Microsoft To Add Flux Like Night Mode In Windows 10, Rendering 3rd-Party App's Existence Useless (arstechnica.com) 88
An anonymous reader writes: With suggestions that bluish lights disrupt our sleep, software that shifts screen white balance towards the red end of the spectrum in the evening -- cutting back that potentially sleep-disrupting light -- has gained quite a following. f.lux is the big name here with many people enjoying its gradual color temperature shifts. Apple recently built a color shifting feature into iOS, under the name Night Shift, and there are now signs that Microsoft is doing the same in Windows 10. Twitter user tfwboredom has been poking around the latest Windows insider build and found hints that the operating system will soon have a "blue light reduction" mode. Similarly to f.lux, this will automatically reduce the color temperature in the evenings as the sun sets and increase it in the mornings when the sun rises. Signs are that the feature will have a quick access button in the Action Center when it is eventually enabled.The feature is expected to arrive with Redstone, which is Windows 10's next major update expected to arrive next year.
Who cares (Score:2)
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EEE is the sincerest form of flattery
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Who cares
Dumb question. The submitter cares, obviously, as does anyone commenting on the story. Perhaps you meant to say "I don't care"?
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Congratulation you have successfully stated that you are blocking OS updates. So now you are using an unpatched version of Windows. Making yourself more and more vulnerable over time for Security flaws. Just because happen to not like some feature.
Good for you!
You might as well just install Linux, where you can keep it up to date and not get hacked.
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Re: Who cares (Score:2)
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There comes a point, where the risk of serious damage from the Updates is more than the risk from the "hackers", then yes. Turn all updates from M$ off, and block the download websites in your router.
And like they said, don't answer emails from "Nigerian princes". 8-)
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f.lux has been standard on all computers I use for many years now.
Let's first see how Microsofts' version works before jumping ship.
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I agree, the Flux interface is neat and easy to use. I am not looking forward to Microsoft's version requiring four clicks to access and filling the whole screen with a brilliant white tile to make damn sure you cannot see the effect of the utility on the small text you are reading in the dark. It will of course be an "App" that sends un-encrypted screenshots to Redmond and is touch enabled without a mouse interface. I expect to be paid by Microsoft for these design tips....
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HUZZAH!
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Well I don't care for what you have to say but I will defend your right to get modded down for saying it
Rendering 3rd-Party App's Existence Useless (Score:1)
Rendering 3rd-Party App's Existence Useless - unless the third part app already has all the features and customisability that users want and the windows version doesn't.
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That is the general risk of making 3rd party apps/hacks to the system.
If it is a good idea, or at least popular chances are the OS will do this natively.
We had this for a while (sometimes via dubious methods) Like with DoubleSpace in DOS that compressed the drives.
Or extended memory management in DOS.
More recently Dashboard features on the desktop to replace other 3rd party tools that did the same things.
If you want to make a living making such tools you better pattent the hell out of it. Otherwise the OS
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I would say that there is a caveat to that.
There will likely always be a niche market for your hack if it is a good one, simply because you can devote more time and innovation to it.
Feature developers at MS or Apple or Google or whatever will rarely implement the full spectrum of improvements. They will pick one or two features that they like and ignore the rest. To do anything else would introduce too much complexity and feature bloat.
So, while your app's signature feature may be superseded, you will still
Thank you! (Score:2, Insightful)
Dear harvard.edu,
I absolutely love it when I go to your website and before I can do anything, you shove a popup in my face! Thank you so much for that!
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A "yellowing lens" does NOT alter the frequency of light (of course), it varies attenuation with respect to frequency. "That's hilarious."
"So, the relevant light could be blue or could be green depending on the individual?"
Of course not. A blue light will remain blue but be perceived darker by a yellow-tinted lens.
"Good luck with that."
Perhaps you should learn what you are talking about rather than post snarky remarks. Good luck with that.
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Looking at this another way. (Score:5, Funny)
It's just another attempt by Microsoft to make us all see Windows 10 through rose-colored glass(es).
redshift (Score:2)
For those of us who don't want proprietary crap when it can be avoided, there's redshift which provides all the functionality.
It has a version with clicky-clicky GUI, but it's better to avoid extra clutter by using the bare version. You need to give it your long:lat on the command line: " and put it in your system's startup ("redshift -l 53:18"), it then stays out of your way.
