Database Info

SkyFire web browser

It is new, still in private beta but it looks too good to be true:
http://www.skyfire.com/
For the first time ever, you can watch any web video, listen to any web music, stay connected on any social network and browse whatever you want. Anything you can browse from your PC, you can now browse from your mobile phone.
We’re talking about full-featured PC versions of your favorite web sites. Skyfire gives you speedy page loads, full audio, video, images, dynamic Flash content, advanced Ajax, Java and more – just like your PC.
If you live in US, you can sign up for the private beta:
http://www.skyfire.com/sign-up

gogol said:
It is new, still in private beta but it looks too good to be true:
http://www.skyfire.com/
For the first time ever, you can watch any web video, listen to any web music, stay connected on any social network and browse whatever you want. Anything you can browse from your PC, you can now browse from your mobile phone.
We’re talking about full-featured PC versions of your favorite web sites. Skyfire gives you speedy page loads, full audio, video, images, dynamic Flash content, advanced Ajax, Java and more – just like your PC.
If you live in US, you can sign up for the private beta:
http://www.skyfire.com/sign-up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds too good to be true? Subscription based when full version or just charged to cell access and unavailable to WiFi??

they say it's free, atleast for the beta on there site...fingers crossed, looks awesome

Daaaamn..... I am living at Finland... any way to get that cab file for testing?
It looks quite nice...

We shall see, once they open the beta.

PeeHoo said:
Daaaamn..... I am living at Finland... any way to get that cab file for testing?
It looks quite nice...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quoted from the website:
Sign Up Today
* If you have a Windows Mobile phone, sign up today and we will notify you when the Skyfire private beta starts.
* If you do not have a Windows Mobile phone or you live outside the United States, please sign up so we can promptly notify you when Skyfire is available for your type of mobile phone.

And if you try to sign up for the non-US notification - you can't as the US mobile number field is mandatory... unless your US mobile number (like mine) happens to be 1111 111 111

Sky
Looks great!! To bad MS didnt come out with it.

unwired4 said:
And if you try to sign up for the non-US notification - you can't as the US mobile number field is mandatory... unless your US mobile number (like mine) happens to be 1111 111 111
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why, Unwired, your number is very similar to mine!!
I have a feeling with them saying 'Mobile Phone' that this is going to be a Java based WAP app but we shall see.
I'll say one thing, if the browser is as slow as their website then its a loser to start with!!
( I just worry about sites promising something to you later that want loads of details, my SPAMer list sense (similar to Spider sense but not as refined) starts to burn...)

It says that the first application is for PocketPC/Smartphone with keyboards. They aslo blatantly show a Kaiser variant on the site (front camera version).
I promptly signed up for the beta, maybe this can be as good as Safari for the iPhone.
Anyway, I'll keep you posted if I get any response.

here it is in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mWUoxiLZFc
looks super. also surprised at how superfast it was then the guy showed he was on a cellphone data connection (evdo). while the demo was going on I was assuming that he was on a fast wifi connection. Def. super duper cool!

Had to be pre-cached pages. But impressive none-the-less.

Yeah, I'm concerned about privacy. I still hear not to bank with Opera Mini, so I can't imagine how one could trust a company they've never heard of. Sounds too iffy. But, for all other browsing needs, this seems like the best match for mobile phones. What if there were a way to make your home PC cache the sites for you, so you would know/trust the origin of the cache?

nice but check this:
From their Privacy Policy:
"Once you have subscribed to and begin to use the Browser, we will collect information about your use of the Browser on your Device (“Browser Usage Information”). Browser Usage Information includes such information as which websites and programs you access or download on your Device, how long you visit such websites and use such programs, your activities (such as products purchased or advertisements viewed) on such websites, which specific areas of a website or webpage you use and for how long, websites you bookmark, search terms you use, referring/exit pages, browser and platform types, the geographic location in which your Device is being used and information you provide on third party websites. All of your Browser Usage Information is stored by Skyfire under an automatically generated, random identification number (“ID Number”) that will not be associated with or linked to your Personal Information. Please be aware, though, that your Browser Usage Information, when viewed in the aggregate, may reveal your identity even if it is not associated with or linked to your Personal Information."
In other words, when you use our browser, we track everything you do, and assign an "anonymous" ID number to that information. And oh, by the way, the "anonymous" ID number may be linked to your identity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do U really want this? Im pissed that sec.cams are on every corner. And after a time when they find out what are U looking for on inet (ie. pda4x, ppcwarez, torrentz....) u have police knocking on Ur doors(or email box full of add. and scam emails). Nice, but not safe.
Not recomended

phsnake said:
nice but check this:
Do U really want this? Im pissed that sec.cams are on every corner. And after a time when they find out what are U looking for on inet (ie. pda4x, ppcwarez, torrentz....) u have police knocking on Ur doors(or email box full of add. and scam emails). Nice, but not safe.
Not recomended
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Told you my SPAMer sense was burning!!! Well spotted....

