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 <karbonki...@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+unsubscr...@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+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
