Hi. Is anyone else annoyed by the high illumination of the screen whilst driving, especially at night? Does anyone know if there is a fix out there for it?
Apart from keeping the screen closed..! like to have it open so I can see who is calling, setting it so the screen is at minimum illumination and shuts itself off after a minute whilst on power, but it's still too bright and well the next setting down ain't much help.
Great toy, but it's really starting to annoy me. Any advice, greatly appreciated.
Cheers
You could always wear some sunglasses :lol: or put it in a dark plastic ziplock baggie...hehe
Abdn_Exec_Al said:
Hi. Is anyone else annoyed by the high illumination of the screen whilst driving, especially at night? Does anyone know if there is a fix out there for it?
Apart from keeping the screen closed..! like to have it open so I can see who is calling, setting it so the screen is at minimum illumination and shuts itself off after a minute whilst on power, but it's still too bright and well the next setting down ain't much help.
Great toy, but it's really starting to annoy me. Any advice, greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sounds like u need:
1. fag lighter charger to prevent shutoff
2. a dark theme to reduce the brightness
- edit -
I have the charger. That's fine, what I meant was I had set the settings to dim the screen after a minute (that's the minimum you can select whilst on charge), not that the unit was switching off. Sorry for confusion. My issue is the difference between the two lowest levels of brightness. With one you can see the screen, with the other you can't. What's this dark theme you mentioned? Is it between the two?
What would be great would be a night level similar to what TomTom offer on their gadgets.
Alternately you can use a profile management program such as pocketzenphone or the still under development phonealarm and set a profile for night driving with reduced screen brightness.
Kind Regards
Related
Hi all.
Dont flame me for this strange request.
My bed side clock is about to die so instead of getting a new one, I am thinking of using my universal as a replacement. My problem is that having the display on even with the backlight set to minimum is too bright for night time use.
With the backlight turned off the display is useless when pitch black so does anyone know of an application I can use that'll allow me to have the backlight on all night whilst charging on a very low setting so that it can be seen in the dark but not light up the whole room.
I assume the built in alarm function will wake me in the morning so dont need to replace that...
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Good luck trusting any Windows Mobile-powered device to wake you up reliably. I thought my Exec was better than my XDA2 but no. It still fails from time to time.
However, if your machine is to be left turned on all night (on charge) then there's a possibility it might be reliable. I'd run it alongside your alarm clock for a while though before trusting it.
I like the idea of the app you request. vijay555 managed to get the screen backlight to respond to settings above the normal control panel range with his VJLumos app - perhaps it can also be set lower using a similar method.
You'll still need a large enough clock display to be readable with blurry eyes at night though.
Incidentally, you can set your Exec to turn the backlight off after (say) 30 seconds of inactivity, but then use the backlight hardware key (next to the volume slider) to turn the screen backlight on again when you need to know the time in the dark.
Just a suggestion
ptravelalarm is an app that displays big clock digits, in landscape mode too. Perhaps worth checking out in conjunction with the backlight hack? oh, and it features loud alarms with volume override too.
Pocketclock is another app but is only 2003 compatible though i kow there is a beta wm5 version available. Not sure when it will be released fully, or if it will support landscape mode (which the beta didn't).
Have a look at 'stoptime'....
And yes it's reliable ! I used it for months for taking my medication (and it's dosing was quite time-dependant !)
jpiek said:
Have a look at 'stoptime'....
And yes it's reliable ! I used it for months for taking my medication (and it's dosing was quite time-dependant !)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are u using this app on a wm5 pda? I checked out the site and it seems to mention 2003 and earlier, plus no updates since 2004?
No, on a WM2003 ...
jpiek said:
No, on a WM2003 ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
According to the thread title it's for use on a Universal, therefore wm5 (unless he's seriously tweaked his roms ). Shame, because it looked interesting...
Here's what I have as my Alarm.....
It is SPB Time v.1.1 which you can find here :
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/time/?en
In the picture below, it is set as BLACK CLOCK and also displays the calendar aside from the time in Digital format.
