Bedside Application for Android

[crackertc]

I just released on the market the Bedside application for android mobile devices. Have been tested on a G1.

It's just a dimmed clock which doesn't let your screen to sleep. It also turns off all sound and vibration notifications except for calls, it vibrates when somebody calls you.
As you can see, this is a very very veeeeery simple application, I hope somebody finds it as useful as I do.

For more info go here:
http://www.danvelazco.com/2009/03/bedside.html

enjoy

EDIT:
so I updated Bedside. It now uses the last ring mode setting you had on the phone as the ring mode for a call. Everything else (gmail/emails/sms/anyOtherBackgroundNotificationApp) goes silently without waking you up at 5am (hate those emails from the bank!).

All of this goes on as long as you have the application open, it will not let the screen die, it will let it dim and serves great as a night clock.

Stock phone's alarm works great as well, no matter what the app does to all the other notifications.

It's VERY simple to use, before opening the app make sure you set the phone to the appropriate ring style you want if somebody calls, maybe set the alarm, then just open the app and sleep. The app has some preferences for 24-hour format, and some colors as well....

Extremely simple, but useful. Enjoy.

EDIT 2:
After my last post, I updated the app again.

New features are:
- Different Colors for Clock
- 24 Hours Format for Clock
- Ability to turn off screen instead of showing the clock, but keeps the program running in the background for nothing to sound except phone calls (and alarms of course).

My only upcoming update left to do soon is the ability to adjust brightness if the clock is showing.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[Loomis2]

I like it for it's simplicity. I haven't really had a chance to use it properly, but I'm positive it does what it says and it is sitting on my phone for when the need arises. Keep up the good work!

 

[crackertc]

Ok I have updated bedside once again.

New features:
- Loads Time format from system (phone's) time instead of an option
- Fonts for clock
- Colors for clock
- Screen dims after 5 seconds while bedside is running.
- Different clock preferences (use bedside with a clock and turn off notifications, use it as a screensaver clock (eats battery though!) and keeping notifications, or turn off screen completely while bedside runs and turns off notifications... Calls will come through using the last ring mode no matter what option is selected.


Use the phone's alarm, it works great no matter what option you have selected in Bedside, it just works.

Enjoy.

 

[Buckethead]

Nice app! I usually just turn my ringer off at night because it's a hassle to turn off the email/text notifications individually. One improvement I would suggest is to make the clock orientation configurable: it seems like it will do portrait and landscape based on the accelerometer but it would be nice if the landscape mode could be displayed upside-down, since the G1 will stand up if you balance it on the right side (the side with the camera button), making it more like an alarm clock.

 

[crackertc]

Nice app! I usually just turn my ringer off at night because it's a hassle to turn off the email/text notifications individually. One improvement I would suggest is to make the clock orientation configurable: it seems like it will do portrait and landscape based on the accelerometer but it would be nice if the landscape mode could be displayed upside-down, since the G1 will stand up if you balance it on the right side (the side with the camera button), making it more like an alarm clock.

Thank you! I totally understand what you are saying, and I agree with you, however, currently, the Android OS only allows screen orientation to be changed counter-clockwise. This is not a missing feature of Bedside, I will be happy to implement it (if needed) when the Android OS allows the screen to be rotated in any way possible.

Again, thank you and enjoy Bedside

Long time no posting here.

Bedside has been updated and it's now faster on rotation, supports Text-to-Speech by long pressing on the screen, brightness level can be changed by swipping up/down, etc. Check the market, look for Bedside.

These features are only found on the paid version. The free version is frozen and will only be updated in case that the SDK changes. This is a way for me to say "help! I lost my job not too long ago and I'm still looking...."

Thanks!

 

[GeoUSA]

Thanks for writing Bedside. It's one of several apps I have paid for and really like it as my "alarm clock." I already had a charger stand and was waiting for the right app. Screen rotation does function better now.

I leave the flashlight button on-screen and have not encountered any burn-in. Especially with the display dimmed to 10%, I don't anticipate any burn-in.

 

[crackertc]

Thanks for writing Bedside. It's one of several apps I have paid for and really like it as my "alarm clock." I already had a charger stand and was waiting for the right app. Screen rotation does function better now.

I leave the flashlight button on-screen and have not encountered any burn-in. Especially with the display dimmed to 10%, I don't anticipate any burn-in.

I'm glad you like it, I use a (really inexpensive!) stand as well that I got at innovation wednesday and it's great.

Thank you for the compliments, and yes, as you say, these type of lcd screens won't get burn-in damage that easy.

 

[fegriffith]

I love your app...this is the functionality the original OS should have had.

Any possibility of adding the ability to display weather like the original OS 2.0 version?

 

[crackertc]

Hmm yes, weather was supposed to be included in version 3.0, as well as calls whitelist.
I didnt make it on time for this past friday, and im still working on those features, as well as scheduled notifications, so you guys can use bedside at work as well.

