We check them, on average, 47 times a day — 82 times if you're between 18 and 24 years old, according to recent data.

And we love them for good reason: They tell the weather, the time of day and the steps we've taken.

They find us dates (and sex), entertain us with music and connect us to friends and family. They answer our questions and quell feelings of loneliness and anxiety.

But phone love can go too far — so far that it can interfere with human love — old fashioned face-to-face intimacy with that living and breathing being you call your partner, spouse, lover or significant other.

The conflict between phone love and human love is so common, it has its own lexicon. If you're snubbing your partner in favor of your phone it's called phubbing (phone + snubbing).

If you're snubbing a person in favor of any type of technology, it's called technoference. A popular song by Lost Kings even asks: "Why don't you put that [expletive] phone down?"

"A key to a healthy relationship is being present," said James Roberts, author of "Too Much of a Good Thing: Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone?".

When one partner constantly checks his or her phone it sends an implicit message that they find the phone (or what's on it) more interesting than you.

In a 2016 study published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 70 percent of women revealed that smartphones were negatively affecting their primary relationship.

More than one-third of the 143 women in the study said their partner responded to notifications mid-conversation; one out of four said their partner texted during conversations.

The women who reported high levels of technoference in interactions with their partners were less happy with their relationships and with their lives overall. Continue reading

• Lesley Alderman is a psychotherapist and journalist based in Brooklyn, NY.

The "digital collection plate" stems from a partnership between the Archdiocese of San Francisco and Evergive.

It is also available on Android.

The app also simplifies creating new donation categories for special causes, be they for Nepal earthquake relief or for a local youth group.

The app will also serve as something of a digital community for members of the Catholic Church in San Francisco.

Through the app, users will receive updates, can join groups, share messages and prayers, and more.

Continue reading

In his own life lately, Schram says he has been dealing with some heavy stuff, that caused him to wonder what it would be like to have the powers of God, to just fix things by snapping ones fingers, or just tapping a screen!

From there, Schramm went to the idea of "answering prayers" from a screen tap, and after thinking about prayer and doing a few Google searches for it, and he came up with the name "Benediction," which he remembers from his childhood as a blessing, a prayer meant to send people on their way, happy and ready to deal with the world.

It's with this background, that Schramm had his theme for the game. He'd be answering the prayers of supplicants as the player, the App is God with infinite power, answering prayers as needed.

A reviewer at Cult of Mac says the game has three things going for it.

• Benediction is a clean game with a simplicity of purpose
• Secondly, the narrative is of an artist, bringing issues from his own life into his work.
• Finally, there's a progression mechanic in the game. Each game has a limited amount of "god power," which gets used up each tap. The idea is to make your taps, which use up this energy source, clear the most amount of smiley faces as possible, maximizing your score. As you earn points for each game, they add up and can be traded for power ups, also connected to the four different colors in the game, which do some neat things like double your scored points, drop single colors down from the top, or recharge your god power.

Download the App. It's free.

Source: Cult of Mac

But now, thanks to the new Rosary Plus iOS app from St. Clement ePress, I might just have a real contender for that ever-elusive perfect rosary app. (Well, on second thought, it might be a tie with iRosary.)

What I love about Rosary Plus: It's easy to use.

Though I think it should be required, I find that many rosary apps are not intuitively easy to use, even for me, a wannabe techie and an admitted rosary geek. Rosary Plus IS easy to use: you tap the beads to pray. Period. It's that easy. And when you need help, it's easy to find. Continue reading

Image: St Clement Press

Australians have smartphones and tablet computers gripped in their sweaty embrace, adopting the new internet-enabled technology as the standard operating platform for their lives, at work, home and play.

But it is not only adults who are on the iWay to permanent connection. As parents readily testify, many children don't just use the devices, they are consumed by them.

"These devices have an almost obsessive pull towards them," says Larry Rosen, professor of psychology at California State University and author of iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming its Hold on Us.

"How can you expect the world to compete with something like an iPad3 with a high-definition screen, clear video and lots of interactivity? How can anything compete with that? There's certainly no toy that can.

"Even old people like me can't stop themselves from tapping their pocket to make sure their iPhone is there. Imagine a teenager, even a pre-teen, who's grown up with these devices attached at the hip 24/7 and you end up with what I think is a problem."

The technology has been absorbed so comprehensively that the jury on the potential impact on young people is not just out, it's yet to be empanelled.

"The million-dollar question is whether there are risks in the transfer of real time to online time and the answer is that we just don't know," says Andrew Campbell, a child and adolescent psychologist.

Media convergence means that everything from War and Peace, television, movies, video, computer games and the internet - all with potentially different effects on a child's brain - are available on the same device.

