iOS 9.3 Offers Night Shift For Late-Night iPhone Users

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Apple's is starting to work the Night Shift with a new feature in iOS 9.3 that warms the screen to reflect the user's exposure to blue light, so late night iPhone usage doesn't impact your chances of sleeping later.

The feature is part of the iOS 9.3 upgrade currently in public beta, and latest includes numerous innovations to the iPhone's operating system.

There are also improvements to a range of Apple's stock apps, along with new additions to CarPlay, its connected car platform.

Night Shift uses the smartphone's clock and geolocation capabilities to determine when it's sunset in the user's location, automatically shifting the colors in the display to the warmer end of the spectrum. In the morning, it returns the display to its regular settings.

A recent report by Consumer Reports indicated many people are staying up late to entertain themselves on electronic devices -- even though research suggests that blue light from those devices may interfere with the body's production of melatonin, the sleep hormone.

Besides Night Shift, there are a number of other improvements in iOS 9.3.

For the Notes app, users can now secure the notes that contain personal data, such as financial details, medical info, or website logins, with a password or fingerprint. User can also sort notes by date created, date modified, or alphabetically.

In addition, articles in For You are now better tailored to the user's particular interests. To help discover new Favorites, For You suggests trending topics and Editors' Picks.

When a story contains video, users can play it right from their feed, can view everything in landscape mode on the iPhone, and updates are also faster.

For users who use the iPhone to track their health and fitness, Apple has updated categories such as Weight, Workouts, and Sleep with new slider menu that reveals apps you can add to the Health dashboard.

The Health app also now displays moving, exercising and standing data, as well as personal goals, from the Apple Watch so users can see all their health metrics in one place and share data with third-party apps.

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The update also brought a series of new features to the iPad tablet, mainly designed for educational purposes, including Shared iPad for students, which lets students log in to any iPad in any classroom and personalize it.

Apple School Manager provides administrators with one portal where they can do everything from create Apple IDs to purchase apps to prepare devices for mobile device management (MDM), and Managed Apple IDs can be specially created and assigned by a school.

Finally, the software update builds on Apple's CarPlay platform, offering New and For You from Apple Music, which features songs, artists, and albums handpicked by experts, plus selections based on the user's preferences.

In addition, the Nearby feature in Maps lets users find locations and services such as gas, parking, restaurants, coffee, and more with a tap of the finger.

CarPlay, compatible with iPhone 5 and later models, works by plugging in the iPhone through a USB outlet, then the CarPlay interface appears on the touch screen. CarPlay features Siri voice control, and integrates an iPhone with the car's built-in display and controls.