Darkoshi

I got a new used phone, a Samsung Galaxy s10e, and it's lovely.

I have two old Motorola phones, both the same model but different colors. One was bought new, the other bought used. Both have had issues with their batteries starting to swell over time. I'm unsure if that's an inherent problem with the phone model, or with me leaving them plugged in to their chargers too long, or maybe using the wrong kind of charger.

A few years ago, I had unlocked the bootloader of one of those old phones and rooted it. I did not do so on the other phone.

The phone on which I unlocked the bootloader always shows a warning message whenever you turn it on, alerting you to the fact that the bootloader was unlocked and that Motorola disclaims any liability.

Today I turned off the other phone and checked its battery. It is again slightly swollen as I had suspected.
Upon turning the phone back on, I was surprised to see that unlocked bootloader warning screen - because this is the phone I did NOT do that to. I checked all my notes, and I'm certain I didn't do that to this phone. It was quite a hassle doing it on the other phone, so it's not something I could have accidentally done. If I had purposely done it, there would be notes, but there are no notes.

Both of the phones now show the unlocked bootloader warning upon being turned on.

On the phone whose bootloader I DID unlock, "Settings - Developer Options - OEM Unlocking" shows "Allow the bootloader to be unlocked" and shows the toggle switched Off. When I swipe the toggle on, I get prompted for a PIN, as if I hadn't already unlocked it.

On the phone whose bootloader I did NOT unlock, "Settings - Developer Options - OEM Unlocking" shows "Bootloader is already unlocked", with the toggle switched On and disabled so that it can't be switched back off.

The only other people who have had access to the phone don't have the know-how (nor reason) to do such a thing.

From doing some searches, it doesn't sound like there's any malware that can unlock a phone's bootloader on its own.

I've installed a few non-Google-Play-Store apps on this phone. But I don't see how that could have caused the problem.

I may have temporarily switched the SIM from one phone into the other at some point and then switched it back. Maybe that somehow...? Even though it shouldn't.

I just hope this unlocked bootloader weirdness doesn't spread to my new phone too, which now has the SIM from the old phone WBIDU.

Among the handouts given to me with both of my Covid vaccine shots was one about v-safe, the "after vaccination health checker". It's a smartphone-based tool for providing feedback to the CDC of any side effects you experience from the COVID-19 vaccines.

I didn't sign up for it after my first shot, because I didn't like that it is only phone-based, with no option to use a laptop instead. But also because I had too much other stuff going on at the time, and then also because I only experienced one side-effect, which was a very common one anyway.

But after my 2nd shot, I tried it out. It doesn't require installing an app on your phone. You sign up at the above website, which can be done on your phone or on a laptop. When signing up, you are asked for your name, date of birth, zip code, sex*, and mobile phone number. Then you are asked for the date of your first and/or 2nd shots, and which vaccine you got.

Thereafter, you supposedly get a link to an online questionnaire sent to your phone via a text every day (around 4pm for me) for the first week. Then some more at weekly or monthly intervals. The questionnaire asks about any symptoms you experienced that day, and also asks your race/ethnicity*.

*An option is included for "prefer not to say".

Yesterday I copied the questionnaire link from the text to my laptop by manually typing it in. (Just to be perverse, to see if it would work, and it did.) After filling in the answers, something distracted me. It may have been that I took too long in deciding "Did any of the symptoms or health conditions you reported today cause you to... Be unable to work... Be unable to do your normal daily activities..." (etc.)

I *could* have worked if I had really needed to, in spite of the mild fever. I *could* have taken Tylenol earlier than I did, and then probably would have felt better earlier. And I *did* do some work later that day. Most of the time, I do most of my work later in the day anyway. But I decided to select the options, as I hadn't really felt up to working earlier that morning.

When I returned to the page and finally submitted it, it gave me a time-out error. However, I was able to open the page, re-enter my answers, and then submit it successfully.

