iOS 10 Clock

pmeneau wrote:

TThe new black background in clock is horrible! Why can't we change the color that we want?

You can! That's why there's an app store with over a hundred different clock apps, with all different kinds of displays, colors, and presentations. Even some that chime on the hour. Every one of them better than the built in app. And this was true even before Apple changed the app.

The irony here is that if the clock had always had a black background with previous versions and Apple changed it to white in iOS 10, there would be just as many complaints about that.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

The irony here is that if the clock had always had a black background with previous versions and Apple changed it to white in iOS 10, there would be just as many complaints about that.

(I think you meant iOS 9)

Oh, my goodness, the furor over how "white" iOS 8(?) was compared to previous versions! How blinding! How awful!

I feel the same way. They should give us a setting option to go back to black lettering on white bacground.

12sunsets wrote:

I feel the same way. They should give us a setting option to go back to black lettering on white bacground.

Did you submit feedback?

I agree with not liking the new dark background on the alarm function. I do NOT like it at all. The dark background is harder on my eyes than the white background. I use my alarm clock feature a lot. I have multiple alarms on it for various things (such as medicine times for my puppy dog). I can understand why some people like the dark feature better for nighttime function. However, I really don't care for it at all. The white background was very soothing to my eyes. I don't use the bedtime feature and just disregarded it.

What I would love to see Apple do is give us the option for both colors (white background or black background). That way we could choose what works best for us. With all of the other great features that the iPhone offers, I don't think it's too much to ask for this small feature/option.

I will also contact Apple Support and submit feedback regarding this new change in the alarm clock.

I do not like the background of the clock being black and if you try to revert it in settings, it changes everything to white. I just want the clock to have a white background., any ideas how to revert the color just for the clock? Why does Apple decide everyone wants a black background on their clock, there should be options that apply just for the clock. My husband hasn't upgraded yet until this option is figured out. Please Help

Because a slew of people wrote to Apple Feedback and said they wanted the clock app in dark mode.

Send feedback to Apple and say you want an option: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Or look for another clock app.

There is no way to change how Apple's clock works. However, there are over 100 clock apps in the App store, and most of them are better than Apple's. Many of them are free. In the 9 years I've had an iPhone I've never used Apple's clock app, so I have no idea whether it is better or worse than it was in earlier versions.

I don't know why Apple changed it; perhaps they got thousands of requests to http://apple.com/feeback to change it to a black background. But what I do know is that most of Apple's apps are very basic, intentionally, so they don't compete with 3rd party apps in the App Store and don't take up much storage. There's a long list of Apple apps I never use because I've found better: Calendar, Stocks, Weather, Camera, Photo management, shared storage, podcasts...

The program is called "World Clock." I used it constantly for global time zone comparison. Once again improvement destroys benefits. The previous clock app had a simple visual display that clearly contrasted daylight and nighttime zones with analog clocks in circles. The solid black background defeats the purpose. It is useless. I hate the black background, hate the digital display.

Agree 100% about the inverted colors being a terrible, awful, no good, very bad idea .. I even asked Support if it was a bug.. yes-I've left a formal complaint.. there are studies that say black background white font is hard in the eyes..if you don't like it send an email to Support or Tim Cook or both..

OK, "there are studies?" Where?

Let's have some background here: The inverse color scheme (black letters on white background) that Apple has forced on users for decades is a vestige of the failed late-'80s/early-'90s attempt to make the screen an analogy for a piece of paper. Remember the "desktop publishing" craze?

The analogy fails because a piece of paper doesn't emit light, while of course a screen does. A white background on a computer is akin to reading text off the surface of a light bulb all day.

Every other major computer GUI except Apple's allows users to set up their own system-wide color scheme. Windows has had this capability for over 25 years.

Before GUIs, most computers had a hard-coded color scheme that presented white text on a dark background, to ensure the best readability. The background was often dark blue; to this day there's a checkbox option in Word to activate this very color scheme ("Blue background, white text").

Over the last few years, software publishers have finally taken matters into their own hands to give users a more sensible background than glaring white. Adobe, for example, has darkened its interface to charcoal. Color-critical applications (even some of Apple's own) have always used a dark-grey interface with white text.

Should Apple move into the '90s and offer users a choice? Of course. But that's not how Apple works. But if you want to talk about a bad move, it's clinging to a discredited and glaring color scheme that has us squinting into backlights going full-blast in our faces all day.

Jsunny365 wrote:

Agree 100% about the inverted colors being a terrible, awful, no good, very bad idea .. I even asked Support if it was a bug.. yes-I've left a formal complaint.. there are studies that say black background white font is hard in the eyes..if you don't like it send an email to Support or Tim Cook or both..

Please provide citations for these "studies".

Use the feedback link to let Apple know what you think:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

It's bad for eyes with astigmatism, hard on the eyes, and that is why the inverted color schemes were ditched when people moved away from computer terminals of the early computing days ...

Sharing article:

http://gizmodo.com/the-surprising-reason-computer-screens-arent-green-on-b-16430 25374

It would be nice if every question was a matter of black or white. But it isn't. Quoting from your own link:

In fact, the debate over white-versus-black backgrounds is a perennial topic online, with many programmers arguing that dark or color backgrounds are easier on the eyes given the reduced amount of light.

I suspect that the reason Apple changed it is that many posts to http://apple.com/feedback requested the change.

That article (not a scientific article, by the way) quoted people who do appear to have some knowledge but provided no actual references to scientific studies. It also made this statement:

This optical explanation is a pretty interesting biological basis for the shift, though of course, there are plenty of reasons why white screens beat out black ones—and why plenty of people still prefer black backgrounds (or grey) to white. In fact, the debate over white-versus-black backgrounds is a perennial topic online, with many programmers arguing that dark or color backgrounds are easier on the eyes given the reduced amount of light. That's why so many applications (and even Yosemite!) are offering the ability to toggle between light and dark modes.

So, a rather weak citation.

You are certainly entitled to your personal preference and I'm not going to judge that.