Orientation sensor "fix" for 2.2 and the landscape blues! - EVO 4G General

I'm sure everyone has noticed that with 2.2, the orientation control blows. In previous versions, the orientation sensor was active anytime the display was on and it was quick. But now it is only active when an app using it is active. If you're on the home screen, the orientation sensor is not active. So, if you have the phone in landscape and back out to home, the orientation remains in landscape regardless of how you hold the phone after closing the app. If you hold the phone upright and open an app, it will open the app in landscape mode even though you're holding it vertical. It takes up to several seconds for the orientation sensor to come back on, recognize you're vertical, and rotate itself. This is annoying at best and can cause some serious lagging if the app is trying to do other things at the same time.
So what we need is a way to make the orientation sensor be active all the time again. No such option. So we'll trick it! Solution? TASKER!
Create a new profile in tasker, I called mine "Orientation Un-F&ck". Set the context for State > Orientation > Standing Up. It doesn't really matter what orientation you pick, we're just making it check the orientation. For tasks, it doesn't actually have to do anything so I made the task be Tasker > Stop. So it literally just does nothing.
So now tasker is always monitoring the display orientation. The phone doesn't give a crap why or what it does. It just knows something cares about orientation so the orientation sensor is active and doing its thing.
Result, when you back out of an app in landscape, and open an app in while vertical, it immediately switches to vertical. No delay.
I do not know what effect this will have on the battery. Probably nothing since no matter what you do, the orientation sensor is off when the display is off. Most people don't sit there staring at their home screen for hours so I anticipate no adverse effects on battery draw.

MCL1981 said:
I'm sure everyone has noticed that with 2.2, the orientation control blows. In previous versions, the orientation sensor was active anytime the display was on and it was quick. But now it is only active when an app using it is active. If you're on the home screen, the orientation sensor is not active. So, if you have the phone in landscape and back out to home, the orientation remains in landscape regardless of how you hold the phone after closing the app. If you hold the phone upright and open an app, it will open the app in landscape mode even though you're holding it vertical. It takes up to several seconds for the orientation sensor to come back on, recognize you're vertical, and rotate itself. This is annoying at best and can cause some serious lagging if the app is trying to do other things at the same time.
So what we need is a way to make the orientation sensor be active all the time again. No such option. So we'll trick it! Solution? TASKER!
Create a new profile in tasker, I called mine "Orientation Un-F&ck". Set the context for State > Orientation > Standing Up. It doesn't really matter what orientation you pick, we're just making it check the orientation. For tasks, it doesn't actually have to do anything so I made the task be Tasker > Stop. So it literally just does nothing.
So now tasker is always monitoring the display orientation. The phone doesn't give a crap why or what it does. It just knows something cares about orientation so the orientation sensor is active and doing its thing.
Result, when you back out of an app in landscape, and open an app in while vertical, it immediately switches to vertical. No delay.
I do not know what effect this will have on the battery. Probably nothing since no matter what you do, the orientation sensor is off when the display is off. Most people don't sit there staring at their home screen for hours so I anticipate no adverse effects on battery draw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I look at the home screen for about 10 hours a day everyday.
thanks

00_MACKIE_00 said:
I look at the home screen for about 10 hours a day everyday.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well there is nothing Tasker can do for you other than generate a timed pop-up that says "Get a life"

Related

Keyboard backlight sensor - buggy?

