Locale Feedback Forum

Welcome to our official feedback forum. Do you have an idea? Do you recognize a good idea when you see one? We want to hear from you!

  1. 605 votes

    Not on Conditions

    Ability to have NOT on conditions. This is most useful for location (e.g. leaving a location).

    by anonymous | 45 comments
    Status: under review

    The original request here was for a logical NOT operator, although it doesn't make sense to create a logical NOT operator in Locale. Most of the time, NOT isn't the right way of thinking about a Condition. For example, NOT 9 am to 5 pm could be redefined as 5pm to 9am. NOT at work would simply be the Default situation. For the other conditions built-in to Locale, thinking about the problem in a different way usually means that NOT isn't needed. If a Condition truly needs NOT logic, then that should probably be put into the individual Condition's UI itself rather than as part of the Edit Situation screen in Locale.

    Although this request is for a NOT operator, I believe the underlying request here is a way of detecting the transition between situations. The strongest use case would be detecting when you've left a particular Location. While Locale can easily detect the transition between situations, providing a UI to allow the user to do something with that transition is extremely complex.

    Today, Locale treats situations as a continuous event. When Locale determines that a situation is active, it applies that situation's settings. When leaving a situation, a lower priority situation's settings take precedence (usually the Defaults). This provides a single, consistent behavior that makes Locale easy to understand.

    One suggested implementation is to have "On Enter" and "On Exit" settings within a situation. On Enter settings would work like the current settings within Locale, while On Exit would be applied when leaving a situation. But what if the On Exit settings of a situation are in conflict with the On Enter settings of a higher-priority situation? The number of arrangements that the user must think about has just doubled.

    We're still evaluating ways to solve the underlying requeste of "leaving a location", without making the UI too complicated...

    Carter Admin
  2. 245 votes

    Configurable Location Polling/Refresh/Update Frequency

    Increase / manually set location polling, either in the settings or between a set of time.

    This is very handy for alarms based on location, especially when snoozing on the train home.

    by Korneel Wever | 28 comments
    Status: started

    Update: The design and implementation of the location detection speed enhancements to Locale are underway, although we don't have any specific release schedule to announce at this time. As with all enhancements to Locale, we're also testing the enhancements extensively to make sure they work great!

    ---------

    By design, Locale has no user-configurable options. The goal is that Locale should "just work" without requiring users to fiddle with various options that could negatively impact the operation of the app. For example, asking Locale to check your location every minute could cause your battery to drain within 2 hours at which point you might miss the train stop anyway.

    Although a user-configurable option won't be implemented, I see the underlying goal here as improving how quickly Locale detects that your location has changed. Today, it may take up to 10 minutes. Future versions of Locale will reduce this delay significantly.

    I'm therefore repurposing this request for implementing improvements to the speed of the location detection system. Once these improvements are completed, a user-configurable update frequency will no longer be necessary.

    Carter Admin
  3. 234 votes

    Bluetooth Condition

    Create a new condition to change settings based on a Bluetooth MAC address being in range.

    by pardey | 23 comments

    Android 2.0 finally adds APIs that would allow apps like Locale to implement a "Bluetooth Condition." If this were implemented, it would only be available on Android 2.0 phones.

    Update: There are some Android bugs that will prevent this from being implemented for the time being. Specifically, we've found that Bluetooth will periodically crap out until the phone is rebooted.

    Carter Admin
  4. 221 votes

    Integrate with Scenes in HTC Sense

    The HTC Hero (and probably all subsequent HTC Android devices) allows the user to configure different desktops (scenes), with different widgets, shortcuts, backgrounds etc.

    For example, a user can have 'Work', 'Home' and 'Out' scenes, and then switch between them for different activities, provi... more

    by DonVincenzo | 16 comments

    This would be an interesting feature, although currently HTC doesn't allow third party apps access to the Scene's API of their Sense-based Android phones.

    So for the time being, this feature won't be possible until HTC opens up Sense for third party apps such as Locale.

