Power button savior Slide2Wake now supports the Galaxy Nexus
Back when I owned the original HTC EVO 4G, I had a unit with a defective power button. This resulted in me sending the phone back to HTC multiple times, without the problem actually ever being fixed. Eventually, I did get a replacement that worked, but the incident has left me with a slight paranoia about broken power buttons on smartphones. I covered a potential solution called Smart Screen On a short while ago, but the app didn’t work reliably enough to actually be very useful. As such, when I found out that the Slide2Wake or PGM app that originated in the EVO world had made its way to the Galaxy Nexus, I was eager to give it a try.
As many of you probably already know, the idea behind Slide2Wake is quite simple. The root-only application adds an extra kernel module to compatible kernels that allows you to slide your finger across the display in order to turn the display on or off without using the power button. With the free version, you only have the option to turn the display on, but if you buy the $3 dollar paid version you can use a different gesture to turn the display off, as well. (The default is a left to right slide to turn the display on, and a right to left slide to turn it off. The paid version also allows you to customize the start and end points for the gesture, as well as the margin of error and timeout.
I actually had to install the franco.kernel to use the app, as it wasn’t compatible with the FuguMod kernel I already had. But once I had the proper kernel installed, everything worked quite well. Ideally, I would like to be able to use any kernel with the mod, but obviously that may not be possible. As it is, Slide2Wake is a very useful and helpful app for the Galaxy Nexus, and while I hope I won’t have to use it anytime soon, it is nice to know that there are multiple options for using my device even if the power button fails.
Download: Google Play