Yesterday I did the questionnaire a couple hours after getting the text.

Today I waited until after I had finished my work for the day, and after I'd done a few other things. Ie., until 3am. This time I clicked the link on my phone, deciding to do it the way it was designed. But it gave an error, "Sorry, this Health Check-in has expired" !!!

So you have only a limited amount of time, not even a full 12 hours, to submit each day's questionnaire after being sent the link.

It was only my 2nd day of using the tool, and it already has failed me. No point in continuing with it, I think. It didn't let me enter any symptoms (in arrears) from my first shot either, by the way. So it's only useful if you sign up for it right away after getting a shot, and then answer the questions promptly every day after getting the texts.

List of many phone plans and their prices (it doesn't include Red Pocket or Boom Mobile): https://swappa.com/plans

Tello's prices are the best I've seen for plans with unlimited data. But even though Tello uses the Sprint network, their coverage map shows many big areas with no voice or data coverage.

I got a text: "Hey, is this still [.... .....]'s number?"

I typed a reply saying No, and that I've had this number for 12 years, so maybe they mis-dialed.

(Maybe it is inappropriate and old-fashioned to use the word "mis-dialed". Should one say "mis-typed" instead? But that's ambiguous. You'd need to say "mis-typed the number". So using "mis-dialed" seems simpler, even though most phones haven't had dials in a long long time.)

When I clicked to send the Reply, Android showed the message "Messages would like to send a message to 67329. This may cause charges on your mobile account".

That's when I noticed that the text hadn't come from a normal 10-digit phone number. So I clicked Cancel, and searched online for "67329". It seems to be this company: https://messagemedia.com/
Whoever sent the message must be using that company's texting service rather than sending texts from their own phone number. So it's probably a collection agency.

But still, Android's message confused me (could replying to that text cause me to get charged money? Could it be a scam?), so I looked up more info about it. Those 5 digit numbers are called "short codes", and are treated as potentially "premium SMS", which can incur extra charges. But a lot of companies use them for sending messages, and I've received texts from those kind of numbers before, without ever being charged for it.

So how does one end up getting charged? If it is really a premium SMS, can simply replying to an innocuous sounding text like the one I received subscribe you to a premium service? How could one ever be sure if it is safe to reply to such a text or not?

I've wondered about those kind of text numbers before, when watching TV programs like American Idol or what-not, that tell you to send a text to this number or that number, to vote for contestants. Or TV ads asking for donations. Or radio ads. Those may sometimes mention that there will be a charge, but I'm not sure. Is there any warning of what the exact charge will be, or confirmation that you really want to accept the charge, when you send such a text?

And is it even possible to incur such a charge or sign up for a premium service, if you're on a pre-paid phone plan? How would they charge you the money?

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Oh, by the way.... Several web pages I found gave instructions on how to enable or disable Premium SMS (which I think is what happens when you click the "Remember my choice" checkbox on the Android warning message). But the menu selections they listed didn't match my phone (Android 7.1.1).
This is how to get to it on my phone:
Settings - Apps - [ click Gear icon at the top of the page ] - Advanced / Special Access - Premium SMS access.

I'm not very impressed with Mint Mobile so far. I got my number ported over ok. Phone calls and texts and internet are working ok.

The configurations they had listed on their website for getting texting to work, didn't work for me at first. I got it to work using alternate configurations I found on a different website. A few days later I switched back to the other configuration, and then it worked too. So I dunno about that. No big deal, though.

What's giving me a problem is logging into the voicemail. When I enter my password to log in, often it says it isn't the right password. When it reads the numbers I entered back to me, it skips numbers as if it didn't receive them all, even though they display ok on my phone's screen.

To begin with, it was doing this about 9 out of 10 times, from the phone with the Mint SIM. Yet I had no problem logging into the Mint voicemail from my other phone, on the Verizon network.

