Database Info

Facebook App from Microsoft

A Facebook application for your Windows Mobile phone officially from Microsoft !
* Send messages to any of the people in your Friends list.
* Take pictures and videos on your phone, then upload them right to Facebook.
* Send messages or call people in your Friends list.
* Manage your profile and post anytime, anywhere.
Keep up with the latest news and posts with Facebook on your phone. Now your status updates can be up-to-the moment accounts of what you’re doing. Photos and videos are about as close to live-action as you can get. Show your friends what you’re up to, while you’re out and about.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/downloads/facebook.mspx

you just beat me to posting it...looks good so far.

I almost got caught to facebook also but I had too many doubts. Here is a version of someones doubts... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XhzYGoBif8
Do not forget that facebooks social side (the only side actually) is useful only if you use your real name. Otherways nobody wont find you. Now just think...
EDIT:...or let me explain. Basically, what goes there stays there. For start if you happen to get to a criminal side for genuine needs, cops would get loads of information about your relationships etc.
And the main point: facebook-A BIG mass of data from everyone. This might be the present or surely it will be the future: intelligent engines/robots to scan and analyze the mass of data accumulated there psychologically enough to make conclusions about geopolitical/social/mass-psychological preferences. And the kind of preferences we cannot think about even for now. The next move from there is agressive manipulation and big loss of freedom

yeah, works perfectly on my TD2 ;-)

darfri said:
I almost got caught to facebook also but I had too many doubts. Here is a version of someones doubts... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XhzYGoBif8
Do not forget that facebooks social side (the only side actually) is useful only if you use your real name. Otherways nobody wont find you. Now just think...
EDIT:...or let me explain. Basically, what goes there stays there. For start if you happen to get to a criminal side for genuine needs, cops would get loads of information about your relationships etc.
And the main point: facebook-A BIG mass of data from everyone. This might be the present or surely it will be the future: intelligent engines/robots to scan and analyze the mass of data accumulated there psychologically enough to make conclusions about geopolitical/social/mass-psychological preferences. And the kind of preferences we cannot think about even for now. The next move from there is agressive manipulation and big loss of freedom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Facebook just holds the information YOU provide, pretty simple. It is a VERY good way to stay in touch with old friends and relatives but of course it is a pretty open social network and you need to be careful with the information YOU provide. Facebook doesn't take or steal anything from you, it is up to YOU what kind of information and how much of it you provide for others to see. THAT simple. To make it short: just use your brain and Facebook can be a very nice place to enjoy.

Working for me
Works great so far on my TD2. Can't believe it took this long for microsoft to release a facebook app for windows mobile!!!

One down side though, still doesnt have flick scrolling which is a bit of a pain, hopefully they'll sort that out soon.

P996 said:
Facebook just holds the information YOU provide, pretty simple. It is a VERY good way to stay in touch with old friends and relatives but of course it is a pretty open social network and you need to be careful with the information YOU provide. Facebook doesn't take or steal anything from you, it is up to YOU what kind of information and how much of it you provide for others to see. THAT simple. To make it short: just use your brain and Facebook can be a very nice place to enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but what about REAL names... thats enough for me
Off course facebook doesn't steal anything from me. It is just a container... a container which at some point contains data enough (even if you do not put there facts like home address etc, just your name which is a damn good fact) to get analyzed. And offcourse - not by facebook. Even chats and comments are enough at some point to compile a solid profile about you. Once again - they are related to REAL names.
I know it is hard to like this kind of theory when you already have a facebook account. My wife has a facebook account and I am seeing the mass of information streaming there. Besides the social side is so effective that you cannot get out of it anymore - it is a good extra communication platform.
BTW I have a plaxo account which has my outlook contact folders... I "can" delete the folders and account there but what about THEIR recycle bin for "archival" and "statistics" purposes... I'd love to get rid of it but I think there is no need to do it as it is too late already.
And I just received an emali from damn facebook which suggested me to sign up and showed the names of the people I know. How did the monster know my friends if I have been avoiding it

^^^^^
just like any other member networkin YOU sign up to it askes if theres anyone you would like to forward a membership request to! if your that worried about robots scanniny your comp to find all your details then jus dont have a comp or a bank account or anything dont even have a fone but its a decent app thnx

the app jus locks up wen i go to run it

jumbo2000 said:
the app jus locks up wen i go to run it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DOesnt work for me either. just freezes. the 0.16 version worked better :/.

