text:
Is Android 3.0 Honeycomb only for tablets?
It wasn't long time since Android 2.3 Gingerbread was released and so for only a few phones has 2.3. And already a beta version of Android 3.0 Honeycomb is released.
What does this mean, is Android 3.0 only for tablets? If not, I guess that 2.3 will be very shortlived. If 2.3 is for phones and 3.0 is for tablets, that sounds like a fork of Android.

Also, where can i download Android 3.0?? I couldn't find it at the App Market.

@noir_11: Android 3.0 hasn't been released yet. Even so, you don't download an OS upgrade in the Market.

I think the conventional wisdom is that Honeycomb is a fork for Tablets only but this post suggests otherwise.  It says that in an interview with Engadget, Matias Duarte claimed that Honeycomb would be for all form factors.

They don't mention Tablet devices only... but I've seen them mention many times larger screen format devices. So I believe they could potentially use Honeycomb for the larger devices like the Dell Streak (which Dell calls a Tablet, but at the same time has phone functionality).

Google spokespersons have made it a point multiple times that there is not hardware requirements or restrictions for Honeycomb, and that it's as open and available as any other version of Android.  It's neither restricted to dual-core or tablet devices.  It's redesign and new features are to enhance it's ability as a tablet platform, not restrict it to a tablet platform.

Duarte confirms it again: http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/20110201/exclusive-googles-android-design-expert-outlines-the-vision-behind-honeycomb/

Looks like Honeycomb will be Tablet only - http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/02/03/224231/Google-Says-Honeycomb-Will-Not-Come-To-Smartphones

Keep reading through the source links and you find that the source of the slashdot thing originates with the BGR post (http://goo.gl/mAz4Z) that has been updated with a Google clarification that Honeycomb is coming to tablets first (e.g. the Xoom), but the changes are the future of Android. In fact, parts of Honeycomb will come to Android versions as early as 1.6 (the Fragment API, specifically, http://goo.gl/Evbrr).

Yes, that is what it looks like. The UI doesn't seem like it will work on the smaller devices like phones. We will probably see 3.0 iterations for tablets and 2.x / 4.x for phones. I don't like that this is like a fork. hopefully they can merge it together for 3.1 and just have a different launcher for tablets.

Just having a different launcher is a good idea.  I'd actually prefer a scalable interface though, since there's no clear line between a minitablet like the Dell Streak and some of the larger phones.

It was mentioned on TWiG last week, and there's a handful of photos floating around the net, but when the recently released Honeycomb source is put on a device with phone's resolution/screensize it changes to a much more familiar and small screen friendly phone-style UI.
See it in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LMcBo7uKKw
So it looks like Honeycomb is the first version specifically designed with Tablets in mind, but it still retains all of the phone friendly features and swaps between them depending on the settings/screen size.

I don't think a formal announcement has been made, but while Google's YouTube video about Honeycomb said it was "entirely for tablets" [1], it has been confirmed multiple times that it is for other devices as well [2].

It is a short term fork to get ahead in the tablet market.
There is a future release planned merging them back together into what is called the Android Icecream Sandwitch.
Refer wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)

There's no reason to believe that Honeycomb is just for tablets. It's been designed with large screens in mind, but on the developer side of the documentation there's clear indication that it's for all screen sizes:

Android 3.0 brings a new UI designed
  for tablets and other larger screen
  devices, but it also is fully
  compatible with applications developed
  for earlier versions of the platform,
  or for smaller screen sizes.

Source: http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-3.0-highlights.html#compatibility
My emphasis.

I ran a release under an emulator, and it struggled on my machine, as a guide, 2.3.1 is a tab slow on the emu but usable. HoneyC is practically unusable on the emu, and seem to display many issues.
This could all be down to the development stage of the code though


text:
HTC EVO Does Not Sync Google Calendar
I'm an experienced Android user and recently my Dad picked up a HTC EVO. I set him up with all the Google services and apps like Gmail, Contacts and Calendar. I exported all of his contacts and appointments out of Outlook to CSV and uploaded them to Google so they can sync down to his EVO. Unfortunately when I go to his Google account sync settings, his phone does not show the option to sync his Google Calendar. The exact option I'm talking about is under (from the home screen) Settings -> Accounts & sync -> your Google account. The phone shows Books, Contacts, and Gmail but the option for calendar is missing. Is this the case on all EVO's?
I have a screen capture of my phone (HTC Incredible) that has the option below that I'm talking about. His HTC EVO does not have it for some reason. Is this a Sprint restriction? Any ideas on how to add it?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Matt

I'd make sure that he's done something with Calendar through the web interface, such as add a custom calendar, and then try to add the account to the phone again. To do this you need to clear the data for all Google apps -- Accounts and Sync, Gmail, Google Framework Services, etc. -- and then re-add the account.
I don't believe this is EVO-specific, it seems sometimes Google just doesn't correctly link the accounts sometimes (for example, this question has the same problem except for Picasa: Why can't I Sync Picasa Web Albums?).