To verify it wasn't a problem with the phone, I switched the SIMs between both phones. Then the other phone (now with the Mint SIM) had the problem, and the original one that had the problem didn't anymore. So it's not the phone.

I emailed customer support with a detailed description of my problem. Mind you, I don't want to turn the password off; I want the digits I press to be recognized. If I'm having this problem with their voicemail, there's a good chance I'll have the same problem with other automated phone menus.

Other than the standard "we received your message and will reply soon", I didn't get a response from customer support until 3 days later. And then their reply only had stock answers about how to access voicemail, how to reset or change your password, or turn it on and off. They didn't respond about the actual problem I described, at all.

This evening when I tried to take a video of the problem, it worked ok about half the time. Grrr, of course. That makes pointing out the problem more difficult.

I suspect now that it is due to the network signal fading in and out, dropping part of my transmissions. What else could it be? If that's the case, there's probably nothing their customer support can do about it. Mint's coverage is supposed to be good here in the city, though. The signal strength shown on both my phones vacillates up and down. Neither signal ever drops out completely, although the Verizon signal is generally a bit higher than the Mint/T-mobile signal.

Verizon's Visible prepaid cellphone service ($40/month unlimited) is now available for Samsung Galaxy S9 phones, as well as iPhones. Support for other Android phones is "coming soon".

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BestBuy and Sprint have an offer available until 4/4/2019:
"unlimited data, talk and text, video streams up to 480p, music up to 500 Kbps and gaming streams up to 2 Mbps. Just $25/mo. with Autopay when you buy an unlocked phone or a Sprint phone via one-time payment."

..

Mint Mobile has an intro offer available for new customers until 2/28/2019: $20 for the first 3 months of unlimited text/talk/data with up to 8GB LTE data per month.

The taxes & fees are an extra $4.28 in my area, and the price includes the SIM card and free shipping.

I'd been planning to sign up with them anyway, so I went ahead and ordered that.

I think I finally managed to root my phone...

I had previously unlocked the bootloader (which I now read can't even be done on some phones - I need to remember to check that next time I'm buying a phone).
I had previously installed ADB and fastboot.

Now I installed the TWRP recovery, I think. Except that I selected the "Read Only" option at first, in order to make a backup of my phone before altering it. And after that, I can't figure out how to change it to non-read-only mode. But maybe it doesn't need to be changed; I don't know.

Then I used TWRP to install the Magisk zip.
Then I downloaded and installed the Magisk Manager apk.

After doing that, I think the phone is rooted.

But the whole reason I wanted to root my phone was to be able to increase the number of volume steps, via these instructions:
https://www.guidingtech.com/14998/customize-media-volume-loudness-android/

I downloaded the Baksmali & Smali jars... apparently there is no longer a bat file for running them, so I had to figure out the new commands.
But then, after disassembling the dex files, it turns out that the framework.jar / classes.dex no longer contains any "AudioService.smali" file. There is an "IAudioService.smali" file, but it doesn't contain any string starting with "0xft" nor with ".array-data 0x4". Nor do any of the other files from the disassembled dex file contain those strings.
So those instructions are of no help.

Now I found this: https://www.droidviews.com/increase-number-volume-steps-android/
But I'm not trying that today. I am fried, and I haven't even taken my shower yet and haven't really had my dinner yet, and I really ought to be going to bed very soon. AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

My phone is annoying me. I want to disable "OK Google" detection, so that it won't listen for those trigger words; I don't want it potentially recording my voice all the time. But I don't want to completely disable microphone access for Google searches. I would like the microphone to be used *after* I click the microphone icon in the Google search box.

Yet no matter what settings I change, when my home screen is displayed (which has the search box at the top), when I say "OK Google", it still always brings up the "Listening..." screen and will then search on the next thing I say.

I've never even enabled the Google assistant; I wonder if that has something to do with it. Whenever the screens come up where one would enable it, I click to Cancel, as I don't want to give it all the permissions it asks for. It seems like maybe you have to enable the assistant in order to subsequently and effectively disable it? But that doesn't really make sense.

