Raycoded

Don’t let children play video games for more than TWO HOURS a week or it will damage their social skills
• Rationing gameplay for children aged 7-11 can lead to better motor skills
• More than two hours can result in reduced social abilities, claims study
• Some 260 children had their brains scanned to see what changes could be seen as a result of their playing video games

Playing video games is good for children’s brains – but only if they play no more than two hours a week.
More than this increases the likelihood the child will get into trouble at school with their teachers, fight with their friends and have reduced social abilities.
But rationing gaming to just two hours found that for children aged 7-11 playing games for one hour a week led to better motor skills and higher achievement scores in school

The authors of the scientific paper, published in the Annals of Neurology, do not offer any advice on how to achieve the miraculous trick of limiting a child’s playing of games to just two hours a week, however.
To study the effect of video game playing, Dr Jesus Pujol and colleagues studied 2,442 children aged between 7 and 11 years.
Children suffering from 'probably gaming addiction' were excluded from the study.
As a follow up, the researchers scanned the brains of a subset of the group – 260 children after playing video games.
The most popular games in the study included Super Mario Brothers, FIFA and Wii Sports.
The authors expected the greatest influence of the video games would be on the speed of mental processing, such as reaction time with a more marginal influence on more innate mental capacities such as memory.
After assessing how much time was spent playing video games, they investigated how well the children did at school and their disciplinary record.

HOW THE STUDY WORKED
To study the effect of video game playing, Dr Jesus Pujol and colleagues studied 2,442 children aged between 7 and 11 years.
Children suffering from 'probably gaming addiction' were excluded from the study.
As a follow up, the researchers scanned the brains of a subset of the group – 260 children after playing video games.
After assessing how much time was spent playing video games, they investigated how well the children did at school and their disciplinary record.

In assessments, the players of video games had faster reaction times – typically 100milliseconds faster than non-video game players, but this effect did not improve after playing in excess of two hours a week – which the researchers called a ‘ceiling effect’.
The authors added: ‘children gaming in the range of 9 to 17 hours per week showed significantly more behavioral problems than non-gamers’ and they also got less sleep.
As a follow up, a subset of the group – 260 children – had their brains scanned to see what changes if any could be seen as a result of their playing video games.
They found changes in how well connected cells in part of the brain called the basal ganglia white matter were.
Higher levels of connectivity are seen in people who acquire new skills through practice.
The authors also found that boys spent 1.7 hours playing video games longer than girls did on average.

Explaining why gaming makes children less sociable, the authors say that video game playing limits the scope of other leisure activities where a child can develop their social skills.
Dr Pujol said: ‘Video gaming per se is neither good nor bad, but its level of use makes it so.
He added: ‘Gaming use was associated with better function in brain circuits critical for learning based on the acquisition of new skills through practice.
‘Children traditionally acquire motor skills through action, for instance in relation to sports and outdoor games.
'Neuroimaging research now suggests that training with desktop virtual environments is also capable of modulating brain systems that support motor skill learning.’

Robots and computers will commit more crime than humans by 2040, expert warns
• Experts predict a 'sharp rise in lone-wolf terror attacks' by robots in 2040
• In 2015 cyber-crime made up 53 per cent of all crimes and is increasing
• There are also concerns of rogue driverless cars and drones in the future
• RoboCop, Chappie, the Terminator movies and i,Robot - there have been many films where we have been encouraged to respect, love but also fear robots – and I for one can say I will never be trusting them!
• And apparently I am right not to after researchers have found robots could be the offenders committing most crimes by 2040.
• Tracey Follows from The Future Laboratory, which helps businesses plan for the future through its research and consultancy experts, has been looking at the issues after more and more robots could be used in industries replacing humans on jobs.
• Ms Follows, chief strategy and innovation officer at, speaking to the Times Raconteur: ‘Futurists have been forecasting a sharp rise in lone-wolf terror attacks for years. But once robots can be hacked to become suicide-bombing machines, lone-robot attacks could become rife too.’
• Ms Follows, whose work in telecoms, technology, retail and media and has helped to shape the future strategies of brands such as T-Mobile, BT, O2, easyJet and John Lewis, also added that artificial intelligence and machine-learning could enable robots to self-programme criminal activity.
• ‘My forecast would be that by 2040 more crime will be committed by machines than by humans,’ she commented.

But it’s not just robots experts are worrying about, rogue driverless cars and drones could also be a problem if they are able to be hacked or re-programed.
Raj Samani, chief technology officer, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), at Intel Security, works with the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Europol European Cybercrime Centre as an adviser.
Speaking to the technology publisher he said: ‘It’s only a matter of time before we see instances of people left helpless, unable to drive their cars unless they pay up a ransom.’

