Database Info

New App pop-up from the market?

I turned on my tablet tonight to find a pop-up from the market to let me know about a new app available - Mobo Task Killer Pro.
I've never seen this except when I'm being advised there is an update to an existing app I've got installed... Not one I don't.
Anyone seen this happen before?
Whilst the app looks decent, and I've read that task killers are a waste of time especially on honeycomb?
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mobo.task.killer

Got one on my phone this morning. Looking into turning this off.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium

You guys probably install an app that has the Air Push service. it pushed ads to your status bar.
Get Air push detector, it will tell you which app is the culprit

I saw the ad just now in dolphin. I think out may be that.still looking though.
Edit: have gtabsimiclock installed, maybe that?
Edit 2: got the airpush detector, nothing found.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium

phlunkie said:
I saw the ad just now in dolphin. I think out may be that.still looking though.
Edit: have gtabsimiclock installed, maybe that?
Edit 2: got the airpush detector, nothing found.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i don't think its dolphin. only help i have is that i had an app called "wheelz" or something with a monster truck and it had the same air push notifications. hope that helps.
edit: that new app called "magiclocker main" has air push as well. btw, any app i come across that has them i reply to dev expressing my negative opinion of air push and uninstall the app. with enough of us doing the same we may see less of it.

baseballfanz said:
You guys probably install an app that has the Air Push service. it pushed ads to your status bar.
Get Air push detector, it will tell you which app is the culprit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Installed and found the culprit - free MP3 download app. Thing is, I like the app, and so I guess will put up with the occasional pop-up ad since it's not otherwise effecting the tablet.
It makes sense that as Android matures we will see more and more of this - afterall , Google is an advertising company that geniously used it's revenue to build software products! The fact that when you consider say the windows mobile store and the android store, there's a stark difference between the number of 'free' apps - the Reason? Advertising Revenue!

I do not have any of those apps installed. I did have notifications on in the market. Maybe that, for me.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium

phlunkie said:
I do not have any of those apps installed. I did have notifications on in the market. Maybe that, for me.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That notification only let you know of update available for installed app.
If you're getting ads something is pushing it there. I would just see what you install recently and try to single it out that way

Same here, on my Android Phone HTC Desire ...
I recently updated some Apps from the Market (including Adobe Reader, Angry Birds Seasons, Boat Browser, DroidWall, Layar, QuickPic), and 2 hours ago, a received my first "Advertisement Notification" :
"New app released, Mobo task killer pro"
I downloaded AirPush Detector: no application found, so the spammer application doesn't use the AirPush API.
We need to figure out which application is causing this ...

I got the same suspicious notification ad for Mobo Task Killer on my HTC G2 (running CM7) earlier today. It's the first thing like this I've seen, so I started looking for the source and ended up here. I don't have any of the apps mentioned by anyone above except for Adobe Reader and Angry Birds Seasons, but I highly doubt those are at fault. Got the AirPush Detector and it found nothing. I'd really like to know where this originated from.

This also just happened to me today on my stock, rooted AT&T Samsung Galaxy S2 phone. Both AirPush Detector and Lookout found nothing on my phone. (I've also got AdFree running on my phone as well).
Like others in this thread, I had recently downloaded the new Angry Birds Seasons game. I also had just downloaded a free game called Wordplay. I just now uninstalled both of those games on the chance that it's either of them causing this. (Don't care how fun Angry Birds is...if it's the culprit here, it's no longer welcome on my phone).
Reviewing my app install history via AppBrain, those 2 games are really the only likely culprits to my eyes...
Edit: There's also a post about this happening over at Androidforums:
http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid-x/433781-market-notification-new-app-malware.html

If it was Angry Birds causing it, I'm sure there would be a lot more people reporting this than we're seeing, don't you think?
Don't have Wordplay either, so that's not the cause for me.
I can't think of anything likely in my recent install history.. Just updated Netflix and Superuser, installed Greedy Spiders, the pay versions of Android Agenda Widget and Alarm Clock Plus, and that's all I can think of in the past few days.
Is there a way we can see which apps initiated a notification?

