The Android software stack has so many nifty features that you can use to automate certain tasks as a true time saver. You can do little things to enhance your Android to super-phone status. Consider being able to have your phone switch itself into silent mode depending on where you are and what you are doing. You may also want your Android to turn off certain functions depending on where you are and how you lay your phone down. There is a neat little app out there that can do all of this and more that goes by the name of the Tasker. Tasker is around $6 (it also has a free 14 day trial) and promises to make your Android into an automated powerhouse of a phone.
A few things that Tasker can do for you are things like allowing you designate specific preferences for every single one of your apps. This might be things like allowing Kindle to remain on for a longer period of time, make your map app automatically fire up the GPS, automate the file browser when you connect it to certain devices and lower the volume of the Android depending on whether or not you have headphones plugged in or are talking to a loud person.
It also allows you to automate tasks depending on the time of the day. This can be useful for those of us who use our phones for business only (or have a phone just for business). You can set your phone to put itself into airplane mode each night at a certain time so that you don’t have any incoming calls or business related contact in the middle of the night – but you can still use your apps. You can also use it to back up the data in your phones memory to your SD card each day and even load up an application each day at a specific time.
You can also use it to set up widgets depending on who is contacting you or where you are. For example, if you are driving and you can’t pick up the call, you can set up a desktop widget that you can use to text back the person to let them know that you were driving at the time of their call and could not answer it. You can also get it to automatically send someone’s call to voice mail so that you can screen your calls. For $6 it adds a lot of extra functionality to your Android and can be used for more than what I have already stipulated. In fact, you are only limited by your imagination in regards to setting up specific tasks depending on certain triggers.
For more information it is worth going through the developer’s information about the product. To cover everything it can do I could probably write a short book on its specific uses. Needless to say, I have it installed on my Android phone and have not actually scratched the surface on what it can do.
