[Motorola Droid RAZR] Ohmster:
Dollar Store Gizmo worth mentioning and "Must Have" App

Okay, it is no secret I love my new phone. But I still have the same issue with using it in the car as I did before. The Razr has the power/micro USB port at the top of the device. For car use, I would simply plug in the car charger and with a single wrap over the shift lever, it would sit in the coin tray, easy to see while driving, albeit I had to glance down to see it. With Bluetooth Car Connect, I would hear navigation instructions so as not to miss them, plus streaming music and incoming calls. The Moto-X has the micro USB/Power jack at the bottom so this method would not work well at all.

I went into the dollar store for some "AA" batteries and they had the typical rack of inexpensive cellphone accessories, one of which caught my eye. This is an "Air Vent Holder", Compact, Adjustable, & durable. Intriguing to say the least. I do not put a lot of faith in air vent holders, similar to what you get with Febreze and other air fresheners. But this one looked pretty good, worth a shot for $7. I asked if I could return it if it did not fit my car or seemed durable. The woman let me take it to the car to try it out, I left a $20 bill on the counter to give her some comfort that I would not take off with her merchandise.

I tell you what, this thing is a dream come true! Once adjusted for the size of the phone and snapped into place on the air conditioner vent, this could not be in a better position unless it were build in. It clearly shows the navigation screen at all times, streaming music options, with Moto Voice I can ask it to "Play music Jethro Tull" and the phone will answer, "okay" and stream my Jethro Tull collection from home with Google Play Music. I like Google Music because there are NO commercials at all and the free version allows streaming up to 20,000 songs! This really does not use much data at all, even for me on a 3Gb limit, and you can adjust the data stream to save data usage from Low, Normal, and High for exceptionally high quality music. You would really need some kind of very expensive stereo in your car to even "try" to notice any sort of difference, Normal is perfect, and even on Low, I cannot detect any sort of quality loss at all.

I do have a Garmin because I really need navigation for getting to places I do not know. But I stopped using the Garmin because Google Maps and Navigation does such a good job as it makes a device like a Garmin or Tom Tom pretty much a useless space waster. Okay, maybe this device is not for you but for me, this is exactly what I was looking for. Yes, it is a cheap dollar store product but the constructions is quite solid so unless you have very heavy hands, it is not likely to break. Easy to remove the phone with the one touch button and easy to snap into place. If for any reason, the holder does not hold up to day to day use, I know know the device I need really is available. And, it really places no additional strain on the A/C vent slots and that is something I was really scared about. This thing is great man, check out the screen shots! :laugh:

I took some screenshots of the holder in action in the event you have a similar need, this works for Razr phones or just about any phone you can buy.

EDIT:

The Moto-X is a terrific phone, I would not trade this for any other Android cellphone or any other cellphone for that matter. But the stock rom does not have all the features and tweaks we have become accustomed to with our custom roms. The Moto-X brightness controls is a perfect example. Battery life could be a lot better and a big part of this issue is the brightness control that comes with the rom. You get the slider for the desired brightness but the "Auto" or "Adaptive brightness" option, well, pretty much stinks. You really need a 3rd party app for this. There are scads of them on Play Store, many free, some pay apps. When I look for apps, I pay attention to ratings (# of stars) and comments. Some are not updated to work well on Lollipop. The one I found and like very much is Velis Auto Brightness. It is free, works very well, and the wizard will get you all setup with a good, working brightness profile. You can then make custom profiles or customize the graph to your liking by inserting more lux level points and dragging the brightness slider up for that particular lux level. What you are doing is just customizing the brightness graph and I like this a real lot. There are lots of settings if you really want to customize the crud out of this thing but the default profile is really good. Worth a look. Go see.

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This image is from the Play Store, NOT from my phone where I am using it. The red vertical line is the lux amount you wish to adjust (Lux at that moment is shown to be 26) and the horizontal red line allows you to raise or lower the screen brightness at that level. You can insert more lux levels and brightness for them as much as you want to affect the overall curve. A good idea is to keep the curve somewhat smooth, if you make it too jagged, then the screen brightness will be jumping around. Folks, this is a really easy app to use and with a Moto-X Pure with a "not so good" auto brightness control, this is a great app! :D

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The first image above is the preset profile from play store. After editing for my phone, this is how it looks now on the Moto-X and may change further as I learn how and when to use it. Very easy to use, not at all like the previous Custom Auto Brightness app. You can see how I dropped the low end of the Lux curve for low, indoor lighting. When I am outside in various settings, I will further adjust the high end of the curve. This is really easy to do, not like some of the "super advanced" apps. This one does all that and makes it easy to use. It comes with a Tasker widget for $1.49 which you really do not need at all. I got it to see what it does. It gives quick access to switch profiles and a running graph of how the app has been adjusting your brightness. IMHO, not worth the $1.49, save your money, the free app is not lacking for anything. :D

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EDIT 2:

Look at the difference I made to my profile in the 100 Lux and below from my screenshot and the play store default image. You can see I lowered the brightness quite a bit indoors because for one, it was way brighter than I needed, and for two, I am saving considerable battery power by using this app, I gained an extra 4 hours on battery life on just this one app and adjustment alone! [MENTION=838017]sherri[/MENTION] you might want to take notice of this as it is related to a question about battery life you asked me about. :D

Hey, this Velis Auto Brightness app is remarkable and had made a difference in a matter of hours that I immediately have noticed. It has given me an additional 4 hour to my existing battery time by dimming the screen unless I really need full brightness. None of the settings are "dim" they work just fine for the ambient lighting in your current environment. But the Moto-X default brightness and "auto" feature basically stink. This app gives you a LOT of control for almost any type of ambient. The setup wizard will be fine for most people, for those that want more control, you can add lux points not in the graph and set as you will. This is like the free "Custom Auto Brightness" app I used before but is now a pay app called Lux. Forget the pay app and give Velis Auto Brightness a try. You will save a lot of battery power, it is easy to use, and can be as complex as you desire if you are a total hands on geek. I highly recommend this app. :good: :D

Even the Google Cloud Print works quite well. Of course it prints but this is the first time I ever tried a scan before, wow, works great! To be perfectly fair about this, Cloud Print also did work very well with the XT912 Razr as well. :)