Database Info

Request/Info - Lightweight ROM

I was wondering if there were any super stripped down/lightweight ROM's... I just reset my phone to factory conditions and then rerooted it roughly two hours ago, I'm not using the droidx as my cellphone right now but I'd like to use it for network setup and other uses similar to that (I work in IT and it would be easier to carry around than a laptop)
My issue is that most of the themes center around using cell service, honestly I could care less about cell service since its not connected to the network... Is there any way to remove effectively every app except for those that would work over wifi/offline?
If so, are there any really lightweight themes that I could use to strip it down and go from there or would you recommend I just strip it down from stock?... I know this seems like a bit of a project but I'm up for it and I really have nothing to lose with this phone since its not my primary phone or anything... Effectively I want to turn my droidx into an ultraportable/ultralightweight/fast tablet/alarm clock (please dont hate me :3)

Went with fission 2.6.1 However I'm curious, I know that generally speaking removing applications is ill advised, I was wondering if theres a viable way to remove all of the phone features or to effectively turn off the phone features permanently (or semi permanently)
I realised the best way to phrase what I want is to run my droid x like a tablet... If only I could get honeycomb to run on it hahahaha
But yeah, questions would be, any way to deactivate all the connection to verizon stuff? (because its not connected to Verizon)

You can use titanium backup and freeze all the apps you do not want running or the other method is to use root explorer and rename what you don't want to use to .bak instead of it being .apk
hope this helps answer your question

not sure if airplane mode kills the wifi, but it kills the cell radio. that may help.
if youre comfortable sbfing you can try using 7zip to remove things and install the rom, but id figure that pretty likely to cause a brick/sbf if youre not careful. id be more inclined to use the free version of titanium and flat back up/uninstall anything unwanted and see how that goes.
i should note my experience on 261 with just uninstalling stuff i dont want is pretty high, its my daily runner; but not with uninstalling things relative to the phone (of course).
ive been looking at getting a color screen nook from best buy; wifi, small and portable and suposedly hackable/rootable to run a 250 e reader in to a full function tablet.

[Tutorial] Quick Wi-Fi Fix

Hey guys,
I've been following XDA-developers for a long time, and would like to return something for all the help the community has provided. I traded my iPhone 4 for a G2X today only to find out that my BB data plan is incompatible -_-. Unwilling to wait until Memorial Day was over (611 closed), I decided to turn on Wi-Fi and tinker with it.
Unfortunately I fell victim to the phone's Wi-Fi's problems. It worked for seconds at startup, then simply stopped. Frustrated, I decided to take manners in my own hands. The evil culprit is T-Mobile's My Account program. Here is how to fix it (root and a $3.99 Market purchase required, no piracy!!)
First follow the directions in this tutorial to root your phone. Its pretty simple. ADVANCED: unrooting method.
Make sure Wi-Fi calling is turned on, as well as 3G/4G (from Mobile networks settings page)
Do a battery pull AFTER you enable the above ^. Wait 1 minute before rebooting your phone.
Wi-Fi should work on its own (although buggy) with these two enabled. If you have 3G/4G, you do not need to do this: for Wi-Fi only users, continue to reboot until you have somewhat of a stable Wi-Fi connection. It's very intermittent but eventually it will work for enough time to download Root Explorer from the market!
Go to the Market and install Root Explorer (purchase required, there may be free ways but I do not know of them and I do not advocate piracy)
Open this app. A popup from Superuser will ask you for permission. Grant it with "Allow"
From Root Explorer, navigate to /system/apps
At the top of the list box click the "Mount R/W" button
Scroll down and look for the following: MyAccount.apk and com.nuance.nmc.sihome (the latter may be named differently but it has a My Account icon)
A box will come up telling you that com.nuance.nmc.sihome has encountered an error. This box will refuse to go away. Simply do a battery pull.
YOUR WI-FI WOES SHOULD BE GONE, and your phone's stability should have improved. Enjoy!
You can download the latest version of My Account from Market now and cease to have problems.
Other safe-to-remove T-Mobile stuff:
EA Games (EAPK)
Zinio (does anyone use this?)
Telenav
Nova
Need for Speed
Polaris Office
LMIRescue (an app T-Mobile can use to potentially remotely command your phone?)
LMIRescueSecurity

