Your right to privacy. You have a choice.

Updated: 12/12/2012

This is a followup to a previous post I made a few months ago, talking about the need to check out the permissions of each app you download, and why it is so important.  In the previous post I gave a link to an article about the significant increase in Android malware.  The recent increase in the number of anti-virus programs available today for Android users would seem to confirm the information found in that article.

When I first got my Android phone, I downloaded every free app in the world, never bothering to check out these things called "permissions" that each app wanted.  Today I am much more careful after having both my computer and my Android phone hacked into.

U.S. Releases Identity Theft Statistics
The US Federal Trade Commission received 250,854 complaints about identity theft during 2010 - nearly one-fifth of the entire number of complaints received by the agency. For the eleventh year in succession, it was the subject most consumers complained about.

Everything can be a learning experience, and I learned some valuable things since having to change all my passwords.  For one thing, I found out how many sites are linked with Facebook, YouTube, Google and Yahoo.  I have unlinked everything since.  I ordered all new credit card numbers as a precaution and I was depressed to find out how many new small print privacy statements every bank and credit card company sent me to read.  Basically everyone wants to share my information with everyone else and I'm getting pretty tired of having my information shared without my knowledge.  I'm personally choosing to "opt-out" whenever I can. But there are other much simpler steps you can take.

Don't choose to auto-update your apps.  Many apps add new permissions with their updates, and wouldn't you like to know if the update of the game you play a lot suddenly wants to know all your contacts on your phone?  Or worse still, wanted the permission to dial numbers from your phone?

Before you download that next new app, check out those permissions!  Does that app really need to access the Internet?  If they say their app only collects anonymous statistics, can you trust them?  Are you willing to give out all your contact numbers to someone you don't know just to get a fancy looking graph?

I was surprised to find out some of the permissions the latest Facebook app for Android wanted, and I have decided not to use it on my phone as a result.  Now I just check Facebook from my home computer where I can control it a bit more.

UPDATE - 2/25/2012:
Malware Slides Past The Bouncer, Uses Facebook As The Side Door

Some battery apps want lots of permissions.  At the very least, most of the free battery apps all seem to want to access the Internet, show you ads, or know who you are.  You have a choice.  You can decide to support those apps that respect your privacy rights.  If you are concerned at all about identity theft, before you download another app, do yourself a favor, and just take a minute or two to check out those permissions.

Battery Notifier BT Free and Battery Notifier Pro BT require these two permissions:
Hardware controls
control vibrator
System tools
automatically start at boot

That's it.  No annoying ads.  We don't read your contacts.  We don't read your bookmarks.  We don't read any other accounts you have on your device.  We don't access any other information and we don't share your information, anonymous or otherwise, with anyone.  We don't need access to the Internet.  We don't need to know who you are, or where you live, and we don't care.

After comparing us to the competition, we hope you will then decide to download either our free app Battery Notifier BT Free,  or purchase Battery Notifier Pro BT.

Because we really do care about your privacy.

UPDATE 3/31/14 :
Both of our apps now require three permissions.
To find out why, see: New permission added

Check out those permissions!

Both Battery Notifier Pro BT and Battery Notifier BT Free ask for and contain only two permissions. One is to start itself when your phone boots, and the other to be able to controls the vibration on your phone for the alarms.

UPDATE 3/31/14 :
Both of our apps now require three permissions.
To find out why, see: New permission added

A recent article I came across got my attention. It seems the bad guys have discovered the Android market and the number of people who now have Android on their phones. Significant Increase in Android Malware

This is not meant to tell you to download and install some sort of anti-virus on your phone or tablet if you have not done so yet. Although, it wouldn't be a bad idea.

But be sure to check out those permissions! Having annoying ads is one thing. You might even be willing to let the creator of the app know who you are and to have your mobile phone number in exchange for the app being free. But when an app asks to be able to see all the contacts on my phone, and asks for permission to be able to dial from my phone when the app is a game? I don't think so. But just because a battery app or any other app is FREE, it seems some people are willing to give developers access to almost anything on their phones.

