ScreenDim 1.10 beta -- need testers

I apologize if this violates forum rules.

ScreenDim is my (paid) app for dimming the screen beyond standard OS settings. On OLED devices, it basically does what ScreenFilter does, but I think in a rather more friendly and useful manner, including pre-sets. (On LCD devices, it's much better than ScreenFilter, as it actually dims the backlight, thereby improving contrast and battery life.)

I just finished making a beta of ScreenDim 1.10. The main new feature is Easy Mode which combines the brightness and contrast sliders into one. Currently, Easy Mode only works on Galaxy S2 (including Epic 4G Touch and other versions) and Kindle Fire. You can toggle Easy Mode with Menu | Settings | Easy Mode.

I'd be grateful for any beta test results. To the first ten people who send me useful reports, I'll give give free copies of the paid ScreenDim 1.10 once it's released, as well as free copies of my LunarMap HD and Force2SD apps, if you want them. (Alas, I don't have a gift-code setup arranged, so the free copies won't auto-upgrade.)

deedscreen said:

If I've helped, I am interested in free paid versions of your apps... I believe that if you send a check in the mail after the person buys the app as reimbursement would be more easier than consistently updating via email. (Not to overstep you or anything, just a suggestion.)

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Great idea. I can send a paypal payment. I had someone do that for me when I tested their app, and I forgot that I could do it myself.

Bigt2003 said:

Looks good, except the plus button above the brightness slider doesn't work. I'll play with it tonight and let you know how it goes.

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When did you download? I think I fixed that problem around midnight last night and uploaded a version with that fixed. (But I forgot to mark a version number.)

chucky_93 said:

Nice app! Everything seems to be working, I just don't understand the "Active" action..I'm not sure what the purpose of it is.

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You mean the "Active" checkbox? That turns ScreenDim on and off.

ravizzle said:

Suggestions: have way to disable notification icon.

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Can't be done without sacrificing reliability. Unless you do something root-ish (and I really want this app to be non-root), the only way I know of keeping an app from being killed in low-memory situations is by using Service.startForeground(), but the OS requires a notification icon when you do that.

Also when not in easy mode the lowest you can go is 11.8 on both sliders. Not sure if that is design or a bug.

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If you want, you can make the brightness slider go down to 0.4% by using the "Set minimum brightness" menu option. But you will find that below 11.8%, the brightness stops changing, so there is no point to that, and that's why I set the default minimum for the Galaxy S2 series to 11.8%.

You could make contrast go below 11.8%, but the display would probably be dimmer than anybody wants (I am about the pickiest user in terms of darkness, because I am an amateur astronomer, and I don't want the device to destroy night vision), and the display quality would be low. Unfortunately, given how OLED devices work, at low brightness levels there are much fewer colors available.

Technical stuff in case anybody is curious:

The way Easy Mode works is that 30% on the Easy Mode slider is equivalent to 11.8% on the brightness slider and 100% on the contrast slider. When you go above 30% in Easy Mode, you're increasing brightness and keeping contrast at 100%. When you go below 30% in Easy Mode, brightness stays at 11.8%, and contrast goes down, hitting 11.8% when the Easy Mode slider is at 0%.

On LCD devices, the brightness slider controls the backlight and the contrast slider controls the white level (by drawing a gray rectangle over the screen). On OLED devices, both of them have a similar visual effect, namely they both reduce the intensity of the miniature LEDs that make up an OLED display. But at low brightness levels, you have fewer color intensities available on the physical display.

I just posted 1.10b (see link in original post) which fixes a few minor issues.

cnstarz said:

works as expected. only problem, and perhaps this is intentional, is that if you change the brightness in the android display settings (as oppoposed to the app), then it goes back to the standard android brightness scheme. in other words, the app and android settings dont seem to correlate with eachother? lemee try to give you an example...

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Right, the system settings partly override ScreenDim's brightness setting. I can't lock in the settings without root.

I found a bunch of bugs when using "Quick activate" and loading presets and changing settings starting from a disabled state. I fixed the ones I found in 1.10c (now up), but there may be others.