Help Newbie question..

[ZGMF666legendgundamZAFT]

I have had my HTC M8 for a month or so...i came from a iPhone 5s, and had a apple 4/4s/5/5s for the last few years...my last android was a atrix(the 1st phone on the market with a fingerprint scanner)....so I am wondering, my phone is 32gb, and a 64gb micro ad card, how does the "memory" work???? I thought the phones memory would be fully filled, then go to the sd card, but it seems to "split" the memory storage....I don't understand how this works.....

2. I read on several websites that 30-40% of the google play store apps and other things for download have virus's, that's how my atria died...got a song, but a attached virus got on it, and I jumped ship to the iPhone 4.... So I am acting cautious...very.....this is why Apple has about 1/2 the apps that Google has....is this true????

3. You can transfer data between iPhone and android, how well does this work???? And I left apple because I got a virus on my apple iCloud, and I just said "screw it" and went fresh to a android phone...can the virus transfer to my android???? Which is why I left apple...I don't want a virus on my shiny new m8....

 

[Hadron]

1. Apps and app data go to the internal storage (which confusingly is called /sdcard - there is a reason, but it's history). The microSD card is primarily for media.

Now to qualify that, you can partially move apps to SD (Settings > Apps > Downloaded, select app and if there is a "move to SD" button that is not greyed-out you have the option). And you can store media on the phone if you prefer. If you have MarshMallow you should have the option to "adopt" an SD card, making it behave like the internal storage (at the cost of encrypting it so you can't just stick it in a card reader). So there are choices, but if you do nothing then apps and their data are on the internal storage and the card is mainly for media.

2. You need to read some better websites. Malware in the Play Store is rare, and quickly squashed. Now if you go downloading apps from other sides you do risk picking up something nasty: there are no viruses (self-propagating malware) for Android, but trojans (apps that contain hidden malware) exist, and there are sites that will happily try to con you into installing them. Sites that offer "cracked" apps (paid apps for free) are usually riddled with malware - logical really that a piracy site won't be too scrupulous. I don't understand how you could pick up malware from a song though: you need to actually install an app before it can behave maliciously, so an mp3 can't infect you, though a dodgy music downloader app could.

Now there are a lot of apps in the Play Store that have a dubious attitude to your privacy, but that's not the same as a "virus". You should look at what permissions an app requests, and decide for yourself whether the list seems reasonable for the app (e.g. a flashlight app will need camera access to make the flashlight work, and may need internet access if it is ad-supported, but if it wants your location, contacts, accounts, the ability to install other apps, then it's asking for things that it has no good reason to have and you should just not install it). In Marshmallow there should be better control over what privileges an app can access, but I'd apply sense before installing apps rather than rely on that.

Oh, and this also means don't install "RAM boosters", "battery savers" or anything from a developer called Cheetah Mobile (most, but not all, of their apps have "CM" in the name or initials, e.g. CM Security or Clean Master). Contrary to what they claim these things will just degrade performance (and actively lie to tell you how they are helping you), and Cheetah Mobile's business model is to hoover your data and spam you.

3. Android and iOS are different operating systems and have very different runtime environments for apps, so malware that can infect one won't be able to infect another. For the same reason you can't install iOS apps on Android or vice-versa.

I can't comment on the data transfer otherwise, because I've never done it.

But I am wondering how you define "virus", since you seem to be incredibly unlucky (or have some very risky internet habits)? If you are worried though, my advice would be not to enable app installation from "unknown sources" (it should be off by default - look in the Security settings) and install the MalwareBytes app from the Play Store, which you can use to scan the device if you are worried. Do be careful about AV/Security apps - these need a lot of privileges, so if you use these you need to get them from a trustworthy company (so not CM or 360 Security).

 

[ZGMF666legendgundamZAFT]

Good to know, thanx...as for my "virus" I'm not 100% sure, on my iPhone 4 I visited a bad website(5+ years ago), and from then on every iPhone I have had that I downloaded from the apple iCloud has gotten the same problems, cell signal dies randomly, fingerprint scanner dies, phone freezes, wifi dies for 1-3 months at a time, then randomly comes back....my only conclusion is it is a "virus" on my iCloud.....I use virus losslely, but something is wrong with my apple/iTunes account.