Android: Prox saves you from digging through Android's settings by letting you control your phone just by tilting it and waving your hand over its proximity sensor.


You may notice that when you put your phone to your ear, its screen turns off. This is because your phone has a proximity sensor that senses when your face is close. Few apps take advantage of this, but Prox has used it in a very clever way: by tilting your phone to different angles and waving your hand over the phone, you can perform different actions. For example, tilting it to the left and waving your hand might launch an application, while tilting it to the right and waving your hand will expand the status bar. You can perform other tasks too, like emulate the home button, silence your phone, and more. We tried it and it actually worked remarkably well. On our test phone (the HTC Thunderbolt), the proximity sensor was near the earpiece, so if you aim to wave over that area, it will work better. Check out the video above to see it in action.

Prox is a $1.99 download for Android devices running 2.2 and up.


Prox | Android Market

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.



