Easy brightness control

[blueandwhiteg3]

I have a PPC 6800, but the screen brightness controls are so buried (Start -> Settings -> System -> Backlight), it's almost unusable!

For usability in sunlight, I need the screen at maximum brightness. But in the dark (car, theater, etc.) I have to turn the brightness down because it actually is blinding, and is so bright I look like an idiot. Because I can't easily adjust the brightness, I often end up leaving it too bright, thereby wasting battery.

The obvious solution would be a 2 cent ambient light sensor, but that's a feature reserved for the much less important keyboard. But that's another rant for another day.

I would like some kind of application I can map to a button (AEButtons plus or whatever) and allows me to hit the button, then use the nav pad and/or the scroll wheel to adjust brightness. The goal is almost blind adjustment of brightness - because often, when I need to adjust, I am almost blinded.

The Palm OS has had this for years, built in. One tap of the brightness button on theÂÂ*Palm Treo, then the nav pad let you easily adjust brightness. Usable while totally blind.

Any ideas, anybody?