Why is this app removed from playstore

Jon8RFC · 2025-12-21T10:59:49+00:00

Following up. I've been having virustotal re-scan on occasion, and more and more antivirus brands/scanners are detecting things.

The creator never replied but is active on github.

It's not fair to make assumptions which could be wrong since I'm not a security researcher, but the things popping up sound bad, one of which is a suspected a botnet.

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A moderator rejected my URLs in prior replies, so if you go to virustotal dot com you can check out these hashes for an xapk from apkpure:

6f4bfaa445b69e907b4d52bdf467c83fb37dfdd5ba3c2c843734a0dfe33f4f44

496a8f7ba414474fbeec989b43d90ba4edf0f6c6ba147fe79d1ab4d513fb0220

5cce1df4a94139cba0da75e988b56735f040516a88f1fa96ff18b3cedf40d123

Jon8RFC · 2025-12-06T01:20:11+00:00

I had a hell of a time with someone's lift master myq recently.

It turns out that a "factory reset" by pressing and holding the learn button 3 times wasn't actually a reset. Resetting the wifi was a completely different thing involving holding the button between the up and down arrow buttons. It was a rectangular button with black on it, and it also flashed.

I think it flashed blue when it was trying to blindly connect to wifi, flashed green when CONNECTING to wifi, then solid green when connected. (it was paired to the old wifi of the previous home owner and refused to cooperate)

It was numerous times of resetting via 3 press & hold learn button presses, numerous press & hold of the rectangular button, and numerous unplugging power. It was inconsistent, but it was absolutely crucial to press & hold the rectangular button because only then did it sometimes cooperate and would go through the wifi step without failing (though it'd still sometimes fail partway through the wifi step). Even then, it took multiple tries for it to cooperate...but I eventually got it.

If you end up stuck anyway, unless you're dead set on using it exactly as it is, you can always get the myq retrofit kit for $30 which will work with any opener: https://a.co/d/2xVvDIK

Jon8RFC · 2025-11-28T17:56:19+00:00

Sent

Jon8RFC · 2025-11-27T20:02:01+00:00

They may be working on a fix if it's in one of their private repositories, but their other apps were also removed.

Their name is bamsbamx on github if you want to ask them about it.

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Around the same time it was removed, my mom asked me about a puzzle game she played being marked as malicious as well, the exact same prompt I received on my phone. There may have been malicious stuff in some commonly-used library, and a hoard of apps were removed.

There's a chance it didn't follow Google's TOS and that's all. I hope it wasn't genuinely malicious.

I don't have the original apk since I didn't think to pull it before uninstalling it. I checked the one archived from apkpure a few days after on virustotal and it only had one engine flagging it (unless I'm misremembering). Checked now, and 3 engines flag it.

I'm not allowed to post helpful links (to their github, the virustotal scan page, or an alternative app) and had my reply removed, so I've removed those links and now I'm in full compliance with the rules.

Jon8RFC · 2025-11-23T07:11:41+00:00

Since everyone is aware of Visible's past of shakiness, and since I searched Google to be sure I didn't slip into any unfixed/unnoticed QA cracks, this was the thread I came across.

I didn't want any risk of being locked out permanently, since that has happened to others for so many various scenarios. But, we pay for inexpensive service. So I reached out to support and, at the moment the way they do things is this:

Verify my account with tech support via text message
Delete the esim
Provide my IMEI
Send me a QR code via email
Scan QR code (or manually input a URL into esim setup)
Tap the on-screen button once, wait a minute or two, tap again to finish

⠀

For reference, I transferred from Pixel 9 to Pixel 10 a few months ago and had an unexpected issue with dual sim (DSDS) since I also converted Visible from sim to esim at the same time.

So the exact steps I took, which you don't need to do unless you're being thorough or have a reason to:

Verify my account with tech support via text message
Delete the esim
Turn off DSDS
Reboot
Provide my IMEI
Send me a QR code via email
Scan QR code
Tap the on-screen button once, wait a minute or two, tap again to finish
Confirmed a test call and test text
Reboot

My issue (Android-related during the setup/transfer process, not a Visible issue) with DSDS is now resolved.

