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RogerS's Avatar
Posts: 772 | Thanked: 183 times | Joined on Jul 2005 @ Montclair, NJ (NYC suburbs)
#1
My reminders look like this: Michael's birthday in three days and Time to leave for dentist appt. They're entered in a calendar app. They're triggered when I arrive at a particular date or time.

But what about when I arrive at a particular place?

Since I have GPS in my Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, why can't I get reminders that look like this? — About to pass Home Depot. Need to get electrical tape.* Or: One block from dry cleaners. Pick up Jill's sweater.

Come on now. We have a full-fledged computer system at our beck and call. Call Jim as soon as you get back from lunch should only activate when I return to work in the lunch timeframe and Pick up milk at grocery only when I'm passing the deli in the evening, on my way home.

You know, that GPS in the N810 has got to have way more use than we're making of it.

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* This isn't a new idea. More than two years ago, I wrote a post about Geominder, an app that runs on Series 60 phones.
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Posts: 186 | Thanked: 56 times | Joined on Mar 2008
#2
I think the default maps application can trigger an alarm when you are near a certain /type/ of building (I have it set to warn me about police stations and parking lots :P).

Indeed, though, this would be good. Actually, something these tablets could use is a simple Reminder program. We have todo lists, calendars, contact managers... but what about a simple, low maintenance program that simply tosses a reminder out at particular conditions? Todo lists tend to get bloated, because they seem more designed around projects, with completion percentage, priority, and all that jazz. Dealing with them (or even getting a reminder) requires explicit action, whereas a reminder tool should occur on its own. A calendar, on the other hand, is problematic because it ties itself to dates, which is a particular bit of information not quite suited to many tasks.

An example just occurred to me: Today, I completely misused my Tasks list because I wanted to remember a type of chips that I had (Riceworks crisps). Later added a note to Tomboy so that whenever I typed Chips I would be reminded of them. Assuming I narrate my life in real time, it will succeed at reminding me of their existence. Of course, that's not the case. What if I could throw that into a quiet reminder program, so that whenever I am looking for munchies it lets me know, again through passive interaction; it watches for hints in my actions, such as me typing Chips or entering a gas station, and then shows me the reminder.

The request here really isn't just something to give to the N810, it's a completely unique and new application!
And yes, it would be cool. In fact, I just realized that simplifies one of my dream applications perfectly

Last edited by Picklesworth; 2008-04-29 at 03:59.
 
Posts: 70 | Thanked: 56 times | Joined on Dec 2007
#3
Originally Posted by Picklesworth View Post
...

Indeed, though, this would be good. Actually, something these tablets could use is a simple Reminder program. ...
An example just occurred to me: Today, I completely misused my Tasks list because I wanted to remember a type of chips that I had (Riceworks crisps). Later added a note to Tomboy so that whenever I typed Chips I would be reminded of them. Assuming I narrate my life in real time, it will succeed at reminding me of their existence. Of course, that's not the case. What if I could throw that into a quiet reminder program, so that whenever I am looking for munchies it lets me know, again through passive interaction.

The request here really isn't just something to give to the N810, it's a completely unique and new application!
And yes, it would be cool. In fact, I just realized that simplifies one of my dream applications perfectly
See this thread. N810 and remind
http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...ghlight=remind
 
qole's Avatar
Moderator | Posts: 7,109 | Thanked: 8,820 times | Joined on Oct 2007 @ Vancouver, BC, Canada
#4
Well, the tablet has built-in "alarms," which are time-based reminders. These have been around on most mobile devices forever. But why not space-based alarms, too?

EDIT: Looked at Remind, I didn't see any mention of spatial coordinates...

Last edited by qole; 2008-04-28 at 22:43.
 
Posts: 149 | Thanked: 21 times | Joined on Jun 2007 @ Germany
#5
1) you need cached maps (no problem)
2) you need a lot of work to manage your reminders (a little problem)
3) you need a working GPS (a desaster on N810)
 
tabletrat's Avatar
Posts: 481 | Thanked: 65 times | Joined on Aug 2007 @ Westcountry, UK
#6
I don't think the GPS on the 810 is good enough for the job, but it is a good idea to have location aware services.
Maybe when the improve the 810 gps or maybe the next gen.
However, killer PDA functions would help with that too.
 
Posts: 41 | Thanked: 6 times | Joined on Apr 2008
#7
I'm on a team that's working on this for the Android OS. Android phones are expected to use triangulation so that it works indoors, outdoors, everywhere.
 
Posts: 186 | Thanked: 56 times | Joined on Mar 2008
#8
How about a reminder program with a plugin system powering different backends?
For example, one backend could watch the user's current message on Twitter for keywords (stemming works magic), while another keeps an eye on Presence (remind me when I am available!), one infers what the user is doing based on current appointments in Evolution's calendar and another watches GPS coordinates. Could be an interesting way to bridge the gap between all these things...

The flaw with simply a reminder program that uses GPS is the same flaw that hits all the others: limited scope.

Perhaps the reminder program could simply maintain a string (or a little library of strings) regarding present status, set by the backends. User simply inputs some text for "when" to pop the reminder, then the reminder appears when the program logically works that out from the status text as per a search algorithm. Could get painful for dates and times, though, but at the same time I hate the idea of having an arbitrary field for that stuff...
(Or perhaps it could maintain various 'types' of status; time, location and text, each one blendable with the other and carrying unique properties).

Last edited by Picklesworth; 2008-04-29 at 00:06.
 

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Posts: 4,930 | Thanked: 2,272 times | Joined on Oct 2007
#9
Originally Posted by Scythe View Post
I'm on a team that's working on this for the Android OS. Android phones are expected to use triangulation so that it works indoors, outdoors, everywhere.
That "everywhere" means everywhere you can get a connection to at least two, preferably three, GSM towers, right? As long as they have GPS as well, they'll do fine; where cell towers are thin, you're not usually in a steel canyon. (And when you're in a stone canyon, nothing's gonna work well; but as long as you know which one you're in, it doesn't matter so much.) But triangulation (or, pedantically, trilateration) isn't a cure-all by itself.


@Picklesworth
Isn't someone gonna show up and tell us how the Newton did something like that? Really, it had some sorta natural-language parser that would be helpful in this context; your whole plan sounds (from what little I know) like a Newton natural. At least if Jobs hadn't killed the Newtons, so that there'd be GPS Newtons around...

Last edited by Benson; 2008-04-29 at 00:15.
 
Texrat's Avatar
Posts: 11,700 | Thanked: 10,045 times | Joined on Jun 2006 @ North Texas, USA
#10
Originally Posted by slha89 View Post
1) 3) you need a working GPS (a desaster [sic] on N810)
I don't see GPS as a "disaster" on the N810. Slow to initially acquire signals? Yes. But "disaster" is an exaggeration IMO.
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