Tag: honeycomb

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Android: Integrating GoSMS Pro with Avast Anti-Theft

Following is a description of how I managed to get GoSMS Pro working with the Avast Anti-Theft module without the password being exposed in standard user-readable SMS messages.

The problem is that GoSMS (and also HandCent SMS) install themselves with a very high priority and can therefore hinder other apps (mainly security apps) from getting to the messages first – this can work one of two wbhays: either the app blocks the SMS in which case Avast never receives the message OR the app forwards the message on, Avast receives the message but by then the user (potentially a thief or receiver of a stolen phone) also then sees the message, including the Avast PIN code which they can then use to disable Avast.

Priority and the reasoning for the above is described below; this content has been taken from Avast and AndroidLost forums – all credit goes to them:

From Avast:

Priority is a number with a pretty big range (around 2^31 = more than 2 
billion). Apps are ordered by their priority (what happens when the priority 
is the same is not determined IMHO, some say the first one installed gets the 
message, but I tested it and couldn't confirm this) and the one with highest 
priority gets the message first. The app then has around 5s to handle the 
message (the time is given by the system). What an app can do is to pass the
 message to the next one with highest priority or to block the message. 

And that is exactly how AAT (Avast Anti-Theft) works: it looks at the message, 
identifies whether it is meant for AAT and if so, blocks it. If not, it passes
 the message to the app with the next-highest priority unchanged.

Now what some messaging apps do is they receive a message and block it. In that
 case AAT doesn't receive the command at all. Some receive it and pass it 
further, in that case AAT receives the command, but the message is visible in 
the messaging application that got the message first.

From AndroidLost:

From androids point of view all applications are equal. But the apps 
themselves can set a priority and say how important they are. And by default the
 incoming messages  are sent to all apps, but any app can stop the message from
 moving on to lower priority apps. The way I see it we can split the importance 
into three groups:

1. security apps (androidlost, virusscanner, etc)
2. apps that modifies the messages and passes them on to others
3. normal display apps

Let me explain:

1. Security apps should obviously have the highest priority since they
should read the messages first and have the option to stop the
messages from arriving to other apps.
2. I have never seen such an app but assume that you want a timestamp
written inside each SMS you can have an app do this. This app should
have a medium priority since they should get the message before the
display app.
3. The display apps should have a low priority. In this group we have
the normal message display and custom display apps like Go SMS Pro.

It is quite OK that Go SMS Pro stops the SMS from moving on to the
normal display app. But they really should use a reasonable SMS
priority. I have not found any recommendations but I would say a
number between 0 and 10.000 would be reasonable.

I have chosen 300.000 as priority since I think my app is rather
important but there may be other there has a higher priority.

Go SMS Pro has chosen a priority of 2.147.483.647 since they think
they have the ultimate app in the universe. That is the highest number
you can set.

So basically what I am trying to say is that Go SMS Pro does not code
nicely. The only thing I can do is to recommend you to write them and
ask them to use a _reasonable_ SMS priority.

A user’s solution to the issue:

Hey guys I found the answer on the Where's My Droid's website :

Go SMS - Open Go SMS, hit 'Menu' and click 'Settings', click on
'Receive Settings', then uncheck the 'Disable other message
notifications. Then open the built in SMS app, hit 'Menu' then click
settings, there is a setting called 'Notifications' uncheck that.

Handcent SMS - Open Hancent, Hit 'Menu' and select Settings, Click
Application settings, then Default Messaging Application, Set this to
'Disable'. Then open the built in SMS app, hit 'Menu' then click
settings, there is a setting called 'Notifications' uncheck that.

My solution, with screenshots for GoSMS:

Make sure you have the following settings set in GoSMS Pro:

image

image

image

image

Them, on testing, you should see the following. You should never ever ever see your pin code displayed in an SMS:

image

image

Hope this helps someone!

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Android: Rooting the Motorola Xoom (Any SW Version) Wifi (UK MZ604)

Pre-requisites:

  • A UK MZ604 Motorola Xoom Wifi (not 3G)
  • An external microSD card in the Xoom
  • A charger – keep this on charge as we dont want to have a power cut half way through flashing an image!!!
  • The following files:   ADB SDK Files    Recovery Image     Xoom-Universal-Root

Procedure:

     1. Prepare the PC

Download and install the necessary drivers to connect the Xoom to our PC – in this example we are using Win7 64 bit but the drivers are universal.

Once the drivers are installed and Xoom connected, you should see something like this in your device manager:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     2. Install and start the adb daemon

Now we need to get the adb files – you  can download the whole sdk and set it up that way but here we are dealing with the “Easy ADB” way – chances are if you’re developing then this guide is not for you anyway!

Extract the SDK files we downloaded in step 1 to C:\SDK_Tools .

Open a command prompt and enter “cd c:\SDK_Tools” then “adb devices” – it will give you a message that the daemon is starting and then an string of characters followed by “device”, we are now good to go:

 

     3. Unlock the bootloader

Extract the recovery file we downloaded in step 1 and put it into your C:\SDK_Tools folder

Enter “adb reboot bootloader” in your cmd window

This will reboot the xoom into the bootloader, showing “Starting Fastboot protocol Support” on the screen.

Enter “fastboot oem unlock”

The following will be displayed in your cmd window:

On your Xoom you will see an information screen and a warning which you need to acknowledge in order to unlock the bootloader; you need to press “Vol down” to change the option to “I accept” or “Yes” and then hit “Vol up” after each choice to proceed.

You will then see the following:

WAIT UNTIL THE DEVICE REBOOTS OF ITS OWN ACCORD!!!

     4. Flash the revovery image

Once rebooted, skip through the setup screen (your tablet is now back to factory defaults), go to Apps -> Settings -> Applications -> Development and enable USB Debugging.

Now back to the cmd window and check we have the device connected with “adb devices”.

Once satisified, enter “adb reboot bootloader” to reboot into the bootloader:

Enter “fastboot flash recovery recovery-Tiamat-R4c-100611-1150-cwm.img”, you should see the following in your cmd window:

 

5. Flash the Universal Root package:

Once in the clockwork recovery, your PC should start installing drivers like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Xoom:

Using Vol Up/Down to navigate and the Power button to select, go into the “Mounts and Storage” menu and choose “Mount USB Storage” – you should now be able to browse the SD card from your PC.

Place the Xoom-Universal-Root.zip  on the root of the card.

Choose “Unmount” on the menu, then “++++++Go Back++++++” until you are at the root menu.

From here, choose “install zip from sd card”, “choose zip from sd card”, browse to the zip file we just copied over and select it.

You should see the following verification:

Go back to the main menu and choose “reboot now” – the device is now rooted!!

—————————————————————————————————-

I take no credit for any of this, it’s just stuff I pieced together from the amazing work done on the dev forums, especially xoom-forums and xda-developers.

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