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User Manual
I've tried to make WakeMe@ as user-friendly as possible, and as such you shouldn't need to read this. However, I'll try to describe how I use the app as a suggestion of how you might use it.
When you load the app, it starts on the list of locations. If you don't have one, you will see an instruction to tap to create a location. When you do so, it will pop up the Edit Location page and get you to choose a location.
When the map pops up, it gives you a search box: the easiest way to find the place you're looking for is to search for it. Try being as specific as you can to get the right location: "manchester piccadilly station" and "52nd st, nyc" work well. If the location doesn't look quite right, click "Cancel", and you will go back to the map. The standard map things work (pinch-to-zoom, etc), and there are various other options (satellite view, for example) available by pressing the menu button. The pale green circle shows you the radius that the alarm will go off within. Long-press on the location you want to use, and then press OK to accept the location. You'll then be prompted to name the location. To change the name later, tap on it in the Edit Location screen.
Most of the default settings work pretty well. The only setting you need to worry about is the mode of transport: the default, train, is not really accurate enough for use on a local bus for example. The basic section also lets you change the location you chose above.
If you choose Custom as the mode of transport, the Advanced section lets you modify the details of the alarm: the radius to alert you within, and also the location provider. On most phones, the options are:
- GPS: the most accurate, but least battery-friendly. If the phone has a clear view of the sky, it should be accurate to around 10m, but the location may not be very accurate or lost entirely if it's stuffed at the bottom of a bag. It drains the battery like anything though.
- Phone network: not as accurate, but very battery-friendly. Through personal experience, it seems to be accurate to about 1km, and doesn't noticably affect battery life.
- Passive: uses any location provider that is already running on your phone. No good if your phone isn't doing anything, but if you already have a GPS application running, you can piggy-back on the top of it. This doesn't use any (additional) battery at all.
There's also the option to have an old location warning. I introduced this because I discovered that the location provider on my phone sometimes stopped reporting the location, perhaps because it doesn't have a clear enough view of the sky when using GPS. This function alerts you if the location data gets older than should be expected.
There are various options available to customize the alarm that sounds when the destination is reached.
- Sound: whether to play an alarm noise
- Ringtone: the alarm sound to use
- Crescendo: the alarm sounds quietly to begin with, then gets louder
- Vibration: whether to use the phone's vibrate function
- Speech: uses synthesized speech to announce the distance from the destination
- Popup message: shows a brief message on screen (known as "toast" to us Android devs) The out-of-date location warning settings are pretty much the same.
There are three way to start an alarm:
- Long press on it in the locataion list, and tap Wake Here.
- Tap Activate Alarm on the Edit Location screen
- Create a home screen shortcut (this is what I usually do). Long press on your home screen, tap Shortcuts, then select WakeMe@ location. Choose the location from the list, and you should get a new icon (complete with a star) that lets you start the alarm for that location in one tap from your home screen.
##The alarm screen This is fairly self explanatory: a little information about the location, including a compass pointing towards it, and some buttons to cancel the alarm and do various other things.