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iCan Party Light

The Controls:

1. Colors Colors. The Colors button will cycle the circle's color among a group of 32 colors. The first click turns on the feature. The second click makes the color-changing gradual (instead of abrupt) around the color wheel. The third click turns off the feature.
2. F Flash. Flash activates or deactivates flashing. It turns off throbbing.
3. T Throb. Throb activates or deactivates throbbing, which means the circle's brightness grows and fades rythmically. It turns off flashing.
4. T Music. Music will listen to your phone's microphone and continually adjust the circle's opacity based on the recent, average volume level. On the first press, the opacity adjusts gradually (like when throbbing). On the second press, it alternates opacity only between "Full" and "Off" (like when flashing). The third press deactivates the feature. Music mode always turns off the normal throbbing and flashing features. Your phone might ask for permission to use its microphone for this feature.
5. Two Circles. This button adds a new circle and displays its controls (i.e., synch and gap). Press it again to revert back to one-circle mode.
6. C F T Synchronization. These buttons apply only when you're in two-circle mode. They will synchronize color-changing, flashing, or throbbing between the upper and lower circles. Pressing a button again deactivates its synchronization. These buttons are hidden away while you're in one-circle mode.
7. + - Gap. These buttons increase or decrease the size of the gap between the two circles.
8.   Slower/Faster. Slows or speeds the color-changing, flashing, or throbbing.
9. Lift/Drop. These raise or drop the circle(s) by two pixels on each press.
10. Resize. These enlarge or contract the circle(s).
11. / Fullscreen. Once pressed, the circle covers the entire screen. When pressed again, it reverts back to its original size.
12.   Save/Restore/Clear. If you've found a group of settings you like (each group is a "Setting"), click the Save button so your phone can remember it. Then, when you want those back, hit the Restore button . Clicking the Restore button will retrieve the most recently saved Setting. Additional clicks will cycle through all your previously-saved Settings. A maximum of eight (8) Settings can be saved. If you exceed that limit, the last Setting in your list will be dropped when you save a new one. The Clear button destroys all saved settings.
13. Off Timer. This asks you to input a number. The screen goes dark after that number of minutes elapses. Press this button again to cancel the timer.
14. Sleep. All the control buttons will disappear immediately.
15. Information. You clicked it to get here.
16. Reload. It reloads the page, setting everything back to its original state.
17. 2 2-Colors. This button makes Colors forget about every color except the two that you've set in the input buttons  . Go Longhorns!
18. Color Selection. There are many ways to select colors. The buttons R G B Y T P O M W stand respectively for Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Teal, Pink, Orange, Magenta, and White. The "mystery" button ? will select a random color. Either of these two input buttons   will activate your phone's native color picker so that the chosen color can be applied to the circle. When two-circle mode is active, the left box controls the top box's color and the right box controls the bottom's. The "equal" button E makes the bottom circle color match the top circle color.
19. Disappearing Controls. The program's controls reveal themselves when you swipe left. They conceal themselves when you swipe right or hit the Sleep button. Once concealed, a reminder appears in the upper-left-corner; it says, "swipe." Clicking it or swiping left on the page will reveal the control buttons again.

Advice:

1. Make it Bright. Turn up your phone's screen's brightness to its highest setting. Also, turn off any adaptive lighting feature that might either dim your screen automatically at night or red-shift the screen's colors.
2. Screen Saver. Consider turning off (temporarily) your phone's screen-saver timer when you're using this App as a night light. The App has its own timer that you can set for turning the screen dark.
3. Make it Dark. The navigation controls and address bar on your phone's browser (Safari or Chrome) are distracting and brightly lit. It's impossible to darken or conceal them; the phone manufacturers won't let you, and I can't do it programmatically. If motivated, you can cover them with something opaque — like junk mail with a can-sized-circle cut out of it.

   

   

   • On an iPhone, when using Safari, you can hide the navigation bars at the bottom by clicking the aA icon on the left. Then choose the "Hide Toolbar" option. Once hidden, you just tap the bottom text to restore the Toolbar.
   • On an iPhone, when using Chrome, you can reposition the address bar from the top to the bottom of the screen. This makes 'em easier to cover. Just do a longpress on the address window and select the "Move Address Bar" option.
4. Standalone Bookmark on Home Screen. On Chrome and Safari, you can save a web page as a clickable bookmark icon on your phone's main Home Screen. Then, when you navigate there, it will (may?) open in Standalone Mode, which is helpful, and it's a handy shortcut. For Safari, add the icon by doing a longpress on the Toolbar; then scroll down to (and select) the "Add to Home Screen" option. For Chrome, instead of a long press, click the address bar's Send icon (a box with an upwards arrow sticking out of the top). Please do your own research on how to do equivalent actions on other types of phones and operating systems.
5. Weigh It Down. By the way, I recommend that you weigh down the can so it won't drift off the circle. Put a weight (pennies?) on top of the can (or its light cover?).
6. Coaster Mode. The App is useful by itself even without a can. Add a bit of milk to water to make a glowing, flashing liquid. Put Saran Wrap between the glass and your screen.