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So I've been reading about the smart actions thing the razr has, is there anything like this on the market? I have timerific and love it for my classes. But it seems that smart actions can do a lot more. I love the bionic lol that just seems like one very interesting thing the razr had that we don't

I checked that out too (briefly) and I saw their is an app called "Setting Profiles" that I tried which was Free. But it only allowed 1 rule for the free version (Lite is free & Full is $3.99). It seemed a little complicated to me, when I tried it before uninstalling.

I think there are a few others. If you find a good one, let me know :)
 
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So I've been reading about the smart actions thing the razr has, is there anything like this on the market? I have timerific and love it for my classes. But it seems that smart actions can do a lot more. I love the bionic lol that just seems like one very interesting thing the razr had that we don't

Tasker

Best $6.49 ever spent.
 
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I own Setting Profiles and it is very easy to use and very flexible. I tried Tasker and found it very confusing to use. I also looked at Locale, but it seem very pricey to me. When I purchased SP, it was 2.95 and Locale was 9.95. Also, Locale requires the use of Plug-Ins some of which also cost.

Obviously I prefer SP, but Tasker works just as well. It was just a bit complicated for my liking and it seemed that SP was a bit more flexible.
 
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Yeah Tasker is & looks very complicating at first, but once you get the hang of it it's not that bad.

My most "in-depth" profile I have set up is if I have my phone in the car dock and I travel faster than 10MPH & receive a text message; my phone will automatically reply telling whoever texted me that I am currently driving at XX.XX MPH and Ill get back to them shortly.
 
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I bought Locale before Tasker, Timerrific, Settings profiles, and the like existed - When it was the only kid on the block.

I need to spend the time learning Tasker, and I'll gladly pay for it even if it is a duplicate app - b/c it can do so much more than Local could ever hope to do, even with 100 plugins.

For now, I've stopped using Locale since I can control most of what I want to do without the need for it, but this one setting alone shows me that Tasker is worth learning.

Now to find the time...you guys keep me too $#%^#$%^ busy in here! :D
 
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I own Setting Profiles and it is very easy to use and very flexible. I tried Tasker and found it very confusing to use. I also looked at Locale, but it seem very pricey to me. When I purchased SP, it was 2.95 and Locale was 9.95. Also, Locale requires the use of Plug-Ins some of which also cost.

Obviously I prefer SP, but Tasker works just as well. It was just a bit complicated for my liking and it seemed that SP was a bit more flexible.

I've also owned SP Full for a long time now, from the early days with my last phone. My only issue with it, though, is that location tracking seems to not work all that well. I had a rule to turn off WiFi when I was away from home and another to turn it on when I arrived within about a quarter mile radius. The turning off part worked great, but it never turned back on until I activated the app. I know that the app is running as a service because it changes my sound profiles based on time, so this was a disappointment.
 
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Yeah Tasker is & looks very complicating at first, but once you get the hang of it it's not that bad.

My most "in-depth" profile I have set up is if I have my phone in the car dock and I travel faster than 10MPH & receive a text message; my phone will automatically reply telling whoever texted me that I am currently driving at XX.XX MPH and Ill get back to them shortly.

Wow that is awesome!!! Very cool what these phones are able to do with the right app of course...
 
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I've also owned SP Full for a long time now, from the early days with my last phone. My only issue with it, though, is that location tracking seems to not work all that well. I had a rule to turn off WiFi when I was away from home and another to turn it on when I arrived within about a quarter mile radius. The turning off part worked great, but it never turned back on until I activated the app. I know that the app is running as a service because it changes my sound profiles based on time, so this was a disappointment.

I have been using SP since I got my OG Droid two years ago (or there abouts). I have a rule that fires within 1/4 mile of my house and one that fires within 1/4 mile of my office. They both work flawlessly. The only rule that I have is to turn the WiFi on when I get within range. I don't use one to turn it off. That may be your issue. The rules and profiles are designed to return the unit to the same state that it was in before the rule fired when the rule is no longer true. In other words, if my WiFi was on for some reason when I got home the rule would turn it on again, which would do nothing. Since it was already on when the rule fired, when the rule is no longer high it would return the phone to its previous state and since the WiFi was already on, it would just leave it on.