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please email me to
velazcod+android [at] gmail

Thanks! Enjoy Bedside

 

[sidegate]

Hi

Good application. My one concern is the battery life. Since the current version pulls up the clock automatically when connected to AC power, there is little prospect of ever getting a full charge without having to go in and switch off the display each time. Did you consider having the night display appear only when connected to AC between certain times e.g (11 pm and 7am). Also, I'd suggest making the brightness full configurable - I found 10% still too bright - this would help charging as well.

Overall 8/10 for this one, not that you're looking for a grade...


....update. I have it charging at work now and it seems to be building up a charge okay. might have been one of the other applications pulling power. Anyway, some way of telling the application to have different functionality in sleeping and waking hours would be a great addition to a nice piece of programming....

 

[crackertc]

Hi

Good application. My one concern is the battery life. Since the current version pulls up the clock automatically when connected to AC power, there is little prospect of ever getting a full charge without having to go in and switch off the display each time. Did you consider having the night display appear only when connected to AC between certain times e.g (11 pm and 7am). Also, I'd suggest making the brightness full configurable - I found 10% still too bright - this would help charging as well.

Overall 8/10 for this one, not that you're looking for a grade...


....update. I have it charging at work now and it seems to be building up a charge okay. might have been one of the other applications pulling power. Anyway, some way of telling the application to have different functionality in sleeping and waking hours would be a great addition to a nice piece of programming....

Hi, no you shouldn't have a problem with the phone charging up, actually in version 3.0 I did some stuff so that it uses even less power, so you can actually use the app without being charged if you are taking a nap for a few minutes to an hour and you will barely see a difference in the battery life... still, I still recommend to charge the phone whenever possible since android itself consumes a lot of battery power and the current android phones don't have the "biggest" batteries ever.

I will definitely look into the different hours for the screen to be on/off. And as for the brightness, 10% is the lowest Android lets you do, user or developers, you can't go lower than that, when you do the screen goes completely off and you have to restart the phone, so that's a no no.

Since some people complained about the brightness, I implemented Alpha (Transparency) in the colors for the text, the lower the alpha the less bright it will be. You can mess a lot with the colors and alpha and get it to your desired settings. The worst part is that the current phones all use backlights in the screen (LED), so you keep seeing the backlight kinda bright, the only thing that would solve this is by getting a different phone with an OLED display, that don't use backlight.. The new Samsung Behold II will have an AMOLED screen, Bedside should look very cool on that phone.

Thanks

 

[sidegate]

I kinda like my G1, thanks, although some of these new phones do look nice.

One thing I noticed just now, my G1 was showing Bedside on the home screen. I pressed the Home button on my G1 to access another application. However when the screen eventually timed out again it didn't go back to Bedside, but rather a blank screen. Is there a setting to have it return to Bedside when the screen times out again?

 

[crackertc]

I kinda like my G1, thanks, although some of these new phones do look nice.

One thing I noticed just now, my G1 was showing Bedside on the home screen. I pressed the Home button on my G1 to access another application. However when the screen eventually timed out again it didn't go back to Bedside, but rather a blank screen. Is there a setting to have it return to Bedside when the screen times out again?

Lol, I don't like the Behold II either, I would stick to my G1 as well, I was just trying to point to you a current problem/solution with an example.

That's the default behavior of Android, if it was some other way it would confuse a lot of people. I could probably implement something that does that but you would have to go into Bedside and deactivate it manually through the menu or something.

 

[sidegate]

Lol, I don't like the Behold II either, I would stick to my G1 as well, I was just trying to point to you a current problem/solution with an example.

That's the default behavior of Android, if it was some other way it would confuse a lot of people. I could probably implement something that does that but you would have to go into Bedside and deactivate it manually through the menu or something.

Okay, I'll bear that in mind. I guess it wouldn't really be an issue at all if you added the setting that specified different behaviour for different times of the day.

Anyway, good luck with it...

 

[nathan118]

Just installed 3.0 on my new nexus one. Seems to work well for the most part. The automatic locking/unlocking seems iffy, but I decided not to use that. It does turn on automatically though when plugging in power. I'm a little weary of having the clock on every night day after day, so I'm just turning the clock transparency all the way to zero, and setting screen brightness at 10%....and I figure that can't do much harm.

But this does what nothing else I could find does. It silences EVERYTHING, sounds AND vibrations, except for phone calls. Everything else I tried could only silence notifications, but not turn off vibration. I don't want to hear anything at night, including vibrations.

Thanks for the awesome app Daniel. Looking forward to updates for 2.1 when google puts the SDK out.

 

[crackertc]

Just installed 3.0 on my new nexus one. Seems to work well for the most part. The automatic locking/unlocking seems iffy, but I decided not to use that. It does turn on automatically though when plugging in power. I'm a little weary of having the clock on every night day after day, so I'm just turning the clock transparency all the way to zero, and setting screen brightness at 10%....and I figure that can't do much harm.