Totally agreed that we should all be scared. AT&T is also talking about full-time monitoring of all users on their network. Lovely for us Tilt (branded) users. Not only a serious privacy concern, but how slow will the network have to run to allow constant monitoring? I love my country, but I fear my government.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Franklin

While that privacy notice does concern me a bit, I'm not a business user, and I don't make purchases or give any sort of confidential information out via web on my phone.

so just to clairify... the beta has not been realsed yet? even though that video was realeased? and yeah the privacy stuff sucks but i dont do much viewing that i would care if any one saw so ill be ok with it. as long as it dosnt slow the network down to much

GUI seemed nice and snappy on the sprint.

I've signed up.
I used a spare hotmail address that I had knocking about.
My US number is 12345678900 and my name is John Smith, apparently.

ninesky browser - privacy worry

Hi everybody!
I recently started looking for a browser to replace the stock one and I think I installed every possible option there is without giving much thought to the consequences - app permissions and possible violation of my privacy and misuse of my data.
So I found what I thought was a really nice and well-functioning browser called Ninesky from the Android market.
Luckily for me I did not get to use it for long, before I detected a strange pattern - Ninesky would automatically start itself upon boot, connect to a server in China, upload some data and receive some back and then just sit there and wait idly.
The server that it connects to belongs to a company called aBitCool, which is, according to Bloomberg, an ISP in China.
So I kill it off and after a while it's back, doing the same thing. I also noticed a similar behavior for Dolphin HD, except that it would send data just once very quickly after boot-up and then close itself and stay quiet. That led me to Google it a little, which in turn led me to an existing thread about Dolphin HD on this forum.
So here are my noob questions that I hope somebody can answer, please:
1. Can somebody take a look at Ninesky browser and let us all know what kind of data it is transmitting about its users upon boot and maybe even later on during the actual use of the browser? The list of permissions that Ninesky asks for is huge and that makes me a little worried. Also, Ninesky runs a "safety check" of every URL visited. I wonder what that really is.
2. Say it would try to steal information from its users - would it be possible for the app to somehow get access to my stored usernames and passwords from other programs (such as Gmail or Skype) or are these encrypted? I presume that if I were stupid enough to let Ninesky's password manager "remember" my usernames and passwords for certain websites then that information would be easily accessible to them.
3. Can an app with such permissions also function as a keylogger?
4. I can understand why folks here would write some apps on their own and share them with the rest of us. I can understand why a developer or a company would write an app and make one version available for "free" or as an ad supported one and/or offer a premium version for $$$. At the end of the day developers need to eat and pay their bills just like the rest of us and companies are (for the most part) profit-seeking institutions (unless they are GE or MS that have money to burn). That said - why for the love of god would anybody, other than an enthusiast, develop a browser, for which they will not ask for any $$ or won't even display any ads in it? Where is the catch? Now, I know that Opera and Firefox get money from Google to use it as their default search engine, but would this really apply for a few random Chinese companies? Where is the catch?
Thank you.

I was a big supporter of Ninesky but I uninstalled today. It does seem to be constantly running and transmitting data, though what data is being transmitted I don't know. LBE also kept notifying me that it was trying to obtain my location information even when I wasn't using it. I uninstalled it through the Market and left a one star review.
Drunk texted from my MIUI Thunderbolt.

I'm writing a review of about 13 different Android browsers, and came across Ninesky. Has anyone heard anything more about the privacy concerns and what data it might be transmitting?

well....if it keeps requesting the location even while its closed, thats not a good sign...

Not good. This needs addressing.
I have changed my review on Market also until we get some answers.
Cheers to the OP.

