Sideloading f.lux on iOS with Xcode 7
justgetflux.com
justgetflux.com
Being able to go from a computer with f.lux to my iPhone with f.lux will play much nicer with my eyes at night. I can literally feel the strain in my eyes when going from f.lux to no f.lux.
http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2014/04/23/7-things-can-righ..., "Blue light is able to pass through what is called the retinohypothalamic tract, or pathway. This pathway is responsible for regulating our circadian rhythm and a number of other biological and behavioral processes."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831986/, "Hastings and Sweeney’s paper, published in the December 1958 Biological Bulletin, gathered dust for decades. No one thought these findings might hold any relevance for humans, whose circadian rhythms were then widely believed to be relatively insensitive to light. But scientific discoveries in the past two decades have changed all that."
https://theconversation.com/a-dark-night-is-good-for-your-he..., "In the last decade or two it has become clear that the genes which control the endogenous circadian rhythm (the “clock genes”) also control a large part of our entire genome including genes for metabolism (how we process the food we eat), DNA damage response (how we are protected from toxic chemicals and radiation), and cell cycle regulation and hormone production (how our cells and tissues grow)."
There is room lighting with low-blue content, e.g. the G.E. Align PM bulb, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PLR3M0M & https://gigaom.com/2014/09/01/what-is-the-blue-light-from-ou..., "It remains unclear whether our screens themselves will soon emit less blue light — Hansler is pessimistic because he says that changing the amount of blue light will be like admitting that the screens are causing health problems, and lawsuits could ensue."
You don't need to talk of it as a health problem. Just say it makes it kinder on the eyes.
I can see it now: the "Sideload App Store"
I agree it will be interesting to see what develops, given it is possible for anyone with a Mac to install whatever they like, now.
[0] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4952820/test-ios-app-on-d...
I guess Apple would likely respond by one or both of (a) putting up more roadblocks to getting developer accounts or (b) further restricting what apps can do at a technical level through more sophisticated sandboxes, making the delta in allowed functionality between an app in the App Store and a sideloaded app smaller and smaller.
There's already some significant annoying limitations, in particular short provisioning expiration limits (must reinstall the app every 90 days), and no access to services like push notifications.
You have to rebuild and reinstall the app (with an updated provisioning profile, but Xcode takes care of all that behind the scenes now) to get an expired app working again.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/02/apple_clubs_chaos_co...
In addition, people underestimate what you can do from the sandbox (and will be able to do for a long time, unless Apple speeds up its development cycle): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10415288
The only issue with it is that the decision to give everyone a developer certificate for free was to increase Swift adoption. The security implications were not investigated. Apple wasn't aware that they put the final piece of the puzzle in place for something like this to exist.
They can easily reverse the policy.
If this ever happened and got popular, you can be certain that Apple would shoot it down in an upcoming iOS release.
Because that's how Apple works: No freedom permitted on "their" devices.
In fact, Apple even advertises this ability as the most prominent new feature of Xcode 7.[1]
If your response were true, Apple would never have added this ability in the first place.
Edit: also probably worth mentioning, unlike GammaThingy the implementation of f.lux is hidden inside of a compiled nib.
This build of f.lux prefers to use notifications (you can turn off the Notification Center ones).
The screen settings we're changing only work when the screen is on but we have to be "ready" when you unlock your phone. We're working on a version that does quite a lot fewer wakeups.
In our jailbreak version, we just hook the screen unlock and do work then, but we can't do this in the jail because we never wake up.
In this version the notifications serve as a "wakeup". If we fail to show a notification, we hit the unlock instead.
The battery impact overall is extremely low.
On a serious note, have you people talked to Apple directly to get this added either into iOS (possibly the best approach considering how the app store and app policies are structured)?
Also, how did you get this to work on iOS even with side loading (and no jailbreak)? It would be interesting to know.
Apple has contacted us to say that the f.lux for iOS download (previously available on this page) is in violation of the Developer Program Agreement, so this method of install is no longer available.
I guess now I'm stuck on iOS 9 if I want to keep this?
For anyone who wants apple to reconsider, the feedback page is the best place, unless you know someone inside apple: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
They actually pay more attention to feedback on that form than to other forms of complaint, rumour is.
edit: it seems that the app will expire in 90 days and need to be rebuilt. I'll hang onto their installer and hopefully that works.
For those people who don't have the ability to sideload via Xcode (e.g., your parents or non techie friends), you can teach them the iOS Low Light Filter:
http://lifehacker.com/toggle-your-iphones-brightness-with-a-...
Where are the studies testing F.lux directly? This is ripe for all of the best biases to take over, which makes me immensely skeptical.
Besides, the framing of your question is wrong. I don't even need to come up with a specific reason, the burden of proof lies on the makers of F.lux to demonstrate that their specific product does what it says, and simply citing inequivalent studies isn't enough.
Your comment is pretty terrible, from a quality standpoint, not something I'd expect from HN.
Man who the fuck cares. Millions of people use f.lux every day - personally, it's the first thing I install on any PC or Laptop I know I'll be using for a while.
It doesn't matter whether you have proof one way or the other.
Use it, or don't - honestly nobody gives a shit.
If you're interested, try it, see if you like it. If not, don't try it.
I agree that it would be good to see more and more specific studies on this, but this focus on LCDs is a weird line of attack.
Do you know how much white light would negate the blue light in your brain, negating the effects? I don't.
IOMobileFramebufferGetGammaTable IOMobileFramebufferGetMainDisplay IOMobileFramebufferSetColorRemapMode IOMobileFramebufferSetGammaTable
I'd assume no, but I'm wondering if anyone's found a way.