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And, thanks to some of the great feedback and support on this site, I decided to make an app version. Because, well, where better to read about permissions for your phone, than on your phone?
Before anyone asks though, I still plan on updating the guide on these forums and my site and the downloadble pdf, and that will all stay free.
So who is it for?
Well, lots of us are watching as our less tech-savvy friends grab new Android phones and would like to set them up with some good habits.
It's my hope that this will help people feel more secure and informed and not feel like they've been tossed into the wild west or have to rely soley on anti-virus. The idea is that you can set them up with this app, or keep it as a quick reference for yourself.
As always, please feel free to continue to ask questions and post feedback both here and in the guide, and I will be happy to answer/investigate things as best I can.
Anyways, all the promotion aside, I especially just wanted to say thanks to AF for all the support and interest in the guide. This forum is where I first wrote it and has always had the most updated version, so very sincerely, thank you all.
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The app is $1.99 on the Market.
Requires: Android 2.0 or newer
Working on updates to the free guides this week, but please feel free to make feature suggesstions for the app too.
Currently I have 3 "coming soon" features I plan to implement:
- List of all permissions requested by all apps (a "master list" so to speak)
- Show an "all apps" list
- When clicking on an app, show its permissions
Not sure on the ETA but shouldn't be more than a few weeks tops depending on my schedule.
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Well I was playing with Pocket Permission and I simply love it! I had originally thought it was an app version of your infamous intro to Android Guide, ALP, but it's so much more! The best feature I love is that after reading up a certain permission in the app, I can then view ALL of the apps that USE that permission. So it gives me more analytical tool as to whether I want the app or not
I think a good feature that you might want to consider is the ability to direct you to the system install/uninstall of that app.
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Many thanks,
Roze
The Following User Says Thank You to Roze For This Useful Post:
As for the install/uninstall feature, unfortunately that would require (I think) one of the scariest permissions of all. (Install Packages). Which is something I warn is a critically dangerous permission only to be given to say Amazon AppStore or the Market itself.
And I actually designed the app in such a way as to make sure it always said that it require no permissions to run. I figured an app about permissions....
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alostpacket
Thanks much guys!
As for the install/uninstall feature, unfortunately that would require (I think) one of the scariest permissions of all. (Install Packages). Which is something I warn is a critically dangerous permission only to be given to say Amazon AppStore or the Market itself.
And I actually designed the app in such a way as to make sure it always said that it require no permissions to run. I figured an app about permissions....
What about sending you to the system to install/uninstall app
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What about sending you to the system to install/uninstall app
Ah good call. You know I didn't even think there was an way to do this. But I just looked it up and it looks like as of Gingerbread they added one.
There is a way to send someone to the "general apps settings" page that shows all the apps prior to Gingerbread, so maybe I will add this and see how it goes So both can use it but Gingerbread users will get the much tastier experience
Very nice application as i am quite concerned with the infinite permissions some programs have, and this will help me a lot to get a grip on them. I just bought it.
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OK, I just uploaded 1.0.6
(may take a bit for the market to update and show the latest)
This has Roze's feature idea for clicking an app in the list -- it will take you to that app's detail page. You can then see all its permissions and force close it/uninstall it/clear cache/etc
I was only able to test this feature on Android 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3. So if anyone encounters a problem please don't hesistate to let me know!
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Yeah definitely. I think the exposure would outweigh the lost revenue by a mile....and a half.
You actually end up gaining money too if 5x as many people buy your app that day, so I think free app of the day would get me more that 5-10 downloads heh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alostpacket
Yeah definitely. I think the exposure would outweigh the lost revenue by a mile....and a half.
You actually end up gaining money too if 5x as many people buy your app that day, so I think free app of the day would get me more that 5-10 downloads heh
You wont ever have to repurchase, and the Android Market will notify you if there are any updates. It checks all apps for you (usually 1 time per day).
You wont ever have to repurchase, and the Android Market will notify you if there are any updates. It checks all apps for you (usually 1 time per day).
I did it at amazon, does the reply still apply?
Or did I done screwed this up ALREADY! aahhh hahaha....
In fact the Amazon version is a bit out of date so you will see an update there soon. It's just a minor feature update though. (you're not missing anything major)
-New: Font size option in preferences
-New: "Show all permissions" option in preferences
-New: "Show tech details" about each permission, to see the official developer documentation about a permission
-New: Color coded permission list to show importance
-Improvement: more consisten font styles/some graphics tweaks
(previous)
After searching by permission, click to be taken to the appilcation settings page.
Updated "make phone calls"
Better support for tablet-sized screens
I just bought this on Amazon and gave it a five star rating. It is very helpful and helps to put my mind at ease. I'm very careful about what I download but somehow I am still getting someone else's pictures in my gallery (mostly adidas shoe ads). I'm hoping that by looking closer at some of the permissions, I'll figure out which app is accessing control of my sd card. Thanks for a great app!
