text:
Why is "insufficient storage" wrongly reported when installing an .apk via adb?
I have an HTC Desire running Froyo. It is not rooted, nor have I installed any custom ROM.
I get an "Insufficient Storage" error when I'm trying to install an app via adb/eclipse. The .apk is only 300KB, and the phone reports 14MB free of internal storage, and 2.2GB free on the SD card. (I have just uninstalled a few large apps to make sure there's plenty of room.)
It is obviously completely wrong. There's easily plenty of room in the 14MB of internal storage for my 300KB app.
What can I do to fix it?

Possibly the same issue? http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/5519/htc-desire-low-on-internal-storage-im-clueless

Maybe this: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/14731/htc-incredible-says-sms-storage-is-full-but-it-isnt I don't think the Incredible is the only HTC phone with that particular issue.

Please see the insufficient-memory tag-wiki. This error is triggered as soon as free space on internal storage drops below ~25 MB.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage&hl=en

I discovered that K9 Mail was keeping 25MB of cached data on my internal storage. I changed it to use the SD card, and this cured my immediate problem of being unable to install a tiny app.
It doesn't explain, though, why Android was reporting an insufficient storage error whilst simultaneously telling me there was 14MB free on internal storage. Oh well.

My old HTC Incredible stored apps in /data/data instead of in the main internal storage partition. This meant that I would get "low storage" warnings even when my phone reported having plenty of storage space left. Super annoying, especially because you can't read the /data/data partition without root. If you are rooted, though, run the following command in a terminal emulator: sudo df /data/data. If you see % used = 100 (or close to 100) then this is your problem.

At least on my phone, it seems you need way more available space thanthe size of the app you are actually trying to upgrade. In my case it seems I needed to have at least ~13MB free space to upgrade anything at all (even for 500KB apps).
Some tips to free space:

Go to Settings, Applications, Manage Applications, click "Move to
SD card" on the ones that have that option.
In the same list, also click "Clear Cache" on all your apps.
Your browser cache can not be cleared here, so open your browser, go to Settings, and click "Clear cache".

In some cases I have also been able to manually update apps one at a time when "update all" fails due to insufficient storage.

You are trying to install the .apk from a source other than the root directory. Copy the .apk into the root directory and install it from there.


text:
Suddenly can't add events in Jorte?
Just today I've been unable to add events in Jorte. I can only add in Google calendars and then sync.
Anybody know what's going on?
I'm so sad!

Did you update it?  Are you seeing an error message?

In settings, Click Default Calendar to select a default calendar for new events. Then, when you click new event, there is an option for calendars. Make sure PC Sync is selected and not Exchange.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

sort: votes


text:
What are the security disadvantages of rooting an Android phone?
I know there was a discussion previously BUT they didn't talk about security. E.g.: if I root my phone will all my apps run with root permission?

Related: Are there any risks to rooting a device?

The answer is no: not all application will have root permission.
Not all the apps require root and the apps requiring root will not have it unless you give them permission to do so.
At least that's what I can tell after using z4root and superoneclick to root a few phones.
You get a superuser app that will get requests from apps needing the root account and you'll have the option to enable that or not.
Risks connected to rooting a device are, more or less, the risks connected to using an administrative user on any kind of Unix-like system.
Ever tried a rm -R (a command to delete all files) on GNU/Linux?
It's like putting in the recycle bin your Windows folder and empty it just because you're a root user and you can do it.
Superpowers always involve super responsibilities and super attentions :)
Said that I have to say that in my everyday use (with a little brain turned on) I can't see a real way to get any kind of harm.
But if you install strange scripts coming from al quaeda and tons of pirated apps and poor not certified code...
Well. Bad things could happen.
Install a recovery and do a nandroid backup.
After that play happily with your phone :)

to be more precise, if you do rm -r, it's more like burning the folder to ash; if you simply put it into the trash can, you will still be able to restore it relatively easily; but if you do rm -r in any unix-like system (including Linux and Android), you may have to do dark voodoo to recover the files and you may not necessarily recover the file intact.

Don't you mean rm -rf?

The -r flag (also -R for compatibility with some older Unix systems) means recursive, -f means forceful, i.e., you won't get a prompt asking you whether you really want to delete every single file in the (recursive) file and directory list.

If you root your phone, then only the applications that you explicitly grant root access to will have root access.  This does make things fairly safe, as that extra step should be enough to make you stop and think "Why does this app need root?".
If you only grant root access to apps that need root for a good reason, are from trusted developers, and which you acquired from a trusted source then you should be ok.
Bear in mind what apps with root access can do though - from a previous answer on the subject:

On a rooted phone, an app which has been granted root access can do pretty much anything  that is possible in the hardware. Apps that have root permissions can write on non-read-only storage media (including modifying the bootloader), modify other programs' private data, modify system settings, modify system files, etc. A rooted app can also hide itself from the system, and pretend to be uninstalled while being perfectly well and alive.

I'll let you imagine what the worst-case scenario security implications are for a nefarious app being granted root access on your phone; be careful out there.

The newest versions of SuperUser (3.x) support using a PIN to approve root access for apps.  In other words, whenever an app requests root you need to enter your PIN before root access is granted.  This is more or less foolproof; no app should be able to get root access on its own or through you clicking the wrong button without it exploiting some bug in SuperUser or the system, and if it's doing that you might be screwed even without root.

sry for asking, but what the hell is a "superuser 3.x" - is it binded to an Android version?

@LanceBaynes It's a version of the SuperUser application, which comes with its own su binary that screens requests for root access - you must approve the access before the app gets root.

How can we be sure that the SuperUser app is not the one that is malicious? (Not refering to a special app, just asking in general.)

@MarcoW. You can't, just like you can't be sure that the binary isn't malicious or that the browser isn't malicious or that every last but of Android is Google trying to steal your secrets :P.  If you don't trust your source, don't trust the software you get from that source.

This is the problem. The sources for rooted Android are always normal forums with users who made them independently. So how can you be sure to get a non-malicious package? You can't.

@MarcoW SuperUser is released by Chainfire here; coupled with that official release you should be able to analyze any root method and do it yourself, at least if they've made the details available.  That really is the crux of security issues, though: You have to trust someone else in order to gain anything from them. Nothing we can do about that.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Why can't I find Firefox in Android Market
If I search for Firefox in the Android Market on my phone I can't find Firefox! How can I install it on my Phone??

Thanks.

Can you find it when you search at the Market website?

FWIW, the direct URL for it is: https://market.android.com/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox

What phone and OS do you have?

If you cannot find an app in the Market that means your device is not supported. You can still try to install if you get the APK and sideload the app, but it is likely to be a suboptimal experience (or even not work at all!!).

Can you visit this link with your phone?
market://details?id=org.mozilla.firefox

Also you must note that: Firefox is available for Android phones (2.0 and above) and the Nokia N900.
The official page of Firefox Mobile gives also a list of supported devices that have been tested.

What model/OS/screen size do you have?
Firefox is not supported on all platforms. For example, I can get it on my Nook with Gingerbread, but can't find it on my Froyo Ideos with a tiny screen.


text:
Galaxy Tab is not being charged through USB Cable
Currently i am using Samsung Galaxy Tab, model is GT-P1000, to test my application, so i usually attach it with PC through USB cable and it is attached for a whole day though it is showing low battery at the end of day. but it should charge the battery same as the other phone when we attach it with USB.
Does anybody know, what may be the problem why my samsung galaxy tab is not being charged through USB cable?

@ PM - Paresh Mayani: Are you connected directly to the PC, or via an USB hub ?

@Edelcom Thanx for your reply. FYI, i am not connected but my tab is..and tab is directly connected using USB Cable.

@ PM - Paresh Mayani: Did you try another cable ? I had a similar problem once, which went away simply by choosing another cable. I gave this answer to one of the other questions here in the forum and that guy too had to change the usb cable.

@PareshMayani i have face same issue...

@PareshMayani i have one issue related Tablet http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10161232/disable-listview-overscroll-on-samsung-galaxy-tab-2-3-3-android

because Samsung employs asinine design practices. this choice borders somewhere between stupid and idiotic. this makes no sense, but doesn't surprise as they're constantly finding ways to cut corners. i have several tablets including iPad Pro and i'm able to use data and charge at same time (who'da thunk?).. i guess since i'm now developing android apps i can plan to encounter plenty of dumb design choices. yay!

Tablets have larger batteries than phones and may be unable to sufficiently charge from the half amp limit of a USB port, especially while they are fully on (screen on and full speed processor clock).
Some will barely charge if the screen is off but come with high current 5v "usb-like" wall chargers, others use a higher voltage charger on a custom connector - typically something round.  Sometimes the "usb-like" ones are actually special cables with extra pins that tell the tablet that a special high-current charger is being used.
Check your user manual, or try the supplied charger.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab has a loading current of 2 A, but the USB-Specificication only allows 500 mA for the whole bus.
With this in mind, it should be clearly visible why the SGT isn't charging via USB.
At least that is true for the original Samsung firmware.
If you are able to install custom ROMs you will probably get fast-charge-support, with this activated your tab will even charge over USB, but it will take much more time than with the AC-power-adaptor.

The best way to get Galaxy Tab charge from USB connection to PC is to turn it off. This way it charges, and shows charging, it just takes time because the power available on USB is limited.

The galaxy tab GT-P1000 can use more power in operation than it can draw from an USB port. If this is the case, the battery will eventually run out. This is especially likely if your GT-P1000 is doing a lot of battery consuming things, such as WiFi, GPS, high CPU loads, or having the Screen on all the time. Your mileage will also vary depending on the USB port, as different USB cards can supply different power levels (the default spec is less than what the GT-P1000 usually draws; though nobody to blame here).
E.g. for me typically using WiFi, no GPS, screen always on, hardly any CPU load and connected to a Dell Latitude Laptop, my tab will de-charge about 2% per hour. If I turn the screen off it will actually recharge, although slower than with the Samsung wall-plug.

