[Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

Background: Every ones in a while and for some reason or the other, I find myself rummage around (often in the dark) after my phone. Nine times out of ten, I find it with the display facing down. This really starts to irritate me, especially when I put the phone in my pillowcase since I use the lovely Sleepanalyser or just put it really "away-away". Sometimes even that do any good, without any booze involved.

tl;dr. This raises some questions.
· Hardware hacks?
· Software hacks?

Hardware hacks : Well, this bit seem an easy one. However, how well executed.. oh time will tell. I ordered a some Ultra Green v10 Glow in the Dark Powder that I will mix with epoxy and err.. smear that glue err.. "around a bit". At first I thought about fill the Nokia letters, but since I always hated logos generally and as you all know, all to well about "certain recent events" have not made me less reluctant so to speak...

Software hacks : I guess one could ssh in the phone/call with skype/call it with another cell. But besides that I know next to nothing.

Is it even possible to monitor the mic, without draining the battery "in mere seconds" ?
It would be really nice to have some "Here boy *whistle*"-application.

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

I would like this one :D

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

What about bluetooth? There There should be a way to code something that you could launch at the when you go to sleep and that yould make the phone vibrate or ring when you press a button for example using a ps3 pad.

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

LOL
My wife and I both use a N900, would be nice if we can let one or the other ring at the push of a button: via wifi?

question (probably answered a 100 times at this forum): isn't Bluetooth very power hungry?
It used to be on my SE G900.

(btw don't own any game consoles…, I know, I know, I am ashamed)

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

Bluetooth is quite hungry for power, yes.

To answer your initial question though, use skype. I guess you are connected to a wifi-AP, otherwise I suppose you could install mumble or the like on a local server. There is also something that tickles the back of my brain, lets see later on if it pops out or not.

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

How about just a small glow-in-the-dark sticker? I bet a small one will be enough...

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

"There's an app for that!"

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

Not really. I leave it on all the time because I often use bluetooth headphones and it is a pain turning it off and on all the time. When on but not connected it doesn't use much power at all. When my N900 is left idle overnight with Bluetooth on it typically loses about 1% battery every 2 hours.

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

If you're always finding it laying around face down; perhaps tie a piece of buttered toast to the back of it?

http://www.paulromein.ca/blog/wp-con...ti-gravity.gif

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

hmm.. but maybe when you can't find your phone in the dark, you might try turning on the light..lol

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

Hahahaha!
I have activated the led pattern. So the led always blinks when phone is turned on!

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

Yep me too, doesn’t work when phone is upside down!
works fine though when right side is up!! Lol

To be more specific I would like a widget or something that lets the other phone make a noise.
(or explode or something)

yes I know I could just call the other phone but that costs money en is no fun.

Skype I have used to find the other phone. Takes a long time sometimes to make the connection.


Q: is it at all possible to connect the two phones without a router through wifi?.
This question at least answers any doubts about my level of knowledge about communication technologies. :confused:
If anyone wanted to know. :rolleyes:

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

whistle -- beep, beep application activated by proximity sensor
n900 have a mike and speaker but ... no app for that

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

Really? Where I am you don't get charged if the call isn't connected -- that is you don't get charged until the other end answers or it goes to answerphone. It is about 6 rings before my phone goes to answerphone, so I hang up after 5 and if necessary I can redial.


You can create an ad-hoc network (which is what Mobile Hotspot does), but you can't make the other phone connect, you have to create the network, then tell the other phone to connect. It might be possible to initiate a bluetooth network connection and have it automatically connect, but I'm not sure.

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

Sorry didn't think about that. Had a long day.

So this leaves us needing an other phone to find one. Still no fun, but works for me.
Would like that bluetooth or wifi widget though.
Although a mic/speaker solution would be the more advantageous one.

Back to the original question; what if there is only one? :)

btw. long live the internet, my spelling is a lot better than I ever managed at school.

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

If you don't mind keeping the camera lens cover open, I'm pretty much sure you can set the 'flash'/recording LEDs blink in some regular intervals just as the status LED does it on the front panel. Shouldn't chew the battery if the interval is sensible enough. Even if you keep the cover closed, white LEDs blinking will be pretty much visible in the dark.

This is probably the easiest and the most battery conserving method I can think of.

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

Reminds me of the story about the man (a drunk) and the street lamp:

A man came across a drunk looking under a street lamp one night. The drunk said he was looking for his keys which he had dropped. After helping him search unsuccessfully under the lamp he asked the drunk exactly where he had lost his keys. The drunk replied, 'Somewhere over there in the dark, but I can't see a thing over there so I'm looking under the light instead.'

If you can't find your N900 in the dark, you'll probably not find any other thing in the dark also - Nothing to do with the N900 or apps. Help yourself and do something with the lighting...maybe an emergency light or something. Don't worry that you can't find the N900 when it rings. You can still follow the sound and/or whatever light on the display in that total darkness will be visible (even upside down).

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

Very sweet indeed. ;) But I wondered if you want your wife beep your phone when she's boring. :D

I use bluetooth extensively(PAN at day, bluetooth stereo headphone at night, bluetooth keyboard occasionally), and from my experience bluetooth in N900 is much less power-hunger than in other phones.

For example, there's a nice little app in Android that shows you the accumulative power-usage by applications (that's one function I really miss in Android). I always find bluetooth device drew most power(It might due to a bug that might have been fixed in later Android anyway).

Therefore, I could hardly listen to music/radio with the bluetooth headphone and running heavy loading applications with Android all day. N900 is more power-efficient in this case.

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

I had similar problem plugging the USB charger into N900 in the dark. So I bought a little battery-powered tap lantern for minimium lighting. May be you could consider this option.

I wondered why you couldn't just call your phone in order to locate it? You must have a good reason, like switching N900 into slient non-vibration mode at night. I also have a cronjob to silent the phone at night.

In this case, you may consider buying one of those phone strap that glow with incoming calls. I've seen such radio-sensitive glowing sticker, but this is much harder to find.

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

you could set the alarm go off for every 2minutes so you would definetly know where your phone is? :D Or you could buy one of those whistle-beeb keyrings and put it on your n900's wristband thing's place (sry i don't know the correct english words for those. i hope you get the point ;) )

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

@danielpublic I just came across an interesting product when google for 'glowing': http://www.glopaint.com/.

This paint can glow for 12 years without needing to expose to light. It suits perfectly your need.

Now the only problem is that your N900 will always glowing. XD

Re: [Questions/Ideas] Finding a N900, wrong side up, in the dark.
 

Calling it seems the easiest way, but maybe the difficulty lies in not waking up anyone else. Maybe someone can figure out a way to trigger espeak via the microphone, as a voice command.

Plus, what fancy activities occur when needing the n900 at night in bed?