Hope this helps,
BigRedGonzo
 
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I have been using SP since I got my OG Droid two years ago (or there abouts). I have a rule that fires within 1/4 mile of my house and one that fires within 1/4 mile of my office. They both work flawlessly. The only rule that I have is to turn the WiFi on when I get within range. I don't use one to turn it off. That may be your issue. The rules and profiles are designed to return the unit to the same state that it was in before the rule fired when the rule is no longer true. In other words, if my WiFi was on for some reason when I got home the rule would turn it on again, which would do nothing. Since it was already on when the rule fired, when the rule is no longer high it would return the phone to its previous state and since the WiFi was already on, it would just leave it on.

If this is the case, it's not what I want. I want WiFi to turn off while I am not at home (or at several other locations where I have WiFi APs defined - my parent's house, my summer house, my mother-in-law's house) to save battery drain from WiFi scanning for APs as I drive/walk around, and especially to prevent activating WiFi for somebody, like another friend, who has the default "linksys" SSID without security :)rolleyes:). Of course I want WiFi to turn back on when I get home.

The rule to turn on works when I make SP Full the active app (ie, if I open the app it realizes that I am at home and turns WiFi on), so I just think that there is something wrong with the service process.
 
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If this is the case, it's not what I want. I want WiFi to turn off while I am not at home (or at several other locations where I have WiFi APs defined - my parent's house, my summer house, my mother-in-law's house) to save battery drain from WiFi scanning for APs as I drive/walk around, and especially to prevent activating WiFi for somebody, like another friend, who has the default "linksys" SSID without security :)rolleyes:). Of course I want WiFi to turn back on when I get home.

The rule to turn on works when I make SP Full the active app (ie, if I open the app it realizes that I am at home and turns WiFi on), so I just think that there is something wrong with the service process.

Sorry, I guess I got a bit long winded on my first reply. Based on what you just wrote, have you tried putting the widget on one of your homescreens? I have always used the widget and have never had any issues.

BigRedGonzo
 
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Based on what you just wrote, have you tried putting the widget on one of your homescreens? I have always used the widget and have never had any issues.

I hadn't used the widget, no. I could do that just as easily with the stock WiFi toggle widget in this case. SP Full was reliably turning off WiFi when I left the house - it just wouldn't turn it back on when I got back home. To be fair, I tried this with Locale last week and it was pretty much the same - though it did work a lot more reliably, it turned out that it was burning as much battery as I was saving, so not worth the bother.

I was just looking for something that would do this for me automatically. I did buy Tasker a long time ago - I may try that again.

Let me just say, though, that I absolutely love SP Full for managing sound profiles based on time. That part works great for me.
 
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Yeah Tasker is & looks very complicating at first, but once you get the hang of it it's not that bad.

My most "in-depth" profile I have set up is if I have my phone in the car dock and I travel faster than 10MPH & receive a text message; my phone will automatically reply telling whoever texted me that I am currently driving at XX.XX MPH and Ill get back to them shortly.

Only bad part of that is that I have a little bit of a lead foot. Could be used against me in court.

"I am currently driving at 82 MPH and Ill get back to you shortly, or pass you"

I'm intrigued though, and am debating shelling out the $6.49 for Tasker.
 
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If you don't mind sharing the Tasker experience you have :)

I will buy Tasker if it will do all of the following:

Would it be able to start a program such as Trapster (police radar type app), when it sees I am leaving my Wifi and moving? Conversely, shut off Trapster when it sees I arrived at another Wifi location of mine?

At the same time, and circumstances, I would also want to activate/deactivate a Car Dock app, Speakerphone app, and Text reading app.

I'm pretty sure it can dim my brightness at a certain hour. I would also like to active a "Screen Filter" app which dims it even more at that time & activates my "bed dock". And do the reverse in the morning at a certain hour?

And for S&G's (since Smart Actions can do it), could it change my background images when it notices I am leaving a Wifi location and change to another background image at the different Wifi location? This isn't a Deal Breaker for me, just curious on this feature.

And, can it tell when you put it on a charger to use as part of a rule?

That should just about do it for me. Thanks for indulging me!
 
