Should I do it?

[Stannis the Mannis]

Here's a new question: Does that little LED light around the power switch on the G2 glow steadily when there is a new message of some kind, and is the Motorola Active Display a similar feature?

If either of these phones do what I think this means, it seems a very attractive feature. I'm constantly picking up my phone and and turning it on/unlocking to see if any messages came in while I was in the other room or whatnot, almost neurotically and automatically doing so many times a day, and I see other people do this too.

But if a phone offers a small light that stayed on steadily for hours if need be -- not blinking, because that could be annoying -- that could be a huge thing. No more obessively checking the phone, but simply glancing over at it? Wonderful.

Is this how this feature actually works? Does iphone offer anything similar?

The back LED is only used when you unlock the screen and it stays solid when you're on a phone call, otherwise the front LED is used for notifications. However I believe the app Light Flow now supports the back LED, I'll try and test this for you.

 

[heycal]

The back LED is only used when you unlock the screen and it stays solid when you're on a phone call, otherwise the front LED is used for notifications. However I believe the app Light Flow now supports the back LED, I'll try and test this for you.

It only comes on when you unlock the phone? That seems like it would defeat the purpose of a having a notification like that one. But you say there is a one on front of the phone? That would be be fine, or even preferrable, I would think.

What I'm imagining as a useful feature is any sort of notficiation light or symbol you can see without having to unlock or touch the phone. Further investigation revealed that the MOTO X takes a step in this direction with the Active Display, which shows you both the time and what messages you might have just by taking the phone out of your pocket or picking it up. No unlocking necessary -- it just senses the movement and displays things for you. Looked pretty cool.