Docking: Droid on or off position all night

[expidia]

I searched and came across a thread that talked about using the Droid as a clock. I don't have a clock question . . .
When I owned Blackberries I always left them powered up and "on" all the time.
I had a docking cradle on my night table and BB had a nice feature where I could customize the settings once, put the BB in the cradle at night and all alerts were automatically silenced yet phone calls like an emergency call from a friend or a relative still came through. The screen went dark automatically when in the cradle or if I needed to see the clock, I could use different brightness levels.

I see there is an app in the market place for a docking cradle, but it looks pretty simplistic and only two screen brightness settings which the lowest is still too bright for my bedroom. Black is fine for me and I think there is a setting for that.

Do some of you turn your device completely off during the night or just silence it.
I wonder which is better for the life of the device? Leaving it on all night or turning it off while it's in the dock.
I know that would take a long time, but if I leave it powered up all the time and it breaks after 12 months it's going to cost me a $99 deductible for a refurb!

I remember when offices (before they had computers that went to sleep) used to always leave the computers on because turning electronics on and off (constant heating and cooling) was worse for the life of computer's electronic parts than it was to just leave them on all the time.

And does anyone know of an app that could give me similar choices as I had with my BB's like leaving the phone on all night, but silencing the audible alerts like messaging, texts and emails?

I know I can silence all, but I don't see a way to just get phone calls?
Thx

 

[livinglegend]

I'm in the same boat as you. I heard a program called Tasker might be suitable for our needs. I have yet to look into it, but as far as I understand it, we can program the phone to do things on certain actions (i.e. time of day/location/etc.)

So for you, you could program your phone to silence all alerts except for your phone calls at a certain time of night or if you dock it. Hope someone could verify this

 

[trifecta]

I turn off the mobile data when I go to bed. Nobody texts me in the middle of the night anyway,so all I will get is calls.

 

[Bob61]

Look for app named "Profile" from "noimjosh", it offers an option that when you either plug in or dock your device you can automatically change your profile to one that you customize. I have a profile named "Bed Time", that turns off all notifications except for phone and then only for calls that are in my whitelist. Other nice features to automatically set your phone profiles either time based rules or with click of the screen.

 

[digmydroidx]

I just started using an app called gentle alarm... Very customizable...even will move the clock display around the screen to eliminate burn in. Also you can set the notifications the way you want and when it cradles it will go to that profile automatically. I too was spoiled by the easy funtionality of the bb storm 2 it had much.better notification customizing. Give it a try its a free trial then cheap after that....oh and you can change the clock colors and brightness so it doesnt light up your room like the native desk dock app

Sent from my awesome Droid Charge

 

[expidia]

Thx for all those suggestions. I follow up on each and check them out. This is what's nice about free trials for apps.

Ya, I was worried about the stock clock face in the Cradle dock app as I have not seen it at night yet. It might still being to bright even on dim?

I remember back a few years ago when "At Home" was first to the market with an ipod dock that turned it into a clock radio. Problem was the units clock face would only go not that dim. it only had 2 positions . . . one position was like the Hollywood search lights and the other was like trying to fall asleep in front of a car with it's fog lights on). It lit up our bedroom like we were at a night game at Yankee Stadium hahaha

I taped a few layers of this black film that Limos use to darken their windows and then I couldn't see the time!

I finally returned it.

My wife flips out if she sees the tiniest red LED light on under our bedrooms flat screen. I wake up see that she puts a sock over it, so she can sleep. Gimme a break!

 

[delco714]

^ lmao. I put opaque tape over every little light from all my electronics in my room. I need it pitch black.