I work in an IT department, and have the task to figure out how we control the 30 or so HTC legend and Desire's which will be handed out to our employees.
I would like to keep the phones as safe a passible, with centralized management so we can push apps to all phones, locate them, remote wipe and so on.
Problem 1: Does every employee need their own Google account? or can we use the same account on all phones?
it would take a long time creating them and keeping track of all the accounts.
Problem 2: how do we restrict them from installing apps themselves?
haven't found anything on this yet..
Problem 3: Is there any management software out there for android?
so far I am thinking about using Lookout for antivirus and locating lost phones, it does not support remote wipe for android,(it does for win mo). And using appbrain to push apps to all phones. will this work? or are there better solutions out there?
Why don't you guys go with BlackBerry instead? RIM has targetted their OS way more to these kind of business situations.
Anyway, if you have 1 google account for everyone. Everyone will have the same contacts, same calendar and same gmail e-mails.
The company is placed in Denmark, BlackBerry are not available to us, plus the phones have already been bought.
The Google accounts won’t be used for anything else than the market place. Mail, calendar is over exchange webmail.
Will the contacts be a problem?
Contacts won't be a problem if there are no contacts stored in it. Just gotta make sure nobody starts adding contacts in it. Or simply disable contact syncing all together, but you gotta do that on every phone.
I don't know about the other questions.
Ok, good. So no other problems with shared google accounts?
I would disagree with sharing one google account. There are many other aspects of the google account which are shared. Have you thought about cooking your own roms? You could remove the android market (and other apps) and make it more difficult to sideload apps.
I'd definitely suggest this route. Remove marketplace all together and sideload all of your necessary apps from apks.
OldCrowEW said:
I would disagree with sharing one google account. There are many other aspects of the google account which are shared. Have you thought about cooking your own roms? You could remove the android market (and other apps) and make it more difficult to sideload apps.
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Check out the enterprise products offered by Good Technologies.
OldCrowEW said:
I would disagree with sharing one google account. There are many other aspects of the google account which are shared. Have you thought about cooking your own roms? You could remove the android market (and other apps) and make it more difficult to sideload apps.
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So it is best to have individual accounts for each and every one of the employees?
Don’t think cooking is an option for us, as it not will be allowed by our operator, with warranty and so on..
I will have a look at Good Technologies, on Monday. Does anyone have any experience with their products?
yes, def no sharing of the accounts. All it would take is one person to mess it up for everyone else. You could get Google Apps account for better management but they cost $$.
OldCrowEW said:
yes, def no sharing of the accounts. All it would take is one person to mess it up for everyone else. You could get Google Apps account for better management but they cost $$.[/QUOTE
Google Apps most definitely. Its the only way for you to control 30 phones ---- if your working for a non-profit, then G-Apps is free. You control Google Apps, then you control the phones by natural subordination.
Any other way is going to weigh a heavy demand on your shoulders, big brother.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Googe Apps
kingzion said:
I work in an IT department, and have the task to figure out how we control the 30 or so HTC legend and Desire's which will be handed out to our employees.
I would like to keep the phones as safe a passible, with centralized management so we can push apps to all phones, locate them, remote wipe and so on.
Problem 1: Does every employee need their own Google account? or can we use the same account on all phones?
it would take a long time creating them and keeping track of all the accounts.
Problem 2: how do we restrict them from installing apps themselves?
haven't found anything on this yet..
Problem 3: Is there any management software out there for android?
so far I am thinking about using Lookout for antivirus and locating lost phones, it does not support remote wipe for android,(it does for win mo). And using appbrain to push apps to all phones. will this work? or are there better solutions out there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its true you need a Google account to set up your phones. However, have you thought about setting up your phones with a Google apps account?
Our company has become very "Google Friendly" as of late. We switched our email server out for a very flexible/scalable Google Apps account.
Instead of giving a gps, phone, and tablet to everyone. We found that all our needs were satisfied with giving everyone a Droid.
I am now in control of upwards 200 phones. All but a few are Android (Droids) all are set up under our Google Apps account. If you talk with your Service provider they should be able to set the phones up for you if you order yours in a bulk order at the same time. And yes everyone will need their own account, you would run into a huge mess if you were only using one account. (email, calender, contacts, and settings would all change with one person adding/subtracting something)
As for managing your users ability to download apps. You could do as suggested and remove the market place after you have installed your needed apps. Or you could limit your users to only downloading free apps. (if you set your phones up using Google Apps they cannot sync a google checkout account to their phone. (Is there a reason you don't want your users to download apps?)
Android 2.2 will give you your other request remote wipe, ease of deployment (exchange account sync), and better security.
If you go with Google you get a great community that will be able to help you out.
Free Apps that may help you out.
instamapper (tracking at its best)
wheresmydroid (turn on gps)
pdanet (internet tether)
barcode scanner
gps (mostly built in)
dropbox (file sharing)
It does take time to set up, but I think you would be very please with the transition.
kingzion said:
I work in an IT department, and have the task to figure out how we control the 30 or so HTC legend and Desire's which will be handed out to our employees.
I would like to keep the phones as safe a passible, with centralized management so we can push apps to all phones, locate them, remote wipe and so on.
Problem 1: Does every employee need their own Google account? or can we use the same account on all phones?
it would take a long time creating them and keeping track of all the accounts.
Problem 2: how do we restrict them from installing apps themselves?
haven't found anything on this yet..
Problem 3: Is there any management software out there for android?
so far I am thinking about using Lookout for antivirus and locating lost phones, it does not support remote wipe for android,(it does for win mo). And using appbrain to push apps to all phones. will this work? or are there better solutions out there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
Have you found any apps that fit your needs? Do you use them? If no, is your organization still interesting in mobile device management service?
