It's not just inconvenient because you have to poll: it's inefficient
and forces the everlasting service pattern on an app, which means that
you not only have to poll, you also have to write your app in a way
that is inconsistent with good programming practices.
kris
On Sun, Aug 26, 2012 at 5:10 PM, Tom <karbonkilla@gmail.com> wrote:
> For what it's worth, there were a few interesting APIs that could accomplish
> this effect much better.
>
> IActivityWatcher (no longer exists in Jelly Bean), available 1.5 - 4.0 and
> never required a permission
> IProcessObserver (now guarded by the SET_ACTIVITY_WATCHER permission in
> Jelly Bean), available 3.0 - 4.0 and never required a permission
> IActivityController (always required SET_ACTIVITY_WATCHER permission which
> is only available to system apps)
>
> The last is perfect because you can return a boolean and the OS will allow/
> deny an app from opening. Unlike "App Lockers" which simply kill the app
> AFTER they open, this stops it before then.
>
> Unfortunately, as of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean NONE of these are available for
> use with third-party applications (unless of course on rooted devices and
> installed in /system/app). The removal of these was more upsetting to me
> because at the end of the day they provide NO security benefit. If I REALLY
> want to know when the top app changes I will just poll every 100ms. These
> simply made it more efficient for me, no need to poll!
>
> I'm curious why those APIs are now enforced with a permission? I suppose
> there is the argument of "no good use," but honestly is there a "bad use?"
> If the platform doesn't provide these features in the same version it was
> removed, users lose out.
>
> Oh well, what's done is done I'm just curious for some rationale. I guess
> Android is showing signs of maturation and going the way of iOS: becoming
> less hacker-friendly and a beautiful but closed garden. It was only a matter
> of time.
>
> Tom
>
> On Thursday, July 26, 2012 3:41:56 PM UTC-4, Bryan Ashby wrote:
>>
>> Now that READ_LOGS permission is not available to applications in Jelly
>> Bean (API 16), what are developers of "Application Locker" type apps to do?
>> These are populate applications among parents who would like to prevent
>> their kids from accessing various apps (generally password protected) but
>> the implementation of such applications has required a "hack" of reading
>> logcat to determine when/what Activity has been launched or brought into
>> focus.
>>
>> Surely Google is not saying "You cannot have these apps"? Is an official
>> API (perhaps in the Device Admin realm) planned? Is there a work around
>> besides polling the top level activity (not really reasonable).
>>
>> Google please advise!
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Android Developers" group.
> To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> android-developers+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Android Developers" group.
To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
android-developers+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
No comments:
Post a Comment