Month: April 2022

“At National Sleep Foundation, we think technology can help make it easier for some people to do important things during the day and night so they can be their Best Slept Self^TM.”

– John Lopos, CEO, National Sleep Foundation

In today’s hectic world it is easy to lose yourself in all the details of life. While we understand the importance of sleep and how it can help us feel more relaxed, the endless to-do-lists can lead to increased stress.

This has been highlighted in a recent study from one of the world’s leading sleep organizations, the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), finding that during the pandemic, more people in the US have been sleeping longer, but the quality of that sleep has suffered.

In fact, NSF thinks that one of the greatest challenges facing society is to prioritize sleep in order for us all to be healthy and happy. The NSF believes that embracing the ever-growing category of sleep technology will help. Smart environmental controls and smart tracking are just a few of the many innovations that have been made to improve the quality and experience of sleep for people. Sleep technology is coming to the industry forefront as consumer brands — like Samsung — are prioritizing sleep-related capabilities within their products.

To learn more about how technology can improve sleep quality, John Lopos (NSF CEO) was interviewed.

Managing Routines and Tracking Progress

According to the NSF’s 2022 Sleep in America^(r) Poll, there’s significant opportunity to improve daily activities that are associated with positive sleep and health outcomes. Eating your meals at a consistent time, the amount of physical activity completed in the day, and even the level of light exposure during the day and around bedtime, all impact sleep health and are manageable.

The NSF offers specific recommendations and guidelines for improving sleep quality. Lopos stated that technology can play a role in helping to meet the NSF’s recommendations. It helps us as a reminder, a facilitator, a communicator and a tracker, and can play a role in helping meet the NSF’s recommendations for better sleep — both while awake and asleep.”

Keep up with your daily workout routine with Galaxy Watch4 for a good night’s sleep

Controlling Your Sleep Environment

The right light exposure can mean the difference between getting a restful night and one that isn’t. With nearly 60 percent of Americans saying they look at screens very often or somewhat often in the hour before bed or while in bed before sleep, it’s no wonder sleep quality is on the decline as light from phone, laptop and TV screens can significantly impact sleep.

And while technology can be the culprit when used inappropriately, like viewing screens too close to bedtime, it can also be part of the solution. “As people prepare for sleep, technology can help establish a sleep-friendly environment, help with a wind-down process that makes people feel more calm and relaxed, and then — and this is important — take its place in the background without disrupting a person’s sleep,” noted Lopos. A good example of this is the SmartThings functionality¹ which allows users to program a pre-set time to turn off the bedroom TV and turn down the lights as part of a bedtime routine to help prepare them to sleep and create better sleeping conditions throughout the night.

Easily control your bedroom lightings with SmartThings to create a sleep-friendly environment

Adjusting Sleep Patterns

While sleep technology has long-term health benefits and can be a significant role in enhancing sleep quality, users can adjust their sleep habits to suit their needs. Daylight Savings Time, whether it is “springing forward”, or “falling back”, can make a big difference in your sleep. The NSF offers a variety of helpful tips to help you prepare. These include prioritizing daylight exposure and adjusting your clocks in the days leading up to the clock change. You can also adjust your sleeping schedule by going to bed an hour earlier every night. Relaxation techniques are encouraged by the NSF to ensure a restful night of sleep, even during time changes. The Galaxy Watch4 and the Samsung Health app can help with this by empowering users to manage their mindfulness through its breathing, meditation and stress monitoring capabilities. ²

Monitor your stress level with Galaxy Watch4 and follow through the breathing guide to prepare your body for a better sleep

Better Sleep Today and Tomorrow From Samsung

It’s with this understanding of the power of sleep technology that Samsung has introduced features on the Galaxy Watch4 that are empowering users to track and meet wellness goals and help users work toward a better night’s sleep.

