Database Info

Just got my XDA Exec - a few Qs

Well, I am typing this message from my new Exec, and I have to say on the whole I am impressed. I have a few questions though:
1) Specs say 1.3Megapixel camera, but I have the option of 2MP mode, is this normal? Is it a software resolution increase?
2) The phone sometimes loses all reception and never reconnects until i turn on flight mode and then off again. Anybody else experience this?
3) Can I get rid of the damned O2 Active part? when i change screen orientation, it takes longer than i expected to redraw the screen. I think this is due to the O2 UI.
4) Finally, there is a button on the side with a lightbulb beside it, what is it supposed to do? mine doesn't appear to do anything...
Allan

allanmb,
1) Had not seen that option. Just took a picture when in 2mp mode. Picture is 1600x1280! Nice find!
2) A number of people have reported problems with the phone. Mine is working fine, as far as I can tell, but look on the forum and TG for more info.
3) O2A - If you look in Programs, you will see an app called Install Type. This allows you to change your installation on-the-fly. Select Basic, and that gives you all the right settings but without the O2a rubbish. There was an addition to this posted on Tekguru, that stops the nag screen from coming up when you restart. Unfortunately I can't connect to TG at the moment, so I can't give you the link.
4) The button with the lightbulb. As far as I know, this is supposed to toggle the screen backlight on\off. I think it only works on battery, though I have to admit that I haven't tried this.

Thanks for the reply. A few additonal comments below:
1) Glad to be of help, the pics look good in 2MP mode too
2) I may have found something by mistake. I have switched my phone band from auto to gsm. So far so good...
3) Excellent, its sooo much faster now! The O2A stuff is quite nice, but it is waaaay too slow. And I bet that is the reason we had to wait an extra few months for the hardware to come out!
4) I found some info in another thread: The button turns the backlight on if it has timed out. It doesnt turn off the backlight tho. A bit weird to have a button just to do this, but hey.

Thinking of getting O2 xda iq

I've currently got both an xda2 and an xda2i. I'm thinking of changing to the iq when its available ( I believe it a re-labelled tornado).
Has anyone else done this - changed from touch screen pda phone to a similar phone to the tornado and if so what do you think, pros and cons of each type.
Also which software works as add ons ( currently use tomtom5, sprite backup, pocketmax phonealarm to name a few).
Thanks in advance.

Hi petest!
I didn't switch to a tornado, but I got to play with one for a couple of days, and after being used to Pocket PC interface, and touch screen, the limited Smartphone platform seemed really annoying and frustrating.
Here are my impressions:
- Getting around start and options menus is a pain, since you can't scroll directly through the whole menu, but have to press 'more' to see the options that don't feet on screen.
- The file browser is also problematic, as you have to change views to see the files and you cant type a file name to get to it quickly.
- Typing is a problem since you only have the numeric key pad, even with T9 function. It makes the PPC on-screen keyboard look great.
- Finally, shutting down a program, to free up memory is a pain as well, if it doesn't have an exit option.
On the positive side:
- It is closer in size to a regular cellphone then most PDAs.
- The screen is protected, and not as vornable to scratches and various damage as a touch screen.
- The numeric keypad makes one hand usage easy.
Well that's my opinion, but as you might have noticed, the touch screen and the comfort it brings is a big issue for me, so I might be bias against Smartphones in general...

Thanks for the reply levenum.
Like yourself I find the touch screen good on the pdas and they're all I've used for the last 4 or 5 years so I'm used to the features of them.
It would be useful if I could borrow one (xda iq / imate sp5) for a couple of days to play with and see how i get on - I might just get one on a new contract and if i don't get on with it trade it in.
Thanks again.

*The* TyTN v1605 problems post...