    Alternatively, HTC could implement a Locale plug-in which accomplishes this, as that wouldn't require opening up Sense completely for third party apps.

    Either way, we haven't heard anything from HTC on this subject yet.

    Carter Admin
  5. 182 votes

    Backup settings.

    Add a function to back everything up via either SD card or the web.

    by RAG1 | 27 comments
    Status: started

    Backup and restore is now available as a beta feature in Locale 1.0.5. This feature is disabled by default, and must be enabled by following the instructions below.

    After backups are enabled, a new Backup menu item will appear under the menu of the Locale home screen. From that menu item, you can create a backup to the phone's SD card. When Locale is re-installed, it will automatically detect any existing backups and ask whether you'd like to restore them.

    A few notes:
    - The enabler must be installed to enable restore functionality. If you wipe your phone, don't forget to reinstall the enabler.
    - The SD card must be present and available to Android. Backup and restore will be unavailable if the SD card is mounted on your computer via USB.
    - After performing a backup, you'll have to manually disable and then enable Locale from the menu to get Locale running again

    Please let us know if you experience any issues with the backup/restore system, but please note that we can't provide any support for this feature because it is a beta

    HOW TO ENABLE BACKUPS
    1. Allow installing apps outside of the Android Market
    a. Go to the Android Settings
    b. Tap on Applications
    c. Tap on Unknown sources

    2. Install Backup Enabler
    a. Open the web browser on your phone
    b. Go to this address: www.twofortyfouram.com/backup.apk
    c. Once the download completes, tap on the download
    d. Follow the instructions to install

    Carter Admin
  6. 176 votes

    Different icons for location notification

    I I could select say a different coloured marker for each notification, and these would show up on the nitification bar, then I would instantly see what situation I am in without having to drag the notification list.

    by telefleuries | 15 comments
  7. 61 votes

    SMS Auto Responder

    When an SMS is received while in a Situation, allow an pre-written user response. ie - SMS received from bob while in Calculus respond with: "Automated Message: I'm in class. Will reply when I get out."

    by Jeff | 7 comments
  8. 59 votes

    Call Forwarding Setting

    Add a new setting to support changing call forwarding options

    NOTE:
    Do to security restrictions in Android, third party apps like Locale cannot change call forwarding.

    by Carter | 10 comments
  9. 47 votes

    Weather Condition

    Use data from weather.com or similar source to find sunrise and sunset times. Use this data to gradually scale screen brightness to a user defined max during the brightest hours of the day and back down to a user defined minimum as it gets closer to sunset.

    Conditions such as time are useful in... more

    by egscott2004 | 14 comments
  10. 33 votes

    Wait to switch bluetooth off (on time condition) BUT WAIT 'TIL CALL IS OVER!

    Happened yesterday: I was calling my girlfriend over my bluetooth headset and while I was speaking, the time condition switched bluetooth off.

    Well, the call continued, but she wondered what I was doing

    by Chris | 7 comments
    Status: planned
  11. 28 votes

    delayed conditions

    Astrid supports Locale, so the obvious thing one might do is to trigger reminders when you, say, come home.

    However, getting reminded the moment you walk in the door (or more likely, when you're near your home) isn't always useful. You might just be dropping off your bag.

    So, a location conditi... more

    by xen | 2 comments
  12. 28 votes

    create a "polite" mode that allows for receiving conditions from external sources!

    I wonder how feasible this is, of course. But it would be very futuristic of you to have a mode in which your phone configures its settings (with user permission, of course) to match the "configuration" of a place.

    Imagine not having to worry about turning your phone off at the theater... more

    by 5yearwinter | 5 comments
    Status: planned

    We've had some interesting plans in this area... But nothing to announce yet...

    Carter Admin
  13. 26 votes

    latitude

    I'd like to see Locale have the option to post an update to Google Latitude similar to the post to Twitter function.

    by Mark | 3 comments
  14. 23 votes

    Speed Condition

    A condition to detect the current speed the phone is moving.

