Spen Power Saving Widget

About Spen Power Saving Widget Android App

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If you carry a second S-Pen that you prefer to use with your newer Note device, this app will save the hassle of navigating through the control panel settings to disable the power saving mode and thereby enable use of the second pen. When you are finished using the second S-Pen, use this app again to easily re-engage the power saving mode thereby saving precious battery life.

Thank you for READING the following BEFORE commenting/reviewing:

1. Should work on Samsung Note devices EXCEPT the Note I phone. Please let dev know what you find.


2. Your device likely must have a TouchWiz-based ROM for this app to work. Other ROMs may lack support for the S-Pen settings that this app manipulates.


3. Do not install to an external SD card. Widgets often have troubles when installed this way.


4. Please email me from the link on this page with questions, comments, or suggestions. Responses to reviews left by users is not the best channel to resolve issues.

This app mainly provides a home screen widget you can use to simplify enabling and disabling the S-Pen's power saving mode on Samsung Note devices that are newer than the first Note phone models. These would include Note II, Note III, Note 8, and Note 10 devices. Please let me know if you have any issues.

One may wonder why such an app is needed or even desired. All I can say is that someone saw my other S-Pen-related apps and emailed me specifically asking for this. He leaves the S-Pen that came with his device in its silo most of the time while he uses a larger and more comfortable S-Pen. If he tries to do this when the S-Pen's power saving mode is enabled, the second S-Pen does not function - the S-Pen's touch screen is turned off when an S-Pen is detected as inserted in the device's silo. He wanted an easier and more convenient way to toggle power saving off and on again. So that is what this app does.

This app provides 3 ways to toggle the S-Pen power saving mode on/off. By default, it will only provide a widget in the widget drawer. Once placed, when you tap the widget, the current state of S-Pen power saving is read and reversed. The widget icon changes to indicate the state. Pretty simple but this requires root access and a fair bit of research into undocumented S-Pen mechanisms.

Users have requested that this function additionally be made available from the notification bar and as a shortcut (so the app can be used in conjunction with other apps that can embed shortcuts but not widgets in their user interface). These are now included. The use of shortcuts and the notification are optional and are disabled by default.

Please be aware that a shortcut's icon can not be dynamically changed to reflect the state of power saving mode so it will always look the same. This appears to be an Android limitation. However, if the toggling is performed via a shortcut, you will see the icons on both widgets and the notification change as expected.

Adding these new features required the addition of a configuration utility that will now show up in your app tray (along with the app shortcut should you decide to enable it). Please note that changes to the shortcut setting MAY require a reboot to fully take effect. Until then, any shortcuts placed on a home screen prior to deactivating the shortcut feature may remain in-place and give an "Application Not Installed" message when touched.

The Play Store allows you to use an app for a short period after purchase so you can test it and cancel if you wish. Please use that mechanism to ensure this works properly on your device. If you encounter issues, please let me know via the email link provided.

Thanks go out to Steve Heistand for the original idea and his help with development/testing and to Bill Blevins for the new icons!

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