I agree. I think my review should come out tomorrow, hopefully the developer reaches out. It really is a decent browser.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium

´I'll leave you here my tests made since Monday with last versions of each app:
==|Boat 4.0.1|==
#Just after starting#
- Ask for GPS location
- 211.151.139.246 (China Network Information Center)
#When going to any website#
- IP from that website
--------------------------------------------------------
==|Dolphin HD 8.6.1|==:silly:
#Just after starting#
- 184.73.86.141 (AMAZON.COM - amazonaws.com - US)
- 65.52.32.12 (Microsoft Corp - US)
- 107.20.57.0 (AMAZON.COM - amazonaws.com - US)
and one more on this IP range type...
- 205.251.242.197 (AMAZON.COM - amazonaws.com - US)
- 205.251.242.165 (AMAZON.COM - amazonaws.com - US)
- 72.21.195.98 (AMAZON.COM - amazonaws.com - US)
#When going to any website#
- IP from that website
--------------------------------------------------------
==|Firefox 14.0.1|==
#Just after starting#
- No Ping
#When going to any website#
- 80.67.92.43 (AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES US) *
- 93.184.219.20 (EdgeCast Networks - US) *
- IP from that website
* note: not always, most of the times just go to IP website we asked
--------------------------------------------------------
==|Opera 12.0.4|==:victory:
#Just after starting#
- No Ping
#When going to any website#
- IP from that website
note: DON'T use Opera Turbo or EVERY single info WILL pass through their servers...
--------------------------------------------------------
It's pretty obvious to me who are the most privacy oriented here...
STAY WAY FROM OPERA MINI AND DOLPHIN MINI AND ALL MINI VERSIONS. They process all info on their server first for speed.

Anyone researched Xscope or could research this browser?
If you explain how, I could do it myself!!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

But the OP got it wrong with money burning by GE & MS. There's no such thing, its all business. Just to let you know, in the browser wars - Firefox was Google's first step into browsing. Then came Chrome.
For all privacy concerns, LBE Privacy Guard is a good option. Though its Korean, if am not wrong.
Well, finally there's options out there. Nobody is forcing us to download, install & use their apps.
Sent from my MT11i using Tapatalk 2

bombayboy said:
But the OP got it wrong with money burning by GE & MS. There's no such thing, its all business. Just to let you know, in the browser wars - Firefox was Google's first step into browsing. Then came Chrome.
For all privacy concerns, LBE Privacy Guard is a good option. Though its Korean, if am not wrong.
Well, finally there's options out there. Nobody is forcing us to download, install & use their apps.
Sent from my MT11i using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree with everything BUT Firefox was never connected to Google like Chrome. Firefox's current existence is owed almost exclusively to its search partnership with Google wherein Mozilla Corp receives a portion of ad revenue from Google queries initiated from Firefox's search bar. This revenue amounts to tens of millions of dollars. But Mozilla and Google Relations Strained Due to Chrome.
Firefox its independent and don't collect your data like Chrome/Google do...

sushidog said:
Agree with everything BUT Firefox was never connected to Google like Chrome. Firefox's current existence is owed almost exclusively to its search partnership with Google wherein Mozilla Corp receives a portion of ad revenue from Google queries initiated from Firefox's search bar. This revenue amounts to tens of millions of dollars. But Mozilla and Google Relations Strained Due to Chrome.
Firefox its independent and don't collect your data like Chrome/Google do...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Connected with reference to Google promoting & supporting Firefox before they decided to go with Chrome.
I still use Firefox, Aurora & Chrome
Sent from my MT11i using Tapatalk 2

If you're not paying it, you are the product being sold.
Remember this when downloading free apps which are not open source.

DnaPolymerase said:
If you're not paying it, you are the product being sold.
Remember this when downloading free apps which are not open source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like facebook which sells our data
Sent from my MT11i using Tapatalk 2

