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Sooo Light Flow doesn't work on the S3 and a few other issues.

S

SmilezzProper

Newbie
Well I've been indulged in my phone for the past 4 days now and while it's a definite upgrade from my Inspire, I'm disappointed in a few things.

1. The view before you snap a picture is AWFUL in low-light conditions. The Inspire also had an 8MP but the view seemed to be less grainy.

2. Just as I mentioned in another thread, some apps aren't compatible w/a lot of Samsung phone including the S3. For example Oovoo and I was actually excited to finally have and put my front camera to use. I'm not a huge fan of Skype but I guess I have no choice.

3. I've been dying to have the option of customizing my LED colors using LightFlow but it was a no go on my Inspire even though I'd purchased the app.
I've scanned some posts that suggested that LightFlow does indeed work on the S3 so I took the dive again. I customized the colors for different functions and apps, I activated it within "Accessibility" opened the app and then went into Tools and Settings to give LightFlow full control but when I went into "Testing Mode" the stock colors didn't even blink...even w/the screen off!! I was desperate for like 5 secs and even installed Blink...yeah no. If LightFlow does work and someone can give me step-by-step instructions, do share.

Last but not least. With such a good OS & features, you'd think that Samsung would consider that owners would be using the phone A LOT. Now I'm not getting texts and phone calls every 5 secs but I do have a lovely relationship w/Facebook. Basically, battery life is about the same. I unplugged the phone around 9 AM and I'm already at 66% 7 1/2 hours later.

I dimmed the screen, muted some system sounds, stopped haptic feedback and turned on Power Saver right out of the box. Reinstalled JuiceDefender Plus and Advanced Task Killer but I wouldn't say it dramatically increased my battery life, like some claim.

If you've had a better experience or suggestions, again, do share.
 
Lightflow works perfectly for me.. I think your setup steps seem fine.. I didn't have to do much other than check one or two buttons...

Your at almost 8hours at 66% and this isn't good enough for you? That means your getting over 21+hours on one charge.. I don't think that's bad at all.. I have been unplugged since 8am (9 hours) and I'm at 64% now... a little better, but u may just be using the phone more than me. I've never used another legitimate smartphone that has given me these kinda battery life..
How long were you expecting a full charge on a phone as powerful and with a screen this big to last honestly?
 
Also, i didnt notice you mentioned advanced task killer the first time reading your post. Everyone knows this app kills your battery more than it does anything good for it. I would probably suggest you uninstall it. This is just what i've read, so i've never installed it. But I cant say that i've experienced it first-hand.

My Camera is crystal clear in camera mode... maybe your settings arent defaulted properly. Or your lens is smudgy??? But I would definitely have to disagree with you on the whole grainy view comment.

Edit: sorry, i didnt realize you said "low light" but i still didnt see a noticeable difference coming from my previous 2 phones, iphone 4s and htc one x.
 
SmilezzProper said:
Last but not least. With such a good OS & features, you'd think that Samsung would consider that owners would be using the phone A LOT. Now I'm not getting texts and phone calls every 5 secs but I do have a lovely relationship w/Facebook. Basically, battery life is about the same. I unplugged the phone around 9 AM and I'm already at 66% 7 1/2 hours later.
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66% after 7 1/2 hours of use? I would think that is pretty damn good battery life. That means you would get over 22 hours of battery life at your current usage rate, assuming my math is correct.
 
dmanindfw said:
66% after 7 1/2 hours of use? I would think that is pretty damn good battery life. That means you would get over 22 hours of battery life at your current usage rate, assuming my math is correct.
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Exactly what i was thinking.. I think people are doing themselves a disservice and giving themselves more stress by turning on the battery percentile LOL... They see numbers and kinda panic without realizing how much power they actually have left, because you just see the # ticking down. To be honest, it gets me sometimes too haha.
 
From 9 AM TO 4:30 PM. That's 7 1/2 hrs. So your LED shows all of the available LightFlow colors like Pink and Purple? Well could you detail your set-up step by step? What did you check when you went into Settings and Tools. I already made sure I activated it in Accessibility. Thanks.


nseriessaga said:
Lightflow works perfectly for me.. I think your setup steps seem fine.. I didn't have to do much other than check one or two buttons...