yaldak said:
Hey guys,
I've been following XDA-developers for a long time, and would like to return something for all the help the community has provided. I traded my iPhone 4 for a G2X today only to find out that my BB data plan is incompatible -_-. Unwilling to wait until Memorial Day was over (611 closed), I decided to turn on Wi-Fi and tinker with it.
Unfortunately I fell victim to the phone's Wi-Fi's problems. It worked for seconds at startup, then simply stopped. Frustrated, I decided to take manners in my own hands. The evil culprit is T-Mobile's My Account program. Here is how to fix it (root and a $3.99 Market purchase required, no piracy!!)
First follow the directions in this tutorial to root your phone. Its pretty simple. ADVANCED: unrooting method.
Make sure Wi-Fi calling is turned on, as well as 3G/4G (from Mobile networks settings page)
Do a battery pull AFTER you enable the above ^. Wait 1 minute before rebooting your phone.
Wi-Fi should work on its own (although buggy) with these two enabled. If you have 3G/4G, you do not need to do this: for Wi-Fi only users, continue to reboot until you have somewhat of a stable Wi-Fi connection. It's very intermittent but eventually it will work for enough time to download Root Explorer from the market!
Go to the Market and install Root Explorer (purchase required, there may be free ways but I do not know of them and I do not advocate piracy)
Open this app. A popup from Superuser will ask you for permission. Grant it with "Allow"
From Root Explorer, navigate to /system/apps
At the top of the list box click the "Mount R/W" button
Scroll down and look for the following: MyAccount.apk and com.nuance.nmc.sihome (the latter may be named differently but it has a My Account icon)
A box will come up telling you that com.nuance.nmc.sihome has encountered an error. This box will refuse to go away. Simply do a battery pull.
YOUR WI-FI WOES SHOULD BE GONE, and your phone's stability should have improved. Enjoy!
You can download the latest version of My Account from Market now and cease to have problems.
Other safe-to-remove T-Mobile stuff:
EA Games (EAPK)
Zinio (does anyone use this?)
Telenav
Nova
Need for Speed
Polaris Office
LMIRescue (an app T-Mobile can use to potentially remotely command your phone?)
LMIRescueSecurity
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to do any of this noob stuff if your wifi doesn't connect to your home router or any router for that matter. It's unneccesary and time consuming, not to mention risky since you could "brick" your phone. All you have to do is reboot the phone, simplest way is hold power button and volume up simultaneously, then it should connect, assuming you entered the correct password if router has secure connection.

I just turn wifi off then back on. Works for me.
And stop with the noob stuff the guy just wrote he came from an iPhone to a g2x.
He will figure it out as he goes.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App

mr.orange303 said:
He will figure it out as he goes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see two band-aid solutions, a reboot, and a restart...gosh that is advanced.
Verse a solution to fully resolve the problem, and keep it gone. More importantly a possible isolation of the cause.
These super duper pro android interlopers are unapproachable on their savvy solutions. Ummm no
Since the OP says its linked to My account program, and I know on first run it says a newer copy is available, I am going to wonder that many users don't touch it.
So since I am already freshly on a complete reset of everything (erase all date, or hold down volume and power) I am going to try.
1. Full erase reset
2. First thing upadate new version of My Account.
3 Hard restart.
4. See how it reacts
My wifi is decent except sometimes it does clog up and I have to clear buffers and shut down programs to get it to kick up. Start and stop wifi solves nothing on mine.
Anyways its about 10 minutes of time to do, since my phone already is in near out of the box setup.

Sorry but I'm not here to post "noob" stuff. Of course restarting the phone or its wifi radio were part of my first efforts. But the phone's stock software has a bug in which the default My Account program a) causes a DNS issue and b) displays itself twice in Manage Applications. Things work great if you have a working data connection from tmo but if not you will notice that wifi refuses to work on its own. I'm not dumb and by no means am I a noob. I've been following XDA since the days of the Wizard. By the way rooting and deleting useless carrier garbage like the buggy and persistent MyAccount.apk will not brick your phone unless you are careless.

