Geek Posted February 25, 2011 Posted February 25, 2011 <div class="KonaBody"><p><img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/mac-in-the-dark.jpg" alt="mac-in-the-dark" title="mac-in-the-dark" width="620" height="331" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13066" /></p> <p>If you use your Mac at night or in the dark, you need to do your eyes and brain a favor by downloading Flux. The idea behind Flux is simple; when the sun is down you shouldn’t be staring at the immensely bright computer screen that is made to mimic sunlight. Instead, your displays lighting should become warmer and softer, mimicking the lighting in your room.</p> <p>Settings are simple, set your location (or zip code) and what kind of lighting your computer is located in, and set the lighting transition speed. Flux does the rest, at sundown your display becomes warmer and easier on the eyes, and at sunrise the display is back to its bright usual self. </p> <p><strong>What does Flux look like on the Mac?</strong> You can’t really take a screenshot of the changes so I cast a light hue on a screenshot to give you an idea of the subtle change. Default is on the left, and Flux adjusted is on the right:</p> <p><img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/flux-before-after.jpg" alt="flux-before-after" title="flux-before-after" width="620" height="191" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13065" /></p> <p>The difference is entirely in overall warmth of the screen, but the intensity of that warmth depends on your lighting settings in the app. And yes, you can disable the app at any time, or set it to turn off for an hour if you’re going to do color sensitive work.</p> <p><strong>Reduces eye strain & fatigue… and helps sleep?</strong> I’ve been using Flux for the past week and I can say that it has helped to reduce eye fatigue on late nights in front of my Mac. I let Flux adjust the displays warmth, and then I <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2010/07/01/precisely-adjust-display-brightness/">manually adjust the display brightness</a> to a lower level.</p> <p>Now I don’t know if it has helped my sleeping at all, but the developers of Flux theorize that reducing your exposure to ‘blue lighting’ (the default of a computer display) may improve your ability to sleep. It’s a decent theory, and it looks like they’re interested in researching it further.</p> <p><strong>Flux is a free download</strong> for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. <a href="http://stereopsis.com/flux/">You can get it here</a>. (Technically it’s called F.lux, but Flux is a lot easier to type and remember.)</p> <p><strong>…but my Mac dims itself and I can control brightness on my own</strong> Sure, most <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2010/05/15/stop-the-macbook-pro-and-macbook-screen-from-dimming/">MacBook Pro’s automatically adjust brightness</a> based on ambient lighting, and you can also precisely adjust the displays brightness yourself, but neither of these features change the warmth of the screen, which is what I’ve found makes the difference. Give Flux a try yourself, if you use your computer often at night, I think you’ll appreciate it.</p> <p>[ Above picture of MacBook girl is from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/linneaandersson/5229447548/">Flickr</a> ]</p> </div> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/hhDuQUFLL7vSszmQXisfiMHGlho/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/hhDuQUFLL7vSszmQXisfiMHGlho/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/hhDuQUFLL7vSszmQXisfiMHGlho/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/hhDuQUFLL7vSszmQXisfiMHGlho/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=kznFd4SC518:g0KaHNK3Zsw:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=kznFd4SC518:g0KaHNK3Zsw:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=kznFd4SC518:g0KaHNK3Zsw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=kznFd4SC518:g0KaHNK3Zsw:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=kznFd4SC518:g0KaHNK3Zsw:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=kznFd4SC518:g0KaHNK3Zsw:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=kznFd4SC518:g0KaHNK3Zsw:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/osxdaily/~4/kznFd4SC518" height="1" width="1"/> View the full article
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