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Need help guidance as a beginner of Android world

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Deozaan:
Don't know if it's specific to my phone, (which is basically the same as the A6000 with a lower screen resolution), but if you go to Settings->Networked apps you can set which apps you've downloaded have access to Mobile Data and/or Wi-Fi.-4wd (March 12, 2015, 07:46 PM)
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On my devices, it's Settings -> Data Usage -> [3 dots menu in top-right corner] -> Mobile hotspots.

Then you can put a checkmark on any SSID that should be considered a mobile hotspot, which will restrict apps from downloading from that SSID in the background. (e.g., no Google Play Store app updates automatically downloading unless you specifically open the Google Play Store)

ewemoa:
I liked some of the apps at f-droid, [...], but is it safe to use apps from it ?
-anandcoral (March 12, 2015, 11:37 AM)
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I don't have an answer to your question, but below is a bit of how I see things.

With F-Droid, IIUC, the idea is that what's there is compiled from source code which you can examine.  As to whether some things haven't been tampered with, I don't know -- e.g. by the folks who are performing the compilation and making the results available.  I don't think the people who are compiling have examined the source code of the various projects in detail to try to assess security aspects (e.g. for design and/or implementation errors).  Deliberate holes in the original source code seem less likely, but it still seems possible.

With the Play Store, AFAIU, what's there has not likely been tampered with since release by the original developer because of the digital signature scheme (though there has been at least one significant case of the scheme not working as expected and being exploited) -- but you don't really know what was in the source in the first place nor what might have snuck in during compilation -- most folks do not have access to the source code for most of the things on the Play Store.

With recent events, I think it's not too unreasonable to be thinking that if there's some place that one can hide something, sooner or later someone's likely to think of hiding things in those harder-to-examine places.  It appears that in many cases it's economical to do so.


On a side note, I had the impression that you are/were interested in developing for Android -- so I thought that F-Droid might provide source code you might examine for studying purposes.

4wd:
On my devices, it's Settings -> Data Usage -> [3 dots menu in top-right corner] -> Mobile hotspots.-Deozaan (March 12, 2015, 09:21 PM)
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Got that too, never noticed though  ;D

Personally, I use AFWall+ which allows a much finer degree of control but requires root:

Need help guidance as a beginner of Android world

anandcoral:
4wd, I read in Dumster review, maybe, that it has problem in sd card undelete. Anyway since I am just starting with Android not much in sd card now. I have Kitkat 4.4.4. The Lenovo UI is more or less OK for me as of now.

ewemoa, you are right, developing for Android is the reason I got my self the phone :), thanks for the f-droid site.

I will try the firewall as suggested, as basically I do not want any app to use my data plan without my knowledge.

I may root my phone eventually, not in a hurry now. Lenevo with update A6000 to Lollipop 5.0, as per their website, but now I am a bit apprehensive. Will wait and watch.

Will be out of station for next couple of days with no internet, will be back by next weekend.

Regards,

Anand

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