Amazon Out-Apples Apple

Amazon Fire Tablets Get Expanded Parental Controls, Plus A “Blue Shade” Feature For Better Nighttime Reading

According to Amazon, the update to its Fire OS mobile operating system, Fire OS 5 (code-named “Bellini”), will introduce a “Blue Shade” feature that uses specialized filters to limit users’ exposure to blue light, which has been shown to not only prolong the time it takes to fall asleep, but also delay REM sleep and reduce our levels of alertness the following day.

With “Blue Shade” enabled, the tablet will instead offer warm color filters and the ability to lower the display brightness to an “ultra-low” level for comfortable nighttime reading, Amazon says, even in a dark room.

You’ll also be able to further fine-tune the color settings to your personal preferences, while the device continues to adjust the color filtering as you do so to limit the blue wavelength light. The feature will be available to switch on or off with just a tap from a new quick setting after the Fire OS update is installed.

Meanwhile, in Apple Land: Apple shuts down iPhone and iPad screen brightness adjusting app Flux

f.lux cannot ship an iOS App using the Documented APIs, because the APIs we use are not there. In the last 5 years, we have had numerous conversations with Apple about our product and what would be required to make it work with iOS.

Hey, Apple, get with it. Bluelight filtering is important. I’ve seen this for myself:Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0: Bluelight Filter Test.

My advice? Think of this as an ADA issue and get to work on the needed APIs and issue them to developers ASAP. Make people happy.