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Android apps = no go
July 12, 2011
1:21 pm
jape
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Hi All,

Spent a bit of time messing around with my htc desire 8182 android phone. Web browsing is OK, but nothing I've tried gets apps access to wireless data. Tried rooting the phone and using a proxy app. No go.

Webbrowsing is speedy though, and of course wifi + apps works.

Most apps on my previous phone (iphone 2g) worked fine using wireless data, so this is a bit disappointing.

regards,

jape

July 12, 2011
2:09 pm
chimpanzee
vancouver
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this usually means iphone app are mostly using http 80/443 whereas android is not. A typical example would be trying to use iPhone's email app to access say a pop3/imap account vs one that support ActiveSync(gmail seems to suppor that). ActiveSync is done via http thus it works.

July 13, 2011
6:13 am
jape
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This seems to be more of and android problem than a port/network problem. There are a lot of bug reports in android related to apps not working (accessing non wifi networks), but browsing working. It seems that only the web browser honors the APN settings. The apps blindly try to make a direct connection.

I think this is a case of android not being as polished as iOS (at least in this respect).

In any event it important for folks thinking about an android device to know that apps will not work with petro data plans, but that web browsing will.

regards

jp

July 14, 2011
7:41 am
jape
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For the record, below are some relevant android bugs. I'm pretty sure speakout android users users would have the same problem

http://code.google.com/p/andro.....l?id=12413
http://code.google.com/p/andro.....il?id=9126

regards

jp

July 14, 2011
12:56 pm
chimpanzee
vancouver
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I used to have an LG Optimus One on this with UMB and did get a downloaded app(bloomberg news) running fine. No longer has the phone nor the UMB feature so can't test it anymore.

What you mentioned is a missing feature(as mentioned on that error page) for sure but that is not simple to fix as it needs all applications that use http to goes extra steps(same thing applies to destop application where the IE proxy setting is not always honoured) or as mentioned by one of the developer they have to use a common http stack library.

On the android, it is possible to work around it via iptables(as the underlying is just linux) but that requires root access.

Though even with proper proxy, native app that doesn't use http(say email IMAP client) is still not going to work on SO.

September 10, 2011
1:12 pm
jape
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Finally got apps + data working on my HTC desire. This has worked for me and one other person that I know of:

http://forums.redflagdeals.com.....s-1053209/

Things like maps and weather are working for me but I'm not getting new email notifications.

regards

jp