locale

[rifter]

Much like the Android, it is a WONDERFUL idea, that is just getting the bugs worked out, and IN THE FUTURE, will be awesome.

When it works, awesome. When it doesn't, it is a bummer. Of course, I think part of the problem, is GPS, and its issues. I may try, as someone suggested increasing the bubble areas.

 

[punkzanyj]

Much like the Android, it is a WONDERFUL idea, that is just getting the bugs worked out, and IN THE FUTURE, will be awesome.

When it works, awesome. When it doesn't, it is a bummer. Of course, I think part of the problem, is GPS, and its issues. I may try, as someone suggested increasing the bubble areas.

The Bubble helped me. Without GPS my phone thinks I'm 4 blocks down the street from where I actually am. Since I'm indoors, I don't think GPS would help any, and I'd rather not have that running constantly, I've finally gotten the battery life up to one charge per day!

 

[YalawaLamaka]

The new beta version works much better so far. Here're some of the improvements I found:

- better user interface, help screens and info
- easier to edit the map location
- allow to configure time for days of the week
- time situation works more dependably now

 

[dkaufman1]

The new beta finally flipped my late night wallpaper on, which was an annoying bug that was not based location. All my other wallpapers were working fine. So clearly some work was done under the hood. Nice job.

 

[punkzanyj]

The new beta version works much better so far. Here're some of the improvements I found:

- better user interface, help screens and info
- easier to edit the map location
- allow to configure time for days of the week
- time situation works more dependably now

The days of the week is the BEST part, IMHO. Now I don't have to use location in my Work "situation". The only reason I did this was to make sure it didn't use my work situation on the weekends. This is great!

 

[YalawaLamaka]

Got an email from the Locale team saying that the update includes the following fixes and new features and enhancements:

New Features
- Time Condition now supports day of week
- Network Setting now supports GPS
- Battery Condition now supports plugged-in and unplugged
- Contact Condition now supports accelerated scrolling
- Calendar Condition displays which calendar each event comes from
- Location Condition supports easier renaming and deletion of locations
- More thorough in-application help

Bug Fixes and Enhancements
- Better location detection
- Calendar Condition and Time Condition now detect changes immediately (previously it could take up to 10 minutes)
- Fixed a bug with Time Conditions spanning across the PM-AM boundary
- Fixed a bug where large locations couldn't be edited. Zoom controls now display even if a location fills the screen
- Notifications dismiss when leaving a situation


More enhancements are coming in our next update coming soon. We love answering your questions, so please write if we can help with anything!

 

[SirFenwick]

Love this App. Its nice to come home and have Wifi turned on automatically and everything.

 

[dkaufman1]

Got an email from the Locale team saying that the update includes the following fixes and new features and enhancements:

New Features
- Time Condition now supports day of week
- Network Setting now supports GPS
- Battery Condition now supports plugged-in and unplugged
- Contact Condition now supports accelerated scrolling
- Calendar Condition displays which calendar each event comes from
- Location Condition supports easier renaming and deletion of locations
- More thorough in-application help

Bug Fixes and Enhancements
- Better location detection
- Calendar Condition and Time Condition now detect changes immediately (previously it could take up to 10 minutes)
- Fixed a bug with Time Conditions spanning across the PM-AM boundary
- Fixed a bug where large locations couldn't be edited. Zoom controls now display even if a location fills the screen
- Notifications dismiss when leaving a situation


More enhancements are coming in our next update coming soon. We love answering your questions, so please write if we can help with anything!

How did you get on this list? Thanks for posting it.

 

[YalawaLamaka]

By sending questions to locale@mit.edu or locale-support@mit.edu. They respond very quickly.

 

[dkaufman1]

By sending questions to locale@mit.edu or locale-support@mit.edu. They respond very quickly.

Thank you..I sent them an email with my recent issue and a thank you for making the app.

 

[deceptikk0n]

do you guys leave your gps on the whole time for locale? i try to do this but it drains my ebattery too fast. is it required to leve gps on for this to work properly?

 

[dkaufman1]

I have turned off all my "locale situations" using gps. Instead I tried using "time" situations. Not as "fun" but worth the battery. So I set work, and home and etc based on time I expect to be somewhere.

 

[richy240]

How does the position feature work? Goes GPS check your location every so often or something?

Just curious, because I haven't seen the GPS icon, and it seems I have to open Locale for the changes to take place.

 

[dkaufman1]

How does the position feature work? Goes GPS check your location every so often or something? Just curious...

Locale has a second app called Location and you can set a few locations. A location is a pinpoint on a map with a surrounding radius, suggested to set the radius at a few blocks or so at least. Then you can set a situation such as: turn my ringer and wallpaper to this and this when I am in this location as tracked by gps. As noted the gps drains the battery so time is a better setting that works and is battery friendly.

 

[richy240]

Locale has a second app called Location and you can set a few locations. A location is a pinpoint on a map with a surrounding radius, suggested to set the radius at a few blocks or so at least. Then you can set a situation such as: turn my ringer and wallpaper to this and this when I am in this location as tracked by gps. As noted the gps drains the battery so time is a better setting that works and is battery friendly.

Yeah, I've got my locations set up, though I might take your advise and expand them a bit - right now they basically cover only the location I'm at (not surrounding houses, offices, etc.).

But my question is, does it make calls for GPS coordinates in the background or something? And if so, how often?

 

[dkaufman1]

It does sync with the gps/wifi/tower regularly to determine location. I don't know the frequency but the gps works well when driving in keeping me "located" so I am guessing even if you are in the same building it is trying to pin you down location wise.

