All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Is an anti-virus needed on android phone, or is it just something else to slow it down and drain the battery?

 

No, it's not the app killer. If it's getting hot, it's an app that's locked up in the background causing battery drain, or you're having a kernel issue where it's draining your battery quickly.

The Hummingbird CPU gets warm, but it's the battery that will cause the phone to feel hot, during charge/discharge.

No, and yes. Antivirus on Android is completely unnecessary ATM. Google is usually pretty good at getting crap out of the market. If you use other places to get apps though, I can't say that... Other places don't have that "virus/malware" guarantee.

 

I would liken antivirus on an Android handset to antivirus on any other form of Linux.
The more popular it becomes, the greater the risk but even at it's current popularity, it's still a minute risk for Android and common sense should see you home.

 

QFT!

On a sidenote... Gingerbread has just been leaked for the Galaxy S series. It's just like I've been trying to convince people all along... the carriers are to blame for the 2.2 rollout, not Samsung.

 

I've been enjoying Bubble buster a little too much lately, great time killer.
@ HAL: Thats neat! I read that the ROM was for the i9000 which is exactly my phone, do you think I could install it on my device?

 

I see, so is there any particular important reason for using a 2.2.1 rom over a 2.2 rom? Any performance gain at all?

 

I'm participating in the Norton for Mobile beta now. While it includes AV, I mainly use it for the remote wipe functionality and stuff. You can set it up so that you can send a text to locate, lock or wipe it.

Not bad for something that's free and unlike lookout (which i loved btw) it doesn't slow down my phone.

I do think AV's unnecessary and have that part turned off

 

It's in rapid development, because there's already alpha custom ROM's being built on it... though be careful and wait a few days. The recovery and bootloader are different. Recovery is changed to 3e from 2e, and the bootloader is signed I believe.

Benchmark performance will be about the same, but 2.2.1 has smoother animations and such, so visual performance will be a bit better. Elastic scrolling is more iPhone like and smooth, and the browser is hardware accelerated.

 

I use an Antivirus (Lookout Security) just incase, because i download apps and install them from 3rd party sites that dont guarantee anything.

 

I use to use the free avg anti-virus for android and it was quite good, but i now use the new kaspersky anti-virus as it was free from my bank.

Virus writers hit Google Android phones

 

The Mother Of All Android Malware Has Arrived: Stolen Apps Released To The Market That Root Your Phone, Steal Your Data, And Open Backdoor | Android News, Reviews, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets, Tips, Mods, Videos, Tutorials - Android Police

Since I read this, I've now enabled antivirus from within Norton. Phone still feels zippy (even when background scanning) so it's all good.

Not too worried about the whole situation though, while it's bad, it's good to see Google respond and there's always going to be some stuff slipping through the cracks in a open app store that is otherwise a very good idea.

 

I'll stick to my previous comment.
Common sense should be enough.

 

Indeed, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

 

Exactly grasshopper.


On an entirely separate note, does anyone know if it's possible for a love wallpaper to toggle functions like bluetooth etc?
So that the controls can be embedded into the wallpaper itself.

 

LOL,I'm pretty sure you meant live haha, and I'm not sure tbh, it would be cool if true though.

 

Yeah, I did.

I have quite a nice wallpaper just now with a honeycomb effect and I was thinking that instead of buttons sat over it, it would be cool if some of the segments acted as buttons themselves.

 

I've attached the wallpaper in question.

See what I mean, you could have one of the segment with the appropriate symbol in the middle ( bluetooth, wi-fi etc) and along with the surrounding 6 segments would make up the button.

But I have no idea how to try and do it.

 

Whats the best backup app that backs up apps?

 

Titanium Backup.

The free version backs them up perfectly well.

 

ok ill try that.

"Backup Everything" sucks. lol

 

Soo... Guess what?! My Captivate is dead. DEAD! I will forever remember today as a sad, sad day.

My primary is now an iPhone 4. I'm almost embarrassed. I'm thinking about just using the NexS as my primary, but Samsung has made me angry.

 

What happened to it?

 

I'm not exactly sure. It wasn't because of a bad flash or anything. It shut off and just will not, absolutely will not, come back on.

I'm leaning towards NAND failure coupled with something else... maybe the bootloader is corrupted. Plus since it's S-AMOLED, even if it were on and just not showing anything I can't tell... black pixels are off.

 

damn, that sucks. Out of battery? does the capacitive button work at all?

 

One capacitive button lights up, but doesn't detect touch and doesn't blink with touching it... That's what makes me think bootloader corruption. I've tried my "jig" for trying to get it into download mode, and I picked up a spare battery out of engineering today to no avail.

I have the Infuse ATM, but since it's a loaner from work for testing, I can't make it "mine". The iPhone was given to me with the promotion I had a couple of weeks ago, and I still have the Nexus S as a dev phone...

 

How can bootloader corrupt just like that. It doesn't make sense. Glad to hear that you have other phones to hold you off for now. Even if it's an iPhone 4.

 

Traitor

 

Must be karma

edit: battery just hit 10% remaining - 3 days and 16 hours in.
Sadly 'ShootMe' seems to have decided to stop working, preventing me from capturing this moment for posterity

 

You should install Android for iDevice. Not sure if it's compatible with the iPhone 4 yet though.

