Gaining further control of your screen's on/off settings (Homebrew) 15
Welcome to "Homebrew Week" for PreCentral's Tip of the day. We will be focusing on some simple Homebrew apps, patches or hacks that will help you add some key functionality to your phone. No advanced knowledge is necessary, as long as you know how to use webOS Quick Install and Preware.
While the touchstone is an amazing and convenient accessory for your webOS device, you may have noticed that there is no way to actually turn off the lock screen with the clock when your phone is on the touchstone. This may be a nice feature during the day, it also acts as an often unwanted night-light. Or on the flip side, what if you want to keep your screen always on and not go to the lock screen, such as in situations where you are following directions on Google Maps. Luckily, Homebrew has some simple solutions for you. Keep reading after the break to learn how
To turn off the screen entirely while on the touchstone, simply download Bightness Unlinked (by developer Zinge) from Preware, launch the app, and toggle the "Turn off instead of locking screen" option to "ON". Just as advertised, instead of showing the lock screen while on the touchstone, the screen will now turn off. This app will also allow you to separate the screen brightness setting and the keyboard brightness setting for your phone, so you can keep the screen brightness real low, but have the keyboard shine it all its glory. Note that the app has to be running for this to work, but you have the option of using either the dashboard notification or keeping the card open (you do not need to do both)
For situations where you want to keep the screen on and not go to the lock screen, NoDoze (from developer gpfountz) is the perfect solution because you can quickly activate or deactivate the "Screen always on" option to prevent the screen from turning off. As you can see, the app also gives you some additional details about your WIFI, WAN or Bluetooth connections, in case you were interested. As for keeping the screen always on, there are other options, such as Jason Robitaille's "No Auto-Off while charging" patch (available in Preware), but Nodoze is the simplest option.
15 Comments
(Brightness Unlinked) It would have been awesome if there wasn't any app running in the background... We all know how battery life sucks on smartphones. ^_^
Well, I have a different and better solution without running any app in the background. I use Mode Switcher, with the available patches installed. I have made a default mode profile. The I added a setting for when the phone is on charger, and configured it to be off. Now everytime I place my Pre on my TS the screen goes off. A lot better when you're trying to sleep ;)
agreed that Mode Switcher is a great app that will allow you to gain some more control of your settings. But for these tips, we wanted to keep things simple, since MS can get fairly complex! but it's definitely an option if you wanted to go down that path
Yes, Mode Switcher all the way!
Another app that allows control of the screen while on the stone is Quick System Tasks (http://www.precentral.net/comment/reply/20284/126613). It has two controls:
No Sleep: which performs the same function as "NoDoze" and
Touchstone S.O.: The "S.O." means "screen off", and dose the same thing as the toggle in brightness unlinked.
What I like about QST is that you can easily switch between the settings based on where you're using the phone. So in the car I toggle "no sleep", but at night next to the bed, I want the screen to turn off. As well as lots of other settings.
That said, I prefer Mode Switcher to QST. Especially w/sconix' new patch to lock the keyboard brightness to 80. Mode Switcher just lets me configure everything I need by tapping a single item on the launcher.
is there a good non-complex instruction source for learning how to use Mode Switcher? I can't figure that darned thing out.
Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't, "Mode Switcher, with the available patches installed," mean that Mode Switcher is simply booted on Luna boot? You mention no background application running, but that patch sure makes it sound like Mode Switcher runs in the background...
How can I make the phone lock when /removed/ from the TS?
I'm keeping my Pre on the TS during the day and when I need to leave my desk I pick up the phone and put it in my pocket, always forgetting that it was just unlocked. Out of the times I pick it up to use instead of to bring with me it's much easier just to slide it open or drag the unlock circle.
I don't know of anyway of making that possible.. A patch maybe > I don't know of any though. You might wanna check preware. :-)
My simple solution to turn off the screen while on the TS dock is to lay that handy dandy little Palm Pre pouch that came with my phone on top of the screen while docked. Works like a charm! :)
A more elegant soulution would be a time sensitive option on any of these patches such that between 11:00 PM & 7:00 AM, while on the dock, the screen would turn off. All other times the clock display would stay on.
Hopefully webOS 2.0's exhibition settings will take care of that.
In the meantime, if anybody gets the bright idea to nab my pouch display off idea, I've already filed for a patent. ;)
There is a patch to not run brightness unlinked in the background. It works great for me!
Being able to turn the brightness down even more would be nice...on the Pre and the iPad. Not sure why it is so hard to get mobile devices to help us save power the way both of my old Treos did.
there's a patch to let the minimum brightness go to 00
I like NoDoze, easy easy easy
Is there a way to get the "Touchstone standby screen" in regular mode? I don't really want to always push the power button or slide up my phone to wake it up, but don't want to let it completely unlocked either.