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I am new to Android. Just got my Vibrant. I want to protect this phone so that in case it is lost or stolen I can recover it. Could you tell me what are some of the best apps for this?
Here is a list of names I know about for now:
Where's My Droid - This is currently installed, but required me to send a text to my phone to activate the GPS and even then it won't keep the GPS active long enough to get a precise location. Furthermore, it can alert the would be robber.
Glympse - well, this is not for stolen phones
Wavesecure - couldn't find any good threads on this. Seems to have an annual subscription fee of $19. I don't want that. Just want a standalone tracker.
Remote security - Not clear that this is a good app.
TheftAlarm - Again, developed in foreign language and I don't know how good it is
MobileDefense - Maybe this is the best app, but it is still in beta and no more users are accepted. I already filled out a request.
Find My Android - Was suggested in this thread, but it doesn't seem to be different from Where's My Droid, except the notification when SIM is replaced.
Lookout Mobile Security - Doesn't seem bad, but it doesn't lock your phone remotely. Can easily uninstall the program. I also found out that I better use a different email address than the one my phone gets otherwise the phone gets an email with "location" of the phone when you look it up online. This is better than Where's My Droid since you can do it more discreetly online, without sending texts (but have to make sure the email you use is not managed by the phone).
Am I missing something? I really want to protect this phone and it is frustrating that among so many apps, we seem to be missing good anti-theft solutions. Preferably I want something that can lock the phone remotely and allow me to do things without interruptions from the thief or at least discreetly. What would you recommend?
Also, I have a rooted (stock) Vibrant.
Thanks.
Where's My Droid isn't exactly very subtle about sending out replies, the author basically said there's nothing he can do.
Most of the other options include AntiVirus and other nonsense, and are expensive or questionable.
Tasker can automatically upload GPS, respond to an email or SMS to do so.. If you send it the right command it could take pictures periodically, make an outgoing call, whatever... It's extremely flexible in what it can do.
khaytsus said:
Where's My Droid isn't exactly very subtle about sending out replies, the author basically said there's nothing he can do.
Most of the other options include AntiVirus and other nonsense, and are expensive or questionable.
Tasker can automatically upload GPS, respond to an email or SMS to do so.. If you send it the right command it could take pictures periodically, make an outgoing call, whatever... It's extremely flexible in what it can do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW! Ok, but the question is - 1.can it lock the phone remotely? 2.What happens if the thief uninstalls Tracker or changes the SIM (can you password protect it)? Finally, 3.can it take picture AND email them remotely? Otherwise, I don't see much use to this feature if the phone is gone.
Lookout seems rather good, but I have not tested it personally. I'd add a link, but I'm a new user. Should be easy to find with a Google/Market search, though.
Well that (un installing tasker)may be the case with any tech anti theft, if the thief is smart and careful they will wipe/reset/format whatever they took, rendering a soft lo jack useless
I would just get tasker and lookup findmyandroid on lifehacker, its the best current option
Captiv
Yeah, I found out about LookOut on Android forums. I have installed it. It doesn't allow you to lock the phone remotely and can easily be uninstalled.
As for Find My Android, I don't see how is it different from Where's My Droid., maybe except the part where you're notified if the SIM card is replaced.
I updated the original post.
Find my android isn't the name of the app, its what the lifehacker post is tagged as (#findmyandroid)
The program is tasker, and its more customizable and it can turn on gps
Captiv
Sure, Lookout can be uninstalled, as can any other app. But really, you should have some sort of password on your device. With pattern unlock, there's really no reason not to do so.
According to one of the devs on their forums, remote locking as well as "other features" will be coming to Lookout "very soon".
https://lookout.zendesk.com/entries/24881-remote-lock
In the meanwhile, I use WaveSecure for locking my phone and Lookout for tracking, as its mechanism seems much better.
If you want to prevent Lookout from being uninstalled, just move the apk to /system/app (assuming your phone is rooted).
