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I switched to Android


Neil P

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Guest LilBambi

Required Signage can be a pain if not home for sure. However, if you know it's coming, you can wait till they try to leave it with a note saying they missed you. Sign the paper and put it back on the door and they will leave it the next day...if all else fails.

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I haven't ordered anything online for months. We don't know when things will get delivered and can't always count on being home. They dump it at the door. Two guys were arrested in January for stealing packages. Around this area, some people follow the trucks and steal packages after they are dropped off.

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Guest LilBambi

One of us is nearly always here. It's a rare thing that one of us wouldn't be here for a package thankfully.

 

Wasn't always the case when we both worked outside the home.

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Apple doesn't (or didn't, at least) let me just sign the door tag, they required an in-person signature. So I had to go to the depot for pickup (they would always attempt delivery <1 hour after I left for work!).

 

Anyway, my Nexus 4 is here!!! I got it yesterday. No signature required. It took me almost a half an hour to get the stupid SIM tray on the 4S open, but after that it was smooth sailing.

 

There are so many options! And so many apps that I'm sure I don't even know about yet. I have a trial of Tasker but it's very daunting. I wish I could see messages in the lock screen, iPhone style. I figured out how to add a widget (well, widgets) to the lock screen so that will have to work. It DOES show the messages, but I don't know if there's a cleaner way to do it (it just shows a preview of the messages app, not like individual new messages I have received). I'm so far not happy with message notifications in general, although part of that was the default alert sound is too short.

 

One great thing I've found is installing apps from Google Play in a web browser. I can look at, say, a Lifehacker article that links to a cool app and install it from my computer instead of trying to find it on the device directly. Awesome!

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securitybreach

Well I will answer all of your concerns when I get home later tonight from work. You can see your text via the lock screen bit you need to set it up that way. I will explain it all to you when I get home later. Also, did you get the 4.2.2 update yet?

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securitybreach

Anyway, my Nexus 4 is here!!! I got it yesterday.

 

Excellent!! Glad it arrived quickly and did not require any hassle. :thumbsup:

 

It took me almost a half an hour to get the stupid SIM tray on the 4S open, but after that it was smooth sailing.

 

Did you not use the included tool to eject the sim tray shown on page 7 of the quick start guide (l snagged a pdf version as I did not open the included paperwork):

 

59af03239969966.jpg f69279239969956.jpg

 

There are so many options! And so many apps that I'm sure I don't even know about yet. I have a trial of Tasker but it's very daunting.

 

As far as a tasker type of application, I was looking through the link you provided and most all of that is already built into Android (Jelly Bean). If you could list some specific things you want automated or if you want profiles set up for certain things, I will gladly show you how to do this but there are so many features on that application that is is hard to tell exactly what you found useful. One thing to note, the Nexus 4 comes with NFC (Near Field Communication) which is basically a short range wireless RFID(within an inch or two) and lets you program various functions into programmable nfc tags like stickers, key-chains etc. Here are some things you could use NFC for just to give you some ideas:

  • You could have an nfc sticker in your car that automatically turns on GPS, turns off Wifi, turn on bluetooth and turns on Pandora (streaming internet radio) when you tap your phone to the sticker.
  • Place one on your desk at work that turns on wifi, disables gps, switches off the ringer and sends all calls to voicemail.
  • Place an nfc sticker on your nightstand that automatically turns on your alarm and/or plays an audio book when you tap your phone to the sticker.
  • Place an nfc tag on a phone dock or your desk's surface that lowers your brightness, disable sounds, enable Wi-Fi, and enable auto-sync.

There are so many things you can program an NFC tag to do.

 

As far as security, NFC tags can be locked so that once data has been written to them, it cannot be changed. For most tags once you lock it, you cannot unlock it and change the action. NFC tags can be re-encoded numerous times as long as you do not lock it. Once the tag is locked, you cannot ever change the action.

 

The tags are fairly cheap and you can buy them off of amazon or other sites for about $6 for 5 stickers. I have not had a chance to play with this but I recently bought 10 tags and a nfc key chain from Amazon for $15 and will have fun programming them for various things. Also, NFC uses zero battery life as they get their power from just being near a powered NFC device, for example a mobile phone.

