[rcyphermd]

With my Kyocera 7135, someone created a program that automatically turns the back light after 30 seconds. The program works great. (There is also a button to push manually while using the phone to turn the back light off with the 7135)

[Fixup]

For some (stupid) reason, HS decided not to turn the screen off, but dim it as long as Treo is not sleeping. My Treo 300 is this way, so is the new Treo 600. I hate this to death. For example, the screen is only dimmed (not off) while I use Treo as a modem (why???) and this drinks battery. I'm an engineer and I know battery and backlight very well. The backlight always drains lots of battery even when it is at the lowest brightness. And, backlight life will be significantly decreased in dimmed mode.

[ChemEngr]

Originally posted by DrDoom
OK, just a few quick notes. The screen DOES dim after a few seconds. Also you can go into your settings, or preferences, or whatever and you CAN ADJUST the normal brightness of your screen. That way it will ALWAYS be dimmer and thus not such a drain on your battery. Finally what is the big deal? I have been reading these boards for six months now. The screen on the 300 never "went off" during a phone call either. I don't ever remember ANYONE saying this was a feature they needed or wanted. Geez, chill out.

I'm with you. The 300 behaved the same way. That way you can check how long you've been wasting time with your ... on the phone. Never was an issue with the 300 for me, why is it now? First they want a brighter screen, now they want a way to turn it off because it's too bright. America is the land of the free which makes us never satisfied.

[zosomagnus]

I hear what your saying Doom. I had the 300 and I never thought about the battery drain caused by the screen being on. But now we are supposed to be taking a step forward with the 600. I was on a call using my 600 for about an hour and I started looking at the bright screen being on for no reason. It is such an unneccesary waste of power. If PocketTunes can continue to play with the screen off, why can't the phone. All the commands for the phone can be implemented through the keyboard so I don't need to use the screen.
Can somebody write a program to fix this?

[ChemEngr]

Originally posted by Fixup
For some (stupid) reason, HS decided not to turn the screen off, but dim it as long as Treo is not sleeping. My Treo 300 is this way, so is the new Treo 600. I hate this to death. For example, the screen is only dimmed (not off) while I use Treo as a modem (why???) and this drinks battery. I'm an engineer and I know battery and backlight very well. The backlight always drains lots of battery even when it is at the lowest brightness. And, backlight life will be significantly decreased in dimmed mode.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the backlight does consume power. Hmmm - why do laptops turn of the display?
Same reason - takes power. No argument there. But if it's just dimmed, so what? Can you honestly tell me that you can run down the 600's battery in a day? Come on people - if your not happy with the unit... I have a lot to say about the 600's shortcomings, but if people accept things or other people for who or what they are then everybody would be happier. IMHO!!!

[hugopoole]

I agree with everyone that has a complaint, and I'd like to summarize them all with:

Why can't more of the controls/options/preferences
be presented in the same place, in a consistent way?

Why should we be checking this board to find out how to turn off the screen during a phonecall, or why is dimming of the (screen) backlight only done by keyboard, versus through software, and then why doesn't it persist when you turn the screen off and on again?

Finding the right place to change settings for various things, both on the 300 and the 600, is a bit of a treasure hunt.

Proposal for HS -- expose an API for 3rd party developers to not only get your settings, but to offer their options/controls/pref's into a master settings application in the System directory.

[Fixup]

Originally posted by ChemEngr
But if it's just dimmed, so what?

So why not turn it off?

[i] Can you honestly tell me that you can run down the 600's battery in a day?
[/B]

We are talking about portables and battery life does matter in every single second, not counted by day!

[tcjohnsson]

Originally posted by ChemEngr


Can you honestly tell me that you can run down the 600's battery in a day? Come on people - if your not happy with the unit... I have a lot to say about the 600's shortcomings, but if people accept things or other people for who or what they are then everybody would be happier. IMHO!!!

YES! I easily run my t600 down in a day. So far I've managed to run it down 3 out of 5 days (on work days). I'm often on the phone for 2-3 hours with work related stuff alone. By the end of just the work day, my battery is almost completely discharged. I easily rack up 7000-8000 mins/month. Yeah, I'm on the phone a lot - a ton more than most people but I bet at least 5% of t600 users use the phone for more than 3 or 4 hours a day. I guess your mentality is screw that 5%. It's "good enough" for everyone else.

The real problem here is that HS claims 5 hours on the CDMA phone. I am not getting anywhere near this and I highly doubt anyone else is either. (Some users "think" they are, but when you add up the minutes it's not so true). I did a test two days ago to prove this. I called one of my office lines from a fully charged t600 and left it off the hook (the minutes were free at that time). I then went to sleep. The next morning i could check when the t600 died by looking at the office call log display (it shows the duration of the call). It only lasted 3 hours and 14 minutes. That's 40% lower than HS specifications!!! Keep in mind the battery was 99% SOC before I did the test. If HS could allow the user to completely shut off the screen, I bet I could increase that talk time by 20-30%.

So it is not that we are complaining about little things that were inherent of the 300, it's just unacceptable that such a ridiculously simple thing could not be worked into a cutting edge device like this. The big selling point of the t600 is the battery life. Isn't this what HS has been bragging about??? If memory serves, HS wasn't bragging about this as being a major selling point in the 300. You would figure that HS would optimize the way the t600 consumes power and allow for longest runtime. Allowing the user to turn off the screen is a complete no-brainer.

[JTREOB]

a dimmed backlight will significantiy reduce backlight life? you gotta be joking.

I personally use a program that automatically dims my backlight from 8pm to 6am. when I turn it on its in dim mode.

for me that's all I need.