There a lot of diffeent skins available for free and also you can choose between analog, digital or world clock....
phupton said:
My problem is that having the display on even with the backlight set to minimum is too bright for night time use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
seconded. The minimum backlight brightness setting is way too bright. Is there any way to influence this in the registry?
the big clock display looks great with that spb product. Just need a hack to sort out the bright display at night time now.
Its not something I can do but if anyone knows of someone that might be able to help then point me in their direction...
I use the ptravel alarm on a daily basis, as commented above though, the dim setting is still bright enough to light the room. If that can be dimmed further then will be fantastic.
As for relibility, the only time it has failed when on mains was due to finger trouble...
I'd suggest something like that Big-Clock from SPB, if you run the Exec while it's plugged in the backlight will stay lit - all you need is a black background with dark coloured numerals so that the light output isn't that much (on lowest backlight obviously).
You'd ALSO need to turn off the flashing LEDS - I've discovered these are really very bright in a darkened room and very irritating.
Chronos is also very good, only analogue clocks though, although it says it is skinable and I would like it in digital...
Anyone know how to skin Chronos???
http://www.activekitten.com/en/games/detail.php?ID=351
Regards Simon
Dear All, There are only 4 settings for display brightness (the first one turns it off), I need a MUCH dimmer setting while working in the dark. Spouse cant sleep with lights on! The lowest setting still strains my eyes. Any tweak?
One word: STOP.
Seriously, if you think you need to be working while you're laying in bed next to your spouse, you might want to take a hard look at your priorities! Trust me, she's not mad that you have a light on, she's probably mad that you'd rather poke at your phone than poke at her...
Put down the phone, and go to sleep, man! If you can't sleep, then go be annoying in another room of your home.
Also, no, I don't believe there's any way to dim the LCD without turning it off.
check this out
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=379270
When I have my nexus one set to automatically adjust brightness, it doesn't seem to do anything.
I can move it between dark and bright environments and the screen brightness doesn't seem to change at all. Am I missing something or is this feature not working on my phone?
It works fine with mine. I just clicked auto in the brightness setting. Make sure you didn't accidentally change it to a different setting with the settings widget that is by default on the first home page to the right.
works fine on mine yet not a feature i use....i just set it statically.
I find the auto-brightness to be too dim for my liking. It would be great if you could adjust the overall brightness while still maintaining the automatic scaling.
Turns out it does work, it just need to be *really* bright to make it change.
It doesn't change really at all in my office between switching the lights on and off (even though that's a really big change in light levels to me). However, if i go outside, it does get brighter.
As you say though, it does seem to be set a bit low (hence it not brightening up when my office lights are turned on I guess).
If I enable auto-brightness on mine, it seems to constantly vary the brightness in my office. It's annoying as crap and I turned it off. Am I the only one?
It's probably taking a look at the available APIs to see if it's easy to write a quick app to do auto brightness with settings to be able to tweak it.
The auto-brightness feature changes constantly for me as well.
I 'm also having issues of the varying brightness when using auto-brightness -- even though the lighting in my environment has not changed and I avoid contact with the light sensor. It's VERY annoying.
I've since switched to using a static setting for the brightness.
auto brightness was one of the first things i turned off. it was way too dim for me
Not bright enough for me. Doesnt seem to change much.
I do see the variability occasionally. Most of the time it's stable, but it will take spells of shifting up and down repeatedly. Glad to know I'm not alone.
Auto bright annoyed me as well when I first got the phone. Then I realized where the sensor is (top left) and what it was responding to. Depending on where I'm sitting, what light sources are behind me, in front of me but reflecting off of me. It's usually just responding to a light source that's just withing view of its sensor. Also, my hand has shielded the sensor more than just a few times, confusing the sensor.
Now I leave auto bright on all the time, and it more often than not does a good job.
IMHO this is one of the few broken features on the phone. In continuous lighting it jumps from bright to dim to everything in between like a jack rabbit on speed. I still use it to save battery life but it pisses me off regularly.
am also having this problem. it constantly goes much brighter, and then, suddenly goes back to dim.. very annoying... however, the light sensor for calling works well... so, is it a software issue.. hope it gets google's attention and gets fixed in next update...