"My Account" from tmo has been nothing but a pain in the ass for me. I froze it using Antek App Manager (a free app). I used the same software to freeze the other garbage that came installed by tmo, and battery and booting issues have greatly improved. Just my 2 cents.
Other stuff I froze include: Car Home, ea games, Zinio reader, AppPack, T-Mobile TV, and wifi calling.
Of course some are big fans of wifi calling but I don't need or use it.

yaldak said:
Sorry but I'm not here to post "noon" stuff. Of course restarting the phone or its wifi radio were part of my first efforts. But the phone's stock software has a bug in which the default My Account program a) causes a DNS issue and b) displays itself twice in Manage Applications. Things work great if you have a working data connection from tmo but if not you will notice that wifi refuses to work on its own. I'm not dumb and by no means am I a noob. I've been following XDA since the days of the Wizard. By the way rooting and deleting useless carrier garbage like the buggy and persistent MyAccount.apk will not brick your phone unless you are careless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
News flash....The MyAccount app isn't causing the DNS issue. Do some fact checking before posting.

LOL... man u guys are harsh

LG is sending out a fix. What does that tell you? Only can manage till then.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App

prettyboy85712 said:
News flash....The MyAccount app isn't causing the DNS issue. Do some fact checking before posting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay sorry, it causes the HSPA / Wi-Fi switching issue. Could you be any more polite about correcting me? FYI I haven't found any SOLID proof of this. Immediately after removing MyAccount and all of its derivatives from the phone DNS requests worked flawlessly; It's been 9 hours of constant wi-fi only use without issues (NO radio turned on). Prior to removing the app, only IP addresses would be resolved by the browser.
LOL... man u guys are harsh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously are, I was only trying to make a helpful post to those users or viewers who are not very tech-literate but possess the ability to root a phone and forget about it to fix an irritating issue with the phone.

dude dont worry about it....good job

Thanks for trying to help with this problem. Its threads like this that help to get to the bottom of these things.
Seems some people here would rather everyone be so afraid to post bad information that there is none at all. But we know better right?

sl0play said:
Thanks for trying to help with this problem. Its threads like this that help to get to the bottom of these things.
Seems some people here would rather everyone be so afraid to post bad information that there is none at all. But we know better right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No..Those people you're referring to would rather have people search before posting. This so called "fix" has been posted many times. No need to start a new thread.

I tried this and got no error lol. What I did was reinstalling MyAccount with the MyAccount.apk in system\app and now my wifi actually works with the Market.

New to Android- a few questions (Data Tethering and Battery)

Hi!
So I'm new to Android (not so much XDA...left WM after a few years).
I switched to Verizon from AT&T right before VZ dropped the unlimited data and secured a Droid Charge based off some of the rave reviews from Engadget among others.
I've installed Humble 1.4 and it seems to be working great (Thanks!). I have run into a couple questions that I was hoping to get some conclusive answers to.
With regards to Data Tethering I use tethering about once or twice a month and not for a lot of data so I feel less inclined to pay $30/mos for something I'll hardly use. However, for those occasional occasions I installed android-wifi-tether and it seems to work, but I saw a comment indicating that VZ could track the unauthorized usage through that app- how is that possible? What is the best tethering app I could/should be using? (I'm good with any connection, wifi/bluetooth/usb)
Now for my biggest point of pain- the battery- I've read through the various guides, and tried bump charging (extensively)- tried the simpler methods with wiping stats via CWM etc, and at most I seem to get about 10-12hrs of minimal usage...I haven't been able to tell conclusively are there truly 'defective' batteries, or just miscalibrated ones? I don't want to make a futile attempt at calibrating this if it'll never work right. Since I'm new to Android is there anything I could be missing in general that's being blatantly assumed in all the battery discussion threads? I've tried Juice Defender, but it's been spotty for me with re-enabling mobile data which is frustrating in its own right.
Finally- are there any 'must have' or cool apps out there? What are your favorites? Also- what would you recommend for the following areas: Speech-to-txt for text/e-mail etc; profile automation (e.g. when at gps location 'x' turn off mobile data, turn on wifi etc)
Thanks!