Your at almost 8hours at 66% and this isn't good enough for you? That means your getting over 21+hours on one charge.. I don't think that's bad at all.. I have been unplugged since 8am (9 hours) and I'm at 64% now... a little better, but u may just be using the phone more than me. I've never used another legitimate smartphone that has given me these kinda battery life..
How long were you expecting a full charge on a phone as powerful and with a screen this big to last honestly?
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SmilezzProper said:
From 9 AM TO 4:30 PM. That's 7 1/2 hrs. So your LED shows all of the available LightFlow colors like Pink and Purple? Well could you detail your set-up step by step? What did you check when you went into Settings and Tools. I already made sure I activated it in Accessibility. Thanks.
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Yes, Im using about 8 different colors right now. Teal, pink, orange, white, red, green, blue, yellow.

Under general settings in lightflow, i have "enable light flow" checked, "run in foreground" checked, and "Accessibility" checked.

Im assuming you've already tried restarting your phone after setting lightflow up?

9-4:30pm is GREAT batterylife. Getting almost through an entire 8hr workday on 34% battery is not something you should be complaining about if you ask me... Unless your previous phone was a non-smartphone which can last up to 3 days...
 
nseriessaga said:
Exactly what i was thinking.. I think people are doing themselves a disservice and giving themselves more stress by turning on the battery percentile LOL... They see numbers and kinda panic without realizing how much power they actually have left, because you just see the # ticking down. To be honest, it gets me sometimes too haha.
Click to expand...

Sort of agreed. I definitely like to see the percentage, but people don't realize they are looking at the same intervals in a different way. His battery drained from 100 to ~70 in 7 hours. That means that with similar usage, it will drain from 30 to power off in about 7 hours. It's just that people look at it as "oh I have 70% left, cool that's plenty", and "only 30% left!? it'll die any minute!"

I'm guilty of it too, but it seems that ICS reads the battery well and with the percentage we will just have to realize that less than half doesn't mean it will die so suddenly. Just like how nobody panics over having a third tank of gas when the next station is only a couple miles away (after driving 200 miles to get to that point).
 
GTGD said:
Sort of agreed. I definitely like to see the percentage, but people don't realize they are looking at the same intervals in a different way. His battery drained from 100 to ~70 in 7 hours. That means that with similar usage, it will drain from 30 to power off in about 7 hours. It's just that people look at it as "oh I have 70% left, cool that's plenty", and "only 30% left!? it'll die any minute!"

I'm guilty of it too, but it seems that ICS reads the battery well and with the percentage we will just have to realize that less than half doesn't mean it will die so suddenly. Just like how nobody panics over having a third tank of gas when the next station is only a couple miles away (after driving 200 miles to get to that point).
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Oh, dont get me wrong... I ALWAYS enable battery percentage on my phones too. haha, i just think if samsung or other companies never put it on their phones, less people would claim that their products have "bad battery".
 
I got LightFlow to work!! Awesome! Thanks for the advice. I restarted the phone after I got everything set up and didn't bother to touch anything except for the light color. Anything else you changed? Like the time for the light to be on or blinking pace? If not, I won't touch anything. Thanks again.


nseriessaga said:
Yes, Im using about 8 different colors right now. Teal, pink, orange, white, red, green, blue, yellow.

Under general settings in lightflow, i have "enable light flow" checked, "run in foreground" checked, and "Accessibility" checked.

Im assuming you've already tried restarting your phone after setting lightflow up?

9-4:30pm is GREAT batterylife. Getting almost through an entire 8hr workday on 34% battery is not something you should be complaining about if you ask me... Unless your previous phone was a non-smartphone which can last up to 3 days...
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Eh ok. I just noticed one thing. When I shut the screen off the LED stays a solid green. Is that just to signify that the screen is off because seems like this would drain my battery.

SmilezzProper said:
I got LightFlow to work!! Awesome! Thanks for the advice. I restarted the phone after I got everything set up and didn't bother to touch anything except for the light color. Anything else you changed? Like the time for the light to be on or blinking pace? If not, I won't touch anything. Thanks again.
Click to expand...
 
SmilezzProper said:
I got LightFlow to work!! Awesome! Thanks for the advice. I restarted the phone after I got everything set up and didn't bother to touch anything except for the light color. Anything else you changed? Like the time for the light to be on or blinking pace? If not, I won't touch anything. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Yes.. I use custom colors, blink speed, etc etc... it all works great. Just give it a shot. Just always remember to reboot your phone. Remember that these things are more of a PC than it is a phone so reboot after installs.

I like using red for charging, missed call, and low battery because I'm so used to those 3 always being red since I can remember... so I use solid non flashing red for charging, medium flashing for missed calls, and very fast flashing for low battery. Just an example of the reason I use diff flash rates.
 
