We've been discussing some of Jelly Bean's new security features, but this post will take a few steps back and focus on an older one that has been available since Honeycomb (3.0), announced in the beginning of the now distant 2011: disk encryption. We'll glance over the implementation, discuss how passwords are managed and introduce a simple tool that lets you change the password from the comfort of Android's UI.

This post is about Android and my current setup of running only Free Software on my smartphone. I know what you are thinking.. that Google is also part of NSA's "special friends". Android is self-defined as an "Open Source Platform" (AOSP), and pretty much it is since it's released under a mix of Apache and GPL license (although mostly developed behind closed doors). But this isn't what you get when you buy a smartphone. Your device will certainly have preinstalled all of the Google's proprietary stuff (gmail, play, etc) and probably manufacturer and/or vendor applications. Things that you have no idea what they do, besides their "normal" functionality, because we don't have the code to look at.

The discovery demonstrates limitations in Google Play's antimalware service.

The code family used to push malware circulated as early as June 2012.

Covert remote access trojan was built using newly discovered DIY toolkit.

Titles raise questions about Google's ability to police its own market.

ODK Collect renders forms into a sequence of input prompts that apply form logic, entry constraints, and repeating sub-structures. Users work through the prompts and can save the submission at any point. Finalized submissions can be sent to (and new forms downloaded from) a server. Currently, ODK Collect uses the Android platform, supports a wide variety of prompts (text, number, location, multimedia, barcodes), and works well without network connectivity.

Open Data Kit (ODK) is a free and open-source set of tools which help organizations author, field, and manage mobile data collection solutions. ODK provides an out-of-the-box solution for users to:

• Build a data collection form or survey;
• Collect the data on a mobile device and send it to a server; and
• Aggregate the collected data on a server and extract it in useful formats.

In addition to socio-economic and health surveys with GPS locations and images, ODK is being used to create decision support for clinicians and for building multimedia-rich nature mapping tools. See the list available tools, featured deployments, and implementation companies for more examples of what the ODK community is doing. We welcome and encourage participation from the user community.

A video walkthough of some of the must know tips and tricks for the Samsung Galaxy S2. Details and screenshots at http://thehandheldblog.com/2011/06/14/galaxy-s2-tips-tricks/

SickStache is an open source application to manage your SickBeard server.

Market: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.sickstache&hl=en
Source and apk: https://code.google.com/p/sick-stashe/
License: GPLv3

Access all your contact information (GAL) from your Exchange server.

Want to lookup your colleague’s information in Exchange but find your Android phone lacking?

Unfortunately the Global Address List (GAL) lookup currently available in Android is limited in functionality. It only looks up email addresses and does not return anything more. This could be frustrating when you are trying to use your phone to look up your colleague’s phone number or office location.

This application looks up the GAL contact database, and returns ALL data corresponding to the contact that is available on the server. It also allows you to save the contact information retrieved to your phone for easy access.

This app supports GAL lookups on

• Exchange 2003
• Exchange 2007
• Exchange 2010
• Google Apps for Business / Education
• Zimbra

License: Apache 2.0
Source and apk:https://code.google.com/p/corporateaddressbook/
Market: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.vivekiyer.GAL&hl=en

ISP/Mobile/Data Usage/Tolls/Leisure usage monitoring all in one App.

★ Features ★

• Monitors you local cell/wifi usage
• Setup alerts to notify you when over ideal or % usage
• Monitors multiple ISP/Mobile/Travel/Tolls
• Powered by QuotaXML with access to 100′s providers worldwide
• User created providers are supported via the free developers kit
• Dropbox sync support
• Widget support
• PIN security

Market:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.southfreo&hl=en
License: Gplv3
Sources: https://github.com/southfreo/QuotaForAndroid

Access your personal Ampache music cloud anywhere. Ampache.NET is a music player for the Ampache media server optimized for tablets and ICS

License: MIT
Sources: https://gitorious.org/ampache-net
Market: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=johnmooreampachenet.johnmooreampachenet&hl=en

FindMyPhone tries to locate your phone by GPS and network location and communicate it back to the owner. Currently supports activating by sending a secret message via SMS. The resulting location is sent via SMS

Market link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=se.erikofsweden.findmyphone&feature=also_installed

website
http://erikofsweden.blogspot.com/p/findmyphone.html

sourceforge
http://sourceforge.net/projects/findmyphone/files/

Scanner For Zotero brings Zotero's magic wand tool out into the physical world. Scan the ISBN barcode on any book, and Scanner For Zotero will fetch that item's bibliographic info from the web and allow you to add it to your Zotero library.