Develop Bugs

[Q] What "Find My Phone" Do You Install On Your Shiny New Galaxy Nexus?

I consider the "find my phone" software a necessary must on any mobile device. The ability to locate, ping, and wipe your Mobile is an extraordinary advantage in the digital age. I've used it once to find an errant iPhone 3GS and again on WP7 with a Samsung Focus along with helping my sister who continually forgets where her iPhone is.
What do you use on your Galaxy Nexus? Have you had an unfortunate circumstance that allowed you to field test it yet?

I've always had Lookout installed with all my phones. Fortunately I have never had to use it.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lookout&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5sb29rb3V0Il0.

I used ' Where's My Droid' on my N One and continue to use it on my GNex, also had loads of added bits with tasker working off the same trigger like lock phone and give warning message with a contact number to return... just in case it was a nice old lady that found it Not sure if Tasker will work fully on ICS yet so i've not set it up.
I also had Lookout installed but whenever i tried to locate it on their site it could never get a lock on. I dont know if they didn't fully support the UK that was the problem or that i was always flashing ROMs and it constantly being installed caused problems.

I have a Google Apps account for my family and a few of us have Android devices, so I installed the Google Apps Device Policy app on all the Android phones (in the Market and it's by Google). That app enables device policies and such for each user/device (encryption, syncing, syncing while roaming... anything a business would want to restrict/allow for their device).The plus about that app is that it gives me access to this (the mydevices link):
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=1235372&topic=1233222
It's free and allows Google Apps users to lock, locate, reset pin, ring device, etc for Android devices. Remote wipe and everything else is part of Google Apps too.
Don't need a separate app and monthly fees, it's all handled by Google and works perfectly.

Interesting. Do you have to setup a server or what? I understand the client side policy app but not the backend.
How do you tie them together?
G2x - 2.3.7 CM7
Transformer - 3.2 Revolver OC/UV

player911 said:
Interesting. Do you have to setup a server or what? I understand the client side policy app but not the backend.
How do you tie them together?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't have to set up anything, no servers or tying any services together. On my android phone, I just setup my account with my Google Apps email/password, install the Device Policy app, and .... done.
All the devices show up for my family in my Google Apps control panel (under settings -> mobile if you're familiar with Google Apps's panel). And that mydevices link "just works". Don't have to set up anything else, it's great. Google does it all for you.
I believe the device policy app periodically pings Google's servers every few days (it's a bare app with no settings, only a couple pages of info on policies and current status), that process lets the Google Apps admin (me in this case) restrict/allow anything via the Apps Control panel.
The mydevices webpage is more of a "push", since "ring device", "reset pin", "locate device", and all those buttons are instantaneous. i.e. I click "ring device" and a few seconds later my phone rings super loud, even when on silent (this is assuming there is a data connection available to the phone).

I got SeekDroid from the Amazon Appstore when it was free. It's pretty good. It gives the GPS location from where the phone was last used, lets you send alarms and messages to the phone, lock the phone, and remote wipe the phone and SD card if necessary.
---------- Post added at 02:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:04 PM ----------
BinaryTB said:
Didn't have to set up anything, no servers or tying any services together. On my android phone, I just setup my account with my Google Apps email/password, install the Device Policy app, and .... done.
All the devices show up for my family in my Google Apps control panel (under settings -> mobile if you're familiar with Google Apps's panel). And that mydevices link "just works". Don't have to set up anything else, it's great. Google does it all for you.
I believe the device policy app periodically pings Google's servers every few days (it's a bare app with no settings, only a couple pages of info on policies and current status), that process lets the Google Apps admin (me in this case) restrict/allow anything via the Apps Control panel.
The mydevices webpage is more of a "push", since "ring device", "reset pin", "locate device", and all those buttons are instantaneous. i.e. I click "ring device" and a few seconds later my phone rings super loud, even when on silent (this is assuming there is a data connection available to the phone).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that sounds cool, i may have to look into it when my GN arrives.

BinaryTB said:
I have a Google Apps account for my family and a few of us have Android devices, so I installed the Google Apps Device Policy app on all the Android phones (in the Market and it's by Google). That app enables device policies and such for each user/device (encryption, syncing, syncing while roaming... anything a business would want to restrict/allow for their device).The plus about that app is that it gives me access to this (the mydevices link):
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=1235372&topic=1233222
It's free and allows Google Apps users to lock, locate, reset pin, ring device, etc for Android devices. Remote wipe and everything else is part of Google Apps too.
Don't need a separate app and monthly fees, it's all handled by Google and works perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately the first line is: This article applies only for Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government customers.
Any work arounds found by XDA?