I agree with what you said about Angry Birds except this might be a new enough event that it hasn't hit many people yet. Plus, you know that a lot of people would just ignore the ad in the notification bar and not bother to report it or search about it.
There's another thread about this topic going on over in the Anandtech forums:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=32462500&posted=1#post32462500
Me and 2 others have posted our installed apps there via links to the Appbrain web site. So far, below are the apps (minus Google apps) that the 3 of us have in common:
appbrain
angry birds/angry birds seasons
titanium backup
adobe flash player 11
soundhound
Facebook
Kindle
EDIT: Took out Amazon MP3 as it turned out not be common amongst all impacted devices.

Thank you for collecting that info and finding more forums.
I see what you mean about Angry Birds. Shouldn't rule anything out yet I guess.
I don't use appbrain, so no link, but I'll tell you which of those I have:
all angry birds
titanium backup
flash 11
soundhound
So you can eliminate these from the list:
appbrain
facebook
kindle
If I were guessing here, I'd look at Titanium Backup. Is it the free version all of you have installed?

Me and Anubis (from Anandtech site) both have the paid version of Titanium Backup, while the other guy is using the free version (from what I can tell by comparing our Appbrain app lists).
Also, to clarify: 2 of us (from Anandtech site) had Angry Birds Seasons installed while the third person had Angry Birds installed. Looks like (according to the Android Market web site) that Angry Birds Seasons latest update was 10/21/11 while Angry Birds hasn't been updated since 8/30/11, so I guess that degrades my suspicion that it might be Angry Birds/Angry Birds Seasons.
---------- Post added at 08:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:02 PM ----------
G.Ri said:
Thank you for collecting that info and finding more forums.
I see what you mean about Angry Birds. Shouldn't rule anything out yet I guess.
I don't use appbrain, so no link, but I'll tell you which of those I have:
all angry birds
titanium backup
flash 11
soundhound
So you can eliminate these from the list:
appbrain
facebook
kindle
If I were guessing here, I'd look at Titanium Backup. Is it the free version all of you have installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing what apps you have in common. That really knocks the list down to a small number and I'm not seeing any comments in the Android Market right now that make any of those 4 apps sound like they're responsible for this ad that popped up in our notification bar.
The mystery continues...

Hmm.. I'm going to email the dev of Mobo Task Killer Pro and see if they can (and are willing to) shed some light on this.
Also, just noticed this in their market comments:
"Amazing
[5 Stars] by Blanca– October 23, 2011
Amazing! I woke up to an alert to download this and it's awesome. I've been on the internet for about 4 hours and it barely got to 80%. Great app!"
EDIT: and this:
Not the greatest app ever...
[2 Stars] by Nick– October 22, 2011Spam
but I'm more concerned with it being advertised in my notifications when my phone started, who told them the phone I paid for is their billboard?

G.Ri said:
Hmm.. I'm going to email the dev of Mobo Task Killer Pro and see if they can (and are willing to) shed some light on this.
Also, just noticed this in their market comments:
"Amazing
[5 Stars] by Blanca– October 23, 2011
Amazing! I woke up to an alert to download this and it's awesome. I've been on the internet for about 4 hours and it barely got to 80%. Great app!"
EDIT: and this:
Not the greatest app ever...
[2 Stars] by Nick– October 22, 2011Spam
but I'm more concerned with it being advertised in my notifications when my phone started, who told them the phone I paid for is their billboard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that's a good idea...although looking at the page on the Market for that app of theirs, I don't see any contact info for them whatsoever; no email, no web site, no blog...that seems awfully suspicious to me. Did you find contact info for them somewhere?

G.Ri said:
Thank you for collecting that info and finding more forums.
I see what you mean about Angry Birds. Shouldn't rule anything out yet I guess.
I don't use appbrain, so no link, but I'll tell you which of those I have:
all angry birds
titanium backup
flash 11
soundhound
So you can eliminate these from the list:
appbrain
facebook
kindle
If I were guessing here, I'd look at Titanium Backup. Is it the free version all of you have installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I started a similar thread on another forum site before I found this. I don't have any version of Angry Birds (once did, but SBF'd it away 6 months ago).
The apps I have in common with the list here are:
Titanium Backup (Pro)
Adobe Flash 11
Soundhound (<<< my best guess)
Thanks to those of you looking into this! The permissions for that task killer seem way out of line to me,
p.s. This happened for me on a Droid X

Been using Soundhound on my TF and phone, never had an ad notifications

Yeah, I've had Soundhound (the paid version) for a long time and never had any such issues with it. I really hope this stupid ad isn't being done via some new OS exploit in Android. I know it's much more likely that it's happening through some app using that damn AirPush or SlingLabs service, but it's worrisome not being able to verify how it happened.