Now I know I'm going to get in trouble with all the people who love Talking Tom Cat, but the latest release of Talking Tom Cat 2 (both the free and 99 cent versions) has this permission (not in the first version) which I guess no one seems to mind. "discover known accounts, use the authentication credentials of an account". Excuse me? Use the authentication credentials of accounts found on my phone? Maybe the app just wants to "Record videos of Tom and share them on YouTube, Facebook or send them by email or MMS", and knowing your Facebook or YouTube password is just to make life easier for you when you want to send videos of Tom. But maybe not. And the first Talking Tom Cat app certainly was successful without this permission. Why does the second one need it?

Is it wise to let ANY app use the authentication credentials of any account it just happens to discover on your phone?

Check out those permissions! And don't give away your privacy rights just so you can share with your friends a video where an animated cat farts.

UPDATE - 12/30/2011:
It seems since I last checked the developers of "Talking Tom Cat 2" have removed the permission to "discover known accounts, use the authentication credentials of an account". However, they would like you to read this agreement to see if you agree with it before installing their app. Have fun reading!
END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR ANDROID

UPDATE - 2/25/2012:
Malware Slides Past The Bouncer, Uses Facebook As The Side Door

Our Best New Feature

Almost all of the additions to Battery Notifier Pro BT come from our users.  This one came from a user who previously had a problem with installing an earlier version of Battery Notifier Pro BT  We were able to get things corrected for him, but this time one of his suggestions just made sense to me, and it was short and to the point.

"permit user to specify a percentage less than 100 as a full charge notification target".

I believe he said Frank wasn't his real name, but thank you Frank.  After reading all about batteries in Android devices in the links you can find elsewhere in this blog, I assumed he might have been having a problem with the battery in his phone not reaching 100% for some reason, (age of the battery or wear on his phone) and therefore the full battery notification would never go off.  For some reason on my Samsung Intercept, 6 months after I bought it, the percentage 99% never gets shown anymore even after I replaced the battery with a new one, so I can understand how other phones might have a similar quirk to them.

I also know that as the battery getting charged approaches 100% capacity, that the charge going to the battery intentionally gets lower and more gradual so the battery doesn't get overcharged in order to increase the life of the battery.   It's also best not to drain the battery all the way from 100% to zero repeatedly, as you can read about at other links you can find here at our blog.

So why else then would you want to only charge your battery to say, 70%?  Time.  I last charged my phone from zero to 70% in just 2 hours and 2 minutes.  Are you getting the picture?  (Of course everyone's "mileage will vary". as they say.)  And it doesn't hurt at all to repeatedly just do short charges to your battery.  Now you just have to remember to take your charger with you.

Now I'm sure there are many who don't abuse their phones like me and they just always put their phones or devices on the charger overnight and they may never use this new feature.  But if my battery is showing just 40% or less at some time in the morning either from overuse or because I forgot to charge it the night before, just knowing that in a pinch I can use Battery Notifier Pro BT to let me know when it gets to 70% capacity in about an hour, again making my phone usable for the rest of the day, well, I just think that's a really neat feature to have.  And I can honestly say I have been using it a lot since I first got it weeks ago.  And now I'm happy that all of you can have it as well.

FAQ - Answers to some recent comments left

Update: 8/8/2013
For the latest FAQ, go to our new webpage at: BNProBT: Frequently Asked Questions.

Original post: 5/11/2011
The following are comments left about Battery Notifier Pro BT and Battery Notifier BT Free.  We prefer that users e-mail us, but a few of these we thought we'd answer here.

Superb battery app. The only improvement I would like is a way to remove the stock android battery icon now, as it is redundant.
Unfortunately, there is no way to remove or modify the stock battery icon, or any of the other icons that appears on the right hand side of the status bar.

Miss my iPhone that's for sure this is the closest thing I could find that does what my iPhone did
Then why did you give us only two stars? :-(

Great app. Make it moveable to SD and I'll buy it. Uninstalled.
Well at least you gave us four stars. Some applications are just not suited for installation on external storage (SD). This often applies when services, alarms and when auto start at boot is involved. Battery Notifier Pro BT includes all of the above, and in order for the battery readings to be accurate, and for the alarms to work properly, Battery Notifier Pro BT can not run from the SD card.

