when is apple going to take advantage of location based info??

[BackFocus]

Ok, so in my dorm building I get ZERO cell coverage, so I forward my calls to a skype #. Works, but I gotta set it up to forward every time i enter the building, major PITA

I hope apple develops their GPS services to allow location based forwarding.I could select a spot on the map and tell my phone "whenever I'm here,forward my calls"

This would also be useful for turning off the ringer. select my class buildings, set to "vibrate only mode" when I'm in the building.

To solve the problem of a GPS constantly running to find out where you are, the accelerometer could be used. (detect that you've sat down or stopped moving after XX number of steps to determine probability of a location change)

none of these features could ever be included on any apple sanctioned iPhone app, but maybe a jailbreak app?

 

[Diseal3]

Although a semi good idea, it's a feature I and many other may not even use. Apple themselves would never acually make such an app simply because it's aganist there own SDK term's that there dishing out to developers. Mabye a jailbroken app one day, but I doubt it would be free. Also may not be possible as the iphone isnt always tracking you, only when MAPS is open or another app requests to use your location data.

 

[soberbrain]

Regarding the dorm room issue. If you don't have good cell reception you probably won't have good GPS accuracy either. An alternative would be if a signal (Wifi from router, or bluetooth from your computer) could be used to detect you are "home" and to switch your calling settings.

Regarding the ringer option, using the GPS would also be difficult inside buildings and could drain the battery. An alternative would be an option to tie it to iCal and have it set to vibrate let's say 5 mins before class and resume 5 mins after.