Loftie’s mindful design (created by people who’ve honed their design skills at companies like IDEO) is like an external version of your circadian rhythm. You end up forming your own definition of what a well structured day is, and before you know it, it’s 4am and you’re wide awake even though you should have been asleep four hours ago. Being at home 24×7, working odd hours, hardly stepping out, they’re all a recipe for what I call daytime disillusionment. If anything, this pandemic has thrown a massive wrench in everyone’s sleep cycle. The folks at Loftie have a pretty neat solution – a clock that’s designed to gently coax you awake, but also to help you fall asleep faster… and above all, designed to be effective enough so that you don’t need to have your phone right beside you. You go to set your alarm at night and before you know it, you’re checking Instagram or Twitter, or LinkedIn if you’re that kind of person. Phones are addictive, and having your phone by your bedside is good if you need waking up, but terrible if you’re trying to go to bed. Now yes, you can set the tone of birds chirping as an alarm sound on your phone… it isn’t too difficult to be honest, but here’s the caveat. It’s an inelegant solution, and you end up feeling like crap the first thing in the morning. They get the job done the same way getting doused with a glass of water gets the job done. I’ve never really realized this but alarm clocks are some of the most functional yet horribly designed products in the world. If you use the old sound and miss it, another Reddit user has uploaded the original to Google Drive, so you could in theory download it and cast to YouTube Music.If the words ‘Alarm Clock’ make you feel even the slightest bit annoyed or anxious, it’s probably because the first word is literally ALARM… which is an emotion nobody likes feeling the first thing in the morning. Another acknowledged that this is a "first world problem," but it goes to show how tiny changes in widely used technology can cause unintended problems. Google may have changed the file to reduce data usage, as one Redditor said that his Mini used about 4GB of data every night just playing Google's ambient noises. "Please, let there be a way to get the older version back so we can maintain our sleep schedule and sanity!" "I play it every night for my toddler and she's really upset about this change," said one. There are at least 100 complaints along the same lines, with many people saying they use the white noise to get their babies or toddlers to sleep. "Very annoying you have to set the volume to 70 percent," another noted. "It's a different pitch, almost muffled," said one user. On top of that, the previously crisp sound file is now apparently "muffled" and quieter than before. Previously, it looped the White Noise sound every hour, but now the sound is repeated every 10 minutes, something users find annoying and repetitive. You can play them for up to 12 hours if not disabled by a sleep timer, and the 2nd-gen Nest Hub has an "auto-off" feature that turns off the sound once you fall asleep. "White noise" is among the 14 ambient noises available from Google Assistant, along with "babbling brook," "fireplace," "ocean" and others. As a result, they and their infants and toddlers are apparently losing sleep over it. However, multiple users have noticed that Google recently changed that to something that loops more frequently and has a muffled sound, according to 9to5Google. In case you didn't know, Google Assistant devices like the Nest Hub can play white noise ambient sound to help you or your young ones get to sleep. It’s fixed now and working as it previously did," a Google spokesperson told Engadget. "There was an issue impacting our white noise experience. Update 12:34 PM ET: Good news, sleep-deprived Google Assistant users, the white noise is back to how it was.
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