Edvard_Greig said:
With regards to Data Tethering I use tethering about once or twice a month and not for a lot of data so I feel less inclined to pay $30/mos for something I'll hardly use. However, for those occasional occasions I installed android-wifi-tether and it seems to work, but I saw a comment indicating that VZ could track the unauthorized usage through that app- how is that possible? What is the best tethering app I could/should be using? (I'm good with any connection, wifi/bluetooth/usb)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They can do it by analyzing the traffic going through their network. There are a variety of hints that the traffic is coming from a PC instead of phone, in addition to more obvious things like requests hitting Apple or Microsoft Update (our Android phones won't need to update iTunes or Windows 7 ).
Edvard_Greig said:
Now for my biggest point of pain- the battery- I've read through the various guides, and tried bump charging (extensively)- tried the simpler methods with wiping stats via CWM etc, and at most I seem to get about 10-12hrs of minimal usage...I haven't been able to tell conclusively are there truly 'defective' batteries, or just miscalibrated ones? I don't want to make a futile attempt at calibrating this if it'll never work right. Since I'm new to Android is there anything I could be missing in general that's being blatantly assumed in all the battery discussion threads? I've tried Juice Defender, but it's been spotty for me with re-enabling mobile data which is frustrating in its own right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not totally hopeless, but ultimately if you have LTE on with this first generation of phones the battery life won't be the best. It has a tendency to wander on and off of it in my case (especially 3 bars and lower), there are two radios running drawing power and the re/connection process is the most power-hungry thing they can do. Disabling LTE with one of the apps or digging into wireless settings is the number one way to get more out of the battery.
Edvard_Greig said:
Finally- are there any 'must have' or cool apps out there? What are your favorites? Also- what would you recommend for the following areas: Speech-to-txt for text/e-mail etc; profile automation (e.g. when at gps location 'x' turn off mobile data, turn on wifi etc)
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For speech I don't know of anything better than the Google service already there (maybe Vlingo?). I don't know if anything exists for that automation though, it'd be helpful for me too though - got a promotion and my new desk has horrible signal.
If you plan on getting into ROMs you can't go wrong with Titanium Backup, restoring apps quickly with data intact is absolutely wonderful as even if the ROM doesn't require they tend to always run fastest when data is wiped when you install. Alternative SMS apps and Launchers can add a lot to the experience (I like GO SMS and GO Launcher or LauncherPro).

Danrarbc said:
I don't know if anything exists for that automation though, it'd be helpful for me too though - got a promotion and my new desk has horrible signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally found the apps I was thinking of...take a look at the following (still haven't decided which I like best)
Locale
Tasker
Setting Profiles
Timeriffic
Smarter Profiles
Tasker appears to be one of the most powerful, but a bit complex to setup and use...it's basically guided scripting from what I can tell....Locale looks pretty simple to use, but can get pricey. Haven't played enough with the others.

[Q] Is my battery a dud

Hi everyone I'm new to the forums and smartphones. But I got a razr hd from fido a few months ago. I've never compared the battery life and could get 3 hours of screen time on one charge. At first I thought it was great but then I used my friends razr (non maxx like mine). But I could watch 3 hours of YouTube videos with max sound and only used 50% of the battery. I got the warranty from future shop that will replace my battery, but since the battery isn't removable they will replace it with another phone of the same retail value. I turned off all apps, apex launcher, and avg, and used only what he had, JuiceDefender Ultimate and SwiftKey. My battery was about the same.

I don't get even get three hours of screen out of mine with brightness at around 40% and I have the maxx. I game a lot on mine though and talk a lot on the phone. I think the battery figures were obliviously under the ideal circumstances, so in the real world that's pretty good what your getting.
Do a side by side with both devices and see what the difference is.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda app-developers app

