Gear S4 alongside Galaxy Note 9. The new smartwatch model is said to have an SoC based on PLP process. This will enable the company to build the Gear S3 successor with a thinner design. Further, the new process will reduce the cost of the SoC. This could drop the launch price of the Gear S4 in comparison with the price of the Gear S3. Notably, the Gear S3 was launched in January last year at Rs. 28,500.
The South Korean news source hasn't specified any details about the specifications of the Gear S4. However, tipster profile carrying the username of Ice Universe in a Weibo post recently claimed that the new Gear S smartwatch will come with a bigger, 470mAh battery compared to its predecessor that had a 380mAh battery. With PLP SoC and a large-enough battery pack, we can safely presume that the new model will deliver a day of power on a single charge. But this won't be a breakthrough as many smartwatches come with a similar battery life.
The Moto G has long been known as the affordable phone to beat. For 2018 it's changed its face, dabbling in a more premium finish for the series. The range has expanded, too, with big-battery G6 Play and higher-power G6 Plus joining the standard model as a trio.
We've already reviewed the Moto G6, which we found impressive in its new looks - but which doesn't quite have the high-end battery and performance to match. The G6 Plus, however, ramps things up in the power department with a hardier chipset, while expanding the screen a modicum to 5.9-inches and boosting battery capacity too.
The Moto G6 Plus looks one and the same as the G6, its larger size not being particularly noticeable by eye or when in the hand.
Although the G6 Plus isn't truly budget priced, its finish looks a step above its £280 asking price. There's no plastic to be seen anywhere, no removable back, no add-on colour trims or gimmicks. The premium look of the glass back looks much like a slimmed-down version of the Moto X4, including the slightly odd-looking circular dual cameras.
There's also a transparent phone cover included in the box to help avoid any unwanted damage - although we've preferred leaving that shiny blue rear exposed for maximum visual appeal.
The Plus's premium look comes paired with some premium features: a USB-C port means fast-charging is possible (although there's no wireless charging here), there's a 3.5mm headphone jack, while a microSD card slot is available to expand the 64GB on-board storage (alongside dual SIM card slots).
There's also a front-facing fingerprint scanner, which features a Motorola written logo above it. We feel the logo could have been ditched to squash the phone's form factor with smaller bottom bezel for an even more refined look. Not that we're questioning the functionality of the scanner, though, as it's worked each and every time without issue.
There's also Face Unlock facial recognition, but you may find this becomes locked out by Google Device Admin (which is required at the setup phase). Once activated the facial recognition system is super easy to setup, can bypass the need for password entry, and it works reasonably well - although it's not Apple-rivalling in its ability in our view.
Screen
5.9in 'Max Vision' FHD+ resolution (2160 x 1080)
18:9 aspect ratio IPS LCD, no notch
Part of the reason for the Plus namesake is down to its screen: at 5.9-inches it's larger than the 5.7-inch panel in both G6 and G6 Play. Which doesn't sound like a lot of difference and, frankly, doesn't feel like a lot either. In many respects that's one of our criticisms of the Plus: it should be larger, say 6.2-inches, to really set itself apart from the other G series models.
Nonetheless, that screen, with its 18:9 aspect ratio, provides a modern and elongated form factor that's easy for one-handed holding. We much prefer this aspect ratio for ease of use.
It's an IPS LCD screen, with no notch, and a fair resolution (Full HD+, which is 2160 x 1080 pixels), which keeps it level-pegged with many flagship handsets these days. Well, on paper at least. The main difference with the Plus is that its brightness just can't match up to the higher-end competition; when auto-brightness is switched off the battery life seems to be considerably affected, too, so you'd best let the phone run its own auto calculations.
In the context of the phone's asking price, the G6 Plus's screen is perfectly ample. It's got all the resolution you could need, in a form factor that keeps it in line with its near competitors.
TurboPower fast-charging via USB-C; 3200mAh battery
Dolby Audio dynamic equalisation integrated
A large point of the G6 Plus is its affordability, which means you won't find a top-end chipset under the hood. That said, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 platform used is capable enough, paired here with 4GB RAM. That's also a step-up from the Snapdragon 450 and 3GB RAM found in the standard G6.