You don't have to do a factory reset.  See my answer here.  Basically clearing all the data from all the Google apps as you suggest brings you back to the initial Account Setup.

This Matt says thanks to the Matt's on this thread. I'll get back to my Dad and see if it works. Results will be posted.

Confirmed: Clearing the data for all Google apps fixed this issue. The calendar is now syncing down to my Dad's EVO. I think the root cause was that he logged into his EVO before he had used Google Calendar web for the first time so there was no data for the service to sync.

Great, glad it's working.

I had just read today about this same problem on a Galaxy S but can't find the post.  The post claimed that after adding a second Google account the "Sync Calendar" option appear for both account.

Yes adding second google account made it work. Thank You!

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/

sort: votes


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Does Samsung Galaxy S keep GPS location in camera taken photo metadata?
Does anyone know if Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9000's camera taken photos keep information about GPS location from when they were taken?
Thank you

See this previous question for tips if the geo-tagging isn't working for you at the moment http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/3333/how-can-i-make-my-photos-automatically-geo-tagged

The easiest way to tell if the picture has been geotagged is to open the picture in the gallery press Menu, More, Show on map.

Any other ideas? I want to dissable geotagging. I don´t want to give up my location. It´s could be very dangerous.

Hi. You're not really giving away your location per se. If you send someone files they will be able to see coordinates of where they were taken, however you can "Clear personal data" from the JPEG files in Windows 7 (surely other OS too). Also, if your GPS is turned off, your location will not be determined.

It can if you turn the function on in the settings.  In the settings menu there's an option for "GPS", that when checked turns on geotagging:

via GSM Arena & CareAce

If GPS is closed and wireless networks as well, will it force open them to get location? Or for geotagging to work they must be user-enabled before taking pictures?

Also, I seem to be missing that GPS checkbox from the settings interface... After Review i see Shutter Sound which should be on the next page according to the screenshot above. Any clues?

Just searched for it (StackExchange makes you lazy) and it turns out Froyo made GeoTracking default and unchangeable in Galaxy S. Haha...

There is no setting in the camera phone for GPS on my Galaxy S GT19000.
I disabled everything in Settings > location and security. It was still geotagging my photos, and I couldn't work out how it was doing that. But if you go to applications > local, it was here for me. Just visit the Settings section.
Nasty.

I just did a reset of all camera settings and the geotagging disappeared. Since this is what I wanted, I'm happy. When I bought it it was off (I think) and it got turned on sometime last month.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/

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


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I'm looking for a way to work offline with Google Tasks
Is it possible to work offline with Google Tasks and then sync it back when online? My connection is not stable over here.
Please share if you know how to. Thank you!

GTasks allows you to work with you task list offline on your phone and then sync when you have internet as do most task managers that sync with Google Tasks.  I've never tried any of the others but I can say from experience that GTasks works well.

Astrid works fine with Google Tasks. It syncs with Google Tasks and can work offline.

Tasks works great for me. It has a free and paid version.

One of the most reliable Android apps I've ever used.

I've been using iRT GTasks Outliner that gives you an offline outliner that syncs with GTasks. It's currently in Beta but have been quite stable for the month or so I've used it.

Virtually any of the apps in the Play Store which interact with Google Tasks will have this functionality.
That said, I have been using and quite happy with Google Tasks Organizer. (There is also a free "Lite" version.)

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


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How does "Angry birds backup" app work?
"Angry Birds Backup" seems to be a third party app that modifies other application's data.
This should not be possible from security point of view, as it enables you to create malicious software.
So how does that backup program work?
It works on my nexus one, but phone is not rooted.
Application only asks for the network and sd card access. the former could be required for ads only (have not checked the paid version yet)

Not a dupe, but for reference, here's a previous question on backing up Angry Birds data that mentions that a phone user wanting to do this themselves would need root http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/5301/how-does-angry-birds-backup-app-work

Does AngryBirds save state on a file on the SD card?  If yes, that could be why...  Otherwise if it is using a database or similar, it would be breaching a security issue (unless you were rooted).

Even if it just saved the state, how would it restore the state without root access?

@Matt Writing to / reading the SD card doesn't require root.

I realize that.  If Angry Birds doesn't make any provision for backing up and storing state data on the SD, how would a 3rd party app be able to over ride the Angry Birds state without over writing the information that I assume is stored somewhere in the /data/ directory (which you do need root to access)?

I should clarify that I'm assuming that Angry Birds data is stored in a root directory because after I wiped my phone and reinstalled Angry Birds I had to start all over, where as all the other apps that stored user information on the SD card picked up right were I left them.