Any way to tell which program left a notification?

For the last few days, I have been getting a notification about "new information" or some such. I hit it and it opens the browser and takes me to a spam site, saying I have won an air mac, iphone 4 or ipad 2 which is of course bull****.
I've got lookout (premium) on my phone, but it says no malware on the phone.
So if I could just figure out what program is posting the notice..I would have my culprit.
Rebooting phone doesn't help. Clearing cache, history, form data in browser doesn't help.
Tonight I cleared /cache and davlik-cache. Will have to wait to see if that helps.
The website the browser goes to is com-ws.us/test/.....
Whois shows that to be a new registration (Dec 13th) in the UK via godaddy
I am in the US
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

Download the airpush detector app in the market and it will tell you what app on your phone is sending the notifications
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

jimmyUT said:
Download the airpush detector app in the market and it will tell you what app on your phone is sending the notifications
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Thanks! Got Airpush detector and a few others.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

Nope, none of them caught it. Apparently these products only let you know which apps can do things, but not which did them.
Anyone else have any ideas?
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

Airpush should let you know what app is set to push notifications.
What is the actual notification you are getting and what icon does it have next to it in the status bar when u see it?
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

If you have adaway then add "api.airpush.com" (without the quotes) to the list of sites to block and then redownload the hosts file. That will take care of airpush spam without having to download anything (who knows what data the airpush "opt out" app tries to collect).

jimmyUT said:
Airpush should let you know what app is set to push notifications.
What is the actual notification you are getting and what icon does it have next to it in the status bar when u see it?
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Either a green plus sign in the notification bar or a red star with a red circle in it. The notification text is "You win! an iPad2 is yours!" Or similar.
Airpush detector showed no apps.
When you select the notification' it opens the browser and takes you to a ws-com.us website.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

nl3142 said:
If you have adaway then add "api.airpush.com" (without the quotes) to the list of sites to block and then redownload the hosts file. That will take care of airpush spam without having to download anything (who knows what data the airpush "opt out" app tries to collect).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't have adaway, but do now and added that host. Lets see what that does. If nothing else, I may put a network sniffer on here to see what's up.
I've got 90% of the same apps on my Xoom and don't get these notifications.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

Do you have mp3 music download?
I had an app named something like that and it was the culprit...
Deleted it and notices went away
Sent from my 1 billion Ghz Quad Core Commodore 64

jimmyUT said:
Do you have mp3 music download?
I had an app named something like that and it was the culprit...
Deleted it and notices went away
Sent from my 1 billion Ghz Quad Core Commodore 64
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got WinAmp. But had that for a while. I'll get rid of it, see what happens.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

Someone else had this problem and found it to be some live wallpapers that were installed. I doubt it would have been winamp.

FOUND IT. The free version of Bloat Freezer.
I installed a sniffer and it found this:
apikey=airpush&appId=23340&imei=b0ec891afc8c881867d891bc906321e3&token=ec178b3329bab921f52ec46160b1ff29&request_timestamp=Tue+Jan+03+12%3A01%3A09+MST+2012&packageName=com.bloatfreezer.free&version=10&carrier=Verizon+Wireless&networkOperator=Verizon+Wireless&phoneModel=ADR6400L&manufacturer=HTC&longitude=0&latitude=0&sdkversion=4.02&wifi=1&useragent=Mozilla%2F5.0+%28Linux%3B+U%3B+Android+2.3.4%3B+en-us%3B+ADR6400L+Build%2FGRJ22%29+AppleWebKit%2F533.1+%28KHTML%2C+like+Gecko%29+Version%2F4.0+Mobile+Safari%2F533.1&android_id=b7b691711e46ba6b&model=log&action=settexttracking&APIKEY=airpush&event=trayDelivered&campId=14855&creativeId=27768
Funny airpush detector didn't find it AND I got the adfree update to bloat freezer.
That's the end of that app!
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

