[APP][28/02/10]l3v5y ScreenSaver 0.04

[l3v5y]

ScreenSaver is a simple application that runs in the background. When the device is plugged in (ActiveSync or mains) it pops to the foreground and displays the time (more to come). To hide it, swipe down the screen, to close it, swipe up the screen (note, if OS < 6.5, tap minimizes, there's not close as yet). It uses your device settings for time (IE, 24 hour/AMPM/whatever) so there's nothing to change.

Requirements:

• WM6.5+ device (touchscreen only)
• 20kb storage, (up to) 200kb free RAM (on a WVGA device, so less on smaller resolutions) (up to) 2MB free RAM with wallpaper.

To do:

• Add a nice start menu icon (anyone fancy making one?)
• Add icons for notifications
• Possibly make it a lockscreeny like thing (
• Possibly add an image that gets slid down (rather than just hoping that will minimize it)
• Any suggestions?

Video on YouTube

Customisation:

Wallaper (REG_SZ, full path to image):
HKCU\Software\l3v5y\ScreenSaver\Wallpaper
Colours (REG_DWORD in COLORREF format (0x00bbggrr))

Notification text
HKCU\Software\l3v5y\ScreenSaver\Notifications

Date text
HKCU\Software\l3v5y\ScreenSaver\Date

Time text
HKCU\Software\l3v5y\ScreenSaver\Time

Slider colour
HKCU\Software\l3v5y\ScreenSaver\Slider

Fullscreen (REG_DWORD, 0 = disable, 1 = enable)
HKCU\Software\l3v5y\ApplicationFramework\l3v5yScreenSaver

Releases:
0.04
Now displays notifications about email, calls, SMS
Better handling of being in background
Now supports wallpapers

0.03
Non public release

0.02
Now displays a calendar as well as the clock
Adds a slider, and slidng animations
Stops doing stuff when not foreground window

0.01
First release, very basic ATM, just does a clock.

Download:
Linked in this post!

 

[l3v5y]

Reserved for me!

 

[Archer]

Nice idea mate. It would be nice to have a fully fledged "powered" screen like this. I'll keep an eye on this. It's always bugged me that screensavers aren't the norm on wm devices.

 

[l3v5y]

Nice idea mate. It would be nice to have a fully fledged "powered" screen like this. I'll keep an eye on this. It's always bugged me that screensavers aren't the norm on wm devices.

What do you mean by "powered" in this case? Keeping the device on?

I've added a few things in the beta I'm working on, but will aim to make it all customisable so you can switch things off...

• Date is now displayed (can be turned off)
• Slider to slide down the screen to hide (can be turned off)
• Basic support for email/text/stuff - it displays a few numbers in the top corner (can be turned off as well

 

[l3v5y]

To attempt to make this as lean as possible, I'm going to try and minimise the number of options there are...

1. Is a slider a good idea?
2. If yes, would it be best to have the clock slide with the slider, or be independent?
3. Should I support images, or just have block colour?
4. Where should the date go (if anywhere)? Attached to the time, at the top, where?
5. Where should notifications go?

If anyone vaguely interested in this can give me some feedback, I'll know what I'm aiming for!

 

[Archer]

1. Is a slider a good idea?
2. If yes, would it be best to have the clock slide with the slider, or be independent?
3. Should I support images, or just have block colour?
4. Where should the date go (if anywhere)? Attached to the time, at the top, where?
5. Where should notifications go?

I think a slider's a good idea, but then again, I can't really think of a better way of doing it, so it may just be the easiest for me to agree to! I like the idea of the whole screen sliding down with the swipe of my thumb, clock and notifications included.

I'd personally like to have the ability to select a wallpaper, or a solid colour of my choice, but if you want to keep it lean then that may be overkill.

Again, this is a personal choice, but I like the idea of the date under the clock, in a small font.

I like notifications at the top, but again, that's just me.

Maybe you could come up with some clever way of defining the layout in an xml file so that people could edit it - position, font size etc.. (or any old text/ini file).

Heh - have I just turned your simple idea into a massive app? I'm just greedy mate

Incidentally, when I said "powered" earlier, I meant externally powered. This would be perfect for me as I have my phone plugged into my PC at work, and usually turn the screen off. It would be nice to have something dedicated to looking good in those circumstances.

Hope this gives you some ideas anyway

 

[dwizzy130]

To attempt to make this as lean as possible, I'm going to try and minimise the number of options there are...

1. Is a slider a good idea?
2. If yes, would it be best to have the clock slide with the slider, or be independent?
3. Should I support images, or just have block colour?
4. Where should the date go (if anywhere)? Attached to the time, at the top, where?
5. Where should notifications go?

If anyone vaguely interested in this can give me some feedback, I'll know what I'm aiming for!