Well thanks for the advice but I give up. I've spent the last hour enabling, picking and rearranging colors. It seemed to be working at 1st, but I noticed that certain colors don't apply, no matter how much I restart the phone post-change. The Pink LED (which I assigned to "Charging") worked one time but as I made changes and restarted every time it started coming up as White. You said you're using Teal but it isn't on the list. Colors like Bright Pink, Purple, Magenta, Sky Blue will show up in the app but a totally different color when the action happens. I also notice that sometimes the LED is clear and bright w/certain colors (say Red) but dim/blurry when say Green. I don't mean to bug but I don't understand why it quite working correctly on my phone but others have no issue. I even re-installed and did a battery pull. I just want all the pretty colors *girly smile*

nseriessaga said:
Yes.. I use custom colors, blink speed, etc etc... it all works great. Just give it a shot. Just always remember to reboot your phone. Remember that these things are more of a PC than it is a phone so reboot after installs.

I like using red for charging, missed call, and low battery because I'm so used to those 3 always being red since I can remember... so I use solid non flashing red for charging, medium flashing for missed calls, and very fast flashing for low battery. Just an example of the reason I use diff flash rates.
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SmilezzProper said:
Well thanks for the advice but I give up. I've spent the last hour enabling, picking and rearranging colors. It seemed to be working at 1st, but I noticed that certain colors don't apply, no matter how much I restart the phone post-change. The Pink LED (which I assigned to "Charging") worked one time but as I made changes and restarted every time it started coming up as White. You said you're using Teal but it isn't on the list. Colors like Bright Pink, Purple, Magenta, Sky Blue will show up in the app but a totally different color when the action happens. I also notice that sometimes the LED is clear and bright w/certain colors (say Red) but dim/blurry when say Green. I don't mean to bug but I don't understand why it quite working correctly on my phone but others have no issue. I even re-installed and did a battery pull. I just want all the pretty colors *girly smile*
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The color teal is a custom color I made. Not on the list. U really have to play with custom colors. I found the led on the phone can't handle lighter pastel like colors as well because the other colors from the led bleed into it. That's why when u select white, u see a light glow of those other colors your talking about. If u select "deep orange" or "bright pink" from the list that's there u will notice the colors come out ok.

Just try adjusting the colors using the custom feature. Keep in mind that the led on the phone is not an advanced system... it's just a simple bulb and limited.
 
And what about the solid green LED? I'm having all of the same problems as OP with my VZW GS3. The colors don't match any of the colors displayed on the LED (purple = red LED, red = yellow, lime = pink, etc) save for white. And none of them flash when demo'd. The green LED stays lit even if you turn off all notifications, disable light flow, and stop the service. It requires a full uninstall to turn off. Any tips? :(
 
FapFlop said:
And what about the solid green LED? I'm having all of the same problems as OP with my VZW GS3. The colors don't match any of the colors displayed on the LED (purple = red LED, red = yellow, lime = pink, etc) save for white. And none of them flash when demo'd. The green LED stays lit even if you turn off all notifications, disable light flow, and stop the service. It requires a full uninstall to turn off. Any tips? :(
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Only works with the global phone, not the US version. I found this out too late as well.

Light Flow - Blog
 
I'm having two problems with light flow. First of all, when I install the app before I even enable it, my phone will use the "talkback" feature regardless of if it is on or not. The second issue I have is the solid green notification light when I turn the screen off. Disabling the app wasn't enough to return the phone to normal, I actually had to uninstall it.
 
Mr4X4 said:
I'm having two problems with light flow. First of all, when I install the app before I even enable it, my phone will use the "talkback" feature regardless of if it is on or not. The second issue I have is the solid green notification light when I turn the screen off. Disabling the app wasn't enough to return the phone to normal, I actually had to uninstall it.
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See the blog post linked to by rxmxsh. The US version of the phone isn't working with the app. Judging by the comments on the post, it looks like you will need to be rooted for it to work after it gets 'fixed'.
 
So if Light Flow isn't working with the US version of the S3, does anyone know of any apps that will allow me to change the colors for different notifications? Nothing too fancy - just stuff like blue for text, red for missed call, orange for gmail, etc.
 
nseriessaga said:
Yes, Im using about 8 different colors right now. Teal, pink, orange, white, red, green, blue, yellow.

Under general settings in lightflow, i have "enable light flow" checked, "run in foreground" checked, and "Accessibility" checked.

Im assuming you've already tried restarting your phone after setting lightflow up?

9-4:30pm is GREAT batterylife. Getting almost through an entire 8hr workday on 34% battery is not something you should be complaining about if you ask me... Unless your previous phone was a non-smartphone which can last up to 3 days...
Click to expand...

lightflow works for me as well with the stock colors only. when i use custom colors, the color is off. so i suspect it can not handle custom colors.

maybe someone else can verify if this is correct.
 
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