Hi all,
Figured I should start a post with problems (in the quest for solutions).
I have had my v1605 from Vodafon for 3 days now and have found a few problems already. I have a replacement coming on Tue so will see what is fixed...
So far:
- keyboard back lights not working, matters not if the sensor is active or not. Vodafone replacing the unit as a result.
- some keys on the far right seem unsensitive - I keep missing O, P and L from my typing. The keys do work though...maybe it is just me.
- screen alignment wanders and as such I usually need to re-align the screen once a day or more. Seems always to drift left and slight lower than I am pressing.
- today screen items are locked and 'vodafoned', very annoying as I cannot show task list, owner info or lock status on the today screen. I hard reset the unit and reset it before the customisation happened and voila - the usual today screen items were back - but as a result I lost the vodafone dialer skin and the 3G symbol. I presume someone can ROM-hack to get rid of this restriction and look forward to it In fact, it would be perfect if the ONLY Vodafone customisations were the dialler skin, 3G symbol and theme.
- If you have a password set and hard-reset the unit it crashes when you are prompted for the password. Soft resetting it then skips the vodafone customisation.
- left softkey set to phone instead of calendar and no way to change it.
- no easy way to access Vodafone Live!
- camera quality pretty poor for a 2MP, no where near as good as the K750i for example. However, the K750i on its first firmware was pretty aweful too!
- when plugged into USB on computer - if you turn it off (so as just to charge) it will turn itself back on again shortly and commence another sync.
Other than these niggles, of which the today screen is the biggest for me, I love the TyTN. By far the best PDA/Phone I have owned to date!
So - over to you guys, does your v1605 have these issues or others, or none????
Rich

My slide out keyboard down't click into place on the left side the way the right does (and also the way the wizard does). It may not be a problem now but in the future, it may begin to wear and then it might affect the function of the keys??
Are they just swapping a unit for you or exchanging the whole package? How will you know if you get a brand new set? When I switched mine on, the call timers showed outgoing 40 seconds and incoming 45 seconds. I'm not sure if this is vodafone testing the units or it's not new.

Am told I am getting a brand new unit - will check call timers as they *should* be 0-0.
Just had a play with mine and I only feel a click on the right side of the keyboard too. Feels nice and solid once it is out though - not like the xda-mini-s which feels flimsy in comparison.
R

I do not see the "E" icon even in EDGE enabled areas. I even tried the HTC Wizard icon hack hack with no success:
http://www.htcwizardweb.net/node/191

'E' appears on my v1605
3G is awesome.

rakh1 said:
Just had a play with mine and I only feel a click on the right side of the keyboard too. Feels nice and solid once it is out though - not like the xda-mini-s which feels flimsy in comparison.
R
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats great! was a bit worried that mine was a faulty unit. It does feel solid when sliding. It was just the lack of the "click" that bugged me.
Anyone else who received their unit had timers showing calls made and received from it? Its probably vodafone testing it. The unit is too new for any refunds/refurbs to have been made.

- some keys on the far right seem unsensitive - I keep missing O, P and L from my typing. The keys do work though...maybe it is just me.
My unit has this issue and I hope my next unit which is a brand new replacement that comes on Tuesday doesn't have this issue. My unit it is only the O that has problem which is getting better over time. I called them and they was more than happy to get a brand new unit to get sent out just want a perfect working one in my 14 day period so fingers crossed will keep you updated.

xxnoelziexx said:
- some keys on the far right seem unsensitive - I keep missing O, P and L from my typing. The keys do work though...maybe it is just me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you also feel a click only on the right when you slide open the keyboard? Let us know how you get on with the new unit.

Don't feel no click at all. Will keep you all updated.

UPDATE:
New unit turned up - keyboard lights now work as expected.
Still only a right side click on the keybard - so it must just be the way it is.
Today items:
Fix posted here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=329204#329204
Hope that helps - Rich

Hi guys
Peter .. the guy that got his VPA Compact III two days after me as sent it back on the 14 day returns .... He was concerned about stability. He's always struggled to come to terms with WM stability which I can understand ... so he's off back to palm and blackberry.
From my point of view - I've had one hang during operations which still worries me (I left it at the today screen fine ... and 30 mins later I noticed backlight was completely off and it was utterly un responsive - wouldn't respond to incoming calls). It also hangs occassionally of soft reset or power on (from a complete power off). It usually comes up fine on a subsequent soft reset.
I'm waiting for HTC to call me back so I can raise this as a call. It seems to happen regardless of today plugins being active (I disabled all) - I have also rebuilt with 4 phases of Sprite Backup to restore from - and the problem hasn't gone away.
I suspect it is firmware / software as opposed to hardware .... fingers crossed.
Aside from that I love it as a device .... I just wish one of you guys that has one will let me know if you have had any hangs at all and where you see them.
My keyboard light works fine. It has to be in low light and you have to press a button before it activates - just opening the keyboard in low light doesn't activate it.
Occasionally I turn the device on and it starts in landscape mode and then switches to portrait ... odd .. because I didn't switch it off in landscape.
There is an odd moulding mark where the stylus comes out on the curved recessed part of the body (right hand side). I thought it may be a crack but I'm pretty sure it's just where the plastic moulding was finished before painting. If it's not cracked I'm not bothered.
You can change the WM5 softkeys with Tweaks2k2.
One thing to remember is that rather than use the phone executable, the device originally used a :MSC call. Once removed you can't put it back with Tweaks2k2. It's not an issue because a normal link to phone is fine. If you want Calendar ... then use Tweaks2k2 to change it.
My keyboard works fine ... no sticky keys. Peter had one or two on his.
Paul.