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f.lux has had this for a while now. I also like its ability to "dim" screens in software, meaning I can still use secondary monitors at night without being blasted by light.
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Can it adjust the color temperature in one quick step change? The thing that annoys me about f.lux is it ramps the color temperature over like 30 seconds, during which my PC isn't very responsive.
What's the scientific evidence on blue light? (Score:2)
Perhaps a bit off topic, but I read recently that a US government agency removed the assertion from its data base that the dental flossing improved dental health. Th
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Re:What's the scientific evidence on blue light? (Score:5, Informative)
This is a good place to start:
http://www.health.harvard.edu/... [harvard.edu]
Many brain studies have been made proving that it is the mechanism for humans to wake up when the sun comes out. We are simply wired that way.
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I can tell your from personal experience that if I have Redshift running late in the evening and I switch it off, it makes my eyes hurt. So it's definitely doing something. Whether that affects my sleep patterns and sleep quality, I don't know. But it's a hell of a lot more comfortable to look at.
That's not all F.lux does (Score:3)
It can also control Hue lights. Or in theory, any other smart lights you've gatewayed through a Hue emulator. If anyone has actually done that, I'd be interested in seeing what you used. Most of the hue emulators are Java and I don't want to use that.
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Actual Hues are security failures. I'd rather roll my own RGB LED light.
Android...? (Score:2)
Nice to mention that it's in IOS, but it's also been in Android since Lollypop came out. I stopped using twilight because it's 1 less app and I can have the same results.
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Meanwhile there's other cases where they duplicated the basic functionality of a 3rd party feature, but didn't prevent people from running better third party features.
Versions since XP have had basic ZIP support, and CD Burning support.
Windows 7 added a better screen capture tool
Windows 8 let you mount and burn ISOs
I don't think they're going to extinguish by duplicating a f.lux. It's by no means a market driver.
Remember flying toasters on screens? (Score:2)
Forcibly? (Score:3)
Do I get to turn that feature off or is the color in Windows going to change no matter what I'd prefer?
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Signs are that the feature will have a quick access button in the Action Center when it is eventually enabled.
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A "quick access button" doesn't always mean you can turn something off. I would not be surprised if it only let you change things like the timing of the curve but not let you control if it happens or not.
That said you're probably right and it will have the option to be disabled, though that option might only be available for corporate licensed version.
6500K all the time (Score:2)
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I find 6500k quite glaring at night. 6500k is considered to be the equivalent of the color of the sun at mid day. Why would I want that on my monitor going into the evening? The whole point of the red shifters is to lower the temperature as twilight falls.
There may not be much science to support the idea that blue light adversely affects the brain or sleep at night, but it sure makes my computer use more comfortable in the evenings and and easier on my eyes when I red it down to about 3500k at night and
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For monitors yes, but one can't calibrate tablets (yet). :-/
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What is stopping Argyll CMS [argyllcms.com] from running in a tablet?
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For crying out loud, just get a calibrator and calibrate all monitors to 6500K.
Unless you're comparing two monitors, or are matching the monitor to a very bright room environment, why would you change the colour temperature at all? Your eyes naturally adjust to the monitor's white point while looking at it. All the change achieves is to drop it's performance significantly.
The exception is when you're in an incredibly brightly lit room, like the sun is shining in brightly lit, but even then calibrating away from your natural colour temperature reduces the brightness of your monitor so
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I believe that you are being far too honest, if only you could overcome this terrible defect in your character all would be well. You can lie to Flux about your timezone, it does not use the windows default clock.
If I don't use local timezone... (Score:2)
But if I keep my timezone set to UTC, what happens?
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Then don't use your real longitude but shift it by 15 degrees per every hour of time offset.
rigght (Score:2)
Don't worry, you can trust microsoft (Score:1)
Editing problem (Score:2)
What good is a screen that shifts colour if you're editing photographs and video late into the night? In the morning you'll find all your work looks wrong.
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You should subscribe to Windows Blueshift for that type of work anyways.
We already have Redstone. Redstone 2 is next. (Score:1)
microsoft blue (Score:1)
Monitor manual adjust (Score:1)
Many of the modern flat monitor screens have a "manual" adjustment for blue filter in their settings.
But I have not seen one that has it set by time of day.