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Dustin Rue
ControlPlane makes your computing environment context-sensitive. Reconfigure your machine based on what is going on or where you are at. Set the office printer as your default while in the office or enable the screensaver password when away from home.
ControlPlane is a fork of MarcoPolo which is now unsupported.
ControlPlane is a fork of MarcoPolo which is now unsupported.
What's New
Version 1.5.0:
Bug Fixes:
- Bonjour Evidence Source would cause ControlPlane to hang after some sleep/wake cycles, this should be fixed.
- Enabling SMB Filesharing would result in an error message, this has been fixed. You will be prompted to install a new version of the helper tool.
- WiFi evidence source allows you to create rules based on if the link uses some type of encryption.
- Active Context Evidence Source allows you to create rules and actions based on contexts that are active.
- You may need to recreate some active network adapter and IP rules
- Updated USB vendor tables
- Updated OUI tables
Version 1.5.0:
Bug Fixes:
- Bonjour Evidence Source would cause ControlPlane to hang after some sleep/wake cycles, this should be fixed.
- Enabling SMB Filesharing would result in an error message, this has been fixed. You will be prompted to install a new version of the helper tool.
- WiFi evidence source more...
Requirements
- Intel, 64-bit processor
- OS X 10.7 or later
ControlPlane User Discussion (Write a Review)
(29)
Overall:
(29)
(29)
Displaying 1-10 of 20
Displaying 1-10 of 14
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ControlPlane makes your computing environment context-sensitive. Reconfigure your machine based on what is going on or where you are at. Set the office printer as your default while in the office or enable the screensaver password when away from home.
ControlPlane is a fork of MarcoPolo which is now unsupported.
ControlPlane is a fork of MarcoPolo which is now unsupported.
+1
Wchiseler reviewed on 07 Jan 2014
Works well: background changes based on timeofday.
UI and documentation limitations make user error more likely.
Most of the evidence rules I can think of are there, but I tried only a few. Perhaps there’s a way to use shell scripts to do the others, but if so, I didn't find info on how.
Likely bugs: sometimes some actions for a context do not trigger.
Maybe bug: wifi evidence never respected.
+1
+20
As of your problems I would consider trying out several combinations, because I use the Wi-fi evidence in almost all my contexts and it works like a charm.
+20
Bottacco reviewed on 14 Oct 2013
ControlPlane is great, works with all modern versions of Mac OS X and incorporates many of the functions that didn't work under MarcoPolo.
As a consultant that moves around all the time, changing configurations anywhere I go, ControlPlane is a real time saver.
Thank you for continuing what MarcoPolo started
+36
Hervé 5 reviewed on 22 Sep 2013
+1
+177
Stormchild reviewed on 23 May 2013
The "confidence" factor is hard to figure out — I have no idea how it decides that two conditions set to 60% confidence add up to 85% confidence (what voodoo math is going on here?). The inaccurate sliders don't help (why not just use text fields if you're going to track percentage values with one decimal point?), and there's basically no documentation either. None of this "confidence" crap should be exposed in the UI in the first place. Basically these are all problems the developer couldn't figure out, so they just left it up to the user to spend hours tweaking everything until it stops switching contexts at the wrong times.
In short, good luck actually getting this to do what you want without triggering false positives and causing more problems than it solves. Buggy underlying technology + terrible UI = lousy experience. I recommend not wasting your time trying to get this working.
-1
+20
The only thing I do agree with is about the manual. This is no newbie utility and you have to grasp the concepts and interrelationship between contexts, evidence sources, rules and actions… and sometimes, depending what you want to accomplish, it is not easy.
But I can assure you it works and I have a pretty elaborate setup. I have tried all similar utilities that I could find here in MacUpdate and in Google, and none came close to the power and flexibility of ControlPlane.
And it is free, so we better thank you the developer for his time and try to contribute with bug reports and ideas. He even dedicates a lot of time to answer questions in ControlPlane's mailing list to support questions that many times shouldn't be asked in first place.
So, if you don't like it, don't use it. And if you have a better alternative please share it with us, so even the developer can compare what others are doing right.
Cheers
+1
+1
What is NOT working: certain actions, sometimes:
- Background will change, but speak message will not—for the same context. At other times, message is announced properly.
- Control Plane will sometimes not recognize any context, although a TimeofDay rule is relevant and confidence for it is high. (This could be user error, but I couldn’t find any reason for it not to trigger).
I could never get WiFi evidences working. I could never figure out why, I had to give up. I’d get spoken messages when I was nowhere near, let alone connected to my WiFi network.
UI issues - TimeofDay automatically adds a description which shows a time. When you change the time, it does not change the described time. This means a rule may be listed as 6:30 am when it actually is for 6:00 am. This makes avoiding user error difficult. It would help to be able to see the actual TimeofDay setting in the Rules list.
I like it overall, but it’s frustrating at times. It’s good for freeware. If I’d paid for it, my review would probably be 1 or 2.
Oh, and I am grateful to the developer for his time, but this is a review site, not an ignore-the-app-if-you-don’t-like-it site. Like Stormchild, I’m sharing my experience, which is in my case, this app is better than nothing, but it does not work smoothly.
umpapah reviewed on 14 May 2013
Using now 1.3.14.
But: Since the last 2 or 3 versions there is sometimes (not really repeatable) a CPU use of 140 % to 150 %. Only chance to get back a working MacBook: Press the on-off switch (not funny).
Using a MBP (Late 2009, 8GB, 2.8 GHz, 500GB).
Just because of the troubles no better ranking!
NGrigoriev reviewed on 14 Jan 2013
+1
+20
Bottacco reviewed on 27 Sep 2012
Anybody looking to automate their machine based on contexts should try ControlPlane.
+2
Zarkon55 reviewed on 18 Sep 2012
I had to roll back to v1.3.5
Seems to "loop" to invalid contexts, and end up on the wrong one.
Otherwise I love this program.
+1
+11
+263
+1
+20
Fking reviewed on 05 Sep 2012
+2
Oliv!er rated on 13 Oct 2013
ebook1911 rated on 25 Jun 2013
+7
Gerrit-Kruijer rated on 09 Sep 2012
Immortalis rated on 08 Aug 2012
+2
Ilsa rated on 04 Aug 2012
-26
Pinbacker rated on 13 Apr 2012
chandlerj14 rated on 17 Feb 2012
+5
olderman rated on 17 Feb 2012
Thelenje rated on 16 Dec 2011
+2
Ilsa rated on 08 Dec 2011