A BYU study on sleep and smartphones has an interesting result. 

The new study published in Sleep Health says you can use Night Shift on iPhone or Night Mode/Night Light with Android (or whichever app your use), but it won’t improve your sleep.

• In case you need it spelled out, this is when your phone gradually shifts its white balance to a much more amber overall color temperature, with less blue light.
• You can do the same on your computer with apps or system settings, too

Now, I’m absolutely not turning off my Night Light settings — but more on that in a bit. 

The study:

• BYU set up 167 young 18-24 year-olds with an iPhone to participate in the study, Each wore a wrist device with an accelerometer to judge sleep, and an app to monitor phone usage. 
• Three groups were then randomly established, assigned to: “one of three conditions specifying iPhone use during the hour preceding bedtime for seven consecutive nights: iPhone use with Night Shift enabled; iPhone use with Night Shift disabled; and no phone use.” And, each group was asked to be in bed for at least eight hours
• There were no significant differences in sleep outcomes across the three experimental groups.
• The study went further to try and separate those that got less sleep on average (less than six hours) from those who got about seven hours or more.
• The latter group slept better if they just didn’t touch a pone.
• The low-level sleepers saw no differences, leading to lead researcher psychology professor Chad Jensen say: “This suggests that when you are super tired you fall asleep no matter what you did just before bed.”
• Poor tired people.

Anyway, BYU is billing this as showing that it isn’t blue light that’s causing you difficulty in falling or staying asleep. It’s more like being on your phone at all.

• It’s obviously better for Apple and Android manufacturers to offer clever marketing to suggest you can use your phone just as much, but a little feature will mean you can sleep better.

I’m in a bind:

• I know, I know, I shouldn’t use my phone in bed, and I tend not to at night but I do in the mornings.
• But Night Light on my Pixel makes it so much easier to read, and not be blinded at night. No eyeball searing, please.
• Which is why I’ll use it regardless of impact on sleep.
• …but should I? Should we? Should we just be putting down our phones and curling into a nice comfy bed without scrolling and texting and whatnot?
• I mean, probably. But here we are.

🔜 More evidence of the Pixel 6 coming with Google’s own chip codenamed ‘Whitechapel’: this time, a little code commit that reveals more than intended (Android Authority).

🔭 Crazy Galaxy S22 Ultra leak suggests a zoom camera with continuous optical zoom, which is basically DSLR territory (Android Authority).

🐬 Renders and specs leak for Asus Zenfone 8 Flip and vanilla model, the flippy cam keeps flipping (Android Authority).

📅 Full Google I/O 2021 schedule teases news for Android, smart home tech, and more (Android Authority).

📈 Interesting: OnePlus One vs OnePlus 9 Pro — how much have OnePlus’ cameras improved? (Android Authority).

⚖ Epic vs Apple Day 3: Internal emails reveal Apple’s scrambled, punitive attempts to stop Netflix from dropping App Store In-App Purchase support (9to5Mac). Also, Epic vs Apple turns into …Windows vs Xbox? (The Verge).

⛔ Trump’s Facebook ban is upheld—for now (Wired).

🥇 Billboard is partnering with Twitter to release music rankings in a new way: based on how Twitter conversations are happening around a particular song on a given day (Gizmodo).

🔨 Nintendo’s new $30 DIY game is Game Builder Garage: a likely masterclass in creativity and game design (Engadget).

🚀 SpaceX successfully managed to land its Starship prototype: SN15 nails the landing, finally (Ars Technica). Short video here (r/space).

📉 That out-of-control Chinese rocket is expected to crash into Earth this weekend: somewhere between 41N and 41S latitude, which includes NYC, and all of Africa. But also, a great deal of ocean! (CNET).

🔋 “Wise guy figures out a way to park free on college campus but it’s kind of a d-ck move.” In short: guy buys a fake charger plug to make his Jeep look like an EV to get free parking. It’s sadly a total d-ck move because he’s leaving EV owners without a charger, but …I offer a respectful nod at the hustle (Jalopnik).

🌅 “ELI5: How does the sun or light bleach the color out of colorful objects?” (r/explainlikeimfive).

Wolfenstein 3D was released yesterday, May 5, back in 1992.

The Wikipedia entry gets into some good depth around the creation of id software, the efforts from legends like John Carmack in building a game engine to create a 3D shooter, critical reception, the ports to other platforms other than PC, and the legacy of the grandfather of all FPS games.

• I remember playing it as a kid and finding the harder difficulties insanely hard.
• But there were cheats of course, including the glorious god mode.

Cheers,

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.