Hi Guys,
I have been playing with a Hermes for a day now in order to decide on using it or the Wizard. I am aware of the alignment and stylus grip issue, but is the keyboard backlight sensor iffy?
Until I turned off the sensor, I found that the keyboard backlight wouldn't always turn on at all, even with the phone in a completely dark room.
Apart from that, seems a nice phone (other historic issues nothwithstanding) and certainly faster and easier to use than the Wizard.
For info, my serial number starts HT640, which is much later than the others on the wiki (I have added it to the list) so maybe it's 'new an improved'?? We can but hope.
even in a dark room and you pull the keyboard out you still need to press a key on the keyboard before the backlight comes on...
johnk1973 said:
even in a dark room and you pull the keyboard out you still need to press a key on the keyboard before the backlight comes on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I know that - it doesn't work.
lighting issues
I've taken to holding my thumb completely over the sensor for a second or 2 and beginning to type, this usually activates it when it will not automatically light the pad (even in virtual darkness). Mine does seem a but sporadic, sometimes it works automatically, other times not.
Why not just disable the light sensor?
Settings > Personal > Buttons > Backlight
V
vijay555;1036692 said:
Why not just disable the light sensor?
Settings > Personal > Buttons > Backlight
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
umm..if you have to disable features, doesn't that defeat the purpose of having them?
I don't really consider the light sensor a feature, more an option. I think the blue backlight is cool, so like to keep it on all the time when I'm using the keyboard, daylight or no.
However, for the purposes of this thread, removing the potentially buggy sensor from the equation will help narrow down any problems, is it the lights, the phone, or the sensor that causes erratic behaviour.
Works fine for me though.
V

Backlight for touch-keys

Does anyone know how backlight is suppose to work for Home, Menu, Back and Search keys? Is it suppose to stay on as long as the screen backlight stays on or is it certain amount of time? What triggers them to come on- key press, screen touch, trackpad touch or all of the above? Mine don't seem to follow any rhyme or reason, at least I couldn't trace a pattern. I know that I was messing around with the phone last night in the dark and they would come on and go off as they pleased. Does light sensor have anything to do with it? Please sound off your findings and ideas.
Thanks!
Mine don't seem to follow any rhyme or reason either - it's a bit maddening. And the same goes for the backlight of the physical keyboard (sometimes it comes on, sometimes it doesn't - no telling why), and also the automatic adjustment of brightness (i use the phone for a minute and suddenly it gets super-bright).
Hopefully these are all just bugs that will be fixed with an OTA update, but it is weird and I'm glad to know it's not just my unit since I don't want to replace it (I got a solid hinge - good stuff!).
I think I figured it out. Backlight for touch keys is controlled by light sensor and also has a timer (few seconds), so if it's bright enough outside - they will not even come on. If it's dark - they come on and stay on for certain time then go off untill you press one of them again.
Now, the other thing that I'm noticing is that my haptic feedback is not working when pressing one of those buttons or long-pressing the screen. Anyone else has that problem?
I have used my phone primarily in the dark. All my lights are always on (when the screen is) and the auto-brightness is too bright. If I turn brightness to minimum, the always on lights are way too bright compared to the screen. I really wish the designers had tried to use this phone in the dark (laying in bed) and realized the auto-brightness and lights are too bright in pitch-dark!
Also I am getting real sick of rotation. On my G1 I could disable it completely unless the keyboard was out. I like to lay in bed or on a couch and use my phone sideways, but not rotated. This seems impossible to do on the G2. Disabling rotation doesn't do anything for 3rd party apps or even GMail for that matter. For some reason this was not the case on the G1.
It will be hard to go back to the G1's one-second+ lag after every press and the incredibly slow loading webpages now that I have experienced the G2, but there are too many really annoying problems, so I think it is getting sent back.
if you have your backlight set to automatic... it will cut on only if the room is dark... check your backlight settings
It's an issue with the way android uses the light sensor. It's very poorly coded.

