The latest update for Amazon's Fire tablets brings brand new features, including an Activity Center that will allow parents to better monitor their children's tablet usage, along with a new Internet browser designed specifically for kids.
The Fire OS 5 upgrade features the addition of Blue Shade, which aims to help people use their Fire tablets at night without compromising sleep.
Studies have revealed that the blue light coming from smartphones and tablets prolongs the time it takes for users to fall asleep. Specifically, blue light keeps one's pineal glands from secreting melatonin, a function that normally occurs a couple of hours of hours before hitting the sack. Melatonin causes a reduction in mental alertness, signalling the body to sleep soon. However, using devices with screens (and thus, exposure to blue light) interferes with this process, making it harder to fall asleep, while delaying REM sleep and causing sluggishness the following day.
With the Blue Shade feature, users will be able to adjust the display of the Fire tablets to decrease the blue light exposure coming from the devices. Users will also be allowed to include filters for warmer colors, which would alter the brightness to ultra-low levels that would still be comfortable for reading in the dark.
Users will be able to access the Blue Shade feature through the quick setting menu. Customizations such as color settings will also be available.
Only Amazon is offering the Blue Shade feature as a built-in setting in their tablets, though there are several apps and screen protectors that do the same for other devices.
The updates rolled out by Amazon apply to the Fire HD 10, the Fire H8 and Fire tablets.
