Guest midnight Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 HTC and the C500 can match it...... Don't ask me how we missed this (it's pretty obvious looking at pictures of the device), but announcements have just been made about the MPx220 having a light sensor that detects light conditions and determines whether or not to switch the keypad on or not. Well, not to be outdone, seems HTC have exactly the same thing in the C500 (circled in the picture below).... Now, this is pure specualtion on my part, but recently Microsoft invited along all of the major cellphone hardware manufacturers to a small get together to discuss not only the Windows Mobile OS, but also hardware innovations. Amongst the lineup of articles to discuss was improving battery life. Is this something we'll see as standard in all upcoming Microsoft Smartphones? I certainly hope so, but I ,for one, would also like to see them implementing backlight brightness depending on light conditions also.
Guest Monolithix [MVP] Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 Sounds cool. Are you sure that isn't just the mic though?
Guest nedge2k Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 Im pretty sure that's the mic to the left of it :P It looks like an led of somekind but there would be no point in it....so it must be a sensor. Cool :D
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 The mic is on the black part of the bottom edge, this is indeed the light sensor. Very cool :P P
Guest midnight Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 yup, absolutely sure, it is a light sensor :P
Guest lutzh Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 ...and here is the mpx220 sensor, that fulfills two things: relighting the keyboard after it dims and puting down the speaker in hands free mode once you put the phone back to your ear.... cheers, lutz
Guest Will Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 Would this sensor work with the camera? switching it to low light mode etc?
Guest Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 I posted a link to a Mobinaute (formerly Smartphony.org) article about this a couple of days ago but probably most people didn't see it as it's buried away in the C500 section. As well as the light sensor, it also mentions about a new T9 interface. Would be great if it brings it up to the standard of the Nokia implementation (although I won't hold my breath!). Google translated version Original French version
Guest midnight Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 will, hmmm, only prob with that is that the cemera and the sensor arent next to each other, so it may be dark on one side of the phone (covered by your hand or something), but light on the other side, of course thats easily fixed by having a light sensor on the camera side aswell :P
Guest midnight Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 ...and here is the mpx220 sensor, that fulfills two things: relighting the keyboard after it dims and puting down the speaker in hands free mode once you put the phone back to your ear.... cheers, lutz hmmm, just thinking, is that actually a good idea? i mean, say you want to move your phone while you are talking and you accidentally cover the sensor, or, just move into a darker room, it would suddenly switch from handsfree back to normal mode
Guest lutzh Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 ... i can't tell you if it is a good idea, but that's what they've done. to be honest: the light sensor is nice to have but nothing i've missed so far... cheers, lutz
Guest Twain Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 Dont know if im being stupid but surely thats not a very good place to put it as your quite likely to cover it with your hand so it will think its darker than it is, hopefully this has been thought about and tested, but i would have thought it could have been placed somewhere less likely to be covered.
Guest midnight Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 dunno, i tend to hold the phone from the back, and reach over with my thumb, i believe there is a delay so it should know the difference between being covered accidentally for a moment and proper darkness. It's only a small thing, but sometimes its these small things that prove some thought has been put into it.
Guest Will Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 all i can say is if a small sensor encourages this much debate.. these new phones are gunna rock!
Guest Simon Desser Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 The Nokia 7650 had these sensors 3 years ago and it was a pain in the arse! Anyway, a more important feature of the C500 which seems to have just emerged is voice dialling which can be activated from a BT headset / carkit! :P Posted from my SmartPhone in Paris!
Guest ferryrich Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 Almost as much a pain in the arse as repeated posts :wink: :P
Guest Cybertronic Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 The Nokia 7650 had these sensors 3 years ago and it was a pain in the arse! Anyway, a more important feature of the C500 which seems to have just emerged is voice dialling which can be activated from a BT headset / carkit! :P Posted from my SmartPhone in Paris! It also had another sensor which is called a proximity sensor, where it switches the loudspeaker function off when the 7650 is lifted to the ear 8)
Guest zabirp Posted August 3, 2004 Report Posted August 3, 2004 It also had another sensor which is called a proximity sensor, where it switches the loudspeaker function off when the 7650 is lifted to the ear 8) What Simon says is the proximity sensor. It's quite useless although useful for showing off. I think the 7650 proximity sensor wasn't affected by light, it switched from loudspeaker to normal when you move something to a close proximity of the sensor!!!
Guest nedge2k Posted August 4, 2004 Report Posted August 4, 2004 The problem with things like that is... here's the scenario: your in a club, important call comes in, you put the phone into speakerphone mode so you can hear it...but oh no, by placing it to your ear its switched back to normal, you cant hear sod all :D or same scenario but its so dark in the club that speakerphone wont activate...gayness :? As long as there's a reg hack for it im happy :P
Guest midnight Posted August 4, 2004 Report Posted August 4, 2004 nedge, dont panic, the c500 doesnt have such a feature, the sensor is only used for the keypad light :P
Guest RickDawson Posted August 4, 2004 Report Posted August 4, 2004 The problem with things like that is... here's the scenario: your in a club, important call comes in, you put the phone into speakerphone mode so you can hear it...but oh no, by placing it to your ear its switched back to normal, you cant hear sod all :D or same scenario but its so dark in the club that speakerphone wont activate...gayness :? As long as there's a reg hack for it im happy :P why a hack? I think it would be better if you could state the behaviour of sensors, through the profiles.
Guest nedge2k Posted August 5, 2004 Report Posted August 5, 2004 nedge, dont panic, the c500 doesnt have such a feature, the sensor is only used for the keypad light :D :P Phew...had me worried there :D/ @Rick Dawson: More fun with reg hacks :lol:
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted August 5, 2004 Report Posted August 5, 2004 There's a menu option to disable the sensor... P Posted from my SmartPhone!
Guest atonks Posted August 5, 2004 Report Posted August 5, 2004 hopefully this has been thought about and tested, Of course it has! HTC, MS & Orange are famous for thoroughly testing their Smartphones before releasing them into the marketplace :shock:
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