Does it just display not charging or is it really not charging?
My Galaxy Tab also shows not charging when plugged in to the notebook's USB port. But after a couple of hours (much longer than with the charger), it is full charged.
Over at the Apple sister site there is an explanation why the iPad displays not charging; I guess this applies to Android devices as well:

If you could see the screen while the iPad was asleep, it might even display the charging icon. It’s the modern-day “Does the refrigerator light stay on when I close the door?” mystery.

There is another answer that explains why charging is slower on a computers USB port than when connected to the charger itself.

I don't think it's only because of max current problem.
I tried whole bunch of power adapters having 2~3 amps.   But failed to have a symbol charging. I don't there is anybody who succeeded in having the charging symbol with home made charger, but I think the genuine charger would have special signal through usb data pins or even thtough the + pin. Like other laptop batteries whatever. It means samsung doesn't want users to use their cheap and plentiful ones as spare at home.

The problem is the device is looking for specific resistance on certain pins. Without these the tablet won't try and draw the full power.

See a more complete answer at http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/21144/how-much-power-does-a-galaxy-tab-10-1-charger-need-to-supply

This is easy!
Problem is the cable. This should be AWG28/1P+AWG20/2C -cable, if you will charge you tablet by 2A power. If the /2C is over AWG20, etc. AWG28, the resistance in the cable is so high that the voltage will drop under 4V on the other end of the cable. You should also buy a short cable, so the resistance won't be so high. The gauge AWGxx tells the copper wire's diameter.
Other possibility is, that you buy a 2A charger with 6V voltage. By that way you may charge you application by 5V and 2A current even through a cheap usb cable.

I've solved the problem of using other chargers with GT.
Like Apple, Samsung used a little trick with their chargers.
To charge your GT with any usb charger you have to make a little adapter.
Usb pinout:
gnd d- d+ 5v
To work you must short d+ and d-.
From 5v use a 33k resistor to d+/d-.
From gnd use a 10k resistor to d+/d-.
If you have multimeter you should obtain ~4v between 5v and d+/d-; and ~1v between gnd and d+/d-.
I tested it and it's working.

Brother,Samsung has designed its tabs in such a way that it can not do charging and data transfer computer/laptop  for battery protection at the same time.If you want to charge your Tabs,then simply switch off your tab and connect data cable.your Tab start getting charged.

This is not Samsung's design, it's a limitation of USB 2.0. Devices can request over 500mA only if their data pins are unused and shorted. This is why the Tab doesn't charge quickly from USB.

LOL just plug in to PC USB and swish off your TAB he will shut down data transfer and will start charge
To see if it charging just clicks switch and it will show on screen battery charge icon
P.S. u don't need any adapters

How is this any different from Zds's previously posted answer?

LOL its not any different


text:
How to uncompress a password protected zip file?
I have a password protected zip file, but ASTRO does not let me enter a password. What should I do?

Install Dual File Manager. This program lets you unzip password protected files.

Is this app an official one? E.g. is it on the Google Play Store?

Try ArchiDroid and it will do your job... It extracts password-protected RAR, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2 and 7zip files... amazingly it is free... Other apps didn't work for me but this one works like a charm :)

The link is broken.

B1 Free Archiver works good for unzipping files and password protected files.
How to uncompress a password protected zip file?
It's very simple, just tap two times on your archive and enter the password.

This is your second answer touting this app. What's your affiliation?

From the first answer: "I was helping to translate this soft as a volunteer at CrowdIn translation platform, so I know it well enough to describe it to others."  Your answer here is definitely more suited to the question, Kim, so it can stay -- just beware of how it looks when a new user shows up and starts hawking a particular piece of software!


text:
How can I fix Xperia x10i application crashes under CyanogenMOD 6?
I have a lot of issues with my Xperia x10i:

I get a lot of forced close of apps
I don't have zoom in my camera nor flash light
I don't have Mediascape nor Timescape and maybe other apps I don't know about
From time to time it reboots from its own
My music app dosnt work
My camera doesnt work in apps (like Goggles or Barcode Scanner), it just gives me colorful stripes and no picture

As far as I know Sony has only released Android 2.1 for this phone and doesn't plan to do 2.2, But I noticed (in the info tab section) that my phone is 2.2.1! It seems that it was rooted and had Cyanogenmod 6 installed.
Please help me fix my issues.
i also have several question to understand a bit more :
  is my phone rooted? and what does it mean exactly?
  and if i do this would i still have Cyanogenmod? can i get back after that (i like its features)?
  and what does rom and mod mean?
Thank you

Do you have a specific question here? "Please help me with my problems" is not a specific question. If there really are that many problems with it you may need to break this up into several questions.

the question is how to fix  these problems..i think they r related so its better to put them in the same post..if not just let me know,its my first post here

We prefer questions that have the potential for a single answer. Except for "you got scammed" I don't think there might be a single answer here.

im getting some ideas here then i will be able to ask specific questions

I fixed it :)
in case somebody is in the same situation, here is what i did:
i flashed my phone to its original rom using flashtool  (if u dont know how to use it go here )
thats it
thanks everyone

I would recommend going back to the Sony official firmware.
This thread has step-by-step instructions for reverting Xperia X10 handsets to stock ROM.  You might want to search the thread to confirm that the process is the same for your X10i model before starting.
Keep in mind that flashing to the stock firmware will erase all of your settings and installed apps, so back up the important bits.

already did,but didnt change anything..but will take a look at the thread maybe there is a method more efficent,thx

can i ask plz, is my phone rooted? and what does it mean exactly? and if i do this would i still have Cyanogenmod? can i get back after that?

If your phone has a custom ROM installed, then it's definitely rooted (see here for explanation: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/236/what-does-to-root-a-phone-mean). If you revert to official firmware, you will no longer have CyanogenMod.  Yes, you can always re-root the phone and install a custom ROM if you wish.

thx,if i re-root it,would i get these problems again?cause from what i understand they were caused by rooting..

Most likely rooting itself did not cause any of these problems, but installing a custom ROM could have.  For someone that is new to Android and is not technical enough to troubleshoot these issues on their own, I would highly recommend not installing a custom ROM.

Cyanogenmod is a custom rom right? what do i have to do to get technical enough? i dont know tutorials about this or any usefull resources..

Yes, CyanogenMod is a custom ROM.  http://cyanogenmod.com is a good starting point.  You should be familiar with some Linux terminology, and be comfortable with using the Command Line.  Keep in mind that installing a custom ROM is a fairly technical process, and if not done correctly can render your phone useless.  It will definitely void any warranty on your handset.

I would suggest to start your phone in recovery mode (download and install quickboot from market).
If your phone restart in recovery mode you just need to find the last version of cyanogen working on your phone, install it and live happily.
If you don't feel like it just do a wipe all from your recovery menu (that's a complete "format" of your phone) and install from scratch latest sony firmware from their website.
As you start in one path or another and face different problems just come here with new and more accurate questions so we can give accurate answers :)
You'll get a brand new phone: do not give up!

Pitto,thank you for ur answer, i dont give up :)
i installed quickboot and restart in recovery (i didnt notice any change!) but then i didnt know how to find the last version of cyanogen.
i intsalled rom manager to try to do that,but updating the rom is only for premium users!

if you didn't see any change I think that you have no recovery installed :/
Hurry then:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=859571

Here you find information about installing the roma again :)
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/install-custom-cyanogenmod-6-1-1-rom-on-sony-ericsson-xperia-x10/

i tried doing what the link said,i installed busybox...then my phone is booting againa and again!!!dont know what to do!


text:
How do I turn on the battery full notification sound?
Similar to this previous question, but I want to enable the battery full notification sound, not the opposite :)
My Galaxy S used to make a nice beep and switch the screen on briefly when the battery was fully charged, since the Gingerbread update (official Samsung 2.3.3 JV9 release) it still briefly switches the screen on, but no longer makes the noise.
This used to be great because the plug socket on my desk is right at one end, so (if I don't want a long cable getting tangled in everything) the phone's out of my line of sight and I rely on the audio notifications to tell me there's a reason to glance over at it. Now, since Gingerbread, I don't get any audible notification for the battery full, and never know when it's been fully charged.
Unlike a lot of people here I don't plug my phone in to charge overnight (why would I, when I have to pay for the electricity at home :D), so was never bothered by the noise waking me up.
I've hunted through all of the Sound and Notification settings that I can find, and already have System and Notification volumes turned up, so it's not those. I'm slightly worried that they've listened to the moaners and removed a useful feature, but hope that buried somewhere there's a nice setting that can keep everyone happy.

Try Batteryminder.
In the features section it claims to allow for "Low/Full Battery Alerts"
Hope this helps

Thanks, will give it a try, but hoping that there's some way to turn this previous functionality back on with needing a 3rd party app.


text:
Droid 2 Global - Will switching from Global to CDMA-only improve battery life?
I recently got a DROID 2 Global with Verizon and am looking to maximize my battery life. I am aware of the need to dim my display, disable Wi-Fi and GPS when not using it, increase sync intervals, and all that good stuff.
However, in my continuing effort to maximize my battery life without shutting down stuff I really need, I came across the network mode settings. Since I am not planning to leave the U.S. any time soon, I don't need global so I've switched it to CDMA.
I have heard that this might not make a difference because the phone only searches for the Global network if it can't find CDMA. However, the source didn't seem fully reliable
Question: Will switching to CDMA-only use less resources (and power) than Global, or will it make no difference because Global and CDMA-only perform the same in the presence of network?

Since Verizon is CDMA-only in the USA, as long as your CDMA reception is strong there will be no reason for the phone to search for GSM.  If you find yourself in a very low/no-signal area, however, the phone may hop over to GSM to search, even though it cannot connect to any domestic GSM network.  There's no real downside to switching this setting to CDMA while in the USA, as long as you remember to make the switch back when you travel overseas.

