Symbian in Motion

Flip Silent Updated to Version 1.02 (Saves Battery Life!)

Flip Silent, the awesome app that I spoke about in an earlier post, has just received a very important update. For those who missed it, Flip Silent makes use of the accelerometer allowing you to silence your ringer by simply rotating your phone face-down (like the S60 Touch demo video). Version 1.01 was great as we all know, giving us a good amount of flexibility and control over operation. Version 1.02 adds two simple change log entries but they make a huge impact on the app.

1. Save Battery Power: you can activate the sensor when a call coming in!
2. Full control of switch between profiles, both flip over and flip back!

As much as I enjoy this app, the older version was a battery hog. Typically when I wake up in the morning, my N95-3 has the same number of battery bars it had when I went to sleep. With v1.01 of Flip Silent running, I would lose 4-5 bars! That’s a bit much and I suggested to the author (as I’m sure many did) that he enable a sleep mode where the app sensor “awakens” only when activity is detected.

Version 1.02 brings us half way there. Flip Silent can now be configured to “go to sleep”, and the difference in battery life is hugely apparent. The new problem however is that only incoming calls wake it up. This means that when an incoming call rings through you can flip your phone over to silence it, but later when you turn your device face-up again it remains in silent mode. Any activity, even simply sliding your device open / unlocking it should re-enable Flip Silent and once it senses that the device is not face-down it should revert to the profile (as configured) and go back to sleep until another incoming call wakes it up.

Rest assured, this functionality will be added in upcoming versions. Developer Tong Ren is really making a splash with this app and each new version brings further refinement. If you have ideas for Ren, make sure you leave a comment for him!

Get the latest version of Flip Silent

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