Calamitous with Ninesky
Hi,
I stumbled upon XDA Developers forum today and I was so grateful to find this write-up; it was the only honest review I could find of Ninesky. So, thank you.
I want to share an experience our family went through a few weeks ago. Perhaps it will answer some of your questions and alert some users out there of what this browser could do. We have an unfortunate incident happen to our child: My little boy received an android tablet for a gift this October. He was so eager downloading all the apps and games he could find, and in about a month, it was completely personalized. We regularly monitored his downloads, the games he played, and the apps he utilized.
Much to our regret, we really did not give much thought to the browsers he had installed. He had more than three at one point and Ninesky was always in the background. Sadly, whenever he would search for apps, we later discovered Ninesky directly linked him to several stores that was not common to Google or Firefox. Some of them had Anime icons (mostly innocent looking), nicely titled games for their tiles. Some apps were legitimate and very cool games; however, some apps were direct links to hard-core porn websites and a whole universe of filth (not excluding child-porn). They attached themselves to the tablet like trojans and was quite aggressive in linking the user to overseas app stores (inappropriate). Every time a game would be uploaded from one of these stores, it gives auto-access to these atrocious websites and videos. Because Ninsky always functioned in incognito--one of it's touted features--we almost had no access to the history or cookies when this browser was used. Almost anyway ... it took us hours (and some hacking) to track and identify what was really going on, the seeming source of it was this "sophisticated" browser.
So the catch may be that this browser has no advertisements because it plays host to several groups funding the porn industry. That's my suspicion anyway, based on what we went through.
I cannot begin to say how grieved we are that our son was exposed to all this, especially that we discovered it so much later. We thought we paid attention. That being said, he's back to playing with his remote control car outside, where life is a bit less complex.
More power to your forum and thanks again.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
xenofont said:
Hi everybody!
I recently started looking for a browser to replace the stock one and I think I installed every possible option there is without giving much thought to the consequences - app permissions and possible violation of my privacy and misuse of my data.
So I found what I thought was a really nice and well-functioning browser called Ninesky from the Android market.
Luckily for me I did not get to use it for long, before I detected a strange pattern - Ninesky would automatically start itself upon boot, connect to a server in China, upload some data and receive some back and then just sit there and wait idly.
The server that it connects to belongs to a company called aBitCool, which is, according to Bloomberg, an ISP in China.
So I kill it off and after a while it's back, doing the same thing. I also noticed a similar behavior for Dolphin HD, except that it would send data just once very quickly after boot-up and then close itself and stay quiet. That led me to Google it a little, which in turn led me to an existing thread about Dolphin HD on this forum.
So here are my noob questions that I hope somebody can answer, please:
1. Can somebody take a look at Ninesky browser and let us all know what kind of data it is transmitting about its users upon boot and maybe even later on during the actual use of the browser? The list of permissions that Ninesky asks for is huge and that makes me a little worried. Also, Ninesky runs a "safety check" of every URL visited. I wonder what that really is.
2. Say it would try to steal information from its users - would it be possible for the app to somehow get access to my stored usernames and passwords from other programs (such as Gmail or Skype) or are these encrypted? I presume that if I were stupid enough to let Ninesky's password manager "remember" my usernames and passwords for certain websites then that information would be easily accessible to them.
3. Can an app with such permissions also function as a keylogger?
4. I can understand why folks here would write some apps on their own and share them with the rest of us. I can understand why a developer or a company would write an app and make one version available for "free" or as an ad supported one and/or offer a premium version for $$$. At the end of the day developers need to eat and pay their bills just like the rest of us and companies are (for the most part) profit-seeking institutions (unless they are GE or MS that have money to burn). That said - why for the love of god would anybody, other than an enthusiast, develop a browser, for which they will not ask for any $$ or won't even display any ads in it? Where is the catch? Now, I know that Opera and Firefox get money from Google to use it as their default search engine, but would this really apply for a few random Chinese companies? Where is the catch?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q] Your privacy opinions please

I just bought a Samsung Galaxy Player with the intentions of using it as a wifi phone as a replacement for my cell phone.
The main reason for this is I don't like all the tracking going on with cell phones. Cell phone tower tracking, Carrier IQ tracking, etc., etc. I'm not doing anything illegal and I'm not a conspiracy nut, it's just the principle of it. I'm an American - I'm suppose to have freedoms and be able to have my privacy if I so choose.
I had planned on using either Skype with an online phone number or Google Voice to get voice on my Player. The problem with this is Google is going to track every wifi hotspot I log in from so I'm kind of back at square one - EVERYONE wants to spy on you these days. Not to mention all the criminals trying to get personal info at public hot spots.
So I thought about a VPN. That would stop Google/Skype from tracking the wifi hotspot I log in from. But, how does one find a VPN service that you know without a doubt is trustworthy??? I've even thought about getting my own VPS and installing OpenVPN myself (found a good service for that if anyone is interested). But from a true anonymity standpoint it would be better to use a VPN service who has many other customers all using a shared IP. Plus I'll use the same VPN service for my desktop and it would be nice to log into some websites from another countries sometimes.
I've also looked into setting up my own Asterisk server but haven't had time to get too in-depth with that yet.
Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

That's a bit much. I think skype is safe, though.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk

.
Thread moved to Q&A due to it being a question. Would advise you to read forum rules and post in correct section.

Phone privacy and security, is it possible to be completely private and secure?