Anyone else?

Another vote for Seekdroid. It always worked well on my Desire and i plan on using it with my GN. One of the best features is you can actually remove seekdroid from appearing in the phone menu or app list which prevents anyone from removing the app without your permission.

I used http://www.mobiledefense.com/ on my nexus s. Not sure if they ever released a retail version yet though. Kinda curious about the Google Apps thing now though...

Cerberus, Cerberus, Cerberus!!!
Such an excellent application! Please check it out, you won't be disappointed!!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Prey yet.

Just tried Cerberus. Wow. Awesome! Thanks for the suggestion.

I've always used prey - I actually had a friend get his laptop stolen in Africa, and he's currently coordinating with the African police to get it back. They've made arrests and stuff - I was extremely impressed.

African police drop what they are doing to chase down a misplaced gadget?
More stories please?!

I've always used wheres my droid, but after reading above about prey i am probably going to switch to that.

I've used prey since day one and find it very good and also the ability to alert you it's missing if the sim card changes is a god send as well.
Might check out cerberus as someone mentioned it 3 times so compelled to look now lol
Just launched prey and the logon prompt is all screwed up and you cannot put in some details so you can never login... time to try others now.
---------- Post added at 09:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:28 AM ----------
Brought cerberus really like the fact it can take a photo of the person trying to get past my passcode, might try it out on my other half lol

bmstrong said:
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Prey yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.prey
Excatly.
The best i've ever tried up to now.
Love the way it enables gps also if it's down.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned AndroidLost. AndroidLost has remote wipe, GPS locate (never had to use it), send SMS/MMS from phone remotely, make calls, take pictures without the user knowing, record audio clips with the MIC without the user knowing.... all through a web page. No one else uses this?

[Q] Call and message meter application

Hi,
Is there an application similar to the android one that can meter calls and messages throughout a month?
it would be very usefull but never found something similar for my wp7 device...
if you know any just tell me the name thx

I haven't run across a general-purpose one (haven't really looked either), but some of the carriers include that functionality in their own apps. The myAT&T app, for example, on AT&T, will allow you to view usage of minutes, data, texts, etc. if you're on AT&T.

im not with at&t, im from europe
too bad there is no application for this purpose, it would be really usefull

I think it's a good idea. Will see

is there a library for windows phone that enables a software dev to access the call history and messages sent?
because if there is i might be able to do it myself as i have some experience with blend and c#
if you know of something like that please post here!

This isn't possible on WP7 because Microsoft doesn't provide a way to access SMS/Calls.
See here http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsphone7series/thread/6b2469b9-0bb6-4503-bc73-364812a1c277/

Pet Peeves

I've had my G3 about a month now. Overall I love the phone but there are a couple small things that are still bothering me.
1. Contacts display nicknames with seemingly no way to turn that off.
2. ICE contacts appears to break contact sync. I know there is an app from the Google Play store that will fix it however I just want to remove it completely.
3. Why is it that Google Hangouts seems to have more functionality than the stock messaging app when used in conjunction with my LG G Watch? You can't reply at all with the stocks app. You can only open on phone. Should be able to reply by voice and use quick replies. Only reason I am using the stock app at the moment is because Hangouts is getting to bloated and you can't attach sound files.
Any body have any workarounds for these things?

I thought of another one to bump it. My iPhone was smart enough to know that if I wasn't playing music using A2DP then to use the mono phone audio connection for Siri and driving directions which would allow it to come over my car stereo regardless of which audio source was selected in my truck. And while on iOS 6 I used a jailbreak app called Aloud that would read and notifications to me over bluetooth when connected to my car stereo.
Anybody know of a tweak or app that will do the same. I have used Sound About but unless I am missing a setting it seems I can only pick one or the other and not conditionally based on whether I am currently using Bluetooth audio or not.

Ok, so another one.
It seems that when editing group membership of my Google contacts on the phone it will remove the contact from the Google default "My Contacts" group. Since this is the only group I show in my phone list it makes the contact disappear. I then have to log onto my GMail account and go to contacts and edit the contact there to put it back in the "My Contacts" which is a little trickier than it sounds.
I am really disappointed with LG's implementation of the way they manage Google contacts on this Android phone. This is three problems I have directly related to contacts. I really hope there is some sort of update to fix these issues soon.