 

This is the most popular application for programming the functions/profiles on nfc receivers and is very simple to use NFC Task Launcher https://www.youtube....?&v=17ASsGo8kIk

 

 

I wish I could see messages in the lock screen, iPhone style. I figured out how to add a widget (well, widgets) to the lock screen so that will have to work. It DOES show the messages, but I don't know if there's a cleaner way to do it (it just shows a preview of the messages app, not like individual new messages I have received). I'm so far not happy with message notifications in general, although part of that was the default alert sound is too short.

 

Well with 4.2.2, you have multiple lockscreens where you can place widgets. There are a few built in ones like email, text messages, calender, Play Music, etc. There is a great app called Dashclock(shown in the first lockscreen) that has many plugins and such to show various information: https://play.google....ashclock&c=apps. Just swipe left and right to add widgets to your lockscreen. By default, you only have the clock and the camera widgets added to the lock screen but if you swipe left, you can add more widgets. To move between them, first swipe down to full screen them and swipe left/right to move between them.

 

63e4d5240004877.jpg 03d014240004494.jpg d89574240003091.jpg

 

As far as the sound of the texts: open up the Messaging app, click the three dots on the bottom right and choose Settings. Then scroll down to the Notifications header and choose Sound. If asked, choose Media Storage and select a different tone. You can also add your own sounds(songs) if you upload them to your phone (or download using your phone) and choose them using this dialog. You must have a file manager installed (so you can navigate to them) if you want to use a your own sounds. I would suggest using FX File Explorer or ES File Explorer File Manager.

 

One great thing I've found is installing apps from Google Play in a web browser. I can look at, say, a Lifehacker article that links to a cool app and install it from my computer instead of trying to find it on the device directly. Awesome!

 

You can also browse and install apps to your phone from the Play website:

 

Also, here is a list of all of my apps on my Nexus 4. Some of them require root but most do not: https://www.box.com/...k0n3zx31u0p7f1j

 

Hope I answered most of your questions. Feel free to inquire about any other things and let me know if I missed something.

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I am trying to figure out how to remove the extra clock I added. I have a picture of it: http://i.imgur.com/dSpJFIX.jpg

 

I added my time zone? I guess? And now I can't get rid of it. It looks funny. Am I missing something obvious?

 

Ok I can add more now that I'm at a computer.

 

I used the SIM ejection tool provided for the Nexus, it worked flawlessly. The iPhone wouldn't open with the tool, I needed something longer. It was a real hassle. I thought I was going to break it.

 

Those NFC tags look amazing! I bought some. Should arrive Tuesday :) I only know about tasker from a friend who uses it to auto-reply to text messages while he's driving. Anything else he does can probably be accomplished with the NFC tags. I didn't buy the full version of tasker so I probably saved $6.50 there!

 

I have downloaded Dashclock and it looks like exactly what I want. Haven't set it up yet but I will. I currently have the messages widget on my primary lock screen. What I really want is a notification of "1 new message" or whatever, and it looks like dashclock does exactly that!

 

I haven't downloaded a file manager yet but I will get one of the ones you listed. Also I'm starting to go through your list of apps installed--Chrome to Phone looks really cool! And functionality I was looking for yesterday.

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securitybreach

I am trying to figure out how to remove the extra clock I added. I have a picture of it: http://i.imgur.com/dSpJFIX.jpg

 

I added my time zone? I guess? And now I can't get rid of it. It looks funny. Am I missing something obvious?

 

Long press on the clock you want to remove, then drag it up to the "X Remove" that will appear at the top. Also, the one that looks funny is like that because it needs to be resized which is done by long pressing the widget an selecting Resize.

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It selects both clocks as one unit, so I can't just delete the smaller clock. And resizing doesn't work either, if I try to drag the bottom border up, it ends up cutting off the bigger clock at the bottom. Which is equally annoying. But I put dashclock there too and it seems to work.

 

Also I edited my above post if you didn't see

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securitybreach

I only know about tasker from a friend who uses it to auto-reply to text messages while he's driving

 

Once again, that is not needed on the Nexus 4 (4.2.2) When an incoming call comes in, the N4 gives you the option to accept the call, reject the call, or respond with a pre-selected SMS message.

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securitybreach

Go into the phone dialer, tap the 3 dots and then tap settings>Quick Responses to access them. Then tap on the response you want to edit and your good to go.

 

vwPcXcI.png

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Actually it auto-replies to text messages. I'm sure there's a way to automatically reject a call and text back too, but as you say that one's not needed. Still, unless I find another use for Tasker, it's not worth it

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securitybreach

Still, unless I find another use for Tasker, it's not worth it

 

Not for the price since there are tons of apps that perform the same functions and do not cost anything (well if they do, not as high as $6.50). I do not think I have ever paid that much for an app and I have been using Android since 2008.