But this does what nothing else I could find does. It silences EVERYTHING, sounds AND vibrations, except for phone calls. Everything else I tried could only silence notifications, but not turn off vibration. I don't want to hear anything at night, including vibrations.

Thanks for the awesome app Daniel. Looking forward to updates for 2.1 when google puts the SDK out.

Hi Nathan,

Yes, the auto-unlock feature kinda give out some problems on 2.0+, especially on 2.1, I also got a N1, so I'm trying my best to fix it (without having the SDK), it'd be nice to have the SDK tho, hopefully soon!

Thank you man!

 

[tnoaries]

Daniel - this is a great app and is already one of my favorites

A couple questions and comments.

1- I am using it on a Droid
2- I am using Red colored text set to the lowest brightness and it works really well for me at that setting. The alpha transparency is about 40 percent so can be set even lower.
3- Is there any way to turn off the four white lit buttons (back,menu, home, search) or make them dimmer? With the display set as mentioned, they stand out more than I would like.
4- I have the Extra Shortcut key set to pull up the Weather Bug which works great, too.
5- Is there a way to turn off notifications based on a time schedule? Or, is it just off when docked?

Again, thats for the great app!
Randy
Virginia Beach, VA

 

[dusthead]

i haven't even installed the app yet or seen the price, but it does sound like a very useful app. when i get my phone charged i'll be looking into it...the one idea i started to come up with is one that was mentioned already as i was reading the thread:

set hours that the "auto-on when docked" will function. of course, i charge my phone every night but also on the road in my car if i've used it a lot, or on off chances i forget to plug it in i have to bring my wall charger to work - etc etc. so i think (too) that a setting like that would be a good addition.

good job on the app and thanks for keeping up with it.

Edit: that is a VERY creative phone stand. nice find i'm going to try an get that.

 

[crackertc]

Daniel - this is a great app and is already one of my favorites

A couple questions and comments.

1- I am using it on a Droid
2- I am using Red colored text set to the lowest brightness and it works really well for me at that setting. The alpha transparency is about 40 percent so can be set even lower.
3- Is there any way to turn off the four white lit buttons (back,menu, home, search) or make them dimmer? With the display set as mentioned, they stand out more than I would like.
4- I have the Extra Shortcut key set to pull up the Weather Bug which works great, too.
5- Is there a way to turn off notifications based on a time schedule? Or, is it just off when docked?

Again, thats for the great app!
Randy
Virginia Beach, VA

Unfortunately, there isn't a way to turn those lights off, this is a bug in Android, and developers don't have control over it, I wish we had, it bugs me as well.

Please go to this link, and put a comment there to support the issue and have google fix it as soon as possible.
Issue 5853 - android - Softbuttons lights on the Droid stay on while charging - Project Hosting on Google Code

As for time-based notifications, I'm working on that

i haven't even installed the app yet or seen the price, but it does sound like a very useful app. when i get my phone charged i'll be looking into it...the one idea i started to come up with is one that was mentioned already as i was reading the thread:

set hours that the "auto-on when docked" will function. of course, i charge my phone every night but also on the road in my car if i've used it a lot, or on off chances i forget to plug it in i have to bring my wall charger to work - etc etc. so i think (too) that a setting like that would be a good addition.

good job on the app and thanks for keeping up with it.

Edit: that is a VERY creative phone stand. nice find i'm going to try an get that.

Hey, I'm glad you liked the app.

I'm working on those time-based notifications, I have some of it working but I want to make it perfect, very soon

 

[sheridan2000]

seems i can not even find the app on the market place...strange??

 

[jdbell2004]

it isnt for 1.5 so if your running a hero with 1.5 (like i am) it appears to be unavailable. need that 2.1!

 

[crackertc]

it isnt for 1.5 so if your running a hero with 1.5 (like i am) it appears to be unavailable. need that 2.1!

Yes, sorry about that, too many APIs I use on Bedside are only available on 1.6+

So yes, you guys need to get the 2.1 update SOON! :S

 

[tnoaries]

Unfortunately, there isn't a way to turn those lights off, this is a bug in Android, and developers don't have control over it, I wish we had, it bugs me as well.

Please go to this link, and put a comment there to support the issue and have google fix it as soon as possible.
Issue 5853 - android - Softbuttons lights on the Droid stay on while charging - Project Hosting on Google Code

As for time-based notifications, I'm working on that

Done. Again, thanks for working this great app!

 

[crackertc]

Done. Again, thanks for working this great app!

No problem, I want to push a quick update today or tomorrow to address some issues with 2.0+ devices (Dock, Lock screen, etc...), then I'll get back on finishing 3.1 which will include those new features I've been talking about.

Thanks guys

 

[cvam1985]

Hey cracker -

I'd love to use bedside but I am also on 1.5.... I thought I read on the facebook fan page that you uploaded an apk of an older version for 1.5 users....Is this not the case?