Remove / Disable Google and MI bloat apps

Hello everyone,
I'm used to the LineageOS on my previous phone and now I've upgraded recently to this phone but I feel my personal info too much available to Google and MI system apps and I don't want that, thats why I went to LineageOS on my previous phone but, like others custom firmwares, it have several bugs which limits the potential of the phone.
Even not using an google account I can feel my life is being spied because a few things happen:
- if someone calls me, a friend or whatever, and its not in my contacts list it asks me if its spam. For what? To send the info somewhere using the internet connection and warns others if its spam? If it reads my contacts for this it can read those for anything, like copy my whole contacts list which I'm not comfortable with and I'm not able to control. I'm afraid that later if i use the regular browser to access Gmail for instance, I'm afraid the OS is prepared to warn google that all the info that' I've shared so far belongs to that particular Google account and that phone IMEI is also used but that account. I'm crazy? Maybe, but all this is possible and I want to make it impossible.
- If i do not allow Google services from accessing my text messages APP (built-in app) i keep getting a warning from the system that something it will not go OK if I do not turn on that access from Google services. Why the hell should google services needs to access my texts? My first phone, 20 years ago, could send SMS without google, why the hell google needs to see my texts now?
The list continues but I'm not willing to loose the nice things this OS have too, but for me personal info is too valuable and I dont want to give away any information from my contacts list, SMS texts, the places I visit, my tastes and so on, all this is my personal life and no one needs to know about it, not even just for statistics. Some people on my contacts list doesn't use Android and dont want the personal phone number stored somewhere and connected to me somehow, not that Im a criminal or something like but all this combined together its like a personal "Facebook" for Google and MI to use, they know who are the persons who I connect with, who are near me at a certain period of the day, where I usually do shopping, well, all my life is being stored somewhere, and I want to end this.
Is there a way to keep the current OS and block every outgoing info coming from the phone? I've made some research and i come to this so far
- AFwall can be a solution, but how good it is?
- Removing google services is not an option using ADB, the OS will not work
- Disable google services is not working. The system keeps turning it on automatically
Please give me your feedbacks with your experiences about this security issue, I think several people feels the same way, and how did you managed a work around to this keeping the original OS.
PS: For now I didnt unlock the bootloader, but I will if the solution goes that way.
Thank you everyone
Tomalamix

Living in the age of Google, one cannot use phone & Internet without your info being collected for ad purposes or whatsoever.

Ad purposes i can live with that,. what I cant live with is my personal data being stored by a 3rd party company besides my cell operator
Ive been watching the Anti-Gapps group but it seems discontinued i guess, i think this is a task fitted for them

LineageOS Stripped Down Kids Mode?

I've got two kids, ages 6 and 8, and we keep their screen time limited, but they love audiobooks and for the past few years we have bought them cheap mp3 players and loaded audiobooks on them from the library using the Overdrive app on a pc which then syncs the mp3s to the mp3 player. However, Overdrive has been discontinued and is likely to be fully killed off sometime in 2023 (no doubt thanks to pressure from the publishing industry) whereupon the only way to get audiobooks from the library will be through the Libby app, but this of course requires an internet connected device. For obvious reasons I don't want to just give my kids an Android phone with access to Youtube, social media, etc. I have played around with LineageOS to breath fresh life into an old Kindle tablet and various older phones, so I'm thinking perhaps picking up some cheap old Moto phones and loading them up with LineageOS would be an option, but I'd want to strip out some of the functionality and remove the web browser, phone and sms, and basically just have a camera, Libby app, k9 email client, and if possible voice recognition. presumably Libby and k9 mail could be sideloaded. Not sure about voice recognition, but it seems like maybe Gapps pico or microG might offer a way to implement google voice recognition? But is it possible to have voice recognition without having the play store? As far as removing the browser, it appears that LOSdiet should work for that purpose.
Anyone embarked on a similar task?

mgrharry said:
(...)
Anyone embarked on a similar task?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why can't you use a guest account?

While I suppose using the Guest feature on a stock Android device might be an option, I'd prefer not to go down that route for a few reasons. First, it seems like it's mostly designed as a temporary option for loaning a phone to a friend, not as a permanent function, and I am afraid it would be easy to accidentally delete all the contents of the guest account which would result in a very unhappy kid. Second, if they know it can do all the things a "real" phone can do and they're just locked out of doing them, that will make them much more prone to nagging us to install random junky games and apps and fiddling around trying to access the main account. I'd prefer if it just wasn't an option at all.

Maybe try it out before you reject it.
Google Family Link

Yes, I have also the combination of google family link and LOS and IF it is working, it is working really great!
On some systems, you need to have two user profiles on the device, as the children account alone would lead to an FRP lock , at least on S4 and S5 neo.
I got it one time working by adding first the parents account and then afterwards adding the children account. In Settings, enable multi user and then add a PIN (or whatever) to prevent access to your account from the one your child is using.