Train your Android phone to act automatically with Tasker

(Credit: Screenshot by Sharon Vaknin/CNET)

Get started with Tasker, an Android app that lets you automate settings, apps, and more.


Every day, we repeat the same routine tasks: turning on Wi-Fi at work, decreasing the brightness in the evening, enabling silent mode at night, and so on.
By now, you probably perform these actions subconsciously, but what if you could "train" your phone to automatically complete these tasks, so you don't have to?
Tasker [Google Play link], a $6.49 app for Android, lets you do just that. It works like this: If the phone is in X situation, then Y happens. Within the app, this formula is defined by using "contexts" and "tasks."

• The context defines the situation in which the task is triggered. For example, time of day, location, or the state in which your phone is in (like charging).
• Tasks are the actions the phone takes when it's in any given context, or situation. This can be anything from toggling a system setting to sending a text message.

For example, when my phone is at 20% battery life (context) disable Wi-Fi (task).
There are endless combinations of contexts and tasks that can be as simple or as complicated as you want. Android user forums are filled with the many creative ways users are taking advantage of Tasker, but if you're a newbie, you'll probably want some basic guidance first.


When you launch Tasker, you'll arrive at the Profiles tab. This is where the formulas you created (contexts and tasks) are listed. At the bottom of the screen is a large green + sign, the button you'll use to create new profiles.
The best way to master Tasker is to get your hands dirty. So, try programming one (or more) of these useful tasks to get a taste of how this powerful app works.
1. Launch music apps when headphones are plugged in
With this Task programmed, every time you plug in your headphones, a menu of your music apps will appear.
Tap the + sign to create a new profile. Name it something like "Music" and tap the checkmark. In the Context menu, select State > Hardware > Headset Plugged. In the next screen, just tap the green checkmark.
Next, the Task Selection menu will appear. Select "New Task" and name it something like "Launch music." In the next window, tap the blue plus sign. Basically, everything your phone can do is listed here. For this example, select Alert > Menu.
In the "Items" section, tap the grayed-out "Action" button. Then select App > Load app, and select one of the Music apps you'd like to load. To add another app to the menu, select the green + sign, tap "Action," and repeat the same process.
When you're done, tap the green checkmark.
2. Disable features when battery is critically low
This task will disable energy-hogging features when your battery is critically low.
Tap the + sign to create a new profile. Name it "Battery" and tap the checkmark. In the Context menu, select State > Power > Battery Level. Keep the "From" slide at 0, and change the "To" slide to 20 (or your preferred battery level.) Tap the checkmark.
In the Task Selection menu, tap "New Task" and name it something like "Low Battery." In the next window, tap the blue plus sign. Here's where you'll select the settings that are disabled when your battery is critically low. To disable Auto-Sync (push data), go to Net > Auto-Sync, and tap the checkmark.
Tap the blue + sign again to add another task, like disabling Wi-Fi. Again, go to Net > Wi-Fi, and tap the checkmark.
Repeat this process for any other settings you'd like to disable. Bluetooth can also be found in the Net menu, and brightness can be found in the Display menu.
3. Trigger a task with an app-like icon on your home screen
Tasks are usually associated with triggers, like location, time, state, etc. However, you can assign a task to an icon-like widget that appears on the home screen, so that the task is only triggered when you tap it.
To create a widget, or shortcut, long press a home screen, and tap "Add to Home Screen." Then, tap Apps, and go to the Widgets tab. This process may vary depending on the version of Android you're running and your OEM's skin.
Find the Tasker widget and add it to a home screen. Immediately, a "Task Selection" menu will appear. This is where you'll decide which tasks are triggered upon tapping the widget icon. Tap "New Task," give it a name, and tap the blue + sign to add your first task.
What you select here will vary, but there are over 100 options, from composing a text message to a specific person, to disabling Wi-Fi and opening settings menus. You can add any number of tasks to this widget -- just tap the blue + to add more tasks.

---

As you can see, Tasker is a seriously poweful app, and with a little practice, you can use it to make your life a whole lot easier. The crazy thing is that these few examples hardly scratch the surface of what Tasker can do. Once you get comfortable with the interface and have programmed some tasks, there are a few ways you can advance your Tasker mastery:

• Check out the forums where users are exchanging ideas for tasks
• Get seven more awesome tasks from CNET UK's guide to Tasker
• Learn how to use motion gestures to trigger tasks
• Combine NFC Task Launcher with Tasker to trigger tasks whenever an NFC tag is scanned (tutorial incoming)

And, by all means, if you have any cool ideas for Tasker, please share them in the comments. We'd love to include them in a future roundup of Tasker profiles.

Source

Samsung invite suggests Galaxy Note 10.1 for August 15

Samsung will unveil a tablet at its August 15 event in New York. We're betting on the stylus-slinging Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.



Samsung has just confirmed one of my predictions for its now less-mysterious August 15 product launch in New York: the product in question is definitely a tablet.

CNET's invitation to the unveiling depicts an outline of a device with tablet dimensions in casual, artistic lines. That bolsters my belief that we'll be seeing a U.S. release of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, a full-fledged tablet that will make use of a stylus to interact with productivity and creativity tools. (Hence the doodles on the invitation.)

I first saw the Galaxy Note 10.1 at Mobile World Congress last February, and was impressed with how well the stylus lends itself to business and personal expression on a larger screen.

The stylus, which Samsung calls the S Pen, is pressure-sensitive and uses a button to control multiple functions. This version for the Galaxy Note 10.1 has its hard plastic "eraser" tip programmed to quickly erase mistakes.

Source

The iPhone turns 5

Five years ago today, on June 29, 2007, the original iPhone first went on sale.  Steve Jobs had previewed the iPhone back on January 9, 2007, in what I think was the best presentation that Steve Jobs ever made (which is saying something).  As we got closer to June 29, 2007, anticipation was high because people wanted to try for themselves the device that seemed so different than everything that came before it.  Around the country, people lined up to be among the first to get an iPhone.
As you would expect after five years, there are tons of differences between the original iPhone and the current iPhone 4S.  Obviously, iPhones are now cheaper.  The cheapest original iPhone was the $499 model with the 4GB, or for an extra $100 you could get 8GB.  Today, you can get the iPhone 3GS for free, while the 4S starts at $199 for 16GB and the high-end 64GB model is $399.
With over 650,000 apps currently in the App Store, it seems strange that the original iPhone did not allow for any third party apps.  Developers were instead encouraged to create web pages formatted for the iPhone screen (a severe limitation, although thousands were created, many of which were surprisingly good).  As for Apple's built-in apps, because they took advantage of the iPhone's beautiful and unprecedented screen, they seemed great at the time, but many suffered from severe limitations.  For example, the original Mail app did not work with Microsoft Exchange, and that shortcoming alone was a key reason that few lawyers bought the original iPhone.  You could not select multiple e-mails at once so you had to delete e-mails one at a time.  And as was the case in all apps on the original iPhone, there was no cut/copy-and-paste.