iOS 9.3 out now with Night Shift

[Jessica Lares]

So Night Shift is officially out with iOS 9.3. Are you using the default settings or are you changing it to be less/more warmer?

iBooks improvements:

• Adds the ability for iBooks to store your PDFs in iCloud, making them available across all of your devices
• Adds support for downloading previously purchased audiobooks from the iBooks Store
• Adds the ability to share your audiobook purchases with any of your family members using Family Sharing
• New controls for reading Manga more comfortably with faster page turns and simple controls for enlarging text
• Adds Apple Pencil support to highlight and save your favorite passages for later

Hardware keyboard improvements and fixes:

• Enables the use of arrow keys to navigate through lists in Spotlight, Mail and Safari
• Enables the use of space bar to scroll in Mail
• Improves performance when using the space bar to scroll in Safari
• Adds the ability to bring up the software keyboard from the Shortcut Bar when a hardware keyboard is connected
• Fixes an issue that could prevent unlocking an iPad using the hardware keyboard
• Fixes an issue that caused hardware keyboards to become unresponsive in captive login pages
• Fixes an issue that could cause the Messages input field to disappear behind the Shortcut Bar when connected to a hardware keyboard

[HarryT]

The subject of your message isn't at all clear. Are you talking about iOS 9.3?

[Jessica Lares]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The subject of your message isn't at all clear. Are you talking about iOS 9.3?

Yeah, sorry about that. I edited the post to indicate I was talking about the iOS 9.3 update.

[Josieb1]

I've just downloaded it. I've turned Night Shift on and made the default setting warmer. I already use Lux on my Samsung so I've been waiting for this for ages.

[kyteflyer]

I've left it on the default for the moment.

[tomsem]

I see that the iBooks / iCloud changes only refer to 'PDF'. The betas implied it applied to ePub as well. Did they drop the latter? Obviously better to have both supported.

I'll try to try this later.

[49Kat]

I don't have the nightshift setting on my iPad 2 or my mini. Maybe they're too old? I haven't updated the iphone 6 yet.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by 49Kat

I don't have the nightshift setting on my iPad 2 or my mini. Maybe they're too old? I haven't updated the iphone 6 yet.

Yeah, it's only available on 64bit devices.

[49Kat]

Got it on my iPhone 6. It's nice. (One more reason to want an iPad Air. )

[Kai Winters]

I too dloaded and installed it on my 6+ and like Night Shift at the default, so far, position when reading using the ibook app...I use a black background so NS gives the font an easier on my eyes feel.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I see that the iBooks / iCloud changes only refer to 'PDF'. The betas implied it applied to ePub as well. Did they drop the latter? Obviously better to have both supported.

I'll try to try this later.

Both are supported. It uses your iCloud account, so if you have a big library you might have to buy more memory. I shot through the free 5 G, so broke open my wallet to pay the massive $3 per month for 200G. Some might be offended by this since iTunes Match doesn't use your iCloud storage. I figure that I can afford the $3 per month.

I turned on the Night Shift, but the only time that I have trouble going to sleep when I read at night is when I'm in the middle of a good book that I want to finish.

Night Shift, another feature I never knew I needed. I still don't know if I need or even want it as I never noticed any issues reading on my iThingies at night. But I just set Night Shift to ON and will give it try.

ETA: Just FYI: The Night Shift feature is available on my iPad Mini Retina (original) and my iPhone 6 Plus, but not on my older iPhone 5.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Night Shift, another feature I never knew I needed. I still don't know if I need or even want it as I never noticed any issues reading on my iThingies at night. But I just set Night Shift to ON and will give it try.

It seems to be "the latest fashionable accessory that every o/s must have". I don't see the need for it myself, but if some people benefit from it, or even kid themselves that they're benefiting from it, so much the better.

Just FYI: Updating to iOS 9.3 on an iPhone requires an installed SIM card. There are some people like me who keep their older iPhones and repurpose them as WiFi only devices or as a backup phone in case the newer one stops working. Yesterday I pulled out my older iPhone 5 and updated it from iOS 7.x.x to iOS 9.2.x just to have all my iThingies running the same iOS version. I don't have a SIM card installed in the iPhone 5 as I put it in my iPhone 6 Plus when I bought it. I was able to update to iOS 9.2.x without a SIM card installed. However, when I updated the iPhone 5 this morning to iOS 9.3 the phone downloaded and installed iOS 9.3 but after it had finished and restarted, it got stuck on a screen stating that to finish the installation a SIM card was required. I was able to temporarily use the SIM card out of my iPhone 6 Plus to finish the iOS 9.3 setup. Afterwards I removed the SIM card and iOS 9.3 continues to function normally on the iPhone 5. No big deal, but just be aware that you will need a SIM card to finish the iOS 9.3 setup on an iPhone, else you will be stuck on a No SIM Card screen and not be able to use the device.

[tomsem]

I could barely tell Night Shift was on, at least at the default color setting. I turned it up a little bit, but all I'm looking to do is to take a little 'edge' off the whites when reading in low light conditions, and make it more comfortable on my eyes. Brightness adjustment by itself doesn't seem to be as effective. So I like it, even if it does nothing to improve my sleep quality (IMO the science to demonstrate that has yet to be done).

By contrast the Amazon Fire Blue Shade feature is completely useless IMO. It totally eliminates Black from the color palette, and with it any semblance of contrast.