I have had Wave Secure since the Beta (it is free to beta testers) and love it. I can understand not wanting to pay, but it really is a great app. They have a zip file that you can flash in recovery if you are rooted. That will prevent the app from being erased if the phone is factory reset. I have also been using an app lately called "Tasker". It can track your phone, although I have not used it for this. Here is a link to the Wiki.
http://tasker.wikidot.com/locatephone
GPS Tracker by Instamapper is the one I use most. With a text message, it will return its location via Google maps. It will continually do so for as long as you have it set up for. Every 10 Seconds, Every 2 minutes, Every half hour, etc. I used it to track my stolen phone with the laptop in the car. This app saved me from buying a new phone.
stickerbob said:
I have had Wave Secure since the Beta (it is free to beta testers) and love it. I can understand not wanting to pay, but it really is a great app. They have a zip file that you can flash in recovery if you are rooted. That will prevent the app from being erased if the phone is factory reset. I have also been using an app lately called "Tasker". It can track your phone, although I have not used it for this. Here is a link to the Wiki.
http://tasker.wikidot.com/locatephone
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Click to collapse
Same here. Glad I got it while it was still a beta!
There's been similar App requests before but mine is a little different.
I want my phone to seemlessly with one app (ideally):
- Tether my phone's 3g with my tablet
- Allow me to browse my phones files with my tablet:
- See photos in the gallery off my phone- Listen to music files on my phone's SD card on my tablet- Be able to make phone calls off my tablet through my phone including contacts integration- Have documents written on my phone or tablet be saved on both, so if I only have my phone on me I still have all my important documents/homework with me.
I could go on and on, but I think this tight integration with smartphone and tablet is the future, especially with the Transformer since its more of workhorse and the phone is more of a personal organizer.
I want my phone to seemlessly with one app (ideally):
- Tether my phone's 3g with my tablet
Enable Wifi Tethering on your phone. Easy.
- See photos in the gallery off my phone
Easy, make sure you sync/upload all your camera pictures to Picasa Web Albums (All Google account come with it) And it'll show up on the Transformer in the stock Gallery app. You can use a program like Pixelpipe to auto upload every picture you take on your phone to upload to Picasa. Or you can do it yourself, check mark all your photos, share, select Picasa.
- Listen to music files on my phone's SD card on my tablet
Why store music to your sd card? Get Amazon Cloud Drive (Free 2 gigs, buy an album and you get 20gigs free), upload your music to Cloud Drive, and use the Amazon MP3 app to listen to your music! Or, run AudioGalaxy on your computer, point it to your mp3 folder, and use AudioGalaxy to listen to your computer's music on your tablet/phone.
- Be able to make phone calls off my tablet through my phone including contacts integration
Contacts integration is already done with Google Contacts, auto syncs as long as your Google account is logged in. Making phone calls on your tablet? Seriously? Just grab your phone. This is sorry, but a stupid request
- Have documents written on my phone or tablet be saved on both, so if I only have my phone on me I still have all my important documents/homework with me.
Keep your documents on Google Docs. Download the Google Docs app on your phone/tablet and you can have it on both.
Or better yet, Get DropBox also free. works on phone/tablet/pc/mac/everything. Modify one, and it comes across EVERYWHERE.
I could go on and on, but I think this tight integration with smartphone and tablet is the future, especially with the Transformer since its more of workhorse and the phone is more of a personal organizer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All the stuff you want to do is already doable and easy to do. Most important thing is moving away from local storage to cloud storage, that's the future and we're seeing already with Amazon/Google/DropBox.
What I'd like is to be able to control the tablet with my phone. Especially now that I have Plex, as being able to link my tablet to the tv and stream video with plex but sit on the sofa with my phone as a remote would be awesome.
AFK_Matrix said:
What I'd like is to be able to control the tablet with my phone. Especially now that I have Pled, as being able to link my tablet to the tv and stream video with plex but sit on the sofa with my phone as a remote would be awesome.
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This would be a very useful function...
What I'd like is an application to send/receive SMS/MMS from my tablet through my phone.
YES, I have Google Voice, but using that sends from your GV number. I'd actually like the sending and receiving to be done by my Droid X, but have a client application on the tablet that can interface with the SMS client on my phone.
FrayAdjacent said:
What I'd like is an application to send/receive SMS/MMS from my tablet through my phone.
