Want to know how much a Galaxy S5 really costs?

Kris Carlon 2014-04-15T17:30:00Z22 hours ago

Kris Carlon

Putting down roots in Berlin after six years of traveling is a major step for Kris Carlon, who has spent more time living out of a tent lately than sitting at a desk. Kris comes to the AndroidPIT Editorial Team via a lengthy period spent writing on art and culture in Australia and other places he has lived. He joined the Android community while resurfacing in civilization back in 2010 and has never looked back, using technology to replace his actual presence in other people's lives ever since.

If you're amongst the many people - myself included - that just love to complain about the high cost of smartphones, you've probably used the old chestnut about the massive purchasing power of the manufacturers and how they must be making bucket loads of profit on crappy plastic devices that cost them hardly anything to make and then break so easily. Well, you're right.

According to research firm IHS, the Galaxy S5 costs less than half its price tag to make. / © AndroidPIT

A market research firm by the name of IHS has done a component teardown on the Galaxy S5 and come to the conclusion that the 650 USD flagship from Samsung costs about 256 USD to put together. ''Aha!'' I hear you say, ''they are ripping me off!'' Of course they are. Samsung doesn't get an advertising budget equal to the GDP of a small country by selling cheap smartphones. That's Google's job with Nexus devices. Considering a Nexus has similar hardware to many flagships and costs half as much should have given this away long ago.

When you get into the guts of a Nexus device you'll find many of the same components as other flagship devices, but the Nexus line tends to cost around half as much - it's all profit margin. / © NewLife2OldStuff

It's not all bad news though, the actual build costs for the Galaxy S5 are higher than previous Samsung flagships, if that makes you feel any better. According to IHS, previous smartphones from Samsung were more around the 200 USD mark to build with a 600 USD price tag, so at least the S5 is only 60% profit. I'm not sure exactly how accurate IHS' pricing is for the volumes and discounts Samsung would be getting on their components, but it's safe to say that Samsung are rolling around in beds made of money as they laugh their way to the bank for these grossly overpriced chunks of ugly dimpled plastic.

Now is as good a time as any to bash the dimpled plastic of the Galaxy S5. / © AndroidPIT

The scariest part is when you think about how much these parts would cost you to repair if you did it yourself. The most expensive component is the display module, which IHS price at around 63 USD. Replacing an S5 display yourself would run you at least double that. The problematic finger scanner costs a whole 4 USD (that probably explains a lot). As an IHS analyst in charge of the teardown said:

“Inside we see mostly a lot of recycled components that we’ve seen before. There’s really nothing special inside where Samsung is pushing the envelope. There’s no breakthroughs, there’s nothing earth-shattering. It’s really just a continuation of what has come before.”  - Andrew Rassweiler. Senior Director, Materials & Cost Benchmarking, IHS Technology

And that sounds exactly like Samsung to me.

Did you have a vague idea just how cheap it was to manufacture a smartphone? Do you think the markup up is reasonable considering the warranty, updates and service you get?

Via: Re/Code Source: IHS Technology

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Patent troll demands money for paying with a card online (yes, really)

Ngader

Whether it is a copyright troll or a patent troll, today’s society seems to have a troll for just about every general aspect of business life. To be fair, I am not talking about companies who make products and are protecting their rights. The following companies are ones who make nothing, research nothing and do nothing other than sue businesses through a Non-Practicing Entity.

Today, we have a new way in which people and businesses are being shaken down for basic business activities. If you are a business with customers who pay their credit cards online, Landmark Technology, LLC, can sue you for patent infringement. Yes, by paying with a credit card online, whether through your phone or computer.

As TechDirt notes, Landmark makes no products and offers no services. However, they own patent 6,289,319 which deals with ‘Automatic Business and Financial Transaction Processing System.’

