new to android, 3 questions

[tuffluck]

just received my galaxy s3 and am new to android. have a few questions:

1. the company i work for requires us to have an 8 digit password on our phone, like as in once i register my exchange email, i have to set a password immediately and all the security settings on my phone as disabled and i cannot override this feature. but, i'd like to override it in some way. i have the timeout set as 30 minutes, so as long as i use the phone once every 30 minutes, i don't have to type the code in. it's very annoying and i'm hoping there is some way to extend this period of time, maybe even use the face recognition unlock feature or something else.

2. my company has wireless at work which i can use, but every time i connect (as in every day) i have to go to a webpage and enter in a username/password). is there any way to set the password to not be needed every day? or maybe i can set a hotkey with swiftkey to equal the username and another hotkey for the password to save time? any other suggestions?

3. coming from a WP7, the only feature i miss about the windows phone was the calendar functionality. it kind of sucks on android. the calendar widget is ridiculously huge and the WP7 had a calendar icon on the lock screen also, which would be really helpful. i work a job with a full calendar every day, it's really helpful to have a calendar poking at me every time i look at my phone so that i know when my next appointment is, where it is, etc. i almost missed a meeting already due to android's poor UI on the calendar. perhaps there is a setting or app out there i just haven't come across yet?

lastly, #3 and #1 contradict each other a bit, as some of the calendar widgets lock your screen, then i have to unlock it again with the network password thing mentioned in #1. that's just kind of a pain and i wish there were a way around that also.

thanks for your help.

 

[Devinator]

1. Does this mean your company has an Admin on your phone and they are setting policy? If so, there might not be much you can do.

2. An option to remember the username and password doesn't show up?

3. Well, if you setup events to give you a notification, you shouldn't miss anything because your phone will let you know at a certain amount of time before an event what event is coming up. I find the calendar extremely useful and it helps my life run smoothly. As for a lock screen calendar, there should be options out there for you. I believe at one point I was using Executive Assistant and that had a lock screen calendar. It also did tasks, missed calls, etc. I think there was another app I was using too, but, I can't remember what it is off the top of my head. But, look into EA to start.

Well, a 30 minute timeout is a longtime. You don't use your phone every 30 minutes? I know I do. I doubt it'd lock very often, especially if it's a business phone. And, if you have notifications set for your calendar, they'll pop up in your notification bar and make a noise whenever you have an event coming up. If your phone is locked, you could check your lock screen calendar, if it's not, you can pull down the notification bar and check the event.

 

[tuffluck]

yes, they have admin rights on the phone.

no, no option to remember username/password. i am using the stock browser though. maybe another browser would ask to remember?

i'll try executive assistant. i do not use my phone every 30 minutes while at work--they cut cell reception in our building so i can use wifi to browse, but can't do any phone functions with the phone at all. since i am working while at work, there is rarely a need to do any browsing either.

 

[Devinator]

Well, if they have Admin, I would assume they can dictate policy that you can't really do anything about, no? Never had a work Android phone, so, I don't have much experience with that.

Really? Weird. I get options to remember username and password with the stock browser on my X2 and my Prime. Maybe it has something to do with the way they have the site setup, not sure. But, if you can setup hotkeys, that sounds like a good start. And, like you said, you could try some other browsers too.

If you don't like EA, try doing a search in Play on "calendar" and see if there are any good ones. Or, maybe someone will post a lock screen calendar they like. I don't use one, I just have the stock Calendar widget as one full screen on my desktop and use reminders and it serves all my needs. I'm a heavy calendar user too. But, hopefully EA will work for you. If I can remember the name of that other app I'm thinking off, I'll let you know. But, it's been a while.

Also, welcome to AC.

 

[tuffluck]

thanks for the help. this is a personal phone, but my job requires a blackberry for email access or using your own personal phone. i am not a girl and don't carry around a purse that can hold two phones, so i prefer to just leave it at 1. it sucks since it's my personal phone and at&t account, but sounds like there isn't much i can do about it.

 

[Devinator]

Huh, so, you had to give them Admin access to your phone? That's kinda weird. I would never do that, I'd rather just carry around two phones, haha. Yea, I agree, that is really lame. Like I said, I'd go for the two phones, it'd be annoying, but, I would never let anyone at my job touch my phone. If I could use it by just adding an email account, okay, but, Admin rights, no way. But, if you are set on only one phone, hopefully you can make it work.

 

[tuffluck]

Maybe i dont understand what admin rights means? The never have or never will touch my phone. I just add the exchange account and with it i have to input a code to work my phone. They have a disclaimer that they can disable features of you phone like the camera, but they havent actually done that.

Maybe someone can explain to me what admin rights means exactly, can they read text messages and stuff? Dont see that being legal since this is my own line i pay for...

Lastly, we are a Fortune 10 company, so very large with some crazy access rules.

 

[Devinator]

It's like admin rights on a PC. Your work PC probably has an admin account for when the admins need to do work on your PC. Well, if they haven't touched your phone you have no need to worry.

Since they never touched your phone I don't know how they'd be able to access any data. And, yea, that'd probably be illegal since it's a private phone.

 

[tuffluck]

so i am trying executive assistant. i like it but wish i could preview outlook mail. for some reason it will only let me sync gmail and not my yahoo or exchange account. also i wish that it could replace the unlock screen entirely so i didn't have to go through it plus the android lock screen also.

tried dolphin browser and still have to type in the username/password for wifi; that browser won't remember it either.

 

[Devinator]

Did you look through all the settings? There was no way to tie your other email address into EA?

You can replace the lock screen. Here are some options:

Eleven Ways to Replace Your Lock Screen | Android.AppStorm

That's really strange. Both my devices remember passwords. I don't use many password sites on them, but, the ones I do, are remembered. Wish I could offer more advice on this one.