YES, I have Google Voice, but using that sends from your GV number. I'd actually like the sending and receiving to be done by my Droid X, but have a client application on the tablet that can interface with the SMS client on my phone.
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Click to collapse
Port your number to Google Voice. I did, love it. Also no contract line with T-Mobile.
I suggest that you might have more luck posting this request in the general Android apps forum here.
You might also give an indication of how much you'd be prepared to pay for such an application!
Regards,
Dave
nxt said:
Port your number to Google Voice. I did, love it. Also no contract line with T-Mobile.
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Click to collapse
Those of us not in the US have issues with that though :-(
It should be easy for Google to do though, as they could route all SMS as data to a phone on your Google account, then send it as SMS from there using the phone's regular contract.
An SMS app for the tablet that meant I could recieve texts on it and reply whilst keeping the phone in sync with what's being sent and received would easily be worth a fiver. And that's Stirling, too
nxt said:
All the stuff you want to do is already doable and easy to do. Most important thing is moving away from local storage to cloud storage, that's the future and we're seeing already with Amazon/Google/DropBox.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing with your suggestions is that its a ton of different apps and lots of hoops to jump through.
I want one. single. app.
nxt said:
Port your number to Google Voice. I did, love it. Also no contract line with T-Mobile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That only circumvents the problem partially... then if I want everyone who has my (current) cell number to txt me directly to my phone (I can't hear the notifications I set in GV on my DX worth a crap!), I'd need to give them another number.
I think a client/server type thing that would let me interact remotely with the SMS app on my phone would be ideal.
FrayAdjacent said:
I think a client/server type thing that would let me interact remotely with the SMS app on my phone would be ideal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this out.
I think what the OP wants is definitely coming. But, read all of the posts by the OP on the thread I posted for the Sync SMS app and you will see some of the difficulties placed on the devs for such a project. Add in the large number of device manufacturers(custom software implementation b/c they refuse to use vanilla android)/different hardware (DroidX for example doesn't support infrastructure Wifi - only ad hoc) and types of connectivity (BT/WiFi/Cellular/USB) and it will become a very complicated project. I'm not saying it won't be done... I think it will be done. But, it is just a little ways farther off from happening. It'll take awhile for the software devs to work out the kinks and with Android/Honeycomb constantly evolving/constant hardware changes.... It makes this a daunting project for a single dev/small group.
Also, when it does come battery drain (constant polling for change in data) and data usage (carriers moving to tiered data plans) issues will have to be addressed. Many of the push API's are being figured out by devs so that will decrease the polling - but, data usage is only going to go up. I only had my TF for one day and I was having to watch my data over 3G because I knew if I continued to use it without worrying about getting onto Wifi I would go over my 2GB cap.....
The Sync SMS app dev has some good ideas and has been hard at work. I suggest reading his posts to better understand the difficulties.
@OP - it'll come with a little patience. In the meanwhile you can do what the second post suggested and use multiple solutions.
I finally got my phone today. I am new to android, and actually i am new to smartphones.. this is my first smartphone and i decided that if i get myself one im going big and im getting the sensation
my question is.. where to begin with? like i just have the phone in my hand.. what is the first thing i should do or configure on the phone? i know its maybe a big question, but any help on how to setup the phone in the best way would be appreciated, as like i said, it is my first smartphone
thanks
Just go through the initial setup and then just use it. Change the home screens to your liking, download some apps and enjoy the handset. There's not a lot else to do as yet
mazinya said:
I finally got my phone today. I am new to android, and actually i am new to smartphones.. this is my first smartphone and i decided that if i get myself one im going big and im getting the sensation
my question is.. where to begin with? like i just have the phone in my hand.. what is the first thing i should do or configure on the phone? i know its maybe a big question, but any help on how to setup the phone in the best way would be appreciated, as like i said, it is my first smartphone
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Put it through it's paces I reckon to see everything is working out of the box. Sign up to gmail so you can use the market.
Use the GPS, internet, Youtube etc etc. Make sure everything works as they should.
Setting up the screen is already done for you just go to settings>Personalize and pick "Scene" or "Skin" to begin with.
