Symbian in Motion

SmartLight by PhonePhreak Software

This post is going to be short and sweet, just like the app. SmartLight by PhonePhreak Software (sorry for the handango link but the author does not appear to have a website) is a very useful utility that has been seeing a good amount of usage on my device lately. It performs only one function, but I’ve found it to be quite a useful function and I think that you guys will as well.

When running in the background, SmartLight will keep your device’s backlight on at all times on any screen other than standby. This means that while using an app or playing a game that involves some breaks in button-pushing, you no longer have to deal with the backlight going dim. It’s safe to say that we all have our backlight timeouts set relatively low in an effort to do everything we can to preserve every little bit of battery life. This great app allows you to keep the screen lit while reading/ watching/etc, but still take advantage of a short backlight timeout once you’re ready to let your device rest.

The app itself is wonderfully simple. So simple in fact that it doesn’t even include an icon! Once open, there are really only two options; hide the app and keep it running in the background (Options -> Hide), or exit the app to disable it.

I’ve been loving this app while using my browser, reading emails, reading long Jaikus and using a variety of different apps. It’s nice to not have to push a button every 15 seconds to bring the display brightness back up to full. The only complaint I’ve seen so far on forums is the lack of autostart support, but this of course is no longer an issue with any app thanks to the awesome free utility PowerBoot by Wireless Labs Technologies. I personally don’t autostart this app. Instead, I have it assigned to a hotkey using NStarter so I can quickly and easily enable/disable SmartLight any time I want from any screen.

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