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The Changing Need for Antivirus Type Apps

There has been a great debate over the use of an Antivirus or scanner app of some type. It has it’s ups and downs, but with all the recent news coverage out there showing that the number of “Malware” apps is on the rise. Some sites have even reported that the number of apps has hit the 50 mark.

So what are the best ways to get your phone protected against these kinds of threats?

You can always install an Antivirus app, or (for example) a multipurpose app like Lookout. Lookout scans all installed apps against their database and will advise you if something has been reported as malicious. You may notice a slight decrease in performance as the application is running all the time, but may be well worth the loss,
ch_client = “charliedelong”; ch_width = 430; ch_height = 90; ch_type = “mpu”; ch_sid = “Chitika Default”; ch_backfill = 1; ch_color_site_link = “#F48D1D”; ch_color_title = “#F48D1D”; ch_color_border = “#FFFFFF”; ch_color_text = “#000000”; ch_color_bg = “#FFFFFF”;
Research the app before you download it. The comments are there for a reason. Read through those, along with the app permissions (See Screenshot). The app permissions will tell you what sort of access the app has to your data. If something seems fishy check the comments for an explanation to the reason for needing a certain permission. Do keep in mind that certain things may seem funny, like an app having the ability to locate you, but if there is a feature in the app that uses the GPS it will need that permission. A similar complete is when an app needs to see what state the phone is in. A lot of times that is so the app can save data before the phone call comes in.

Also keep an eye on the source of the file. Be extra cautious when loading an app from a 3rd party, or a file sharing site. A lot of developers are using places like Mediafire.com or 4Shared.com to distribute apps that aren’t in the market because it is a free way to distribute their app, but it is best to download from one of the major App stores. (Android Market, Amazon Appstore, SlideME) because the apps are typically checked before they are distributed. (More so with Amazon and SlideME where a person actually hand tests all the apps.)

So be cautious out there, and always remember to backup your data. The good news with this situation is that Android Market is removing apps as they are reported bad and revoking the license of the app creators.

PS: Don’t forget to check out (and download) the Old Android App here!

Android Market Rant

Before I get started with my little rant I wanted to say that I am not bashing Android in any way, just a little frustrated with a little aspect of it, and am seeking a solution. I give a huge amount of credit to the developers! But, if anyone has any suggestions for me, please feel free to comment or send me an email at oldandroidsite@gmail.com (or via twitter: @oldandroidsite).

If you are an email “power user” like I am you probably have a bunch of email addresses on your Android phone. One problem that I have seen on my Android device is that the Market app gets confused about which account to attach your apps to when you download them. For example I have my main email address that I use for everything and then an email address that I use for my website plus and email for my Android apps. I also even have a SPAM email address that I use for signing up for stuff that I don’t want to get email from.
The problem lies when I check that email than go into market to download an app. It seems to attach the download to that email address instead of my primary email account. So what I decided to do to combat this is to reload my secondary emails and see what happens. To do this I went into the Settings – Accounts & Sync menu and selected one of my secondary emails. Then just press “Remove Account” twice (once on the initial screen, than again on the popup) and the account is gone. For this experiment I made a quick list of the apps that were attached to this secondary account, just incase they all went away, but fortunately they are all still there.
The next step of the experiment was to verify if the apps were still attached to me in Market. Apparently they aren’t. They are still installed, but kind of in the dark when it comes to the Market app. If I am to do a search for an app that I know needed an update, once I find it does still show that the update is needed, but only then does it attach to the primary email account. This seems like a lot of effort just to fix an annoyance with the phone. The hardest part of the whole process is that I now have around 50 apps on my phone that aren’t going to update because they aren’t attached to the Market.
Another solution that I see is that the (Root Only) app Titanium Backup has an option that will “Attach Market” if you long press on an app if gives that option. The downside to this is that the feature is only available through the donation version of the app, which I highly recommend, but can totally understand that not everyone is willing to part with the handful of dollars for an app like that, especially if it is just because of this annoyance.
The last attempt that I am trying is the download an app called Zemna Applist Backup which is an application that takes all of your apps and creates a document with all of the Android market links. This seems to work, but you still have to know which ones aren’t already associated with your primary account. PLUS, once you click on the “orphaned” apps they just show up as installed and the only way to reassign them is to uninstall and reinstall them, which could take hours with 50+ apps.
Anyone out there have any suggestions?

PS: Don’t forget to check out (and download) the Old Android App here!

