5 APPS TO MANAGE SCREEN BRIGHTNESS AND PROTECT YOUR EYES

5 APPS TO MANAGE SCREEN BRIGHTNESS AND PROTECT YOUR EYES

How much time do you spend with your smartphone? Probably a lot. And if you are anything like me, majority of your usage must happen during night. In case you didn’t know, staring at a bright screen during night or in a dark room can strain your eyesAlthough ambient light sensor adjusts the screen brightness according to the light around you, during night even the 0 percent brightness seems like a lot. In this article, we have compiled a list of some of the best apps that can reduce the brightness below 0 percent and give you total control over your screens brightness.

1. Lux

Lux has been around for a while now and is one of the best brightness apps I’ve ever encountered. Automatic screen brightness adjustment is its best feature. Unlike Android’s default auto-brightness, Lux gives you complete control over the brightness settings

Another cool thing is that it can reduce the brightness below the minimum brightness. It can go even darker than the lowest brightness. In addition to great adjustment options, the app can change the hue of the screen so that your phone projects red light instead of blue, putting less strain on your eyes at night.

For $3, you can upgrade to Lux’s pro version and unlock some extra features like astronomer mode for stargazers, using the camera to read ambient light, showing warmer colors at night, etc.

2. Cobret

Cobrets is a widget that allows you to toggle between different brightness presets. There are six predefined brightness modes : Minimum (8%), Cuarter (25%), Medium (45%), Maximum (100%), Automatic, Nightly Filter, and Diurnal Filter.

The Automatic mode uses Android’s auto-brightness settings to manage the screen brightness. The Nightly filter mode sets brightness value to 0 and applies black overlay filter to the screen, so you get the brightness level even lower than system’s default. The Diurnal mode applies yellow filter over your screen which makes it easier for your eyes to use your phone in a dark room. Cobrets also allows you to manually change all brightness and overlay filter values, including filter colors and opacity levels.

3. IntelliScreen

IntelliScreen allows you to customize screen timeout intervals depending on device position, lighting conditions, and which apps are currently  running. It also has the option to always keep the screen on when the app is running in the foreground. Screen timeouts for each app can also be customized.

By using various sensors that come in a phone, it can automatically decide when to turn the screen on and when to turn it off, just like Gravity Screen. However, this is a premium option that is only available if you decide to upgrade IntelliScreen to the premium version.


4,Twilight

If you’ve heard of f.lux Twilight is more like that . Instead of reducing the brightness level below minimum value, it converts the blue light coming from the bright screen into warm shades of red and orange depending on the time of day. It require access to your location to keep track of sunrise and sunset to adjust screen temperature perfectly. After sunset, it starts adding layer of warm colors to the screen automatically.

If you choose to go for the pro version, you’ll get some additional features like adjustable transition time, predefined profiles, etc.

5. Screen Filter

This is the app I’m currently using. If you don’t need all the fancy features and just need a black filter over your screen to reduce the screen brightness below minimum level, Screen Filter is the app for you. Tap the app icon to activate it and tap again to deactivate it. The slider that manages the screen brightness is available in the notification area when the app is activated, from there you can increase or decrease the brightness level 

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5 Tips to Protect Your Eyes While Using Smartphones

5 Tips to Protect Your Eyes While Using Smartphones

It’s no secret that staring at the digital screen from a close range all day long have a negative effects on your eyes, after all, that’s what we’ve been taught since we were kids – ” don’t sit close to the TV” said my parents. And I know that they were not alone.Fast forward to today, things haven’t changed much, it’s just smartphones instead of TV. Almost everyone today spends most of their day (and night) staring at their smartphones. So the question is “does staring at your smartphone screen all day really damage your eyes?” Short answer : yes. For a detailed answer read the article

Here are 5 surefire ways to protect your eyes while using smartphones :

1. Adjust Screen Brightness

The first and important thing to do is to adjust your screen’s brightness according to your surrounding. Setting the brightness too low or too much can stress your eyes and can cause problem maintaining focus. To adjust your smartphone’s brightness according to your environment, go to phone’s settings option, then to display, and turn on adaptive brightness. Now the screen brightness will adjust automatically depending on the light around you. Another option is to use an app that manages the screen brightness better than the default brightness settings.

2. Hold Your Smartphone at a Distance

This might seem a bit odd, holding your smartphone at a distance, but this trick can help lot. On average, an user hold its smartphone only about 8 inches from their face. Try holding it at least 15 inches away from your eyes. If you feel any difficulty in reading texts you can always increase the size of texts from settings menu. This might seem awkward at first but once you get used to it, it will help for sure.