Watch a quick Youtube video http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=How+to+operate+HTC+Sensation&aq=f
But you can customize it to your liking. Watching some videos will makes things quicker to pick up if you're new to Android phones.
Import your numbers to your sd card and then back to your google account, that way you won't lose your numbers if you lose your phone and when the time comes to upgrade to a new phone, you only have to sign in and you can have all your numbers back automatically, oh and your apps will come back too.
Sign into any emails you have and make sure that any new numbers you get you save to google and they will be kept too.
Try whats app and communicate for free across multiple platforms (supports BB, Iphone, symbian and Android) it's kinda like BBM, sign into facebook, twitter everything you have an account for and then sit back and let the phone do the rest, for me this is were HTC Sense stands alone, no other phone integrates social networking better.
Test your GPS out with the Navigation, join latitude and most importantly, make it your own.
Congrats on your new phone.
From all apps menu open "show me"
Very helpful info
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App
dladz said:
Import your numbers to your sd card and then back to your google account, that way you won't lose your numbers if you lose your phone and when the time comes to upgrade to a new phone, you only have to sign in and you can have all your numbers back automatically, oh and your apps will come back too.
Sign into any emails you have and make sure that any new numbers you get you save to google and they will be kept too.
Try whats app and communicate for free across multiple platforms (supports BB, Iphone, symbian and Android) it's kinda like BBM, sign into facebook, twitter everything you have an account for and then sit back and let the phone do the rest, for me this is were HTC Sense stands alone, no other phone integrates social networking better.
Test your GPS out with the Navigation, join latitude and most importantly, make it your own.
Congrats on your new phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
would u mind telling me how to back them to my google account?
im planning on getting a 16gb card so i wouldnt want any contact to get lost when i change cards
also, should i be downloading juice defender as well?
mazinya said:
would u mind telling me how to back them to my google account?
im planning on getting a 16gb card so i wouldnt want any contact to get lost when i change cards
also, should i be downloading juice defender as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, if your numbers are on your sim then go to your people (phone book) press menu and click import / export, then import from sim, then select google.
If they're on your actual phone because you've input them one at a time, then click on import / export again and select export to sd card, then straight after it, press menu and click on import / export again, then click import from sd, when it asks where to? you say to google.
After you've done that simply click on menu from the phone book, go to view and just select google, as you have already moved them over.
PS: It may take a moment to sync all the contacts over so if it's dragging it's heels, make sure you have a good connection at the time ie: 3G upwards, preferably WIFI, and press menu, settings, accounts and sync and sync google.
That should sort that out for you
Not sure if you know this but when you save your numbers to google, it also means that you can't lose your numbers and if you change your phone, all you will have to do is sign into your google account and the numbers will come flooding back on their own, this will work for apps too, providing you've told your phone to do so.
Once you've done this with your phone, it won't make any difference what sd card you have in your phone.
As for juice defender, no not really, just go to accounts and sync, tell the phone not to sync stocks and news and weather all the time oh and facebook, just do them manually, i tend to leave google alone and allow it to sync, last thing you need is you turn off google, forget to sync in a month and you lose all the contacts which you aquired in that time!
Juice defender and the like are nifty apps but not really needed unless you have probs with your battery, your not going to get much more than a day from any Smart phone these days besides a nokia 6200000 or whatever they're called, just try to preserve what you can, turn off wireless communications unless you need them, like GPS, WIFI, mobile data and bluetooth.
Like i said b4 alter your account settings for different services, alter the brightness of your phone and when you get the chance to root properly, get autostarts and set up some rules for your phone so your not starting up programs that you don't need, autostarts is like a task killer, but instead of killing open apps and actively running in the background all the time, it actually sets the rules for them so they can be told not to open before they do, sounds hard but it's really easy
Task killers aren't recommended, they kill processes which shouldn't be killed, 99 - 100 people on XDA will tell you that, the other 1 is probably the bloke who moans about having a crap battery all the time
dladz, thank you very very much for the elaborated answer. it is greatly appreciated.
about the battery.. i noticed that i cant see battery percentage like other here are showing.. i see stats but i dont see in percentages how much is left, only in a green line that when it goes down it gets orange and then red.
would i need to install juice defender if i wanna see accurate percentages?
if you have in mind any more useful and necessary apps that i should download and install, it would be great.