Awesome app! Would love option to let orange run all the time. Would also love option to let red run all the time.
Unfortunately there are always compromises that have to be made and this is one we had to make in order to keep the size of Battery Notifier Pro BT down. You have to admit though that you have an awful lot of icon add-ons to choose from.

Update: 7/17/2013
We now have neon HD add-ons that include orange or red from 100 to zero.  Enjoy!

My phone said it was fully charged, unplug charger and this app said I had 69% battery left! WTF?? Uninstalled!
While our apps are as accurate in displaying battery level as they can be for Android phones, there are limitations involved. Please see our updated blog post on Battery Drain / Battery Inconsistencies for answers as to why you might be getting a reading of less than 100% when your device comes off the charger.

Free BN is sh*t, but this PRO version is f***ing awesome. App from series "must have".
Thank you. We think... :-)

Customizing the Status Bar Text Colors

How exactly do I customize the status bar text colors?  I see green but there's no option for green.

CUSTOMIZING STATUS BAR TEXT COLORS:
Even though it is not a menu option, green text is the default color and it will display all the way from one hundred to zero if the other three colors are turned off by putting their level at 0 percent. Blue text can also be displayed from one hundred to zero if 100 percent is selected for the blue text, and orange and red are turned off by putting their level at 0 percent. Orange and red text can be selected to display beginning at 50 percent.

Here are the four colors and the levels at which they can be displayed:
Green: (Default) 100-0
Blue: 100-0
Orange: 50-0
Red: 50-0

NOTE: If colors compete for the same levels, the colors take precedence in this order:
1) Red
2) Orange
3) Blue
4) Green

In other words, red will override everything, orange overrides blue and green, and blue overrides green.

Experiment and you will see you have a variety of color options at various levels:

FOUR COLORS:
Green,blue,orange,red

THREE COLORS:
Green,blue,orange
Green,blue,red
Green,orange,red
Blue,orange,red

TWO COLORS:
Green,blue
Green,orange
Green,red
Blue,orange
Blue,red

ONE COLOR:
Green
Blue



Why do orange and red only start at 50 percent?

Because it was thought the vast majority of users would not use red or orange above 50 percent, it was a compromise made to keep the size of the app down.


Why not yellow or white for colors?

Yellow and white were both tested but ultimately rejected because they were hard to read for users with white or gray status bars. However, ad-ons are now available for download so that you can have just about anything you want in the status bar! (OK, well maybe not yellow.)

Battery Drain / Battery Inaccuracies

Updated: 8/4/2013
Some comments I read said this app drains your battery. Is this true?
Nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, thanks to Norton Mobile Security, we now have have third-party independent verification that both Battery Notifier BT Free and Battery Notifier Pro BT have the lowest drain on your battery of any Android battery app for your Android phone or tablet!  See Least Battery Drain Verified! for details.

For various other tips on how to prolong your battery see Battery Saving Tips.

IMPORTANT: Please read carefully if you think the reading you are getting is inaccurate.
Many phones will “lose” up to 10% of their charge within a few minutes of coming off the charger. This is because voltage above 4.0 and battery percentage above about 90 dissipate quickly due to lithium battery protection circuitry built into Android phones by the manufacturer.  Also, short discharges and recharges repeatedly done over a period of time do not provide the periodic calibration needed to synchronize the fuel gauge with the battery's state of charge.  This can eventually lead to the battery's fuel gauge becoming less and less accurate over time.

Your Battery Gauge Is Lying To You: Everything You Need To Know About Bump Charging And Inconsistent Battery Drain

What can be done to make the reading more accurate?
1) About every 30 charges, doing a full discharge from 100 percent all the way until your phone turns off can help.  Also, when doing one of these recharges to 100% to recalibrate your battery, it's best if your phone is off.
2) You can try bump-charging as is suggested at the "Your Battery Gauge Is Lying To You" link above.  However, while your readings may be more accurate, this may shorten the life of your battery a bit.
3) If your phone is rooted, (which will void your warranty and leave you more vulnerable to hackers) you can also delete the BatteryStats.bin file with the help of an app like Battery Calibration.

