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Apple implementing sleep-friendly 'Night Shift' mode in MacOS Sierra 10.12.4

Mark Coppock
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One popular theory lately is that our sleep patterns are detrimentally affected by the blue light emanating from our various digital devices. All of those LCD displays interrupt our body’s production of melatonin and keep us in a state of being constantly awake, or so the theory goes.

Various mobile devices, including iOS devices and some Android iterations, have already implemented “night modes” that reduce the amount of blue light being projected, shifting colors to a generally warmer state that should allow our bodies to more naturally go to sleep. Now, Apple is implementing “Night Shift” mode in MacOS Sierra, introducing it in the latest beta release as 9to5Mac reports.

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MacOS beta 10.12.4, now released to the public, closely follows the release of MacOS Sierra 10.12.3, which was primarily a bug fix for a number of issues with the 2016 MacBook Pro. Night Shift for Mac works in similar fashion to Night Shift on iPhone and iPads, allowing the function to be scheduled or manually enabled and letting users make the color shift more or less warm.

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Other changes coming in the MacOS Sierra 10.12.4 beta include dictation support for the Shanghainese language, the ability to ask Siri for cricket scores, schedules, and player information, and updated PDFKit APIs to improve how supported apps display PDFs using PDFKit.

Apple isn’t alone in implementing a blue shift mode for helping its users get to sleep more naturally. Microsoft is also adding a blue light option in Windows 10 Creators Update, with the feature currently available on the latest Windows Insider builds. It, too, allows scheduling when the feature turns on, enabling it manually, and adjusting how warm the display is allowed to become.

As always, if you want to install the public beta of MacOS Sierra 10.12.4, you can go to Apple’s beta site and sign up. Once you do, then the update will be available to download and install in the Mac App Store on your applicable Apple machines. Signing up for the beta program also installs the Feedback Assistant app that allows you to let Apple know what you think of the latest and greatest MacOS.

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Mark Coppock
Mark Coppock
Computing Writer
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