"It's Normal!" Steve Reviews the Sony Ericsson Walkman W960

[cirrus]

It could be my memory playing tricks on me, but I seem to remember being able to do this with a Nokia 6600 (which was S60 when it was still called Series 60! :P) and even a Panasonic X700.
(Note to self: Must try this out on old phones tonight!)

[slitchfield]

Maybe some phones can do this. But again, it's a completely pointless thing to do. Why would you ever turn a smartphone off at night? You lose all the benefits of the multitasking OS etc.

Getting out of the walkman app can also be done by pushing the walkman button.. Probably the fastest way. Push once, walkman starts and your hardware buttons work. Push again, walkman goes to background.

Erm...think I may be missing something here chaps. I see that a few people think it's weird to switch off your phone at night. I go to sleep at night and thus don't use my phone during this time. I switch OFF the phone so as not to deplete battery power.

I'm no eco warrior but surely things should be switched off when not in use??

Cirrus - Thanks for your input - yes you're correct I would like the alarm function to switch the phone ON from an OFF status. This is an extremely common function on every run-of-the-mill mobile phone. I have always used my phones as alarm clocks! Maybe this sounds silly to some of you but it's a great function!

I think perhaps you are all forgetting it's the little things that make a difference to the real practicality of a piece of technology. (The iPhone is a great example with its lack of flash and video capability.)

ps Slitchfield - what are these precious multitasking apps that need to run all night anyway? Are you an insomniac? Sleeping is a fun way to spend the night AND it's free (often with entertaining dreams...zzz) ;o)

Lee

"I have always used my phones as alarm clocks!"

Me too. OggPlay (a freeware music player for S60) is my alarm clock!
But it does require that a) the phone is left switched on and b) OggPlay is left running for it work.

[hduty]

"But it does require that a) the phone is left switched on and b) OggPlay is left running for it work."

Can you set a repeating alarm for certain days, or do you need to reset it every day?

[slitchfield]

Lee: the amount of battery power taken by a phone with inactive display and no radios working (i.e. flight mode overnight) is negligible. And no, I don't run apps all night. The point is that they're loaded in RAM, which means that when I want them in the morning, they appear instantly and I don't have to wait five seconds each while they start up, as I would if I'd turned the phone off. Not to mention the boot up time.

[60things]

Just now I tested it on my N80. It does sound the alarm even when it's switched off. After I selected 'Stop', I get a dialog: 'Switch on phone?'

[buster]

People find the weirdest things to complain about.

Why on earth would you buy a smartphone, choose to use it as an alarm clock (don't you have a real alarm clock?), but still insist on turning it off every night?

And anyway, even if you do this, it seems that the alarms sound anyway, so what's the problem?

Hi to those who replied, think I've learned a little bit about where you guys are coming from so it's not been a total loss throwing a line out here...seems everbody leaves their 'smart'phones on nowadays.

However Buster, my point was why put a 'wake up' alarm clock function on the phone in the first place that relies on the phone being switched on!), and what's with the 'smartphone' attitude, I bought it to replace a 'normal' phone so excuse my 'smartphone' ignorance. Perhaps at 35 I'm getting a bit of a technical dinosaur and am a bit 'old school' for all this.

"Me just like de look of de buttons and like dat musicy stuff duh! Ug!"

Thanks again for the ritual humiliation that is 'asking a reasonable question on the internet'
Lee the fat fingered useless old fashioned tw*t! (* can be either it's up to you)

[ares]

Steve, just tried the latest smartphone show h264 clip, and it works fine on my P1. I guess that is natural, because both the w960 and P1 share the same latest firmware organizer version

"Can you set a repeating alarm for certain days, or do you need to reset it every day?"

No it's just a simple daily alarm. It does have a snooze timer though.

"choose to use it as an alarm clock (don't you have a real alarm clock?)"

Real alarm clocks don't have all my songs stored on them. Why get woken up by some random music or DJ talking when you can be woken up by your favourite music?

slitchfield said "Why would you ever turn a smartphone off at night? You lose all the benefits of the multitasking OS etc."

i need some clarification on this please. are you also saying that using a task manager (in-built or 3rd party) to close running apps. is a pointless exercise as well?

if youve got loads of apps "running in the background" all the time isnt that just going to eat away at your battery life?

[slitchfield]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

slitchfield said "Why would you ever turn a smartphone off at night? You lose all the benefits of the multitasking OS etc."

i need some clarification on this please. are you also saying that using a task manager (in-built or 3rd party) to close running apps. is a pointless exercise as well?

if youve got loads of apps "running in the background" all the time isnt that just going to eat away at your battery life?

Nope. 'Running' means 'loaded into RAM', there's no implied loading of the processor. For well written apps like the built-ins, anyway 8-)

slitchfield said "And no, I don't run apps all night. The point is that they're loaded in RAM, which means that when I want them in the morning, they appear instantly and I don't have to wait five seconds each while they start up, as I would if I'd turned the phone off. Not to mention the boot up time."

apologies for being a bit slow but im not getting this. so do you use a task manager to close apps. or not? and if you do close apps this way does it mean they are no loger loaded in the ram?