The phone settings screens confuse me. After clicking more than a few items deep into them, I lose track of where I came from. Some of the screens can be accessed more than one way, which adds to the confusion.

Some of the settings I've updated:

Phone Settings - Google - Search, Assistant & Voice - Voice - Voice Match
"Access with Voice Match" is disabled
"While driving" is disabled
Everything else on this page is greyed out/disabled

Google Maps - Settings - Navigation Settings - "Ok Google" detection
"While driving" is disabled

Phone Settings - Apps - (gear icon) Configure apps - Assist & Voice Input
"Assist App" - is set to None.

Phone Settings - Google - Google Account - Data & Personalization - Activity Controls
"Voice & Audio Activity" (and all the other items) are "Paused"

Did you know that you can change the voice used when search results are spoken? This setting is enabled for me, even though I haven't enabled the Assistant:
Phone Settings - Google - Search, Assistant & Voice - Google Assistant / Settings - Preferences - Assistant Voice

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Yesterday, it was Google Maps that annoyed me. While out shopping, I tried to bring up my offline map, but couldn't as it had expired. What's the point of having an offline map, if it expires all the time so that I can't use it!? I only get reminded that it's expiring ahead of time if I go into Maps. Why should I have to re-download it every 3 months? Yes, Google provides them as a free service, so they can make their own rules. But it feels like they are taking away something from me that I downloaded fair and square. I'd be willing to pay a single time fee, to be able to keep my maps downloaded permanently, and to choose when to update them.

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I've been wanting to switch to CyanogenMod or do something which would let me have more control over things like this. Haven't gotten around to it yet. The last thing I did was to unlock my boot loader.

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Something else odd:
Phone Settings - Google - Connected apps
This showed "McClatchy Social Signin" as a connected app. I have no idea what that was for or where it came from, so I disconnected it.
The only other connected app listed on that screen is "Android device".

Hah. Here's something funny to try. On your phone, start a comment, and using the predictive text feature (assuming your phone does that), keep clicking on the middle word.
Mine went like this:

Thanks for the update and for the record I have a new phone and I don't want to be a part of the team and I will be there at the same time I don't have a new phone and I will be there at the same time I don't have a new phone and I will be there at the same time

Alternately, you can randomly hit any of the suggested words each time, or hit them in a certain pattern, and see what comes out.

Trying to get the Android SDK to work, so I can root my phone. It requires Java, though it doesn't tell me what version.

On the following Oracle JDK 8 page, when I click the radio button to accept the license agreement, and click any of the download links, I get the error "We're sorry, the page you requested was not found."

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html

I even tried the pages for the Java 9 and Java 10 JDKs. All of the download links get the same error. I tried with different browsers. I even logged in to the site, as is sometimes required for downloading older versions of the files. What is going on? Are the links working for anyone else? Is it a temporary outage? How can the world go on, if the JDK can't be downloaded anymore? Did everyone switch over to using non-Oracle JDKs? AAAAAHHHHH.

Now I thought to search Twitter. It's not just me; other people are having the same problem:
https://twitter.com/search?q=oracle%20jdk&src=typd
Well, that's a relief, sort of. But is the world going to end?

So I decided to try downloading OpenJDK instead. Apparently that's made by Oracle too. But why does the main download page say that JDK 9 and 10 are "ready for use", while JDK 8 (Updates???) are "early access"? Eh? At least I found a working download link there.

Update, 2:21pm:
The Oracle downloads are working again now. An Oracle employee posted on this reddit thread that the temporary outage was resolved about an hour ago. That's the only semi-official notice I found about it. No mention of it on Oracle's twitter feed, even though I counted about 20 tweets directed at @Oracle about the problem. Based on the posts on twitter and elsewhere from people getting the 404s, the outage was from around midnight to 2pm (EDT).