jumbo2000 said:
^^^^^
just like any other member networkin YOU sign up to it askes if theres anyone you would like to forward a membership request to! if your that worried about robots scanniny your comp to find all your details then jus dont have a comp or a bank account or anything dont even have a fone but its a decent app thnx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This app here might be as good as possible. No complaints about it.
uhh... I'll put it as short as I can: First: I am not worried about scanning my PC. I am worried about scanning the data on Facebook servers.
It contains your REAL name and your REAL activities. Please folks... try to imagine just a little bit. The scanner wouldn't be any data collector or single data unit detector (like bank account numbers, email etc). I am talking about intelligent scanner here. The one that uses sentence content detection/comparsion and linguistic variation approximating techniques in spite of the personality that is in the text. Face recognition is already there for us to use even. From this point scanner has already simplified data to deal with. Imagine this kind of scanner cooperating with psychologists who obey people with high political, economical - and if anybody is interested anymore about the old timer - MORAL authority. As time has told the ambitions of these people have almost never been sincere. A single facebook user most likely wouldn't be endangered. It is plurality that makes the effect

mokuni said:
DOesnt work for me either. just freezes. the 0.16 version worked better :/.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. After keying in userid and password and tap on done. the app freezes.
After trial and error, i found out that its the files used by the previous version that's causing the lockup.
Try uninstall the facebook app completely then rename Facebook.vol and fbmail.vol to something like Facebook.vol.old and fbmail.vol.old.
install the latest version and try.
If it works.. u can delete the 2 .old files.

P996 said:
Facebook just holds the information YOU provide, pretty simple. It is a VERY good way to stay in touch with old friends and relatives but of course it is a pretty open social network and you need to be careful with the information YOU provide. Facebook doesn't take or steal anything from you, it is up to YOU what kind of information and how much of it you provide for others to see. THAT simple. To make it short: just use your brain and Facebook can be a very nice place to enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That’s only one half of the brain. And that the phrase I keep listening from Facebook users.
The question is ... Can you control what other people post about you? Pictures information’s etc?
I know that they can still do that but those information’s are usable only if they are linked to an existing user...
When you open an account then pictures from you on your friends account stops being a picture.
It’s now usable and abusable data... I t’s just a question of time for both of those things...
Try now and use your brain 100% ...
KraFT

cypork said:
Same here. After keying in userid and password and tap on done. the app freezes.
After trial and error, i found out that its the files used by the previous version that's causing the lockup.
Try uninstall the facebook app completely then rename Facebook.vol and fbmail.vol to something like Facebook.vol.old and fbmail.vol.old.
install the latest version and try.
If it works.. u can delete the 2 .old files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cypork, deleted both files, and reran fb app and bam, works like a charm. thanks. .

mokuni said:
Cypork, deleted both files, and reran fb app and bam, works like a charm. thanks. .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fantastic. Glad it works for u as well

works fine on my D2. great app, finally
as for the philosophy of facebook and social networking, i'm afraid that what darfri says is true. we users use it as a fun location, posting information that is not harmful for anyone...but what it is done with it in the background where big brother watches, only God knows...
but honestly, with today's tehnology i would not bother about information some guys know about me. i'm sure that if they want to know, they will know...and i don't think they will go as far as facebook. but this growing/exploding community could be a good source too, at some point.

Asurion Mobile AddressBook for Android

Hello XDA,
I am one of the developers of the Asurion Mobile AddressBook and I would like to get some feedback on our product from the users here. I have been using this forum for some thine now for Winmo and respect the opinions of the developers here. It would be great to see what everyone thinks of the application. It is available in the Android Marketplace, just search Asurion. Or you can go to our site at http://www.getaddressbook.com/.
A little about AddressBook, it is a socially connected address book that allows you to get information about your contacts from different social sites like Facebook and Twitter right in the address book, through mini programs called Mixins.
Soon we will have an APK for developers to develop their own Mixins for AddressBook. When its ready I will post more information if anyone would like to beta for us.
AddressBook is still in a beta form and is available for 1.6 and 2.0 and above. Please try it out and let me know what you think. AddressBook is new and we are open to positive and negative feedback.
Thanks,
Peter