When you get it all set up,go and read about the problems others are having and see if you can live with them,example my bluetooth has a bad background noice rendering it almost useless,I thought it was the headset I was using but turned out it's the phone so if a s/w update doesn't fix it then I will have to send it back to HTC,just got it back from a loose charging port fix.So basically if you need to exchange it don't wait like me and have to send it in for warranty repair.
mazinya said:
dladz, thank you very very much for the elaborated answer. it is greatly appreciated.
about the battery.. i noticed that i cant see battery percentage like other here are showing.. i see stats but i dont see in percentages how much is left, only in a green line that when it goes down it gets orange and then red.
would i need to install juice defender if i wanna see accurate percentages?
if you have in mind any more useful and necessary apps that i should download and install, it would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get the Battery Widget by Elvison.
It will do what you are looking for
Don't obsess over the battery
Congrats on your purchase, I hope you enjoy android and your phone as much as I do. Everyone here has experiences fast battery drain when they get their new phone. The reason is because they're using their new phone a whole lot simply because it's a new phone. It's not rocket science. Just be sure to charge it whenever you can and you'll be fine.
Be sure to check out the free apps in the android market. The thing I love most about android is the voice command ability, and how it's so tightly knit into all of googles services. "text - Mary", "Call - Teresa", "Navigate to In N Out". You can also use voice to text to dictate an email while on the road. Have fun.
Macklessdaddy said:
When you get it all set up,go and read about the problems others are having and see if you can live with them,example my bluetooth has a bad background noice rendering it almost useless,I thought it was the headset I was using but turned out it's the phone so if a s/w update doesn't fix it then I will have to send it back to HTC,just got it back from a loose charging port fix.So basically if you need to exchange it don't wait like me and have to send it in for warranty repair.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont wanna jinx myself, but so far i have none of the problem mentioned here on the board and i hope it stays like that although most problems started to pop out at a much later time, so i will keep crossing my fingers it wont. so far im loving it
Yea I just started setting up my phone yesterday too, and it's a little overwhelming, lol. It's gonna be a wild ride, with s-off rumored to come out soon.
mazinya said:
dladz, thank you very very much for the elaborated answer. it is greatly appreciated.
about the battery.. i noticed that i cant see battery percentage like other here are showing.. i see stats but i dont see in percentages how much is left, only in a green line that when it goes down it gets orange and then red.
would i need to install juice defender if i wanna see accurate percentages?
if you have in mind any more useful and necessary apps that i should download and install, it would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your more than welcome m8, hope it helped.
As for the battery, i would put up with it until we are able to permanently root our devices, get a custom recovery on there and the rom's will come flooding in, then there will be a percentage over the battery on your home screen (up the top)
There are apps which will give you a read out, too many to mention but they run in the background and I could do without that and for that reason i wouldn't recommend them because i wouldn't get them, if you don't mind the app running then there are loads on the market.
Paging Dr B said:
Congrats on your purchase, I hope you enjoy android and your phone as much as I do. Everyone here has experiences fast battery drain when they get their new phone. The reason is because they're using their new phone a whole lot simply because it's a new phone. It's not rocket science. Just be sure to charge it whenever you can and you'll be fine.
Be sure to check out the free apps in the android market. The thing I love most about android is the voice command ability, and how it's so tightly knit into all of googles services. "text - Mary", "Call - Teresa", "Navigate to In N Out". You can also use voice to text to dictate an email while on the road. Have fun.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm from Liverpool born n bred and believe me, the people who made the voice recognition did not have scousers in mind when it was made.
I've had some pretty strange things come out of what i've said to my phone, needless to say some other people with strong accents will have the same problem it's funny tho.
If i speak the queens then it works perfect but i must sound like a right tit.
another question i have.. when i download an app or a game from the market.. how do i know if this app\game should be installed on the phone or on the SD card?
Is there an option to to choose where to install the app? (i dont think i have seen an option to choose)
mazinya said:
another question i have.. when i download an app or a game from the market.. how do i know if this app\game should be installed on the phone or on the SD card?