Also, although most users like to keep their batteries charged at 100% most of the time, this is not what is best for battery life.
See Table 3 here: How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries
The recommended level to keep the battery at is actually 40%. At a temperature of 25 degrees celsius a battery left this way will lose about 4% of its capacity in a year, whereas a battery kept at 100% all the time can lose 20% of its capacity in a year.

The sad reality is that just a few short months after first using your new battery, your battery is just not going to be giving you the same reading as when it was new.  The older it gets, the less accurate its readings will get.  Batteries don't last forever.

Good app, sometimes it says full charge but it stays on the 90 % mark, plz fix,moto blur
There are many Motorola phones only report their charge at 10% intervals.  If your phone drops to 90% from 100% after only being off the charger for a short amount of time, that is the reason why. Reporting in only 10% intervals stinks to be sure, but there's nothing we can do about it.  That's just how Motorola designed their phones.  If you own one of these phones, let Motorola know how you feel and hopefully future models won't only report in only 10% increments.

UPDATE 8/9/2011: Starting with version 1.4.7, our new "1% fix" for Motorola devices is now in Battery Notifier Pro BT.  It has been tested successfully on the Motorola Droid X2 and Atrix, but it should work on many other Motorola phones as well.   It unfortunately does not work on the original Droid (sholes).  We suggest use of a standard Motorola battery only to ensure the optimum accuracy of the percentage displayed.

Quiet Hours vs. Mute Alerts

What is the difference between Quiet Hours and Mute Alerts?

Quiet Hours is for when you want to use the low battery and full battery alarms, but you already know there is a range of hours during the day or night when you don't want the alarms going off.  For example, when you are normally sleeping, or when you will be at work or in the classroom.

Mute alerts are for those times that aren't planned, but that you still don't want your alarms going off while you are busy doing something else.  Examples could be church, at a funeral, during dinner, or just a simple case of telling your alarm to wait until the movie or television show you are watching is over.  The default is to mute the alarm for one hour, but you have enormous flexibility as you can mute the alarms for 12 hours, one hour or even 15 minutes at a time.  The display then tells you exactly until what time the alarms will be muted.

Turning off the sound notification

Help!  How do I turn off the low battery and full battery sound notifications once they've started playing?   I have a custom song for my notification and it won't stop playing!

Try the following:

1) If charging your device, to stop the notification, unplug your charger.
2) Set up a shortcut on your home screen to Battery Notifier Pro BT and restart the application.
3) Swipe down from the top of the screen to make the drop down notification bar appear, then select the notification for Battery Notifier Pro BT.
4) Turn down the volume on your phone.

If your device is locked at the time the notification sound goes off, then use either 1) or 4).   Otherwise you will have to unlock it first and then use 2) or 3).

NOTE: If you get a popup similar to these:




Please know that these popups are NOT part of Battery Notifier Pro BT and are built-in "features" by the manufacturer of your device. You will have to click OK to get past these popups, or consult your device's instruction manual to see if there is a way to remove them.

UPDATE #1:  It has also come to our attention that some Samsung devices (such as the Samsung Galaxy S) have a sound notification and/or vibration that goes off every time when the battery is fully charged.  So even though you might have our app set to NOT notify you when the battery is fully charged, you may still hear this sound or notice the vibration on some Samsung devices.  We are sure when this happens in the middle of the night when you just want to charge your phone overnight it is not very pleasant, and we have no idea why Samsung would do such a thing and not give users a way to turn it off.

UPDATE #2: 10/21/11
We recently became aware of a free app that may help people who have the Samsung Galaxy S2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and who still might be looking for a solution for the problem mentioned above.  The app is called Battery Charged Silencer and you can find it at the Android Market.  The developer states that "Vibrator off feature may not work for other devices than Samsung Galaxy S2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.  Please be aware that we do not support this app, nor do we know the developer, and we are just offering the link to try and help people with the Samsung Galaxy S2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 who still are annoyed by the full charge notification and who haven't yet found a solution.  Any support you feel you need resulting from the installation or use of this app you would need to contact the developer at his website at Simple Apps.

Battery Statistics

I can't find the options for the Battery Information.  Where are they?

The battery statistics submenu can be found by pressing the Action Bar (the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the dashboard) when you first open up the app.