I just wish one of you guys that has one will let me know if you have had any hangs at all and where you see them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No hangs here yet.....using it a lot with skype, camera, etc...
My keyboard light works fine. It has to be in low light and you have to press a button before it activates - just opening the keyboard in low light doesn't activate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes - same here...
Occasionally I turn the device on and it starts in landscape mode and then switches to portrait ... odd .. because I didn't switch it off in landscape.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've not had this happen...
There is an odd moulding mark where the stylus comes out on the curved recessed part of the body
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here - but very feint....
Rich

Hi Rich
What are you running at the moment ?
I'm try to find out what is different between my build and yours so I can narrow down possible cause of hang.
Paul.

By the way ... my build is :
So far I have SBSH iLauncher, HandyMenu, HandSwitcher, Legato Mahjong, Billiard Master 3, Bubbleshooter, PDA Mill GameBox Classics, BeJewelled 2, 1-Calc, Phatnotes, PIEPlus, Avantgo, CO2005, Clearvue Office Pro, CPL6, FW2006, imov Messenger, NewsBreak, Resco Explorer (without the Resco Today Plugin) 5.40, Resco PhotoViewer, SBSH Pocket Breeze and Pocket Weather, Skype 2, Sprite 5.1, Tweaks2k2, PI2005, FlexMail 2.2, FlexWallet, Cabinstall, Cruxview - all installed on the MicroSD.
Aside from an apparent hang on startup last night which scared me .... I thought I'd need to hard reset but it eventually sorted itself out ... hopefully it is s/w related .... it's all going well. Did a video call with Peter last night which was fine ... first I've done and picture quality not great but usable.
3G is active and working very well. Switches mid call to 2.5g if signal drops to much, but you don't get a chattering issue (i.e. where it regularly switches between the two).
Drove from Hook to Kent with CPL6 and BT GPS yesterday and that was flawless.
Have four phases of Sprite Backup - Different levels of build - so I can decide how far back to go in the event of problems.
Circa 28 mg of program memory following sof reset
Circa 31 mg of storage memory
PB is loading PI Calendar / Tasks / Messaging / Phatnotes / Pocket Weather.

Can someone help me with my wifi problem please. I can get connected to my network ok but IE will not show any pages, it just says wrong settings. I am connected with good signal strengh and thought that i would be able to surf when on my own home network. Most of the time it serches gprs and 3g then shows the error. An idiots step through guide would be helpful. I have searched for hours but came up blank. I also need a walkthrough on how to configue vodafone MMS settings as I cant get that to work either. Customer services isnt much good as the dont really know this device yet. Thanks in advance.

Hey Paul,
I have only the followinig intalled over the base v1605:
skype2
PHM Registry Editor
Microsoft .NET CF 2.0
Aspecto Software WiFiFoFum
Handmark Monopoly
That's it......
Rich

new unit arrived and the sticking key issue is gone thank god. I hve a few things installed now and the phone is running great. I installed agile messenger beta a few minutes ago as no msn client is in the vodaphone rom and the phone looked like it crashed then a few moments later it signed into msn.
1 thing I have noticed is if I mute the volume so I get a x sign near the volune if I click around I.e start menu and click around the operating system I can hear a clicking noise. could someone else test this 4 me I am currently in a quiet room.
also noticed when using pie with keyboard slid out my view will sometimes change from landscape to portrait view and then back to normal which is strange. I am sure my faulty device did this whilst just using the operating system in general use. shed a bit of light to what I have just found is that I just put the phone down open on the case it comes with and the same thing happened it must have something to do with the magnetic metal in the case effecting the phone causing it to rotate lol well that's what I think.

No clicking sound when I mute mine. Haven't really played around with mine yet. Will install everything once I get my microsd card.
Does your phone's keyboard click into place when you slide it open and is it right side only or both? Also did you check your call timers? Are they zero or has calls been made before receiving it?

