Locale
avc.com
avc.com
The best part though is that you can download apps from the market that do nothing but add even more conditions and settings to Locale, such as: headphones plugged in or not; whether the phone is on a car dock; launching other programs; lockscreen passwords; and many more.
As an example of what it does for me:
Default settings: Wifi off, Ringer volume 85%, Media volume 70%, Password Lockscreen on.
At home: Wifi on, Lockscreen off
At work: Wifi on, Ringer volume 0%, Vibrate on
At night (10pm-7am): Ringer volume 0%
Headphones plugged in: Media volume 20%
I wish my iPhone would be able to do this too, but it is probably a bit too much of configuration for Steve. Also, depending on your configuration, it could lead in breaking the semantics of the physical ringer switch.
For Mac OS X, there is an app which does pretty much what Locale does: MarcoPolo. I found it very useful when I needed to change SMTP server based on where I was.
That was my initial reaction as well, but then I felt pretty sheepish. Here is an app that people clearly love (low risk) that speaks to a pain point I have (my phone behaving in a certain way regardless of context) and I'm really waffling over $10?
Then something else occurred to me: I had a coworker who would regularly leave his mobile phone on his desk, with the ringer set to maximum volume. He'd be gone at meetings, or to lunch, and the entire room would be disrupted repeatedly by phone calls (it seems he was a popular guy).
In a case like this, I would gladly pay $20 to provide Locale-like functionality on another person's phone. Maybe there's a clever way to market apps-for-other-(annoying)-people.
wtf, people.
Yes. First, I wouldn't turn off someone's ringer. Do you want people feeling that they can just pick up your personal property? I don't.
Second, having dealt with several coworker issues like this in the past, the way people respond can vary wildly. Some people simply realize that they were unaware, and adjust their behavior accordingly. Others will rationalize it as you being the troublesome complainer, not noticing the glares from the entire room (that's what happened in this case, and his behavior only changed once he complained and noticed that everyone else supported my position), these people require overwhelming social pressure. Others, like another coworker at this place, will become instantly angry at anyone who dares 'impose' their will on them.
Since this particular tech company valued skill over all other aspects, there was a higher than normal concentration of antisocial types.
Anyway, my point was simply that this app represents something which may be of far greater value to someone other than the user.
The holy grail for a laptop was switching your SMTP settings, since a lot of people use different ISPs at work and at home. That problem goes away with a phone, but ringer volume seems like a similar level issue for phones. I could also see doing things like reducing your notifications or changing your lock settings.
(If you're interested in my software, you can find it at http://codehackers.net/locations/)