Mines just a normal RAZR HD. I'm not in an LTE area like you so I stay on 3G and throttle up to H+ when its transferring data.
I don't game much; my heaviest game is Angry Birds Star Wars which I don't use much so usualy its just Words With Friends.
I don't use it often for phone calls but I do use it. I'm a guy so I'm not talking for hours and hours.
I always get a full day out of it, and by full day I mean 16 hours or therabouts, until I put it to recharge while I sleep.
I'm not using anything to save battery.
I run Apex Launcher opposed to stock.
I run Tasker and have it looking for cable plugged in, orientation, change in wifi connection (nothing major, just gets the SSID and MAC and stores them as variables), and have it looking for screen unlocked and Display off (for ADB toggle).
In the background I'm running NG call recorder, LMT, WhatsApp, Lookout, LocateMyDroid, Words With Friends, TEAM battery bar Pro, Go SMS
Pro, Calengoo, BetterBatteryStats, ModemFastdormancyMonitor, SmartCardService, Google Services, Google Play, and Notification Toggle.
I sync Gmail and Contacts.
I have frozen Acoustic Warning, Audio Effects, Calendar, Calendar Storage, Email, Facebook stays frozen but unfreezes and runs with GPS off when I run a script but I don't use it much and the same for Maps but GPS on obviously (Maps made a differance for me and needed to be refrozen on every boot as well as the ROM seems to unfreeze it at boot time), Google Caledar Sync, Google Play Books/Movies/Music, Google+, Homescreen (default launcer), Moto Chinese Input, Moto English... infact almost everything starting with "moto or Moto is frozen", Quickview, All of Smart Actions, Swype, and Telstra One (specific to my ROM). Of everything frozen, the only things that I think make a significant impact are the way I have Maps and Facebook handled, that they stay frozen and then are called by a script that unfreezes and runs them and refreezes them on exit.
The Motocare may make a differance however I think its something that's needed to see when you have updates.
This list is very specific to my ROM as I'm on Telstra Austrlia which is (so I've gathered) one of the most bloat free ROMs, and freezing is always going to be carrier specific from what I've read about the phone from other people's carriers.
In adition to the freezing, I've stopped heaps of stuff in Autostarts. I don't reccomend messing with this as its easy to get lost and forget your settings. There is no undo or restore to default, so if you get lost then you're only sure fire way is a factory reset. If you feel safe using it though, then its worth having a look through what's starting up (start with just the stuff after boot) and disabling things that aren't needed. There's heaps of apps that run that really don't need to; non system apps I mean. If you get comfortable with it then the next greatest place they like to start up is when new apps are installed or old ones updated but there needs to be some care taken here as some apps do need to know this while others are just spying and wasting resources while doing so. If in doubt, just don't mess with it at all as there's no "set back to default" option.
I don't use Juice Defender, that's something that stuck out at me, is that I don't know how its being used in one of the posts stated above, but in the case of my ROM, the power management seems to be as good as I'm going to get it on its own. Toggling wifi in particular is something that I tried out with Tasker and it was better to leave it alone. I did try an app... I can't find it now but apparently I didn't back it up before uninstall. Its the beta app made by the chip manufacturer that runs in our phones (or so I read anyway) and it spent time in the background collecting data then tried to optimise power management. I think it was okay but I didn't see anything significant. I was hoping it would end the wakelocks that turn the wifi on but it ended up just leaving my wifi on most of the time and then turning it off when I actually was at home, and I couldn't manually turn it on and get a connection. It may be quite helpful for others though... Its the same thing for Juice Defender; I reckon that the way I would use it would be less helpful because of the wifi handling. I've gathered that wifi doesn't so much turn off but just goes into a power friendly state, and that a full toggle on and off takes more power so I ended up leaving that alone entirely. For people with other power issues, for example I stated that I don't use LTE or 4g in my area, then perhaps it could be useful... I can't give advice on that.
...
...but to answer your question, that's how I use my phone and I get at least 6 hours screen time in a 16 hour day. In fact I always get that much (assuming its used that much) and usually more if I need it. I have battery left over but it does admitadly go down quickly after it reaches a point. I would be dissapointed if I got less. I came from the S2 with the Samsung extendable battery (just under %20 more juice than out of the box) and would get 4 or 5 hours on that before it was dead. I think that you have a genuine frustration on your hands, but that you should deal with it slowly and one step at a time, and that the first step is diagnosis and if it were me I would start by switching it to 3g/2g and seeing how that goes for a few days... let it settle in like that and see if it makes any differance after at least a few days later and a few charges of the battery.
By the way, Location services work fine with maps frozen. Another thing I neglected to mention is that I don't use Google Now. All of my apps that use fine or course location work fine (Google ones and third party) with Maps frozen.
Oh... One more edit; I also have DroidWall or some other equivalent firewall installed. I forget which one at the moment but if you use one, make sure it simply is a front end to iptables as there's almost zero resources used in this fashion. As I don't have 4G in my area, I don't know what is best suited for that. Mine is very simple and has a checkbox for wifi and for data, however it makes a lot of sense that a lot of these firewalls may not be updated to be detecting the interface that 4G is running on. This doesn't make a huge difference on my phone and I don't think I would notice any battery savings if I didn't have it but it may be of help if you were hell bent on using 4G, as its supposed to be power hungry, because you can prevent a lot of apps from making a connection to report the crap they discover (Contacts, numbers dialed, etc) and block ads in some games that don't otherwise need the internet to be played. At the same time, I'm honestly not sure if the results would be good or bad... for example if an app persistently tries to make a connection and isn't programmed to give up when the connection is timed out then that would be bad. I still thought I'd throw it in there. It would actually be one of the last additions I'd make to my phone after being finally satisfied with the power management. Its also something that you need to be aware of, for example if you can't play a game or use an app, it can cause you (me) to uninstall and reinstall only to find that I had firewalled it when it needed to have a connection. Some apps need to connect to check the validity of their licence as well and you just need to be aware and enable it when it shows up.

