Filip Brož According to many scientific studies, nowadays there is an increase in young people who show some of the symptoms of night shift workers, because they have disturbed sleep, are tired, fall into depression, or their memory and cognitive abilities are impaired. Some children even get up at night to play a computer game or check what's new on social networks.
The common denominator of all these problems is the so-called blue light emitted by the screens of computers, mobile phones, televisions and tablets. Our organism is subject to a biorhythm, on which almost all biological functions depend, including sleep. Every day, this biorhythm or imaginary clock has to be reset, mainly thanks to the light we catch with our eyes. With the help of the retina and other receptors, information is subsequently transmitted to the entire complex of structures and organs in such a way as to ensure vigilance during the day and sleep at night.
Blue light then enters this system as an intruder that can easily confuse and throw off our entire biorhythm. Before going to sleep, the hormone melatonin is released in the body of every person, which results in easier falling asleep. However, if we look at the iPhone or MacBook screen before going to bed, this hormone is not released into the body. The result is then long rolling over in bed.
However, the consequences can be far worse, and in addition to poor sleep, people can also have cardiovascular problems (vessel and heart disorders), a weakened immune system, reduced concentration, slowed metabolism or irritated and dry eyes that can cause headaches due to blue light.
Of course, blue light is far more harmful to children, which is why it was created a few years ago f.lux application, which can block blue light and emits warm colors instead. Originally, the application was only available for Mac, Linux and Windows. It briefly appeared in a version for iPhone and iPad, but Apple banned it. It was revealed last week that he was already testing at that time own night mode, the so-called Night Shift, which works exactly the same as f.lux and Apple will launch it as part of iOS 9.3.
I've been using f.lux on my Mac for a very long time and even managed to install it on my iPhone when it was possible for a few hours before Apple cut the App Store bypass. That's why I had a great opportunity after the aforementioned iOS 9.3 public beta to compare how the f.lux app differs on iPhones with the new built-in night mode.
On Mac without f.lux or a bang
At first I was quite disillusioned with f.lux on my MacBook. Warm colors in the form of an orange display seemed unnatural to me and rather discouraged me from working. However, after a few days I got used to it, and on the contrary, when I turned off the application, I felt the display literally burning my eyes, especially at night when I work from bed. The eyes get used to it very quickly, and if you don't have a light on in the vicinity, it's very unnatural to shine the full brightness of the monitor into your face.
F.lux is completely free to download and easy to install and operate. An icon is located in the top menu bar, where you have several basic options and you can also open the entire settings. The point of the application is that it uses your current location, according to which it adjusts the color temperature. If you had your MacBook on from morning to night, you would be able to watch the screen slowly transform as the match of the sun approaches, until it finally turns completely orange.
In addition to the basic "warming" of colors, f.lux also offers special modes. When you're in a dark room, f.lux can remove 2,5% blue and green light and invert colors. When watching a movie, you can turn on movie mode, which lasts for XNUMX hours and preserves sky colors and shadow detail, but still leaves a warmer color tone. If necessary, you can deactivate f.lux completely for an hour, for example.
In the application's detailed settings, you can easily choose when you usually get up, when the display should light up normally, and when it should start to be colored. F.lux can also switch the entire OS X system to dark mode every night, when the upper menu bar and the dock are switched to black. There is therefore an abundance of setting options. The key is to have the color temperature set correctly, especially in the evening, or whenever it is dark. During the day, blue light is all around us, as it contains sunlight, so it does not bother the body.
The f.lux application on Mac will be even more appreciated by users who do not have a Retina display. Here, its use is many times more effective, as the Retina display itself is significantly gentler on our eyes. If you have an older MacBook, I highly recommend the app. Trust me, after a few days you'll get used to it so much that you won't want anything else.
On iOS, f.lux didn't even warm up
As soon as the developers of f.lux announced that the application was also available for iOS devices, there was quite an avalanche of interest. Until now, f.lux was only available through jaiblreak and it can still be found in the Cydia store.
But F.lux did not arrive on iPhones and iPads via the traditional way via the App Store. Apple does not provide developers with the necessary tools, for example, to control the colors displayed by the display, so the developers had to come up with another way. They made the iOS app free to download on their website and instructed users how to upload it to their iPhone via the Xcode developer tool. F.lux then worked practically identically on iOS as it did on the Mac – adjusting the color temperature on the display to your location and time of day.
The application did have its flaws, but on the other hand, it was the first version, with which, thanks to the distribution outside the App Store, nothing was even guaranteed. When Apple soon intervened and banned f.lux on iOS by referring to its developer rules, there was nothing to deal with anyway.
But if I ignore the bugs, such as the display turning on by itself from time to time, f.lux worked reliably in what it was created for. When needed, the display did not emit blue light and was much gentler not only on the eyes at night. If the developers could continue development, they would surely remove the bugs, but they can't go to the App Store yet.