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Suggestion: why not colour the warning signs to show permission importance instead the shaded corner?
Dunno, I guess just a graphic style / UI thing. One of my plans is to add more information to that list -- so the look may very well change.
I'm considering rating on two factors: Importance, and potential impact. That is, certain things are important, but perhaps only have a moderate chance of causing harm, or vice versa. But I'm not sure if that creates more confusion. I also plan on adding a "sort by importance" feature
It's an idea I'm am toying with in my head, so we'll see -- I'll definitely keep your suggestion in mind in the process
Last edited by alostpacket; September 12th, 2011 at 08:22 AM.
Reason: Dangerous typo :)
I took the plunge and installed PocketPermissions, now that I've rooted my phone and am trying to squeeze out performance improvements. The list of apps with "start at boot" alone is worth the 99c, as was the list of users of the "read system logs" privilege (didn't know I'd installed so many -- though most are by indie devs who want to fix compatibility problems).
I would only ask for a couple of small enhancements:
* Can you make the app movable to SD? It doesn't seem to have any functions that would preclude it.
* When I read about a permission and hit the Back button, I'm back at the top of the list. Any chance you could return me to where I came from?
I'll post a 5-star rating ASAP. It's a shame the app doesn't have more downloads -- especially among rooters. Just because you know the permissions, doesn't mean you didn't let something slip past you when you were anxious to start angering those birds.
The Following User Says Thank You to RobertB-DC For This Useful Post:
I took the plunge and installed PocketPermissions, now that I've rooted my phone and am trying to squeeze out performance improvements. The list of apps with "start at boot" alone is worth the 99c, as was the list of users of the "read system logs" privilege (didn't know I'd installed so many -- though most are by indie devs who want to fix compatibility problems).
I would only ask for a couple of small enhancements:
* Can you make the app movable to SD? It doesn't seem to have any functions that would preclude it.
* When I read about a permission and hit the Back button, I'm back at the top of the list. Any chance you could return me to where I came from?
I'll post a 5-star rating ASAP. It's a shame the app doesn't have more downloads -- especially among rooters. Just because you know the permissions, doesn't mean you didn't let something slip past you when you were anxious to start angering those birds.
Thanks RobertB-DC -- these are quite the compliments, and are much appreciated Seriously -- it's really great to hear stuff like this.
As for your suggestions:
Quote:
* Can you make the app movable to SD? It doesn't seem to have any functions that would preclude it.
Technically it is movable to the SD, but the Android OS thinks it isn't because it targets Android 1.6. Android did not add the "move to SD" function natively until 2.2. However, with an outside app, or just a little ADB, you can certainly move it to the SD if you wish.
If you've rooted your device, I'm guessing you might know some adb commands.
This will start the SDK command shell running. (you will probably see a dollar sign prompt $ next instead of the windows "greater than >"
Then enter the command:
Code:
$ pm setInstallLocation 2
This was from a helpful post in our Nexus One forums but should work on any android phone. You will now be able to move almost any app to the SD, (unless the dev specifically codes it to disallow).
I didn't quite go to that low a level... I let Titanium move it for me. In fact, I never even had to learn to use ADB, thanks to Z4Root. (I journaled my noob rooting experience here.)
So, if you do set the bit in the installation package that says "movable to SD", does that prevent the app from being installed on Android 1.6? That would definitely be an issue for an app like yours, that by its nature needs to support as many Android versions as possible.
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Yeah that's basically it -- I cannot set the value for allowing the move to SD, (or disallowing), and support 1.6 at the same time. I double check but I'm pretty sure it caused it to crash on launch for 1.6 devices.
If I targeted Android 2.2 and up I could specify "auto", "prefer external" or "internal only"
With the adb trick, the only apps you wont be able to move are the ones that set it as "internal only"
Thanks Much appreciated. Working on the tablet version now hopefully soon it will be ready. Managed to fix a few major flaws preventing release yesterday so things are looking good
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Should we be seeing this update on Amazon soon as well, or is that out of your hands? I've noticed they seem to be quicker about updates lately for some other apps.
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Yep, absolutely. It will definitely be coming to Amazon soon.
I wanted to give it a few days on the Android Market first to be sure I caught all the little/hard to find bugs. Since the publish process is faster it's easier to fix whatever minor bugs are left first (I already fixed one within hours of release) then go through the more lengthy Amazon process.
But with a little luck it will be submitted to Amazon by the end of the week. At present I only know of 1-2 very minor bugs. But I can't promise anything of course, I'd rather make sure it's the best it can be
PocketPermissions (v2.0) - The app version of my security guide (updated)
I had originally thought it was an app version of your infamous intro to Android Guide, ALP, but it's so much more! The best feature I love is that after reading up a certain permission in the app, I can then view ALL of the apps that USE that permission. So it gives me more analytical tool as to whether I want the app or not 
