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Smart Actions for the Bionic!

Is there a way to use Smart Actions to turn on WiFi based on location? I have tried everything I can find, but am told that WiFi needs to be on to determine location. I have been using Setting Profiles and it knows when I am near my most used WiFi access points and turns on WiFi for me, so I know it can be done. I love the interface for Smart Actions, but that particular function is the one I rely on most.

Any help will be greatly appreciated,
BigRedGonzo
 
I'm wondering if this may be a limitation because this program wasn't intended for the Bionic. I find wi-fi and airplane mode actions greyed out if I use a location-based trigger. Wi-fi is required to be turned on when using a location based trigger, so both the wi-fi radio must be on and the LTE radio is on as well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't this be worse on the battery to have both running at the same time?

I am missing the ability to turn off cellular data which exists in the tutorials I have watched. Could this be for the same reason (Razr program)? I am going to check a co-worker's Razr this morning to see if the function is the same.

I looked at a Razr and there were 2 actions that are not in the list on my Bionic. One was "brightness" and the other was "cellular data". Maybe this version doesn't comppletely function on the Bionic like it does on the Razr.

Can someone please check their install and see if these 2 action are listed?
 
There will also be differences in behavior if it's installed on the Bionic as a user app, since it's a system app on the RAZR.
 
I don't have the brightness or cellular data triggers, either, and quite a few things don't seem to work right. Without wi-fi, it doesn't know where it is, so it stays on work mode even after I leave since it can't pick up a wi-fi signal out on the street, and none of the charging triggers work.

UncleMike, do you know if there's a way to install it as a system app?
 
To install a as system app you have to be rooted.

I'm playing with it on a rooted phone running an ICS ported ROM....I seem to have more options available. When you set up your phone initially, did you disable geolocation services? That may be part of the problem.....
 
johnlgalt said:
To install a as system app you have to be rooted.

I'm playing with it on a rooted phone running an ICS ported ROM....I seem to have more options available. When you set up your phone initially, did you disable geolocation services? That may be part of the problem.....
Click to expand...

All of my 3 GPS options are enabled, but I am not rooted. Is that what you were referring to?
 
To install as a system app you have to be rooted.

The GPS options I was wondering about regarding the ability to do the location thing, but I have no saved locations message on my phone (but I'm not stock either).
 
I have the WiFi-location issue, but there are other bugs as well. For example, I made a rule to play Pandora automatically when plugged into the standard desk dock. Instead, it automatically plays my stored music files (mostly ringtones).
 
None of it is working for me. All my rules are time based yet none of them are activating???
Ive looked for conflicts but see no issues there??
 
Location won't work without wifi. Motorola designed it this way. A guy on the development team said as much. They think just using cell id is unsatisfactory and users would complain. Using the gps chip would be too costly in battery life. He said the wifi chip uses so little power now that it isn't an impact. Can't please everyone I guess.
 
Lars said:
Location won't work without wifi. Motorola designed it this way. A guy on the development team said as much. They think just using cell id is unsatisfactory and users would complain. Using the gps chip would be too costly in battery life. He said the wifi chip uses so little power now that it isn't an impact. Can't please everyone I guess.
Click to expand...

I don't understand how that could be because one of the examples that are given is to use it to turn on WiFi when you get home.

BigRedGonzo
 
Lars said:
That's right. What time do you get home... :-) Don't shoot the messenger
Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't by any means want to sound like I was "shooting the messenger." I just meant that some of their examples use location to activate WiFi. I use Setting Profiles and it works great in that department. When I arrive at work, home or at the local Starbucks, Setting Profiles uses non-WiFi based location to fire a rule to turn WiFi on. It also turns it off when I leave. One would think that if a third party solution could accomplish that task, the OEM would be able to do the same.

BigRedGonzo
 
Lars said:
It was in jest. I can't get the hacked version to work at all btw.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if I had it working or not. I tried it for a couple of hours with things like going to vibrate during a meeting. The history said the rule fired, but I don't know if it was working or not. After I found that you had to have a rule to begin a meeting and then another to end a meeting, I uninstalled it. Here is the scenario that concerned me. You have two meetings that overlap (that happens a lot here because I work with mostly computer illiterate idiots,) the rule for the first meeting fires and puts the phone into vibrate, then the rule for the second meeting fires while the first meeting is still active. That no problem because they both place the phone into vibrate only mode. Now heres the rub, the first meeting ends (scheduled) while you are still in the second meeting (remember they overlapped,) the end meeting rule for the first meeting will place the phone back in "normal" mode, which will allow the phone to ring, beep, etc...

I was really excited about Smart Actions to begin with, because it was OEM produced. Now that I see how it works, I believe I'll just stick with Setting Profiles. It works well and the rules you set are persistent. You can also prioritize rules so that they don't overrule one another. For example, I have an end of day meeting that ends early, so I decide to take off for the rest of the day. My car dock rule has a higher priority than my meeting rule, so when I plug my phone into the car dock the volumes get set properly, bluetooth turns on, etc..., even though the meeting rule is still active.

Anyway, my rant is over. The grass is not always greener....

BigRedGonzo
 
I get that. There are so many apps like this. Tasker locale llama timeriffic automateit y5 all have some of the same advantages and problems. Honestly windows mobile 6 worked the best for this. Profiles bases on calendared items.
 
Yea, I've tried a few of them, but I keep going back to Setting Profiles. Tasker seemed to have a lot of potential, but it was, IMO, difficult to use, really difficult. I think I actually bought AutomateIt, but after using it for a while decided I didn't care for it. In my case, I tend to stick with what I get used too. Truth be known, that's how most of us roll.

Cheers,
BigRedGonzo
 
I started out with Locale, which worked great - but ate resources up lousily. I haven't gotten around to setting up Tasker now, but I don't mind an initial steep learning curve - Tasker is way more robust than the others, but a lot or people don't ever bother really digging into it. For simpler control SP is probably the best, although I've heard some good things about another one - can't remember name....
 
I had a problem, and found a solution. Figured I would share.

when I would try to add a location, I got a mostly blank white screen that said "No meaningful locations to display"

I thought, ok, how do I add a meaningful location?

There is supposed to be a green plus sign in the upper right corner. I was not seeing this. I found out it's because for somereason, I was missing the Social Location app. I found the APK here: Location triggers - Smart actions - xda-developers and now I see the green plus sign.

hope this helps someone.
 
That app is reputed to be the biggest (at least one of the biggest) battery hogs that you can have. Perhaps that's the reason it wasn't present. (Perhaps a root-ed Bionic that deleted it?)

... Thom
 
It actually triggered a profile One time for me but after that I had to manually select them. Tasker works perfectly however it killed my battery life something horrible
 
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