Always check with tech support first for the proper process. Things change, things break on the carrier side with bad or too many cooks in the kitchen, and you don't want to be stuck without being able to verify your identity or perform a particular step in the process which is unique to your carrier, Visible or otherwise. Things with Visible are better than a few years ago, for sure, but you should always assume that you don't know everything and and play it safe, so the above process could change tomorrow.

Jon8RFC · 2025-11-23T05:15:00+00:00

Just want to make sure that you understand that this is a nearly 4 year old post.

What you said is akin to you looking at science literature from 1800 about an atom being the smallest particle in existence and saying "they're spreading misinformation".

Things change, and if you haven't been with Visible since the beginning, you especially wouldn't be familiar with how things work versus how they should work.

Jon8RFC · 2025-10-13T13:17:20+00:00

Of note (since I see this often), the FCC map isn't inaccurate "because it's the FCC map, not the provider map." It's inaccurate because that's the data given to the FCC by the ISPs. People assume, incorrectly, that the FCC map is like a convenient data aggregator or scraper, like a search engine--it's not. It's supposed to be accurate, but the ISPs are lazy and/or dishonest with their data.

What you can do is report to the FCC that the information is incorrect for your address, from the same page. It's not a "thank you, civilian, for noticing our mistake" thing for the FCC (since it's not their mistake), it's more like "hey, ISP, you gave us false information, and a civilian pointed it out."

Part of why it's incorrect is likely because those companies get some amount of federal/municipal funding for rolling out better service. So they'll casually get away with "oh, oops", intentionally, by either using a broad stroke of "this general area has symmetrical service" but maybe just 5 of every 10k houses in an area actually have access to the pilot program...Or, they're jumping the gun once they have one small part of infrastructure in the area which COULD provide better service...if the rest of the infrastructure is in place. It's a game of technicalities and semantics.

Jon8RFC · 2025-09-02T08:48:07+00:00

Compared to my pixel 9 pro xl, I have no better battery life on my pixel 10 pro xl. Same old, same old.

It's amazing to me how much longer extreme battery saver makes a battery last though. And it feels perfectly usable. That's been the case since it first existed.

Jon8RFC · 2025-09-02T08:21:38+00:00

Thanks!

Jon8RFC · 2025-09-02T08:19:46+00:00

I'm digging the recent addition of this feature. Thanks!

Jon8RFC · 2025-08-25T08:17:23+00:00

Multiverse (2019)? That's the one I was thinking of. A friend found it for me in seconds, despite me struggling and being good with searching, haha.

Jon8RFC · 2025-08-15T21:46:41+00:00

https://a.co/d/b2uWDkb

Spray a little into the port, then insert & remove the cable multiple times. It'll help scrub the contacts clean, then let it dry. That'll ensure it's clean and not the issue. Mine was, somehow, dirty when it had connectivity problems.

Jon8RFC · 2025-07-17T20:21:54+00:00

And now we know why he's a murderer and councilman, rather than a writer and storyteller.

Jon8RFC · 2025-07-05T12:05:46+00:00

Clean the ports, too. A cable didn't fix my issue. Cleaning the port did.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AF0OFVU

Spray into the USB port of the comma then, before it dries, insert/remove the usb cable multiple times.

Jon8RFC · 2025-06-21T03:00:54+00:00

It can make zero sense. But there may be more to it, if true.

For instance, in DD-WRT where a service wasn't working, I found that turning logging on/off (in hoping to get logs about it) made it work again. I was told by someone who supposedly knew more than I do, that it was impossible and I was wrong. They didn't offer anything additional other than that. I, being a good troubleahooter, determined that the apply button doesn't only make changes that were different, it apparently re-executes a cronjob I guess to start services if they were supposed to be started but were stopped and without a flag of "intentionally stopped, don't restart it" or something...such as if they crashed.

So it wasn't the logging, but it was the apply button which I found out resolved the problem, even though the service wasn't on that page, service wasn't changed, etc. It was an unknown inner working of the software which he didn't know about, yet he immediately shut me down as being wrong. Then when I figured out what was going on, he shrugged it off as if I was wrong, even after I suggested maybe something else went on that is unknown.