Landmark has been suing people under several names since 2003 and has gotten tens of thousands of dollars by scaring small businesses into paying them for the ability to stay out of court. Recently, Lockwood has decided to sue Dunkin’ Donuts, Abercrombie & Fitch, Caesar’s Gaming, Hitachi and Harley-Davidson, Louis Vuitton, The Children’s Place, Rubbermaid and others.

Landmark has the same type of business practice that other trolls have in that they simply send demand letters and follow that up with a lawsuit. TrollingEffects.org has an example of a letter sent by Landmark to businesses that supposedly infringe on Landmark’s patents of “network technologies relating to Internet searching, bill pay, and business-to-business transactions.”

Hopefully, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gets the Senate to pass their version of the Innovation Act, which sailed through Congress late last year but has since been watered down due to lobbyists from, among others, patent troll king, Intellectual Ventures.

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What do you really want in your new phone?

It has been a couple of years now since Flurry pointed out that smartphones, specifically Android and iOS devices, are the fastest adopted consumer technology of all time. Ownership may be reaching saturation in some markets, but that growth is still on the rise worldwide. Around one billion smartphones shipped last year and the total is likely to be even higher this year.

Since the first Android device landed in October 2008, the improvements to mobile technology have come thick and fast. We tend to take smartphones for granted, but the innovation has been astounding. That pace can’t be maintained indefinitely, every technology reaches a point where advancement slows.

How do manufacturers convince us to upgrade when our existing smartphones are still really good? What’s missing from your current device? Does the next round of supposed must-have features really grab you? What do you really want in your new phone? Let’s take a look at some specific developments in more detail and explore the downsides.

Bezel-less screens

We’ve taken an in-depth look at bezel-less smartphones before and there’s no denying that they look great, but how practical are they really? With a bezel-less design the likelihood of accidental touches when you’re handling the phone goes up. The chances of your screen being damaged if you drop it goes up and that’s potentially exacerbated by the fact that a case is going to cover the sides of the screen or make using the touch screen all the way to edge more difficult.

Curves and flexibility

The first round of curved phones with flexible displays has been gimmicky and disappointing. It’s going to be a while before we see something really awesome in this category. In the short term, flexible displays are about improving durability and enabling new form factors, but until the rest of the components are flexible too the possibilities are limited. A smartphone that can fold out to tablet size would be a huge hit, but who really wants a slightly curved display?

4K display

It’s not the first time we’ve asked do we need smartphones with 4K displays? The obvious answer is no, but the real question is do we want smartphones with 4K displays? We haven’t quite reached the limits of the human eyeball and many of us do occasionally hold our smartphone displays very close to our faces, so it’s conceivable that we’ll see an improvement in picture quality. Is that slight improvement in screen quality going to be worth the extra processing power and battery life required to run it?

Right now there doesn’t seem to be any pressing need to break past full HD 1080p resolution, but we’re already seeing 2K displays, so it feels inevitable. As more 4K content is produced and we get used to higher resolutions in our TVs and elsewhere, then perhaps it’s something you’ll want on your smartphone, but today it feels like overkill.

Biometrics

Do we really need biometric security on our smartphones? The Touch ID feature on the iPhone 5S inevitably ignited this topic, even although the Motorola Atrix featured a fingerprint scanner a couple of years before, and now Samsung has added it to the Galaxy S5. A PIN is actually pretty secure, but most people don’t use one because it’s an inconvenience. The fingerprint scanner is supposed to solve this and provide a quick and easy way in, which is fine when it works, but hugely frustrating when it doesn’t. That’s why both systems have a backup PIN entry option.

What do we really want?

When manufacturers push time, money, and effort into new headline grabbing features are they diverting resources from the things we really want? Technology doesn’t advance without R&D and we know early adopters often get burned, but today’s gimmick can develop into tomorrow’s must-have feature, so we have to accept a bit of this if we want advances.

There are a handful of things that we can probably agree we all want in a new phone and they really haven’t changed much over the last few years.