Also in buildings sometimes the signal didn't work as well so having a bigger area was smarter.

 

[richy240]

Ok, here's another question: does anyone know specifically how default settings relate to profies? That is, if my default call volume is 5, and my "Office" profile sets the volume at 2, does it go back to 5 if I immediately enter another profile, let's call it "Next Door to Office," if that profile has no volume setting defined? Does that make sense?

 

[richy240]

Also, why do I have to launch Locale manually for it to make necessary adjustments based on my location? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

And does anyone actually visit and/or read these forums?

 

[PhantomTrace]

Also, why do I have to launch Locale manually for it to make necessary adjustments based on my location? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

And does anyone actually visit and/or read these forums?

lolll I hear your voice, thats with all apps. You have to manually start them. Hopefully there will be a update that you can make settings for your apps to automatically start when you turn on your phone.
For defeating that specific purpose of that apps, yes your right.
~Hence, we should all start gathering a "Wish List" for Google to comply too

 

[richy240]

lolll I hear your voice, thats with all apps. You have to manually start them. Hopefully there will be a update that you can make settings for your apps to automatically start when you turn on your phone.
For defeating that specific purpose of that apps, yes your right.
~Hence, we should all start gathering a "Wish List" for Google to comply too

Uh, no dude, I have to manually launch Locale even after I've launched it before to get it to apply new settings. But yes, it'd be nice if apps could start in the background when the phone starts (and maybe they can, I don't know yet) like services do in Windows.

 

[punkzanyj]

couple things ---

Today appears to be an exception, but normally I do not have to start locale in order for locale to work. Most of time it runs by itself in the background. I turn my phone off at least once a day, and more often than not when I turn it back on, locale pops up with a notification.

You do not have to leave GPS running in order for locale to update. My default is for GPS and Wifi to be off.

GPS is useless indoors anyway. Good rule of thumb with GPS: if you look up and can't see the sky, the satellites probably can't see you. The exception would be tents, cars, places with very thin roof, but generally no sky = no signal.

I've found that if you set up a wide radius around your location, it works just fine.

Here's a tip----
-With GPS off, open Google Maps.
-Click Menu and click "my location"
-Now wait for it to find you

Without GPS enabled, it probably won't find your exact position. It's probably a few blocks off. Given that, when you set up your locations, make sure that the radius is wide enough to cover both where you actually are, and where the G1 without GPS thinks you are.
My work location covers about 6 blocks and is centered near my building, but not right on it. Same thing for home. If you want to be more exact than this, you'll have to have GPS on all the time, or at least during the situations that need that kind of specificity.

 

[richy240]

Well, I'm not the only person having this problem. And GPS works inside my house just fine (no, really), but not in my office.

Even when Locale works properly, there's a huge lag between when I, say, get to work, and when it updates my settings. I actually uninstalled the app because it's worthless until it starts responding automatically, and in a timely manner. Don't get me wrong, the app is nice and polished, it just doesn't work as advertised (or, as well as advertised anyway).

And further, if Locale works without GPS being on, it should work BETTER if GPS is activated. And I can't see that it works really that well for location-based criteria anyway. Other criteria, like plugged/unplugged, time of day, etc. work like a charm. But I need location-based criteria to work WELL before I reinstall the app.

 

[punkzanyj]

Well, I'm not the only person having this problem. And GPS works inside my house just fine (no, really), but not in my office.

Even when Locale works properly, there's a huge lag between when I, say, get to work, and when it updates my settings. I actually uninstalled the app because it's worthless until it starts responding automatically, and in a timely manner. Don't get me wrong, the app is nice and polished, it just doesn't work as advertised (or, as well as advertised anyway).

And further, if Locale works without GPS being on, it should work BETTER if GPS is activated. And I can't see that it works really that well for location-based criteria anyway. Other criteria, like plugged/unplugged, time of day, etc. work like a charm. But I need location-based criteria to work WELL before I reinstall the app.

I turn my phone off once a day every day. Turn it back on 5 minutes later or whatever. Usually it's when I'm eating dinner or something, some time I won't be using the phone and don't want to be bugged anyway. Seems to help. May not help you.

I have to confess, I haven't looked at my phone to see if Locale has activated situations the exact minute or mile it should. I don't have that much phone activity, so luckily if there is a lag, it hasn't been an issue for me yet.

But I can understand how it would be frustrating for someone who absolutely needs this program to work smoothly and consistently.

I haven't had as much trouble as other people with this program, and all I was ever trying to do was see if anything I was doing could be helpful in some way. Sorry it hasn't, best of luck.

 

[captainawesome]

Ok, here's another question: does anyone know specifically how default settings relate to profies? That is, if my default call volume is 5, and my "Office" profile sets the volume at 2, does it go back to 5 if I immediately enter another profile, let's call it "Next Door to Office," if that profile has no volume setting defined? Does that make sense?

I have been struggling to figure out how the default settings work as well.

If I exit a "situation" I definitely want to go back to my default settings, but I think this would lead to some strange changes if Locale cannot find your location while you are in a "situation".

 

[captainawesome]

I have been struggling to figure out how the default settings work as well.

If I exit a "situation" I definitely want to go back to my default settings, but I think this would lead to some strange changes if Locale cannot find your location while you are in a "situation".

After a few more days of using "Locale", I definitely see the defaults kick in, the issue I am having is definitely related to how quickly my phone updates the location (as mentioned by others in this thread).