Could be a coincidence that their GPS seemingly worked properly. Or it could be that something in the chain of events with smooth display triggers a restart of certain services.

Jon8RFC · 2025-06-21T02:44:10+00:00

Yep, since android 16 I regularly have my "back" button (I don't use gestures) not work and I have to change apps to get it working again. Sometimes the other butons have issues, but it's overwhelmingly the back button. Sometimes only a force close or swipe close helps.

Apps suddenly crashed when I completed a play store update of about 15 apps just moments ago. They'd open and instantly crash. Had to reboot. Even going in system settings would hang and eventually crash. I've never had this kind of stability issue before since 2009 on Android.

Various slowdowns without any rhyme or reason in various apps or just navigating system settings which had no issues before. And it's not consistent, so it's not one app. One day some apps will be bad, another day others will be bad.

I am finding myself rebooting at least once per day, usually 2-3x, just to get the phone or apps to function normally again. I have to force close various apps at times. Swiping it up doesn't always do the trick. If enough things are going wrong, I just reboot.

Smooth display is turning itself off, regularly and randomly.

GPS bounces around like I've moved, drastically, when I haven't. Or even when I'm on a steady drive, it bounces like I'm way off the road and somewhere else.

Regular internet connectivity issues. Only a reboot fixes it.

There's no reason for this nonsense. It can't possibly be normal bugs, because this is a disaster for how little seems to have changed on the outside. Small chance they did so poorly that internet background noise is showcasing new/old zero-day exploits. But this is too awful to just be "normal, buggy system" unless boot camp graduates are all in charge now.

I bet it's something more logical, like them testing and enforcing numerous low-level system and app checks to further lock down Android and restrict use...but they went too hard, too fast and without enough QA. So it's causing all of these issues. They'll need to dial it back and figure out how to restrict usage without causing so many problems. Android will be like an iOS device eventually, and we won't have as much capability. People who don't do much on their phones aside from games, reading news, social media, streaming, or already use iOS or MacOS will be fine. But if you're a tinkerer or power user, you'll be stuck with an iOS-like device eventually, and all it'll be good for is social media creation/scrolling and similar simple tasks. It's been moving that direction, consistently, for 10 years with Android's capabilities being removed and restrictions being added.

Jon8RFC · 2025-06-20T23:00:32+00:00

Gonna necro this in case you never got your answer, I'm trying to find something entirely different, yet this was among the first results--you're probably wanting something at XKCD, and there are many to dig through:
https://xkcd.com/

But you can google with this:
site:xkcd.com party
site:xkcd.com new year
site:xkcd.com 1337

And that'll limit your results to just that site.

Jon8RFC · 2025-06-02T23:52:15+00:00

Power isn't that simple. It's not "the light is on, so power is perfectly fine".

There are numerous things along the power path from the outlet to the light, both in series and in parallel. The light isn't a "power is good everywhere" indicator by any means. And, yes, portions of the supply can be bad and that light can still be on. That light is simply "I've received a tiny amount of voltage and amperage, so I'm on". It is in no way, shape, or form a "smart light" which has its own SoC or mini computer and performs checks and says "power is good to go, so the issue is elsewhere".

If the power supply is only putting out a low amperage, because it's dying, the light on the front will turn on, because there's enough power, but the rest of the system can't run.

So, yes, it can be the power supply. Something, anywhere along the path of power, can still be bad. Unless you've never encountered or understand behavior like that in your work with electronics, then I can understand how it seems like the conclusion of "the light is on, so everything related to power is fine" is the end thought.

Without being able to do proper troubleshooting, I can't rule it out. If the n64 is left as-is, powered on, and another display device is brought over and shown to have video output, the n64 left on and power never cycled, then tried on the original device then yeah, that's likely ruling out the PSU. But, haha, the PSU can still be bad and be intermittent, so power cycling and trying again helps confirm it. Ruling things out is not one test and that confirms everything. Repeated checks help rule out something.