And now I see bloat freezer has been pulled from the market.
Oh well, Titanium freezes stuff just fine.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

I have never used an app to freeze.other apps. If there is an app I don't want, like bloatware or stuff like Facebook, twitter, HTC mail etc., I just use root explorer. Navigate to system/apps and then rename the apk's extension to apkbak. Makes the system not recognize it as an app and therefore never runs, and if I need it again, just remove the bak and its good to go. Has worked for me on every Rom I have had since the OG droid
Sent from my 1 billion Ghz Quad Core Commodore 64

List of Apps that Push Ads to Notification Bar

Hey guys, I recently downloaded or updated an app that has started pushing ads to my notification bar. This is abso-****ing-lutely unacceptable. I was wondering if anyone knows of any apps that are confirmed guilty of this? I can't figure out which app is guilty, and i uninstalled over 100MB of apps trying to find the culprit, but there it was again in my notification bar after work today. Also, is there a way to figure out which app is doing it? I have a very very nasty email waiting for the dev who thought this was a good idea once I figure out who it was.
Any confirmed apps I'll list below and try to keep up to date from here out if there's community interest.
Damn you Swype!

I have an app called Addons Detector on my phone that can search for apps with Push Notifications; haven't had a need to install it on my KF, but you might give it a shot. It's free on the Android Market, but I don't see it in the Amazon App Store.

Worked perfectly, thanks. Turns out it was the updated version of Extdate Widget. Reverted back to the previous version and no more ads.
Sent from my rough sketch of a Vibrant on a brick.

There's an app called AirPush Detector that work great.

I tried using
AdFree
Addons Detector
AirPush Detector
Airblocker
Every time I would restart my phone, I would get the add in the notification bar (try tanks vs. wizards).
The first 3 didnt do anything, neither of them found and push notificiations.
But Airblocker found and blocked the add....but it also says that it is not a push notification app.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? I want to delete the app, but have no idea which one is doing it....
It is blocked now, but I want to delete the app!

Just go to this site and you can manually opt out of all airpush ads. I did this a while ago and forgot all about it.
http://www.airpush.com/imei/

Thanks, but where can I find the information that the website asks for?
Sent from my SHW-M110S using XDA App

[Q] irritating star notfications

since updating my adobe apps I've started gettting irritating junk notifications, not email or text, in the form of a star on the notifications bar.
i have checked running apps etc... but cannot see how to stop these pests.
anyone know how i turn it off?
thanks
david

Hi yes, try ad blocker, or ad away, both apps are designed to stop those ads. I use ad away, it works good. Or you can find out which app is the cause and delete it. But if you don't know , use the ad blocking app. It's easy to use and works well. Hope this is helpful. Best wishes
Sent from my HTC Sensation using xda premium

It sounds like you're describing airpush ads coming from some free app or game. Get Airpush Detector or another similar app off the Play store to find the culprit and uninstall it.

thanks guys.
traced it to 'flash open view' or something like that.
had reinstalled my apps and must have put this on by mistake instad of flash 11
now sorted

[Q] Disable app suggestions

Every day I get a notification with a red star icon of a app suggestion. I don't find these suggestions verry interesting so I want to disable them. Who can help me with this or can point me in the right direction?
Gr. Frans

Yeah, l'd like to know how to get rid of this also!
Sent from my GT-N8013 using XDA Premium HD app

One of the apps that you installed is causing what is called push notifications. If you uninstall the app it will go away.
I use app brain ad detector to weed out those apps that use that permission.

I don't think it comes from a app I installed my self. I think it comes from one of the pre installed apps from Samsung. But how to find the one causing these notifications.
Gr. Frans
Edit: installed app brain add detector and found the app response. It was indeed a app I installed my self :-|

No . Its Most Likely not from an app but from some kind of android adware ,.. I had something Similar on my phone, but mine Was green and said that i had won something ,.got ridd of it by wiping my device .. really annoying : /
Sent from my GT-N8000 using XDA Premium HD app

Those are all push notifications. I have never heard of any device with notification ads from pre-installed apps. Did you check the permission of all the apps that you installed. It would have stated it in the permissions.