One of the best S60 3rd Edition utilities has just had a big update, though you wouldn't know it from the .01 version change. 'Best Profiles', which automanages your profiles to reflect your schedule and location, is now at v1.01 and worth checking out. Changelog and link below. (via Symbian in Motion)
Read on in the full article.
"Activate for" option activates for the profile for a specified amount of time and then reverts to the previoyus profile. This is something which was available on S40 devices, and now available in S60 thanks to best profile. Cool!
I've been using BestProfiles for quite some time, and updated to the new version a week or so ago. I'm still experimenting with the possibilities. (Being able to set a theme based on whether or not the phone is charging is one of the things I'd asked for. Not sure whether it was my request that got this feature included, but who cares? It's in there, and that's what counts.)
I have a Brodit car mount and use an FM transmitter to play podcasts from my E90 through the car stereo (it works quite well as a hands free set too, using the phone's own microphone).
For normal use, I like a nice clear white theme, but this is too bright in the car (especially now the clocks have gone back for winter and I'll be driving in the dark a lot more), so I have now set up a "car" profile which is much the same as General, but with a different theme. This gets activated if the phone is on charge and there's no other higher priority profile active (such as silent for charging the phone overnight without waking me up for wrong numbers and stupid text messages).
My setup is:
Schedule
Low priority General for daytime, Highest Priority Silent for nighttime, with a Highest priority Meeting transition period between the two (so that if I'm awake, I'll hear a ring, but hopefully it won't be enough to wake me up if I'm asleep).
Calendar rules
I designate my trigger words using an asterisk (e.g. "Meeting*"😉, and set the appropriate profile with appropriate priority according to the event type.
GSM locations
Haven't come up with any use for this function yet - it seems to me that I'm likely to have most things in my diary that would affect my choice of profile. Not sure how accurate the positioning is either. I can't see much point in switching my profile every time I drive past my doctor's surgery, for instance. Still, no doubt some people will find this useful. The most obvious use might be for setting a "Work" profile?
Charger rules
Charger on -> Car profile; Charger off -> General
Priority Normal
This makes sure that my overnight scheduled profiles or diary-based profiles will override the profile I want for daytime (i.e. in-car) charging
My General profile (which has a low priority setting) is associated with my White profile, and the others (Silent, Meeting, Car) all have the more subdued Grey dots profile. In addition, I've set up Car profile to also start the Podcasting application, so I just get in the car, slip the phone into its active mount, and everything's ready and waiting. I always did have BestProfiles set up to not lock the phone or switch the backlight off in the General profile if charging, so there's no fiddling about the unlock the phone in the car - where you REALLY don't want any extra hassle!
Now, if I could just eliminate the fiddly bit of plugging in and switching on the FM transmitter ... 😉 Time for a new car 😃
Julie
The built-in mini-GPS (looks a lot like the one from Psiloc) definitely is a plus.
You can set the louder profile for leaving home, turning to general or silent when you reach the office. In advanced setting you can link the bluetooth to the louder profile, so this will not drown the battery (even more) when you do need it at home or in the office.
I already wrote to Smartphoneware that a flaw in the locator is the switching when there is "no network". It should not do that. In a steel office the phone gets "louder" instead of "silent".
Overall it is very nice.
The light theme for outside or a dark theme for at night also makes it easy on the eyes (considering the circumstances).
This is what Smartphones should be about.
A still slightly prefer the mini-GPS-option for sending a SMS when leaving the office. I like to have dinner when I get home