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I hadn't used the widget, no. I could do that just as easily with the stock WiFi toggle widget in this case. SP Full was reliably turning off WiFi when I left the house - it just wouldn't turn it back on when I got back home. To be fair, I tried this with Locale last week and it was pretty much the same - though it did work a lot more reliably, it turned out that it was burning as much battery as I was saving, so not worth the bother.

I was just looking for something that would do this for me automatically. I did buy Tasker a long time ago - I may try that again.

Let me just say, though, that I absolutely love SP Full for managing sound profiles based on time. That part works great for me.

I used Locale to do this and more for me and it worked flawlessly. I was going to classes every day, on 2 different campuses, and in one particular building I had access to the campus WiFi, and in all others I do not. Of course, at home I did as well.

Locale let me:

  1. Put phone in vibrate mode for all calls
  2. Turn off WiFi / turn on WiFi
  3. Turn off sync / turn on sync
  4. Turn off BT / turn on BT
  5. Change screen brightness to minimum / auto
  6. Change screen time out time to minimum / my default settings

based upon the following conditions:

  • Time of day
  • Location down to 150m or so (I usually encompassed the entire building so it would know)
  • Day of week

I also had other profiles, like what to do when in the car dock (although I could never get it to underclock the CPU which I needed to do with my DROID b/c OC + Nav + Pandora = overheating even in front of the AC vent), multimedia dock, and when using my S9 HDs....

Only bad part of that is that I have a little bit of a lead foot. Could be used against me in court.

"I am currently driving at 82 MPH and Ill get back to you shortly, or pass you"

I'm intrigued though, and am debating shelling out the $6.49 for Tasker.

Yeah, that one setting alone is almost worth it - as soon as I can devote time to learning it I'll sign up for the 1 week trial and then run with it and if it works to my liking, I'll buy it.

If you don't mind sharing the Tasker experience you have :)

I will buy Tasker if it will do all of the following:

Would it be able to start a program such as Trapster (police radar type app), when it sees I am leaving my Wifi and moving? Conversely, shut off Trapster when it sees I arrived at another Wifi location of mine?

At the same time, and circumstances, I would also want to activate/deactivate a Car Dock app, Speakerphone app, and Text reading app.

I'm pretty sure it can dim my brightness at a certain hour. I would also like to active a "Screen Filter" app which dims it even more at that time & activates my "bed dock". And do the reverse in the morning at a certain hour?

And for S&G's (since Smart Actions can do it), could it change my background images when it notices I am leaving a Wifi location and change to another background image at the different Wifi location? This isn't a Deal Breaker for me, just curious on this feature.

And, can it tell when you put it on a charger to use as part of a rule?

That should just about do it for me. Thanks for indulging me!

Good questions.
 
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Yeah Tasker is & looks very complicating at first, but once you get the hang of it it's not that bad.

My most "in-depth" profile I have set up is if I have my phone in the car dock and I travel faster than 10MPH & receive a text message; my phone will automatically reply telling whoever texted me that I am currently driving at XX.XX MPH and Ill get back to them shortly.


I am trying the 7 day free trial of TASKER since you made it sound so appealing.

I have a question to you Tasker experts. I set up APPS, Wifi & GPS to go on and off by location and based on if Wifi is on or by GPS location.

How do I use my movement (miles per hour) in the profiles/tasks? Please give me an example.

Thanks!
 
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I am no Tasker expert - I've only played with a bot - but this may help a little: Autostart navigation in car - Tasker Wiki

Thanks for that!

If I could see the Variables or Contexts you are using for your "text over 10mph". Profile, that should help me figure it out. If you don't mind copying them here. Or screen shots, if not a problem. :)

Thank you doogald!
 
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I have been messing with the 7 day free trial over the last 2 days.

I like it so much, I went ahead and purchased it early.

It's complicated but I think I'm getting the hang of it some.

Thanks for your help doogald!

I didn't realize that there are some pre-completed profiles to download and use. Looking at them is helping me learn this some.
 