Just installed
Main app + all MixIn
It's a nice app, just a bit slow on my HTC Sapphire Magic Vodafone 32B with 2.1 Eclair Rom
I don't like "MixIn solution", why not a full app with all modules inside ?
I've launched main app, then I gone to market and installed Facebook MixIn for first.
After a lot of privacy authorization with some screen not well fitted I did a little war with Matching People, cause a lot of them were not matched nice.
I need Photos compare, cause I've some cases with two or more people with the exact name... like my cousins =)
I had some Facebook MixIn Force close Crashes and some com.google.process.gapps crashes too, right now...
I installed flickr and associate it with some of my contacts and no problems at all.
at last I tried Twitter and no probs with it...
I think it's a good app, but a bit slow...
last thing:
Support for all languages (I could translate it in Italian if you need)
I don't like number in this format 000-000-0000
or 00-000-0000
I know it's a developing app and I will wait for next releases of this.
Well Done
Good Job

This is some great feedback, thanks for taking the time to try it out and post back.

Just wondering
Is this ultimately going to be a paid application?
You know like:
5.99/mo
4.79/mo
1.99/mo
What's our deductible? :0

Haven't tried the app, but if you could spread the QR codes apart it will ease their reading.

Thanks for your app!
played with it 30mins.
1. got the main app
2. started a new a/c in www.getaddressbook.com
3. got the MixIn: Facebook
4. start the MixIn app, input Facebook a/c
5. click Allow buttons 3 times
6. MixIn starts to get contacts from FB
7. Auto Match
8. Manual adjust Auto Match results
9. Launch main app
The above steps took about 25mins (330 FB contacts; 300 gmail contacts; Auto Matched 180; manual picked out... haven't counted >_< i believe picked out 30 - 50).
Cool:
-Auto Match tried to best match FB | Local contacts even they are not perfect match.
e.g. Shirley Lam | Salei Lam (it matches)
-Facebook photos can replace local as well as sync. to Gmail Contacts
-Consolidated activities log (SMS, voice call, etc) for individual contact
Not:
-[MixIn: FB] Say you have some contacts named Peter Chan, you will get confused without some other hints like Organization.
I picked those contacts out in Auto Match to prevent mis-matching as Org is not displayed in Auto Match results
-[main app] Contact list won't remember the last viewed location.
I scrolled from top to Carol, click twice to view details, click Return and the contact list scrolls back to top.
-[main app] Slow. Maybe it's my outdated HTC Magic... (it's CyanogenMod 4.2.13 w/ EBI1 mod]
For me:
Keep and waiting for updates!

looks cool..will try this later when i get home for work..
speed is defiantely something that can be worked on.

thebluecoat said:
Is this ultimately going to be a paid application?
You know like:
5.99/mo
4.79/mo
1.99/mo
What's our deductible? :0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, the application will be free. And no deductible that I know of

It looks interesting but what you should definitely not miss is the T9 dialer. The way you can find contact by typing their name directly from the dialer is the only feature that makes me stay on 1.5. I tried other apps from the Market but nothing could match HTC's Sense UI dialer. If you can bring something clean similar to this I'm sold!

Another question for the community. Are there any features you are not seeing in the AddressBook that you would like to see, things that would make this app a must have?

Great work on the app. After using the app for a few days the main reason I stopped us using it was the user interface. Its not horrible but compared to everything else on the phone, it looks a bit outdated (quality wise). Other then the ui, it can be sluggish at times but nice work.

DesertWolf1971 said:
Another question for the community. Are there any features you are not seeing in the AddressBook that you would like to see, things that would make this app a must have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Darvo is absolutely correct. The T9 dialer is something that is sorely missing from most builds. I think it would especially appeal to stock users as well as those running cooked roms. I have been searching for a reliable answer to this outside of a Sense UI but haven't found anything that I'll stand by 100%.

Thank you .........

I appreciate your effort with AddressBook; however:
I find it extremely inappropriate and invasive that the app immediately syncs my contacts upon install to -- where? your servers?
There should be a clear warning that this is about to happen!
Please delete my data from your servers!
Also, the 'delete all' function on your site does not work, at least not with Safari. I 'moved' all to the 'delete' column on right, but clicking on 'delete selected' does nothing.
And with Chrome I couldn't even log in. Got some error about 'src' and try the support page.

