Since the last update of Unlock With WiFi, I’ve been getting this question a lot. The answer is that it doesn’t. If you don’t like it, simply turn off notifications in the settings. It’s that easy.

One thing that changed in the last update is that notifications are enabled by default. This is because having notifications turned on makes the app more reliable. Why? The answer is complicated, and a bit technical, but if you are curious, I will try to explain it.

Smartphones are computers, just like your desktop or laptop computer. However, they tend to have much less RAM (memory) than larger computers. To make up for this, the Android operating system has a memory management system that tries to make this limitation less noticeable. To understand how it works, there is one key concept to note: An app can run in either the foreground, or background. When an app is running in the foreground, it is visible to the user, and the user can interact with it. This is how most apps normally run. Some apps, like UWW, run in the background. That means that they are running even when the user is not viewing them. UWW must run in the background at all times in order to function properly.

Since smartphones have limited RAM, sometimes there’s not enough to go around. All running apps use some of the device’s RAM, and when the RAM is full, the Android operating system has to free up some of the RAM in order to keep running properly. It does this by killing background apps, therefore freeing up the memory that they were using. Android assumes that background apps are less important than foreground apps, because the app in the foreground is the one the user is currently using. This is perfectly logical, but it presents a problem for UWW. If UWW is killed by the operating system, it can no longer function.

Android knows that sometimes a background app is too important to be killed. That’s why it allows some background apps to be considered foreground apps. If an background app is considered a foreground app by Android, then Android won’t kill it to free up memory. If you want a background app to be considered a foreground app, then the app must have an icon in the status bar. This is the rule that Android imposes, and I have no control over it. The reasoning is probably that if an app is too important to be killed, then the user should be aware that it is running. When notifications are enabled in UWW, then the icon is shown in the status bar, and UWW will be considered a foreground app.

What this all means is that UWW is less likely to be killed by Android if it has an icon in the status bar. Some phones have more RAM than others, or have less apps running that use up the RAM. In such a case, UWW may not need to be considered a foreground app, since Android won’t need to kill background apps very often. However, if your phone has less RAM, or a lot of background apps running, then UWW may need to be considered a foreground app in order to avoid being killed. Whether you enable notifications is up to you, but if you find that UWW is unreliable on your device, then try running it with notifications turned on.

You may be wondering why I don’t just make UWW work without running in the background. This is simply not possible. In order to keep the phone unlocked, and to monitor events like wifi connection/disconnection and screen on/off, UWW must be running. That is the way Android works, and I can’t do anything about it. It’s unfortunate, and I consider it to be a weakness of Android, but that’s what I have to work with.

If you have a smartphone, and it’s not protected by a password, you’re taking a huge risk. Most likely, you carry your smartphone with you everywhere. What happens if you lose it, or worse – it’s stolen? Your first thought might be that your private text messages will be exposed, or that a stranger might post something embarrassing on Facebook. However, it can get much more serious than that.

When someone has access to your email, they have access to your whole life.

Most people access their email on their phones, and when a malicious person gains access to your email, they essentially have access to your entire life. Say this person goes through your emails, and notices that you have some emails from Bank X. All they have to do is go to Bank X’s website, click “I forgot my password” and enter your email address. Ding – an email arrives on your phone with your bank password. Obviously, that’s bad.

It’s not just your bank account that could be compromised in this way. Paypal, Facebook, Twitter, Ebay, Amazon, your blog, your work email, you name it – they could all be at the thief’s fingertips. Not only that, but they can impersonate you to your friends, family, or colleagues by texting or calling from your number. This is complete identity theft, with all it’s associated nightmares. Your credit could be ruined, your reputation damaged, and even your job could be at risk. If someone wanted to completely destroy your life, the best thing they could do would be to steal your smartphone. Are you starting to see why you need a password on your phone?

So maybe you’re convinced that you need a password now. The only problem is that typing in a password every time you turn on your phone is going to be annoying! Well, if you’re an Android user, there’s an app that can make having a password on your phone much less painful. It’s called Unlock With WiFi, and it turns your password off when you’re connected to your home WiFi network. This means whenever you’re at home (or work, etc), you don’t have to enter your password when you turn on your phone. When you leave home, it turns your password on again.

It also has a lock delay feature, so that when you’re not at home, and your phone has only been off a short time (configurable by you), you won’t have to enter your password. For instance, if you set the lock delay to five minutes, then you won’t have to enter your password unless the phone has been off for more than five minutes. This is really convenient when you’re having an SMS conversation, for instance.

Unlock With WiFi takes the pain out of having a password on your phone. Try it!

On some phones, there is a problem with the volume keys turning the screen on when the phone is unlocked by Unlock With WiFi. This is bad because bumping the volume keys while the phone is in your pocket turns on the screen, which wastes battery and risks random screen presses doing unwanted stuff like pocket dialing.

Update: UWW 2.0 has a new mode called Device Admin mode that gets around this problem. Try it!

If you don’t want to use Device Admin mode, then you can try this manual method. You need to be a root user, and you need to edit your key map file. In /system/usr/keylayout there are a number of files with a .kl extension. The file that you need to edit will depend on your phone. You may need to use a trial and error method to figure out which one it is. Please backup all the files in this folder before you begin! I am not responsible for any harm you may do to your device while attempting this procedure.

On my Captivate with CM7, the file was aries-keypad.kl. The contents of the file look like this. Your file may look slightly different. I guessed that this was the correct file because it listed all the buttons that are present on my phone, and none that aren’t.

key 115    VOLUME_UP      WAKE
key 114    VOLUME_DOWN    WAKE
key 116    POWER          WAKE
key 139    MENU           VIRTUAL
key 102    HOME           VIRTUAL
key 158    BACK           VIRTUAL
key 217    SEARCH         VIRTUAL

You need to remove WAKE from the volume lines, so that it looks like this:

key 115    VOLUME_UP
key 114    VOLUME_DOWN
key 116    POWER          WAKE
key 139    MENU           VIRTUAL
key 102    HOME           VIRTUAL
key 158    BACK           VIRTUAL
key 217    SEARCH         VIRTUAL

After editing the file, reboot, and the volume keys will no longer wake the screen. Hope this works for those who were annoyed by this problem.

Some reference links:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1098981
http://www.kandroid.org/…keymaps_keyboard_input.html