    This could be used to detect when the phone is moving by a vehicle, such as when the user is driving.

    by Carter | 1 comment
    Status: under review

    Calling this a true "driving" condition would be a misnomer, as a number of other factors would actually be used to guess that the user was driving. This request would simply detect the speed at which the phone is moving.

    There are two ways currently to detect when the phone is in a car: a car dock condition or a Bluetooth condition, both of which are available now as plug-ins on the Android Market.

    We've been investigating an implementation for a "speed" condition, and we're confident we can create a reliable and low-power consumption implementation. There are just a number of considerations to take into account before doing so. After reading all of the comments, it appears that there are several different goals that users have in mind. Let's look at a few of them:

    1. Power savings: some users want to enable Bluetooth in the car and disable Bluetooth everywhere else. Unfortunately a speed condition would consume far more power than Bluetooth, so users are much better off simply leaving Bluetooth on all the time. Scratch this one off the list.

    2. Safety/regulatory: some users want to turn the ringer off while driving, due to distracted driving safety and regulatory considerations. For this, there are some considerations:

    First, how quickly would users expect Locale to detect a change in speed? The more quickly Locale detects a change in speed, the greater the impact on battery life. If the "speed" condition drains the battery in 4 hours, it doesn't do anyone any good. Based on our research, there may be up to a 10 minute delay before speed changes can be detected. Would such a delay reduce the usefulness of a speed condition?

    What about the reverse? How quickly would users expect the driving condition to deactivate once they stopped driving? Would it be annoying that you wouldn't receive phone calls for 10+ minutes after you got out of the car? And how would users expect this condition to behave in bumper-to-bumper traffic? If the phone is moving at a slow speed for a long period of time, the speed condition might deactivate.

    3. Finally, there are probably some other creative uses for a speed condition besides just to detect driving... Let's hear them!

    Carter Admin
  15. 23 votes

    open another application's shortcut

    It would be nice if the ShortCut Plug-in could open another app's shortcut (or anything that is accessible when you add a shortcut by long pressing on the home screen.). For example, Shopping List Plus allows you to put a shortcut to a particular list on the home screen. If it were possible to ... more

    by alanlo | 4 comments
  16. 21 votes

    Support for Motorola Droid's "Silent" Ringtone

    When selecting ringtones in Locale, the "Silent" ringtone in my Motorola Droid does not appear as a possible choice. This is the first available option when choosing ringtones in the device's native settings, so it's weird that I can't pick this ringtone in Locale.

    Note that this is m... more

    by Nikil | 3 comments

    The silent ringtone is suppressed by design.

    Too many people got confused over the silent ringtone versus the ringer volume being on silent. Without a choice, there's nothing to be confused over!

    Carter Admin
  17. 17 votes

    Conditions on hardware on/off

    Has the capabilities of checking if hardware is turned on or off.
    For example if I turn on the gps I want to do something automatically.
    If I turn on bluetooth do another and so on...

    by Daniele Amisano | 5 comments
    Status: under review

    Apps cannot immediately detect when GPS is enabled in the Android settings. There would have to be about a 10 minute delay, which I don't think would be acceptable in this particular case. (There just aren't any facilities in Android for such notification)

    Apps can detect Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Airplane mode being changed instantly.

    Carter Admin
  18. 16 votes

    Situation Groups

    Allow a situation to be composed of groups of other situations

    by tomatosquid | 10 comments
  19. 14 votes

    add the ability to set the manual IP address (subnet, proxy etc) for the wifi card

    sometimes i visit companies where the network required me to enter in a specific set of network settings (IP, subnet, proxy, gateway etc etc). if would be great if Locale could alter these settings too.... love the app so far though. very powerful...

    by mpsevans | 0 comments
  20. 12 votes

    Duplicate situation

    This suggestion was previously raised, and closed because it appeared that one of the reasons for it was satisfied with OR. However, that is not the case. It would be tremendously helpful to be able to duplicate an existing Situation in order to create a new situation that is just slightly diff... more

    by danapple0 | 0 comments

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