Environmentally aware computing devices with automatic policy adjustment features

A method for automatically adjusting device settings in accordance with environmental conditions comprising:

• identifying a device comprising a device location beacon and a device policy agent;
• networking the device to a location server;
• the location server automatically determining a location of the device from the device location beacon;
• based upon the determined location, automatically ascertaining at least one policy to implement upon the device;
• conveying the ascertained policy to the device;
• and
• the device policy agent automatically adjusting at least one device setting in accordance with the conveyed policy.

A system for automatically adjusting device settings based upon environmental factors comprising:

• a location server configured to automatically and dynamically determine locations of a plurality of devices and a plurality of users based upon location beacons associated with the devices and users;
• a policy server configured to determine a plurality of environment specific policies for the plurality of devices, wherein the policies are based upon a plurality of factors, wherein the factors include a physical location of the devices, a relative distance between the devices, and a relative location of the users to the devices;
• and
• a plurality of device policy agents, each associated with a particular one of the devices, wherein the policy agents receive policies determined by the policy server and responsively adjust device settings in accordance with the policies.