For example, the new sleep coaching program on the Galaxy Watch4 helps users achieve better sleep habits and achieve their sleep goals. ² The Samsung program assigns one of eight sleep symbol animals representing the user’s sleep type after tracking sleep patterns over seven days and completing two related sleep surveys. Then, it guides users through a four-to-five-week coaching program that includes missions, checklists, guidance and reports to support users as they work towards improving their sleep health.

With wearable devices now a regular part of many people’s lifestyles today, tracking and understanding elements of sleep are more common than ever — and the NSF wants to see even more access to sleep technology, believing that the sleep technology industry is going to ride new waves of collaboration and knowledge sharing. “We’re going to see even more integration across wearable and connected devices, lifestyle and wellness platforms and home goods,” Lopos affirmed. “People’s choices and feedback will confirm there’s lots of room for products and services that use sleep technology.”

The future of sleep technology looks promising. Samsung has committed to further developing their offerings and capabilities in this area with the help of National Sleep Foundation’s sleep experts.

To learn more about the Galaxy Watch4 series or the National Sleep Foundation, please visit:

Galaxy Watch4: www.samsung.com/galaxy-watch4

Galaxy Watch4 Classic: www.samsung.com/galaxy-watch4-classic

National Sleep Foundation: www.thensf.org

¹ Availability of this feature may vary by device.

² Intended for general wellness and fitness purposes only. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease or condition. The measurements are for the user’s personal reference only. Please consult a medical professional for advice.

Sony and the company that controls Lego have both invested $1 billion in Epic Games, the Fortnite maker announced on Monday. The news comes four days after Epic and Lego said they were teaming up to build a family-friendly metaverse.

Kirkbi, which is the holding company that owns The Lego Group, is putting the money into Epic, so this is not a direct funding of that metaverse project. Sony’s investment triples its stake in Epic Games, on top of the $250 million it put into Epic in 2020 and the $200 million it added a year later.

“We also believe that Epic’s experience, which includes their powerful game engine and Sony’s technologies will speed up our efforts,” Kenichiro Yoshido (Sony’s chief executive) stated in an Epic statement. Epic Games launched Unreal Engine 5 one week ago.

For their part, Kirkbi’s chief executive Soren Thorup Sorensen noted “a proportion of our investments is focused on trends we believe will impact the future world that we and our children will live in.” The $1 billion stake aligns with that mission, Sorensen said.

The investment and the executives’ statements all align with Epic’s broader strategy of defining and administering the “metaverse,” a concept that Facebook, Microsoft, and others have latched onto over the past four years. Epic’s “metaverse” has largely taken place within Fortnite, where third-party marketers have regularly collaborated on themed skins and other virtual items, or staged virtual events like trailer premieres or concerts.

Epic chief executive and founder Tim Sweeney said in the same statement that “this investment will accelerate our work to build the metaverse and create spaces where players can have fun with friends, brands can build creative and immersive experiences, and creators can build a community and thrive.”

Monday’s statement said Epic Games is now valued at $31. 5 billion, up another $3 billion from last year’s buy-ins. Sweeney still controls Epic’s stock, according to the company.

As the world adapts to climate change and a growing population, it is more important than ever to have safe, clean drinking water. Recognizing the importance of protecting the planet’s most vital resource, Samsung Electronics is taking action across the globe to help solve the water crisis.

In celebration of World Water Day (March 22) as observed by the United Nations (UN), Samsung is working to improve the issues of global water scarcity and water pollution and encouraging their employees to reflect on the value of water.

Working Together To Make a Difference

To mark this year’s World Water Day in Korea, employees from Samsung at Suwon and the Gumi campuses are working together to protect nearby waterways. Samsung’s global manufacturing centres are conducting water conservation activities, in accordance with the World Water Day theme “Groundwater” .”

Last year, approximately 110,000 employees from 20 overseas manufacturing centers participated in World Water Day activities, including roadside and riverside clean-up, water conservation idea competitions, photo exhibitions and environmental education programs.

