[sikpupi]

Hey Folks.

I can't program mobile apps worth a hoot so I figured I'd throw an idea out here for all you folks with mad skillz to evaluate.

I listen to music on my Storm whilst I work and I have it sitting in the charging pod on my desk with my headphones plugged in. After a minute, the screen blanks out. It'd be nice if there were some bouncing lines (like on a graphic equilizer or something) to go along with the songs I'm playing... just to show off the Storm's screen when co-workers roam past my cubicle.

I don't know if something like this could be integrated into the media player or not but I'm sure someone knows

Thanks folks!

(as an aside, if someone is REALLY creative then they could tie this in with the "Storm Nork" idea and have norks that jiggle to the music... or maybe have that as a selectable visual effect...)

[HannahsDaddy]

Yes, that is a good idea. I have been looking for something to program for the Storm and I might just give this one a shot.

[sikpupi]

Very cool! I'll help with testing if anyone would like - just PM me for my PIN and we can chat once you have something you're comfortable with throwing out for consumption.


Maybe I should download some stuff and try to knock the rust off my programming skills. What are they written in anyhow? Java or something?

Wonder if there's a version of CICS COBOL for the Blackberry... ::stabs self in head for even suggesting it::

[NFLBlitze1]

this sounds like a fantastic idea, even a screen saver type app would be pretty cool.

[sikpupi]

Yeah even a screen saver style would be cool

[freshgeardude]

I love the idea, I wish I knew how to type a script for it though

[aznheat]

will beta test visualizers

[delta_foxtrot2]

visualisers chew up a lot of CPU and if you keep the screen on it's a double whammy on the battery. Even if you keep it plugged in it may not get enough power to stay completely off battery, I'm only discussing the technical merits of such an idea but I don't think it's a very good one from that point of view.

[sikpupi]

Yup I can see where it'd be a real power hog. Is there a way for an application to detect if the unit is docked or not? (like a "horizontal and charging" status.. kinda like my mindset when I'm asleep..)

Even the old-style bouncy levels (like those 80s LED graphic equilizers) would be good. We don't need any of that trippy LSD fractal junk that Windoze Media Player throws out.

Not that it wouldn't be nice... but hey; I'm a simple lad with simple tastes

[delta_foxtrot2]

Yes, it's easy to get not only the battery status (ie charging, discharging) but to setup notification if anything changes, rather than polling for it, which would waste more CPU

Apart from the graphics, although the more fancy the more CPU too, there is a lack of hooks/APIs to hook into current levels, so you'd have to write your own MP3 decoder and playback code in java, to get this information, unless you can do some kind of internal loopback and processing on the audio signal I suppose, either way this would be very taxing on the hardware.