Hello,
First off I apologize if this was posted somewhere, I searched but did not find. Anyway, I have an old Motorola Droid that I no longer use, I was wondering if there were a way to load a mod that would allow me to use my old phone strictly as a secondary display for my desktop. I know there are a few apps out that allow desktop extension like idisplay for instance, but I am just looking to turn my old droid into a usb monitor. Is there a bootloader that will do this, or can one be developed?
Not possible
I don't think there is something out there
It must be develovped
And why do you want to use a phone as a monitor?
Is there an application that can password protect certain apps that I choose?
And please do not say Kids Corner as it does not do what I am asking.
It's probably possible (though far from easy), but I'd actually be more inclined to help if you hadn't opened a duplicate thread about this.
Only made second thread about this to attract some attention, 7 months passed since that guy opened his thread and nobody could give a good answer.
To me it's weird that nobody tried to make an app like this still, it would be very popular and help users very much.
Anyways, thank you for replying.
Really, just bumping the other thread was enough, but since we're here anyhow... my idea for how to approach it (and this would take a *lot* of hacking) goes something like this:
1. Create an app (call it X) that has the capability to launch other apps, and filesystem write access.
2. Have X take another app (call it Y) and encrypt its binaries. This prevents anybody from launching it by any means.
3. Tweak the app database to make it so that when you try to launch Y, it instead launches X and passes the id of Y as a parameter to the launcher.
4. X prompts the user for a password to Y. On getting the right one, it decrypts Y's binaries and writes them back to the correct location, then launches Y.
5. When the user (or OS) closes Y, a background process of X notes that Y is closed and re-encrypts it.
Currently we know how to do... well, some of #1, and we think the rest is possible. Given that, #2 isn't too hard. #3 is something I don't have the least notion how to do *right now* but I'm sure it's possible. #4 shouldn't be too hard given #1 and #2. #5 will be a trick - currently, apps have no way to know what other apps are running - but I'm sure it can be done.
It's a large engineering problem blocked by an even bigger research and hacking problem, though. Nothing we'll have soon. You'd never be able to publish it in the store, either, and it would only work for people with hacked phones. It's exactly the kind of *useful* thing that would be possible if Microsoft were willing to let up the restrictions on third-party developers a bit, of course, But for the time being, there are *reasons* nobody has done it yet.
Well the word that I actually was thinking after reading your post was "crap".
It seems only with time (and a whole [email protected]#$ing lot of it) will wp become a true competitor to android, but to be honest I don't think it will come to that.
Thanks for replying GoodDayToDie, I'm freakin' sad that there is no app that can suit my needs, I even tried with kids corner but the screen still needs the password entered like the normal one. Nothing really can make up for what I have in mind.
Cheers mate.
as soon as we can interop unlock all WP devices, it will be pretty easy... if you're able to provide the XAP (uncrypted of course )
i'll be able to "mod" this in for you... which app are we talking about?
@GoodDayToDie: i do'nt think he is looking for real data security here, so encrypting the whole thing shouldnt be required... i think it's more about preventing his gf to read his private messages or something like that
oh btw.: you would need a dev-unlock to deploy the modified XAP then...
tfBullet said:
as soon as we can interop unlock all WP devices, it will be pretty easy... if you're able to provide the XAP (uncrypted of course )
i'll be able to "mod" this in for you... which app are we talking about?
@GoodDayToDie: i do'nt think he is looking for real data security here, so encrypting the whole thing shouldnt be required... i think it's more about preventing his gf to read his private messages or something like that
oh btw.: you would need a dev-unlock to deploy the modified XAP then...
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You're right tfBullet! I need it for whatsapp, photos, message and games app, mostly to prevent from friends but gf too.
I was thinking it might be possible to mod an app and add password before it can be accessed, although I have no experience in this domain. Many apps in store have this function, like wallet or prive photo apps.
My phone is dev-unlocked as I started a few days ago to study and try to create a simple app for me and my friends.
Modding an app like that would actually be quite hard, because it would break the signature and prevent the app from running. The encryption thing really isn't too hard, although you could skip it anyhow too.
If there was a way to run a program in the background that monitors when certain apps are selected and then prompts when its activated would work, but it would need an unlocked phone. And even under home brew I don't know if its possible to run apps in the background. Yet.
