Landscape and Multimedia Dock Questions

[KevinWP]

New to Android, but not PDA Phones. I've spent 9 hours with my new phone but there are still a few things I can't figure out. I'm hoping you folks can point me in the right direction.

Note: I still have 1.13.516 installed. No update has appeared on my phone yet.

1. How do I run 'Desktop Dock' / 'Multimedia Station' launcher without putting the phone into a Motorola branded dock?

(I checked all through the Apps and settings and did not locate this program. I did locate the Car Dock, but that is not what I am looking for).

2. I notice different behavior in two similar situations.

2.a When the multimedia dock is plugged into a USB cable to my computer (Into a powered USB port) the screen turns itself off based on the normal power setting.
2.b When the dock is plugged into a wall charger, the screen stays on always.

I would like to set it to have the same behavior... so long as the multimedia dock is connected to a power source (Wall or USB), the screen stays on... but I do not want to set the option in the 'Development' screen that whenever charging the screen should stay on. (When I am not charging in a dock I do want the screen to sleep).

Can this be done?

3. The elusive landscape home screen. Dock the phone in a Multimedia Dock. Close the Multimedia Dock Launcher. Voila... Landscape home screens. The 7 pages of screen changer now appears at the long side bottom, while the Call, Contacts, and App launcher appears on the right hand side (Previously the bottom) but it has been altered to rotate the phone and contact icon 90 degrees.

My phone does not do this when I hold it in my hand.... I only get the landscape pages when in the Multimedia Dock. (Note I can and do orient the phone and the apps change to landscape. The only application which is not 'aware' of how I am holding the phone is the homescreen itself.)

Is there a non-obvious location to set this behavior other than in 'Sound & Display Settings' / 'Orientation'?

I realize these may be bugs addressed by the update to 1.13.604 that i don't have yet... so confirmation or denial of this behavior from someone else would be appreciated.

Barring that, could someone please tap me with the clue stick as to how I can adjust these behaviors?

Thanks

Kevin

 

[aaf709]

While I don't own a Droid X, I do have the Multimedia Dock and I might be able to help.

1) First of all, go to the Market and get DeskHome for 99 cents. It'll make your phone think it's on the dock and go into the Multimedia Dock mode. You can make your own stand or get one made by some of our members here.

2) The original Droid was designed to never turn off if charged via AC. It assumes you're going to use the Multimedia Dock and so use it as an bedside clock and alarm. I presume the Droid X is the same.

 

[KevinWP]

Aha!
Okay I downloaded and installed 'Dock Simulator' free from the app store (The recommended one had a review which said it didn't work on 2.2 (yet?), so I didn't want to buy that one and maybe only able to use it for 5 weeks).

So now I know how to fake a dock at work where I will only have a wall charger.

This also provided some (maybe bug related) info on my next problem... getting to landscape home screen. With Dock Simulator running, when I close out of the Dock Launcher.. the home screen goes to landscape and (since it is physically undocked) I can rotate it to portrait and back to landscape and it changes .... so something about 'docked' mode is enabling rotation on the homescreen that isn't enabled otherwise....

Thoughts?

 

[lonnypaul]

Interestingly enough, my Droid X does NOT stay on to use as a clock/alarm/radio. Help?!?

P.S. The Droid X is AMAZING!

 

[aaf709]

Interestingly enough, my Droid X does NOT stay on to use as a clock/alarm/radio. Help?!?

P.S. The Droid X is AMAZING!

Very quickly, what are you charging it with? USB or AC?

 

[lonnypaul]

Droid X screen turns off in DOCK mode

USB via the PC. I've tried the various modes and have set it on USB for charging only.

 

[KevinWP]

The screen turning off is what I described above in 2a when charging via USB connected to a computer (And not directly to a wall charger)

The half way fix is to select from the home screen the menu button and then drill down in the setting like so...

>Menu Button
>>Settings
>>>Applications
>>>>Development
>>>>>Stay Awake (Screen will never sleep while charging).

The complete fix (Which I don't know yet) is a way to make the screen stay active only when 'docked', but not always when charging.

But I'm happy dancedroidto have been able to help you solve your problem.

Cheers!

Kevin

 

[lonnypaul]

Works like a charm!

Thanks!:icon_ banana:

 

[richardsugg]

I know this is an old thread, but I have Phoneweaver ($7). You can setup different profiles triggered by time, location, and connection. I have two profiles setup to be trigger by connection status: one for the car dock and another for the desktop dock. In each of these I can set the screen timeout to "never." I also have Daytime and Nighttime profiles that will kick-in if it comes out of the dock, where the screen timeout is then set to 2 minutes. Since the triggers are based on connection and time of day, I don't have to worry about setting the screen timeout at all.

 

[Anhedonius]

Well I'm ignorant, so what IS the Dock Multimedia Station/ Desktop Dock launcher, and how do I find it on my new Droid X?

 

[Anhedonius]

According to the reviews I've seen, DeskHome only works with Droid, not Droid X. And I get Zero Results searching for DockRunner.