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Fire Tablet Keeping You Awake? Try Amazon 'Blue Shade'

 & Angela Moscaritolo Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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Having trouble getting to sleep after a late-night reading session on your Kindle? It might be more than the story floating around in your head.

Evening exposure to blue light from tablets may suppress our bodies' production of melatonin, which can cause major sleep problems. Fortunately, Amazon has a solution. The company is rolling out a new feature to Fire Tablets called Blue Shade, which "uses specialized filters to limit exposure to blue light" to give you a more comfortable night time reading experience, and — hopefully — a better night's sleep.

The feature can be turned on or off with a single tap, and also lets you lower the display brightness to an "ultra-low level," if you prefer. Fire tablet owners can fine-tune the color settings to their personal preference, and the device will "intelligently" adjust the filtering so that blue light is always suppressed.

Blue Shade is rolling out to Fire HD 10, Fire HD 8, and Fire tablets over the next few weeks as part of a free software update that also adds some new tools for kids and parents.

A new feature called Activity Center, for instance, lets parents see how much time their kids spend playing games, watching videos, and reading on the device. Parents can also view their kids' browser history to see what they're looking at on the Web, as well as specific apps, books, and videos their child accessed. This feature is designed for kids who have outgrown Amazon's FreeTime parental controls, but still need monitoring.

Finally, the update brings a more kid-friendly Web browser for devices with FreeTime enabled. The updated browser offers access to more than 40,000 "hand-curated, age-appropriate" YouTube videos and websites.

About Our Expert

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade. 

Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The Technology I Use

My little Florida beach bungalow is brimming with smart home tech. I have a smart speaker or display in every room, allowing me to control other connected devices by voice. The Nest Hub on my bedside table lets me set wake-up alarms, control my smart light bulbs, and set the temperature on my smart thermostat. I use the Amazon Echo Show 8 on my kitchen counter to browse recipes, reorder protein powder, check the weather, and watch the news while I do dishes. 

Because I suffer from allergies, air purifiers are essential. My favorite model is the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, which doubles as a fan and continuously sends indoor pollution data to its companion mobile app. 

My pitbull Bradley sheds, so a good robot vacuum is a must. I currently use a premium Ecovacs Deebot that can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash its own mop cloth. 

For fitness, I like to mix up my routine with cycling, indoor rowing, running, and strength training in addition to yoga. I take classes on the Tonal 2 smart strength training machine, I row indoors on an Aviron machine, and track my beach runs with an Apple Watch while listening to music on my Apple AirPods Pro. On the weekends, I love riding e-bikes like the rugged, beach-friendly Aventon Aventure for fun and fitness.

My job involves a lot of virtual meetings, so a quality webcam, microphone, and ring light are important. I use the Jabra PanaCast 20 webcam, the Elgato Wave: 3 microphone, and a Yesker tripod ring light. 

As for my preferred phone platform, I'm an iPhone person, but I've also extensively used Android for product testing.

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