Automation options - email checking
 

Hello,

I don't have an n810 yet, but I am looking to get one.

I was curious about what automation options there are. For example, I would like the device to wake up periodically (pref without the screen coming on), check to see if there is a wlan it knows available, otherwise start a bt DUN session, then check and download email. Then "bing" or do nothing depending on the emails available.

Can the OS do this type of automation out of the box?

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

Yes, it does automatically check mail. Not sure about whether it will dial a DUN session, but I think you can enable that. (Actually I'm almost positive you can, at least in 2007, and I haven't heard gripes about that going away in the 2008 OS on the N810's.)

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

It will most definitely do that. The only minor glitch is that it only changes Internet connection after the current connection is disconnected. Seems like a fine plan for Wifi (after all, why connect to a different WLAN if your current one still works). But it also means that once it's on DUN, it will never go back to Wifi, even if you are back in range (unless, of course, your cell phone goes out of range or kills the DUN connection). That's why I have the automatic dial-up disabled, since I rather have it not be on the net for the the 45 minutes a day that I am not in Wifi range than have to remember to put it back to Wifi everytime I come back from outside.

Martin

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

yep, there is a connection priority setting missing...

it could be made as visual as a number next to stored connections, and dragging them up or down the list depending on how they should prioritized.

so you would have something like this:
1. home wlan
2. office wlan
3. dun or pan

then if you want to use the phone before using office wlan for some reason, one would simply drag it up so that the list would become:
1. home wlan
2. dun or pan
3. office wlan

and then if non of those produce a solution, either present the connection list (if its a user initiated connection, say by starting browser or mail) or simply time out (if its a rss or mail autocheck).

if one wants a more fine grained control one could possibly have a list of apps (like how simple-launcher does it for selecting entries) for each connection to mark who could initiate what kind of connection automatically.

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

would be great to have an option which can set the device to online mode every 45 minutes for 5 minutes or something.
So that the battery is not discharged so fast, but I can still get the newest emails and rss-feeds automatically every 45 minutes.

Is it possible to write a program which can switch the device between online and offline mode??

If not can we write it somewhere on a wishlist to get it in the next OS update?

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

Err... this is what I was asking.

When I said "wake periodically" I meant from a standby state.

Are the previous responders talking about when the device is turned on...?

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

Yes, we all meant with the device "on" and connected. The N810 and N800 have a battery capacity of about 10 _DAYS_ while _ON_ and connected to Wifi. The ARM chip has some pretty amazing power scaling capabilities. At least with OS 2008, there is no "standby" - it's either on or off. But turning it on from off means booting up (takes about 30 seconds or so) and is not recommended for battery saving purposes. Some people claim that the boot up (where I/O and CPU usage is high) consumes as much power as a day or so of idle...

There is an "offline" mode, but that's mostly for airplanes (and as such, does not allow for an automatic switch to online mode). But really, there is no need for a "standby" or "offline mode" for battery savings purposes. (I guess if you are a purist you could argue that there is a need for it, but the inconvenience of having to worry about an additional power state etc... is not worth the minute benefits, IMHO).

Martin

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

Ah. Yes, 10 days of battery is "off" enough for me :)

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

I see a big difference between online and offline mode with my N800 and OS2008. in online mode i have a battery time of 1-2 days.
But it depends on the distance to the WLAN-Router.

When you speak about 10 days what wlan strength do you have?
Or is there a difference between N800 and N810?
Or is the reason for this difference maybe that I have rtcomm always running with different profiles enabled?

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

hmm, 10 days while connected to wifi...

my guess, 10mW power and a access point that allows for max powersave on the wifi radio...

me, i keep bumping into problems with that kind of setup so...

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

Well, maybe 10 days is a bit optimistic - it's what the OS predicts. However, I've definitely seen it go for a whole day with occasional use and still be pretty full in the evening (still full battery icon)

Martin

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

Is there a way I could, say, get a program to run automatically at 4 a.m. every morning? If so, where would I find clear instructions on how to do that?

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

It never occurred to me before, but there is no cron on the tablet is there?

Wonder what it would take to add that.

-John

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

nope, no cron or similar...

as for adding it, i think the hardest part would be to get the server to start when the device is turned on and so on. but im not an authority on the startup and shutdown systems that maemo use...

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

Well, there has to be something similar to cron running, since how else does the eMail client start every 10 minutes to check mail? Usually, it's not running (verified via ps aux). I saw a process called "alarmd", that might be used for scheduling. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to dig into developing for the Nokia yet, but I am sure there is some sort of scheduler. However, they probably use something session-bound/dbus-using for scheduling instead of cron.

Martin

Re: Automation options - email checking
 

ah yes, i have been seeing talk about alarmd in relation to some apps.

hmm, python talks dbus...