Idea to avoid hitting power button every time you put phone away

I use a one minute screen timeout, which is a bit long for the screen to stay on every time you put it back in your pocket. It also gets a little annoying hitting the power button every time after I'm done using it, for example if I'm frequently taking it out and putting it away during a text conversation. So, I used Tasker to tell it to lock the screen every time the proximity sensor fires, combined with WidgetLocker set to its own 10 sec screen timeout. I also told it to NOT do this while on a phone call so the proximity sensor would just turn the screen off but not lock it like normal in that case. So this way, you can keep a longer normal screen timeout, put the phone back in your pocket, and the proximity sensor will fire, lock the screen, and the screen will turn off in 10 seconds. The only issue here is the occasional accidental proximity sensor activation, but it's not too frequent. I'd be curious if anyone else finds this useful.
The Tasker profile:
Context: Proximity Sensor
Task:
1. If %WIN !~ Phone (if not in the phone app)
2. WidgetLocker Cmd Activate (lock screen)
Detecting if the Phone app is open does require enabling the Tasker accessibility service in Settings -> Accessibility -> Accessibility services (check Tasker).
I would shoot someone in the face every time i went to pull down the notification bar and the screen locked :/
mrono said:
I would shoot someone in the face every time i went to pull down the notification bar and the screen locked :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You shouldn't have this issue really unless you frequently overshoot the top of the screen when going for the notification bar.
mrono said:
I would shoot someone in the face every time i went to pull down the notification bar and the screen locked :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
God i wish XDA had a "like" button
mrono said:
I would shoot someone in the face every time i went to pull down the notification bar and the screen locked :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I had a profile like this set up before, but abandoned in very quickly due to this issue. Every time I went near the sensor my screen shut off, no bueno.
Hey... This thing makes phone calls too!
JTNiggle said:
Yep, I had a profile like this set up before, but abandoned in very quickly due to this issue. Every time I went near the sensor my screen shut off, no bueno.
Hey... This thing makes phone calls too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make a timeout so the proximity sensor has to be activated for at least 3 seconds
initial said:
Make a timeout so the proximity sensor has to be activated for at least 3 seconds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good idea, works pretty nice, Thanks! Seems that 7 seconds is the minimum timeout allowed though, not that that's a problem, running it now. Unless there's is another way to do it that
I must recommend this setup for everyone now.
Context: Proximity Sensor
Task: Display Timeout = 7 Seconds
Handy for work/school too, I just lay my phone face down on my desk and the display takes care of itself.
JTNiggle said:
Good idea, works pretty nice, Thanks! Seems that 7 seconds is the minimum timeout allowed though, not that that's a problem, running it now. Unless there's is another way to do it that
I must recommend this setup for everyone now.
Context: Proximity Sensor
Task: Display Timeout = 7 Seconds
Handy for work/school too, I just lay my phone face down on my desk and the display takes care of itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, wouldn't that profile change the display timeout to 7 seconds, effective immediately when the proximity sensor activates? So you could accidentally activate it, not be aware, and then have the display suddenly go off on you 7 seconds later. I think what initial was saying was to make it so the proximity sensor itself must be active for at least 3 seconds before anything happens, THEN do what you wish - in my case, I don't actually change the display timeout at all, I just lock the screen with WidgetLocker, at which point a 10 second timeout is in effect from that app.
xdp said:
Actually, wouldn't that profile change the display timeout to 7 seconds, effective immediately when the proximity sensor activates? So you could accidentally activate it, not be aware, and then have the display suddenly go off on you 7 seconds later. I think what initial was saying was to make it so the proximity sensor itself must be active for at least 3 seconds before anything happens, THEN do what you wish - in my case, I don't actually change the display timeout at all, I just lock the screen with WidgetLocker, at which point a 10 second timeout is in effect from that app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true. The display timeout does change to 7 seconds. How would you set it so that the proximity sensor must be activated for a certain amount of time?
initial said:
Make a timeout so the proximity sensor has to be activated for at least 3 seconds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you do this in Tasker?
WillJitsu said:
How do you do this in Tasker?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't been able to figure it out, anyone?
WillJitsu said:
That's true. The display timeout does change to 7 seconds. How would you set it so that the proximity sensor must be activated for a certain amount of time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does just change the display timeout, but only while the proximity sensor is covered. So if you uncover it before 7 seconds, the display stays on like normal, works well for now until I learn some more about Tasker.
Hey guys, I think I figured out how to do this. It requires using variables. Basically, you set a "proximity sensor active" variable that you create to true when it's activated (the context enter task), and set it to false when it's deactivated (the context exit task). Then in the enter task, after setting that variable, you wait 3 seconds, and then test if the variable is still true. If it is that means the exit task has not executed which means the sensor is still active and your task can proceed. If it isn't that means the exit task did execute which means you uncovered the sensor before the 3 second wait time elapsed and so you don't want to proceed. It looks like this:
Context: Proximity Sensor
Enter Task:
1. Variable Set, Name %PROXACTIVE to 1
2. Wait 3 seconds
3. If %PROXACTIVE ~ 1
4. If %WIN !~ Phone
5. If %WIN !~ Voicemail
6. WidgetLocker Cmd Activate
Exit Task:
1. Variable Set, Name %PROXACTIVE to 0
This works fine for me using WidgetLocker, since I only need the task to continue executing after the 3 second wait time, but if you are trying to actually change the display timeout, you'll still have the issue of the value reverting once you uncover the sensor. To get around this, create a separate task that changes the value (Tasks button at the bottom, then New Task), and call this task from the enter task (Tasker -> Perform Task). This puts the action behind a sort of wall that makes your main task oblivious to the fact that it's setting a revertible value, and the value will stick even after you uncover the sensor. Of course, this also means your display timeout will now remain at 7 seconds, so you'll have to create another task to restore that value on screen unlock or something like that.
Let me know if you have any questions, this seems to work okay for me!

