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The Mac beta of F.lux, which helps computer addicts sleep better, now adjusts to your actual day
Mar07
F.lux is a program that sits quietly on your computer or smartphone, removing the blue light emitted by your screen which can subconsciously affect circadian rhythms and adversely affect your sleep.
Essentially, F.lux — available for Mac, Windows, Linux and iPhone/iPad — helps you sleep better by calibrating your screen’s brightness to the rise and fall of the sun in your location.
The Mac version is still in beta, but it has just been updated with a load of new features. What’s most useful is that F.lux now adjusts to your actual day, and not just sunrise and sunset. All you have to do is tell F.lux when you wake up, and the new version of the program makes a schedule tailored to you, so you can use a screen that knows when you wake up and go to sleep, as well as when the sun is up.
As the day progresses, F.lux automatically moves between its three light settings. However, as color perception differs across the world, the team behind F.lux recognizes that it isn’t accurate to predict how users see colors at different times. The Mac beta of F.lux thus also comes with a new interface so you can go back a few times, for just a day or two, to set it the way you like — after which the adjusting should kick in automatically.
Other new features include a Movie Mode, which lasts two-and-a-half hours, so you can watch movies while preserving shadow detail, skin tones and sky colors. This was introduced to the Windows version in a massive update last year. The Mac beta also now has a new way to disable F.lux until sunrise.
➤ F.lux
Headline image via Shutterstock
What follows is the story of my brush with Homeland Security today while entering the United States a few hours ago. It was all my fault, but I get the feeling I was an early example of something that staff in airports around the world will have to deal with regularly as wearable data collection devices become more common…
My plan was simple: wear the Narrative Clip (a tiny camera that takes a photo of what’s in front of you every 30 seconds – read my review) as much as possible over the next few days to create a first-person perspective photo diary of my time at SXSW this year.
On the first of two flights en route to Austin, I decided to wear the Clip for a little while so I could capture a flavor of my journey (passable food and an okay movie – I opted for The Fifth Estate, the film about WikiLeaks). A few hours later, I was talking to a Homeland Security official at Atlanta airport as I made my flight connection, when the terrible realization dawned on me — I’d forgotten to take the Clip off.
“What’s that little device you’ve got clipped on?”
As he took the routine fingerprint scan that foreigners arriving in the country have to provide, he asked me “What’s that little device you’ve got clipped on?” My heart sank. As a regular traveler, I know full well that photography isn’t allowed as you go through security, but there I’d been, taking a photo every 30 seconds without even thinking about it, in clear breach of rules enforced by serious-looking people who have powers like ‘stopping you from entering the country’.
I explained to the official what the Clip was and he took it away to consult with colleagues about how to handle what was no doubt as much of a first-time situation for them as it was for me.
I was fully expecting the camera to be taken from me and destroyed. After all, this was an unusual new piece of kit and why should busy US officials waste their time understanding it when I’d blatantly broken a basic rule of airport conduct? As I waited, another security official told me he was a technology fan and knew all about the Clip and its origins in Sweden, although he admitted that I’d probably have it confiscated.
How it played out was actually quite different, to my relief. The staff questioned me very specifically about how the Clip worked, whether it was technically possible to livestream images from the camera (I assured them it wasn’t) and whether it was possible for others to hack into my account to see the images.
After about 30 minutes of waiting around and being questioned, they took me away to another area where a different man made me open up all my bags. He was particularly interested in checking out the photos stored on my iPad (perhaps to see whether I had a habit of taking photos in areas where it’s banned). It felt like a little bit of an invasion of my privacy but since I’d broken their rules I figured it wasn’t worth complaining about.
“Do you think it’s funny?”
“Do you think it’s funny to take pictures in an area where it’s banned?” he asked me. I assured him I did not — I’d made a stupid, absent-minded mistake (and there was no way I was getting on the wrong side of these guys). Finally, he asked me to transfer the images from my Clip to my computer and delete everything taken in the airport. I did so and was allowed on my way to my connecting flight, with the Clip safely tucked in my bag.
Before I left, I apologized for the hassle I’d caused and he assured me it was fine — he explained that they know technology is moving fast and they need to keep up with the new devices that may cross their paths again in the future.
I’d expected stern-faced, intolerant treatment from officials who wanted to get rid of an odd British geek’s weird little camera as soon as possible, and instead they took the time to understand what they were dealing with and responded in an appropriate manner.
Still, I’m not sure all airport staff around the world would be quite so understanding, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend wearing an automatic camera around an airport. I’ve certainly learned my lesson – you can’t use a wearable camera completely passively, and it should never totally fade into the background of your day; you’re still a photographer with a photographer’s responsibilities.