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Is there a way to make it so my phone never vibrates unless I turn on vibrate mode? Like some app notifications still vibrate. Do I just have to go to each app to disable vibration?

 

Also my NFC tags came today! NFC Task Launcher tells me there's an error every time it writes but it still works.

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securitybreach

I think the vibration is app specific:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/verizon-droid-dna/228560-any-way-turn-off-vibration-notifications.html

http://support.googl...12437&ctx=topic

 

I am not for sure about your NFC TL error as mine worked perfectly. Just out of curiosity, what are you using your NFC tags for?

 

BTW sorry I did not respond earlier as I did not see the reply. I am supposed to get a notification on a reply but it did not work for some reason.

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I have 6 tags:

 

One sets my alarm, maxes alarm volume, turns off auto-sync (although I may not need to turn off auto-sync)

One for my car turns off wifi, turns on bluetooth, sets ringer type normal

One for home turns on wifi, turns off bluetooth, sends an SMS (although it just fills it out, I need to get a plugin to automatically send?), turns on auto-sync, turns on auto-brightness

One turns off wifi, turns off bluetooth, turns off auto-sync, makes ringer silent

Then I have two work ones (I work in two different buildings): one turns on wifi, turns off bluetooth and auto-sync, the other turns off all three. I may re-write those to make sure the ringer is on.

 

They all work when I write them, but it gives an error.

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securitybreach

Hmm, I dunno. I think I got the same error even though it worked fine. Oh well, as long as it works.........

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Is there a guide to what the different notification LED colors mean? I mostly see blue (or white?) but I have seen green. I think it does others too.

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securitybreach

I am unsure exactly how the LED color is chosen since they seem to be based on the color of the app icon: Texts(messages)/Google Voice are green, new Gmail messages show as white, G+ is red, etc. The colors seem to be consistent with each app and since you are running different apps than I am, you can either learn which color means what notification or you can do like I do and use an app to set the colors:

 

Play: LightFlow lite

 

On the N4, you do not need root for this application nor do you need the paid version unless you want it to flash different colors ever few seconds (pointless).

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securitybreach

Since most apps do not use notifications by default, you can generally assume that white is for gmail, red is for missed calls, green is for texts, etc.

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I saw everyone talking about that Lightflow app but ignored it because I thought it just let you manually activate the LED. I didn't realize you could set what the colors mean!

 

I was going to ask if there was a way to see app update changelogs, but upon searching found this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cypressworks.changelogviewer&hl=en

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  • 2 weeks later...
securitybreach

There is no need for a virus scanner on Android if you only get your apps from the Play store as Google scans all apps for malware/viruses now. If you use third party sites to download apps, then I would use one.

Google Play apps are scanned for malware: Google uses a service named Bouncer to automatically scan apps on the Google Play Store for malware. As soon as an app is uploaded, Bouncer checks it and compares it to other known malware, Trojans, and spyware. Every application is run in a simulated environment to see if it will behave maliciously on an actual device. The app’s behavior is compared to the behavior of previous malicious apps to look for red flags. New developer accounts are particularly scrutinized – this is to prevent repeat offenders from creating new accounts.....

 

Android 4.2 scans sideloaded apps: While apps on Google Play are checked for malware, apps that are sideloaded (installed from elsewhere) were not checked for malware. On Android 4.2, when you first try to sideload an app, you’ll be asked whether you want to verify sideloaded apps are safe. This ensures that all apps on your device are checked for malware.

 

http://www.howtogeek...d-an-antivirus/

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I do sideload (although rarely). I have the Amazon app store and I've downloaded one or two apps just from the internet (from what appeared to be trustworthy places).

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Guest LilBambi

Maybe, maybe not. With the way all OSes including Linux and Android and other mobile OSes are being attacked; I will have one on any OSes that allow it. And pray that iOS will soon allow one as well.

 

The problem is not necessarily directly through the apps, but what can be put on the device through searching, surfing and clicking on links in email like on any OS.

Edited by LilBambi
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There was at least one instance of a malicious app being able to detect that it was running in an emulator, so it played possum. Once it was deployed to actual devices, it reared its ugly head.

 

A/V may be the prudent move, but both the Google Play stor and the Apple App Store have had very low instances of malicious apps getting through.

 

Adam

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