Please note that although I’m a techie by trade, Android (and Avast) is new to me, so the following can be safely classified under the ‘numpty’ category.
I have an Asus Slider (similar to their Transformer). It has WiFi but no mobile phone built in. I can tether to a mobile phone no problem, but the tablet isn’t going to be permanently tethered.
Having successfully installed Avast mobile I understand that I can send commands to the tablet via SMS. So here’s my question - how can I send an SMS to a tablet which isn’t connected to a mobile phone network?
right now you can’t so the Anti-Theft isn’t that useful on tablets without a SIM or so, but we are working on a web portal that will allow you to send commands via data connection (being it mobile, Wi-Fi or something else).
It would be bad form for me to mention a competitor product by name on an open forum, however I have been reviewing another product over the last couple of weeks. It doesn’t appear to require mobile phone capability in order to respond a “where’s my tablet according to GPS” and “please sqwawk to let me know where the tablet is” request. Once set up I was able to issue both requests from that competitors web site, and the tablet responded accordingly - it wasn’t tethered, but it was connected to the Internet via WiFi. Furthermore, my tablet isn’t rooted so (AFAIK) it isn’t going under the covers to do something inappropriate.
I assume this must mean that the connection is made through some other means than mobile phone. It’s definitely push technology from the server end - the tablet responded immediately when I issued the command on the web site, so I don’t think the tablet would be polling to see if a request is waiting. Another assumption I might jump towards is that the competitors product might signal the competitor web site when an online connection is made by the tablet, and any requests are pushed to the tablet through that. However I don’t know this technology so my guesswork could be a million miles off the mark. I’m sure you guys would know what’s happening to make the non-mobile phone connectivity work.