This saves significant power on my D2G; not normally, but when I go to these areas of SW Wisconsin where there's all these valleys with no phone service at all, the thing just sucks power switching between CDMA and GSM modes looking for service.  It waits at least 30 seconds before starting a GSM search though, so if you don't lose CDMA at all (or just in little spots) it won't affect power use at all.  The phone has the (so-called) band lock on it (which doesn't really block the bands, but does block US GSM carriers from operating on it at the radio firmware level.)


text:
Sync arbitrary files with a server
I'm looking for a way to keep a file (keepass .kdb) on my Droid2 in sync with one on a server.

This is just a file on the filesystem - not contacts, calendar, etc.
I need bidirectional, not just push or pull.  If the server's changes, download it, if the Android's changes, upload it.  Yes, this may result in conflicts that need resolved.

I'm using Unison to achieve this between PCs, but there's no Unison client for android.  I've found hand-waving about installing OCaml on Android and running Unison on that, but I'm hoping for something native.
Botsync sounds promising, but it's unidirectional - when making a config, you choose if it's upload or download.
I've seen sugarsync, but given that this is my KeePass file, I'd prefer to keep it on my own server.

I was going to suggest sugarsync... but I understand the concern

Take a look at http://sparkleshare.org/ - relatively new project, Android client in the works, I believe.

You might want to consider another option here, if you want to use this for KeePass password database. This won't work for other sensitive material, but since you asked specifically for KeePass, here's what I do:

Protect the database with the password (I assume you have, already), and a key. This will give you a two-factor authentication ("something you know" -- your password, and "something you have" -- your key). The password database can only be unlocked when both pieces are in place.
Copy the key to the local storage of all your devices, and give it some inconspicuous name. Preferably put it in a crowded directory where it would seem like some configuration file or some random noise file created by a program.
Upload your database to a third-party storage service (I use Dropbox, but other options would work just as well). It goes without saying that the service should have an Android client if you want to use it on your device.
DO NOT upload your key there -- use another method to copy it to the devices you need. Dropbox in particular keeps a copy of the files you upload and then delete at least for a week for backup purposes (quite convenient, I must admit), but if your key is on the server already, it's not more secure than a normal password-protected database.
Configure your KeePass clients not to remember the location of the key (remembering the location of the database is fine).

In this way, you can upload your database to a random website, and even if your password gets compromised for some reason (i.e. keyboard loggers), you can only use the database from devices that have the key AND now which file is actually the key.
For convenience, you might want to have key-only authentication on a mobile device (secure passwords are tedious to type on a mobile device, and you obviously don't want to use anything short and easy here). But I would recommend against this, as in this case the security is even lower than a password-protected database -- instead of a password you have in your head, you use a "password" (the key file) that is on your device.
KeePass doesn't give any hints whether it requires key, password or both -- which works to your advantage.

+1 for good info, I agree that pass&keyfile should be "enough" for a keepass file.  I'm leaving the question unanswered in hopes that there will be a "here's a program that does sync" answer in the future.  Thanks!

You may have found something you are happy with now but I have compiled a binary of unison that works on android - it is possible using the hand-waving instructions you are talking about - I used them to cross-compile the linux source within ubuntu 12.10 using the android NDK and with a few alterations to the code it is now working. Follow the instructions at https://sites.google.com/site/keigoattic/ocaml-on-android and then you will need to do a few things. There is a file called pty.c in the unison source - find the following section:
// openpty
#if defined(__linux)
#include <pty.h>
/*#define HAS_OPENPTY 1*/
#endif

and comment out define HAS_OPENPTY 1 as shown. You also need to open ubase/util.ml and edit:
let homeDir () =
  System.fspathFromString "/Your path here"

Comment out from here:
    (if (osType = `Unix) || isCygwin then
       safeGetenv "HOME"
     else if osType = `Win32 then
(*We don't want the behavior of Unison to depends on whether it is run
  from a Cygwin shell (where HOME is set) or in any other way (where
  HOME is usually not set)
       try System.getenv "HOME" (* Windows 9x with Cygwin HOME set *)
       with Not_found ->
*)
       try System.getenv "USERPROFILE" (* Windows NT/2K standard *)
       with Not_found ->
       try System.getenv "UNISON" (* Use UNISON dir if it is set *)
       with Not_found ->
       "c:/" (* Default *)
     else
       assert false (* osType can't be anything else *))

...To here!
Then you'll also have to edit Makefile.Ocaml
   CWD=$(shell pwd)
    EXEC_EXT=
    WINOBJS=
    SYSTEM=generic
    # openpty is in the libutil library
    ifneq ($(OSARCH),solaris)
      ifneq ($(OSARCH),osx)
      #  CLIBS+=-cclib -lutil
      endif
    endif
    buildexecutable::
        @echo Building for Unix
  endif
endif

And comment out #  CLIBS+=-cclib -lutil as shown.
And as far as I can remember that all worked. The other step once compiled is to mount your android system partition as writable and copy unison to the /system folder where all the rest of the shell commands are.
Hope that is helpful to someone...I lost a lot of sleep getting it compiled.

I do exactly what you ask with FolderSync. It's a very nice piece of software, with plenty of options and features. I use it as a personal dropbox alternative using SFTP over SSH with keyfile for authentication. You can even set it up to automatically detect changes on the local replicas and trigger an immediate upload. On my phone i use it to upload pics on my server as soon as i take them, and it works just perfect.

I've also followed the cross compilation root as indicated in ChC's answer
I've released UnisonSync that allows you to unison without dealing with the command line (and without rooting) on Google Play:
From the proof of concept, which was quickly running, to a production ready app it took much more time than expected, but now it works and is very handy to sync my publications and datasheet repository.

I'll probably consolidate the instructions to cross compile at some point soonish and put the binary unison/dropbear somewhere, for those that prefer to use the command line.

I use unison by mounting the android with sshfs. As ssh server I use SSHDroid.
But be warned, unison with sshfs is really slow. Though with one single file it should not matter.

I don't know of anything native that does this. There are many file sync apps but all the ones i've seen are either unidirectional, or rely on the user to manually sync the file from the phone to the cloud. What you are intending to do should be possible with the Dropbox API but I don't know if you are willing to create your own custom app that keeps watch over the specific files you need sync'd

I'd considered the custom app route, but if I do that it'd be writing a native Unison client rather than a dropbox one (so it'll stay on my server).

A market search revealed aFileSync which claims to sync files via FTP and also has support to auto-sync files. You will need to be running an FTP server on your own.
There's also SK Sync, but users have reported mixed results with it.
Obviously, before you try any of these programs / apps, please backup your files both on the PC/server as well as your Android device.

aFileSync sounds like it has all the behaviors that I want.  The reviews are a bit scary, and I'll have to setup a FTP server to see how it goes.

For synchronize files from Android is new version of my app BotSyncPlus. When you wrote about BotSync, there was only one configuration for upload or download. But now a new version BotSyncPlus is available, where is multi-configuration.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
SMS messages from one contact displayed as "null"
My daughter has a stock Motorola Atrix on Bell in Canada. When she receives a text from one particular friend (on a Telus phone), rather than displaying the text, the phone just displays "null". All other texts work fine. She can receive from other people on the Telus network as well.
When the problem contact sends an MMS message with a picture, any text in the picture message comes through fine.
I have tried multiple SMS apps to see if they made a difference but they all behave the same way as the default text app.
Any ideas??

Try deleting the contact. Then when a new message from the same contact arrives, see if there's any change. If it shows correctly, add relevant info and save as fresh contact.

Try logging what happens with logcat while  opening  message with "null", and posting relevant info here.

Related to : SMS messages just have "null"
Try this,

delete their contact

then

Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Select the Messaging App
Choose 'Clear Data' and also 'Clear Cache'.

N.B. you will lose all data / txt msg's in your phone
(don't forget to write their number down to save as new afterwards!)

You could also check on http://www.google.com/contacts and check if the address book entry for that person is missing some information.


text:
The video file cannot be played (on Galaxy S)
Last few days my video files cannot be played on my Samsung Galaxy S and I do not know why.
I select a video and I choce to wath it with the android's video player and I have the message below :
"The video file cannot be played"
Have you a solution ?
Thanks.

If you have the issue with files, that you were previously able to play, try to reboot your phone. If playback works afterwards, you seem to have the same issue as described in this problem: Unsupported File Type: Why did my Samsung Galaxy S suddenly stop supporting MP3s?
I do not know of a fix for this yet, the only workaround seems to be a reboot.

Thanks. A simple reboot has solved my problem. I don't know why I had not thought of earlier.
(maybe because I do not associate Unix and Reboot =) )

If you have the same problem as me, this will unfortunately occur every 2-3 days :(. If you are able to reproduce this behaviour at will, I would be happy to know how you do it, so I can try it myself and perhaps find out what is causing it.

No problem.
But it's the first time and, I hope, the last..

Android's built in decoders are rather picky about the files they will play - limited encoded resolution (possibly less than that of the device's display), limited bitrate, limited formats.
If these are new files, try encoding them to be less demanding.
If these are files that used to work, see if something on the phone is perhaps slowing it down - on on rare occasion I had a file that generally plays start failing part way through.  A reboot might be worth trying.

I have an HTC Desire which had the same problem. A simple reboot did not solve the problem but when I shut it down, removed the battery, reinserted the battery after waiting about 10 minutes and then restarting the phone the problem was corrected. My problem affected gallery and all the browsers. I presume they all use the same engine for displaying video.


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Will Google Music sync my iTunes playlists?
I have been invited to the Google Music Beta, and in setting up the service, I chose to upload music from "My Music" folder rather than the "iTunes" option, simply because my music files are in the root folder of "My Music" and not in the "iTunes" folder "My Music." I was unsure of whether the "iTunes" option in Google Music only takes the music from the iTunes folder. However, in choosing "My Music" as my upload source, will it lack my iTunes playlists when I play from my Android Device?