Just got my TyTN
and all i got was a lousy keyboard..
got the bad keys on my unit. Waiting for response from HTC distributor, but they halted all sales of it until resolved. There are a lot of phones with bad keyboard.
But apart from that it seems to work fine - like the Jasjar in a smaller package.
But I liked the keyboard on my I-mate k-jam a lot better.

My first one had a few keys that weren't great, t, del and spacebar. This one is good for the keyboard. But....my screen is loosing calibration all the time again which is why I was given a replacement. Moves so that it is totaly unusable! Is anyone else experiencing it? If you are not is it a Voadafone one or something else. I've told Vodafone that I'd like another one out of a different batch and they said that they will extend my exchange period for a couple of weeks until some new ones come in. Might call HTC to see if it is a known "feature". Other than that I'm still totally happy with the device and it is much better at memory handling thn the Exec ever was, It never seems to drop below 22mb of program memory after having opened and closed programs for a clouple of days. The exec would have dropped to 17 by the end of the first.
Phil

Screen Brightness hack?

hi guys,
just got my Dopod 838 pro(TyTN)...and I love it. however I notice the screen brightness is not as bright as my o2 atom. even with the brightness turned all the way up in the settings. however I noticed that when I press the camera button the screen brightness increases for a second (to the same as my atom). but the when I close the camera the screen dims back again. seeing this lets me know that the screen does have the capabilities to be turned brighter then is allowed through the settings. does anyone know a reg hack or a trick so that I can turn the screen brightness up? does everyone else notice that the screen brightness goes up when the camera button is pressed? or is this a hardware issue? thanks for the help guys!

I've not tried it on Hermes, but VJLumos II takes advantage of the extra brightness that occurs when the camera is enabled, to make a super brite screen. This works on the Magician, and can be enabled on the Universal but not disabled until soft reset (I've not been motivated to finish writing the Universal's version.)
If the Hermes exhibits this same characteristic, VJLumos II might work on it. Give it a go and let me know.
V

Hi Vijay555 yeah i was actually on your site and ive heard alot about VJLumos II. But I thought it was only compatible with the Magician. Do you think there is any risk of it Hard resteting my 838pro(Hermes)? Anything else i should know before installing it? Does it work 100% correct on the magician? Please let me know!
Thanks!

Works 100% on the Magician, and the active part works on the Universal.
Basically it mimicks the camera and causes it to be activated, causing the extra brightness.
I can't guarantee 100%, but say 99% that it can't hardreset your device (without having the device in front of me I can't say...)
It'll either work or not work, it shouldn't interact with anything else.
I'd be interested to get a Hermes rom dump at some point to see what it's like. It's a great piece of hardware, I'm wondering how to get one now I've jumped ship to the Mio!
V

yeah the hermes is great. Ok well i guess i will be the guinea pig and test it out on my device...haha i hope nothing happens. Ill install it in a few hours and let you know what happens. If i need to remove it will it just uninstall?
By the way is the a reg hack that can do this also?

There's no registry setting I know of that will do this, but there might well be; however, as I said, VJLumos does this by interacting with the hardware in an unexpected way, so it's unlikely to be replicated in the registry.
I think you can run VJLumos in stand alond mode, without installing (which will cause it to be enabled every time you switch on). Just run it in stand alone mode to test it out.
V

Hi all,
I'll also try with Wizard,should I or not?
Any effect on battery life. I mean is it more than max of hardware brightness

vijay555 said:
There's no registry setting I know of that will do this, but there might well be; however, as I said, VJLumos does this by interacting with the hardware in an unexpected way, so it's unlikely to be replicated in the registry.
I think you can run VJLumos in stand alond mode, without installing (which will cause it to be enabled every time you switch on). Just run it in stand alone mode to test it out.
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Vijay, what do you mean run it in stand alone mode?