More battery life

It still tops the polls as the biggest issue most people have with their smartphone. Batteries have grown bigger and there have been significant improvements in software efficiency, but thanks to bigger screens, spec bumps, and more features it doesn’t feel as though battery life is any better. We don’t necessarily need bigger batteries and we certainly don’t want the bulk that would inevitably add, but there are other ways to tackle this issue.

Continued improvements to wireless charging and the addition of solar panels, maybe through solar cells in the screen, could provide a boost without the convenience hit. A method of fully charging a smartphone battery much more quickly would also have a major impact. What if you could charge your battery in less than a minute? There has been research in these areas, so it would be nice to see a big manufacturer pursuing them.

Better camera

We’ve had a megapixel war and cameras have improved dramatically since the earliest examples on mobile phones, but there are two areas that could use more attention. We want smartphone cameras that can capture a decent shot instantaneously. No wasted seconds as you open up the camera app and wait for the focus, by which time you’ve missed it. We also want better low-light performance. Cameras are still a big differentiator for smartphones, which is great because it drives innovation, but there’s still room for improvement.

Extra storage

The disproportionate expense of extra onboard storage in smartphones is truly annoying. Why do manufacturers over charge us for built-in storage? Is it just because they can? The limitations and potential problems with microSD cards make them an imperfect solution. There is an argument that the platform providers are deliberately trying to push us into using cloud storage and this would suit the carriers too because you’re more likely to use your data allowance. Is there a good reason that we don’t have 64GB smartphones as standard? Looking at the most extreme example, the difference between a 16GB iPhone 5S and a 64GB model is $200.

What else do we want?

Everyone’s wish list is going to be slightly different. The move towards more rugged phones that can withstand dust and water is good. It would be nice if they could withstand drops without a case as well, but that clashes with making devices thinner and increasing the body to screen ratio.

As screens get larger, and we watch more video on them, better speakers would be welcome. The audio quality on most smartphones lags way behind the visual quality and we don’t want to have to wear headphones all the time.

Call quality, Wi-Fi speeds, the ability to maintain a signal, and improved GPS are all issues that crop up all too often on modern smartphones. They should handle the basics properly.

What do you think? Are you tempted by new developments on the horizon, or do they feel like gimmicks to you? If you could cut out a feature like biometric security and take a discount instead would you do it? Would you prefer incremental improvements to the main existing features over something entirely new? Post a comment and weigh in.

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Moot Rebrands As Muut (Yes, Really), Raises $770K To Make Online Forums Less Ugly

Moot.it, a startup launched last April to do away with ugly online forums by offering a flexible, customizable and more modern-looking platform for online discussions, has raised $770,000 in new funding and is changing its name to Muut. (Hey, they wanted the .com, so you get what you get these days.)

The funding was led by Oregon Angel Fund, and the other notable investor is the Portland Seed Fund.

Over the course of the year, the company has grown its customer base to over 28,000 and its user base to 300,000, and is currently adding thousands of new users per day. Muut also says its application is now being loaded approximately 150 million times per month.

The company was founded by Portland-based serial entrepreneur Courtney Couch, along with jQuery Tools creator Tero Piirainen and Janne Lehtinen, both of Helsinki. The team had previously been working on a web video player called Flowplayer before creating Muut.

The idea for the startup, like many others, came about because it was something the founders needed for themselves. They were running a separate support system and separate forums, but wanted something that would combine the content, unifying the commenting and the forums, while not looking like something “from the ’90s,” Couch had once said. As it turned out, it was slim pickins’ out there, so the team created Moot, now Muut.

With Muut, site owners can design their discussion platforms however they want. You can use it for commenting, forums or both combined, and you can customize those discussions in a variety of ways – like flat or threaded comments, for example – while also allowing users to comment using their same login they might use for your own website or software. The platform works on mobile, too, including iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.