Apple enters the scene
When the California company banned f.lux, no one knew that there might be something more behind it than just a violation of regulations. On this basis, Apple had the right to intervene, but perhaps more important was that it developed the night mode for iOS itself. This was shown by the recently published iOS 9.3 update, which is still in testing. And as my first few days with the new night mode showed, f.lux and Night Shift, as the feature is called in iOS 9.3, are practically indistinguishable.
Night mode also reacts to the time of day, and you can also manually adjust the schedule to activate night mode according to your requirements. Personally, I have a default dusk-to-dawn schedule, so sometime in the winter my iPhone starts to change colors around 16pm. I can also adjust the intensity of the blue light suppression myself using the slider, so for example I set it to the maximum possible intensity just before going to bed.
Night mode also has a few drawbacks. For example, I personally tried the navigation in the car with the night mode, which is not entirely comfortable and seems rather distracting. Likewise, night mode is impractical for gaming, so I definitely recommend testing how it works for you and possibly turning it off for the time being. It's the same as on the Mac, by the way. Having f.lux on, for example, while watching a movie can often spoil the experience.
In general, however, once you've tried night mode a few times, you won't want to get rid of it on your iPhone. Be aware that it may take some getting used to at first. After all, only warm and in the late hours completely orange the color rendering is not standard, but try turning off the night mode at that moment in bad light. The eyes can't handle it.
The end of the popular app?
Thanks to the night mode, Apple has once again confirmed its frequent promises that its products are also here to help us influence our health. By integrating night mode inside iOS and making it easy to launch, it can help again. Moreover, it seems now only a matter of time before the same mode appears in OS X as well.
Night Shift in iOS 9.3 is nothing revolutionary. Apple took significant inspiration from the previously mentioned f.lux application, a pioneer in this field, and its developers are rightly proud of their position. After the announcement of iOS 9.3, they even asked Apple to release the necessary developer tools and also allow third parties who want to solve the blue light issue to enter the App Store.
“We are proud to be the original innovators and leaders in this field. In our work over the past seven years, we've discovered how complicated people really are." they wrote on their blog, developers who say they can't wait to show off the new f.lux features they're working on.
However, it seems that Apple will have no motivation to take such a step. He doesn't like opening up his system to third parties like that, and since he now has his own solution, there's no reason why he should change his rules. F.lux will probably be unlucky on iOS, and if the night mode also arrives on computers as part of the new OS X, for example, it will have a difficult position on Macs, where it has been playing great for many years. Fortunately, however, Apple has not yet been able to ban it on Macs, so they will still have a choice.
Somehow I can't find "lots of settings" in the f-lux app on Mac. There is one slider and three buttons in the application settings. Nothing overwhelming happens.
Other options are outside of this app setting, you can find them in the menu in the top menu bar next to Preferences.
Yes, I found it. But under the plethora of settings, I imagine so many settings that I don't even know about it.
I thought the way these companies do it is to just buy the startup and shut it down. This is probably where Apple's lawyers found a "raft in the law".
I thought the way these companies do it is to just buy the startup and shut it down. This is probably where Apple's lawyers found a "raft in the law".
I would rather have Siri in Czech, or rather give the option for the Czech community to add data. I don't require a US student to run around Prague and map out the stops of the train, but it is enough for me to monitor the changes along the route I regularly travel home and send it somewhere for processing. I personally only try those apps that have some informative character. It bothers me so much that I don't know of any apps from the state news that would, if necessary, alert me to, for example, faulty water in the place where I am, to a terrorist, a madman with a knife in his hand, to a traffic accident, to a violent storm, to a poisonous gas leak .
I'm really looking forward to this. I've had exactly the problems you're talking about for a long time. I fall asleep for maybe an hour and a half. A few days ago I installed f.lux on my Mac and all of a sudden it crashes a few minutes after the computer shuts down. Maybe it's just some kind of placebo effect, but that's okay. It's taking over. So I'm looking forward to a similar function on the iPhone.
For example, I don't have the option of choosing "from dusk to dawn" in the public beta, only manual mode and time range. Do any of you have it? Ip6+
iP6 and I have it there.
Apple uses GEO location for this and somehow downloads info about sunrise and sunset, so it's possible that it can't be turned on when GPS is disabled. It might be related to the Weather app having GPS disabled.
You need to turn on the time zone setting in settings, security, positioning services, system services. Without this service turned on, it is not possible to set the night mode from sunset to sunrise
Hello,
the function will certainly be nice, but haven't you thought about not staring at screens at least an hour before bed?
I have been using F.lux for years on Windows and no problem. I'm excited, I agree with the statement that you get used to it. Well, I use Twilight on my mobile, it works the same, it can be edited on the fly, it just crashes with certain applications.