As the world works toward granting universal access to fresh water, here is how Samsung is doing its part to build a foundation for a green, sustainable future.

Samsung promotes water resource management as a key task in managing human impact on the natural world. Samsung is committed to creating a more sustainable and eco-friendly future by reducing the water use at its semiconductor manufacturing sites as well as increasing wastewater recycling rates.

As Samsung’s ESG Management develops, Samsung will recognize water resource management and work to preserve water quality at all levels of the business.

“As the theme for World Water Day is 2022 is ‘Groundwater’, we have an opportunity to recognize once again the importance of groundwater in preserving our drinking water and our ecosystem,” said Kyung-jin Kim, the Head of Global EHS Center for Samsung Electronics. He also noted that “Samsung will continue to carry out activities for carbon neutrality in line with its environmental management strategy.”

Kingdom Hearts 4‘s official announcement on Sunday was relatively light on details. It is known that Sora will return with Donald, Goofy and Goofy for an adventure of a different kind that will kick off a new story line. We know that Sora will battle the Heartless in the Quadratum, and at least one semi-new character, Strelizia, will play a role.

Oh, and Sora may finally visit a galaxy far, far away, based on a possible clue in the debut trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4.

While much of the announcement trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4 is set in the Tokyo-like Quadratum, there’s a brief dreamlike sequence set in a forest. That forest appears to be teeming with redwoods, much like the forest moon of Endor from Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi. While a verdant redwood forest might not be enough to go on, fans noticed one more detail that likely points to a new Star Wars world: the foot of an AT-ST.

Image: Square Enix/Disney

It’s barely noticeable among the rocks and stream cutting through the forest floor, but the object in the upper right of that still frame sure does look like an Imperial AT-ST (aka chicken walker) foot. That’s all the Kingdom Hearts fanbase, and equally obsessive Star Wars fans, needed to fire up the speculation hyper drive.

Disney, of course, has owned the Star Wars franchise since 2012, when the company acquired Lucasfilm for $4 billion. Donald, Sora and Goofy are free to visit Wookiees and Ewoks on Endor’s forest Moon or other Star Wars planets.

The Kingdom Hearts franchise has largely played within traditional Disney and Pixar worlds, with Kingdom Hearts 3 exploring the worlds of Toy Story, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Tangled. However, series director Tetsuya Namura declined to travel the Star Wars or Disney-owned Marvel worlds. Maybe the lure of a lightsaber keysblade is too tempting for Nomura.

Kingdom Hearts 4 does not have an announced release date or platforms yet.

Nintendo’s Wii Sports was a masterpiece of gaming simplicity. The 2006 Wii game taught millions of players both new and experienced how to use Nintendo’s revolutionary and intuitive motion controller, giving a new generation its first gaming experience. The Wii Bowling Tournament scene is still thriving . sixteen years after its inception.

Nintendo Switch Sports, a sequel due later this month, brings back the spirit of the original Wii Sports, but aims for a slightly different audience. The simplicity and familiarity of the original Wii Sports is still present in the Switch sequel, thanks to simple, motion-controlled games like bowling, tennis, and, in a future update, golf. For Switch users who desire it, there is a new layer of complexity and depth. This will allow Nintendo Switch Sports to be distinguished from its Wii Sports inspiration.

New additions like badminton and soccer can offer more heated one-on-one or team-based battles, and even bowling gets some upgrades: Players can enjoy a fast-paced pickup game or play on weird alleys with wild obstacles.

Image: Nintendo

During a hands-on presentation with Nintendo Switch Sports in New York last week, I got to sample the breadth and depth of Nintendo’s new sports collection. Although I thought I had seen enough of boxing and baseball as a Mii over a decade, the fun of this new game collection surprised me.