Figured it out. Originally synced it with "My Music" folder option and no playlists showed up. Restarted with option of "iTunes" and in a few minutes my playlists showed up without having to resync all the music.


text:
Has anyone encountered (and resolved) the force close issue with Google Music Beta App?
I was very happy to receive a Google Music Beta invite recently.  Unfortunately, when I try to play music via the app (on Droid X rooted with Liberty GB 0.5) the application force closes every time.  I am aware that since this is in beta, there may be no fix available yet, but I figured that I would ask the question and hope for the best.  Thanks for any help.

It seems that this issue was related to the ROM.  Since multiple re-installs of the app did not correct the issue, experimenting with another ROM (Apex 2.0 beta) did the trick.  After flashing the new ROM and installing the app, music streams quite well.
Update: I have learned that the Liberty Toolbox > Liberty Tweaks > Ad Blocker feature being set to "Block most ads" has been tracked down as the root cause of this issue.  Make sure to "Enable ads" under this setting and there should not be anymore FC issues.


text:
Qualcomm HSUSB device driver issue
I have a Qualcomm HS-USB device on which I want to test my developed application. The problem I am facing is that the device drivers are not getting installed. I have tried the following steps:

Downloaded the Google USB drivers (latest).
Downloaded the ZTE USB drivers (the device is ZTE manufactered).
This device I have configured earlier also on a Windows 7 system and it worked fine. I dont know why it is not working this time on a new Windows 7 system.

Please help me to make the device driver work. Or please tell me if there is any other solution to this.

This site has mainly non-developers :P if you were to ask an actual development question, you should ask on StackOverflow (this one is fine here).

As for all driver problems, you should first try the following:

Disconnect the device
Uninstall all drivers for it
Reboot
Install the official drivers (probably the ZTE-specific ones)
Reboot
Connect the device


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Galaxy Tab 10.1 with unmodified Honeycomb (ie no TouchWiz)
I'm thinking about buying the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. It will have a modified version of Android Honeycomb (TouchWiz). Is it possible to install original Android from Google on it?

Has it been confirmed that the 10.1 will have touchwiz? i believe the ones handed out at I/O had Honeycomb 3.1, not touchwiz.

@Ryan Conrad Yes, the tablet has Honeycomb 3.1 and Touchwiz UI, just got a retail version yesterday.

As soon as someone unlock the bootloader(I don't know if they already done) someone will come up with a stock default theme ROM. You can stay tuned at XDA-Developers for news about this.

It's absolutely possible, as long as you can access the bootloader (ie. unlocked bootloader).


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How do I load android 2.3.4 onto my dev phone?
So, I have an original Droid (rooted), that is also my working cell phone. Can I load 2.3.4 onto it to develop accessory apps?
If so how do I load the new OS?

One option (probably the easiest) would be to install CyanogenMod on your phone. I don't recall offhand if the latest stable release (7.0.3) is based on 2.3.4 or 2.3.3, but you could certainly use a nightly build instead which would be 2.3.4. The forums for the Droid can be found here, and they have a section for stable builds and a section for nightly builds that you can take a look at.
For detailed instructions on how to prepare and install CyanogenMod, the best resource is their wiki page.

I know this is an old question now, but I cannot get CyanogenMod to load any rom. It's already rooted and loaded CM just fine, but it won't load the downloadable roms or from the sdcard.

@Eric: Do you mean ClockworkMod? Are you getting any failure messages? Are you trying to flash the ROM via the recovery menu or via the ROM Manager app?

In ROM Manager v4.2.1.0 Under ROM Management I've tried either Install ROM from SD Card or Download ROM and no matter what I pick it reboots too the triangle next to a phone

@Eric: Sounds like the custom recovery (ClockworkMod) is not installed. This thread suggests either reflashing ClockworkMod from ROM manager or following the SPRecovery instructions from the wiki page (linked above in my answer).

Turns out after a factory reset with wiping data/partition/etc. it loaded. Without paying for it I get 2.3.3...


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Camera switches off randomly with some apps
Samsung Galaxy S II running Android 2.3.3.
Layar: camera switches off about a second after loading a layer and stays off. App unusable.
Google Goggles: camera switches off and on rapidly in a loop. App unusable.
Barcode Scanner: camera switches off and on again sometimes.
Built-in Camera app: No problems.
What's causing this? What to do?
Correlations: this started happening this morning after I ran phone's battery dry yesterday, recharged it overnight, and installed Layar. It also crashed and rebooted once this morning when I tired opening Skype.

I too have similar problem with Google Goggle, CamScanner. Normal camera works fine though!

This question hasn't seen mutch attention in over a year, voting to
close as "Too Localized"


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Why can I download Kindle books from amazon.com but not from amazon.co.uk?
I installed the Android Kindle application and purchased my first Kindle e-book yesterday.
Although I have an account on amazon.co.uk and have used this account for multiple purchases of dvd's and regular books, I cannot purchase Kindle e-books from this site.
I can, however, purchase Kindle e-books from amazon.com (with the same login).
Does anyone know why this is ?

It's an artificial geographic restriction that Amazon have put in. Essentially the .com Amazon Kindle store is accessible to any Amazon customers worldwide (except for customers who's account has an address in a country that has its own Kindle store). Country specific Kindle stores, like Amazon.co.uk's Kindle store are only accessible to Amazon accounts that have an address in that country.
So, the Amazon.co.uk Kindle store is only accessible by UK devices, based on a UK Amazon account. The Amazon.com Kindle store is accessible to everyone worldwide who has a non-UK Amazon account. The same thing happens for the newly launched Amazon.de Kindle store, only users with German or Austrian addresses can use it. It's based on your account's home address/billing address, not on which website's account you use. You can apply to Amazon to have your Kindle account moved from .com to the country-specific site, if you created your account before your country's site was available, but you can't use two sites at the same time.
Presumably when more countries have their own Kindle store, they'll be locked out of the .com store, and other countries will be locked out of their country-specific store.

Just register your Kindle(Your Android) for your Amazon.co.uk account instead of the Amazon.com, to do it just go to your account on the site and register from there

@Nathn Campos: I don't own a Kindle. I read the Kindle e-books on my Android devices. If I go to the amazon.co.uk Kindle e-books page, it inexplicitly tells me that 'The Kindle Store at Amazon.co.uk is for UK customers only.'. I was just wondering why this is.


text:
Motorola Defy Not Turning On
I have tried to install a CyanogenMod on my Motorola Defy as illustrated here. The problem is that despite the phone had been rooted, I had some problems with ClockWorkMod and rebooted my phone in  recovery mode using the application that ships with the phone. I did remove the Cache and Factory settings and ran the zip file.
The problem is that upon restart, the phone kept rebooting itself, that is, I kept seeing the Motorola logo for a couple of minutes, and then, the phone reboots and the process is repeated.
Now, out of the blue, the phone is not even turning on. What I have is a small white light that turns on whenever I connect the phone to a laptop via usb. Any idea on how I can get the phone working? At the moment I do not really care about what OS version, as long as it runs.
Thanks in advance :)
Edit: There seems to have been an issue with the battery, I have managed to load up the phone to recovery mode. Can anyone show me how can I install a fresh Operating System? I seem to only have access to the phone's boot up screen. Also, the laptop does not seem to be able to connect to the phone via usb.

First you need to have RSD Lite installed. Do a Google search and look for either 4.9 or above. Then you need to go to Motorola's site and install the drivers needed. Find an SBF file that will work for you, likely it will need to be a 2.2 file. Best thing to do is keep trying until you find one that works. Boot your phone in bootloader mode (volume up button) and if you get a message about a low battery you will need to find a way to charge up the phone. Go to the XDA developers forum and search for McGyver battery fix. (you can also find sbf files there) If RSD lite recognizes your phone flash the sbf file and let it do it's thing. More detailed instructions can be found on XDA as well, but that is the jist of what you need to do.

@npinti i also faced same issue, now i recovered from that.
i will give you the details how to recover from this situation.
Steps:

It's a good thing you are able to run the Zip from the Boot menu, First of all go to the link and download the Official jordan cyanogen build (zip file/ Installation steps also given there).
place the Zip file in Memory card and boot your mobile.
Now go to
Boot Menu--> Recovery --> Custom Recovery -->
   update/install from zip.
Then select the Zip file and click on Install/Update.
Then it will do installation of the Zip file and give the result as completed, then click on Reboot System.
That's it! Now you will be able to Boot from new OS of Cyanogen Mod, it's Very nice to use..

if there is any problem you can contact the XDA forum or reply here.

Hi azad, thanks very much for your response. I will try this as soon as I can. The last thing I tried to do was to install another copy of the OS using RSDLite, but at the end, when RSD is supposed to reboot the phone, the phone does not reboot. I am also having some issues accessing the boot menu.

Ok, Try with boot Menu & above procedure it will work.


text:
Fixing water damage in phone
I dropped my phone into some water, immediately removed battery and soaked in rice (all I had at work). The phone dried, but the keyboard (G2) had some bad keys that have never corrected, and there seems to be some kind of residue on the screen, and the backlight is not uniform across the whole thing.
This all happened 2 months ago, but I would like to fix it.
Question is:
Do you think I could soak the phone in alcohol, and then dry it in an airtight container with Damp-Rid or silica gel or something similar to help fix the existing problems?
Some people seem to think this would cause more damage, I would love to hear the reasoning why though, as alcohol evaps clean...

How I remove consequences of water damage?

