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Help Help please with NFC tags..Turn on GPS

Three6ty

Three6ty

Newbie
Hi,
I got some NFC Tags today for my S3. The NTAG203 tags. I've downloaded NFC Tag launcher app. All seems easy enough to do. Done a few tests.
One thing I really wanted to do though was to be able to have a tag in the car that launched my satnav and turn on GPS. Sure I've read of people doing this. NFC tag launcher app tells me I need to root my phone to enable gps on/off. Given that the satnav apps I have request that gps be turned on and do not turn it on automatically it would seem a bit pointless having a tag in the car if I need to go into the menus to turn on gps.
Does anyone know how to get round this other than rooting? Is there an alternative app that will let the tag turn on gps? Or is rooting the phone the only way? Never rooted an android phone but would if I had to and it is relatively easy. I used to JB iphones. Is it similar process?
Any help really appreciated as ever.
Cheers, Rich
 
Somebody told me that "NFC retag" can enable/disable gps but I haven't tried it myself.

Can I just point out that gps doesn't drain your battery unless something is actively using it, and you will see a satellite icon in the notification bar when something is using it. This means you can leave gps turned on and it won't drain your battery constantly like wifi, NFC and Bluetooth do.
 
matttye said:
Somebody told me that "NFC retag" can enable/disable gps but I haven't tried it myself.

Can I just point out that gps doesn't drain your battery unless something is actively using it, and you will see a satellite icon in the notification bar when something is using it. This means you can leave gps turned on and it won't drain your battery constantly like wifi, NFC and Bluetooth do.
Click to expand...

Hi,
I was kind of thinking that. I noticed that turning gps on did not put the icon in the notification bar. I'll try it out over the next couple of days and keep an eye on the battery levels. I know roughly what I get on a full charge now.
Be glad if this works as I like NFC tag launcher app. I did just try retag, but gave up on it quickly as it's just horrid to use with a lousy interface.
Cheers, Rich
 
For NFC to access gps & mobile data you need to have rooted your phone.

Nfc ReTag and some other apps get around this because they don't program your tag, they use the tag's ID to activate a profile saved on your phone so this way they can toggle anything and it will work.
 
I have never turned off GPS on my devices. As matttye points out, GPS can be enabled, but does not use power unless an app is specifically using it.

So why not put your NFC tag to simply launch your satnav app and see if it does what you need it to do? If you never disable GPS, you shouldn't have any problems (in theory).
 
jerofld said:
I have never turned off GPS on my devices. As matttye points out, GPS can be enabled, but does not use power unless an app is specifically using it.

So why not put your NFC tag to simply launch your satnav app and see if it does what you need it to do? If you never disable GPS, you shouldn't have any problems (in theory).
Click to expand...

Hi,
That's what I am going to try. I always thought that having gps turned on in the pull down menu ate battery power. But if it doesn't and only actually turns gps on when a gps enabled app launches then all good :)
 
I've had the GPS on the entire life of my Droid X, and the only time it uses battery is when I use navigation or something. Turning on GPS is really not quite accurate, it's more of enabling it, but it's off until needed. Won't hurt your battery at all, unless you have some other app jumping in to use it frequently, like a weather app or something.
 
Hi,
Thanks for the advice guys. All working good, and no battery drain with drop down gps switch on.
One other thing if I may rather than starting a new thread ;)
I want to make a tag that will launch my poweramp and have it start playing music in shuffle mode. I notice when selecting an action and launching an app there is custom box to type in which say open a specific activity within an app. I tried typing shuffle in this box but does not seem to work.
Is this possible to do? Anyone achieved this?
Cheers, Rich
 
Three6ty said:
Hi,
Thanks for the advice guys. All working good, and no battery drain with drop down gps switch on.
One other thing if I may rather than starting a new thread ;)
I want to make a tag that will launch my poweramp and have it start playing music in shuffle mode. I notice when selecting an action and launching an app there is custom box to type in which say open a specific activity within an app. I tried typing shuffle in this box but does not seem to work.
Is this possible to do? Anyone achieved this?
Cheers, Rich
Click to expand...


I would assume youd want to get something like "Tasker" for that, but i could be wrong so someone else probably knows a better solution.
 
XplosiV said:
I would assume youd want to get something like "Tasker" for that, but i could be wrong so someone else probably knows a better solution.
Click to expand...

Hi,
I personally think looking at it logically that NFC task launcher should be capable of doing this. Just a case of putting the right text in the custom text box. I could however be way off the mark here?? ;)
 
I'm certainly not intending to hijack the thread, but where are you getting your tags from? I've seen a few demo's of how the technology works and the tags had a little Android design on them. They don't have to look like that, but I wouldn't mind tags with a little design to them.

If not, just something inexpensive and functional will work.
 
bvbull200 said:
I'm certainly not intending to hijack the thread, but where are you getting your tags from? I've seen a few demo's of how the technology works and the tags had a little Android design on them. They don't have to look like that, but I wouldn't mind tags with a little design to them.

If not, just something inexpensive and functional will work.
Click to expand...

Got mine from HERE but it's in the UK. I am using the NTAG203 tags. They were 65p each (Roughly $0.50) Loving experimenting with them. Using the NFC task launcher app which is superb and free. There is so much you can do with them.
Whilst writing, I would like to express my thanks to the developer of the app. I dropped him an email earlier as the screen brightness or auto brightness part did not work on my S3. After a few emails to and from each other he kindly sent me a re-written app to test the screen brightness part and it worked perfectly. I guess he will put this fix in the next update now he knows it works. That is absolutely top service in my book :D
Cheers, Rich
 
Three6ty said:
Hi,
I personally think looking at it logically that NFC task launcher should be capable of doing this. Just a case of putting the right text in the custom text box. I could however be way off the mark here?? ;)
Click to expand...

Tbh I agree with you but also its still relatively early days for NFC.

I think given time and support from Google, more functionality can be embedded within the android possibly to the point where you won't even need an app to program NFC tags as it could be built in. Let's face it you don't have to download a camera/video app just to use that piece of hardware on your phone do you?

If google get their heads straight and embed NFC read/write support they could be onto a winner, and possibly make apps like tasker near redundant for the novice as it would hopefully support things like alarms/gps/wifi/music natively and properly.

There is lots of potential for NFC, it just need permissions for some things that require root access, but if embedded this could change.
 
Hi,
Sussed out the poweramp / shuffle play and it's dead easy.
Simply make a new tag. Add the following actions; Action 1, Launch Poweramp from the launch applications list. Action 2, Goto sounds and volume use media playback. That's all.
I have shuffle all songs set in poweramp already.
I swipe the phone over the tag and it launches poweramp and plays in shuffle mode. It also pauses poweramp if you swipe again. :D
 
Three6ty said:
Hi,
Sussed out the poweramp / shuffle play and it's dead easy.
Simply make a new tag. Add the following actions; Action 1, Launch Poweramp from the launch applications list. Action 2, Goto sounds and volume use media playback. That's all.
I have shuffle all songs set in poweramp already.
I swipe the phone over the tag and it launches poweramp and plays in shuffle mode. It also pauses poweramp if you swipe again. :D
Click to expand...


Cool beans!

You might want to share your discovery over here http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s3/576789-share-your-nfc-tag-settings.html as I reckon it'll make a good start to that topic.

Thanks for sharing dude!
 
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