Not sure if the new auto brighntness scheme is iPhone 5 specific or part of iOS 6, since I sold my 4S.
For those of you unaware, auto brightness works in a different way now. Instead of brightening/darkening the screen based stricltly on ambient light levels, it now "remembers" how you adjusted the slider based on a given lighting scenario. If you crank it to the max in bright daylight and down to the minimum in a dark room at night, it will do the same the next time you encounter those lighting scenarios.
But it could easily be a lot smarter. At night, typically after midnight, I crank the brightness all the way down, because I'm using it in bed, inches away from my face. I don't want to be blinded, and I don't want to disturb my wife. But at work, (I work in a darkened room as a retoucher), I want the screen darkened, but only half way. Because the iPhone simply detects I'm in a darkened room, it merely moves the brightness all the way to the minimum, meaning I have to tweak the slider manually. And then I have to tweak it again at night because it only remembers the last adjustment you made.
If instead of merely detecting the ambient light and remembering my last interaction, it also tracked the time that I made a change, and how often, it could easily be trained to be truly completely automatic. It could easily discover that every weekday starting at around 10am, I prefer 50% brightness in a darkened room. After midnight, I prefer minimum brightness in a darkened room.
I realize Android has brightness "profiles", and no doubt someone will take this opportunity to boast about it. I'd rather not have yet another setting screen, as I'm sure Apple would not either. But I do think they could fairly easily employ some smart tracking in the brightness calibration.
And a slider in the dock like in the ipad wouldn't kill them either.
For those of you unaware, auto brightness works in a different way now. Instead of brightening/darkening the screen based stricltly on ambient light levels, it now "remembers" how you adjusted the slider based on a given lighting scenario. If you crank it to the max in bright daylight and down to the minimum in a dark room at night, it will do the same the next time you encounter those lighting scenarios.
But it could easily be a lot smarter. At night, typically after midnight, I crank the brightness all the way down, because I'm using it in bed, inches away from my face. I don't want to be blinded, and I don't want to disturb my wife. But at work, (I work in a darkened room as a retoucher), I want the screen darkened, but only half way. Because the iPhone simply detects I'm in a darkened room, it merely moves the brightness all the way to the minimum, meaning I have to tweak the slider manually. And then I have to tweak it again at night because it only remembers the last adjustment you made.
If instead of merely detecting the ambient light and remembering my last interaction, it also tracked the time that I made a change, and how often, it could easily be trained to be truly completely automatic. It could easily discover that every weekday starting at around 10am, I prefer 50% brightness in a darkened room. After midnight, I prefer minimum brightness in a darkened room.
I realize Android has brightness "profiles", and no doubt someone will take this opportunity to boast about it. I'd rather not have yet another setting screen, as I'm sure Apple would not either. But I do think they could fairly easily employ some smart tracking in the brightness calibration.
And a slider in the dock like in the ipad wouldn't kill them either.
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