Unique uses for Locale

[Roroco]

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?

 

[Roroco]

I guess I am the only one that is geeked out about Locale - even in it slightly gimped state on the Droid.

 

[vincentp]

I was playing with Locale and trying to see what cool things I could do with it too, I just didn't get very far. My profiles stopped working, and it always sets to default.

 

[v-6 nolo]

same with me i was excited for locale, but it did not work AT ALL for me, kept resetting, i just got Silent time and am pretty happy with it.

 

[drabidea]

I created a "Night Mode" when it is charging at night, I set it up to dim the screen down because the Multimedia Dock screen is very bright. Once I unplug it the screen dimming goes back to normal.

 

[Fadikine]

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.

 

[cyberbob25]

Don't know of a way to send a call to voicemail using Locale, but you can have it put your ringer on silent and turn off vibrate for certain calls, so at least the call won't bother you.

 

[erik]

I want one that talks to my computer to "unlock" the desktop when my phone gets near it. This may require some sort of server application to be running on the desktop, but I can think of lots of cool things for a desktop locale to do. Like play an MP3 when I get home, "Welcome Master!"

 

[mikespe]

I tried the GPS profile to turn off notification alerts when I am at work but because I would in a big school I am not always near a window. The GPS doesn't play very nice indoors!

For night time I have it set to shut off all sounds except the ringer from 11pm to 5am...that works very well!

I will be watching this thread for more ideas. I got a few so far!

 

[pizzachef]

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.

That option is built in to the contact editor. You open up the contact to edit it and at the very bottom is a checkbox to send all calls from that contact to voicemail.

 

[johnlgalt]

Some nice ideas. I like the MM Dock screen dimming thing, that is pretty kewl - will this work even if you have the screen brightness set to auto during non-sleep hours?

As for all the other things it can do - man, I haven't gotten around to fixing all this up - I currently have mine turning sound off only during certain hours b/c I am in college, and rather than use location I'd like to use hours - of course I should probably test GPS-based for use in the library, huh?

*goes off muttering to himself of all the different possibilities that this app can have*

 

[punkzanyj]

for just about every profile for locale I have it change the background.

At the gym it shows a bodybuilder, at work it is plain and boring, at night it's the moon.


For friends, family, and my partner the bluetooth turns on automatically when they call, so I can easily hook up my headset.

my "work" setting is based on two criteria - Calendar appointment (I'm a temp) and location (downtown Chicago - all my assignments are downtown). So, if I'm anywhere downtown between 9am and 5pm, the background turns to boring, the screen dims, and it switches to vibrate.

Same thing for bedtime, if I'm at home between 11pm and 4am, the background changes, the volume turns down to 1, and the timeout actually goes up to 2 minutes so I can use it to see in the dark.


One thing I always tell people about Locale, the location settings are only as good as your phone's connection. Really, location based profiles are a little advanced for today's technology. I see people here, and on the Marketplace saying about locale things like "doesn't work, says I'm somewhere else, don't install" or "App doesn't work, turns settings off and on when I haven't gone anywhere". Your phone tells locale your location. If your phone is confused, it gives bad info to Locale. The problem is not the app, it's the hardware and network. It's the same for ANY app that has location based information. If the phone loses it's location, then the apps that rely on that information don't work properly. You can't fault the app for something that the hardware and network connection is messing up.

 

[Roroco]

One hint... I also noticed the location gets iffy when you are indoors. I just set a time of 9-5 on weekdays and a wide area location around my work - wide enough that with just cell tower location, it picks it up.

That way, when I work from home or take a day off, I don't have to worry about resetting the ringer volume up.

 

[bdbull]

Anyone know how often Locale checks the location when using a location based profile? I want to attempt to string profiles together to turn the GPS off when I'm at home and at work to save battery, and turn it on when I leave. Kind of want the same thing for wifi as well.

 

[Mike Anthony]

isnt it always on.....? it would imagine it would have to be to know when you enter/leave a certain location.......

 

[bdbull]

That's what I'm thinking, but it would be less of a battery drain if you could configure the interval for checking location. Then it could turn gps on and off when it needed to check, thus conserving battery life. Say if you configured it to check location every 30 minutes, then the gps would only be on for a small amount of time to check location instead of all the time.

 

[Fadikine]

It would be really cool if you could force it to check at certain times. at 10am check location to see if I am at work. This way you can make sure that it will know as soon as you are at work to turn the vibrate etc. Sometimes it takes several min. before my phone realizes where I am and acts accordingly.

That's what I'm thinking, but it would be less of a battery drain if you could configure the interval for checking location. Then it could turn gps on and off when it needed to check, thus conserving battery life. Say if you configured it to check location every 30 minutes, then the gps would only be on for a small amount of time to check location instead of all the time.

 

[srothkin]

That's what I'm thinking, but it would be less of a battery drain if you could configure the interval for checking location. Then it could turn gps on and off when it needed to check, thus conserving battery life. Say if you configured it to check location every 30 minutes, then the gps would only be on for a small amount of time to check location instead of all the time.

It appears that unless there is another application using the GPS, the GPS will be off most of the time. For locale it only turns on briefly when it checks the location (which I've read is about once every 10 minutes).

I don't disable the GPS on my Droid. Battery status currently shows it has been unplugged for 13 hours and 21 minutes. It shows Locale as having used the GPS for 26 minutes during that entire time. It currently shows Locale as responsible for 15% of battery usage overall. That puts it in 3rd place behind display (29% for 2 hours 12 minutes of use) and media server (22% for 1 hour 14 minutes of CPU use, and probably around 8 hours of music play time).

So I wouldn't really worry about keeping GPS enabled if you want to use Locale to sense your location.

 

[punkzanyj]

isnt it always on.....? it would imagine it would have to be to know when you enter/leave a certain location.......

Locale uses several options to determine location.

- Cell phone tower triangulation (aka wireless location)
- Wifi networks
- GPS

It would prefer, obviously, for you to have all of those on at once. I rarely use the GPS for locale. You really don't have to as long as the "bubble" around your location is big enough, it'll catch you.

 

[takeshi]

The GPS doesn't play very nice indoors!

Nope. Can't lock on satellites without a view of the sky.

 

[bdbull]

It appears that unless there is another application using the GPS, the GPS will be off most of the time. For locale it only turns on briefly when it checks the location (which I've read is about once every 10 minutes).

I don't disable the GPS on my Droid. Battery status currently shows it has been unplugged for 13 hours and 21 minutes. It shows Locale as having used the GPS for 26 minutes during that entire time. It currently shows Locale as responsible for 15% of battery usage overall. That puts it in 3rd place behind display (29% for 2 hours 12 minutes of use) and media server (22% for 1 hour 14 minutes of CPU use, and probably around 8 hours of music play time).

So I wouldn't really worry about keeping GPS enabled if you want to use Locale to sense your location.

That's very good information. I'd much rather use the gps as a condition than time. Do you know how it evaluates multiple conditions? Are they ANDed or ORed and in what order?

 

[srothkin]

Multiple conditions are ANDed.

 

[Deleted User]

i'm having a lot of issues with my locale settings. at home, i have wi-fi on and network off. and theoretically would like it to switch to wi-fi off and network on. has anyone tried this?

it won't even seem to recognize that i am home.

 

[cwrig]

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?

 

[kolaf]

I've posted the exact same question some other place, but I never received an answer. I hope you have better luck than me.