fordcan: I'm sure that it doesn't work on the Wizard, if it did then I would have written VJCandela for it as well. Not right now, and not until I get a wizard in my hands (all you new Hermes guys, if you find yourself with a spare Wizard, I can give it a good home!)
phame: if you just double click on the VJLumosII icon, it'll enable superbrite once. If you click on the -install icon it will try to enable it every run.
Like I said, it's not written fully for WM5 yet, because I never used my Universal as my main phone, and frankly the screen was bright enough. The magician benefited from it, but hopefully any HTC phone that exhibits the curious camera loading/screen brighter thing might benefit from it.
However, for now, as I said, it's not fully debugged for WM5. But test it, and if it works, I'll try to make some time to fix it. The problem is that it will only work the first time, not every time you run it. Hopefully easily fixable.. But it won't do any damage.
I presume it will drain the battery faster, since screen is brighter, but if you use it in bursts or recharge daily, it shouldn't be an issue. I never used my Magician without it, and it was fine after 1 year.
V

vijay555 said:
fordcan: I'm sure that it doesn't work on the Wizard, if it did then I would have written VJCandela for it as well. Not right now, and not until I get a wizard in my hands (all you new Hermes guys, if you find yourself with a spare Wizard, I can give it a good home!)
Like I said, it's not written fully for WM5 yet, because I never used my Universal as my main phone, and frankly the screen was bright enough. The magician benefited from it, but hopefully any HTC phone that exhibits the curious camera loading/screen brighter thing might benefit from it.
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanx for the reply,
I a bit confused; you are telling "doesn't work on Wizard" and at the same time "any HTC phone that exhibits the curious camera loading/screen brighter thing might benefit from it " Wizard got this..
curiosity kill the cat :wink: Better try and see issue :idea:

fordcan:
Sorry, it might benefit from the technique, not necessarily this version.
Like VJCandela, I have to have a Wizard in my hands to experiment with the camera driver. It'll be easy to write once I've got the device in my hands, but I can't test it.
It shouldn't do any harm, since it'll probably just not be able to find the correct camera driver on the Wizard. But give it a go and tell me if it does anything.
I never knew that the Wizard has this screen brightening effect
V

Absolutely not working.. tells; "Can't load Superbrite Libraries!"
Anyway "Trying times are no time to quit trying"

Ok i downloaded the cab file, copied it to my memory card and executed the file. And it worked perfectly instantly the screen brightness went up. And it didnt seem to be causing any type of slow down or problems.
When i click the camera button i just get an error message which sais "the camera app is already in use". But luckliy no soft reset.
However i couldnt find how to turn it off. It doesnt show up in the list of "running programs"
so far the way i launched it was by just clicking in the icon. Can you please tell me how to do the "-install" thing you were talking about?
and how do i shut it off if i want to use th camera? At the moment i can only do a soft reset for it to turn off.
Thanks!

You should have a bunch of shorcuts installed in yor startmenu.
Launching VJLumosII with parameters -off will disable it, clicking -install will install it so it's run every time it's switched on.
However, I've not tested the -install option on WM5 so let me know if it works appopriately. I'll get around to reweriting it eventually.
V

i tried clicking the short cut to shut it off. But i get an error message saying something about the application being corrupt. So to diable it i still have to soft reset. Im scared to install the app in fears that the remove shortcut may not work
Also ive noticed the battery drains about 30% faster with the app running.
any ideas?

As I've said, it only half works on anything other then the Magician. I'll fix it sometime as a priority - I just got a Hermes, and have to say that the screen is a bit "meh", not as bright as a Mio 701 or Magician. Washed out colours and poorer viewing angle. Superbrite is necessary, not optional
V

I've just switched from a Prophet to Magician. Couldn't stand the slowness of WM5, especially with some big database software I use. The only thing I miss is the Prophet's screen brightness (OK, battery life was great too) so I was really pleased to find vjlumosII. The only downside I've run into is that it adds about 3 seconds to the power up time when I press the power button on my Jam. I've not seen this mentioned elsewhere. Is this a normal effect of the software?

Do you see the slowness on the Magician or the Prophet?
On my Magician I never noticed it.
I just wrote a new kinda app yesterday for low level hacking, and will see if I can apply this to VJLumos. Hopefully some new ish updates coming soon - however, I am using my time well I hope. I'm writing a new website, hence the slow progress on programming.
V

For the Hermes, see here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=279365
V

vjay
Vijay,
I've only used vjlumosII on the Magician. The Prophet is the first PDA/phone with a screen that was as bright as I'd want, so I never tried vjlumosII on it.
The delay on my JAM (the 128MB RAM version) is not subtle. It takes a full 3 sec for the phone to come on after you press the power button. The same thing happens if you push any other button to turn on the phone. There doesn't seem to be any delay in the phone coming on if it is awakened by recieving an incoming call. When I turn off vjlumosII the power up delay disappears.
Also the screen brightness initially doesn't come on at maximum. It takes another 2 seconds to boost up.
Thanks.
vijay555 said:
Do you see the slowness on the Magician or the Prophet?
On my Magician I never noticed it.
I just wrote a new kinda app yesterday for low level hacking, and will see if I can apply this to VJLumos. Hopefully some new ish updates coming soon - however, I am using my time well I hope. I'm writing a new website, hence the slow progress on programming.
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q] Any way to keep brightness down in camera?

