Color Changer for rooted Android 4.4+

I've released Color Changer for rooted Android 4.4 and higher devices, which remaps screen colors in all apps. There is a Free and a Pro version, but the Free version includes the red screen mode for night-vision preservation, so you don't need to buy the Pro version (unless you want some of the other modes--the Free version includes a trial of all the Pro features--or want to support my development efforts).

(There is currently no way to do this without root. Sorry!)

Even if you are going to purchase the Pro version, please try the Free version first to ensure compatibility.

Free version: Google Play; Amazon Appstore

Pro version: Google Play; Amazon Appstore

PerApp -- input method adjustment

My PerApp Android app which lets you have different settings (volume boost, CPU speed, screen timeout, etc.) for different apps has been updated to allow you to set different input methods for different apps on rooted devices. I'm posting this here, as some of you may be using my red Gingerbread keyboard with astronomy apps. If your device is rooted, you can now use PerApp to make that keyboard automatically come up for your astronomy apps.

GalacticNight 1.06

My night-mode (and other re-coloring) app for Galaxy S2/S3/Note now officially supports the Note 2 as of version 1.06. Source code is here.

Galactic Night released

I've released Galactic Night, my night mode app for rooted Samsung Galaxy S2, S3 and Note.

Samsung red mode

I am working on a better red night mode for rooted Samsung phones. The usual way to do red mode for rooted Android devices is to use ChainFire3D. However, ChainFire3D does red mode simply by dropping the green and blue components, and as psonice once pointed out to me, that's not the best way. After all, then, green and blue stuff on the screen is invisible.

The right way to do it is to combine the color components, using an RGB to grayscale conversion, and then use the red component.

I just managed to do it on my rooted Android 2.3 Epic 4G Touch using Samsung's MDNIE profiles (see screenshot) and some simple shell scripts. But I don't know if this will work on other Samsung phones, though I assume all Galaxy S2 family phones will work with my method.

A good rule of thumb is that a version of this hack should work on all rooted Samsung phones that have the Dynamic/Standard/Movie color mode switcher under Settings | Display | Screen mode.

If you want to help me with this project and have a rooted Samsung phone, there are some things you can do:

1. (Easy, and you can do it even if your phone isn't rooted.) Go to Settings | Display | Screen mode and see if you have Dynamic/Standard/Movie switch. Tell me (either by email or by commenting) which phone and OS version you have, whether it has the switch, and whether it has these three or some other modes there.
2. (A little more advanced and needs root.) Email me your /system/etc/mdnie_tune_movie_mode and /system/etc/mdnie_tune_ui_standard_mode files , also telling me which phone and OS version you have.

You can email me at arpruss at gmail dot com, with subject line "red".

The resulting switcher will be free and open source.

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.

Official release of Android keyboard with red night mode theme

Astronomy apps may change most of the screen to red, but they leave the keyboard alone.  If you have a rooted device, you can get ChainFire3D to fix this problem which provides a device-wide red screen mode, but for non-rooted devices, that isn't satisfactory.

To remedy this, there is my Android keyboard with red nightmode theme, now released here.