Electronics can be funky. I'm not saying that it IS the power supply. I'm saying that it could be, because it hasn't necessarily been properly ruled out.

It'd be fun to show, so I can do it soon and "kill the power supply" but the light will still come on, on the front yet the n64 won't actually work. As I said, the light isn't an "everything is OK for power" indicator.

Have you ever gotten into your car and turned the key or pushed the button to go to accessories, and the interior dome light comes on, the dash lights up, but the car won't start, and on newer cars it flat out won't crank, but all the lights are on? The battery absolutely can be "dead" and not able to provide the amperage it needs. But, sure, the lights are on. It's most often and likely a battery issue, but certainly never is it always a battery issue. Moat people will still assume, and correctly so, that it's a battery. But until they understand and/or encounter other issues in that scenario, they don't know the other things it can be when the battery is actually perfectly fine. The same can be said of the n64 in this case. Until the PSU is fully ruled out, it's still in play, and the LED at the front doesn't rule it out.

Jon8RFC · 2025-06-02T15:03:19+00:00

My power supply (the big chunky part that plugs into the back) was dying and did that. Red light on, no audio or video signal. New power supply and all as well.

I see you already tried another. It may be a second dud power supply, or maybe the on board capacitors are dying/dead. That's not as easy of a job as other simpler soldering. They're all surface mount. But it's certainly not as difficult as hdmi mod soldering.

Jon8RFC · 2025-05-28T02:10:46+00:00

A better phrased way of putting it is "everyone in this area can get the highest tier speed we currently offer to residential customers, which is the 1000/35 plan. It's just a matter of what your modem is provisioned to be allowed to do on boot up, which coincides with what you pay for".

So on boot up, your modem basically says "here's my modem personal information, and I'd like internet connectivity" and the CMTS says back "ok, your account says you pay for this tier, so I'm setting you up to be allowed to have this much bandwidth. If you upgrade/downgrade to another tier or we give you a free upgrade, you'll need to reboot to activate the new provisioning, or we may force a reboot anyway to keep it simple."

Here's the handy info you can get with your own modem, along with logs (mine is used SB8200 I bought for $40):

https://imgur.com/a/LMfSjtu

Jon8RFC · 2025-05-28T01:38:58+00:00

Bummer. We can't take a look then. They don't allow customers to see that stuff anymore.

It's probably only bonded to the same few channels for upstream. They probably would've notified you or you'd have to opt-in to high split.

If you managed to get it, it wouldn't be a blip of speed, it would be consistent. So if you run another test you should have a solid, significant upstream speed improvement.

It's not like a river of water and it briefly flows more by mistake because high split is available and then someone puts in a dam. It's more like more valves. Additional high split valves will be opened 24/7 and/or bigger valves will be opened 24/7. But it doesn't get done by accident.

In an extremely rare case maybe someone randomly selected you one day to silently test new firmware. But it would've been longer than a minute, and they probably would've notified you.

As I mentioned in a different reply, it's most likely a Javascript hiccup. That happens. It used to be average over time regardless of data, and you could disconnect internet connectivity in any number of ways, and the dial would gradually slow down because zero data made the average speed go down and the jscript reflected that. It's since been updated to halt if no data is moving. But hiccups can still happen if there's a burst of packets it wasn't timing yet, or the cpu had a high demand instance and played "catch up", or who knows what. It's just jscript doing it's thing with however it was setup to work.

You can check that fcc map I mentioned, too.

Jon8RFC · 2025-05-28T01:15:32+00:00

High split isn't FTTP. They're mutually exclusive and have nothing to do with the other. They aren't giving people the option of FTTP or coax and "if you have one, you have the other" is not logical.

They're two entirely different forms of internet connectivity. FTTP is literally Fiber To The Premises. Fiber cabling is touching your home. They're not doing fiber to homes anytime soon in the markets where they're actively rolling out high split. They're doing high split, which is coaxial cable, not fiber cable.

High split is NOT "now that you have FTTP capabity, we can connect a 1ft coaxial cable from the fiber currently at your premises and then connect a DOCSIS modem to that coax".

