[NewsPoster]

Shortly before Apple introduced a new feature (seen in the latest betas of iOS 9.3) called Night Shift that reduces blue light emissions as the evening wears on to help fight eye fatigue and help with sleep, makers of a program that performs this function on Macs saw the iPhone maker reject a similar app for iOS. The OS X app is called f.lux, and was turned down because it used private APIs to manipulate the iPhone hardware, which is forbidden under the tighter rules for iOS.

Although Apple was evidently working on Night Shift before the company submitted a version of f.lux for iOS, in a published response on the developers' website, it calls on Apple to allow f.lux for iOS while congratulating the company for "joining the fight" to use technology to improve sleep and thereby user health overall. The f.lux developers note that "workers on the 'night shift' have nearly double the lifetime risk of cancer, and much of this is believed to be driven by exposure to bright light at the wrong times."

New musical documents lives, rivalries of Jobs, Gates

A new musical theater production will trace the lives of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and the different ways in which both brought computer technology into the mainstream. The musical, called "Nerds: A Musical Dot-Comedy," will employ some advanced technology itself in presenting the show, including on-stage holograms, projection mapping, and in-show app integrations that will allow the audience to pick among possible endings with each performance.

The show is headed to Broadway and tells the story of how Gates and Jobs went from being "nerds" who were fascinated by early computers into major influences on the industry and billionaires. The music in the show is written by Hal Goldberg, and the script and lyrics come from Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner, of the TV show Robot Chicken. The first performances will be at the Longacre Theater at 220 West 48th Street in New York beginning April 21, with tickets already on sale now.

[Steve Wilkinson]

I'm glad Apple is finally doing the f.lux thing, but feel sorry for that company. It's a VERY needed move, since Apple seems to be interested in health. They should have had this YEARS ago!

[Charles Martin]

I've been using f.lux for years, but recently suspended it because I didn't think it was working.

I was incorrect, as I quickly found out. Very happy to have Night Shift on my iPad now (running the public beta), as that's the last screen I usually look at before bed.

[Steve Wilkinson]

I have it on my desktop machine (I just have to do my colour sensitive work in the morning!)

But, yes, I sometimes like to read before bed, and our library is now Kindle (on my iPod)... so without this, it's not good for me to be doing such reading.