NFC Ring Arrived! --Some questions/concerns/complaints
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First off, I'd like to be clear and state that I love my NFC ring, even though its a little spotty sometimes in terms of finding the sweet spot, and it is not the stealth bomber that I originally ordered. But I have a few questions. I've tried to look through the forums as much as possible so sorry if there are posts dedicated to some of my concerns and questions.
I'm sure your support team is backed up, hence why I haven't received a response from them even though I sent them some of these questions about a week or so ago. Thus, I'm posting on here maybe someone else can help.
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I ordered two stealth bombers and I got two all black rings but it is not the carbon fiber stealth bomber I originally purchased. I've been keeping up with the site/blog/forum and I was under the impression that I would get a voucher to redeem when the carbon fiber stealth bombers are figured out. However, I have received no such voucher. Might be helpful to know I am not a kickstarter backer. Am I getting a voucher for a carbon fiber stealth bomber or no?
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I was able to register one of my rings with my Nexus 5 through the ring control app successfully and created a username and PASSWORD. Then I went to the ring unlock app and it is asking for my email and verification code. I have never received a verification code either from you guys in an email prior to receiving my rings or not--however, I put my PASSWORD as the verification code and it worked. This seemed a little strange to me--when I input my password as the verification code it did not even replace the characters with asterisks.
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The other ring I purchased is not successfully registering. When trying to register it through the NFC ring control app it says "Alert: Not NFC ring". However, the NFC tag works, so I am wondering if this is a software issue and how it can be fixed? I have a Moto X and was able to get this ring to unlock my phone through the integrated NFC unlock ability the Moto X comes with that is compatible with the Moto Skip, instead of using the NFC ring unlock app. This leads me to my next major complaint/point....
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Is there any way for the ring unlock app to NOT take over my lock screen? I can't see the time, I can't see the date, I can't see any missed notifications. It's annoying. I hate that the NFC Ring unlock app just takes over the whole screen and when I press power I can't see ANY details without unlocking my phone. SOMETIMES the NFC Ring unlock screen glitches and the top and bottom bars on my nexus 5 are visible letting me see the time and notifications but it looks hideous. I wish the NFC Ring Unlock app was an invisible overlay or mimicked the regular slide to unlock lockscreen with all the details available. There's gotta be a way to make this work. Also, I am aware of the NFC unlock option through Xposed Framework but would like to say that I am not interested in rooting my phone. Does anyone have a solution? If not, can the developers see this.
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The User Interface for the NFC Ring apps are mostly terrible. It's hard to fully figure out or know what each option does in practice and I think it needs revamping. Also, why cant the ring unlock app be consolidated and merged into the Ring Control app as a subset or option within that app.
With that being said, the ring works fairly consistently for me and I love being able to unlock my phone with it. Would recommend anyone on the fence to buy it!
-Mauricio
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Hi @MauricioU, good to hear you've received your ring!
For your questions,-
if you're due vouchers then you'll be able to request them at a later date, after all these initial pledges and orders are shipped. At that point John will make a blog post and any necessary announcements to explain how this process will occur.
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this is slightly confusing at the moment but there will be changes to the way verification works in the future. At the moment you password is your verification code. Don't stress too much about the password not being blanked out, there's no functional difference there... Just don't let anyone look over your shoulder the one time you verify your app.
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that second ring must be one of the ~20 rings which missed the database before being sent out. Just use your ring that has for any verification that you may need to do. It's still an nfc ring, and will still do everything that thebother one does.
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the nfc ring unlock app is a user space solution for those who don't root their phones, it's integrated as tightly into the os as it can be at the moment while nfc unlock is not part of core android functionality. It works and keeps the unauthorised from doing anything meaningful with your phone. For more seamless integration you would have to root your phone and use a different app.
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the unlock app and the control app are essentially different apps by different people, if the control app were bundled into the unlock app then it would no longer be open source due to the elements of the unlock which are currently closed source.
If you do have any feedback on the unlock app then feel free to make suggestions on github.
https://github.com/mclear/Android_NFC_Ring_Unlock/issues?direction=desc&sort=updated&state=open
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@Lokki Thanks for the response!!! I may end up rooting my nexus 5 in order to get the unlock option to be better. Appreciate the help!
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No worries at all @MauricioU, just make sure you know how rooting will affect your device, on some it can permanently disable features.
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Yes, I have rooted before. I ended up rooting now and am currently using the Xposed Framework NFC LockscreenOff Enabler and it is working great. However, I have a question maybe you can answer. Whenever I unlock my phone now that way, the application "Tags" opens and it says "New tag collected" and under that it says "Unknown tag type". So, in other words, it doesnt just unlock my phone as if I input a pin, It opens this "tags" app and tries to tell me the contents of the tag. Perhaps you know a way around it. I'm currently scavenging the internet for an answer to this but no one even mentions this issue in the official XDA developers forum for NFC Lockscreenoff enabler, at least from what I can tell.
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@Lokki , Sorry I didn't mean to come off so short with the first sentence of my reply. I was too excited to get my question out because everything is ALMOST perfect. haha. Anyways, thanks for the heads up. I have rooted before multiple times so I am pretty aware of all the ins and outs of it and how it affects my device.
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Lol, it's all good @MauricioU, I'm not generally very touchy. ;-)
Is the tags app something separate that you've got running? I've not had that happen on my Xperia M and it's been using that lockscreen module for a while now.
Re the root advice, I always wince a little because it's too easy to root some android devices and it can do some weird (to me) things when you do, I've used Apple since I stopped using Nokia, and jailbreaking is completely different to rooting. -
I just noticed it mentioned here in Tom's post.
https://forum.nfcring.com/topic/43/nfc-ring-as-part-of-the-standard-android-unlock-system/4
Edit: aaaaand then I went back to it and you'd noticed first!