Disassemble device. You need to disconnect every power supply such as batteries.
Carefully look on every component.
Wash plastic details with cleaning agent likes 'Fairy', 'Mr.Muscul' and so on in water. Dry them.
Wash PCB in water as plastic details before. I use toothbrush. You need to take off any sign of corrosion. Then I wash PCB in isopropyl alcohol. After that I take air pump and blow compressed air on every electrical component on PCB. In such way I remove water. Then it is good idea to give ability PCB to become dry by natural conditions. If there are some troubles with traces on board, I repair them with special soldering equipment (beginning from common soldering iron and ending with BGA soldering station because ICs on PCB is soldered by such way)
Assemble device.

If you have troubles with your LCD, the only quality way is to replace it entirely. LCD is a set of number of transparent films. So it is very difficult to reassemble it without issues.

Most people recommend removing battery as soon as it happens and barry it in a bowl of dry rice for a day or two. I have never personally had to try it but I know of people who have and it has saved them from having to replace there phone...

Ricing won't fix old water damage.

I think you'd be fine doing that. Next time, try to vacuum out the water by holding the vacuum in the same spot (in the back where batt. was...) for 15 minutes, then moving it again for 15 minutes...

I wouldn't recommend this (don't have enough rep to down vote, though). Once there's water in there, you don't want to encourage it to move around any further, as that can cause further damage.

The whole point is to get the water (and moisture) out the way it came in... Check thiese out: Popular Mechanics article and (check out step 7 of this) WikiHow

The reason that water damages a phone is because water conducts electricity and this causes short circuits; pure alcohol is non-conducting so it should not harm electric circuits. It is possible to create a computer cooling system by soaking a whole computer in a non-conducting mineral oil (and the computer runs great soaked in oil), they do not choose alcohol probably since alcohol evaporates quickly (which is undesirable for permanent cooling system).
However, I doubt that soaking an already damaged phone will fix it. There is no reason that a burnt circuitry will magically unburnt because it is soaked in alcohol. Alcohol may help to clean the circuitries and the residual materials, but it is unlikely it will fix the phone.
Disclaimer: This is not an encouragement to soak your phone in alcohol, do it at your own risk; be prepared to buy a new phone if you decided to do it.

pure water is not conductive either ;)

There aren't pure alcohol. It acts as silicagel: takes as much water from environment as it can. And then it will be solution. Also there are different types of alcohols. Most common is ethanol (or pure alcohol, drinking alcohol etc). But for technical purposes isopropanol is better (isopropyl alcohol).


text:
Are apps downloaded from an unrestricted market disabled when the phone is used in a restricted market?
I am currently on t-mobile in the US and have access to a lot apps that are not available in the Indian android market. What happens to the apps that I download off the US market when I return to India and plug in my local sim card?

Anecdotally: I moved from T-Mobile to Rogers (Canada) and all my apps kept working.

Most applications should not disable itself, but that depends on the individual applications.

Something using market licensing checks would probably refuse to run

There are Market licensing checks?

@Matthew Read: Yes there is: http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/licensing.html but I'm not sure if the Market licensing check will check your current country by default.


text:
How secure are the "app password protection" apps?
I know there are a number of apps available that can password protect specified apps. I want to know how secure they really are.
As far as I know, there aren't any exposed OS hooks in android to allow one app to prevent another app from starting up. And some of these apps can be fooled by just switching tasks when it presents the password screen. So, are all of these apps just for casual protection, or are there any apps out there which guarantee that password protected apps can't be launched without the password?

What do you mean by "secure". Do you just want the apps to not be launchable? Or are you trying to protect the Apps data?

Those protected apps aren't secure at all. These protects are meant for girlfriends only... :)
As you've said Android doesn't allow one app to prevent another app from starting up, there's no way to really protect an app.
The password screen can be by-passed by disabling one receiver of protector app. Even its also not required for some poorly written protector apps: Just, kill the protector app and done! And, the most easiest method is more funny: Many protector apps provide a failsafe password to by-pass protection in case user has forgotten the password. You just need to contact developer saying you have forgotten your password & he'll provide you a failsafe password. :)
If your device is rooted, I recommend you to use Seal. Seal provides a root method which is much more secure than generic methods. Disabling a receiver doesn't by-pass its security. As it gets root permission, it heal itself from any attempt to by-pass its security. So, even malicious codes fail against it.
In the last, no protector app encrypts an app & decrypts it on fly before opening it. Its simply because Android system simply doesn't support it. So, an advanced user can access your protected apps & associated data using Android SDK.

A reasonably well respected program is KeePass, an android version exists here.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.keepass
On their site they have quite a good discussion about the security
http://keepass.info/help/base/security.html


text:
How to remove Android stock movie player as preferred default app for movies?
Using ASTRO File Manager, I've set Movies (stock Android app) to play my videos. Now I want to remove this association, but I simply can't find a way to do it.
Looking into applications didn't help (The Movies app doesn't show at all, I think it's part of the Gallery app, but the gallery app isn't set as default). I've tried downloading an app from market called DefaultApp Reset but it didn't help either: Movies was not there.
Any hints?

What phone do you have?

Acer Liquid Metal (s120)

Try it with a Default App Manager. See this question

Had the same problem. Solved it by clearing defaults in my Gallery application.

Normally you would do this from Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications.  Find the app in the list, click it, and choose Clear Defaults.

As I wrote in the question the main problem is that I can't find the "Movies" application to clear its default

It's probably called media player or video player.

It is not there.
I've passed apps one by one...

@Pitto Hmm. Maybe if you installed another video player, it would allow you to select a new default?

@Pitto: Make sure you are looking at all apps (including system), not just downloaded ones.  On Android 2.1 and below, once on the "Manage applications" screen, press Menu and select "All".

Ah, yes. In 2.2 (at least on my SGS) there's an "All" tab.

I've tried installing Nemo Player with this idea but I start to think it's really an android setting...
Looks like some kind of Astro setting but I've tried to uninstall and reinstall it without solving :(

Just...

go to settings → applications → manage applications
select the All tab
scroll down and find Gallery
open this entry, tap the clear defaults button

Go to Settings->Manage Apps. Click option(overflow) key and select "Reset app preferences".
This will reset all default apps.

It's not the best I could do but installing brand new Gingerbread (obviously) solved the problem


text:
What are the benefits of 2G+3G mode?
Some of the advanced power control widgets or 2G/3G switching widgets allow the following options for the radio mode:

2G
3G only
2G+3G

What are the benefits of 2G+3G over running 3G only? Are there any drawbacks?

If you choose 3G only, you have no connectivity if you are in an area where no 3G is available. With 2G+3G, the phone will fallback to 2G if it can't get a 3G connection.

2G+3G is not recommended if you're in an area with spotty 3G coverage, as a radio switching back and forth will drain the battery much quicker. This is the major reason this widget option exists, to allow users to switch between 2G and 2G+3G on the fly.

On the other hand, if you're more concerned about connectivity than battery then you want to leave it at 2G+3G in bad coverage areas to ensure that you always have a data connection whenever there's any type of connection available.

when traveling with trains in germany "2g+3g" does not work for www for my phone. when setting to "2g only" i have a much better chance to get the www altough its very slow then but enough to read text.


text:
Is the class rating of my MicroSD card relevant?
Does Class 4 perform differently from Class 6, and so on, when it comes to Micro SD(HC) memory cards on smartphones? Samsung Galaxy S to be specific.

This probably depends on what you're doing. Strictly speaking it would necessarily perform differently because they're different cards with different minimum transfer rates, hence why they're different classes. Will you notice on a day-to-day basis? Probably not. Will you notice if you're transferring 4 GB of files on or off the card? I'd certainly imagine so. What kind of context are we talking about when you say "perform differently"?

Many of the people actually running android on sdcards (ie, as /system and /data, not just for storage) seem to think that the class 4 cards may actually be faster at small operations, the theory being that the optimizations for high sustained writes on class 6 cards (presumably for HD video recording) come at a cost.

This is not an Android question, except insofar as Android phones use Micro SD cards.

It is an Android question, I read about this in an article saying there's no point in getting SD Cards over Class 2 for Smartphones (Android, iPhone etc) because the smartphone hardware can't reach higher than I/O Speeds of Class 2.

The general consensus seems to be that a Class 4 is just fine, and you definitely would not need anything faster than a Class 6.  Unless you're seeing a lot of lag during IO intensive operations, though, I wouldn't be worried.  The best way to test might be to take a few minutes of 720p video.  If it records and plays back fine — and it should — you should be good for anything. Since L3 video at 1080p is just over 5.5 MB/s, a class 6 card is sufficient.  The Galaxy S II only takes 1080p video at up to 3 MB/s, and I don't know of any phone at the moment that takes higher-quality videos.
Note that the Galaxy S uses the internal SD storage for most things (possibly including video; not sure if you can choose the save location).  So the external SD card may in fact be irrelevant most of the time.  I've had my Galaxy S nearly a year and used the external SD card approximately twice.
If you're copying large files onto the SD card, it will obviously take less time if the class rating of the card is higher.  This might happen on file transfers from the computer, or 4G downloads with low network usage, but not during general use.

Is the SD card the same filesystem format as the phone's internal storage? I would have guessed it would just be FAT32 (unless you formatted it in some other way, of course).

@eldarerathis Ah, you're right of course.  I will blame my mistake on Samsung referring to one of their internal storage partitions as an SD card :P

Oh right, it's one of those phones. I did always find that setup a little bit unintuitive when you can in fact have both the internal "sdcard" space and the external space...

Is this answer still relevant in 2014? Esp. since there are phones with 4k video out now and I believe Kit Kat allows you to run certain apps on the SD Card

@Diskdrive I think the logic remains the same -- compare the bitrate of your video to the speed of your storage.  Apps are not normally going to require anything near these write speeds.

Simply put, yes,the higher the class number the faster the performance. Prior to purchasing my class 10 32gb HD Micro SD card, I visited Samsung's support web site to see what they were selling retail for their Tab 2 tablets.While I was there I chatted with one of their techies and he stated the faster the card the better the performance so I purchased a Class 10 32gb Micro SD card from Amazon!

