automation

[Update: The company now has a blog post up about the new channel. It adds that they’ve also made some new actions for the general Android Device Channel including one to mute your phone when you plug it in and one to get directions to work every weekday morning (weird), to name just two. The company’s Do series of apps (collection here) have received some small updates including unlimited action buttons and floating buttons that follow you everywhere on your phone, like Facebook’s floating chat heads.]

IFTTT stands for “If this, then that” and is a popular service for automating your digital life and stitching together all the disparate, disconnected apps and services you may use on a daily basis. Now the company has released a bunch of new native Android actions that will automate the management and preservation of your device’s battery life.

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I’m a huge fan of IFTTT, the mobile app (and web app) that allows you to do really clever things completely automatically, just by creating or downloading an ‘if this then that’ rule–which IFTTT calls a ‘recipe.’ For example, if you’d like to save a copy of a photo anytime you are tagged on Facebook, there’s a recipe for that. Want to switch on a WEMO-controlled light when the sun goes down, there’s a recipe for that too. Pretty much anything you might want to automate has an existing recipe–and if it doesn’t, you can create your own.

But while IFTTT is incredibly powerful, the developers found that some people found it so overwhelming they didn’t know where to start. The company has now addressed that by creating three cut-down apps, each of which can perform only three functions: Do Button (geared for controlling hardware), Do Camera (to automatically post, share or save photos) and Do Note (to quickly write something and save it as a note, make it a calendar entry, tweet it and so on) …

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Smart lock maker August announced its latest device today at CES 2015 simply dubbed ‘Connect’. The August Connect is an WiFi-connected device that plugs into a power outlet in your home to provide the Bluetooth-connected August Smart Lock with a constant Internet connection. August says its latest accessory enables several new features for owners of its smart lock product…
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