How you'll find performance will depend on your experience and expectations. We feel the Plus has the chipset that the standard G6 should have, in particular as the more affordable Nokia 6 matches the Plus on the power font, while the Honor 9 has the far more powerful Kirin 960 chipset under its hood.
In the above context, the G6 Plus is bottom of the pack when it comes to power. In reality, however, this isn't a practical problem: ok, there are slight waits to open apps compared to what you'd find with more powerful handsets, but never to the point of becoming a total chore.
Whether you're running all those must-have task-master apps - like Mail for emails or WhatsApp for messages - or some casual games on the side, the Plus runs perfectly well enough. We've been digging into South Park: Phone Destroyer and haven't found its performance on the Plus quite as compromised as it is in the standard G6.
Interestingly, we've found the Plus has far greater longevity than the G6 too. Sure, this would be logical given its battery bump (3,200mAh compared to 3,000mAh respectively), but our first full day of use with the Plus saw us only cut through 33 per cent in the first nine hours of use (with a further 20 hours remaining, according to the phone's prediction), which would likely have delivered a full 24 hours of use.
In use over following days, with a little more gaming undertaken, we've been seeing the Plus provide in the region of 20 hours per charge, which is great innings. Just don't switch off the auto-brightness setting, as we've previously said, as that seems to affect the battery life a little too much.
Should you go too hard on those power-heavy apps and need to top-up the battery, the G6 Plus embodies USB-C charging, dubbed Moto TurboCharge (think of it like a rebadged Qualcomm Quick Charge), which means recharging in double-quick time. Half an hour at the plug will add hours of use again.
One of Motorola's selling points is that it uses an Android operating system that's close to Google's stock, making for a clean and easy-to-use experience. There are some additional apps and additions on top, all of which are routed in the Moto app front and centre, but none that get in the way to disrupt the experience. Well, so long as you ignore the optional apps when setting up the phone from scratch.
Fronting the Moto specials in the Moto app is Moto Voice, now in version 2.0, which introduces additional contextual understanding. It's like Google Assistant in with some extra strings to its bow. Say you want a late night pizza: "Hey Moto, find me a pizza place that's near to me and open after midnight" and the system will thread together those multiple query points (type, location and time) and return an answer. Whether you care for voice control is another matter, however.
Moto Display, Moto Actions and Moto Key are the three aspects of the Moto app. From keeping the display on as you look at it, to silencing calls when flipping the phone, or using the device to unlock a Windows laptop when in proximity, these are all beneficial software features - all of which can be controlled individually, too.
One other fun incorporated feature is Dolby Audio, accessible from a swipe down to open the shade. We love what this feature can do - there's a manual band equaliser, in addition to pre-sets for music, film and other custom settings - but do wonder if such a premium feature is relevant in an affordable phone. After all, Dolby licensing always costs cash.
Cameras
12MP & 5MP dual rear cameras with f/1.7 aperture
Dual autofocus pixels for faster autofocus
Auto HDR, Portrait, Face Filters, Panorama
8MP front-facing camera (16MP capable for low-light)
The G6 Plus has the most advanced dual camera setup of the G series, advancing beyond the G6 with a faster aperture lens and dual autofocus pixels for faster focusing times.
A core part of the camera setup is that there are two lenses on the rear, so the Plus can now cater for the now staple Portrait mode (think blurred background when shooting a person/portrait), which can be found separately to the main and manual camera modes from within the app. It's an ok mode, which has its imperfections just as any competitor does, but nonetheless it's ticked the box on the trendiest mode for a 2018 phone to have.
Quality-wise, the Plus can have a slight edge over the G6 in low-light, due to that wider aperture, but differences are slight. Still, shots straight from camera are rather good. We've been shooting in a (finally) sunny London, with colours showing as nicely saturated, while low-light conditions have come out reasonably, too. There's not as much dynamic range as some competitors, while sharpness isn't the absolute best going, but the G6 Plus is fitting of its grade.
Performance wise the Plus has a slight boost over the G6 standard, too, with that faster focus often being felt. That said, however, close-up focus has been a problem, while sometimes the focus snaps back and resets which isn't too helpful. There's also a little lag when firing the shutter, so it's not the most immediate camera experience going.
Overall, if you're not going to spend two-and-a-half times more on a phone camera solution then the Plus does a solid job in the camera department. Just keep your expectations in check.
The order quantity for this product is limited to 1 unit per customer