Bicster_ said:
If I enable auto-brightness on mine, it seems to constantly vary the brightness in my office. It's annoying as crap and I turned it off. Am I the only one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 so I also manually go between three on the widget
Note that the light sensor is under the glass on the front of the phone. Some cover-all cases cover this, and if you use one of these I assume your phone will remain on the dimmest setting.
In general, while indoors it will remain on the dimmest setting (for me anyway), but rise to the necessary full brightness when in sunlight.
w00yee said:
am also having this problem. it constantly goes much brighter, and then, suddenly goes back to dim.. very annoying... however, the light sensor for calling works well... so, is it a software issue.. hope it gets google's attention and gets fixed in next update...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are two sensors, one is a light sensor and the other is a proximity sensor to detect when you've taken the phone from your ear. I think you're referring to the second.
w00yee said:
am also having this problem. it constantly goes much brighter, and then, suddenly goes back to dim.. very annoying... however, the light sensor for calling works well... so, is it a software issue.. hope it gets google's attention and gets fixed in next update...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 constant occiliation on dimmness levles under consistant light. It goes from way too dim, to just right then back dark again. I too hope that google will correct this with the next update. Hopefully the patch gets pushed soon, i'd like that extra memory
Has anyone else noticed the in call volume being very loud even when on the lowest setting. Mine is super high, any suggestions to resolve?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Yes, I'm having the same problem. But it don't seems to be a problem every time. Neither seems it to be connected to specific callee's. Sometimes the volume is totaly normal, and sometimes it feels like speaker mode...
Mine is everytime though, it really is too loud even on the lowest setting.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
You are lucky, actually. I have exactly opposite problem. My volume of calls is so low that I cant her the other callers. This is very serious issue for me and I am thinking about returning the phone. I am searching the net for some service codes that would allow me to raise the internal volume. Do you have 2.3.1?
Visual Voice Mail volume
Why is my visual voice mail so hard to hear with the speaker on?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Turn the volume up?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Did that
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
T-Mobile's or Google Voice? I have no problems with Google Voice and make sure it's set to come out of the speaker. I haven't used T-Mobile's in a long time.
[Q] volume & screen
After climbing (for me) a steep learning curve I am very happy with my NS. But as with anything, there are different levels of happiness. I still have two issues that sort of bug me.
1. Volume - It seems that I must accidentally hit it a lot, and at times find it turned all the way down.
2. Screen - It's amazing inside, but when I go outside in this Florida Sun (even in the winter) I not only can't read the screen, I can't find the buttons on the handset.
Any suggestions?
always good to see another florida person.
Can't say anything about the first since i don't own the device yet, a case may help though since my dad has a vibrant and he used to hit them, but after getting a silicone case he dosn't do it anymore.
As far as the seeing the screen goes, depending on your brightness setting the screen may be washed out. I normally keep my nexus one at about 40% brightness, but if i'm going to be outside for a day, or when i'm at the themeparks in orlando, i turn on the auto brightness, that usually brings it up to 100% in the sunlight which makes it readable.
Normally switching the brightness involves going through the settings, but there are many applications that give you a quick switch, i personally use the mysettings app that i have on my main screen so it's only two clicks to get to auto.
The screen is very viewable in the sunny Southern California sunlight, but no modern large screen smartphone like these are going to be great outdoors; at least the NS is usable (unlike the N1).
I concur with the other response that setting the screen brightness to max is obviously the best way to tackle this.
There's a very easy way, just install the Power Control Widget that comes pre-loaded on the phone. It gives you a bar with 5 icons on it for wifi, bluetooth, gps, google sync, and screen brightness.
The screen brightness icon lets you tap it for 4 different settings (minimum, about half max, maximum brightness and automatic). As mentioned above, with max brightness, the phone is very usable, for me in sunlight. At least as usable as my iPhone 4 and older iPhones.
Very handy, and also great for quickly turning off wifi and BT to save juice when not using them.
distortedloop said:
The screen is very viewable in the sunny Southern California sunlight, but no modern large screen smartphone like these are going to be great outdoors; at least the NS is usable (unlike the N1).
I concur with the other response that setting the screen brightness to max is obviously the best way to tackle this.
