For many members of us here at XDA, our volume rockers and power buttons take a serious beating. Between flashing ROMs, navigating recoveries, and actually using them to power on the device and adjust the volume, these hardware buttons get a workout. Thus, many worry that someday these buttons will stop working. Thankfully, there is now a group of applications you can use to take a little pressure off the oft used buttons.

XDA Forum Member tobnddl has you covered. He created a list of applications that help you adjust your volume and turn the screen on or off without touching the power or volume control buttons. This is both useful for those who need to extend the life of their buttons and those who have already managed to wear them out.

The applications are called Turn Off The Lights, Volume Control Widget, and Awesome On Off. Between the three of these, you will have an effective software substitute for your hardware volume rocker and power button. They are all free in the Google Play Store. and tobnddl includes impressions and instructions on how to use each effectively. While this may have been written for the ASUS Transformer TF700, there's no reason why any device couldn't make use of this.

For download links and details, go to the original thread.