I'm getting more and more disappointed with my Samsung Intercept all the time. I'm on my second one, and I may have to replace it again. The first one's microphone just died, so nobody could hear me during calls. Now this one keeps shutting itself off. Not even powering down, just cutting out completely.

I also downloaded a game for the first time (Angry Birds, to be specific), and it is literally unplayable. I can't even talk about the framerate in terms of frames per second; it's more like 3 seconds per frame.

The only good news is that I'll be finally getting an update to 2.2 on March 25. The Sprint version of this phone has had it for several months, but Virgin Mobile customers have to wait.

That said, so far it's been doing an excellent job with tethering with the free version of PDANet. I don't have internet at home, and my netbook is dead, so this is literally the only way I can connect to the internet. Using the phone itself is okay, but the small screen and tiny keyboard get a little tedious when it comes to stuff like forum posting.

I'd probably be a lot more disappointed if my plan wasn't $25 a month

 

I'm not sure... But it's the best thing I can think of ATM.

ROFL.

Karma?! But what did I do to upset it?!

You and that battery... that's amazing that you get 3+days out of a battery on a smartphone.

See, my Nexus S has shutdowns like that... and the 2.3.3 was supposed to fix that but it didn't... That's why I can't use it as my primary. Samsung, I admit, is having issues with shutdowns that appear to be hardware related. There was a service bulletin issued for the Captivate for that very reason.

You guys say what you will about the iPhone but it has NEVER shut down on me for any reason... that, I LOVE.

 

Hey guys,

I have a Samsung Vibrant that powers on, boots, makes the start up noise, makes noise when plugged in, but screen is black. Is there anything I can do to fix it?

 

AMOLED failure? (or GPU failure?)

If it's been dropped the ribbon cable for the display could have popped loose. You'd have to take it apart to see though.

 

Was it the one you got for $180?

 

Yes, the guy is totally trying to scam me. He said that I don't get a refund because he listed it as-is. Well, he didn't list it as-is, he listed no returns, which his is confused into interpreting into as-is. The listing said it was used. I opened a dispute and left negative feedback.

 

Ouch, I know it doesn't help when I say it, but some thing are just too good to be true. Hope ebay rules in your favor.

You can open it up like H.A.L. says, or I would try holding the power button, and let the phone reboot once. Sometimes the Amole screen on my Zune will randomly "crap out" and will only come back if I hold down the power button to reboot it.

 

Nothing.
But maybe Karma did it because it wants you to buy something new like a GS2

I know, it rocks!

Never had that happen on my Defy.
Had it randomly lag for a few seconds now and again but the guy I work with who has an iPhone4 has seen it steadily get slower since purchase, to the point where he's considering sending it away under the warranty.

 

Well, it was shipped to me with out a battery, so I'm sure its had plenty of "reset time".

I've bought 2 HTC Aria's from seller's with 0 and 2 feedback, and they were perfect.

 

I guess I have a reason to post in this forum..

I have a HTC Evo Shift 4G

 

Niiice
HAL please dont talk about the Iphone this is an Android thread!
My sister has the Iphone, its not bad, but meh.
My other syster got the Desire Z, pretty cool, but I much prefer a 4" AMOLED screen

Although now that Im posting, I've ran across multiples problem now that my phone is using Froyo.. It has crashed at least three times this week and I've been experiencing battery drain and stupidly slow performance sometimes..
I'm a little confused about the problems, should I call Samsung or my carrier tech support?

 

Oh god, that reminds me something I came across recently. So this Android fanboy on XDA created a multi-page thread because it displeases him that there is a link at the top of xda linking to XDA's sister site about iPhone.

He claim that he is pissed off because of his passion for Android (I will say its obsession, not passion) and nothing that rivals Android can be on XDA. The funny thing is XDA was originally a WinMo forum that expanded to include Android.

Oh well, in conclusion of his b**ching, the moderators actually removed it. I don't understand why....It's just a hyperlink at the top of the webpage. WHY bother!?!?!

 

Question(s) about live wallpapers - xda-developers

Just in case anyone can help...

 

hmm, as far as I know that livewallpapers don't get permissions (all the ones I installed gets zero permission when downloading). So, since changing setting on a phone requires permission, I don't know if live wallpaper can do it.

 

Anyone know of a way to trigger your phone to restore your synced apps with your google account???

 

AFAIK only AppBrain and other places do that... though it's one thing I'd love to see come to stock Android.

 

Well, according to this page; 'A live wallpaper is very similar to a normal Android application and has access to all the facilities of the platform: SGL (2D drawing), OpenGL (3D drawing), GPS, accelerometers, network access, etc.'

 

ah ok, yeah thatd be nice. it usually does it on its own but it wont right now. Switched to 2.3.3 and i think the device name "changed" so thats why.

 

So happy with my new HTC Desire HD.
Can't even go to the bathroom without it

 

Maybe you should have bought the Motorola Defy then in-case you drop it in the bowl

 

was between them but as always frenchies are so slow with this and it was not available here
I've seen nice reviews of it.

 

Motorola ATRIX 4G vs. LG Optimus 2X: Not all dual-cores are created equal | BGR

Russia's major mobile operators join hands for unified LTE rollout -- Engadget