I am sorry that app is frustrating you. There is a screen during setup that lets you know about the backup. This function can be turned off in the app. If you give me your user name I will delete your account from the database. The back up is meant to protect your contacts in the case that you loose your phone or get a new one. As for browser support, right now we are only supporting IE and Firefox. Again sorry the app is frustrating for you.

Great app!
I really like and appreciate this app. The 2 biggest features that drew me to waste countless hours playing w/ hero roms on my mytouch were hero's T9 dialer, and the social integration. I'll 3rd the motion for a T9 dialer in your app. No complaints otherwise. Bravo - and thanks for the great app.
P.S. Backup to server is a bit redundant in my opinion, because your contacts already sync w/ your Google acct - but, to each is own. I might be missing an advantage to it anyway. I just opted not to use it.
And props for soliciting feedback here in the forum - where the REAL users are.

DesertWolf1971 said:
There is a screen during setup that lets you know about the backup. This function can be turned off in the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? Because I can see in the options where to change the time and frequency of the sync, but I don't see how to disable syncing altogether. Maybe I'm just missing something?

Good catch, looks like there is a bug, you should be able to set it to not backup. We will work to get that fix in.

I have been playing around with the Hero, but I am not sure I have found the T9 dialer, what does it do?

Feedback
I've been following this app since it first arrived, and I must say bravo for doing what only HTC dared to attempt. It works well, too, except for a few things.
1. It may SEEM that scrolling smoothness isn't that important. Ask Apple, they'll tell you the truth: Its the only thing the masses give a Sh&% about, how something looks. So imitate the apple or hero contact style, because the one here is rough but needs only an easy fix! Smooth scrolling and better "sleek" colors. Same for the dialer.
2. It seems to run too often in the background, which slows my phone seemingly, no matter how often i taskiller it.
Eagerly awaiting the next release...

New Facebook app

Is anyone else not seeing the new Facebook app in the market? Or when you to the online market, it says compatible with TF?
EEE Pad Transformer sent this

The 1.6? For all the previous excitement it's not very amazing.
It comes up as not compatible with Asus Transformer. (Maybe a tablet version planned at some point?)
I'll probably just Dropbox it and install it anyway.

Yup, they've removed tablet support. It's basically a downgrade, and it wasn't a very good app in the first place. It lacked even basic functionality from the website, such as the ability to ignore posts from "friends" [eg. bands, products, etc.] that you've ignored on the website. There's no mention of that being fixed in this release anyway, so no big loss -- the app's nearly unusable in its current state, as my friends' posts are hidden in a huge wall of advertising from all the pages I'm a fan of (but don't really want to read the ads from).

yes....the FB app sucks.
Try the alternative app written by a member on XDA here...its' called "Friend Me" and it's really nice.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.locomolabs.facebook

rpavich said:
yes....the FB app sucks.
Try the alternative app written by a member on XDA here...its' called "Friend Me" and it's really nice.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.locomolabs.facebook
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks a hell of alot better thanks.
EEE Pad Transformer sent this

I've been using Friendme and FriendCaster and they work just fine. Though you might as well use the browser based version anyway. For me the only real use of the app is to integrate it with your contact list and to get desktop notifications. None of these apps do this. I'd like to see facebook integration to the level of where HTC Sense is. Love the notifications on my phone and the contact integration. I miss that when not using my phone. But hey, nothing is perfect.

My sole concern with these third-party apps is that it'd be very easy to make one that works just fine, but also phones home with your username and password. There's no way to audit code and confirm it doesn't do so (and even if there was, I'm not a programmer and would have to rely on somebody else's opinion).
That said, for those who are happy to trust such things, it's great that somebody's making options -- Facebook's own one totally sucks.

Attached Facebook 1.6 taken from my phone... works just like the old version on our TF (still lame, but it has notifications lol).

same here I can get to the Download page on the Market, but it wont download at all!! you can access it thru a direct link or qr code

app is better but there's no option to view your friends photo

I find how Developers blacklist certain phones being overused to much. Clearly the Facebook app runs on tablets and works, so why they would blacklist it is beyond me. All it does is limit their users. If it runs and works don't blacklist it is incompatible.

Same thing has happened to Words with Friends -- granted, it doesn't scale perfectly to a tablet screen, but it's passable. Not sure if my installed version will even receive updates, so I just update on my Evo and the BT File Transfer the app over to my TF.

onfire4g05 said:
Attached Facebook 1.6 taken from my phone... works just like the old version on our TF (still lame, but it has notifications lol).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome! Thank you for uploading that. Exactly what I wanted until the official version for tablets comes out.