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OK, I have had Tasker for about 10 days now and I have set profiles set up and working for the following on my Bionic:

1. Turn on wifi near work.
2. Turn on wifi near home.
3. Connect to home network / and wifi off when connection lost after so much time.
4. Connect to work network / and wifi off when connection lost after so much time.
5. SAY when connected to wifi.
6. SAY when connection lost.
7. Change wallpaper for home network.
8. Change wallpaper for no wifi connected.
9. Change wallpaper for work network.
10. Turn on GPS when plugged into car charger.
11. Turn off GPS when car charger unplugged.
12. When car charger plugged in, launch "Trapster", "CarUltra dock", "Speaker phone" on, have Tasker read/SPEAK texts, turn up media volume to 100% and brightness to 100% in daytime & low brightness at night.
13. When car charger unplugged, turn off speaker phone, turn brightness back to 25%, turn off text reader, and Tasker SAYS "turn off driving apps" (since tasker can't shut off "Trapster" & "UltraCar dock").
14. When phone charged to 100%, Tasker SAYS "Battery at 100%" only between 7am - 9pm.
15. Screen brightness adjusted low 11pm to 6:59am.
16. Popup Screen for Text messages, after playing a notification sound, 3 seconds later, a large popup screen appears with 40 size font for 10 seconds.
17. Missed Text message reminder. If I receive a Text an don't open my screen, I get a reminder notification sound 5 minutes later and 4 more reminder tones each minute later until screen opened (5 max).
18. Find phone. Text a word and get location map text back to me.
19. App orientation. Turning on select apps will Reverse Landscape my screen (putting plug inputs on top) and sets brightness to 100%.
20. Pressing my camera icon, on homescreen, opens a menu to choose Standard Camera, Camcorder or Vignette.
21. I have a permanent Phone Icon in my notification bar so that I can get to the phone easily from any app screen.
22. Flashlight on when phone is upside down and screen is on.
23. All quiet when phone us face down.
24. App brightener to turn screen brightness to 100% when certain apps are started and reverts back to 25% when app is unplugged.
25. Plugging in headphones turns my volume down (so I don't blow out my ear drums) and pops up a menu of all apps that may be used (ie, Youtube, Videos, Slingbox, Music, etc.).
26. Turning on "Bionic Dock" (Bedside mode) app, sets Reversed Landscape (so power input on top), sets brightness very low, activates app "Screen Filter" (dims screen even lower).
26. When my "Smarter Alarm" app starts (side note: Smarter Alarm greets me by name and catches me up on News, Weather, Sports Favorite Team results and news, etc), Tasker then sets screen orientation back to Auto Rotate and turns off Screen Filter plugin.
27. I made a Tasker Widget button that will auto text back a (preset message) for a certain time period or I can set it manually (in Tasker) on or off until pressed again.
28. Tasker Navigation Widget button opens a menu of favorite navigation locations. After selecting, it navigates to that chosen location.
29. Tasker Widget button opens a menu to PLAY or STOP a preselected song. I use this to play the "Gummy Bear" song so that I can get my grand daughter to smile when I'm trying to take her picture.

--------------------------

Just for thoroughness of my report, I have not been able to get Tasker to email reply while I'm driving telling where I am and how fast I'm going.
And I'm not sure if possible but I was trying to make a large popup screen when my Calendar appointments alert (not sure if possible).

---------------------------

Overall, I am EXTREMELY happy with Tasker. It was well worth the $6.49 I paid and I'm sure I will add more profiles as I figure out how to do them. It is a little complicated and I did go through several asprins trying to figure it out and read tons learning after searching this forum.

Tasker is now my favorite app with 'Jeannie" now second.
 
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Somehow I feel like I missed this thread and am just discovering it. Anyway, Tasker puts Smart Actions to shame. Two of my kids have Android devices (both rooted), and I setup the following profiles on their devices:

1. Respond via SMS to a specifically formatted SMS, with Google Maps link to the location of the phone, the accuracy of the location, and age of the location information (i.e. As of 45 seconds ago, my location within 25 meters is <Google Maps Link>)

2. Respond to a (different from above) specifically formatted SMS, with an ear-piercing sound, repeated every 30 seconds for 5 minutes. This is to help locate the phone when you know it's within earshot (based on the response in #1 above)

3. Send the same message as in #1 above, after a set time of inactivity. This assumes they left the phone somewhere, and allows us ot discover it sooner rather than later.

