Sunday, April 11, 2010

Lock Delay 2.1.4 - 2.1.6

I pushed out a minor update today that corrects a bug related to the new "no keyguard" settings.

There were instances where if you your screen off setting was "no keyguard" and the delayed action was simple or pattern lock, in some cases, the delayed action was not being applied due to some quirks in the Android system keyguard.

If you are still experiencing a similar issue, please contact me directly.

As always, for comments, questions, suggestions or product support, please contact me through my Google Profile
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UPDATE: 4/11/2010 additional changes were made in version 2.1.6 to fix bugs related to "no keyguard" settings.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Lock Delay 2.1

Lock Delay 2.1 was released today on Android Market with a notable change. Thanks to some user feedback, a greater level of customization is now possible.

In the default configuration, when Lock Delay is running, after the screen shuts off, the simple keyguard is enabled:
Simple Keyguard - in Android 2.0 and up, this is the slide to unlock mechanism where you simply move the slide at the bottom of the screen from left to right. Prior version of Android just require you to press the "menu" button in some cases.
Once the chosen delay period has lapsed, the delayed action is executed. By default, this is the Pattern Lock:
Pattern Lock - this is the most secure of the available modes. It uses the built in Android screen unlock pattern (found in the location & security settings). In this mode, the user must reproduce the connect-the-dots type pattern in order to unlock the screen.
It will then stay in this configuration until the phone is unlocked. Also "No Keyguard" is now available to be used in either the initial "Screen Off Action" or the "Delayed Action".

So if desired, Lock Delay can completely disable the keyguard if the "Screen Off Action" and "Delayed Action" were both set to "No Keyguard". Another possibility now is that the keyguard could be disabled when the screen initially is shut off but after the delay period, one of the 2 keyguards could be enabled.

So to recap, there are now 2 actions that can each be configured in 1 of 3 modes:
  • Screen Off Action
  • Delayed Action
  • No Keyguard
  • Simple Keyguard
  • Pattern Lock
There is a small restriction though that should make sense. The Delayed Action cannot be a less secure lock mode than the Screen Off Action. We wouldn't want the Screen off Action to be a full pattern lock only yo have it be completely disabled by the No Keyguard setting later when the Delay Timer is up.

An option also exists to run the service when the phone first boots up and enable the pattern lock immediately.

Additionally, I was made aware of a bit of a security vulnerability that exists in Android 1.5 and 1.6 where under some odd circumstances, the pattern lock could have been bypassed. New precautions have been taken in this update to ensure this does not happen. This is reason enough for existing users to upgrade to this latest version.

Please ensure that you have set your unlock pattern to something you can remember. If the pattern is not set, anything will unlock it. If you set a pattern you cannot remember, the system will require you to log into your Google account again and/or hard reset to factory defaults.

As always, I can be reached for Questions, Comments, & Support requests through my Google profile

click or scan the barcode from your android handset to download.