WoodburyMan said:
I find how Developers blacklist certain phones being overused to much. Clearly the Facebook app runs on tablets and works, so why they would blacklist it is beyond me. All it does is limit their users. If it runs and works don't blacklist it is incompatible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's being speculated that Facebook blacklisted all honeycomb devices because they will have a tablet version out soon - considering how slow and lame the development has been on the phone version, a tablet version seems very unlikely, but who knows?!
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

Has anyone noticed that third-party facebook apps, like Friendcaster and FriendMe don't show all the posts that Facebook.com and the official Facebook app do? I was blown away when I visited Facebook.com to see how many posts and pictures were up that never showed on FriendCaster. It's like it blocked 30% of my friends wall messages
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

Why not just use your browser to get to facebook? The TF is large enough for you to view facebook as if you were using a laptop.

DiscipleDOC said:
Why not just use your browser to get to facebook? The TF is large enough for you to view facebook as if you were using a laptop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The same reason why we use a gmail app for getting mail, or a twitter app for tweets - apps are more convenient and offer OS integration. Of course, if they only provide some functions of the full site, they are less useful
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

Tweetdeck has facebook integration. Works really well for me except for pic uploading.

EP2008 said:
It's being speculated that Facebook blacklisted all honeycomb devices because they will have a tablet version out soon - considering how slow and lame the development has been on the phone version, a tablet version seems very unlikely, but who knows?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pictures have leaked of the tablet version running on WebOS, so I would assume that an Android version wouldn't be too far behind.

onfire4g05 said:
Attached Facebook 1.6 taken from my phone... works just like the old version on our TF (still lame, but it has notifications lol).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks! lost this when i upgraded and wanted it back

ChompSMS flagged as malware by several AV's

Hi ppl in the xda hood
I just write to let you know that ChompSMS has now been flagged as malware, both on 2 phone here locally with Avast as scanner, and subsequently by upload to Virustotal, and flagged by some of the major names too.
This concerns both the 5.30 and the update from tonight to v5.31
As Im new, I cannot post urls, but you can dump the apk from both versions, upload for a scan, and have a look at the report yourself from virustotal dot com
XDA must decide if its worth it alarming the community, but better safe than sorry, right?
I guess it could be a false positive, and I do know things should not be rushed about accusations of malware developing, but seeing that several of the major scanners is flagging it both before and after the update, certainly raises my concerns.
I hope those of you who knows your way around decompiling and analyzing code will look into this, so that we can get more eyes on it than "just" the AV companies reports.
Sincerely, Omnius
After a bit of micro-investigating I have so far found these domains in the code, so if you do HAVE to use ChompSMS, (I do) you can ad them to your HOST file, just for the sake of it.
I dont know when or why they will be used but as they are in the code, there is a potential connection lurking in it. Decide for yourself, untill further ppl have a close look than mine.
Im not a dev of any sort, but I do know how to poke around to learn. Therfore please do not just take my words for granted until more competent ppl here have their say.
I do know that a few of these is for "normal" android app ads, and analytics and so on, but these are my finding so far, so filter our what you like it to connect to yourself. If you dont mind ads connections in-app, serve your wish, so to speak.
millennialmedia.com
gateway.textfreek.com
report.bitesms.com
nexage.com
inapp.chompsms.com
adserver.com
greystripe.com
smsgateway.chompsms.com
m.advc.us
cvt.mydas.mobi
rest.starttalking.com
mobileads.google.com

I used to love chompsms... now i guess I'm using GoSMS...
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

All of them appear to be valid to the program. Half are ad for ads, the other half are for functionality in ChompSMS.

I would be careful on using go SMS as well.
Antivirus apps will pick up any app that by passes any normal OS use. This always has been and always will be the case.
Anything with ads will always be flagged as it connects to an unknown server.

zelendel said:
I would be careful on using go SMS as well.
Antivirus apps will pick up any app that by passes any normal OS use. This always has been and always will be the case.
Anything with ads will always be flagged as it connects to an unknown server.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
chomp was never flagged before the 5.30 update a few days ago...
really bothers me, i love chomp. i donated to remove the ads. i'm hoping they fixed it with 5.31 and the virus scanners are just still reporting it as a false positive. until it's sorted out though, i uninstalled...

