Apple’s iOS 9.3 may save your eyes, help you sleep at night by reducing blue light

“Apple released its latest iOS developer-only preview today, introducing a feature called Night Shift that ‘automatically shifts the colors in your display to the warmer end of the spectrum,'” Harrison Weber reports for VentureBeat. “Apple says its goal is to make your screen feel ‘easier on your eyes’ at night.”

“Night Shift sounds just like F.lux, an app that’s long existed to adjust your screen’s ‘eerie blue glow’ when the sun goes down,” Weber reports.

“Funny enough, F.lux has attempted (and failed) to launch on the iPhone numerous times,” Weber reports, “saying ‘currently, iOS does not allow developers to access the Private APIs we need to make F.lux work on iOS.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: F.lux just got Sherlocked.

Apple’s iOS 9.3 Preview webpages describe Night Shift thusly:

Night Shift

A lot of waking hours went into thinking about sleep.

Many studies have shown that exposure to bright blue light in the evening can affect your circadian rhythms and make it harder to fall asleep. Night Shift uses your iOS device’s clock and geolocation to determine when it’s sunset in your location. Then it automatically shifts the colors in your display to the warmer end of the spectrum, making it easier on your eyes. In the morning, it returns the display to its regular settings. Pleasant dreams.

SEE ALSO:
Apple delivers multi-user support for iPad – in schools only – January 11, 2016

12 Comments

  1. Great news. I’ve been using a sideloaded f.lux-like app the last couple months, the shifted gamma really does make a big difference in readability while in bed trying to fall asleep.

    Before that we had to rely on turning brightness to its lowest, but that impacted readability.

  2. Flux is Sherlocked only when Apple adds this fiction to Mac OS. Otherwise it was not possible or permissible on iOS until Apple saw fit to include it.

    I could care less either way. I am so tired at the end of the day, I practically need an energy shot to stay awake.

  3. “F.lux has attempted (and failed) to launch on the iPhone numerous times”

    I’m not saying Apple is at fault here, they made no promises and the idea of using a warmer light isn’t patentable (or at least it shouldn’t be) but this points out the need for developers to be able to ask Apple ahead of time if an idea will be approved before developers spend time and money on an IOS project.

    I know, I know, the developer agreement does state ahead of time a lot of it.

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