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Battery app?

Arizona Willie

Active Member
I've searched the Store and there does not seem to be a Battery App anywhere.

I wonder why there is no Battery App to show us the condition of the battery when in Metro mode.

You have to drop out to desktop mode to check on the status of the battery.

Is there some reason why no one what written a Battery App?
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
My understanding is that Microsoft has limited access to the Power API's from within the Modern UI.
 
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Arizona Willie

Arizona Willie

Active Member
Yes I do find it lacking. All it shows you is a small pic of a battery with a vague fill in.

There should be an app that is similar to what you get in the desktop. It should tell you how much charge is left, percentage wise and how much time is left at the current operating settings.
It could also tell you how long it would take to full recharge -- but that isn"t critical.
I find it strange that they give you more information on the battery in desktop mode than they do in whateveryouwannacallit mode.

Just a small oversight but and annoying one.


You are aware of the right edge swipe. Do you find it lacking?
 
Yes I do find it lacking. All it shows you is a small pic of a battery with a vague fill in.

There should be an app that is similar to what you get in the desktop. It should tell you how much charge is left, percentage wise and how much time is left at the current operating settings.
It could also tell you how long it would take to full recharge -- but that isn"t critical.
I find it strange that they give you more information on the battery in desktop mode than they do in whateveryouwannacallit mode.

Just a small oversight but and annoying one.


I agree. Lacking.
 

Rvacha

Member
I find it lacking too. My "fix" was to install BatteryBar, a desktop program that sits in the taskbar. When I want to see it I just do a quick wipe to the desktop and back. But... I'd much rather have an app
 

machistmo

Active Member
Ahh Compatibility mode - So any progress on this one? So what Roach is saying is that Windows 8, while being developed solely or with all direction toward TOUCH devices, hence portable tablets and others, it has no ability to give you power updates from the metro interface? That's just ... can not think of an adequate adjective ... BAD PLANNING? Assuming planning was involved? I mean seriously.
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
As far as I know there isn't a "Contract" for the Power API in WinRT on Windows 8.x, but on Windows Phone 8.1 within the notification center there is, so it possible if the Notification Center is implemented on the Unified Windows OS we'll see it, that could be the rumored Update 2 slated for late Summer or early Fall or possibly with Threshold.
 

dlacaba

Member
Yup, I was going to add it to my own app, but it's not yet supported. Still waiting for an updated version of the Framework to add it in there.
 

ybahman

Member
My understanding is that Microsoft has limited access to the Power API's from within the Modern UI.

This is it, while there's all the APIs you could ever dream of via win32, the WinRT API set is rather limited. I wanted to make one a while ago but it's not possible on big Windows at this time. It's kinda possible on phone, but you can only really query the battery level every 15 minutes, no way to get any more detail than that.

On another note, since the engine for TouchMe Gesture Studio runs as a win32 app, I've been considering adding a feature which allows you to perform a gesture to trigger a toast message to display the battery percentage. If anyone's interested, let me know.
 

Wayne Orwig

Active Member
On another note, since the engine for TouchMe Gesture Studio runs as a win32 app, I've been considering adding a feature which allows you to perform a gesture to trigger a toast message to display the battery percentage. If anyone's interested, let me know.

Sounds like a useful work around until it gets added to the API.
 
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