Yeah, it is possible to drive the LEDs beyond the limits specified in the (admittedly sparse) documentation available; and, in fact, Estel has apparently been doing just that with his personal copy of Lanterne... But I'm too nervous about the potential damage to the phone from overdriving the LEDs, so I'm going to avoid adding that feature to Lanterne myself.

But yeah, I do need to try and play around with the backlight again.

After having an Android for a week now, I've gotta say, the software is a royal pain, but the hardware is amazing. I guess this shouldn't come as a surprise, but the IR LED on the HTC One is just way more powerful than the one on the N900. I can control TVs from twice the distance, and even bounce the signal off walls. Compared side-by-side with the remote control that came with my Sanyo TV, it's still relatively weak; but I'll bet it wouldn't have as much trouble dealing with Sony devices as the N900 does...