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Unique uses for Locale

Has anyone had any problems with the location condition in locale? I've recently had to remove location conditions because they don't seem to be working. I can open up maps and see where I am, but for some reason the app can't.
 
I have a question for the OP....... I am unable to switch GPS on/off as a response to a condition.

I think the Google Voice number to initiate a lots mode is an AWESOME idea....and can set a condition that when a certain number calls it to switch on Wifi and Ringer.....BUT I can see no Option for GPS.

Any ideas?
 
cwrig said:
I want Locale to put my phone in silent mode whenever I have a scheduled meeting. I cant find a way to do this without going into every calendar event and making a "situation". Which is just as much work as simply turning the ringer off each time. Am I missing something?
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Hi cwrig,
I built my app to do just this! Set it and forget it.

Many configurable options - selectively choose which calendars to monitor, free/busy status, quick SMS reply to people who call you during a meeting, etc.

Please see "Vibrate During Meetings" in the market.

Thanks!
Mike
 
I have a combination of settings for when I'm at home between 10pm and 5am to put my phone to silent, unless work or my family calls (I support police/fire software and have to be available pretty much 24/7), and unless it's a weekend night (so my phone isn't silent Friday nights when I'm out with my friends).

My phone switches to vibrate at work.

The ringer goes to full volume at home (except between 10-5, Sun-Thur).

The GPS, Wireless, and Bluetooth all turn on when plugged in.

The screen dims and times out faster, while the wireless, bluetooth, and GPS all go to off when the battery is low.

I'd love it if it could figure out when I'm "busy" and go to vibrate.
 
Roroco said:
Anyone else get creative with Locale?
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When I plug it in between the hours of 11PM and 7AM, it automatically turns the screen brightness all the way down, sets my GTalk status to "Asleep", and launches NightClock (the app I use for a bedside clock.)

When I'm at work (set by location) and I plug my phone in (I use a USB cable plugged into my work computer) it automatically launches DockRunner, which is the program that spoofs the multimedia dock, so that I have a nice desk clock.

Anytime I plug my phone in, except for when it's my nighttime setting that I explained above, it automatically cranks the brightness up to 10. This way, when I plug it into my car charger, I don't have to remember to turn the screen brightness all the way up.

It works pretty well, but I'm forever tinkering with it because, well, it's fun to do so. :-)
 
How do you get conditions like "plugged in" or "charging" or "car dock" or "desk dock"? I don't have this condition available in my Locale, and I have the latest one, and practically purchased all the plug-ins there were! :confused::confused:
 
Okay, I need a few brains to pick: I often have to wake up at irregular hours that I've scheduled in my calendar, but I would love a way to use that calendar entry to trigger a wake-up alarm. Anyone have any idea how to do that? A full-feature alarm would be sweet (snooze etc), but I'll take anything over having to set my clock every night (technology is intended to help the lazy, right?)
 
Johnny Cakes said:
I use Locale to drain my battery.
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I used Locale to suck up my memory and make my phone crash to the point where I was doing daily battery pulls (and this was after a full system restore!) I finally gave up and sadly uninstalled it last week... but I haven't had to pull the battery since then!

Sigh. I miss it. But I don't miss my phone crashing constantly.
 
I've been playing with locale since I got a Nexus One and have it doing quite a few things now. I've installed quite a few plug-ins (free where possible!) to achieve this but it's worth it.

1) Flip for Silence. When face down it silences the phone, handy for meetings.

2) Switch on Bluetooth when I make/ receive a call. Allows me to use my hands-free kit in my car whilst saving the battery but sometimes doesn't finish connecting until I'm 5/10 seconds into a call. This is for when it's in my pocket and number 5 below hasn't activated.

3) Shake for Brightness. On a sunny day this OLED screen isn't viewable unless it's on full. Not being viewable means you can't navigate to the brightness to turn it up. I shake the phone and it sets the brightness to full! Edit: This has gone off a few times whilst I'm walking briskly in the last week and is starting to annoy me ;-)

4) Home. When I'm at home it does a few things (reversing them when I leave the area):
i) Turns off the lockscreen so I don't have to bother with it.
ii) Turns Wifi on. Saves me forgetting to switch it off later.
iii) Turns the brightness right down. I'm inside and can see it just fine.
iv) Enables Syncing. So I don't use up my mobile data away from home. This doesn't work on the Nexus right now. Edit: This works now, I moved from wisync to the sync plugin for Android 2.0 and above.

​
5) External Power. When on external power I'm not so worried about preserving the battery so I have it switch everything on (GPS is on all the time anyway) and puts the brightness on auto. When power is removed it returns to more conservative settings. Edit: I would love to be able to switch on/off 3G using this but apparently that's not possible in Android 2 and above!

6) Car Dock. When I have external power bluetooth turns on (see 5, above) if my phone then connects to my bluetooth car kit I use the dock faker to put the Nexus into 'car mode'. I don't like windscreen mounts so am going to buy a brodit one instead, this way my brodit mount will go into car mode just like the official one does!

