Apple rolled out macOS 10.12.4 today, along with a host of other upgrades for iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. This marks the fourth time that Apple has significantly updated Sierra since it first came out last September. The new macOS comes with your garden-variety bug fixes and security patches, which you can read up on here. Beyond that, the most noticeable change on your end that the newest software update brings will likely be ‘Night Shift’ mode, which was only available in the developer beta version until today.
Apple has kept macOS 10.12.4 in beta testing since January 20, with eight betas seeded since then. It’s now available for free for all users running macOS Sierra, and can be downloaded via the Software Update function in the Mac App Store.
Night Shift Mode
Night Shift originally debuted with iOS 9.3 last year. It’s a nifty feature, especially if you’re a night owl with a penchant for using your MacBook right until the moment you go to sleep. Activating Night Shift gradually adjusts the “color temperature” of your display to the warmer end of the spectrum, changing the tint of your screen from a harsh bright-blue to a softer and yellower hue when the sun sets. This in turn eases your transition into the evening and helps you achieve a deeper night’s rest.
Plenty of studies have shown that the blue glow emitted by your laptop display emulates sunlight, fooling your brain into thinking it’s daytime, when in reality it’s closer to bedtime. Nighttime exposure to the blue light released by your smartphone, laptop, and smart light bulbs has a disruptive effect on your circadian rhythm (your body’s biological clock), suppresses the release of melatonin– the hormone that regulates your sleep cycle. The suppression of melatonin not only makes it harder to fall asleep, it also has a harmful impact on your sleep quality, leaving you groggy in the morning and potentially leading to a host of devastating health issues in the long run.
In other words, it’s highly advised that you start using Night Shift in the evenings. Google already has an analogous feature integrated into Android 7.0. Microsoft is also getting in on the action in its upcoming Windows 10 Creators update.
To activate it, go to the Today view in the Notification Center. Or, you can hail Siri and ask her to “Turn on Night Shift.” To adjust the color temperature settings and schedule on Night Shift, go to
- System Preferences
- Displays
- Night Shift.
Other macOS 10.12.4 Features
- You can now ask Siri for cricket scores, player rosters and stats for the Indian Premier League and International Cricket Council.
- New iCloud Analytics options.
- Dictation support for more languages including Shanghainese.
- Updates PDF APIs and fixes PDF rendering and annotation bugs in Preview.
- Support for a larger range of digital camera RAW formats.
- Adds Touch Bar support to Mac App Store.
In addition, Apple has released security enhancements for OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan.
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