Thursday, December 22, 2011

ScreenDim and RootDim (formerly SuperDim) apps for Android

1. I put in the Android Market a new paid screen dimmer, ScreenDim, loosely based on my SuperDim code. ScreenDim allows you to dim your display below what the OS normally allows, does not need root, and does both backlight and contrast adjust (at least on backlit devices). (The contrast adjust function is visually like ScreenFilter functionality, but my testing suggests that ScreenFilter may slow down 2D rendering by 30%, while I haven't observed a significant slowdown with ScreenDim.) You still have profiles. But because this app is aimed at non-root users, I removed ChainFire3D integration as well as extra LED support (I may do something in the latter direction if there is an open API.) It will be interesting to see how ScreenDim does on OLED devices on which SuperDim didn't work. There is a free three day trial version.

2. I renamed SuperDim to RootDim to differentiate it from ScreenDim.

3. I have not abandoned RootDim/SuperDim. I uploaded a new version to the Market that should give better control over LEDs. You can, for instance, set the power LED to turn on when and only when charging, or when the device is on, or never, etc. I think there are still some bugs in this functionality, and the functionality does not turn on automatically after a reboot until the bugs are worked out. But it's a start.

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