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Worried about using the Multimedia Dock every night

dragosca

Lurker
Dec 28, 2009
2
0
First of all, I love the Dock. It has replaced my nightstand clock ever since I bought it.

Two worries thought:
1. Although I use the dimmed version of the dock app, isn't having the phone's screen on 8 hours a day going to have a negative effect on it (burn in, progressive dimness over time)?
2. Considering that by using the phone like this I am practically recharging the battery every night, even if it's only at about 50% - am I hurting the battery in any way? I know there's no memory effect, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that it's not good to keep it at 100% for too long either.


Thanks.
 
Agree with Joe with a little bit of a different perspective maybe.

1) burn in is not an issue, but I believe that leaving the screen on all the time may shorten it's life. I put my Droid in the cradle every night (whether it needs a charge or not), but I also press the power button to shut off the display. The alarm clock still works, and I'm not looking at the screen anyway--I'm sleeping. :D

2) Yes, the battery does not have memory like the old rechargeables did, but these batteries do have a finite number of recharge cycles before they start to degrade. I accept this, continue to charge every night, recognizing that I'll have to buy a new battery later.

Cheers!
 
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Yeah, I think I agree with both of you guys:

1. Probably no burn-in, but you've got to think that screen has a certain lifespan in hours and when you're bringing usage time up from maybe half an hour a day in normal use to eight hours, you're going to have to take the consequences. On the other hand though, maybe it's not that important for a device that I'm going to have for two years anyway - until the next upgrade through Verizon.
2. Same thing about the battery, worst case scenario I replace the battery once, after a year of use.


Thanks.
 
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First of all, I love the Dock. It has replaced my nightstand clock ever since I bought it.

Two worries thought:
1. Although I use the dimmed version of the dock app, isn't having the phone's screen on 8 hours a day going to have a negative effect on it (burn in, progressive dimness over time)?
2. Considering that by using the phone like this I am practically recharging the battery every night, even if it's only at about 50% - am I hurting the battery in any way? I know there's no memory effect, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that it's not good to keep it at 100% for too long either.


Thanks.

Where can I get a copy of the dimmed ver of the dock app you speak of?
 
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Usually the backlight on lcd displays goes bad first, I've replaced the tube on a few 5+ year old laptops, but these have an LED backlight so it shouldn't wear out, even then they usually have led's soldered to a long strip thats replaceable.

The battery charger shuts off once the battery is charged so its not hurting it by "leaving it on the charger"
 
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These home docks are nearly impossible to find in the stores and are not even on the website. However, while talking to customer service about my bill, I asked when these would be available. Turns out they do have them in stock and free 2nd day shipping...I even got my 25% discount. So if you want one, just call customer service and you'll have it in two days.
 
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I usually just power my screen off at night. If I wake up and want to see the screen I just hit the camera button. It would be nice if it was possible to set a timeout for the screen maybe like 5 or 10 min.


Same here. I turn mine off at night, it's still too bright with the dim settings. They need to make it even more dimmer.
 
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No worries with the battery. Even with a life of a certain amount of charge cycle a charge cycle is considered from a dead state to 100% charge. So if you are only topping off the battery by only charging it 10%, you have to do that 10 times to equal one charge cycle.

This is right.. a charge cycle is just when you add up to 100% battery used, so battery isn't an issue and you probably won't need to replace it. As for the screen on all night, idk, but with mine i just press the power button to turn the screen off and only turn it back on when i really want to see the time. the alarm still works too.
 
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If you are rooted, you are in luck. There is an app called LEDs Hack. It will turn off those lights while docked in the settings.
Unfortunately it does not affect how bright it is ... not one iota (well, it must be at least an iota, but it sure don't seem like it).

You don't have to root to prove this to yourself. Put a piece of black electrical tape over those 4 lights/buttons and you will see the brightness of the room did not change at all. Put the phone in the dock beside you such that you can put your hand on the elec tape but yet not see the phone out of your peripheral vision (make sure it is dark and all lights in the room are off) - now pull off the elec tape. You will notice that the light you can see did not increase. :(
 
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