3. The 20-20-20 Rule

20-20-20 rule is quite effective. What this rule suggests is instead of staring at your screen all the time, take breaks on regular interval. After every 20 minutes of staring at your screen, take a break of 20 seconds, and look at something which is 20 feet away. Doing so results in relaxation of your eye muscles

4. Blink, Blink, Blink

According to a study, we tend blink about a third less than we normally would when we stare at our smartphone screens. Blinking often keeps the eyes moist and reduce dryness. So keep your eyes moist by blinking while staring at your screen.

5. Get Protective Coatings

In case you don’t know matte screen protector film or corning Gorilla glass have anti-glare feature. If your phone doesn’t have that (which is very rare as most of the smartphones come with corning gorilla glass) you can buy anti-glare coating and carefully put it on your phone’s screen. That should help reduce screen glare.

If you were glasses you can also get that anti-glare coating on your glasses.

So these are some tips that we suggest to protect your eyes. If you know of any other tip, do let us know in the comments.

 go here for some apps that helps to manage brightness

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IPS VS AMOLED

IPS VS AMOLED 

What is the Difference Between IPS and AMOLED?

We have been getting many questions with regards to mobile display technology the most frequent one being what is the difference between IPS and AMOLED, so we decided we should write an article detailing the pros and cons of both and try to make it as understandable as possible.

First off IPS:

IPS (in-plane switching) the technology was made primarily for LCD (liquid crystal display) to overcome the limitations of the regular LCD or TFT-LCD display, the problem with the regular display TFT-LCD was a slow response time, that means a degraded touch response and bad news for gamers as games usually require screens with good response times.

Another thing was a limited viewing angle, you could make out the screen if you’re looking at it straight ahead with a little variation, but move to the side a bit and you wouldn’t be able to see the screen…it was great for guys who’d be texting one girl while sitting with another… J  But now is the age of sharing is caring where you wanna show off what you’re watching…. so something had to be done…

IPS was the answer allowing for better response times meaning good touch response and better gaming. Also it allowed for a better viewing angle meaning you could watch the screen while having others watch it too…yippee!!

Here is a brief note down of the IPS technology:

Pros:

1. Better response time as compared to regular LCDs
2. Better Color reproduction
3. Better viewing angle
4. Sharper Images

Cons:

1. Requires a stronger backlight
2. More power hungry
3. Screens (cell phones) are usually much more thicker (bulkier) due to backlight source

                                  IPS LCD                      REGULAR LSD

Now AMOLED:

AMOLED or (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) is an upgrade to OLED, this tech basically consists of organic compounds which when are introduced to an electric charge produce luminosity or light. AMOLED was the tech that allowed for smart-phones to become even sleeker, basically since it does not require any backlight as compared to its IPS counterpart it is less bulky.  At the same time it provided better viewing angles and better contrast as compared to the simple LCD. The main factor that really set apart the AMOLED was its power consumption, it uses less battery power as compared to the IPS tech or regular LCDs.

Here is a Sum UP of AMOLED tech:

Pros:

1. No Backlight Required
2. Screen is slimmer, less bulky phone
3. No backlight, less battery usage, greater battery life
4. Great Contrast

Cons:

1. Difficult to produce, more expensive tech
2. Images Not as sharp IPS
3. Less Bright as compared to IPS, so less daylight visibility
4. Display Colors Degrade over time.

 Remarks:

The funny thing about technology is that it’s always advancing in one way or another and sometimes its so fast that you’re always trying to catch up, for example you probably just bought the most advanced smartphone in the world and a couple of months later some other company or maybe even the same launches an even more sophisticated device. The same way display tech is also dependent on other tech, and it has to continuously evolve to cope up with the new processors and gpu which allow for faster refresh rates and better color processing. As we write this article there is a Super IPS display tech already developed to counter the cons of the IPS tech and a Super AMOLED to counter the cons of the AMOLED tech.

So when you reach that Super stage as in most high end devices it gets really difficult to point out visible differences as both are trying to overcome their drawbacks…..

Conclusion:

In a general summary we can say that…….

IPS is known for its better color production, cheap cost of production, better daylight visibility, sharper image quality and higher resolution support

AMOLED screens stand for better battery life, slimmer and sleek design, greater contrast, darker blacks, and better response time.


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