Parents used to worry only about TV use. Now school students' screen use may begin at home with TV in the morning, continue with interactive whiteboards, laptops and computers in class, smartphones at lunch and on the bus, and continue at home with TV, computer, phone and tablet. Wayne Warburton, a psychologist at Macquarie University, says US studies show that beyond the school gates, teenagers are using screens or listening to music for more than 7½ hours a day. In Australia it is more than five hours and rising. Continue reading

Sources

• The Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: dynmk

Not only do workers face long hours, but they also face many hazardous conditions. There have been reports of injuries, and some employees have attempted suicide.

In response the issues identified by the Fair Labor Association, Apple and Foxconn have agreed to improved working conditions at the Chinese manufacturer's plants, reports Reuters.

The agreement covers safety conditions, the maximum number of working hours and overtime compensation.

The agreement will have significant effects outside of Apple. Any increases in costs that come from the agreement will impact companies like Dell, HP, Amazon, Motorola Mobility, Nokia and Sony, who have contracts with Foxconn.

Foxconn has pledged to

• reduce working hours to 49 per week,
• hire tens of thousands of new workers to compensate for those lost hours,
• build housing and canteens for those workers.

Because labour costs are only a fraction of the overall costs of devices from these manufacturers, the boost in consumer prices likely won't be major.

Some employees at Foxconn are concerned at the reduction in opportunities to work overtime.

Wu Jun heard that Foxconn had given employees landmark concessions her reaction was worry, not elation.

"We are worried we will have less money to spend. Of course, if we work less overtime, it would mean less money," said Wu, a 23-year-old employee said.

Huang Hai, a 21-year-old man who said he had worked at Foxconn's factory for about two years said "I don't go out that much as there is nothing much to do."

"This is a good company to work for because the working conditions are better than a lot of other small factories."

The agreement follows on from a visit to the Foxconn factories by Tim Cook, the new Apple CEO. At a conference last month Cook was reported as saying "No one is doing more to improve working conditions in China than Apple.

Sources

• The Next Web
• The Next Web
• Reuters
• Image: Creative Rescue

Ignio - "ignite" in Latin - is a free app which tracks users' religious activity.

The App tracks everything from reading Scriptures to posting prayers - and reflects it in the flame of a virtual candle on the app that grows larger and brighter with every completed task.

The flame stays lit as long as one participates in a variety of spiritual activities, such as

• posting prayers on Ignio,
• commenting on friends' prayer requests,
• using the app to find a nearby church or
• just to "check-in" to let friends know you are at church or were there that week.

Ignio also keeps track of how often one reads the prescribed daily Scriptures and verses found on the app.

Stray from the path or don't use Ignio once within two-weeks and the flame burns out.

The flame is rekindled if another user physically "bumps" mobile devices with the holder of the extinguished flame.

"We're lighting a candle of hope," said Andres Ruzo, who helped create Ignio.

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness," Ruzo said.

"It's so simple," Ruzo said. "The more you pray with others the bigger and brighter your candle glows."

While Facebook users with hundreds of virtual friends appear popular, Ignio intentionally caps the friendship circle to 12 - a limit Ruzo said was inspired by the number of Jesus' disciples.

The foundation has invested close to $60,000 in Ignio and plans to raise another $100,000 to $120,000 to develop the Android version, an Internet site, and support the operations of the Ignio back-bone servers.

Sources

• Boston Herald
• Image: App Store

The new App, iGPII, named after the founder of WYD, former Pope John Paul II, works on iPod, iPhone and iPad, and will provide regularly updated information about World Youth day activities, directions to recommended restaurants, places to stay and sights to see in Madrid.

The App promises participants the ability to

• better position themselves for WYD events,
• track their friends' locations and
• locate the leader of their group should a participant become lost.

A paid App, it is available from the iTunes store in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese.

Revenue from the sale of the App will be used to help fund the John Paul II Foundation for Youth, which among other things helps fund youth, who would ordinarily not be able, to participate in WYD 2011.

"We wanted to do something for young people who are in worse situations than young Europeans, so that they could also participate in the World Youth Day," said the designer Iacopo Barberini.

Barberini intends to introduce versions for Android, BlackBerry and Symbian smartphones for similar events in the future.

World Youth Day 2011 takes place later this month, 16- 21 August in Madrid, Spain.

Sources

• Huffington Post
• Catholic Online
• Image: Rome Reports

Suicide at Foxconn Shenzhen plant where Apple and many other companies have their manufacturing plants has thankfully seems to be a thing of the past. The nets that went up around the building seem to have worked.

Who's to blame? Follow Joel Johnson of Wired Magazine as he tours the Foxconn plant as he goes in search of an answer.

Among it's features, it offers

• 400 sins that you can choose from,
• easy navigation between them, and
• for your convenience they're pre-packaged into lists of Venial and Mortal.

With an easy to use interface, you can examine your conscience daily, and priced at only $1.99 it's a "steal".

http://www.meaculpaapp.com/