4. Send the same message as in #1 when the battery level reaches 10% or less. This lets us locate the phone before the battery dies, after which none of the above will work.

5. Silence the phone, then turn off the phone 5 minutes before school starts. It's supposed to be in their locker and off during school. This makes sure it's at least off, and if they turn it on for some reason, it won't make any noise.

6. Override the current ringer settings for "priority" callers.

7. Turn on Wifi when they're near home

In addition to these, I have the following on mine:

1. Set ringer and notification volume based on time of day

2. Manually override settings in #1

3. Override settings in #1 and #2 when in the car dock, plus turn on GPS (and get location, to speed up navigation finding my current location if/when I start it), turn off Wifi, and maximize the in-call volume

4. Override settings in #1 and #2 with silence when in the desk dock at night

5. Go to home screen when the screen is turned off, if the current app is either Gmail, Messaging, or Google Voice. This prevents notifications from these apps from being cleared when I subsequently unlock the phone.

6. Set the media volume to a reasonable level when I plug in a headset

7. Automatically start my FiOS Voicemail app when I read the SMS notification of new FiOS Voicemail

8. Reapply the settings from #1-4 when the screen turns off. This is mostly a holdover from my OG Droid, where the volume rocker was too easily pressed, sometimes unintentionally silencing the phone

9. Remind me every 10 minutes of uncleared notifications from missed calls, Google Voice, Gmail, SMS, Calendar

10. Turn off mobile data and Wifi when the screen is off, and turn it on again every 15 minutes to allow sync to occur

Many of these involve more than one profile, but it's amazing what you can automate.
 
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Somehow I feel like I missed this thread and am just discovering it. Anyway, Tasker puts Smart Actions to shame. Two of my kids have Android devices (both rooted), and I setup the following profiles on their devices:

1. Respond via SMS to a specifically formatted SMS, with Google Maps link to the location of the phone, the accuracy of the location, and age of the location information (i.e. As of 45 seconds ago, my location within 25 meters is <Google Maps Link>)

2. Respond to a (different from above) specifically formatted SMS, with an ear-piercing sound, repeated every 30 seconds for 5 minutes. This is to help locate the phone when you know it's within earshot (based on the response in #1 above)

3. Send the same message as in #1 above, after a set time of inactivity. This assumes they left the phone somewhere, and allows us ot discover it sooner rather than later.

4. Send the same message as in #1 when the battery level reaches 10% or less. This lets us locate the phone before the battery dies, after which none of the above will work.

5. Silence the phone, then turn off the phone 5 minutes before school starts. It's supposed to be in their locker and off during school. This makes sure it's at least off, and if they turn it on for some reason, it won't make any noise.

6. Override the current ringer settings for "priority" callers.

7. Turn on Wifi when they're near home

In addition to these, I have the following on mine:

1. Set ringer and notification volume based on time of day

2. Manually override settings in #1

3. Override settings in #1 and #2 when in the car dock, plus turn on GPS (and get location, to speed up navigation finding my current location if/when I start it), turn off Wifi, and maximize the in-call volume

4. Override settings in #1 and #2 with silence when in the desk dock at night

5. Go to home screen when the screen is turned off, if the current app is either Gmail, Messaging, or Google Voice. This prevents notifications from these apps from being cleared when I subsequently unlock the phone.

6. Set the media volume to a reasonable level when I plug in a headset

7. Automatically start my FiOS Voicemail app when I read the SMS notification of new FiOS Voicemail

8. Reapply the settings from #1-4 when the screen turns off. This is mostly a holdover from my OG Droid, where the volume rocker was too easily pressed, sometimes unintentionally silencing the phone

9. Remind me every 10 minutes of uncleared notifications from missed calls, Google Voice, Gmail, SMS, Calendar

10. Turn off mobile data and Wifi when the screen is off, and turn it on again every 15 minutes to allow sync to occur

Many of these involve more than one profile, but it's amazing what you can automate.

Thanks for posting Uncle Mike! I learned SO MUCH from your posts (I found from you elsewhere in this forum) on how to set up different profiles on Tasker. And, of course, I see a couple I can adapt from your post (if I figure out how). :)
 
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