[Q] Auto dimming my car mounted Nexus 7

So I've been doing some general googling, and I haven't come across a good solution for my issue, so I thought I would post it here. Nexus 7 is mounted on the dash of my car. Powers on and powers off (deep sleep), connects to hotspot fine, generally, is working great. HOWEVER, there is one feature that I would love to be able to replicate from OEM in dash systems that I've seen. I would like the screen to dim when the unit isn't actively being used. Not time out and go to sleep, just dim (or maybe even turn off the LED backlight). Then, when I tap the screen, I want the screen to come back to automatic brightness mode based on the ambient light sensor. I've found plenty of apps that will turn the screen on or off with various gestures and such, but they all seem to require disabling or otherwise changing the way the ambient light sensor works. From those of you that use these in your car, I'm hoping that you have some suggestions. Thanks in advance.
bigdogbts said:
So I've been doing some general googling, and I haven't come across a good solution for my issue, so I thought I would post it here. Nexus 7 is mounted on the dash of my car. Powers on and powers off (deep sleep), connects to hotspot fine, generally, is working great. HOWEVER, there is one feature that I would love to be able to replicate from OEM in dash systems that I've seen. I would like the screen to dim when the unit isn't actively being used. Not time out and go to sleep, just dim (or maybe even turn off the LED backlight). Then, when I tap the screen, I want the screen to come back to automatic brightness mode based on the ambient light sensor. I've found plenty of apps that will turn the screen on or off with various gestures and such, but they all seem to require disabling or otherwise changing the way the ambient light sensor works. From those of you that use these in your car, I'm hoping that you have some suggestions. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, bigdogbts...
What you suggest certainly sounds feasible. I have no immediate solution, just some ideas/pointers.
Three pieces of software come to mind...
A Custom Launcher such as Apex or Nova. These give you a double tap gesture on the screen, which you can associate with some action to run... app, shortcut or 'activity'.
Lux Auto Brightness.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vito.lux
This is capable of reducing the screen brightness right down to zero, such that the device looks likes it's turned off.
Tasker.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm
An app which is capable of automating all sorts of things on an Android device. You can associate an action instigated by the the user with a desired objective. Unfortunately, it has a bit of a steep learning curve... I bought it myself a few months ago, and I still haven't got around to really fully understanding it.
I suspect that if you can 'associate' Lux Auto Brightness (set with some pre-arranged brightness settings, ie., a completely dark screen) with a specified action (like double tapping the screen) with either Apex or Nova launchers (via gesture) or possibly with Tasker, maybe via a script...then you may be able to accomplish your goal.
As I've said, I think that what you're asking sounds possible... it's just a case of finding the right apps, and 'stitching' them all together. And maybe with a bit of tinkering with the apps I've mentioned, you can, hopefully, get something that works,
Good luck.
Rgrds,
Ged.
I think tasker can do something like that.

auto rotate not working

Anyone else have this issue.
Does not work for me when using YouTube and wanting to switch from portrait to landscape.
Very frustrating
Just me then?
I'm sure you checked the auto-rotate is enabled.
On my side, I also have to manually press the full screen icon on YouTube app from time to time like 80% of the time, the rotation is automatic
Yes have it enabled. Have tried switching on and off as well as switching phone on and off.
I've noticed also now that if I'm looking at photos they do not rotate either
I'm having the same issue. I have reset the setting multiple times, restarted phone, and tested the gyroscope ability. It just doesn't auto rotate anymore & it's definitely annoying.

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