Tunring ringer off automatically on Pre based on GPS?

**preman2be913** · 04/12/2009, 02:45 PM

Would it be possible bc of Synergy and GPS to say turn your ringer off automatically if you were entering school, or a movie, or a meeting. That would be so sweet even though we still have our little convenient ringer/vibe switch on top of the Pre. What can I say I'm technologically lazy lol

**lastdetailwd** · 04/12/2009, 02:59 PM

There could possibly be a way for that to work in an app...if it knows the address of where you are when you should have your ringer off. It seems possible.

**MannyZ28** · 04/12/2009, 03:05 PM

I'd rather just flip the switch.

**Caduceus** · 04/12/2009, 03:27 PM

I would still try to flip the switch but I would like to be able to set the phone to go on silent any time I am on campus at school...

**crazyazn23** · 04/12/2009, 03:34 PM

This sounds alot like locale from android..... I really hope some apps from android get ported over.

**hathetran** · 04/12/2009, 03:45 PM

wouldn't this require the gps radio to be on at all times then? which would take a massage toll on the battery

**preman2be913** · 04/12/2009, 04:27 PM

wow crazyazn I just googled locale on android and I didn't even know this exists. That is exactly what I am looking for on the Pre. That would be amazing! Walk into school and it automatically goes on vibe WOW!

**MannyZ28** · 04/12/2009, 04:34 PM

I really wouldn't trust that thing. Lets say you have a movie theater located inside a mall, like is the case for me.... there are two dilemmas here:

1. It works a little too well and the GPS thinks just because I am in the mall, I must be in the movies, so it silences my phone and I miss potentially important phone calls.

2. You are inside the movie theater, but the GPS thinks you're just in a mall, and the ringer stays on.

And if you have to enable and disable the software, why bother, especially when the Pre has this handy dandy ringer switch which takes less than a second to locate and flip to the desired position.

To me, using that program is like programming a little robot arm to feed you. It can be done, but why?

**preman2be913** · 04/12/2009, 04:38 PM

WOW! Never thought about it like that Manny but I too have a movie theater in Aventura mall and either one of those scenarios could definitely
happen bc there is no way for the Pre to know which is the mall and which is the movie especially if they coexist in the same vicinity.

**adjmcloon** · 04/12/2009, 07:07 PM

Well in the Sprint Nav video, they talked about the device being "location aware" and that it tied into other functions in the OS, so I don't know why this couldn't happen. Even if not in the native OS, a developer could make it functional I bet assuming the API's are in place. It would be up to the user to set a preference for when and where.

Which makes me wonder if we'll see some "Butler" style apps that will let us customize WebOS like we could with Garnet. I have managed to put the lipstick on the dinosaur on my Treo 700p with Palm Revolt, Zlauncher, etc.

**Walter E Kurtz** · 04/12/2009, 07:48 PM

Originally Posted by MannyZ28

I'd rather just flip the switch.

This.

**samid** · 04/12/2009, 09:26 PM

i would love this feature.

**samid** · 04/12/2009, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by hathetran

wouldn't this require the gps radio to be on at all times then? which would take a massage toll on the battery

does the pre have something different for gps than the my location on my centro? I dont think the my location feature would use anymore battery.

**ToniCipriani** · 04/12/2009, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by MannyZ28

I'd rather just flip the switch.

x2. KISS the design.

**Aero** · 04/14/2009, 02:38 PM

Originally Posted by hathetran

wouldn't this require the gps radio to be on at all times then? which would take a massage toll on the battery

Location based services on smartphones are one of the, if not the, fastest growing segment. all that maters for battery life is the updating frequency. If it is a 10 second fix every 15 minutes it doesn't do much to the battery if you have a decent battery in a device.

**jbg7474** · 04/14/2009, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by samid

does the pre have something different for gps than the my location on my centro? I dont think the my location feature would use anymore battery.

Yep, it's different. On your Centro, Google maps triangulates using the signal strength from cell towers. On the Pre, there is a GPS chip that receives the satellite signals and finds a solution that way, and probably also uses cell tower triangulation to get a solution faster. So there is a whole additional radio in the Pre.

Power differences are unknown. No one knows how efficient the Pre will be. Some phones with GPS are power hogs, some aren't.

**anon(45821)** · 04/14/2009, 05:52 PM

But then nobody really knows if the GPS is standalone or just aGPS either.

**Derek Kessler** · 04/14/2009, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by NachoB

But then nobody really knows if the GPS is standalone or just aGPS either.

I recall the most recent round of demo videos (the third party ones) bringing up that the Pre has both, and will use aGPS to get a general fix and quickly narrow it down with full-on GPS.

**scuba_steve** · 04/14/2009, 07:10 PM

It would probably be easy...IF switching to vibrate mode was via software setting...like on an iPhone. With a hard switch, it would be just confusing if it is even possible programmatically through an accessible API.

BTW, IMHO, a hard switch is 1000% better than a software switch. I cannot count how many times I flip my 700p's switch each day. In a meeting, I switch it in my pocket as I walk in without even looking at the phone. Frankly, I am pumped that Palm decided to include such a switch on the Pre. That's exactly the type of *functional* elegance that the iPhone lacks.

**meyerweb** · 04/15/2009, 03:31 PM

The capability to do this based on GPS goes way beyond mute. If you've ever used Profiles on a P-OS Treo you'll have some idea. Right now, my Treo goes into a lower volume mode automatically based on the time I usually get to work, and then gets louder when I usually leave work.

But with GPS services, it wouldn't have to be based on time. It could go into the low volume mode when I actually get to work. Try do that with the mute switch.

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