The overwhelming growth of the technology, we are flooded with devices that make almost everything easier. Your computers, the open web and your smartphones are part of that system that has taken over the world. There are many research and discussions about better and green devices, but what about preventive measure to prevent high stress to eyes from manufacturers. Where’s the night mode we need?
I feel that the human eyes getting left behind in this race, and our eyes won’t last as long as it used to. These device need to come with an “night mode” by default, but rarely any do. There is a “term” for stress caused due to excessive use of computers to the eyes called Computer Vision Syndrome.
People will argue that its up to people who stay long hours glued to their computers without caring for their eyes. Some people don’t have an option and others don’t really care about it. But honestly it is somewhat up to the manufacturers to care about the consumers health as well. The bright light and colors are great in the day time but during night, those bright screens feel like flash lights to your eyes which continuously stresses them. And let’s be real, we’ve all been in this position with our smartphones.
We already know computers are pretty bad for your eyes, the internet is filled with cold hard facts, studies and research into this. So why aren’t the companies that build these products doing anything about it.
So what we’re trying to do for now is trying to list out some of the services, softwares and applications that will help you adapt to the night environment with messing too much with your eyes. So you can keep working on your projects, talk with friends and more…
Safety on Computers
The first thing i learned about making my computer screen better for the night is a software called F.lux. It adjusts your displays color temperature to soothing during dawn and night. Flux is available for Windows, Linux, Mac, iPhone and iPad (Jailbroken).
On Apple Macs
Apple Macs have integrated feature to invert the image colors to black and white. Press the “Control-Option-8” combination to activate and dis-activate this feature.
On Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla firefox has a great range of themes and plugins that allow for complete customization. For easy usage during the night here are two of our favorite themes. FTDeepDark and NASA Night Launch. The difference I found between these two theme is the rss feed theming and extension support. While FTDeepDark automatically darkens a feed template, NASA Night Launch doesn’t and has a bright template for feeds. But NASA night launch has better extension support which even makes the Firefox developer panel dark and easy to work with which FTDeepDark doesn’t provide yet. While these are great themes, they don’t invert the colors of the website which can be pretty bright. This is where the following plugins come to play for perfect night browsing.
The best plugin to use on Firefox for easy reading at nights is Blank your Monitor + Easy Reading. This works on any website to invert the colors to colors better soothing for the night. And these colors are customizable from its option window.
Turn off the lights is a plugin that can change the current color settings of the webpage to a dark one which helps you keep browsing your sites late without much stress to your eyes.
On Android
Custom ROMs on Android devices allow dev/users to modify their devices to their liking. For the current scenario, Android ROM devs have developed dark Android themes, my current favorite is SlimROMs TRDS (The Really Dark Slim) theme. They even modify the Google apps to complement the dark theme so you can have a better viewing experience.
These are only a basic list to get you started on keeping your eyes more relaxed at nights. I will be adding popular Android applications that have darker theme for users to switch to. I’m not exactly familiar with the iOS application so iOS users are welcome to contribute. Also if anyone has any recommendations we’ll be happy to add it to the list. We hope to get more application developers allow to switch to darker themes.