[Q] Optimal settings battery vs Lost Phone functionality

I try to tweak the phone to save as much battery as it can, but I still want to be able to use the Lost Phone functionality. What settings do you suggest?
For now I'm using these settings:
- Allow WIFI to sleep when in sleepmode
- Allow WIFI to scan even if WIFI is turned off
- No GPS
- Location is on battery save mode
- Don't allow mobile data connection when screen is of (using Llama)
Now im using the default Google find my phone website. For the theftie I installed Lockwatch (it will take a pic after a few tries of entering the wrong code). But you need a data connection / wifi for the app to sent the mail? So how to circumvent this if wifi and data is off after the phone goes to sleep??

I don't have Lockwatch. But it looks like a really nice simple app. From what I can read in the product description it implies that Lockwatch turns on the required features by itself GPS, WiFi, etc. Have you tried "stealing" your own phone with your power saving settings activated? The other thing not mentioned in the product description is does the app continue to send periodic emails to update the phones location after it has been stolen and is moving? Maybe you know? I am using Lookout which can be interrogated at any time to located the phone. But it is not a lightweight app, which makes Lockwatch all the more interesting. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I can't answer your question, but maybe someone else can, plus my question!

I monitored the battery life of my Moto G LTE for a while and I can say that in standby doesn't drain battery, even if gps and mobile networks are active (I tried using Runtastic while riding racing bike for about 15km: 1h of gps and mobile network consumed about 10-15%).
Remember that, even if you turn on location, doesn't mean that phone searches costantly gps signal, it searches for it only when apps request for it.

grahamgo said:
I don't have Lockwatch. But it looks like a really nice simple app. From what I can read in the product description it implies that Lockwatch turns on the required features by itself GPS, WiFi, etc. Have you tried "stealing" your own phone with your power saving settings activated? The other thing not mentioned in the product description is does the app continue to send periodic emails to update the phones location after it has been stolen and is moving? Maybe you know? I am using Lookout which can be interrogated at any time to located the phone. But it is not a lightweight app, which makes Lockwatch all the more interesting. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I can't answer your question, but maybe someone else can, plus my question!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome. I try to test it a few times. I'm still not sure when the mailing and gps kicks in. I do receive a mail when fake stealing my phone So it works good from time to time.
There is an premium feature that will try to sent again when there is data connection again.
If you want even more lightweight, im now using Avira with Lockwatch. If you like your phone to take pics for app locking, you can try Smart App Lock. And if you dislike Chrome, use CM Browser

justanicename said:
You're welcome. I try to test it a few times. I'm still not sure when the mailing and gps kicks in. I do receive a mail when fake stealing my phone So it works good from time to time.
There is an premium feature that will try to sent again when there is data connection again.
If you want even more lightweight, im now using Avira with Lockwatch. If you like your phone to take pics for app locking, you can try Smart App Lock. And if you dislike Chrome, use CM Browser
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "time to time" bit sounds worrisome! I'm on this group because I gave my wife a Moto G. She just wants a working phone, so now that it's pretty much setup right and she can "drive" it proficiently I tend not to mess with it (read - I am not allowed!) . We live in Peru 6 months a year and we both like the fact that I can ping her phone using Lookout if necessary to see that's she's safe. However, they removed the photo taking feature from the free version, and the paid version is now about $30 p/a. Quite reasonable, but this has prompted me to see what else is out there before giving them my money. I have read good things about Avira ($10 for Pro version), so your recommendation might be perfect. I have also just looked at avast! Anti-Theft (pro version $15 p/a), this also seems very comprehensive, I am not too worried about antivirus protection as she only uses the basic's. Anyway I'm still looking around to look at all possible options. Thanks!
Oh, and sorry I don't mean to pull your thread off track. But you do want a location app that overrides your battery saving setup when needed. So the more possible options open to you the better right? On our Moto G, the WiFi/3g data is always on. We get a 2 to 3 day typical battery life.