So someone from a vendor tells you that you need the more expensive model... who would have thought?
Seriously, read the better answers above - figure out if you need the bandwidth or not, chances are you don't.


text:
How to change screen orientation of my samsung froyo device
Any one knows how to change device orientation, from portrait to landscape. I'm new here, thanks in advanced for any help! :)

Which Samsung device do you have?

Normally you just tilt the device.  On my Samsung Galaxy S, you should also have rotation enabled (pull down the notification bar, it's the far right icon).


text:
Manually set a hostname for IP address (i.e. /etc/hosts equiv.?)
I am a web developer and am developing our website on my local desktop machine. I have an android phone (htc desire running android 2.2). I want to test what our web application looks like on android. I can connect to the same wifi network as my desktop machine, however we make use of several hardcoded fake domain names in our web application. On my Ubuntu Linu7x desktop machine I use /etc/hosts to set these domain names to local IP addresses.
Is there anyway to do this on android? I want "foo.xyz" (our testing domain name) to point to 172.31.1.67 (my internal desktop machine). Is there any way to do this without rooting the phone (as my android phone is not rooted now)

How are your other machines resolving that IP to the test domain name? If you're doing it properly and using DNS internally on your network, and updating the IP/name in DNS to point one at the other, then when your phone connects to your internal Wifi it should pick up your internal DNS settings and just work.

@GAThrawn I do web development too (though not specifically for mobile devices).  In my environment it's normal to have a number of local development sites configured in different virtual hosts, and to connect to them via /etc/hosts (or Windows equiv).  Since the OP is running Linux, it should be fairly simple to configure a dev DNS server.  We're kinda wandering off of this site's subject matter there though :)

@Matt was trying to suggest a better way to do it than changing settings on the phone. I'm a sysadmin, and would much rather have it all centralised in DNS. Hundreds of HOSTS files all over, all pointing different names at different addresses are a management nightmare to keep track of, and a huge headache and nightmare when anyone except the original creator has to any troubleshooting at all.

@GAThrawn +1 for the 'huge headache' - it certainly is :)  DNS is of course a simpler option - added info to my answer about specifying a non-standard DNS server in case that's useful to the OP.  My "I do web development" was meant to mean "...so I feel your pain" rather than a "...so I know what I'm talking about" - sorry if it came across as a bit lah-de-dah :)

I had a solution to this for a windows machine, which may prompt a Ubuntu solution, unfortunately I lost my step-by-step blog post. Using SimpleDNS I was able to host my own network DNS, so any domain I needed to hit and I had a domain consuming app so it was necessary I just added it and SimpleDNS would forward the IP address to the dev box on the network. Then in Android or iOS device just change your Wifi DNS to the IP address of the box running your DNS and you're away!

Yes DNS might be an option for me here now that I look into it (since we have a DNS server (sorta)) around. But is there no way to do this without a DNS server?

Firefox Mobile supports HTTP proxies, so whilst it's a different rendering engine you should at least be able to get a feel for how your UI performs on a small touchscreen.  Here's how to get to the secret config section - http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/758279
The default browser includes proxy support in Gingerbread (although that doesn't help you and your unrooted Desire right now, HTC should be offering an OTA update to Gingerbread soon, or it may spur you into rooting and re-flashing your phone).
(For both of these, you'd need to configure a proxy on your network so that it can serve up your foo.xyz domain)
Finally, you could always use the Android SDK's emulator.  Performance will be painfully slow, but you would at least be running the same rendering engine.
Edit: As GAThrawn mentions in the comments above, you could also possibly achieve what you want using DNS entries on your network's default DNS server or a development DNS server.  Your phone will pick up your wifi network's default DNS server, or you can change it to something specific via Settings > Wireless & networks > Wi-Fi settings > Menu softkey > Advanced.


text:
Tasker: switch on VPN when opening specific URL?
Tasker is an automation app for Android (see http://tasker.dinglisch.net/)
I want to start VPN whenever I start http://*.intra.mycompany.com - as intra.mycompany.com are urls that are just accessible over VPN.
Anyone knows how that could be achieved?

On the Tasker homepage there's a section called "Plans" where the developers outline future ideas that they might incorporate into the product: http://tasker.dinglisch.net/todo.html
Also listed on this page are those two lines:

Actions/Tasks: VPN (dis/re)connect
Events/States: VPN connected

So it's not included yet but it might be at some point in the future. Again citing from the page:

This is an informal list of features under consideration for Tasker.


text:
Missing call summary in Samsung Galaxy Apollo (i5801)
In my Samsung Galaxy i5801 after I disconnect the call I used to get a call summary from my carrier. This hasn't worked for some time.  I contacted customer care and they say some settings in the phone are changed and probably they are right because when I use the sim on any other phone, it shows the call summary.  Does anyone know how to fix this?

I would try a factory reset via Settings -> Privacy -> Factory data reset.  This will wipe your phone, so make sure to do a back up first if you need to (you can search this site for backup methods).

DONT WE HAVE ANY SETTINGS IN THE PHONE TO DO THAT....PROBABLY FACTORY RESET IS THE LAST RESORT

@pawan Turn off Caps Lock.

let me know the exact procedure to do that....wat does it mean to turn off caps lock and how is it related to call summary

http://bash.org/?105199

No need to factory reset your phone. Simply turn off mobile tracker, it will work.

What is "mobile tracker"?


text:
Force refresh of a webpage on default browser?
I'm doing some website development, and I'm changing files (e.g. CSS) on a remote server. I am testing to see what it looks like on my 2.2 android phone (HTC Desire). I want to refresh the page to see the new changes as I make them. I can press the refresh button on the menu bar, but I'm not convinced it is always showing me the new page, since it might be cached.
Is there anyway to 'force refresh' the webpage on the web browser? Something like Shift+F5 on Firefox?

what I usually do in this sort of cases (even on desktop browser) is to make changes that are really obvious (such as turning the whole background ugly blue) to check that I'm not using a cached version.

I won't post this as an answer, since it's so roundabout ... but you could close the window, go into Menu -> More -> Settings and clear the cache.

Not an Android-centric solution, but one way to make sure externally linked files (CSS, JS, images, etc) aren't being cached are to rename the files each time you test. For example, instead of saving as "homepage.css", save as "homepage-2.css", or "homepage20110707A.css", and update the links in your HTML. You can rename them to something simpler before your final deployment. Kind of a pain, I know. But it works.

Download InBrowser: https://market.android.com/details?id=nu.tommie.inbrowser
It doesn't save any data so there is nothing to cache; there is also no need to root. It uses the Android browser to render so for testing purposes, it should be identical to the Android browser.

Not a quick solution, but this does always force a reload of all resources from the server (though the server itself may cache pages depending on your output cache settings there):

Menu button
Settings
Clear cache
Press OK, exit the Settings menu
Reload via the menu bar reload button

**
(steps from Android 2.3; others are similar)

I found that switching to "Desktop View" and back effectively reloaded.

Menu Button
Desktop View [checkbox]

this reloads once, then uncheck the checkbox and the view is updated!

I've noticed that if I refresh over wifi it'll completely refresh, but if I refresh over cellular it won't.  This with both the Android native browser and Opera mobile. on an LG Thrill with android 2.2.2. Maybe it'll work for you.

Load the stylesheet in another tab directly with its url and refresh it. If you see the changes reflected there then it'll also change the cached version that loads when you refresh your webpage. This works in Dolphin too.
I also found that if you plug in a keyboard, you can press shift and reload just like on desktop. But I prefer to see the changes as above just to be sure...

On my Samsung Galaxy S2 I can do a force F5 refresh like this:
Start default browser
Press menu button
Click 'More'
Click 'Settings'
Clear Cache, Clear History, Clear all Cookie Data.

Then stop and restart the browser.

Another solution would be to install Chrome for Android (It supports 2.2) and then enable remote debugging in Chrome.
You could then refresh the window from the console by issuing the following command.
window.location.reload(true)

For more information about this command.

If you are rooted , you could install CyanogenMod
This comes with an incognito mode which shouldn't cache sites to your phone.
Another imperfect solution if you are not rooted is to go into your browser, in the address bar type 'about:debug' then hit 'Go' . Then in settings drop the cache size down to minimum which is 100kb.

Incognito mode will still cache the current session's requests. So depending on your refresh needs, this may not be a solution.

Making a permanent setting to limit that is a bad idea; what happens when you forget to set it back? Everything gets slow and you have no idea why. Also, what if what you want to refresh fits within that still small 100kb setting?


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What does it mean when the connectivity icons in the status bar go white/gray?
The connectivity icons (Data, Mobile Signal, Wifi) in the status bar on my Nexus S are normally green, but sometimes they go white. I can't seem to figure out what this means, as I still have a signal and can receive phonecalls/texts.
They are always all the same, e.g. either all white or all green. I'm on Android 2.3.4.

Hmm.  I wonder if that's switching between EDGE 3G and HSPA 3G?

From my personal experience, they seem to go white when you aren't using background services? This with a Droid1 on CM7, I have no real idea and was wondering the same thing myself

@Matthew: Probably not, since it happens to me in the UK, where we only (AFAIK) have 3G. If it helps, it happens on honeycomb while it is registering with a new wireless network. Maybe it's just registering with a new tower after a signal break? (This might coincide with a connection type change.)

I have a Droid running CM7 also and I thought this was just a rendering glitch in the themes.  I'm glad to know this is actually meant to indicate something useful.

On the droid x with gingerbread they switch from blue to white (instead of green to white).   I also thought this was a rendering problem.   Good to know.

It has to do with whether or not you've currently got a good connection to Google's servers for sync services and the like. From page 27 of their Android 2.3 Users Guide:

Network status icons turn green if you have a Google Account added to your phone
  and the phone is connected to Google services, for syncing your Gmail, Calendar
  events, contacts, for backing up your settings, and so on. If you don’t have a Google
  Account or if, for example, you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network that is not connected
  to the Internet, the network icons are white.

