Audio Post Format

The temperature in your bedroom is perfect. Your blackout curtains have been drawn shut. And youโ€™ve just finished a cup of chamomile tea and novel that made you laugh out loud and forget about whatever was bothering you earlier in the day.

Youโ€™re just about ready to drift off, and suddenly the air conditioner kicks on. Or a car alarm screeches through the night air. Or your partner sneezes. Suddenly, youโ€™re wide-awake again. Your brain responds to noises when youโ€™re awake and asleep. But if the interruptions wake you up, that can keep you from getting the restful shuteye that you need.

When ambient noise is disrupting your sleep, white (or pink) noise can help to smooth out the rough edges. Imagine sitting next to a person who is loudly chewing gum in a library. Then imagine sitting next to that same person in a crowded bar. Itโ€™s the same chomping gum, but underneath the drone of a crowded place, you canโ€™t even hear it anymore. White noise, whether itโ€™s from a sound machine, a simple fan, or crowd noise helps to mask noise-related disruptions by creating a constant ambient sound that makes a โ€œpeakโ€ noise, like a door slamming, less of a contrast. And that makes you less likely to be startled awake.

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Post Format: Audio

The temperature in your bedroom is perfect. Your blackout curtains have been drawn shut. And youโ€™ve just finished a cup of chamomile tea and novel that made you laugh out loud and forget about whatever was bothering you earlier in the day.

Youโ€™re just about ready to drift off, and suddenly the air conditioner kicks on. Or a car alarm screeches through the night air. Or your partner sneezes. Suddenly, youโ€™re wide-awake again. Your brain responds to noises when youโ€™re awake and asleep. But if the interruptions wake you up, that can keep you from getting the restful shuteye that you need.

When ambient noise is disrupting your sleep, white (or pink) noise can help to smooth out the rough edges. Imagine sitting next to a person who is loudly chewing gum in a library. Then imagine sitting next to that same person in a crowded bar. Itโ€™s the same chomping gum, but underneath the drone of a crowded place, you canโ€™t even hear it anymore. White noise, whether itโ€™s from a sound machine, a simple fan, or crowd noise helps to mask noise-related disruptions by creating a constant ambient sound that makes a โ€œpeakโ€ noise, like a door slamming, less of a contrast. And that makes you less likely to be startled awake.

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Got to ‘get’: the end of free apps on Apple’s App Store โ€“ Open Thread

Itโ€™s the end of free apps for iOS! Well, sort of.ย Appleย quietly made a design tweak to its App Store yesterday, replacing the โ€œFreeโ€ button for apps that are free to download with โ€œGetโ€.

So, no change to the actual price, but the new wording is one way of sidestepping the debate around โ€œfreeโ€ apps not actually being free if they use in-app purchases โ€“ an issue that regulators in various parts of the world have been looking into.

Now, freemium apps will have the new โ€œGetโ€ button, as well as a prominent โ€œIn-App Purchasesโ€ notification, to ensure that people know theyโ€™re downloading something that will, in some way, be hoping for some of their money at a later point.

Is โ€œGetโ€ a good choice of wording in this case? You might argue that it makes it harder to tell that an app is free to download, althoughย iOSย users will surely pick that up by noticing other apps still have prices on their download buttons.

The comments section is open for your thoughts on Appleโ€™s change, and the rise of freemium apps in general.

What else is bubbling in the technology world this morning? Some links:

Senator Al Franken has some questions for Uber

Uberโ€™s bad week just stepped up a notch: US senator Al Franken has written to its chief executive Travis Kalanick with some pointed questions about the companyโ€™s privacy policy, statements by senior executive Emil Michael about using private information to target journalists, and its โ€œGod Viewโ€ tool for tracking users. โ€œI would appreciate responses to these questions by December 15…โ€

Chrome now has 400m monthly active mobile users

Googleย has announced new stats for mobile usage of its Chrome web browser: 400 million monthly active users. Thatโ€™s impressive growth given that it was on 300 million as recently as the companyโ€™s I/O conference in June.

DOJ: children will die due to Apple encryption

As arguments why technology companies shouldnโ€™t introduce new encryption features go, this is pretty startling, from the US Department of Justice: โ€œMr. Cole offered the Apple team a gruesome prediction: At some future date, a child will die, and police will say they would have been able to rescue the child, or capture the killer, if only they could have looked inside a certain phone…โ€

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