I'm asking because I'm working for http://bloove.com (personal phone management service) and we're going to expand our offer to small and medium companies.
This new service will combine existing contact, sms, phone log and bookmark backup for personal phone with MDM features like centralized app management, location and wipe service etc.
We're looking for early adopters who will have a chance to add their custom requirements to the service and get this service for free for up to six months.
Please let me know if you're interested and want to discuss this further.
Thank you,
Rostislav
[email protected]
Hey guys, I wasn't exactly sure where to post this. It seems as if my Google account gas corrupted somehow. I lose the paid section of apps and games, and my market runs very slowly when I'm under one specific account. Now changing accounts has worked, however many app purchase are under my original google account. Any body that can point me in the right direction about this?
Today I wanted to write a Review for a Purchased App that I found to be very nice in the Google Play Store. Unfortunately I realized I am no longer able to do so without changing my Google Account to a Google+ Account.
I tried to stay away from signing up for a Google+ Account for a while now but keep getting closer and closer to having to do so. Does anyone know of a way to Review Apps in the Store without Google+. I was very suprised to see this from Google. Not a very nice change and it will certainly keep some people from writing comments.
By the way I am not writing this to start a debate about the Pros and Cons of Google+ but to find ways to stay away from Google+ for as long as possible for whatever reason there might be. I could not find a debate about Googles Move on XDA so I am wondering if I am the last one without a Google+ Account.
I think if you have Gmail acct you also have Google+ acct. I never "signed up" for Google+ either but if you open the app you'll see your acct already using your Gmail user name. I think the message on the playstore is just a legal notice in case you want to change your user name before posting cause most people don't want their actual legal name posted (like anyone uses their real name for Gmail anyway).
Sent from my M886 using Tapatalk 2
You can avoid G+ for the time being, but Google has plans to bring Android, G+ and Chrome gaming together, so you're pretty much screwed in the near future, sorry.
jbrt said:
I think if you have Gmail acct you also have Google+ acct. I never "signed up" for Google+ either but if you open the app you'll see your acct already using your Gmail user name. I think the message on the playstore is just a legal notice in case you want to change your user name before posting cause most people don't want their actual legal name posted (like anyone uses their real name for Gmail anyway).
Sent from my M886 using Tapatalk 2
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Well it asks me to upgrade my Gmail Account to a Google+ Account all over the place. And I cant use my Account anywhere were Google mandates a Google+ Account. For now I will not accept the changes and life with the limitations.
renome said:
You can avoid G+ for the time being, but Google has plans to bring Android, G+ and Chrome gaming together, so you're pretty much screwed in the near future, sorry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are most likely right and I am just hopping to be able to use my Account a little longer until I can change back to Microsoft. Not sure if that will work out for me since I am a Galaxy Note User and with that I most likely will not change until a same sized device comes out with Windows Phone 8. Which probably is not going to hapen anytime soon. Anyway long story short I guess I cant write Reviews for my purchased Apps anymore which I can life with, I rather accept that then change my Account.
Oh man. Well thanks for letting me know.
I'l been doing my damnest to avoid Google+ for years now. Seems like I'll have to stop review apps too.
I'm thinking about getting the Nexus 5, however, i really dislike social networking and Google's ramming Google+ down our throats (looking at YOU Youtube!). Am i forced to use google+? Can i still use features that should, in a sane world, have nothing to do with social networking without having a + account?
Yes
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
This is my third nexus device, and I've never used G+ in my life...
Knobster said:
I'm thinking about getting the Nexus 5, however, i really dislike social networking and Google's ramming Google+ down our throats (looking at YOU Youtube!). Am i forced to use google+? Can i still use features that should, in a sane world, have nothing to do with social networking without having a + account?
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Click to collapse
ive got a google/apps account for my own domain and have google plus permanently disabled on the apps account so i cant even accidentally enable google plus on my main account on my phone/desktop/etc.
limit of this is i guess as of last week I cant comment on youtube (meh) cant leave feedback or rate an app on the play market ... i guess developers lose out if i had any feedback and the dev's dont have proper contact methods visible but usually theres an email or thread on xda or subreddit for the app.
and google now wont track packages (this is a thing from google apps accounts not lack of google plus) and it wont do any social crap that google plus does.. google now will tho show me time to work/time to home/weather/sports/stocks.. etc..
other than that my google account works fine with out google+
Disabled Google+
I also dislike the social stuff and one of the first things I did was disable Google+ in Manage Apps. Doesn't seem to have affected anything else, including YouTube and Play Store. I also disabled Google Music, Google Books, and a lot of other unnecessary Google stuff.
yup, disable it too, battery hog! i only use google voice and playstore, rest r garbage imo
It is starting to feel creepy.
How does the "People" section in the Play store make suggestions for people to follow?
I had another google account that I closed and it clearly was getting them from my contacts. It creeped me out a bit as I'm ridiculously cautious as to any type of web presence for work. I deleted that account, created a new one and have never put any contacts on my phone nor on the google servers. I use a third party contact app from Verizon that is in the cloud now. I have no Google+ account and don't even use gmail on that account, it is tied to a private email address.
Today I notice it is suggesting people I know from 20 years ago. People I went to high school with that I haven't spoken to in years. Not just one or two, but like ten. What are the odds??? I am assuming it is geographically based but would like to hear more. It's just odd to me. Thankfully it's no longer suggesting business associates, etc. because it no longer has access to that info on my new account.
Also, since I have no Google+ account and don't ever plan on creating one, does this mean that I do not show up to them or would I still show up? (Also, I do keep in contact with one of the 20 people I actually knew, and they use iPhone, not Android. So obviously it wasn't because they linked us from her contacts.)