![]() ![]() It evolved out of an app called Apt, created to customise early Palm “personal digital assistants” and released at the end of 2007. Q&A: Jessica Holland reveals the finer details of the productivity assistant app Tasker: If you finally figure all this out, though, you’ll be amazed at how you ever lived without it. You’ll need to browse some websites, familiarise yourself with the difference between a “profile”, “task” and “action”, and maybe watch an introductory video. It won’t hold your hand as you get started. Tasker was created for people who are willing to put in the time to program the exact tasks that will help them optimise their efficiency. The major downside is that little consideration has been given to design or to a smooth user experience. One fan said he’d had the app for five years and had only just started to scrape the surface of what’s possible. It can also be linked to smart commands and to your desktop computer, and you can use it to find your phone even when it’s on silent. Tasker can detect the phone’s orientation, so you can set it to fall silent when you put it face down during a meeting. It can even text your estimated arrival time or current geographical co-ordinates, by syncing with your Satnav. For example, you can use it to automatically text your spouse to say you’re late when you’re in your car and you’ve been travelling less than 10mph for more than 10 minutes, unless you’ve let it know that the spouse is also in the car. IFTTT is useful, and easy to navigate, but Tasker is much more powerful, with the ability to combine many more inputs and outputs into much more complex action. The first action will automatically trigger the second. ‘If I post a photo to Facebook,’ you can tell IFTTT, ‘I want it to go up on Instagram too’. There are lots of automation apps out there, such as If This Then That, which pair an input with an output. The catch is that figuring out how to use it can take some time and effort, unless you’re already an expert programmer. Reviews on tech blogs use phrases like “miracle app” and “redefines the word ‘smartphone’”. ![]() Tasker users tend to get very, very excited about all the things this automation app for Android phones can do.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |