OddThinking

A blog for odd things and odd thoughts.

What do you need from a torch?

I got one of those smartphone thingies a year or so ago, to replace my “much beloved” D600. One of the applications I installed, in my initial flush of application installation was Flashlight. It’s a simple enough idea. If you are stuck in the dark, it turns the backlit LCD screen white so you can use the phone as a makeshift torch.

Or at least, that was what it could do in Version 1.0. Since then, I officially declare, it has become the most over-engineered software package I have ever seen.

You can select from a range of colours, customise the selection of colours, customise the way to launch the customisation of colours, select from a range of strobes and disco lighting, have US-based holiday-themed screens, view ads, read the FAQ and view help. At least, apparently you could do all that. I tried to do some of these just a few seconds ago and failed to understand the customisation screens.

But, Julian, you sigh, It is a free app. It doesn’t cost you anything. Why are you complaining?

Because, dear reader, it keeps pestering me to upgrade it.

How many upgrades should you need for an app that emulates a couple of dollars worth of electronics?

Well, with a bit of digging I confirmed that there were at least this many versions:

  • 1.0
  • 1.1
  • 1.2
  • 1.3
  • 1.4
  • 1.5
  • 1.5.1
  • 2.0
  • 2.0.1
  • 2.1.0
  • 2.1.1
  • 3.0
  • 3.0.1
  • 3.1
  • 3.2
  • 4.0
  • 4.0.1
  • 4.0.2
  • 4.1

Asking users, who just want a white square to appear, to install 19 versions? *Plonk*


Comments

  1. I agree, and also removed it. Since jailbreaking, there’s a much better app which just does white, and also sets the brightness to maximum at the same time, then returns it to its previous setting on exit (the normal iOS SDK doesn’t provide this functionality).

  2. You really should stick with it until it reaches its terminal state.

  3. I’ve got a widget that shows as an icon on my home page. When I touch it, the icon lights up and the camera’s flash does too. The only configuration is a choice of which icon to use.

  4. I use the meta-app ‘app box’ which has a bunch of little utilities, none of which I think of as being worth a whole app on their own. Torch is one, and has some of the noted overengineering, but some makes some kind of sense. (disco, not so much. morse code SMS, sure)

    For phone as torch though, I find most times that ‘the light from my mostly-black lock screen wallpaper’ is enough. 🙂

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