Right, I've got a black One S with android 4.0.3 and sense 4, all like new (as it is). I don't fancy rooting it and don't really want to change from the HTC Rom, but the backlight in the camera annoys me. On the touch pro2 with the HTC stuff, I'm certain there was an option in settings to keep the screen backlight down when in the camera. On the Trophy that followed, I couldn't control it, because, let's face it, you can't control much in WP7. however, switching to the one S and android, I expected being able to keep the backlight down.
Why is this frustrating me? I don't like.being blinded by the viewfinder, and I don't want to kill the battery any more than I have to. So, is there a way to keep the phone's backlight down while in the HTC camera app?

Okay, now I know everyone has ignored this thread but I think I've discovered a way. So here's the setup:
HTC One S
System brightness set to lowest
A 4 digit screen-lock password
So I have the passcode set on the 15 minute max timeout, so, the phone locked itself, and I dragged the camera icon on the lockscreen into the ring. Naturally, despite being locked, it still allows use of the camera. Now, it may just be my eyes, but I'm certain I noticed a distance difference in brightness. That is, the screen seemed a lot dimmer when the camera app was being accessed from behind the lock rather than unlocked.

I think the brightness is ok lol
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium

AMOLED displays as the one in One S doesnt have backlights. But there is a mod that lowers the values when using auto brightness since the defaults are a bit high, not especially made for in-camera though. Check for it in Tweak Machine thread in apps and themes forums.

k1llacanon said:
I think the brightness is ok lol
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess most people aren't that fussed about the brightness, but the battery did seem to last a lot longer when recording 1080p video with the lower brightness.
frdd said:
AMOLED displays as the one in One S doesnt have backlights. But there is a mod that lowers the values when using auto brightness since the defaults are a bit high, not especially made for in-camera though. Check for it in Tweak Machine thread in apps and themes forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does that require root access? From what I can see it does, and I guess that too would be helpful for the majority, but my phone isn't rooted. Mainly because I like the HTC Sense camera interface so much

Yeah you must flash it from custom recovery so at least unlocked boot loader required. Why not try a sense based ROM? They all keep the awesome HTC camera and its snappiness

Unfortunately with the One S update I finally received last night bringing it up from Android 4.0.3 to 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1, HTC have now removed the incredibly helpful 'bug' of the brightness staying down in the camera if it is launched from the lockscreen with a password set. Thanks a lot HTC, you excell yourselves with stupidity once again.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium

Bump. Recording lectures is impossible due to HTC's stupidity. The 100% screen brightness not only kills the battery before lecture ends, but it's extremely distracting for people behind me (especially if room is dark during powerpoint presentations).
This has to be turned down. Ideally, once set up, the phone should be able to record video with the screen OFF. Or at least with brightness on min. Surely there's a mod or a hack for this?

curiousGeorge said:
Bump. Recording lectures is impossible due to HTC's stupidity. The 100% screen brightness not only kills the battery before lecture ends, but it's extremely distracting for people behind me (especially if room is dark during powerpoint presentations).
This has to be turned down. Ideally, once set up, the phone should be able to record video with the screen OFF. Or at least with brightness on min. Surely there's a mod or a hack for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi,
Firstly, I'm glad that I'm not alone in this. As you said, it is extremely frustrating as not only is the bright screen distracting for others and makes you look foolish, the battery hardly lasts any time at all. I contacted HTC to see if they could add a brightness slider, their customer support rep said the technical team would get in touch with me - they haven't.
However, on the positive side, I have found two apps which don't allow you to record with lower brightness, they up the ante to your other suggestion, having the screen off. I'd always assumed that cameras on phones couldn't work with the screen off because I thought the phone went into proper sleep. Turns out that the camera can stay active. There are many poor apps on Play, but I found two which offer free (very limited functionality, but allows you to check that the app works with your phone) versions and rather expensive pro versions. I tried both the free versions and liked the second one I tried so much that I bought it.
The first one I found was (I don't know why they assume people are using their cameras solely for nefarious purposes - some of us do have legitimate reasons and battery life concerns) 'Hidden Camera Spy Camera', Play link (Lite version link is in their description). This one worked ok, but took a while to configure and doesn't have the nicest interface. So I continued hunting and came across an even better app:
Secret Video Recorder Pro (Lite version listed at the side in the More by this Developer panel): This app is even more elegant. I tried the lite version and found that it worked well, so I then decided to buy the full version (apparently it's currently 50% off, but still pretty expensive - well worth it though). After going through the settings, I set it to use the rear camera and force HD recording. I then tapped the icon on the homescreen, it notified me and then just ran in the notification area. I then turned the screen off, whirled the phone around my room, turned the phone back on and tapped on the notification to stop it. I then checked the video and to my amazement, it had worked! (on an unrooted, still carrier locked, black One S running the latest official updated OS (Android 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1))
When I dragged the app into the fixed Sense homescreen dock, originally it displayed nothing, even after rebooting the phone. However, after Sense crashed and showed me a message saying Sense had crashed, it even worked from the lockscreen. If you have the 'Show icon' enabled in the SVR Preferences, you can then tell from the lockscreen that it is actually recording as you can see the icon in the notification bar.
I'm sorry for rambling on and on, but I think SVR just got into my top 5 apps of all time list as it is unbelievably flawless (apart from the price )