Let’s start with the presentation. Nintendo Switch Sports is a stylish update to the Wii Sports games, letting players create and customize more realistic avatars. Player characters, called Sportsmates, look more like the cool kids of Splatoon than the toylike Miis of the Wii and Nintendo 3DS era. However, Mii fans can choose to keep their Mii look, which is part of the rich customization but doesn’t fit in with the other visual enhancements. )

Now, the games. Soccer was my first Nintendo Switch Sports adventure. There are four different versions of the game, but I tried only two. One was a goal shootout between two players, where I had a Joy-Con attached to my kick leg. The other was a co-op against computer-controlled opponents. Shootout, with the exception of whipping out and affixing the leg straps, is perhaps the most pick-up-and-play game here. Players take turns trying to kick a ball into a very large goal, and it’s all about timing. The arc and speed of the ball appears randomized, and I wound up kicking far to the left more than once. What makes shootout mode both interesting and balanced is when one player starts to dominate — if you have a streak going, the goal size shrinks, making precise timing even more critical.

Image: Nintendo

In my session, I had my own leg strap, as did my Nintendo representative opponent, so we rotated single turns on the pitch. But for households that only have one strap on hand, one person can play a full set (of five kicks), pass the strap and Joy-Con, and let the other player enjoy their set. This was an example Nintendo Switch Sports of the more complex ways that Switch owners can play the game.

Our second match of soccer was a bit more traditional. It was a four-on-four match played with both left and right Joy-Cons in hand. My left Joy-Con controlled the movement of my player, using the analog stick to run freely in all di, while the right used motion control to kick upward, downward, left, or right. I could also perform a dramatic, stamina-draining diving header for a powerful strike. Rocket League Nintendo Switch Sports has an extra-large ball with rounded corners. This makes it easy to track and keeps the ball in play. It’s soccer without any downtime, and it may offer the most replayability of any Nintendo Switch Sports activity.

Or perhaps it will be bowling. It offers all the simple pleasures and inclusive enjoyments of its Wii Sports cousin (and may mistakenly lead you to believe you are a great bowler). My version of bowling was traditional, with one exception. All four people in the room were rolling at once. Nintendo Switch Sports bowling is speedy; our four-player game took just over six minutes to bowl through, all-but eliminating the usual downtime of playing a full set. My Switch makes it easy to bowl at home. But, I am intrigued by some of the obstacles I missed, such as bumpers and lanes with varying heights.

Image: Nintendo

The three net sports — tennis, badminton, and volleyball — offered different levels of intensity. While tennis is the most relaxed, it can be frantic at times, particularly when you play doubles. Your player character runs to the ball automatically, so tennis is mostly a game of timing and angles. Badminton, on the other hand, feels far more strategic. Players can lob the shuttlecock and smash it, and the goal here is keeping your opponent on their heels, hoping to exhaust their stamina. Badminton seems to be the sport where Nintendo Switch Sports‘ most hardcore devotees will spend their time. Finally, volleyball is a game of timing. Players must bump, set, and spike the ball — and block it, if on defense — with perfect timing. You can visualize when the ball is going to be struck by a visual indicator placed above your character.

Finally, there’s chambara, a renamed version of the swordplay game included in Wii Sports Resort‘s suite of activities. Head games are equally important, as is guarding your opponent and striking from the correct angle (vertically or horizontally). Faking out your opponent in this split-screen game is strategically important, so fighting game enthusiasts will likely take a shine to chambara in Nintendo Switch Sports. It also has many variations. Players can battle with one sword or two, and there’s an optional charge move that, while I didn’t get to try it, appears to add new strategies to both attacking and defending.

Golf will be available as an update for Nintendo Switch Sports this summer. Like the other games, it can be played online or locally against your friends, or with random matchmaking among Switch owners. Random matchmaking is a key element of long-term enjoyment for the game. This will allow players to unlock cosmetic items. That includes outfits and accessories for your Sportsmate avatar, as well as new equipment. It seems that there is a bowling ball which looks almost like a watermelon. This makes it extremely useful.

Nintendo Switch Sports will be released on April 29.