According to NCA cyber-crime is on the increase and accounted for 53 per cent of all crimes in 2015 as stated in its 2016 report.
In Belgium today officials and representatives from all the NATO member states met to discuss how better to defend against cyber attacks and hackers that could cause as much harm as conventional military attacks.
On Tuesday, USA President Barak Obama was seen talking with Vladimir Putin of Russia after there were cyber-attacks on America by the country and that there needed to be rules to regulate how countries use the internet – but would rules also need to be used on all citizens who could continue to develop ways to hack private systems.
Could the i,Robot attacks on people become a future reality?

iPhone 7 WILL lose the headphone jack, but adds dual-camera and pressure sensitive home button, report claims
• iPhone 7 and 7 Plus to have same 4.7in and 5.5in screens as iPhone 6 line
• Dual-camera will snap brighter images and zoom in with more clarity
• Location of headphone jack will be replaced with another speaker
• Home button will be designed with Force Touch technology

Next month's iPhone is expected to be much different from what is in your hand.

According to Bloomberg, the larger iPhone 7 will be equipped with a dual-camera system designed to capture brighter photos with more detail.

This upgrade is just one of many rumors surrounding the iPhone 7 designs, as both models are set to have a home button that reads different inputs, but will be missing the traditional headphone jack.

‘The standout features will be a dual-camera system on the larger iPhone, a re-engineered home button that responds to pressure with a vibrating sensation rather than a true physical click and the removal of the devices’ headphone jack, said the people, who didn’t want to be identified discussing unannounced features,’ reports Mark Gurman from Bloomberg.

Although the handsets may be designed with new features, display sizes are not expected to change.

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will have the same 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens as their predecessors.

Sources also told Bloomberg that Apple removed the two innermost antenna lines that line the back of the current phones.

WHAT SOURCES SAY ABOUT THE IPHONE 7 LINE
According to Bloomberg, next month’s iPhone will be equip with a dual-camera system capable of capturing brighter photos with more detail and cameras that can merge two images into one.

Users will also have to throw out their white iconic headphones, as there will not be a headphone jack - sources say it will be replaced by a second speaker.

The home button will be designed to read different inputs, using Force Touch technology

And the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will have the same 4.7-inch and 5.5-inc screens as their predecessors.

The dual camera has been a long running rumor for the iPhone 7 and just a few months ago, a patent surfaced that illustrates this technology - sending the internet into a frenzy over the iPhone 7 Plus having ‘superzoom’ capabilities.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, who claim to have used a prototype of the highly anticipated devices, this new system will snap brighter pictures in low-light environments and with more detail.

However, the dual-camera system will only be available to those who dish out the extra bucks for the larger iPhone.

The lenses, which each snap colour differently, will merge together to make one detailed image.

This technology would also allow users to zoom in on the object, place or person with more clarity, sources said.

The home button has not been discussed too much this year, but it seems Apple could have big plans for this mechanism in the new models.

‘Current home buttons are switches that physically press into the phone, but the new models will have a pressure-sensitive button that employs so-called haptic feedback,’ according to Bloomberg’s’ sources.

This technology is expected to be similar to the trackpads implemented in the latest MacBook line and what was reported by 9TO5Mac earlier this year.

Sources told the Ben Lovejoy that although the home button will still be a physical mechanism, it will ‘feature haptic feedback to simulate a click using the same approach as Force Touch’ – which was a new addition to the iPhone 6 line.

WHY WOULD APPLE DITCH THE HEADPHONE JACK?
Getting rid of the headphone jack would help Apple shrink the iPhone 7's thickness considerably.

Its latest smartphone, the Phone 6s, is 7.1 mm (0.27) thick but removing the 3.5mm jack could drop this by a further by one mm (0.04 in).

Such a shift would also mean larger, stereo headphones using an internal battery would be able to draw power directly from the iPhone - or other devices, if the change is enforced across the Apple board.

Elsewhere, Lightning-based headphones would experience less 'crosstalk', or signal interference.

And the rumor that can be heard echoing all over the internet might actually be true.

Numerous leaks and sources have surfaced over the past year reveaingl a major change in the the upcoming iPhones, no headphone jack, which Bloomberg says will be replaced with a second speaker.

Users will also have to make use of connectivity using Bluetooth and the charging port to setup wireless headphones.

WHAT DOES THE INTERNET SAY ABOUT THE IPHONE7?
One rumor has been debunked, which suggest there will be a single speaker instead of the dual speaker setup users had hoped for.

But one thing that has stayed consistent is the dimension of both models, which were first revealed last year.

According to reports, the iPhone 7 will have a 3,100mAh battery, which is 12.5 percent bigger than the iPhone 6S Plus.

But although your phone will stay powered longer, it could also mean the casing around it could be thicker.

What could be very exciting for iOS users is that Apple might be fixing the annoying ‘there is not enough available storage…’ issue with a 256GB this year.

Another annoying feature that might be on Apple's to-do list is strengthening the phone’s water-resistance.

This doesn't say the phone will be water-proof, but it could make a world of a difference if you drop your phone in liquid.
Another rumor hit the internet just last month that put an even bigger twist on the mystery, claiming next month's Apple smartphones will not be called the iPhone 7 at all.
Instead, it will be called the iPhone 6SE - leaving the iPhone 7 for next year, when apple is expected to introduce a major overhaul of its iconic handset.

The report from Apfelpage comes from Chinese supply chain sources, who claim to have have seen packaging and labeling that indicates the new phone will be called the ‘iPhone 6SE’.

'Given the more-iterative changes and similar design, it is not out of the question for Apple to brand the new iPhone as a continuation of the iPhone 6 line,' says 9to5Mac.