biggles1000 said:
hi,
Firstly, I'm glad that I'm not alone in this. As you said, it is extremely frustrating as not only is the bright screen distracting for others and makes you look foolish, the battery hardly lasts any time at all. I contacted HTC to see if they could add a brightness slider, their customer support rep said the technical team would get in touch with me - they haven't.
However, on the positive side, I have found two apps which don't allow you to record with lower brightness, they up the ante to your other suggestion, having the screen off. I'd always assumed that cameras on phones couldn't work with the screen off because I thought the phone went into proper sleep. Turns out that the camera can stay active. There are many poor apps on Play, but I found two which offer free (very limited functionality, but allows you to check that the app works with your phone) versions and rather expensive pro versions. I tried both the free versions and liked the second one I tried so much that I bought it.
The first one I found was (I don't know why they assume people are using their cameras solely for nefarious purposes - some of us do have legitimate reasons and battery life concerns) 'Hidden Camera Spy Camera', Play link (Lite version link is in their description). This one worked ok, but took a while to configure and doesn't have the nicest interface. So I continued hunting and came across an even better app:
Secret Video Recorder Pro (Lite version listed at the side in the More by this Developer panel): This app is even more elegant. I tried the lite version and found that it worked well, so I then decided to buy the full version (apparently it's currently 50% off, but still pretty expensive - well worth it though). After going through the settings, I set it to use the rear camera and force HD recording. I then tapped the icon on the homescreen, it notified me and then just ran in the notification area. I then turned the screen off, whirled the phone around my room, turned the phone back on and tapped on the notification to stop it. I then checked the video and to my amazement, it had worked! (on an unrooted, still carrier locked, black One S running the latest official updated OS (Android 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1))
When I dragged the app into the fixed Sense homescreen dock, originally it displayed nothing, even after rebooting the phone. However, after Sense crashed and showed me a message saying Sense had crashed, it even worked from the lockscreen. If you have the 'Show icon' enabled in the SVR Preferences, you can then tell from the lockscreen that it is actually recording as you can see the icon in the notification bar.
I'm sorry for rambling on and on, but I think SVR just got into my top 5 apps of all time list as it is unbelievably flawless (apart from the price )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't using SVR defeat your original purpose? It's not using the Sense camera, it's using it's own implementation? At that rate, any aftermarket camera should work and allow you to use default screen brightness.

el_smurfo said:
Doesn't using SVR defeat your original purpose? It's not using the Sense camera, it's using it's own implementation? At that rate, any aftermarket camera should work and allow you to use default screen brightness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, yes, it does. SVR is sort of a compromise for me at the moment as I can save battery life but I do miss out on all the Sense camera features. It would be great if HTC do actually listen to my request and implement it, given how simple a request it is, but they appear to be constantly so far ahead with all their development process that I doubt they'd include it in the the Android 4.1 release scheduled for this month
SVR is on one end of the scale of what I'd like to do with the camera (save the battery) and the Sense camera is on the other end (use the camera). Where I'd like HTC to place us is in the middle of those two, with the ability to use the Sense camera but in a power-efficient manner (such as being able to record a video but take stills at the same time, with the battery outlasting the meager storage space).