Is there an option to to choose where to install the app? (i dont think i have seen an option to choose)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not so much an option, rather the ability to move it afterwards.
So if an app is installed on my SD card and then im switching cards, then i will have to install this app again right?
Your phone will still know that the app is installed but the files will have shifted so it won't open it or it will force close.
best thing to do is to get a decent SD card and just take care of it, personally when I really install a rom, I clear all the data on it by formatting the card, that way you get a fresh slate.
I back up co pilot and some games my pics, tunes and videos. The reat can be re iinstalled.
Got it... well, i ordered a 16GB card so until the card arrives i will wait with installations
Hey guys,
I'm not sure if this is the best subforum to ask in, but I figured if anybody knew it would be you guys on XDA-devs.
I have a slightly modified Facebook .apk - what I did was take the last version before they bastardized the newsfeed and got rid of "most recent" (it's version 8.something), then open it up and remove a bunch of permissions that I didn't want it having. I left in obvious ones like GPS for checking in, but removed the stuff like "prevent phone from sleeping", drawing over other apps and other really obnoxious things that you normally couldn't opt out of.
I use it on a daily basis. I also hate Messenger - not only because it's two apps instead of one, but because of that same aforementioned issue... the drawing over other apps and there was no way to TURN NOTIFICATIONS OFF ENTIRELY, only for up to an hour.
Anyway, Facebook v8 already has a messenger built in. It's absolutely pointless to use the standalone one. However, there's a value that keeps being generated by their end that I can't control - at least not yet!
What happens is the first time you open messenger after signing in, it says "Upgrade to Messenger? Your friends are using it!" and you can choose "Not now" or upgrade. It does this for a day or two and then eventually the "not now" option goes away and it refuses to let you see your messages without "upgrading" despite the fact the app obviously has the ability to do it just fine.
After some experimentation, I discovered the fix. There are two values that get written in prefs.db (it's /data/data/com.facebook.katana/databases/prefs.db - not sure why prefs.db since it's not really a preferences but I digress)
If you open that up in SQLite Browser, there are three tables... open up "preferences" and there are two values:
/config/force_messenger/first_shown_1
/config/force_messenger/last_shown_1
Then there's a binary timestamp stored in another column in that row.
If I simply delete both of those and restart the app, it works!
But this is a bit annoying to have to do every couple days. I already have my development options set to force-close an app when I long-press the back button, so I was hoping it were possible to put a line of code in the .apk somewhere that just wipes those values, if present, when the app starts. There's nothing I can do about their server sticking those in there, as obviously they want to force people to use Messenger. I CAN just delete the values, though.
At the very least, some script I could set to auto-run (like kill the app and edit the .db) would work too, but I'm going to be getting a new phone soon and want to use it unrooted if possible... so I figured having this done from within the app itself would be a better idea.
Thanks in advance!
I am trying to figure out if my boyfriend is tunneling his messages or Facebook chat somehow... I'm not very techsavy. Does this kind of thing actually exist for a regular lg phone? Okay so It looks like whenever he unlocks his phone he will sometimes use two different codes like he has one phone two users. One he shows me without all his real incoming messages. And then his storage is always full on his phone but he hardly has any music or pics. He has some casino apps. One I found in his list said in the default app casino.imitation.app is that a vault app or what?
Yes it is possible. I don't know how lg has it implemented or what phone he is using, but there are multiple users in android that you can switch. If lg doesn't have that feature it could be done with a system modification. Since this a real life trust problem I suggest that you talk to somebody that can help, somebody like a psychologist.
Savannah0981 said:
I am trying to figure out if my boyfriend is tunneling his messages or Facebook chat somehow... I'm not very techsavy. Does this kind of thing actually exist for a regular lg phone? Okay so It looks like whenever he unlocks his phone he will sometimes use two different codes like he has one phone two users. One he shows me without all his real incoming messages. And then his storage is always full on his phone but he hardly has any music or pics. He has some casino apps. One I found in his list said in the default app casino.imitation.app is that a vault app or what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stop. Why not just talk to him, and if the trust is an issue, then your relationship is also....
Thread Closed.