grahamgo said:
The "time to time" bit sounds worrisome! I'm on this group because I gave my wife a Moto G. She just wants a working phone, so now that it's pretty much setup right and she can "drive" it proficiently I tend not to mess with it (read - I am not allowed!) . We live in Peru 6 months a year and we both like the fact that I can ping her phone using Lookout if necessary to see that's she's safe. However, they removed the photo taking feature from the free version, and the paid version is now about $30 p/a. Quite reasonable, but this has prompted me to see what else is out there before giving them my money. I have read good things about Avira ($10 for Pro version), so your recommendation might be perfect. I have also just looked at avast! Anti-Theft (pro version $15 p/a), this also seems very comprehensive, I am not too worried about antivirus protection as she only uses the basic's. Anyway I'm still looking around to look at all possible options. Thanks!
Oh, and sorry I don't mean to pull your thread off track. But you do want a location app that overrides your battery saving setup when needed. So the more possible options open to you the better right? On our Moto G, the WiFi/3g data is always on. We get a 2 to 3 day typical battery life.
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It's ok, maybe some good anti-theft app can do this overriding the battery saving setup thingy. Im now trying "Android Lost", "AntiTheft & Find My Phone" and "Theftie" (all free of course) . Since we are just both users, maybe we can help each other here on XDA.

Sure, I for one would like to know which app you consider to be the best. Also the reasoning behind the decision.
I hope that you you find one that can override your power saving settings. I would hope that they all can...

grahamgo said:
Sure, I for one would like to know which app you consider to be the best. Also the reasoning behind the decision.
I hope that you you find one that can override your power saving settings. I would hope that they all can...
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After a few tests, i think Theftie and Lockwatch are the best. But I still need wifi or a data connection. And as a backup i keep Android Lost. So in the end i cannot save battery if i want to use the anti-theft functionalities.
Let me know if you what you decided.

justanicename said:
After a few tests, i think Theftie and Lockwatch are the best. But I still need wifi or a data connection. And as a backup i keep Android Lost. So in the end i cannot save battery if i want to use the anti-theft functionalities.
Let me know if you what you decided.
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Have you tried cerberus? It's one of the most complete out there at a reasonable price

I have to say Cerberus is very complete, I think this is the first app I have seen that specifies in its description that GPS is turned on even if its turned off. Edit:- not quite, only on systems earlier than 2.3.3 on later version you have to jump through hoops and convert Cerebus to a system app. Then In the case @justanicename the phone still needs to get access to a WiFi of GSM internet connection. I presume the only chance is that if the phone is stolen the thief will try to use the phone and the GSM data connection will become active when the screen comes on?

I did some further research on the battery saving settings and found a discussion sayin that actually turning on/of the wifi/dataconnection/gps is draining the battery more. So I will try this for a while. Cerberus looks really nice, it seems that Theftie does a lot of what cerberus does too.

Hi, I tried Cerberus yesterday. It does everything as advertised. The memory footprint is 4.4mb, compared with Lookout's 19mb, though Lookout does provide antivirus protection. I started to try Theftie today, but was putoff by the requirement to sign in using Google+ a service that I don't like and don't use. So I removed Theftie. I will go with Cerberus costing the one time 3 Euro. Thanks @agusaon for the pointer.

grahamgo said:
Hi, I tried Cerberus yesterday. It does everything as advertised. The memory footprint is 4.4mb, compared with Lookout's 19mb, though Lookout does provide antivirus protection. I started to try Theftie today, but was putoff by the requirement to sign in using Google+ a service that I don't like and don't use. So I removed Theftie. I will go with Cerberus costing the one time 3 Euro. Thanks @agusaon for the pointer.
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Great app! I hope you enjoy it and never have to use it