Location questions

[sawxray]

New to GTD, OF, and OF for iPhone. I watched the video, and have several questions about the iPhone version:

1. What do the separate 'Location' settings mean when editing a 'Context'? Does the 'Current Location' change as I move around, or does it just set the present current location (for example, work) and save it?

2. Can the 'Business Search' include several different types? In other words, can I set up my 'Errands' context to search for 'Grocery Store' and 'Dry Cleaning' and 'Pet Food'? Or do I need to set up a separate sub-context for each (eg, 'Errands: Grocery Store'; 'Errands: Dry Cleaning')?

3. How does 'Nearby' work? I see next actions under Context headings, with a single distance button that says ''<1 mile', or 'here'. Are these settings changeable to allow me to search a wider or narrower area?

4. When I select one of the above distance buttons, I assume I am being sent to 'Maps'. There, I see only one choice for a grocery store or dry cleaner. Can I see multiple merchants and select the one I want?

5. Once in the 'Maps' function, how do I get back to OF? Must I press the home button, then restart OF?

6. Finally (for now, at least ;) ), I understand the 'Sync' button on the iPhone, and am pretty sure it sends promptly to the server, but how about the desktop version? Must I manually 'Synchronize with Server', or will it check the server itself at intervals?

Thanks for the help!

[whpalmer4]

6. Finally (for now, at least ;) ), I understand the 'Sync' button on the iPhone, and am pretty sure it sends promptly to the server, but how about the desktop version? Must I manually 'Synchronize with Server', or will it check the server itself at intervals?

The desktop version will sync every hour. If you make a change, it will sync a minute later, and then resume the hourly sync cycle.

[jginsbu]

I'd like to add two more items to the list above.

7. I would like to be able to assign a context to the location 'anywhere' so its items always appear when using the Nearby feature.

8. I just mentioned this in another thread, but I would find it useful to be able to assign multiple locations to a single context, e.g. locations for each of the libraries I use to a single Library context.

[kuschti]

Can you add an option in the Settings to change the unit length from miles to kilometer (for europe) ?

[mdavis75]

i second the request for a kilometers option - for Australians.

[digitalimago]

I sencond too the request for kilometers!

[triangle]

Yes Kilometers are required! Please :)

[Craigc0299]

Kilometers for me as well please, don't get this Miles stuff!!!

[bluesy]

Absolutely, lets get Km in here for all of us Europeans :D only the british understand mils :D

[davidsomeone]

Do the Brit's use miles? Us Canadians use metric.... In fact, I think the *only* countries that use Imperial are the US, and Iran!! Go figure!

[bluesy]

Do the Brit's use miles? Us Canadians use metric.... In fact, I think the *only* countries that use Imperial are the US, and Iran!! Go figure!

the brits use miles and other imp like ponds

But im sure the rest of us use km

[jamus]

2. Can the 'Business Search' include several different types? In other words, can I set up my 'Errands' context to search for 'Grocery Store' and 'Dry Cleaning' and 'Pet Food'? Or do I need to set up a separate sub-context for each (eg, 'Errands: Grocery Store'; 'Errands: Dry Cleaning')?


Support has told me that using OR in all caps will work for what you want to do:

grocery store OR dry cleaning OR pet store

[Lizard]

Support has told me that using OR in all caps will work for what you want to do:

grocery store OR dry cleaning OR pet store

Yeah, we're using a google business search under the hood, so you can try out any of these in google on the "Find businesses" tab.

[Lizard]

Can you add an option in the Settings to change the unit length from miles to kilometer (for europe) ?

Yup, we have a feature request for kilometers. We're working on some nastier bugs first, so we may not be able to give you kilometers for a while yet, but we do hear the request.

[tmk]

The location feature in Context seems to always trigger the "Directions" function in Google Maps.

In some countries "Directions" doesn't work (Japan for example) as Google Maps only returns a dialog stating that it can't find the driving directions. Switching to "Search" in Google Maps doesn't move the search term over and as the iPhone has no clipboard so no work around for the problem. :(

It would be great if one could choose to have the Context's Location feature trigger the Google Maps' "Search" rather than "Directions".

.tmk

[Lizard]

tmk: request noted.

[bluesy]

Yup, we have a feature request for kilometers. We're working on some nastier bugs first, so we may not be able to give you kilometers for a while yet, but we do hear the request.

sweet, get rid of the nasty bugs and then a few extra features, i like that :)

Just used OF on my iPhone for the first time, really great for holding all the polterabend plans it was working on great, incl making me write to the attendees with info.

Heres another request, how about if i onder a project can inport the contacts that is needed when this project is finished or to help me on a step in this project? you can put in 1 location, buisness or something like that, but when if an action could have a list of people who need to attend, imported from the contacts on the iphone? (if this isnt on the desktop version, feel free to apply it there ;) )

[danz013]

Us Brits use miles too.

[dansays]

A way to define what "nearby" means is super important to me. In New York, it means a 5-10 minute walk. B&H Photo is around 2 miles from my apartment, but it's a half an hour by subway, an hour by foot, or a $10 cab ride.

[ramatsu]

4. When I select one of the above distance buttons, I assume I am being sent to 'Maps'. There, I see only one choice for a grocery store or dry cleaner. Can I see multiple merchants and select the one I want?



I think getting this feature may make the difference between using OF or not for me (bought the iPhone app, trial testing the Mac app, going to decide within my 14 day trial whether to buy it and use both, or drop both, since I would only find either useful in combination with the other.)

Here's my example use case posted elsewhere here on the forums (hope that's ok):

I'd like to know where the nearest real grocery store is when out of town (and my explicit A OR B OR C list may not correspond to grocery chains in that area), but half the time it just shows me a Shell or Arco station's mini-mart, because they are listed as grocery stores. Not helpful when I need to shop for Thanksgiving dinner fixings.

Of course, sometimes a Coke and bag of Cheet-Os may be all I need and the mini-mart would be great, so the real issue is that the Business Search database taxonomy (wherever that lives) doesn't have sufficient granularity to serve my common use cases. (Or maybe it does - I'm blind guessing what keywords will work as business searches, so if there is a published taxonomy, can you point me to it?)

A solution that would provide lots of other benefits would be to show all the relevant businesses within a set radius, and include them ALL on the Google map you link to from the <1 mile button in the location headers. This is pretty much what other business search apps like Yelp do, and it's infinitely useful. It would help me screen out the mini marts, and also choose to go .1 mile further to a supermarket that I knew had the brand of whatever I preferred. Getting a single, closest hit is just not helpful enough that I'm even confident I'll get in the habit of using locations, and I LOVE the idea.

Thanks!

[Brian]

Hmmm... it may be that there's some nifty google search syntax trick that one could enter that would do what you're looking for, or it may be that we hard-coded the app to use the nearest match it could find.

Do me a favor and shoot this to the support ninjas as an email; this is one of the things they're going to be smarter than me about, and if it's not possible, they're best set up to communicate your request to the dev team. "Send Feedback" under the help menu will get you in touch with them.