[gqlau]

Couldn't have said it better - thx tcjohnsson

[zosomagnus]

I thought that the screen lock button could have been used to turn off the screen while keeping the programs running. That was my impression based on some earlier specs of the Treo 600.

In another thread they determined that the screen lock button and the power button on the top do exactly the same thing. This I feel was a missed opportunity to add well needed functionality to the device.

[JTREOB]

I don't see were it's a big deal.

[bmacfarland]

I think I'm the only one that likes the screen being on. I need to be able to switch to speaker phone or switch between callers and yes, I could turn on and off the screen, but I'd rather just have a dimmed one, especially when I can dim with option-p, which I haven't tried yet.

[JakeE]

Originally posted by tcjohnsson


YES! I easily run my t600 down in a day. So far I've managed to run it down 3 out of 5 days (on work days). I'm often on the phone for 2-3 hours with work related stuff alone. By the end of just the work day, my battery is almost completely discharged. I easily rack up 7000-8000 mins/month. Yeah, I'm on the phone a lot - a ton more than most people but I bet at least 5% of t600 users use the phone for more than 3 or 4 hours a day. I guess your mentality is screw that 5%. It's "good enough" for everyone else.

The real problem here is that HS claims 5 hours on the CDMA phone. I am not getting anywhere near this and I highly doubt anyone else is either. (Some users "think" they are, but when you add up the minutes it's not so true). I did a test two days ago to prove this. I called one of my office lines from a fully charged t600 and left it off the hook (the minutes were free at that time). I then went to sleep. The next morning i could check when the t600 died by looking at the office call log display (it shows the duration of the call). It only lasted 3 hours and 14 minutes. That's 40% lower than HS specifications!!! Keep in mind the battery was 99% SOC before I did the test. If HS could allow the user to completely shut off the screen, I bet I could increase that talk time by 20-30%.

So it is not that we are complaining about little things that were inherent of the 300, it's just unacceptable that such a ridiculously simple thing could not be worked into a cutting edge device like this. The big selling point of the t600 is the battery life. Isn't this what HS has been bragging about??? If memory serves, HS wasn't bragging about this as being a major selling point in the 300. You would figure that HS would optimize the way the t600 consumes power and allow for longest runtime. Allowing the user to turn off the screen is a complete no-brainer.

tcjohnsson

You said "I easily rack up 7000-8000 mins/month."

I don't mean to pry or make you uncomfortable but I gotta ask what you do for a living that keeps you on the phone so long???

-----------------------------------------

Also, I agree. The Treo 600 backlight brightness is ridicuolous. Talking on the Treo at night in a car on the free way is like taliking into a flashlight!?!?!

There should be an auto-off prefernce setting that would allow you to hit any key when the backlighting is off to turn back on the light for 15 seconds. Or perhaps if you hit the center button of the 5 way nav it would turn back on the backlighting.

I also think it should have a prefernce so that the backlighting is not so bright at night. Maybe even and ambient light sensor like the iPaq has.


Jake

[ChemEngr]

Originally posted by bmacfarland
I think I'm the only one that likes the screen being on. I need to be able to switch to speaker phone or switch between callers and yes, I could turn on and off the screen, but I'd rather just have a dimmed one, especially when I can dim with option-p, which I haven't tried yet.

I thought Handspring was pretty smart for dimming the screen while on a call on the 300. Some people criticize when it was implemented on the 600. I guess it's not very smart this time.

[JakeE]

Originally posted by ChemEngr


I thought Handspring was pretty smart for dimming the screen while on a call on the 300. Some people criticize when it was implemented on the 600. I guess it's not very smart this time.

ChemEngr:

The screen on the Treo 600 is four times as bright as the Treo 300. Handspring should be aware of the signigicant increase.

It would be like having a car model that has a maximum speed of 100 miles an hour and then the same model the next year has a miximum speed of 400 miles an hour. You would need better safety featrues.

Jake

[ilovedessert]

i have not had a problem with the battery running down due to back light anyway! the battery lasts and last, far longer than they 1st said! and key gard can be easliy turned on and off! take care, jay

[ChemEngr]

Originally posted by JakeE




Also, I agree. The Treo 600 backlight brightness is ridicuolous. Talikin on the Treo at night in a car on the free way is like taliking into a flashlight!?!?!

There should be an auto-off prefernce setting that would allow you to hit any key when the backlighting is off to turn back on the light for 15 seconds.

Jake

So now the screen is too bright at night, right? So it's not bright enough in the daytime. Hey, why not a program that can predetermine the lighting conditions at the moment and control the backlight as needed. LOL

Sorry to be antagonistic today people.

[JakeE]

Originally posted by ilovedessert
i have not had a problem with the battery running down due to back light anyway! the battery lasts and last, far longer than they 1st said! and key gard can be easliy turned on and off! take care, jay

Dude, you are missing the point. The point is that the bright light is not only unsessasarily wasting energy but it is like having a bright flashlight pointed at your head from 2 inches away.

[JakeE]

Originally posted by ChemEngr


So now the screen is too bright at night, right? So it's not bright enough in the daytime. Hey, why not a program that can predetermine the lighting conditions at the moment and control the backlight as needed. LOL

Sorry to be antagostic today people.

Mr. Antogonisic:

I added to my post after I posted it the first time and said:

There should be an auto-off prefernce setting that would allow you to hit any key when the backlighting is off to turn back on the light for 15 seconds. Or perhaps if you hit the center button of the 5 way nav it would turn back on the backlighting.

I also think it should have a prefernce so that the backlighting is not so bright at night. Maybe even and ambient light sensor like the iPaq has.

Speaking of antagonism; There is a great quote that says:

"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our helper." —Anon

Jake