|
Here is a tip for those with Macs and iPhones, especially useful if you don't have unlimited SMS on your iPhone.
Though you may want to receive SMS Alerts for your critical geofences, other, less critical fence alerts could waste SMS's. Of course, you can receive email alerts on your iPhone, but you won't get popup notifications AND, if your email account doesn't support the push feature, then you might wait 15 minutes for the alert. So if you want a notification box to pop up with your Accutracking alerts, just like an SMS, then do the following (search for all software referenced at Macupdate.com):
1. If you haven't already, install the preference pane Growl on your Mac. Growl allows for popup notifications of any number of things on your Mac screen. Set it up to start at login.
2. Next install a Growl plugin called Prowl. You will have to create an account on the Prowl website. It has an iPhone app in the iTunes app store which you will need to install and configure with that user name and password.
3. Then, install Omnigrowl on your Mac. Using the "Open Omnigrowl Preferences" companion app, open the preferences window. Set Omnigrowl to start at login. Go to the "News" tab and check "Check RSS Feeds". Also check the checkbox next to "Check instant feeds more quickly". Now you can add the Accutracking Alert Feed from the Manage Units --> Stickers page on Accutracking (when you do add this feed, be sure to check the "Instant" option and also make sure the feed is enabled.)
4. Go to "System Preference" and open the "Growl" prefpane. Find "Omnigrowl" in the applications list and click "Configure". For "Application Display Style", choose "Prowl". Then go to "Notifications", find "Instant Headline" and make sure it is enabled.
You can play with other settings in Growl, Omnigrowl and on the Prowl iPhone app to fine tune your experience, but the basic result is that whenever an Accutracking alert is generated and added to the RSS feed, you will get a one of those blue popup boxes accompanied by a sound of your choice (or vibration in silent mode) on your iPhone without using a potentially costly SMS. The Prowl app on the iPhone keeps a list of all notifications received for your reference.
In my experience in testing the responsiveness against actual SMS alerts, the Prowl notification has occurred immediately after the SMS was received...virtually no lag, though this may not always be the case (and remember, it relies on your Mac being up an running with a solid internet connection -- I'm also guessing that if your Mac goes to sleep, you will lose this functionality.)
Unfortunately, Growl is strictly Mac Only, though there may be other ways to send notifications through Prowl that don't rely on having a Mac. The Prowl website lists a number of third party API users that might offer additional solutions. I haven't really investigated those.
|