“Muut seems to fill a glaring void on the internet: that of a super fast, built-for-mobile, easy-to-use, lightweight, beautiful, uncluttered forum and commenting solution that you can embed on your site and style to your liking,” explains the company, in an announcement going up later today. (We took a deeper look into its feature set last year, which you can read here.)

Since its debut, Muut has added the single sign-on functionality, plus custom navigation (to change how the right navigation works, and what content appears in the “all posts” section), introduced a graphical designer with pre-built themes, private forums with developer accounts, made SEO improvements, added Google Analytics integration, support for image uploading and galleries, added an option to select and share text to quote on Facebook or Twitter, expanded its language support (now in 25 languages), and more. (Yes, these are just the highlights).

The company, which competes to some extent with products like Discourse, Livefyre, Disqus and others, declined to discuss revenue specifics. Its freemium service starts at $8/month for paid accounts, but Couch would not say what percentage of users are free vs. paid. However, he did note that revenue has been growing at 30% on average every month over the past 6 months.

Portland-based Muut, now a team of 9, will use the new investment to continue product development over the course of 2014, with plans for forum data importers, integrations into WordPress and other platforms, Muut API documentation for deeper integration, administrative features, and more.

Does Speeding Really Get You There Any Faster?

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Dear Lifehacker,
I have a simple question: does speeding really get you to your destination any faster? I tend to be a more conservative driver and it drives my boyfriend crazy (who always goes 10mph over the speed limit. I'm pretty sure that between red lights and traffic, there's not enough time saved for it to even matter. Which one of us is right?

Sincerely,
Drive Smarter, Not Faster

Dear Smarter,
Well, the first thing to establish if you're trying to figure out whether or not speeding is worth it is the legal cost. Even if we could prove that speeding is a more efficient way to get from one place to another, it's illegal and fines could cost hundreds of dollars. Not to mention the increased chance of getting into a car accident. For the safety of everyone on the road, keep the possible consequences in mind while driving.

That being said, we won't pretend that speeding isn't a pretty common occurrence. In most states, you can get away with less than 10mph over the speed limit. For reference sake, we'll take a look at how much an extra 10mph can help.

Mathematically, Speeding Only Helps On Long Car Trips

Before we account for traffic lights, other drivers, or delays, let's examine some basic math. We'll look at a few different length trips—say, 15, 30, 50, and 500 miles—and at several different speeds. This chart shows how long each trip would take at the speed limit, how long it would take at 10 mph over it, and how much time you save by speeding:

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As you can see, unless you're going on a really long car trip, the time savings for speeding are already pretty minimal. The most time saved on a trip shorter than 500 miles is about 12 minutes (Trip G above). However, that's on a trip that's already an hour long. Factor in traffic lights and congestion (which we'll get to in a bit) and those savings can disappear quickly.

What's more fascinating is that the higher the speed limit is already, the less time you save by exceeding it, not more. This might seem counter intuitive. However, the faster you're traveling to start with, the more you have to exceed the speed limit to achieve the same proportionate increase. If the speed limit is 35 mph and you're going 45 mph, you're traveling nearly 30% faster than the speed limit. If the speed limit is 65 mph and you're going 75 mph, that's only about a 15% increase.

Ironically, the one situation in which speeding results in any substantial gains—during a long car trip on high speed freeways—is when mild speeding helps the least. Obviously you can increase those time savings by traveling even faster, but once you break the speed limit by more than 10 mph, you lose the indulgence of most law enforcement officers. This is a bad idea across the board.

Almost All Theoretical Gains are Lost In Traffic

Math is fun and all, but it's not that indicative of real life. During high traffic hours or in heavily populated areas, the hypothetical time savings go out the window. For starters, you can't maintain any constant speed, much less one that exceeds what everyone else is traveling at. Every time you stop at a traffic light you lose gains as your vehicle slows down approaching the intersection, while you wait for the light to turn green, and while you accelerate back up to speed again.

