Locale for Android review

As brilliant as your average mobile phone is, it’s impossible to deny that such devices can be incredibly awkward at times. With the advent of phones like the iPhone and Android, the strain on batteries has gotten to the point where if you forget to charge it up one evening you’ll run out of juice early the following day.

To add to this annoyance, there are the times when you forget to switch your phone to a silent profile and it plays the incredibly annoying ring tone that you thought sounded great when you loaded it up initially but during a high-profile company meeting is more akin to fingernails down a blackboard.

As smart as these smartphones are, there are always certain things they can’t do. Until now.

Locale is yet another one of those life-changing applications which is essentially an answer to a pressing problem. In this case, the problem was people forgetting to turn their phones on silent.

Apparently in the US a few years back a judge actually fined an entire jury because a phone rang during a court case and no one would own up. From this, the inspiration for Locale was born, but it has much wider applications than merely disabling your phone’s ringer.

Locale uses the Android’s global positioning functionality to pinpoint your exact location at any give time. You can then establish profiles that are activated when you enter (or leave) a particular place.

So for example, as soon as you get to work you can have your phone automatically switch to vibrate. However, should you reason that certain callers are worthy of an audible ring tone, then you can select exceptions within that profile to ensure that super-urgent calls always get noticed.

You can establish multiple profiles so that as you come and go from different locations your phone is constantly tailoring its behaviour. Say you regularly visit a crowded coffee shop during your dinner hour – why not have your phone switch to a high-pitched ring tone which will you’ll hear above the din? Perhaps one day of the week you like to pay a visit to the local library; if so, you can assign a profile that will ensure your handset remains entirely quiet during that particular time.

Locale is also able to assist with your phone’s power management. Within a profile you can setup a notification that will alert you when your battery is below a certain percentage. The idea is that such a warning is only valid once you enter a location where you have access to your wall charger. However, prior to that Locale can shut down power-hungry programs and apps to ensure your phone lasts as long as possible between charges.

Locale is modular and people are coming up with new applications all the time – for example, there’s a plug-in that automatically posts a tweet to your Twitter account when you enter and exit your workplace. The possibilities are pretty much endless, and in that regard Locale is a must-have download.