Image credit: Mike Theiler / Getty Images
BlackBerry has been caught changing the end date on its BlackBerry 10 app program from March 4, 2014 to March 4, 2013. As a result, developers who built apps with the expectation of receiving bonus payouts for their efforts are being left out in the cold.
A few developers started to notice the problem a few weeks ago and posted about it on the BlackBerry Support Community Forums. Yesterday, the real problem was posted in a separate thread: BlackBerry had changed a single digit on this blog post.
Here is what it looked like when it was originally posted, up until this past weekend (courtesy of Google Cache and Wayback Machine):
Here is what it looks like today:
Back in September 2012, the company known at the time as RIM announced the Build For BlackBerry program, which allowed developers to submit native apps for approval without charge. It also introduced its $10K Developer Commitment, which incentivized developers with a promise of a minimum of $10,000 in earnings from their app: if their app earned at least $1,000 on its own (but less than $10,000) over 12 months, BlackBerry would pay the difference.
RIM called it a strategy for “putting our money where our mouth is.” After much success, the company extended the program and set the sale dates for the 10k Commitment between 12:01am ET on March 4, 2013 and 11:59pm ET on March 3, 2014.
In fact, those dates are still intact on the “Extending the Deadline for Built for BlackBerry” blog post, which makes the aforementioned change to the “Built for BlackBerry and the 10K Developer Commitment: Dates to Remember” that much more jarring. How can the sale period start date and end date be the same day?
BlackBerry is in no position to lose app developers. The company may claim this change was made “in error” but even if that’s true, it needs to pay those that took a bet on the new BlackBerry 10 platform as promised, not attempt to trick them to save some money.
We have contacted BlackBerry about this issue. We will update this article if and when we hear back.
Update at 11:35PM EST: “On March 4, 2014 the BlackBerry $10k Developer Commitment program came to an end,” a BlackBerry spokesperson told TNW. “At that time, it came to our attention that there were discrepancies between the original terms and conditions and a related blog post originally published on March 2, 2013. We corrected the blog post to accurately reflect the official program dates. We are honoring all eligible submissions received by the deadline as outlined in the official terms and conditions, or the original blog post. We can assure you that nobody who qualified will be missing out.”
I pointed out to BlackBerry that the 2013 date was the problem, as the previous blog post clearly shows.
Update at 6:30AM EST: “The discrepancies were related to the requirements around the Built for BlackBerry acceptance,” the BlackBerry spokesperson told TNW. “The change in date from 2014 to 2013 was a clerical error.”
The date on blog post has now been fixed. We’ll have to wait and see if the developers in question get paid.
Top Image Credit: Justin Sullivan/Staff
Vine today announced an update to its Rules and Terms of Service that prohibits explicit sexual content. The Twitter-owned app says the change will affect less than 1 percent of its users.
“As we’ve watched the community and your creativity grow and evolve, we’ve found that there’s a very small percentage of videos that are not a good fit for our community,” Vine explained. “We don’t have a problem with explicit sexual content on the Internet –– we just prefer not to be the source of it.”
According to the new “Vine explicit sexual content FAQ” on the Twitter Help Center, here are a few examples of what can no longer be posted on the service:
- Sex acts, whether alone or with another person.
- Use of sex toys for sex acts.
- Sexually provocative nudity, for example, posts that focus on exposed genitalia or depict nudity in a context or setting that is sexually provocative (like a strip club).
- Close-ups of aroused genitals underneath clothing.
- Art or animation that is sexually graphic (such as hentai).
While explicit sexual content has been banned, some forms of nudity are still allowed. Here are examples of what is still okay:
- Nudity in a documentary context, e.g. videos of nude protestors.
- Nudity in an artistic context, e.g. nude modeling in an art class.
- Nudity that is not sexually provocative, e.g. a mother breastfeeding her child.
- Clothed sexually suggestive dancing.
If a Vine user posts something from the first list rather than the second, his or her account may be suspended. An account will only be eligible for restoration after violating posts have been removed and it complies with the new rules, but severe or repeated violations could result in a permanent suspension.
Vine users can report inappropriate content by tapping the button with three dots at the bottom of a post (below the comments) and selecting “Report this post.” On the other hand, users who believe their account has been suspended in error can submit an appeal via Twitter’s support form.
See also – Twitter launches Vine for the Web with profiles, home feed, and a TV mode for viewing videos in full screen and Vine opens up vanity URL profile reservations for verified Twitter users