Update : avg doesn't detect anything wrong with the newest version, 5.31.

Lemme tell you...
I noticed the new permissions requested in 5.30 (special access to browser history/bookmarks), and kinda shrugged it off. Dumb move on my part. Immediately upon launching 5.30, I get a notification from ADWLauncher that it cannot fit a new shortcut on my desktop (because the main page was full). So I'm naturally all like WTF... so I flip through my desktop pages to notice that ChompSMS had made itself a shortcut to searchmobileonline.com.
I also heard that it replaces your default browser home page and search method with the same. I use xScope exclusively, so I haven't been able to check that yet.
Delicious, Inc. has really crossed the line with this latest stunt. What were they thinking!? ChompSMS was the best Android messaging app IMHO. Why jeopardize such a great reputation? If it's money they were after, I'd imagine they could've raked in a nice bundle of cash for selling the product to another company.

Does anyone have a copy of this apk that I could take a look at?

kyokeun1234 said:
I used to love chompsms... now i guess I'm using GoSMS...
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GoSMS is a security risk
Sent from Narnia

xHausx said:
Does anyone have a copy of this apk that I could take a look at?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this is a old thread but better than starting a new one.
I would like to ask if there is any news on this. I love chomp SMS, imo the best messanger for my taste. I have bought the pro version, to stay away from ads and unnecessary internet data. I have chomp on a brand new phone, no sim card, no messages, just activated chomp and my firewall instantly found chomp active on internet. I watched this for some time and really chomp was trying to do something even I did nothing with it.
important note: there is no data mining in any of their terms. Or at least I did not find anything.
So I contacted chomp about the behavior and they said that "they never seen this before" and suggested reinstall. I did, didn't help.
On the second try, they told me that it is connecting because of ads, but I had the pro version (and they knew it). So no luck.
After the third attempt, they said that chomp is sending once a day info that it is installed so they know how many installs they have.
This sucks a lot. Security concerns appears instantly.
I think it would be worthy to literally sniff a bit around this, since so many people is using chomp.

Beware Firefox Aurora: check the permissions

Firefox Aurora, which will be Firefox 12, has a whole bunch of new permissions. Do you want your browser to take pictures, discover known accounts, administer accounts, etc.? Me, I just want it to render HTML while leaking as little info as possible. So, if you're concerned about privacy and security, heads-up.
This is too bad, because other than the spyware permissions, it's a big improvement over previous non-ndk Fennec, meaning actually usable.

i noticed the camera ..ect prior to installing went and checked official and beta its the same thing
not new
and the whole account ect. this has to do with new firefox sync app that comes with Aurora
so you can set up an account to sync your desktop browser to your phone

cashmundy said:
Firefox Aurora, which will be Firefox 12, has a whole bunch of new permissions. Do you want your browser to take pictures, discover known accounts, administer accounts, etc.? Me, I just want it to render HTML while leaking as little info as possible. So, if you're concerned about privacy and security, heads-up.
This is too bad, because other than the spyware permissions, it's a big improvement over previous non-ndk Fennec, meaning actually usable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are no "spyware permissions".
Permissions are just FYI, they're not telling you that an app is a spyware or not. I know sometimes it's hard to figure out why an app includes certain permissions, as a developer i can tell you that most of the times i have to add a permission in order to include code which is so poorly related to the scary permission's description.
Atm I'm having trouble with a user's review, it argued my app was malware just because new permissions were added.
In my opinion firefox products are safe and i'm using Aurora at the moment.
With this i'm not saying "go and install all the worst stuff you can find", paying attention to privacy and security is obviously a good thing... unless it turns into "android-specific-permissions-fobia", sure, because the other systems (PC, Mac, Linux, iOs, whatever) don't have user permissions so you just install a new app and stay happy.

