Night Shift

Apple approves f.lux-like app ‘FlexBright’ [u]

Apple has approved a new app called FlexBright, which allows you to manually adjust the display temperature of your iPhone or iPad. That makes this one of the first third-party apps to make it into the App Store that provides a feature similar to iOS 9.3's Night Shift mode.

It's interesting that Apple would green-light a title like FlexBright, given its history. For those who aren't familiar with the story, last fall the iPhone-maker asked the developers of f.lux—a long-running app with similar functionality to FlexBright—to shutdown their iOS work.

Update: the app has been pulled from the App Store. The developer mentioned on Twitter that Apple hasn't provided any reason for removing the app. 

iOS 9.3 beta 5 disables Night Shift mode when your iPhone is in Low Power Mode

Along with the latest betas of watchOS, tvOS and OS X, Apple yesterday seeded a fifth beta of the upcoming iOS 9.3 software update to its registered developers. The new beta appears to pack in a few interesting changes as Apple continues to refine the experience ahead of the software's public release.

Night Shift mode, one of the headline new features in iOS 9.3, has been tweaked again in the latest beta and now permits users to manually enable the feature until tomorrow within Settings, and the feature is now automatically disabled in Low Power Mode.

iOS 9.3 Night Shift mode to have a Control Center toggle?

Apple's iOS 9.3 beta was seeded to developers and Public Beta program participants last week with some pretty big changes to the mobile operating system. One of the flagship features of the release is the f.lux-like Night Shift mode that will change the display's color temperature depending on the time of day to make using the device easier on the eyes at late evening and night hours.

f.lux responds to Apple’s inclusion of Night Shift in iOS 9.3

The creators of f.lux, the Mac and iOS utility that makes it easier to use bright screens in dark settings, have responded to Apple's inclusion of Night Shift mode in iOS 9.3—a feature that duplicates f.lux's primary feature.

In the Apple world, we refer to this as being Sherlocked—a term that's used when Apple provides OS-level functionality that seemingly makes a popular third-party application redundant. Curious as to what f.lux has to say about the situation? Have a look.

Poll: Will you keep your jailbreak or update to iOS 9.3?

Just this week, Apple surprised us all with a major revision to iOS going into its first beta: iOS 9.3. The reason for the surprise? Apple also has a beta period running for iOS 9.2.1, which still hasn't been released to the public just yet. The new iOS beta was also followed by watchOS 2.2, tvOS 9.2, and OS X 10.11.4.

Like previously noted, this is no minor update, but a major revision to iOS. It comes with a variety of major new features, including the flagship feature Night Shift, which is a lot like the popular f.lux extension that changes the color temperature of your display after certain hours to work with your circadian rhythm to help you sleep better, the ability to pair multiple Apple Watches, new ways for developers to update to new betas, app improvements, and more.

But for those loyal to jailbreaking, is iOS 9.3 enough to lure you away from the freedom to do whatever you want with your iOS device?