I'm not really sure why it bounces back and forth between green and white sometimes. I've noticed it on my phone but everything works fine (I run CyanogenMod, though, so perhaps it has to do with that). It could also be that green means it's currently in the act of syncing, but the wording in the document is a little vague, in my opinion.
In the case of Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich, the colors are blue/grey instead of green/white, but they still have the same meaning.
Edit: For the interested, here are links to the user guide in other languages. The above is the English version.

I think that's as good clarification as I'm going to get, it does normally happen when I'm out and about, so I assume it's when my signal isn't too great.

Ah, so I was sort of right. Turning off background services == no connection to Google == white icons

@Bryan: Yep, I think you're exactly right on that one.

I know this is an old post, but I'd like to interject my experiences here.  I have a Droid RAZR and I have noticed that when I am away from my home WIFI, I lose data connection frequently.  The icons (4G and carrier signal) turn white, and even though I still have bars, I have no data connection at all until they turn blue again.  The annoying part is that it will just keep going back and forth sometimes, even if I'm not moving.  While the answer here seems like a good explanation, it doesn't really answer why I'm not getting any connection at all... or why it's happening.

What does "the phone is connected to Google services" means in technical terms?

I have wifi and mobile data turned off and the indicator is still green for some reason...

I just had the same problem of the 3G and the bars showing only in white and not green. I just got the phone a week ago and am not too familiar with the Android feature phone yet. However, the latest problem that I had was that my phone was saying that I was low on memory.
I was researching new SD cards, but just realized that I had about 4GB free on the SD card and it was the phone that was full. I moved all the apps that I could onto the SD card and now I have 100MB free on the phone. Now the 3G and the bars are green. I think that the Google Syncing services shut down (hence the white logos) when there is not enough memory on the phone to run them. My email was not syncing either.
Moral of the story: If you do not have green bars, check your phone memory. Delete apps and/or move them to your SD card. It works perfect now.

That the syncing services shut down when the device runs out of memory is plausible. But please note that this is only true for the RAM (the working memory) of the phone. Removing apps from the permanent storage -- either SD card or internal -- cannot have helped with this at all.

Not 100% correct. Note that Google help writes: Google Calendar (as well as other applications) will not automatically sync when internal storage is low. (emphasis mine). Note: "internal storage", not "RAM".


text:
VLC video converting for Xoom
I have a mkv HD video and I'm trying to watch it on my motorola xoom. I found some players but none of them was good enough to play my video smoothly. Then I read on the internet that I need to convert my video to mp4 in a certain format but I can't find a free converter that can do that for me.
So I found out that VLC can convert the video for me but it takes too much time. I would like to know if someone have already converted hd videos using vlc and it played fine on the Xoom or if you have a better alternative free solution (I'm on a mac, so it'd be good to have a solution for mac).

Video transcoding always takes a long time.

Somone suggested that mailing yourself the video might get google to do the hard work for you. I've not tried it, but should be easy to test.

@syntheticbrain Can I email me a 2gb file? don't think so

Trying to convert it using VLC right now

You can try Handbrake - a multiplatform open-source video transcoder. It has quite user-friendly graphical interface, and supports different device profiles (you can roll your own as well). As to what settings to use on your Xoom: Here someone managed to find the correct settings to make their Xoom play the transcoded video.
Some extra googling would probably give you additional information how to set the device profile in Handbrake -- seems a lot of people are trying to transcode video on this tablet.

For reference, I've tried Handbrake-transcoded video on my device (HTC Desire), and it worked fine without much tinkering, but YMMV.

The VLC converting didn't worked. Trying the Handbreak now.

avconv (libav tools) does the job perfectly, and relatively fast. It's a command level tool, I use it on Linux but I don't know if there is a Mac version. I have converted several captured TV movies (.ts format) to MPEG4 x264, at 2000 bitrate. On the XOOM side, MX-player plays it nicely, VLC (Beta version) chokes on it.
Here is a sample conversion command:
avconv -i infile.ts -c:v libx264 -c:a libmp3lame -crf 23 outfile.mp4


text:
Change MAC address Android using ip link?
I am trying to change the MAC address on a device running Android. It has been rooted and a command line installed ("ConnectBot"); I was looking around Google for methods of changing the MAC address on it and I found something called ip and ip link. Initially I thought I would use ifconfig but I haven't found the name of the network interface to change.
How would this be done on an Android device?

As superuser run:
# netcfg

A list with the interfaces will appear. For example my interface was eth0
# ifconfig eth0 down
# ifconfig eth0 hw ether your:new:mac
# ifconfig eth0 up

Note that not all drivers support this operation, and the Android ifconfig do not support these commands. You will need another ifconfig executable, perhaps that from busybox will be suitable.
After the reboot these changes are lost.

How can this command be executed on each reboot, or does this change stick? My galaxy nexus randomly changes the mac id on every reboot due to an error in the kernel. (Google is aware but seems to be in no hurry to fix it. It makes mac id authentication impossible.)

@user14633: funny.  that's the behavior I'm looking to implement, in order to avoid being identified by my MAC wherever I go.

ifconfig -a to list interfaces.
ifconfig wlan0 hw ether ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff to set the MAC address, replacing wlan0 with the interface you want to use, and the MAC address with the one you want to spoof. Not all drivers support changing the MAC address though, so this may not work.

ifconfig -a returns the error "-a: no such device" on my rooted Desire.


text:
Why does my Galaxy S now displays 'couldn't connect' when I press the microphone key
I have been entering numbers using the microphone key on the keyboard fine yesterday.
All of a sudden, when I tried to enter numbers with the microphone key some time later, the message 'couldn't connect' is displayed when I press the microphone key.
Anyone any idea how to fix this ? Restarting the phone, does not seem to help.

The text-to-speech conversion in Android is all done on the cloud.  The phone sends in your recording and returns the speech.  You need to make sure you're connected to either 3G or Wifi for this to work.
Do other apps that require connections work?

That's it. I am not always connected - only when I am explicitly looking up things. The first time I was entering numbers like that, I obviously was connected. While later on, I obviously wasn't. Never occurred to me I should be looking in that direction to find the answer. Thanks.


text:
Data only plan on Motorola Atrix 4G?
I finally made the switch from iPhone to Android.  So far it has been quite nice
with the Atrix.
I got the phone with the intent of having 3G data and WIFI only, no voice or SMS.
I got a data only service from a company called FOMA, installed the SIM and the phone comes up with:
SIM not provisioned MM#2
Google searches say the SIM is bad, but that is not the case for me.  Here is what I have
been able to test:

SIM from another carrier in Atrix that has voice service - OK
FOMA SIM in a Blackberry, Blackberry comes up OK and recognizes the network

The provider says the SIM is active, which makes sense since it works in my Blackberry.
If I go into the network setup the phone can see the two major providers here, but can't
operate on either of them.
Is it possible the phone is saying the SIM is not provisioned because there is no voice
service available?
Anyone know how I can go about debugging the problem?

I would talk to FOMA.  I once got a data-only SIM from T-Mobile and my phone worked for a couple days, but then they disabled the SIM because they don't allow Android phones to be used without voice.  It's pretty stupid, but that might be the situation in your case as well.


text:
Android 2.3 for HTC Wild Fire

Possible Duplicate:
When will my phone get the Android 2.3 update (Gingerbread)?

Is there any update on Update for HTC Wildfire to Android 2.3 . I have android 2.2 .

From the list of when phones will get 2.3:
HTC Wildfire (buzz)

OTA: never (source: official mail from HTC support; cause: doesn't meet the min. requirements, eg. 1GHz)
Unofficial:

2/15/2011 (CyanogenMod)


text:
Why does the clock think he's in Detroit?
We have brand new phones, and my husband's HTC Evo Shift 4G clock app seems to think he's in Detroit. He isn't. We've never even been to Michigan, which is probably our loss, I'm sure Michigan is beautiful, but the point is that it isn't like we've got a billing address in Detroit or a Detroit area code. The map knows where we are, but the clock shows his "current location" as Detroit. I can't find a way to change that in the clock settings.
We've tried with Settings > Date & time settings on  both "Automatic" and not. I even rebooted after enabling automatic date/time. Doesn't seem to make a difference.

I don't suppose it's a Detroit area code/exchange, is it?

Under Settings | Date & time settings is "Automatic" checked?

Updated the question.

Do you want it to auto-update, or are you fine with specifying a location manually on the widget ? How far are you located from Detroit ?

We're about 700 miles from Detroit. I did specify a location manually but can't seem to delete Detroit. Now it shows New York as the "home" location and Detroit as the "current" location.

I assume you're referring to the HTC Sense clock widget that appears on the Home screen?  It looks like this:

If so, it's important to note that the location listed there is indicating what location the weather refers to, not the time.  HTC's support site has an explanation of how to work with the widget, including editing settings.
It sounds like you added a new location to the weather configuration (which is why it separates it into "Home" and "Current location"), but it's still showing some other, non-current, and non-"Home" weather forecast.  For that, you'll want to read Checking weather, also on HTC's support website.  It explains how to add new cities to the list, how to rearrange the order of the cities (e.g., so that the important one shows up first), and most important: how to delete one ;)
Don't worry about it being for the HTC Desire S -- both phones run Android with HTC Sense, so the steps will be the same for both.

Bingo. I won't get into how illogical and exasperating that was.


text:
Can I install Skype on my xperia?
I want to install Skype on my xperia x10 but I cannot find it in the market
when I go to Skype.com/m and try to download it, I get the following message:

item not found

A friend of mine who has a Nokia C5 was able to install it.
How can I install it?

Doesn't the C5 run Symbian? Skype could be region-restricting Android phones differently than Symbian ones. Regardless, the Xperia X10 is not listed under their supported Verizon devices, so that's why you can't get it directly from their site.