Old School Role Playing Games (RPGs)

If you are a fan of some of the old school RPGs out there, and you may have seen the recent article by DroidGamers that states they will be releasing a few Super Nintendo (SNES) era RPGs for Android.

When I read this the first thing that came to mind is SNESoid. It is a Super Nintendo emulator that plays pretty much any ROM file out there for the SNES.
Since it’s move from the Google Market to the Slideme Appstore it is free, so download it, and some SNES rom files of all the games you used to love and play them now instead of waiting.

PS: Don’t forget to check out (and download) the Old Android App here!

FINALLY A .COM!

Just a quick not to say that Old Android officially has it’s own .com, and not the free .co.cc address that it used to have. This means that it’s easier to type and easier to remember (plus it will play a lot nicer with Google).

Watch for updates to the Old Android App as the address where it gets it’s information from will be different. And it needs some work on it’s icons too…

PS: Don’t forget to check out (and download) the Old Android App here!

Old Android App Updates

Just finished some updates and improvements to the Old Android App, and it should be live on the SlideMe app and site soon.

You may also see the Monticello app there too, which is part of a newer project that I am working on to put together community information apps for local towns and cities. If your town or city could use something like that leave a comment or contact me directly at oldandroidsite@gmail.com.

I also wanted to say thanks for all of the downloads too. At the time of writing this there are 681 downloads. I find this number to be amazing after the site only being up for such a short amount of time.

PS: Don’t forget to check out (and download) the Old Android App here!

AppsToOranges – Invites available

I just scored an invite to the new AppsToOranges app recommendation site and have a bunch of invites to share. To get one leave a comment and send a message to us via email or twitter (oldandroidsite@gmail.com / @oldandroidsite) remember that you have to do both to qualify.

You may be wondering what their site is all about. Well here is a little description from their site:

Apps & Oranges helps people find and recommend the best apps for getting stuff done. It’s social Q&A: Question & Apps. For example:

What are the best gps apps for iPhone? What are the best time tracking apps for the web? What are the best news apps for iPad?

Help make the site great: Add apps you’ve used and love. Write comments you’d be glad you read if someone else wrote it.

Wallpapers – Live and Not Live.

So you may be wondering about all this talk about live wallpapers – what they are and how to install them. Well the install part is a piece of cake, but what do you do with them once they are installed. How do you open them? So you see a cool live wallpaper (like this cool Thunderstorm Live Wallpaper one), but once you install it the “Open” button is greyed out (disabled) and you are not sure where to go from here.

Let me start out by explaining what a live wallpaper is for all of you out there that are unsure. A live wallpaper is a wallpaper that contains an animation, which may or may not use the sensors and buttons on the device to interact with it. Check out the below youtube video for an example:

To set a live wallpaper as the wallpaper on your phone, you can’t just run it, although some newer live wallpapers are coming out that have an icon and take you to a direction page, telling you how to install them. What you have to do is go into the wallpaper setting on the phone. On most phones you just have to press the menu button, then choose wallpaper. If you have an HTC phone there is a paintbrush (or plus symbol) to the right side of the main menu, and you can press that too, It will give you a list of places to get an image file from:
-Gallery – Allows you to pick a picture taken from your camera and set it as a wallpaper (cropped or not).
-Wallpaper Gallery – Takes you to the list of preloaded (non-live/static) wallpapers.
-Live Wallpapers – Shows you a list of all the installed Live Wallpapers.

Once you select the Live Wallpapers menu you can change settings, and customize the wallpaper based on the predefined settings that the particular wallpaper offers. this just means that if the developer didn’t add a setting to change a certian color then the option is not going to be available. you can also preview the wallpaper, and if satisfied save it as your default.

A couple of things to remember with live wallpapers: They are always running, so they can negatively effect the performance of your phone and the battery life. Also depending on how advanced the live wallpaper is it can take up application storage memory, especially because live wallpapers have to be saved to the phone, and can’t run off the memory card.

Some “Best of the Best” accessories for your Android phone:

Updates on Old Android App (Plus Download Link)

The release version of the Old Android App for your Android Phones is available for download through the SlideMe.com Appstore. I am happy to say that there have been a good amount of downloads already. So go ahead and download it, and if you like the site and app give us a 5 star rating!

Name: Old Android Free Android App

Description:
Tips, tricks and download reviews for you Android powered phone, brought to you by an old bot who has seen a lot of phones and used a lot of apps. You will also find the Amazon Appstore app of the day here daily along with other useful app reviews. www.oldandroid.co.cc

Download Link: http://goo.gl/jb0Jp (SlideMe.com)