Sent from my Nokia 521 using XDA Windows Phone 8 App
The encryption thing really isn't too hard
Yea, but that's a little extreme. If you can create that password program that runs in the background you could probably have it watch files, apps or pretty much anything. You'd have to password protect the cofig file. And maybe if you can't remember the password after so many attempts you can have the program email the passwords to your email. Just some ideas.
Sent from my Nokia 521 using XDA Windows Phone 8 App
Running software in the background is actually shockingly easy. The trick is getting it to run with better-than-app-sandbox privileges. We're still working on that one. In the meantime, apps can't even read, much less write, to the install location of other apps.
GoodDayToDie said:
Modding an app like that would actually be quite hard, because it would break the signature and prevent the app from running.
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@GoodDayToDie: actually these .NET apps are pretty easy to decompile, if you're willing to fix the bugs that the decompiler leaves you with...
so there is not really a need for a valid signature, if you're able to compile & sideload the app yourself
the only thing is: you need the decrypted XAP, as far as i know these get decrypted while installation and can be pulled from a interop unlocked device?!
It would be nice to get my fingers on some OEM (Nokia etc..) XAPs, to see if we can find any exploit in them
I know better than probably 95% of this forum what it takes to decompile managed code; I have reverse engineered huge numbers of apps. However, you are missing several important points.
1) Modifications like you suggest are very complicated to automate. It's certainly possible, but it's not simple.
2) Re-installing the app would be a pain. You would really want to do this as an in-place modification, and that means (for store apps) that it would still be signature-checked.
3) Not all apps are managed code; WP8 supports purely native code.
4) Even with managed code, obfuscation can make tinkering with the binary nigh-impossible.
It's just so incredibly stupid that WP is so limited. I know it's under Android big time, but I think even iOS more customizable, right?
Also, is there a message app in the store that has pass option? I searched but found nothing...
I don't believe iOS is any more customizable, no. It has some feature that WP lacks (it ought to; it's been out for years longer and Apple completely controls the hardware it runs on) but it's also missing some features that WP8 offers. In any case, this isn't the thread to have that discussion in.
GoodDayToDie said:
I don't believe iOS is any more customizable, no. It has some feature that WP lacks (it ought to; it's been out for years longer and Apple completely controls the hardware it runs on) but it's also missing some features that WP8 offers. In any case, this isn't the thread to have that discussion in.
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But with the jailbreak and MobileSubstrate, iOS is extremely customizable, and there are tons of tweaks, that's where Apple gets its new features from
Back to topic, I think the OP would be happy with a solution that locks the "normal" user of his phone out of some apps, so it wouldn't be necessary to modify anything of it, just making the standard launcher (I don't know how it's called, but I mean when you launch the app via home screen or with a toast) ask for a password should be enough.
Greetings to all wp8 users!
I'm interested to buy a windows phone mostly because of the clean metro UI. And also because of the unified color schema of the UI. However I would like to know if any trick would be applicable to invert as well the texting fields and the email app and some left white backgrounds. In some, something like what it appears in the attached images. Thank you in advance for your suggestions!
other screens...
You could try checking the Ease of Access options in Settings, especially the High Contrast mode, maybe? Probably won't do exactly what you want, though.
It was possible on hacked WP7 devices to change the theme in such a way that you could get something like what you're looking for. I'm not certain if that's still possible even on interop-unlocked WP8, though.
GoodDayToDie said:
You could try checking the Ease of Access options in Settings, especially the High Contrast mode, maybe? Probably won't do exactly what you want, though.
It was possible on hacked WP7 devices to change the theme in such a way that you could get something like what you're looking for. I'm not certain if that's still possible even on interop-unlocked WP8, though.
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Thanks for your answer! Unfortunately I don't have a windows phone...so can't try it now to know if this is possible or not. I even tried to look after Ease access videos in youtube but they never go in deep to see changes like writing emails..messaging...etc.
GoodDayToDie said:
You could try checking the Ease of Access options in Settings, especially the High Contrast mode, maybe? Probably won't do exactly what you want, though.
It was possible on hacked WP7 devices to change the theme in such a way that you could get something like what you're looking for. I'm not certain if that's still possible even on interop-unlocked WP8, though.
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I would get a WP8 only if I could do that trick...this is why I'm waiting for an answer here....the only reason for me to switch from android, the black UI of WP8.
Reposting from where I previously put this, on the suggestion that folks here might have more idea what I am talking about.
Yes, this is a question but I couldn't see that it fit in better to one of the other forums. If I am wrong please accept my apologies and redirect me, thanks.