There are a lot of apps that will request things like "read phone state and identity" that have no plausible reason for doing so except tracking/spying. Many run fine with it disabled.
I don't want to keep my bookmarks in the cloud, so the Aurora perms are just a privacy/security risk for me. Note that if a browser process is hijacked by malware, the malware will presumably inherit the permissions, making the trustworthiness of Mozilla moot.
If Aurora only needed the permissions when attempting to set up sync,
that would be tolerable for me, but it crashes on startup without them.

i set up one time sync to transfer bookmarks
then went to sync under the setting witch brings me to my OS account/sync menu
and disabled from attempting sync it still working fine for me
you can also delete the sync account also and still works fine
sync is not integrated into the browser for some reason maybe because it still alpha
but its integrated into official and beta browser and don't have these permission you're worrying over nothing

Actually Aurora got Sync back a few nightlies ago: now you have an icon in Programs and it's in Settings - Account too. Sync is the main reason I use FF on Android, it's brilliant!

I'm sure a lot of people are not concerned with security, data-harvesting, etc. I am, and some other folks must be also or CM wouldn't have added permissions management. A lot of things work fine with half their permissions disabled (Firefox being one). Others don't. Audible, for example, just won't run without "read phone state." I guess Amazon really wants that IMEI #.
Maybe they will patch Aurora so it will run without accounts access unless you try to set up sync.
Google's whole business model is based on data-harvesting. The ICS stock Music Player won't even work at all until you sign in.
Not everyone wants to be monetized in exchange for convenience.

Mozilla is trustworthy enough, they are a non-profit open source company that has been around for years, I'm sure they have a legit reason for the permissions.

Solution = who uses firwdox anyway?.. Boat browser!
Sent from your bedroom with my GT-I9100

Boat is what I mostly use. It wants a lot of permissions but runs just fine with them disabled. I was using Aurora as much as possible until I discovered the permissions.
Boat also stores bookmarks locally, and can save/restore from sdcard, just what I want. No shipping them off to Google or wherever they go for me, thanks.

Why would anyone use Firefox anyways?
It's slower than the default browser and it STILL doesn't support FLASH!

Odd how suddenly permissions became an issue when android decided to tell you what permissions are requested, yet before when you had your nokia/htc/motorola running other OS's, you would install any crap and not worry about it. What is the developer gonna do? Hack naked pics of your gf from your phone? Phone your friends and prank them? Show your mom you browsing dodgy pornsites from her pretty new android phone? Seriously now, everyone is making such a huge fuss about this its bordering on conspiracy paranoia

I put this posting up as a heads-up for my fellow paranoids, people who actually think about who might get their credit/phone/ssn/email etc., not for the benefit or convenience of app writers. It's like the whining from Swype about how they really needed accurate imeis or whatever so they could count unique installs. And dear Google wants everything they can get, now in one convenient location, so and only so they can serve you the right ads, and you can trust that they will never decide to more directly realize the huge shareholder value locked up there, and that they will never be cracked.
Privacy and security are like a gun: you don't need them until you *really* need them.

cashmundy said:
I put this posting up as a heads-up for my fellow paranoids, people who actually think about who might get their credit/phone/ssn/email etc., not for the benefit or convenience of app writers. It's like the whining from Swype about how they really needed accurate imeis or whatever so they could count unique installs. And dear Google wants everything they can get, now in one convenient location, so and only so they can serve you the right ads, and you can trust that they will never decide to more directly realize the huge shareholder value locked up there, and that they will never be cracked.
Privacy and security are like a gun: you don't need them until you *really* need them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand your point of view, what i can't understand is why some people scream "beware spyware!" while they actually have no proofs at all.
permission + permission = spyware, it's a weird math which tends to damage developers and the whole android's world.

cashmundy said:
I put this posting up as a heads-up for my fellow paranoids, people who actually think about who might get their credit/phone/ssn/email etc., not for the benefit or convenience of app writers. It's like the whining from Swype about how they really needed accurate imeis or whatever so they could count unique installs. And dear Google wants everything they can get, now in one convenient location, so and only so they can serve you the right ads, and you can trust that they will never decide to more directly realize the huge shareholder value locked up there, and that they will never be cracked.
Privacy and security are like a gun: you don't need them until you *really* need them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Scared your mom/wife/girlfriend sees an add for fleshlight while playing angry birds? Seriously this is a joke, 99% of developers dont give a rats ass about your bank account, email, pvt sexts. All we want is to deliver an application that would benefit the the community, and warnings like these would be the reason ppl move to other platforms because it spreads the idea that Android is an unsecure platform. So what if it logs which sites you visit? Firefox is one of the software applications that brought OSS software into the mainstream. It has been long established as more secure than IE. If it wasnt for software like this, we would not have had an open platform for our devices, making them much more affordable

