Screen dimming application?

[Guest m4rcus]

Hi,

I did for a breif time have a Treo 600, after Orange upgraded it as I kept having problems with my e100... While I was playing with that phone there was an app that would automatically turn the screen to a dimmer setting based on what time of day it was. Can someone come up with one for the c500? It could be linked into the auto keys lights. The Treo 600 also had a button you could press, so maybe even an app that you could assign to a shortcut key might be good... or am I the only one that finds the screen too bight when it's very dark?

M

[Guest Exploited]

My car battery was dead when I left work tonight and I needed a light to correctly fix the starter-cables...lucky I had my SPV C500 with me. :)

Yes, it is bright...VERY bright. That's why I really like Mobipocket Reader and Tiny eBook Reader as they let you set the colors of the screen so that you can read easily in bed (without keeping your better half awake).

I also used my Treo before and used to set the light to minimal when reading eBooks on it in bed.

Would be nice to have some way to reduce the backlight on the SPV C500 as well...

[Guest m4rcus]

Anybody?

[Guest Toyota-F1.com]

I would really like this too - a dimming application for maybe both the screen and the keypad - for my SPV3. :)

[Guest m4rcus]

I doubt the keys could be dimmed as they are small LEDs, that are either on or off...

[Guest olly_k]

not entirely true mate, LEDs by there very nature can be dimmed by varying current flowing (like a light bulb). This would not be possible in the case of a phone so you would have to write an app to Pulse Width Modulate (PWM) the LEDs, both keypad and screen leds.

I would have thought that the phone was certainly capable of this with the screen, but not sure about keyboard. There *may* also be hardware limitations but it is a great idea :)

[Guest phAn]

I would have thought that the phone was certainly capable of this with the screen, but not sure about keyboard. There *may* also be hardware limitations but it is a great idea :lol:

It's definately possible on mobiles. My good old siemens c35 dimmed the keypad lights and I've seen multiple nokia's do the same thing. I wonder if they use a special "dimmer-piece-o-hardware" for this. Also I wonder how it would effect battery life. Remember why they put a lightsensor on the c500 in the first place - they could have thought "let's not waste saved energy by enabling dimming keys" :)

A dimmer for the screen, that really would be convenient. I don't read that much (shame on me) but when playing snails in bed I get a real headache... and it's not because I'm losing. Man what a light is coming out of that thing =P

[Guest m4rcus]

Cool, finally some interest :)

I was thinking that if you could keep the screen on the dull setting that I have mine set to after 5 secs it would be great...

Come on, someone must be able to do it...... please.....

[Guest olly_k]

I wonder how it would effect battery life.

It would almost certainly (definately) save power.... When the display half dims on these phones (actually most displays these days) the leds are pulsed on and off, with the power off gap bigger than when at full brightness. This is called PWM. I would have thought this was hardware to save on precious processor resources but how 'hard' this function is wired is up to one of the clever chaps here to find out :)

[Guest SMYKUL]

I would also be interested in this, the other night i was walking home from a party and i got out my phone, me and my two mates were instantly blinded by the screen and one of them nearly walked into a lampost, not nice.

[Guest annab]

Same here. But I blinded myself coming out of a movie. I'd like to see this kind of app.

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

This has been asked about since the SPV was first release, that's

why we had the joke and the app called Torch.

I use mine as a torch at night to save waking up the house :)

[Guest BrAGoL]

also interested on this... :)

Posted from my SmartPhone!