Once again revisiting Trip G in the chart above, let's assume that over the course of that 50 mile trip, you encounter 25 traffic lights (or one every two miles), each with the potential for an average 30-45 second wait time. This means the potential time lost at red lights is anywhere between 12.5 to 18.75 minutes. Now, you'll face these delays regardless of how fast you travel in between the lights. In the Trip G example, speeding will, at best, counteract the losses at red lights, and at worst, those red lights will cut your 12 minute savings down to about 6 minutes on a 50 mile trip that's already taking over an hour.

Even if you make the argument that a 50 mile trip would take place mostly on the freeway, that doesn't help us. As we established earlier, speeding doesn't help freeway driving nearly as much. The difference between Trip G (at 45 mph) and Trip I (at 65 mph) above is a six minute savings loss. Even without the lights, you still lost half your savings. And let's be real, on a 50 mile trip, it's still pretty likely you're going to encounter a couple (dozen) traffic lights along the way.

To put all these savings of a few minutes into perspective, let's assume the average speeding ticket cost is $150. In order for six minutes of your time to be worth $150, you would have to make $1,500/hour or about $3,000,000 per year.

Now, obviously, the number of red lights you'll encounter, the length of time you'll spend at each, and the density of traffic will vary widely by your area. In some cities, you could travel a full 50 miles without encountering a single traffic light. In others, you'll pass through 25 signals every two miles. However, this only emphasizes the point: your speed is only one of the factors that you'll encounter while driving and many of the things that determine how long your trip takes are out of your control.

There Are a Few Things That Can Help

We can more or less conclude that speeding only saves you a marginal amount of time, if it saves any at all. However, there are still a few things you can do to drive more efficiently that actually helps and doesn't risk getting in trouble with law enforcement or an accident:

• Plan out multi-stop trips efficiently: If you're planning to hit up more than one location, the best thing you can do is to plan the most efficient route before you leave. There's no perfect way to do this (and, in fact, this is the subject of a notable logistics problem), but even a little extra forethought can prevent backtracking, which will save far more time than speeding.
• Avoid left turns: While you're planning out your route, or if you simply come across the choice while you're out, choosing a right turn instead of a left one will not only save time, but gas as well. This doesn't mean you have to ban left turns entirely in favor of ridiculous right turn schemes, but if you're choosing between two gas stations on opposite sides of the road, the one on the right will take less time to get to.
• Prefer roundabouts when available: Roundabout-style intersections may not be very common in the United States, but in the rare event that you can choose between a route that contains a four-way stop and a roundabout, the roundabout will be a more efficient system of coordinating traffic. All other things being equal, of course.

Of course, the best way to get your destination sooner is to leave earlier. That advice may be trite and impractical at times—everyone runs late occasionally—but leaving your home ten minutes earlier is a much more reliable way to save time and comes with considerably fewer risks.

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

Photo by Pete Bellis.

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Olive Office Premium - Really Premium?

Features & Use

Right off the bat, Olive Office by Olive Phone meets the basic duties of an Office application in a no fuss manner. When you first start the app the simple user interface immediately impresses. The functionality here is divided into four simple categories. The ''home'' screen is your most recently edited documents. Despite having support for different languages, during the test period it was not possible for me to change the language from English to German.

Furthermore, the application naturally offers the possibility to access the local and external memory of the device. Here are the first stumbling blocks, however, found in the understanding of the variety of functions. Although the application differentiates between internal and external memory, it is not entirely clear how Olive Office distinguishes these files. My Nexus 4 has no external memory and yet files appear in one of two ''External Storage'' sections. They are actually the internal memory files, which also appear in the ''Internal Storage'' section. This could be confusing if you have both internal and external memory on your Android.