There's a very easy way, just install the Power Control Widget that comes pre-loaded on the phone. It gives you a bar with 5 icons on it for wifi, bluetooth, gps, google sync, and screen brightness.
The screen brightness icon lets you tap it for 4 different settings (minimum, about half max, maximum brightness and automatic). As mentioned above, with max brightness, the phone is very usable, for me in sunlight. At least as usable as my iPhone 4 and older iPhones.
Very handy, and also great for quickly turning off wifi and BT to save juice when not using them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
forgot about that lol. I actually use power strip with that widget so a double tap on the home button and from any screen i can switch to auto or full.
neok44 said:
forgot about that lol. I actually use power strip with that widget so a double tap on the home button and from any screen i can switch to auto or full.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll have to check that out!
distortedloop said:
I'll have to check that out!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah powerstrip is pretty awesome, theres another app like it called quick desk but i prefer powerstrip.
My setup lets me double tap the home button and i have quick links to 5 widgets and then all my apps, a set list of shortcuts, and my recent apps as well.
neok44 said:
always good to see another florida person.
Can't say anything about the first since i don't own the device yet, a case may help though since my dad has a vibrant and he used to hit them, but after getting a silicone case he dosn't do it anymore.
As far as the seeing the screen goes, depending on your brightness setting the screen may be washed out. I normally keep my nexus one at about 40% brightness, but if i'm going to be outside for a day, or when i'm at the themeparks in orlando, i turn on the auto brightness, that usually brings it up to 100% in the sunlight which makes it readable.
Normally switching the brightness involves going through the settings, but there are many applications that give you a quick switch, i personally use the mysettings app that i have on my main screen so it's only two clicks to get to auto.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got Mysettings and it looks sweet. Thanks all.
burtmann said:
Got Mysettings and it looks sweet. Thanks all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
glad you like it, to switch to auto just long press on the brightness it'll switch to auto, and then long press again to go back to your previous setting.
Its pretty serious for me as well, its like being on speaker all the time. Its there any way to change the volume range? If not this will have to get exchanged.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
I am also experiencing the oposite problem to this, my earpiece even at full volume is still very low. May try to pass by Best Buy and see if i can get test out another phone and see if mine is defective.
Yeah i'm suffering with the same problem. I've even swapped the phone but the new one has the same issue.
Has anyone found a fix for this? I really don't want to have to swap the phone again
Hi guys, i have an issue to fix..i leave the autobrightness on but often i get the display underbrightened, especially in the daylight..i don't know if is ok to disable the autobtightness because now the battery lasts for over 3 days!
thank you and sorry for my english
dreamon85 said:
Hi guys, i have an issue to fix..i leave the autobrightness on but often i get the display underbrightened, especially in the daylight..i don't know if is ok to disable the autobtightness because now the battery lasts for over 3 days!
thank you and sorry for my english
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Autobrightness, when enabled, will take 2-4 seconds to adjust the brightness... so you feel its underbrightened...you can disable it and keep brightness maximum, then it will surely decrease the battery life
OP - also make sure you are not holding the phone by the ambient light sensor when the auto brightness is not bright enough for you.
As far as I know "Auto adjust screen power" will limit the maximum available brightness, so you might try to turn it off.
Do you know if the option to save energy for the screen actually saves energy?
kreoXDA said:
OP - also make sure you are not holding the phone by the ambient light sensor when the auto brightness is not bright enough for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
where is it exactly?
dreamon85 said:
where is it exactly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the sensors to the left from the ear piece. If you grab the phone with your fingers on top and bottom, like in landscape mode, you can easily cover the sensor. Also some thick cases can cast shadow in the area of the sensor and throw off the autobrightness.
But yes, also make sure you have power saving mode off.
ok thanks to you all, i'll try turning down power saving..i'll let you know!
I'm glad I came across this tread as I noticed this too on my phone and started thinking it was a bug. I definitely am not covering the sensor and even placed the phone in direct sun light. I'll try turning the power saving off and see how it affects battery life and the brightness.
kreoXDA said:
But yes, also make sure you have power saving mode off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Power Saving Mode has nothing to do with brightness unless someone manually modify it.
Regards.
Sent from GT-I9100
I notice that if its the last of my battery the screen will stay dull