I'm trying to work with a custom build of Android based on KitKat to incorporate a stylus, copying some of the functionality (though not code) from Samsung which sells Android-with-stylus builds for e.g. the Note 3. I'm not including details of the specific device because right now I am working on a custom dev device and my aim is to write code which is generic enough to be usable from any Android (based on KitKat). The build (written by others) already incorporates drivers and sends stylus events correctly as motion events etc. Programming at the app level I can receive onHover, onTouch, onClick etc
The specific functionality I am trying to achieve is to pick up a stylus-button-click while hovering. It's perfectly possible to do this in any app, using an onGenericMotion Listener.
However, I want to make my "stylus-action" have system-wide effect - so that anywhere (in any other app, or in the launcher or whatever) I will pick up the event (prior to any other app) and bring up my custom menu. (just like AirCommand in Samsung Note 3) I guess in my custom Android this would then make that particular action somewhat protected or unusable for other users, but I'm ok with that.
In older Android (prior to ICS) you could try something by putting up a System Overlay (i.e in regular app code, without hacking the ROM at all), but this is no longer possible.
This is not an attempt to tapjack or whatever, I understand why this functionality has been removed from the domain of the regular programmer, and I don't want to regress my ROM back to pre-ICS behaviour by allowing the System Overlay hack. Now I am programming the system (if my change is good enough I'd like to submit it back to AOSP) so I would like to know the best method to address this. Since Samsung have already done this, it must be legal (using legal in the terms of "Android will allow it"), and I want to do it right.
Is it possible to write something similar to the System Overlay when you are running from a system service? Or is there a good choke-point to capture events before they are broadcast to the current running apps?
I was looking at (sorry, not allowed to post links) AndroidXRef /frameworks/base/core/java/android/view/View.java specifically in the function dispatchHoverEvent() which looks like a promising place. My naive idea is that I would place code here checking the MotionEvent to see if the button is pressed and if it is, don't call any listeners and instead call my little menu app (or broadcast a custom message, or something anyway). However, I've never written code on the ROM level before (LOTS of experience writing app code) so I don't know if this is a really bad point or a good point to add in code. Should I be putting things at a higher level or a lower one? Will this capture all events or not? Is it all just trial and error?
If this is the wrong place to ask questions like this, please tell me where on XDA I should be asking it. If it's the right place - please answer
Thanks
Kibi
I'd like to hook the query() method in ContentProvider in order to get to know which applications are accessing the personal information(e.g: contacts, sms) stored in the device. By reading the tutorial, we know that we can hook methods in app packages. However, what can we do when the methods we want to hook are in those system components? Any suggestion is appreciated.
x11911778 said:
I'd like to hook the query() method in ContentProvider in order to get to know which applications are accessing the personal information(e.g: contacts, sms) stored in the device. By reading the tutorial, we know that we can hook methods in app packages. However, what can we do when the methods we want to hook are in those system components? Any suggestion is appreciated.
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Well first off, you can't hook ContentProvider.query() because it's an abstract method (at least one of the two variants). So you would have to hook the subclasses that provide an implementation for this method.
You would also need to clarify what you mean with "system components". I think some of these providers are implemented in system apps, so you would hook them like any other app. Others might be part of the system process (system_server), which also hosts all the system services like package manager etc. Simply use the special package name "android" for these, otherwise handle it like a normal app. And then there might be cases where you want to hook a Android framework method on the whole system. You would do that in initZygote().
In all cases, you would first have do identify a good place to hook into, then find out when to place the hook (as described above) and then use findAndHookMethod().
rovo89 said:
Well first off, you can't hook ContentProvider.query() because it's an abstract method (at least one of the two variants). So you would have to hook the subclasses that provide an implementation for this method.
You would also need to clarify what you mean with "system components". I think some of these providers are implemented in system apps, so you would hook them like any other app. Others might be part of the system process (system_server), which also hosts all the system services like package manager etc. Simply use the special package name "android" for these, otherwise handle it like a normal app. And then there might be cases where you want to hook a Android framework method on the whole system. You would do that in initZygote().
In all cases, you would first have do identify a good place to hook into, then find out when to place the hook (as described above) and then use findAndHookMethod().
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Thanks a lot, that really helps~
Problem
would you mind give me a example (like a code) about how to hook the query() method? I really confused about that. Thanks a lot!!!!