Resident Techie: Tasker - feel good, build something

Most modern software falls into two camps: it's either dirt simple or like teaching quantum physics to a banana slug. The strange part is that complexity in working with an application doesn't necessarily equate to complexity in what an application actually does. For example, most modern operating systems are amazingly complex, but because they have an intuitively layout, they're relatively easy to handle. Macs and PCs today are worlds easier to deal with than just 10 years ago, and they can do so much more.

Still there are occasionally apps that offer a tantalizing power hidden behind a challenging user interface. One such app is Tasker ($2.99 in the Google Play Store) by Crafty Apps EU for Android.

Tasker is an automation application that lets you configure changes to your phone or tablet based on a context or trigger (such as whenever you hit an application, time, day, a scheduled timer, location, state of the device and more). The app starts by having you choose a trigger and then kicks you over to an action screen, where you tell it what do when you enter that state.