Citat:
... Or at least a Nexus One.
Over the last couple of weeks, the power button on my Nexus One had been acting all a fool. Besides turning the phone on, it also turns off the screen and wakes the phone up. So it started getting annoying when I had to mash the button 5 or 6 times to turn the screen off.
On Sunday, my travel-to-Las Vegas day, it died for good. I should have known something was up when I was trying to turn the phone off on the plane and no amount of hitting the power button would bring up the power down menu. In a moment of stupidity, I removed the cover plate on the back of the phone and removed the battery. Immediate problem solved.
You know what happened next, of course. I wasn't able to turn the phone back on. How could I? The power button is broken. I was worried. The phone itself is in good shape, and my plan since buying this phone over a year ago was to use it until I physically couldn't anymore. But this seemed like a cheap way for it to give up the ghost.
When I finally checked into my hotel room, the first thing I did was check out the awesome view over Mandalay Bay Beach. The second thing I did was bust out the laptop and spend an hour researching if there's a way to power on a Nexus One without a power button. It seems like an impossible task without taking the phone apart, but I had faith in the Android community.
And I was right to! After a solid 30-40 minutes, I came across a trick one guy had used to power up his N1. I immediately tried it with no luck at all. At this point I was pretty bummed. But 10 minutes later I found another post where a guy had used the same trick... with a twist. I tried that one, my heart in my throat.
... Success!
So the last few days, in between conference stuff and boozing, I've become somewhat of a pro in navigating the N1 without a power button. At first thought, it doesn't seem like that big a deal. But this is what the power button controls:
Power on
Screen on / off while powered on
Menu to power off, reboot, sound profiles, airplane mode (with more or fewer options depending on how yours is set up)
So how does one live without the power button?
First off, powering the phone on. Take the cover plate off. Plug the (A/C or USB) charger in. While the battery is charging, remove the battery. Put it back in. Take it out. Put it in. Take it out. Put it in. Do this about 5 times and the phone will magically power on. It sounds absurd, but it works.
At this point I suppose it would be prudent to mention that I'm running CyanogenMod 7, a custom Android OS. This actually saved my ass from the beginning because I already had the it set to allow pressing the trackball to wake the phone. If you're running stock Android, you'll have to do all your MacGyvering as soon as you get the N1 powered up using the aforementioned trick. If it goes to sleep and you can't wake the phone up using the trackball, you're pretty screwed and will have to start from scratch.
Now, about accessing all the different features the power button offers... (Some of these apps require root, btw.)
First off, if you're running CM, go into the CM Input settings and turn on trackball wake! After you've done that, it's a whole lot easier to manage.
Next, you need an app like Quick Reboot in order to reboot the phone. You can also use it to power the phone off, but then of course you have to use the battery in/out trick to get it back on.
To easily manage sound profiles (silent, vibrate, normal, etc.), check out Profile widget. There's also an Airplane mode widget by the same dev.
Lastly, even on the shortest setting, if you want to turn the screen off you have to wait at least 30 seconds. This sucks for answering a text and then putting the phone back into your pocket. Pockets do crazy things with touchscreens. There's a really neat app called Screen Off and Lock. I have it set to be in the "Ongoing" area when I swipe down into the notification screen. Now I can quickly swipe down and lock the phone.
Phew. The hoops we jump through for our devices. But it works!
