In September 2017 a security hole concerning Bluetooth was discovered in Android and published under the name “BlueBorne”. Unfortunately Sony decided not to provide any updates for the Xperia Z3 Compact anymore, as the device was already too old after nearly 3 years on the market (also see my other post about this).
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Topic: Android
Illegal copy of Periodical
Recently someone informed me via Github about a copy of Periodical on Google Play, which was published as “Period Tracker” – however without the modified source code and without mentioning the original source, which is a clear violation of the GPL.
Periodical 1.0
After a longer break I finally extended “Periodical” by the functions which already have been planned for a while:
- single days can be added to a period or removed from a period individually.
- days of the period can be marked with an invididual intensity.
- the calendar shows the current day of the cycle.
- you can add notes and symptoms to every day in the calendar.
The new version is available as download or at Google Play. F-Droid will follow soon.
“BlueBorne” and missing patches
Some time ago, a severe security problem was discovered in Bluetooth devices, which had been given the name “Blueborne” by their discoverers. Operating systems like Linux and Windows already got security updates. Android is theoretically also fixed already – however, only by Google and the devices sold under their name. For devices from other manufacturers the situation is worse if the device has been on the market for more than 2 years.
Disable IRL podcast in Firefox for Android
Recently I experienced this again: after opening Firefox on my Android smartphone there was a notice about a new contribution in the “IRL podcast”.
Even though this is not a commercial ad but an offcial podcast by Mozilla (also see https://irlpodcast.org) it is still irritating when such notices appear.
Periodical 0.32
Periodical now also supports Japanese (thanks to Naofumi Fukue for the translation).
Firefox for Android stutter-free
Addition: the change described here no longer applies to current versions of Firefox. The described option does not exist anymore. Also see this post at reddit (thanks to Tiberius for the hint).
For a while I’ve been using Firefox as browser in Android – also because you can use AddOns like uBlock Origin there.
Periodical 0.30
Today Periodical 0.30 was published. Changes included:
- You can change the length of the luteal phase if it does not match the standard value of 14 days.
- In Android 6 or later the required permission for data backup is requested if needed.
- The wrong sort order in the list view with the calendar entries was fixed.
Periodical 0.24
Today Periodical 0.24 was released. When you have look at the issue list in Github, you notice that there is some activity on this project and some new features will hopefully be implemented soon (e.g. adding notes, integration in regular calendars, reminder for birth control pill etc.).
Putative defective MicroUSB port
For a while now I noticed that MicroUSB plugs started to become very loose in my Android smartphone – even the slightest movement of the phone caused the plugs to slip out of the socket very easy.
