AUTOMATIC BACKUP/RESTORE
Locale has automatic backup and restore using the cloud-based backup mechanism in Android 2.2 or later. There are no configuration options within Locale—it just works!

To use this feature, simply make sure that backup/restore is enabled by going to the Android Settings and verifying that Backup and Restore is enabled. (This option might be in a different place on different devices. With Android 2.2, it can be found under Android settings → Privacy. With Android 4.0, it can be found under Android settings → Backup & reset). Whenever Locale is uninstalled and reinstalled, the device is factory reset, or you upgrade to a new device, your Locale situations will be automatically restored. If there are no options for backup and restore under the Android Settings, then the device does not support automatic backup and restore.

Since backups are tried to a Google account, be sure to always use the same Google account when setting up your Android devices.

If you’ve ever previously installed a pirated copy of Locale, automatic backup and restore will not work correctly.

MANUAL BACKUP/RESTORE USING ADB
For Android 4.0 and later, the Android developer tools can perform a backup to a desktop computer:

1. Install the Android developer tools http://developer.android.com/sdk/tools-notes.html
2. Enable USB debugging on your device
3. Create a backup called locale.apk in your computer terminal’s current working directory: adb backup -f locale.bak com.twofortyfouram.locale
4. Restore a backup from your computer terminal’s current working directory: adb restore locale.bak

MANUAL BACKUP/RESTORE TO EXTERNAL STORAGE
Locale contains a beta manual backup/restore feature to create a manual backup to external storage. (“External storage” does not necessarily mean the SD card. The definition of external storage varies from device to device.) Because Locale already has cloud-based backup and restore, most users should have no reason to worry about manual backup and restore.

Locale’s manual backup and restore is primarily meant for support and diagnostic purposes and is disabled by default. To enable manual backups, please follow the instructions below.

1. Allow installing apps outside of the Android Market
a. From the Home screen, go to the “Settings” app
b. For Android 1.5 through Android 3.2: Choose “Applications” and make sure that “Unknown sources” is checked. For Android 4.0: Choose “Security” and make sure that “Unknown sources” is checked

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

After manual backups are enabled, a new Backup menu item will appear under the menu of the Locale situation list screen. From that menu item, you can create a backup to external storage. When Locale is re-installed, it will automatically detect any existing backups and ask whether you’d like to restore them. Manual backups are an unsupported beta feature.

UPDATE:

Locale 1.4 includes significant improvements to the location detection system, reducing time to detect location changes by 20% while also improving battery usage by up to 50%.

The original goal of this request—reducing the delay of detecting location changes—has been met as Locale 1.4 detects location changes within an average of 4 minutes. We are therefore marking this request as completed.

Although this request is being marked as completed, we have ongoing research and development to keep improving the speed and efficiency of the location detection system further :).

(Original response)

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 location every minute could cause the 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 as improving how quickly Locale detects that location has changed. For Locale 1.3 and earlier, it can take up to 10 minutes for location changes to be detected.

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.

3G is a radio technology used for both voice and data. In other words, 3G is NOT just about the Internet. In fact, phone calls are also placed over 3G and usually there is better call quality and reliability over 3G. (Quality obviously varies based on the cell towers in the area). The 3G toggle in the Android settings of GSM phones will cause the phone to fall back to 2G for both voice and data.

Many users confuse “3G” with mobile Internet. They think disabling 3G prevents their phone from using the Internet. For users looking to disable mobile Internet on their phones, please search for “APNDroid” on the Android Market which offers a plug-in for Locale.

There is also another plug-in called the “Locale Mobile Data Plugin” which contains a condition for detecting Internet usage as well as a setting for disabling mobile Internet over the cell network.

While Android claims that switching from 3G to 2G will save battery power, this is not a huge savings. While actively browsing the Internet, 3G will likely require less power because it is faster and it will take less time to find something.

For users really wishing to slow down their Internet connection by switching the 2G/3G setting on GSM phones, there is also the Toggle 2G app with a Locale plug-in on the Android Market which requires the Cyanogen ROM in order to work properly. Note that toggling 2G/3G in such a manner will disrupt the phone entirely (voice and data) for about 30 seconds during the switchover. For users running stock versions of Android, this plug-in will not work and it is absolutely impossible to toggle the 2G/3G setting.