I'd say just make the clock slide up or down.
I personally like the simple black background.
Date attached to the clock (maybe under it,small)
Notifications could be in a sort of HTC Home layout under the clock and date with their respective icons next to them.
Here is a crappy little mock up I pushed out with PS:

Keep up the great work,


dwizzy130

 

[Kridek]

Hi,

You should look at the "Zune lock screen". You should fine good ideas about the unlock "slider"

 

[chriscsh]

maybe somthing like this (dockrunner from droid)

 

[l3v5y]

Updated!

It's now got a slider thing, and a pretty animation!

I'm now going to add email icons etc.

Anyone here any good with photoshop? Could do with a nicer icon, and three images for email, text and voicemail...

 

[hsmcd]

To attempt to make this as lean as possible, I'm going to try and minimise the number of options there are...

1. Is a slider a good idea?
2. If yes, would it be best to have the clock slide with the slider, or be independent?
3. Should I support images, or just have block colour?
4. Where should the date go (if anywhere)? Attached to the time, at the top, where?
5. Where should notifications go?

If anyone vaguely interested in this can give me some feedback, I'll know what I'm aiming for!

got an idea to share
Is it possible to do so? As in when you slide the bar down, the clock will sort of follow from the back (the clock does not stay in the bar like the one in the video). Then you quickly slide the bar up (without unlocking the phone), the clock will have a momentum kind of effect then only it bounds back to the bar. (personally it looks kind of cool and fun to play )

Oh yea, 1 more thing, is it possible to add some animation, eg. after unlocking the phone the notification bar or maybe the clock and date will "fly out" to the edge and vice versa when the phone is lock. (kind of like iPhone style animation )

cheers~

 

[kwill]

Loving the app lv...simple, elegant, and practical. All thats needed is there and I think going with simplicity like chrisch showed with the Droid dock screen is perfect. One question though, what the HE** did you do to your HD2 screen I dont even have on and it hurt to see it. lol!

Oh, I dont see a slider or sliding animations in the 2nd release. Am I missing something? As well, I've noticed if I have the device powered off and plug in, then sometimes just the lockscreen will stay up. Does it work best when the lock isnt enabled?

edit** after further testing, it does work best if the device is already awake and unlocked. It doesnt activate when I have the device locked.

 

[hsmcd]

Loving the app lv...simple, elegant, and practical. All thats needed is there and I think going with simplicity like chrisch showed with the Droid dock screen is perfect. One question though, what the HE** did you do to your HD2 screen I dont even have on and it hurt to see it. lol!

Have a read here...
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=11279

ouch!!!

 

[kwill]

Have a read here...
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=11279

ouch!!!

DAAAMMMNNNN!! Only words to express it

 

[Raudi1]

I like the idea of keeping it simple. For more functions there are plenty of lockscreens.
Just 2 things that could be improved in my opinion:
1. Make the clock bigger and and let there be more contrast between font and background( When you look at th screen in a too big angle you can only see a gray bar on a black screen, but no time)
2. Option to turn the screen off after a few minutes

One more thing:
On my Blackstone there is no problem because under the screen is no edge, but especially on some older models it could be difficult to reach the bottom with the slider. You just have to make it minimize when the bottom slider is touching the bottom of the screen so it should be really easy to implement it but it will save you from some complains .

edit:
Just now I noticed that I miss another thing that you normally want to know when you charge your phone: Battery
Since this app starts when the device is charging it should definitely contain a battery indicator where you can see hom many % battery you have.

 

[krazy_about_technology]

I think keeping the screen simple is a good idea. Just keep displaying a bar with time and date, email+text messages+missed call counters as well as an alert symbol, if there is a notification from calender or clock. A good idea will be to keep this "bar of information" moving at random locations on the screen.

Keeping the screen black is specially a great idea for phones like Omnia II with AMOLED screens as these phones shut down all the pixels that are to be rendered pure black and that saves a lot of power. For regular LCD's this is not the case though.

 

[goldenhero]

l3v5ys

Dear l3v5ys,

first thanks alot, i have my own suggestion...

i think if we make the screen save more graphical that would be awesome. and more prodcutive or informative.
and i guess the screen saver should iformative about the battery ???

how to make the screen saver work when you plug in the device, because it works for me just when i click in the icon in the start menu, that mean every time i should do that ? ? ?

 

[iky10]

brilliant app...minimalistic approach keep it up..

 

[Raudi1]

@ goldenhero:
You just have to start the program once and after you have done that it will automatically launch when you plug the usb in.

I guess an autostart option wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[goldenhero]

Bug

Device : omnia i900

when you plug the device , first time it took, 3-4 secound for the screenSaver to appear, and once you slide the clock to unlock, and plug again it dose not work again alone, i should relunch the relaunche the program, any i deas...

thanks for the program and the idea .....

honestly i like the slide clock to unlock it is nice but can we improve the touch in this small app ? .....