I have always known that companies like google and facebook for example collect our data, web searches etc and sell this information for profit. Today, this has become an even bigger issue with what we see in the media with the nsa and other government organizations tapping into our devices and monitoring our usage. At the end of the day, most of us, myself included really dont have anything to hide, so it may not be a real issue. I have often thought that if anyone poked around in my pc or phone they would simply get bored as they are just full of geeky engineering files lol. The real thing for me is simply that it's an invasion of privacy and just not right. With that said, I find myself wanting to go the extra mile to make my pc and my phone completely private from outside sources taking my information, watching my web searches and seeing my data. My question is, is it possible to be 100% secure and private, and if not, how close can we get, and how? I have heard that VPN's can achieve this. Is this true? and if so are there any free secure VPN's for our android devices and or pc's that are really good? Do VPN's slow down our devices? Also, Is there a way when we delete android files to permanently delete them? I noticed when I flashed my rom, after doing the complete wipe that is still contains files from before the wipe.
(I know this isn't a pc forum, I only included the pc because it's relevant.)
Thank you all in advance.

There are no data retention laws in the United States. Meaning, if a data center does not want to hold any logs to their users' activity, they're not required by law to do so. Multiple countries are similar, which is why I recommend using Private Internet Access for your VPN. They have a client for PC and Android and they're really great. I've been using them for many years and have had no issues. And, if you're really wanting to remain "anonymous", you can pay for your VPN subscription using gift cards from popular outlets like Walmart, Starbucks, etc. And for search engines, I'd recommend DuckDuckGo, which doesn't log anything you search. For PC, I'd recommend disabling your IPv6 protocol in your router settings and getting uBlock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere, and PrivacyBadger. They're wonderful add-ons for Firefox or Chrome. uBlock Origin and PrivacyBadger can block WebRTC leaks which would leak your IP address and can be used to identify you. If you want more information, feel free to reply to my post and I'll help you out as much as I can.

Hoxic said:
There are no data retention laws in the United States. Meaning, if a data center does not want to hold any logs to their users' activity, they're not required by law to do so. Multiple countries are similar, which is why I recommend using Private Internet Access for your VPN. They have a client for PC and Android and they're really great. I've been using them for many years and have had no issues. And, if you're really wanting to remain "anonymous", you can pay for your VPN subscription using gift cards from popular outlets like Walmart, Starbucks, etc. And for search engines, I'd recommend DuckDuckGo, which doesn't log anything you search. For PC, I'd recommend disabling your IPv6 protocol in your router settings and getting uBlock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere, and PrivacyBadger. They're wonderful add-ons for Firefox or Chrome. uBlock Origin and PrivacyBadger can block WebRTC leaks which would leak your IP address and can be used to identify you. If you want more information, feel free to reply to my post and I'll help you out as much as I can.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hoxic,
Thank you for all of the information. With the private internet access VPN on my PC and android, will that slow down anything like web surfing, uploads or downloads? I am limited to using Verizon's high speed DSL connection as they refer to it, (I refer to it as slowest speed connection lol) in my neighborhood and this is the only provider for me so it's already pretty slow compared to Fios and other broadband connections. I would hate to slow it down any more.
You mention to pay for these services using gift cards and such. Well as I mentioned, I do not have anything that I am actually worried about anyone seeing, this is simply my way of trying to protect my privacy so I wouldn't go that far but I am curious about that statement. Do you mean that using a VPN truly isn't private or is this just to remove any paper trail linking me to the use of a VPN provider? I have been using DuckDuckGo for several years already just to stop google from taking and selling my info. Weather it truly works or not I dont know but its a great search engine anyway so I figured why not use it.
Your advice to disabling IPv6 protocol in my router settings: I do not see anywhere in my router settings to do this so I googled it, and it looks like there's a way o do this in windows. Is that different that what you're advising? Also I read a windows blog on this and windows 10 says IPv6 is a mandatory part of Windows that they do not advise on disabling. Can you give me some more detail on this, and how to disable it, assuming the windows warning is bull.
Thanks for all of your help.

Captive Portal Login Crashes

So, basically when you find a hotspot and the notification pops up to sign into the wifi hotspot, captive portal login supposed to to take you to the sign in page or just help you sign in with remembered passwords and webpage. NOPE..... doesnt work, just crashes.

I work for an ISP providing support for the hotspots if someone asks, and I study full-stack backend and frontend web development.
This is not the pixel causing issues, someone messed up the captive portal. Mobile or desktop site should not matter, it is all just HTTP requests regardless.
Edit: clear chrome cache or use something that is not chromium based eg. Firefox.

I was having similar issues trying to login to Southwest Airlines in flight wifi a few weeks ago. It wasn't until my return trip across the US that I set my "Private DNS Mode" to automatic instead of the custom one I had been using for it to start working. That setting is under Advanced in Network & internet settings.

There was indeed a captive portal bug, its been fixed in august update. From what i gather there was a bit of code in an xml or manifest or somet, leading the portal astray. Which of course would stop it finding what it needs.