It also opens EZCam so I am alerted to speed cameras. Ezcam gets killed by locale when Car mode is off. I'd like to be able to start EZCam minimised but that doesn't seem to be supported in Android.

Edit: Kudos to CriticalCritic for his car mode. I've added the speaking of SMS messages whilst driving and an autoreply to tell people I can't SMS them back until later.

7) Low Battery. When the battery is under 20% it starts switching things off to prolong battery life.

8) As my default profile switches off bluetooth and wifi if I manual switch it on using the Android options it gets switched off again which is annoying. I have buttons on one of my homescreens which engage a condition that forces each of these on in locale.

9) Sleepy Time. I turn all the volumes down (not off) when I'm ususally in bed to stop them scaring the hell out of me! Edit: It now switches off the trackball notifications so it doesn't wake me up in the night!

There is more I'd like to do but can't until they implement 'not' conditions and conditions when you leave a situation as well as enter them.

Interested to hear what others are doing!

Chris

PS Brodit mount has arrived and is great, much neater than a windscreen mount.
 
danield8008 said:
How do you get conditions like "plugged in" or "charging" or "car dock" or "desk dock"? I don't have this condition available in my Locale, and I have the latest one, and practically purchased all the plug-ins there were! :confused::confused:
Click to expand...

The Power Source plug-n can distinguish between running on battery, usb, or external power (mains or docks).

There is one called 'dock condition' that can distinguish being plugged into different types of dock.
 
cgcrute said:
I've been playing with locale since I got a Nexus One and have it doing quite a few things now. I've installed quite a few plug-ins (free where possible!) to achieve this but it's worth it.

3) Shake for Brightness. On a sunny day this OLED screen isn't viewable unless it's on full. Not being viewable means you can't navigate to the brightness to turn it up. I shake the phone and it sets the brightness to full!

That's a nice idea - how do you get it to detect the shaking though?
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Fadikine said:
Does anyone konw of a way that you can send calls from specific people to voicemail using locale? If not, this would be a usefull plugin for that.
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well...theres no need to make a plug-in for that as it's already one of your basic options in your Contacts. But, I have mine set to recognize my Phone App (using the Application Plugin) so that when I get a call my screen locks and doesn't sleep..maybe theres a setting in there too
 
cgcrute said:
There is more I'd like to do but can't until they implement 'not' conditions and conditions when you leave a situation as well as enter them.
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Agreed, I cannot wait until they get the 'not' conditions working. I've considered trying to establish something similar through the boolean plugin, though i do not want to go through all that trouble. Especially if with the real 'not' conditions hopefully around the corner.



As for mine, I have mine setup pretty well to follow my daily routine.
1- Normal settings while at home. I use the "Location Energy Saving" plugin to detect my location using the connected cell tower ID.
2- I have my bluetooth charging in my car, so when I turn on my bluetooth it launches my car situation which will turn off wifi, and turn on my GPS, and launches Google Nav and my SMS text to speech app.
3- When I get to class I turn off bluetooth, and again using the power saving location plugin as the condition, it turns wifi back on, turns off GPS, and kills Google Nav and my SMS reading app.
4- I get no signal in class, and sadly I still have to manually turn on airplane mode if I want it to maintain wifi connection b/c it works through a widget, and I cannot find an option for Locale to interact with widgets.
5- When I get back to my car I plug in the charger and the power connection is set as a condition to disable airplane mode. Which then turns Bluetooth back on, and prompts it to launch my car situation again.

Basically, by setting my car situation above all others, it will take the bluetooth connection over everything else. Then when I disconnect bt it will revert to any lower location setting that may apply. Though, in an attempt to avoid the many potential problems, I do not use the default situation for anything.
 
A small update...

In addition to the above I now have locale set to, when in car mode, read my sms messages using text to speech and to auto reply telling people I'm driving and will get back to them when safe to do so.
 
antipesto93 said:
how do you do this with locale?
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I've not done this, but at a guess I'd say:

Locale Call Detection Plug-in to detect the specific number calling.

Volume control is built in, or you can use the fre allvolumes plug-in which allows th control of individual volumes.

Local GPS Plug-in to switch on GPS.
 
Hi, I set up Locale so that the sound is stopped when the phone is "screen down" but the action never fires up... Any idea?
 
Roroco said:
I see another thread on Locale, but it seems to be focused on it technical shortcomings. I thought a thread about how people are using this app would be helpful.

Now... I use Locale for the following:

- Turning the ringer down when I get to work (obviouse one)
- Turning GPS/Bluetooth/wifi on when I plug it in the phone (think car dock)
- Turn on Wifi when I get near my known hot spots.
- Turn off GPS/Bluetooth/wifi off and turn down brightness when my battery is low.

And the last one is a good one for me...

- I have a GV number. When I call my phone from that number, it turns the ringer volume all the way up and it turns on wifi and GPS. This is my "lost phone aid". It turns on the locating features so I can see where the phone is using iGoogle and Latitude, and I can hear the phone if it is "in the cushions" on vibrate.

Anyone else get creative with Locale?
Click to expand...

I can't call my phone with my Google Voice number (which is linked to that phone). What am I doing wrong?
 
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