New F.lux Beta Balances Your Mac’s Color To Help You Get To Sleep

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Screen Shot 2014-03-08 at 10.41.09 AM

Those who live their lives glued to their computers love f.lux, a cone-saving app that automatically adjusts the color balance of your Mac (or jailbroken iPhone or iPad’s) display at sunset or sunrise so it’s easier to read.

For f.lux lovers, though, the app just got a lot better on the Mac. Previously, F.lux’s only consideration was whether the sun had risen or set, but now, it takes into account your body’s circadian rhtyhm. You can actually train f.lux to take into account when you go to sleep and wake up.

On the official site, f.lux’s developers explain how the new system works:

With the new f.lux, your screen warms up to make things look better at sunset. But then later, around the time you would start feeling sleepy, we do a little more, helping you get to bed on time. We’ve even tried to time this second phase with your body’s natural release of melatonin. You may find you want a more moderate effect at sunset now, because the bedtime setting can be more intense.

To get started, all you need to do is tell f.lux when you wake up in the morning, and the app will suggest some default colors for people in different situations. And if you work right up until bedtime with color-sensitive work, f.lux can now be set to wind down just in time for sleep, instead of at sundown.

There’s other additions, too. There’s now a movie mode, which shuts of f.lux’s color balancing long enough to allow you to watch films while preserving shadow detail, skintones, and sky colors. You now also have the option to disable f.lux until sunrise, and all animations have been overhauled to be faster.

If you want to try the new f.lux for yourself, you can download the beta here.

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