Apple’s “Night Shift” display temperature adjustment feature is a big deal for iOS owners as it one of the major reasons why hundreds of Apple customers have continued to jailbreak their devices.

Now, as of iOS 9.3 beta 5 which was released as a public beta on Tuesday (beta.apple.com), users have the option of “Manually Enabling [Night Shift] Until Tomorrow,” and the feature is now automatically disabled when the device drops below 20 percent battery and switches to Low-Power Mode. In addition, there is a new Night Shift toggle switch in the Control Center, allowing a user to automatically enable the feature at any time of the day. This may prove useful when using an iPhone in a movie theater during advertisements (before the film has started, obviously) or in any environment where sunlight is constrained for a temporary amount of time. The feature can now be set on a “custom schedule” or automatically activated from sunset to sunrise following the typical circadian sunlight pattern based on a user’s location.

Night Shift is supported on all Apple devices released during or after Fall 2013, including the A7 chip in 2013 (iPhone 5S, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3), the A8 chip in 2014 (iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad mini 4, iPod touch 6G), the A8X chip in 2014 (iPad Air 2), the A9 chip in 2015 (iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus), the A9X in 2015 (iPad Pro) and the upcoming iPhone SE and seventh-generation 9.7-inch iPad.

Image credit: iPhoned.nl

Admittedly, many iOS jailbreakers (including ourselves) have left our iPhones jailbroken for the sole purpose of installing and enabling a third-party screen temperature adjustment utility available in the Cydia app store called f.lux. Initially launched in February 2009, f.lux is an exceptionally popular program for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, jailbroken iOS devices and eventually Android that will automatically calibrate device display temperature based on sunrise and sunset times at a chosen location. At sunset, for example, the utility will gradually change display color temperature from around 6500K down to 3400K – 4000K depending on user configuration. At sunrise, it will gradually shift display color temperature back up to 6500K. Users can choose from pre-defined temperature values and modify the program for specific activities, including “Movie Mode” for film viewing.



Image credit: NewCydiaTweaks.com

The developer of f.lux briefly hosted an Xcode port of the project on GitHub, allowing iOS 9 users the ability to officially side-load it to non-jailbroken devices. But for one reason or another, Apple requested that f.lux be removed by the developer.

Apple is expected to officially debut Night Shift – its own version of f.lux – in iOS 9.3 during its product announcement event on March 21st, where it will show off the new entry level 4-inch iPhone SE, a new midrange 9.7-inch iPad, and new bands for the Apple Watch. Of course, this all happens just one day before Apple goes to court with the Federal Bureau of Investigations over its surprisingly controversial encryption case on March 22nd.