[PATCH] Move PIN pad to top of lock screen

[Zob]

Ever accidentally called 911 while trying to unlock your phone? This patch moves the PIN pad to the top of the lock screen, away from the "Emergency Call" button. It is especially useful if you happen to have a PIN which contains one or more zeros.

Note that although it changes the behavior of the lock screen, technically it is a patch to the phone app. I've only tested it on 1.2.1 so far.

Edited to add: This patch is now available from Preware.

[Abyssul]

Or use http://forums.precentral.net/webos-p...on-number.html

[Zob]

The two patches should be complementary. One makes it less likely to hit the wrong button in the first place, the other makes it less annoying when you do hit it.

[Trekker]

Originally Posted by Zob

Ever accidentally called 911 while trying to unlock your phone? This patch moves the PIN pad to the top of the lock screen, away from the "Emergency Call" button. It is especially useful if you happen to have a PIN which contains one or more zeros.

The several times I accidentally called 911 wasn't when I was entering my PIN, it was when I pulled the phone off the touchstone. I'm guessing that one of my fingers accidentally hit the emergency button when I gripped the phone, so in that case your patch would not help.

I'm currently using Abyssul's patch which doesn't dial 911 automatically, you have to hit the emergency button and then enter 911 manually.

A suggestion for your patch....how about making the Emergency Call button much smaller and move it to closer to the middle of the screen bottom, so that gripping the phone on the edge would not accidentally cause the button to be pressed.

Nice to see different solutions for the same problem...people can choose what works better for them.

[Abyssul]

Originally Posted by Trekker

The several times I accidentally called 911 wasn't when I was entering my PIN, it was when I pulled the phone off the touchstone. I'm guessing that one of my fingers accidentally hit the emergency button when I gripped the phone, so in that case your patch would not help.

I'm currently using Abyssul's patch which doesn't dial 911 automatically, you have to hit the emergency button and then enter 911 manually.

A suggestion for your patch....how about making the Emergency Call button much smaller and move it to closer to the middle of the screen bottom, so that gripping the phone on the edge would not accidentally cause the button to be pressed.

Nice to see different solutions for the same problem...people can choose what works better for them.

Agreed. I couldn't have said it any better.

[Zob]

Originally Posted by Trekker

A suggestion for your patch....how about making the Emergency Call button much smaller and move it to closer to the middle of the screen bottom, so that gripping the phone on the edge would not accidentally cause the button to be pressed.

Interesting idea. I don't have a Touchstone (yet) so I'm not directly familiar with this particular problem. So when the phone is sitting on the charger, you aren't required to move up the yellow dot before getting to the unlock screen?

I tried to make this patch as minimal as possible. The above would require a bit more surgery but not too bad. There's an unused button to the left of the '0' that could be rewired to be the new "Cancel", which would make plenty of room to move the "Emergency Call" button over into the middle by itself.

Hmm...

[Trekker]

Originally Posted by Zob

Interesting idea. I don't have a Touchstone (yet) so I'm not directly familiar with this particular problem. So when the phone is sitting on the charger, you aren't required to move up the yellow dot before getting to the unlock screen?

Correct, although the lock symbol is displayed while the phone is on the touchstone, when you pull the phone off the touchstone, it then switches to the unlock screen without having to swipe the lock symbol.

[Zob]

Originally Posted by Trekker

Correct, although the lock symbol is displayed while the phone is on the touchstone, when you pull the phone off the touchstone, it then switches to the unlock screen without having to swipe the lock symbol.

Huh. That's pretty cool but also gratuitously different from what happens when you unplug the USB charger cable. Seems to me that both actions should take you to the same place, but whatever.

So the phone is sitting on the touchstone and you wrap your fingers around it to pick it up, and if you use your left hand then there's a good chance your thumb will be right smack on top of where the 911 button will appear as soon as the connection is broken and the lock screen appears. Yeah, I can see where that would be annoying. Okay, I'll noodle around a bit more and see if I can throw something together.

[Trekker]

Originally Posted by Zob

So the phone is sitting on the touchstone and you wrap your fingers around it to pick it up, and if you use your left hand then there's a good chance your thumb will be right smack on top of where the 911 button will appear as soon as the connection is broken and the lock screen appears.

I'm assuming that's what happens. I put my Pre on the touchstone horizontally and remove it with my left hand. One or more of my fingers grabs the phone in the left corner near the Emergency Call button.

You know, I've tried this over and over and honestly I don't see how I could be accidentally hitting the button, I'm just wondering if there's some type of glitch when removing the phone from the touchstone that intermittently causes the Pre to dial 911. I don't know, it's really strange. I've had the phone since day 1 - June 6th, the touchstone a week or two later and I've probably accidentally dialed 911 no more than 5 times. Luckily I was able to cancel it each time before connecting...at least I never got a call back.

[Zob]

FYI, I've decided to release the relocated "Emergency Call" button as a separate patch which should be available very soon.