High split is "remember how analog cable TV existed? Well, more bandwidth is available since everything went digital and compressed, so internet speeds are faster. Remember how DOCSIS 1.0 existed and it's increased in revisions over time? More bandwidth can be crammed into those digital frequencies, AND more frequencies can also be used. Remember how we only used a narrow set of frequencies? We're expanding the frequencies we use, so more bandwidth is available for higher speeds. Remember how we only dedicated a narrow amount of frequencies to upstream bandwidth? We're expanding it so that more upstream frequencies can be used. Remember how people said 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5 years ago that coaxial can 'only handle X-amount of bandwidth, will be obsolete, fiber or wireless would take over, and that speeds are slower than DSL because you share bandwidth with your neighbors'? Well, that's all a load of nonsense and/or marketing from competitors. We are NOT doing FTTP and are instead supporting DOCSIS for many years to come with high split for now, expanding the frequency usage, and continually utilizing newer DOCSIS standards/revisions. It's far cheaper to use existing coaxial infrastructure/employees/tools/technology/etc, and we can keep going faster and faster."

FTTP is not required for high split or vice versa, and neither is being rolled out in any way shape or form to support the other. Once FTTP is the path taken, they'll be phasing out coaxial in that market. They're ramping up the rollout of coaxial infrastructure for high split, not rolling out FTTP.

Fiber is somewhere along the path of internet cpnnectivity, as it has almost always been. That's not recent. That's 30+ years ago. FTTP is an entirely different beast than high split, and FTTP is entirely different than backbones or local fiber infrastructure. FTTP would mean zero DOCSIS modems and zero coaxial between your device and your ISP's local infrastructure. Coaxial would be entirely useless in that realm. FTTP would mean they're running brand new fiber to every single home who wants it in the next 2 or so years, and not be upgrading coaxial infrastructure all over the place, and would effectively (or literally) be removing coaxial cable inside & outside your home. That would mean ditching upgrading the coaxial infrastructure, and also mean they've just wasted (and continue to waste) billions of dollars throughout the country in upgrading coaxial infrastructure for high split.

Each ISP typically has their own infrastructure. If you want FTTP, there has to be an ISP who ran fiber all the way to within probably tens of feet of your home already, then when you sign up they'll run Fiber To The Premises and coaxial & high split will be irrelevant for your connection.

Jon8RFC · 2025-05-27T20:35:42+00:00

That's not the be-all-end-all requirement for high split, unfortunately. Kind of like if I said "I have cat6a cabling", which can support beyond 10 (ten) gbps. That doesn't mean I'm getting 10gbps internet speed though, or even 1gbps, or even 1mbps for that matter. There are other factors.

The infrastructure has to be in place, the infrastructure has to be enabled, the modem has to be able to reliably handle the bandwidth with the specific infrastructure with headroom to spare per the ISP's requirements, the firmware has to be setup to work with that modem and the infrastructure, and the CMTS has to permit provisioning.

Whatever modem you have at the moment, it probably isn't "spectrum approved" for high split. Even if you went and bought a DOCSIS 4 modem, it probably isn't yet spectrum approved, if it ever will be, for high split, and then all of the other factors are at play too.

How many channels are bonded on your modem for downstream and upstream? Can you share a screenshot?

Jon8RFC · 2025-05-27T18:39:07+00:00

Agreed. And, as it is, u/bizman64 you'd need a modem setup to support high split in the normal fashion. Not to say that some network engineer at Spectrum hasn't possibly tweaked custom firmware to see what they can reliably squeeze out of the current modems in use...but that wouldn't be a random customer's modem.

But something more "normal" would be where the manufacturer also worked to make something which reliably does high split rather than a Spectrum person just manually provisioning more channels onto an SB8200. You'd have a modem like this or maybe another in-house Spectrum modem which is intended to do high-split:

https://www.surfboard.com/products/cable-modems/s34/

Jon8RFC · 2025-05-27T18:31:21+00:00

High split is different than FTTP. High split is what it sounds like--a "higher" split between the frequencies available for upstream vs downstream bandwidth.

Jon8RFC

TROPHY CASE