@elder note that for people outside the US there's a different page, that only has Android 2.1 as a requirement and doesn't care about Verizon or supported handsets http://www.skype.com/intl/en/get-skype/on-your-mobile/download/skype-for-android/

@GAThrawn: Hm, you're right. I think I was confused when the OP said he tried to download it from skype.com because the non-Verizon page just redirects to the Market. The US Verizon one lets you enter your phone number to actually get a download from them. At least I assume it gives you a direct download...I don't have a VZW phone.

@GAThrawn i went to the link u provided.but i got >the item cannot be installed in ur device's country

according to https://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/developer/bin/answer.py?&answer=138294 Morocco doesn't have its own Android Market, I think Skype only targets specific country Markets and doesn't go into the "Rest of the world" Market. Skype's FAQs (see comments in my answer below) say to go to getjar.com if Skype isn''t found in your country's Market

There are regional and phone network restrictions for Skype. They may well be different for Nokia phones than Android phones, and your friend may not be on the same phone network as you.
There (is now) one official Skype app in the Play Store, and one I know of that isn't in Play Store:

Skype on Three- Three UK customers only, follow directions on the linked page to get it
Skype - requires Android 2.1+, works on all phone networks (outside of the US) where your phone network allows it.

The above options for finding Skype in the Play Store only work if your country has its own Play Store, if your country currently uses the "Rest of the World" Store, then you won't be able to find Skype. According to Skype's FAQ, if this is the case then you should go to GetJar.com and download Skype from there.
Assuming you're not in a country/network that's blocking Skype then your problem may be the Android OS version on your phone, I think most Xperia x10's are still running Android 1.6 and the normal Skype app requires that you be running Android 2.1 or newer.
I think most countries have an Eclair (Android 2.1) upgrade for X10's, check what Android version your phone is running, and then find out if an upgrade is available.

thank you..how can i know im not country/network that's blocking Skype? (im in Morocco btw) and i have android 2.2

@astro According to the Skype FAQs https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10653/How-can-I-get-Skype-on-my-Android-phone#3  `The Android Market only distributes applications in certain countries, so it’s possible that your location isn’t supported. To find a full list of supported locations, please visit Android Market Developer Help.
If you live in a country that's not listed,  then you can still download Skype for your Android phone from GetJar.com. Simply search for "Skype" and download it for free.`

If it really is an Android Market thing, here's a listing of all countries with their own Android Market, and which one's get the "International, free-apps only" Market https://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/developer/bin/answer.py?&answer=138294

getjar doesnt recognise my phone :(

I live in Australia, and can't download 'Skype for au'. From the app description, I think 'Skype for au' is for a Japanese provider named au, not Australian.

@LieRyan thanks, corrected. That'll teach me to make assumptions without reading carefully enough!


text:
Why doesn't my Evo bring up the Hacker's Keyboard?
I have an HTC Evo, which is still on Froyo. I've installed Swype and Graffiti, and while I mostly use Graffiti (I used to rock a Palm III), I switch as I need.
I heard of the Hacker's Keyboard on the Android Market and I jumped at it. I have ConnectBot on my phone and I sometimes use it to get a command line on both my home and work machine, and it seems like the right thing. But it isn't showing up as one of my choices. Just Swype, Touch Input and Graffiti.
I see "Gingerbread" in the description. Sprint hasn't pushed out Gingerbread yet. Is that the problem?

It says it only requires 2.2 so it seems like it should work. Did you remember to enable it in your settings?

I did not. And now I feel dumb. Nevermind.

Turn that into an answer so I can mark it solved.

Added. And I would say it's a common thing to overlook since you don't get prompted or anything, so I wouldn't feel dumb about it. Now someone else with a similar problem might land here and find a solution instead of tearing their hair out trying to debug it :)

Newly installed third-party keyboards need to be enabled in your settings before they become selectable. Make sure you have it checked under Settings->Language & Keyboard after installing.


text:
How can I fix Android Market app's "Allow Automatic Updating" checkbox after it hid?
I ran into a really weird problem (bug?)
In Android Market, when looking at a specific application's info, the first area in the lower white half of the screen is "Updates", containing "Allow Automatic Updating" check-box.
When I try to click on the check-box and miss even a little, the whole area containing the check-box disappears completely (the next "My Review" area becomes top-most).
I can not seem to get back the area for that app, even after reloading its info, or even killing Market app.

Is this a bug? A design feature?
How can I get back the Update checkbox-containing area from wherever it's hiding?

I don't think this is a design feature ... I'm not able to reproduce this at all (except for scrolling down a bit :).
However, as the Android Market App isn't the most stable app on the Android platform, you might want to try clearing the market app cache.
Go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications - Select Android Market App  - Click the Clear Cache button.
Restart the Market app and check if the checkbox is present.

I will try that, thanks. I am almost certain that it will do the trick.

I have to clear both cache and data to get the checkbox back when this happens (it's fairly infrequent, at least...)

Market app is really sluggish on my phone (Galaxy S), a lousy experience. never had the checkbox issue though...


text:
How to disable limit of pattern attempts to unlock Android 2.1 device?
My unlock pattern is long and secure.
I don't want to wait for 30 seconds when I try to enter it inaccurately (it is tricky), also I don't want it to be blocked after 20 tries.
How to make it to accept patterns ad infinum? (I have the root access)

Tried NoLock - it disabled the screen completely.
Tried SkipLock - it behaves the same as standard pattern screen.

Are there applications for alternative locking? Mat be there is one where you enter digits instead of patterns (without attempt counter, of course).
Ideal lock screen for me: 16 buttons (plus "Emergency call") which I press without any indication. When the password occurred as substring the device is unlocked. Example: password: "59B13F", I press: "59159595B13F59B13F and it is unlocked. Without even the need for erasing mistyped password, can just type and re-type fast and carelessly.

What phone do you have and are you using the built-in lockscreen? The pattern lock on my 2.2 Galaxy S does not have a timeout, and I don't think it blocks either.

Mine has both. Built-in lockscreen from stock 2.1 from Motorola Milestone.

Depending on your needs, you may consider an AppLock program.  It doesn't lock your phone, but it may provide the same purpose by locking any apps you want.  For the particular app I use, Smart App Protector, (my version is from Amazon) you can configure it to have unlimited retries (which is the default), and you can configure it to use a pattern or pin.  You can configure the relock delays as well, so you aren't entering in a pin or pattern every single time you open a program.

Remoted usual lock pattern and added almost all apps to Smart App Protector. Little question: how to enable emergency "112" dialler?

Hmm, good question.  I played around with my phone.  When I "lock" my phone, I find that I'm able to still use my direct dial shortcuts that I created in my launcher.  Can you create direct dial shortcuts on yours (long press on blank area of launcher screen, select Shortcut -> Direct Dial -> Select contact).  So if you add your emergency number of whatever, you can still call.

Have you actually tried it yourself? It can call contacts directly, including numbers like "000", but it can't call '112', it adds it like usual, but it does nothing when I click it. Also I want some confirmation before actually calling 112.

@Vi0, I was able to use direct dial for a normal number, but I haven't tried it for an emergency number (911 for U.S.)

I also tried number of 112/sos/emergency widgets. They either call up Phone (and show Smart App Protector screen) application or tries a direct call and silently fails (like a that shortcut thing).

you may try it. If it actually start calling you can quickly press "End call" before it actually brings up the call. May be direct calls to 112/911 was possible in earlier Androids?

Try Lockbot Pro - it has support for Pattern Lock or PIN entry. But on Eclair devices, it doesn't always work 100%. YMMV.
Also supports different themes and locking methods.

PhoneLocator Pro
Has wipe after a number of unsuccessful attempts.
Lock device after 1 min/2 minutes.....

I'm looking for the reverse. Don't "punish" user no matter how much attempts. Just allow enter it again and again without delays.


text:
Do apps that claim to increase SD card performance really work? Strain on card?
I was recommended an app today that supposedly increases the r/w cache on the SD card. By default it's set to 128kb.
I'd imagine this works in a similar fashion to a BufferedReader (in java).
My questions are:

Does this really work as advertised? Will I see increased I/O performance?
What effect, if any, does this have on the SD card? Can it cause premature failure?

Below is the Android Market description for SD Speed Increase
:

SD Speed Increase
This application allows you to make more powerful the using of SD Card. This is changing a parameter in a file system (thus the need of Root access) that manages the size of the cache on the memory card. By default, this value is set to 128 (kb) but it was found that changing this value in 2048 (kb), the performances are optimized, making read-write on our external memory faster. Many thanks to brainmaster, XDA Member that discover this.
  Note that if you reboot/turn off your device, you lose the setting that you did, so you can click on the dedicated box to allow this app to set on every boot the value that you choose.
This function may be not work.

Device: ZTE Blade. Rooted and running CyanogenMod 7.0

Here's the original XDA thread.
Basically, it shows a fairly significant improvement for some devices.  2048 kB might not be the best setting for your particular device, so you might want to experiment.  I'm running it on my device and noticed a minor improvement; it certainly wasn't harmful.  I'm not 100% sure but I would think it would not increase wear.

<cynical>

To me, it sounds like one of the many voodoo tweaks for every OS.
You'll find that a loud few % of users will proclaim it's effectiveness.
The silent majority won't
If there was an effective way to improve SD card speed then I'm sure the clever engineers at HTC or wherever would have implemented it.
Some of the "improvements" posted appear bogus: you can get 66MB/s read from an SD card? No: you can read from the cache at that speed. Non-cached access will be normal SD speed of course
For example, post 588
</cynical>

Also from XDA (actual title, BTW): Increasing readahead in a not completely retarded manner

I really agree with you on this, I feel that on the majority of cases you might end up wasting resources doing useless readaheads. And, as you mentioned, the engineers at Google, HTC, Samsung, et al are not stupid.