On the positive side, at least you know exactly how much the add-ons cost. / © AndroidPIT/Olive Phone

On the other hand, the initial impression of a functional app is rounded off by the integration of files from the cloud. Unfortunately, only three cloud providers are integrated with Olive Office: Dropbox, Google Docs and Box. There is still room for improvement in this area. The tab ''Function" also holds a lot of potential for confusion. This is where other apps by Olive Phone are offered. Functions such as a PDF converter or handwriting recognition must be bought, but how this section is set up is not entirely clear. For example, the wireless file transfer setting is positioned here (for free), along with a free Instagram client and numerous other paid apps and services not included in the Olive Office app.

These points aside, when it comes to the basic tasks that need to be done, Olive Office passes with flying colors. In addition to the usual functions of an Office application, our test candidate also performs some additional tasks, which not all other competitors in this category can handle. In this context, having the comment function supported in Word documents especially must be emphasized. The previously saved commentaries will open in the text file with a double-click. Thus, comments are fluidly incorporated into the work flow and can be viewed without much fuss.

The menu bar on the right-hand screenshot is long and continuous. / © AndroidPIT/Olive Phone

Speaking of work flow: due to the somewhat cumbersome arrangement of the controls the work flow is not always so fluid. At least not as fluid as many other competitors manage to make it. For example, the buttons to go up or down to the next page appear buried in a feature bar with many buttons.

On one occasion during the test period, it was not possible to open an Excel spreadsheet created on the PC in Olive Office. In context, this means a failure rate of almost 10%, which is not really acceptable if you work with these kinds of files often.

Screen & Controls

The operation and graphical presentation of Olive Office is a double-edged sword. Thus, the graphical presentation succeeds because the simple design is convincing and fits well into the overall system. Unfortunately, this nice clean interface is then marred by ugly display errors which you can see an example of in the screenshot below.
 

Such display errors diminish the overall impression. / © AndroidPIT/Olive Phone

In general operation there is also still room for improvement. As mentioned above, the control bar is not very well integrated into not only the app interface but also into the general work flow. Also, the menu button at the bottom is somewhat annoying because the action overflow menu already exists in the upper right corner of the screen.

Speed & Stability

During the test period, Olive Office Premium suffered from no stuttering or crashes.

Price/Performance Ratio

Olive Office Premium is available free of charge. A number of in-app purchases will be offered but are not essential unless you specifically need that functionality.

Final Verdict

Olive Office Premium is expected to be worth a closer look for many readers at least. Despite being freely available, Olive Office Premium meets the basic expectations of an Office app with ease. Personally, I was surprised at the good integration of the comment function and will continue to let Olive Office enjoy the precious memory of my smartphone for that reason alone.

But the generally good impression should not obscure the areas that need improvement. Graphical glitches, sub-optimal placement of the function buttons and many (sometimes expensive) in-app purchases tarnish the image of something otherwise so clean and functional. The last aspect especially should help you decide if you think this free app is worth the additional price you will need to pay if those features are something you need. It's safe to say that the Premium in the title is not about what you get for free, but what you need to pay for the extras.

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How You Can Learn to Finally, Really Relax

It seems like relaxing is something everyone should be able to do, but those of us who are constantly stressed, are workaholics, or have certain health issues don't have an easy "off" switch. Relaxation is something we actually have to learn and practice, much like happiness. And, like happiness, learning to relax is extremely important for your health and well-being. Let's take a look at the ways we can beat chronic tension and finally slow down.

Deal with the Common Causes of Daily Stress

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The first thing to examine is if your lifestyle is interfering with your ability to relax. We all get stressed out now and again, but a bad work environment, fights at home, money problems, and even clutter around you can keep you constantly on "high alert." It's hard to relax when something's constantly nagging at you—whether it's at the back of your mind or you're well aware of the stressors.

On the other hand, maybe it's not external causes that are keeping you tense but your own values or personality. The Wall Street Journal notes that about one-quarter of the population could be classified as a workaholic, and about 3% of the population even gets sick when they attempt to relax on vacation. Stress has become a habit:

For some people, the withdrawal of stress can be similar to withdrawing from steroids—including changes in glucose metabolism and dramatic mood swings, says Conor Liston, a psychiatry resident at Weill Medical College in New York City who was the lead investigator of a brain study on stress.

