Apple laptops since the Powerbook era have had a cute anthropomorphic indication that the device is asleep: the white light on the front of the device slowly brightens and darkens like the breathing pattern of a deeply sleeping dorm-mate.
It’s kind of cute, as long as the laptop has its own bedroom.
But, like a snoring dorm-mate, it’s the most annoying thing when you have no choice but to share sleeping quarters. Such is the case in hotel rooms, or when a home office serves as an impromptu nursery for an eight-month-old. The laptop causes the ambient room light to cycle from pitch dark to bright night light, piercing photons through your eyelids, keeping those synapses firing, and inhibiting sleep.
The analog remedy for both snoring roommates and obnoxiously glowing MacBook Pros is the same: get out of bed and smother it in a pillow.
What we need is a digital remedy, today’s idea to steal:
- Or, provide a preference to stop the throbbing glow
- Or, employ an ambient light sensor on the outside of the device to smartly control the throbbing glow. By daylight, throb away. When the room is dark, don’t.
- And while you’re at it, also dim the charging light when the room is dark. It, too, must be covered to keep the room dark enough for the laptop’s very young roommate.
- Or, just stop throbbing
As for snoring roommates, I’m unaware of a digital remedy. Anyone?