Magnumutz said:
Why would anyone use Firefox anyways?
It's slower than the default browser and it STILL doesn't support FLASH!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 both Firefox and this Aurora are horrible browsers. Firefox team needs to get their **** together. Opera is just SO MUCH better. fast, easy, pretty much all options, hardware acc., flash, , and not once it slowed down or crashed on me.

firefox is supporting HTML5 (without h.264 because of licence) and flash is just added, it's still buggy because of AURORA. Aurora is very buggy as you noticed, lets think why? Oh, yes, it's just an alpha relase not even beta. I'm usin firefox beta in my mba 11" and old school 19" pc and both uses sync (which is amazing) I'm also giving feedback all the time with reports, logs and surveys. In mobile I was using dolphin but I can see posibilities.
Firefox is coming with steady steps. Everyone knows ff, and also chrome. Chrome just relased v.17 for pcs and macs. but still no mobile (except ICS beta) (also chrome is a google product and gathers your datas so many times more than firefox) I want to say people could remember time gaps between 3.5 and 3.6 and 4.0 of firefox and you see, now they are relasing new versions on few months which is very good (because now you don't need to wait new features for 5 months or you don't need to install minefield etc.)
About permissions, yes new permissions could be dangerous but hey, these permissions for give you something new like sync, flash plugin or new features. Mozilla is trustworhty and helpful. They are bringing Free Internet Space for years and you can't say they are spying us. there is versions for qr droid, with/without some permissions, maybe firefox can do samething for paranoids.
Also yes I'm supporting and defending firefox but no, I'm not a fanboy, at least I'm still using dolphin for manything and also safari.

Magnumutz said:
Why would anyone use Firefox anyways?
It's slower than the default browser and it STILL doesn't support FLASH!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The alpha supports flash and is huge improvement over official and beta that is currently on market
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

I use "spyware permissions" in a pretty loose sense of "permissions which are not clearly essential to the core functionality of the app". I agree that Mozilla is trustworthy, moreso because you can read the source. But the browser is the most internet-facing and thus most dangerous app, most likely to be cracked, most likely to have access to lots of personal info, so needs to receive the closest privacy /security scrutiny.
Unlike the Facebook crowd, I look at my info as my property, and ask not why I should not share my info with the world at large, but why should I, what benefit do I receive in exchange for giving away what someone else can monetize (the whole Facebook/Google business model) and which may do me real harm if for example app writers Ivan Ivanovich and his friend Bala Babangida turn out to be not such nice guys, and use my info to send me spam texts or clean out my bank account.
Case in point: Google+ app just added "record audio", but the app doesn't have any audio capability, you can't record and post a sound. I remembered that some years back Google wanted to be able to record audio on laptops, "purely for analytical purposes". That didn't fly back then. I uninstalled Google+.

cashmundy said:
I use "spyware permissions" in a pretty loose sense of "permissions which are not clearly essential to the core functionality of the app". I agree that Mozilla is trustworthy, moreso because you can read the source. But the browser is the most internet-facing and thus most dangerous app, most likely to be cracked, most likely to have access to lots of personal info, so needs to receive the closest privacy /security scrutiny.
Unlike the Facebook crowd, I look at my info as my property, and ask not why I should not share my info with the world at large, but why should I, what benefit do I receive in exchange for giving away what someone else can monetize (the whole Facebook/Google business model) and which may do me real harm if for example app writers Ivan Ivanovich and his friend Bala Babangida turn out to be not such nice guys, and use my info to send me spam texts or clean out my bank account.
Case in point: Google+ app just added "record audio", but the app doesn't have any audio capability, you can't record and post a sound. I remembered that some years back Google wanted to be able to record audio on laptops, "purely for analytical purposes". That didn't fly back then. I uninstalled Google+.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Best you can do is contact the developers and ask them about the permissions included. If Ivan Ivanovich & Bala Babangida say their notepad is not able to work without your bank account then ok, let's warn all the other people.
Probably you won't have any reply from google but most of the developers (or app writers, as you prefer) are just glad to answer via email since they're not allowed to reply in the android market.
Instead, the actual scenario is more and more devs who get their clean apps targeted as malware and users who get paranoid by reading too many reckless comments.
In general, devs are not wolfs and users are not sheeps... otherwise there were no open sources (eg Mozilla), no android, no xda-developers!