I love apps that help me to accomplish something without having to think much about it and I love free apps. I reviewed Timeriffic a few weeks ago which helps turn settings on and off based on times you designate. Certainly it accomplishes the goal of controlling sounds and settings without any intervention, but it is limited by your schedule. Llama by KebabApps is a free location based app that will turn a large selection of features on or off based on areas that you create. It does not use your GPS but rather, it uses phone masts to determine your locations.
For many people, they are only at a few locations every day. You are at home, work or school. You may go to the store or out with friends but there are a few places where you spend the majority of your time. With Llama your phone can learn the locations based on the networks that are around you and use those locations to turn on or off wifi, cell signal, sounds, or a wide host of other options. Unlike some other apps in this genre, Llama stands out by offering you so much control. There are roughly 26 preset features you can control through Llama!
In addition to those controls, you can create event based actions to turn on or off those features. For instance, you can create an event to run an app if you start charging your phone. Maybe you need to have the volumes turned up when you connect to your Bluetooth in the car; there are events that will trigger this. There are also startup and shutdown actions, battery level events and so much more. I have been setting up profiles and events to control the sounds and actions to allow me to control my phone for several days and I still have only hit a small portion of what this app can do.
The setup is slightly more involved than some of the other apps that I have tried. But given the complexity in which this app can be programmed one would expect that. The developer has made the startup and learning curve easier with helpful popup menus when you first launch the app. As you open each tab there is a welcome screen explaining the function. I like the fun ok button replacements such as Groovy and Okey doke! They made me read what I would have otherwise blown past.
When you start Llama I would suggest setting up the areas first. Areas are your locations that you want the device to teach Llama. It will use the areas to help your device know where the phone masts are that it will identify to locate your area. It starts you off with Home and Work. If you are at home and open up Llama for the first time simply long press Home to get a menu. There you can tell your phone or tablet to start learning an area. The app asks you how long you will be there. You can select as short as a minute or up to several hours. Once the time is set the app will start to listen to cell masts around you. Once the app knows where you are you will want to open the events and profiles tabs.
In Events, you start to fine tune what you want turned on and off. You can setup hours and locations or event triggers to customize your settings. I modified the base settings so that while I was home my phone would go to the loud sound profile up until 11:00pm then go to a night profile that I created. The wifi would be on so that my podcasts and emails will all still download overnight but I will not hear the notifications or the vibration between 11pm and 6am. Creating an event is simple. There is a + sign at the bottom of the screen that you click then start adding in conditions and actions. You can enable and disable events here too. There is a test button so that you can see if the event works as you think it should. A simple interface but as you get into it you see how powerful this can be.
One thing I really like about the app using your location is that say I am out late one night and away from home. Instead of Llama turning off my sounds at 11:00pm like it would do when I am at home, it will use the event actions I have defined to realize I am not home so it will go to a loud volume and perhaps I could have it also turn off wifi. I would not have to do anything to change this. I did just this the other night. I was out past 11:00pm and I was away from home or work so instead of going silent at 11:00 like Timeriffic would have done, Llama kept my wifi off and turned the volume up to loud. When I came home it switched back over to the home 11-6 setting.
After using the app for a week I feel like it might be the app I switch over to permanently. I have been a big Timeriffic fan for a long time but I like the options I have in Llama. I like the flexibility. I do wish it allowed me to use GPS locations in addition to cell masts. I live in an area where there are only a few cell antennas around and my home based area is larger than I would like it to be. The develop does mention this could be a problem if your home and work are very close together. Having GPS would let me lock it down tighter. That aside, it does work very well for not using GPS. Another advantage is that phones without a good GPS antenna *cough* Samsung Vibrant *cough* could use this app without issues. I understand why it would not depend on GPS.
The developer says that he is looking at adding SMS conditions and actions in the future. I like that he will do this as a release only on his blog. The reason is so that for those of you in tin foil hats that are concerned with privacy do not have to allow permissions to the Internet and SMS apps if you don't want that. He also mentioned that he updates it about once a month. He updates the version on his blog first so be sure to look there. The app is free in the market but there is also a donation version. This app is developed by a guy just like us in his spare time and he has created a great app, so don't be cheap! If you like the app and use it go spend the $1.30 to keep him going. You can donate within the app or in the Google Play Store.
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