Other people seem to get so addicted to the adrenaline rush from stress that they gravitate to high-pressure jobs and keep piling on new challenges; some subconsciously push deadlines and complicate projects, creating stress unnecessarily.

Put someone like that on a beach for a week, and it's no wonder they can't relax. For them, the best vacations involve physical or mental stimulation, anything from hang-gliding to culinary classes.

Relaxation strategies for daily stress:

• Take some time to think about stressors you deal with on a daily basis and ways you can start acting on them, if possible. For example, it's possible you're experiencing secondhand stress from people around you; you might have to distance yourself from them to take care of yourself.
• Keep a journal to think things out, boost your self-esteem, and also help you deal with stress in your life, even if you can't directly act on them.
• It might sound silly, but schedule time to worry about things that are bothering you. Doing that kind of compartmentalizing could reduce overall stress and anxiety.
• Make sure you're taking care of the "three pillars of health"—nutrition, exercise, and sleep. If one of these are lacking in your life, then your body will be out of whack and you'll be less able to cope with stress.
• On a related note, fix your posture. Tense muscles and stress go hand in hand. When you sit or stand properly, it relieves tightness in a muscle, helping you physically relax, which in turn calms your mind.
• If you're a workaholic, stop trying to be perfect or so productive to the point where you never have any downtime. That's easier said than done when you've a very driven person, and it'll take some work to change your perspective, know your boundaries, and accept what you can and can't control.

We'll go over more specific relaxation techniques below, but dealing with reasons for any chronic stress is a good start.

Learn How to Take Proper Breaks

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Taking breaks is the key to avoiding burnout, but some of us don't really "break" even when we say we're going to. In the back of our minds, we might still be thinking about work or doing things that are work but don't look like it (e.g., checking email on our phones).

To take a real break, you need to become comfortable with doing "nothing"—like just drinking a cup of tea and looking out the window or sitting on a park bench without feeling like you should be somewhere else.

Relaxation strategies for work:

Make Relaxation a Habit

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Different activities are more relaxing than others, depending on your personality. Maybe sitting in front of the TV isn't the best way for you to unwind—maybe you'd be more relaxed while gardening or writing. If classic techniques for relaxing aren't working for you, try something new.

Relaxation strategies for the long-term:

• Classic relaxation techniques include meditation, deep breathing, visualization (e.g., picturing yourself at the beach or another relaxing environment), getting a massage, and progressive muscle relaxation.
• Psychology Today offers this five-step process to change your physiology to quickly make you feel more relaxed. It starts with orienting yourself and feeling more connected to your surroundings, then goes through slowing your breath and coaching yourself into a more relaxed state.
• Practice mindfulness, which simply means paying attention to the present moment. Often, it's hard to relax because your mind is busy somewhere else. Consider enrolling in a mindfulness-based stress reduction program, an eight-week course that teaches people with chronic illnesses or medical conditions how to calm their minds and bodies.
• Try something different and active. Maybe a break from the everyday routine to take a painting class or water skiing would be relaxing to you.
• Raise your laugh quota. Spend more time with people and things that make you laugh (or convince yourself that everything is funny) and you'll find greater relaxation and a better mood.
• Remind yourself to relax. I've always had a hard time falling asleep and relaxing, but lately this one deceptively simple technique has been doing wonders: think of restful language. Often we don't even realize how tense we are, but thinking or reading words like "relax" and "let go" can turn that all around.

See a Professional for Underlying Mental or Physical Issues

If you have an anxiety disorder, ADHD, or other medical concern and you still feel you never can really relax, seek out help from a doctor. A medical professional would better be able to find the reasons why you're having a hard time relaxing and offer therapy or other solutions to finally get the relaxation you need.

Photos by topgold, Claus Rebler, okano.

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How to Make Happiness a Habit

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