When Motorola launched the Android powered RAZR last year it had an extremely impressive piece of software onboard called “Smart Actions”. It let you “program” your phone to do things at certain times or at certain locations. For example, say you’re about to go to bed. With Smart Actions you can tell your RAZR to automatically turn off notifications, GPS, WiFi, and activate silent mode at 10:00 PM. Or how about another scenario, say you drive to work everyday. You can set your device to send an email to your partner that you’ve safely arrived as soon as you connect to the WiFi network in the office. Not a lot of people know that Smart Actions exist, which is a shame, but Microsoft is looking to fix that with the release of on{X}. It’s pretty much an exact clone Smart Actions, except that you can create what Microsoft calls “recipes” using a website instead of having to do everything on the phone itself. Check out the video below to get a better idea of what we’re talking about:
Now we’ll be the first to admit, very few people will bother using software like on{X} or Smart Actions. Regardless of how easy it is to set things up, there’s still a barrier to entry that most normal smartphone users will not bother surmounting. What we want to know is why did Microsoft make on{X} in the first place? It doesn’t work on Windows Phone, it requires that you login to the service using your Facebook account, and it gives hardcore geeks a reason to stick to Android. Maybe we’ll see on{X} baked into Windows Phone 8?
Anyway, if you’re looking to automate your device then you should also be aware of Locale, which is also for Android, doesn’t require that you use Facebook, though it’s going to cost you 5 Euros.
[Via: All About Microsoft]