Is there an iPhone app that will vibrate the phone every minute even if it's locked?

October 16, 2010 7:19 PM

I have an iPhone 3G and need an app that will vibrate the phone once every minute, even if the phone is locked. Does it exist?
posted by ben5757 to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

A locked, non-jailbroken phone will not be running a third-party app in the foreground. It's not an exact analogy, but you can think of your phone being "asleep" when locked, for the purposes of running apps. Using timed push notifications to get around this might work if the phone is in silent mode, but it would be a pretty expensive solution for the developer, since pushes are a hidden cost.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:08 PM on October 16, 2010

Is it a one off?

You could write one pretty easily, or have someone who has a developer acct write one and provision it to your phone.
posted by Lord_Pall at 9:04 PM on October 16, 2010

If you know someone who wants to write the app for you, here's the essential bit:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setIdleTimerDisabled:YES];

It will keep the phone awake so that a timer can trigger vibrating the phone on some set period. You won't be able to lock the phone without disabling the app, but if you're okay with that and the associated reduced battery life, it's definitely doable.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:59 PM on October 16, 2010

Here's code I wrote for an app called Buzzard, which vibrates the phone once a minute. If you can find someone who will provision the app for you once every couple months, you should be good to go.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:28 PM on October 16, 2010

Bad link, try this.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:32 PM on October 16, 2010

Best answer: The app simply called "Timer" will do this. Under settings, set Loop timer to "On", choose "None" for the Alarm (refers to an audible alarm), and turn vibrate to "On". Note: This works on my iPhone 4 running iOS 4. Don't know if your hardware & software will support this.
posted by puritycontrol at 11:07 PM on October 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: puritycontrol: This may be because of hardware/software differences, but I can't seem to find where to change the settings for Timer. Where do you do it? Thanks for your help.
posted by ben5757 at 12:43 AM on October 17, 2010

Response by poster: puritycontrol: Sorry, somehow I misread your post and thought you meant the native iPhone timer. I've got the ap you suggested, its exactly what I needed. Thanks so much!
posted by ben5757 at 1:50 AM on October 17, 2010