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.

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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.

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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.

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How To Tag People on Facebook Status or Wall Posts

Posted on 04. Jan, 2012 by Facebook Trick Team in Facebook Basics, Facebook Trick

Yes, it is possible to ‘tag’ people people on Facebook. Like other features, you can tag your friends in your Facebook Status or Wall posts like you do in  your uploaded photos. This option provided by Facebook is much similar to Twitter tagging. This tagging option lets you tell people about whom you’re telling about. This not only gives your viewers’ a clear idea about whom you’re talking about but also leaves a URL, which is great.

In this Facebook Trick, you’ll get two simple but unavoidable  steps to tag people on Facebook.

facebook tagging

Step#1: Mention ‘@’

While writing something in your status, mention ‘@’ sign which is to be followed by the name of the person whom you’re tagging. If the person whom you’re tagging has an active Facebook Account, then you can tag easily.

Step#2: Select the name from the drop-down menu.

When you type the ‘@’- sign, you should write the first one or two letters of the name of the person about whom you’re talking about. Then in a drop-down menu, you will see names from your friend list starting with that one or two letters. After you chose one, the profile name of the person with his FB profile link will appear in your status after that ‘@’ sign.

Bonus Tip: Yes, multi tagging is possible too.

Tags: facebook tag, facebook trick, tags

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How To Chat On Facebook And Twitter At The Same Time

Expect to chat with Facebook friends and Twitter followers at the same time? Combine all your Twitter and Facebook messages together, and make a group chat? without having to log in first to those accounts. Well, to be able to do that, you will just need to use an application called “SavorChat”.

SavorChat is a FREE application that enables group chat to chat with your Facebook friends or Twitter Followers. Unlike apps from Facebook and Twitter, this allows you to chat with many friends or connect and interface other services like instant messaging clients.

Please follow these below steps :

1. Go to http://www.savorchat.com
2. Log in first to your FB account or Twitter.
3. Once you logged in, you can create a new chat room, or join an existing room.
4. To create a new room, by clicking “Create a new Room”. You can specify the name and type of room, duration of the chat (finite or infinite), active or inactive.
5. You can also make the room in stealth (not visible in the public list and search-engine). And can also apply password.
6. To enter the room, click “Manage My Rooms”. Then click on the link Visit Room

URL format of your room will be shown like this:

http://www.savorchat.com/chat/Your_Room_Name

For example : your room name GAULGILA, the URL format of your room will be shown like this :

http://www.savorchat.com/chat/GAULGILA

How To Chat On Facebook And Twitter At The Same Time

If you want to invite friends to join Facebook and Twitter into the chat-room, you can ask them to open the URL. You also can join any existing room. Anyone (either from Facebook or from Twitter) can join the chat room created by others. You can manually open the URL of the chat-room or just use searching, The third way by choosing from the browse. By clicking the Browse button, you can see all the room in SavorChat. Only a public room that can be seen. You can join into every public room. Then you can chat with everyone who is active or online.

How To Chat On Facebook And Twitter At The Same Time 10out of 10 based on 10 ratings. 10 user reviews. 

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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.

'Battleship' Sunk By 'Avengers' At Weekend Box Office

"You sunk my Battleship!" is not a line you'll hear in Peter Berg's big-screen adaptation of the Hasbro board game ("They don't sink our battleship," he reasoned when MTV News recently brought up the topic), but perhaps it's a phrase Universal execs are shouting in the general direction of "The Avengers" this morning.

Super Tuesday: Box Office Edition

It might seem like the GOP primary season has been stretching on since the day Barack Obama entered the White House — with the seemingly endless blather about socialism-inspired domestic initiatives and terrorist-sympathizing foreign policy, about how gay marriage will destroy the moral fabric of society, about how asking for heath care-provided contraceptives makes you a slut — it's only just beginning.

Because today is Super Tuesday — the biggest, baddest day on the GOP nominating calendar. Primaries and caucuses in 10 states (Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia) will be held today. 419 GOP convention delegates are up for grabs. Mitt Romney is vying to re-solidify his front-runner status. Rick Santorum is hoping voters will coalesce around a guy with a 1950s moral compass and a 21st-century hatred of government. And Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul are still hanging around because, well, what else have they got to do?

There Can Only Be One 'Highlander'... And It's Ryan Reynolds?

Last we heard, Ryan Reynolds was still in talks for the lead role in Summit Entertainment's upcoming remake of "Highlander." But in the month that's passed since that news hit the web, it seems as though Reynolds has nailed down the part.
The Tracking Board has learned that Reynolds has officially been cast as Connor MacLeod. We'll wait for a studio confirmation before we take that as fact, but for now it seems like it's pretty likely that Reynolds will get the role.

How Twitter Helped A New York Journalist Find His Stolen Bike

With more than 1 million bicycles stolen in the U.S. each year, it's becoming increasingly common for consumers to use their own resources to track down their wheels––with, or without help from police.

New York is undoubtedly one of the hottest spots for bike theft, as more and more commuters––including myself––opt for bike lanes over public transit and leave their bikes locked out in the open during the day.
This time around, it was the Slate's Jody Rosen who unleashed the power of social media to recover his beloved three-speed Chief cruiser. When his bike went missing outside a Brooklyn coffee shop earlier this week (he confesses that he forgot to lock his chain), he put out the call to his 3,100 Twitter followers for help spotting it around the city.
In a post on Slate, Rosen recounts the experience:

"The window to recover the Chief was closing fast. A smart criminal would spray-paint it, or strip it down to the ball-bearings and sell the parts. But if the bike was still on the street, it couldn’t have gone far...I found a photo of the Chief on Felt’s website and dumped the link into a Twitter window. I decided to try my luck—to digitally crowdsource the hunt for my bike." 

That call for help reached tens of thousands of Twitter users as it was retweeted by bloggers, entertainment writers, and even singer-songwriter Neko Case.  In the end, it made its way to Nick Sylvester, a journalist who happened to pass by Rosen's distinctive wheels near Union Square.

Within hours, Rosen was reunited with his beloved bike, albeit without ever finding the person who stole it. A few plain clothes cops stalked the site to see if the thief would show, but he or she never surfaced.
Rosen isn't the first to recover his stolen bike using Twitter, and chances are he won't be the last. There are Twitter accounts set up specifically for reporting stolen bikes, and within the NYC cycling community, people often report bikes missing via the #BikeNYC hashtag.
Earlier this year, I wrote about the amateur sting operation launched by Philadelphia resident Danny Lesh after he stumbled across his stolen $600 hybrid in an ad on Craigslist. 
Registering your wheels is another way to keep track if they wind up in the wrong hands. For $10, the National Bike Registry will cover you for 10 years and send a tamper-resistant ID label that can be used to track it if stolen. Many cities have their own registries. NYC cyclists can register their rides via the NYPD. 

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