@Matt Oh, sorry, I misunderstood.  I've always backed it up with Titanium, I guess I assumed the data was on the SD card with the app.  But I just checked and it's in /data/data/com.rovio.angrybirds/files/

According to the Android Dev Guide, files written to the internal storage such as the Angry Birds data cannot be accessed by other applications by default.  I'm guessing that Rovio used MODE_WORLD_READABLE instead of the default, however.  Maybe this was a mistake or maybe they plan on having future apps being able to read your progress and unlock sometihng, or whatever.
Of course, this doesn't bar the possibility that an Android exploit is being used to bypass the file privacy, but who really knows besides the author of the backup app?


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Can I install additional language support (Russian) on HTC Desire HD without rooting?
I bought HTC Desire HD and I want to change UI language to Russian. The issue is that I see in settings only English, German, Italian and French.
Is it possible to add other language without rooting phone?

You can use the same app that I found for my problem to fix yours:
Custom Locale

Just install it and then select Russian as your predefined language and you're good to go mate.

Thank you. Actually, after I installed russian SIM-card and performed factory reset, phone automatically started with russian localisation. My wife is happy now.

After change custom locale, if it also change the phone language ? Such as custom locale change to Russian, if also phone language also change to Russian ?

uthark,
You can try using MoreLocale2, for an easy locale change.

I have added my language using morelocale2..
Language : ta (Tamil)
Country  : IN (India)
ta_IN
I am able to add and select my language. But, It is not changing the default language of the device.. Still i could it see the things in english .. any suggestions?

While the first part of this answers the original poster's question, the remainder should be submitted as a new question.


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Android Froyo (2.2). Why I cannot put letters on bluetooth PIN?
Please, I have a device wich I connect via bluetooth from my Samsung Galaxy S. The bluetooth device have a alphanumeric PIN. When I try connect it ask for PIN but my galaxy only let me to put numbers!. Android 2.1 let me put numbers and letters. Any suggestions? PD: Impossible to change the device's alphanumerical PIN.
Thank you.
02/02/2011. Question solved. It was as I thought. Update 2.2.1 allow to put numbers and letters in bluetooth PIN(like in 2.1 version).

I've edited the tags because the question seems related only to Android.

If I switch Swype keyboard I get the letters but they don't show on the screen...

This seems more of a hardware/software issue than a programming issue.

Hi TheCottonSilk and Jamie Keeling, Almost i am sure the problem is anything about froyo 2.2... I can switch mode ABC when DialogBox appears asking PIN, but I pulse any letter and it doesn't show in the EditText. It is like if the DialogBox had a filter to accept only numbers. The problem is that this DialogBox is controlled by the O.S... :(

Hi TheCottonSilk and Jamie Keeling,
Almost i am sure the problem is anything about froyo 2.2... I can switch mode ABC when DialogBox appears asking PIN, but I pulse any letter and it doesn't show in the EditText. It is like if the DialogBox had a filter to accept only numbers. The problem is that this DialogBox is controlled by the O.S... :(

@Alex: Rather than editing the question here, it would have been better for you to post it as an answer and then accept it. However, since you never did register at Stack Overflow so that this question could be re-assigned to you, I guess this will have to do.

I have the same problem. I'm not able to put letters in the pairing pin with my HTC Desire HD with Anroid v2.3.3. Is this a bug in the OS?

Looks like its device related issue than Android OS issue.
If its a firmware related issue, vendor may be able to offer you a patch.
Meanwhile if you see an option to switch between Number mode and ABC mode on your keypad, you can try that..
Refer page 29 of device manual.

Haha - if it is truly related to the Samsung TouchWiz build of android... good luck waiting for Samsung to fix it.

Here you could see a video that shows this issue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3MV7m-KZHM
Update from comments: Question solved. I have already update my Galaxy S to 2.2.1 and It allow put numbers and letters in bluetooth PIN !!!

@Alex: This should have been an update to the original question. Since you haven't registered either here or at Stack Overflow, you aren't associated with the question. I suggest you do so, then you'll be able to edit and comment here as appropriate.

Sorry Al Everet, now I am trying edit my question... But I don't know how I do this..

Because you don't "own" the question. It was migrated from Stack Overflow. To restore ownership to you, you should register at both Stack Overflow and here with the same credentials. Then (eventually) the question will be associated with your account.

Ok, sorry for my mistake.

No problem. We're here to help.

@Alex: I see you've registered here. Great. However, you also need to register with Stack Overflow (using the same OpenID) so that your accounts can be associated, and you can regain ownership of your question.

Question solved. I have already update my Galaxy S to 2.2.1 and It allow put numbers and letters in bluetooth PIN !!!


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Why do I have to set lots of my settings again after a phone reboot?
For examples:

I have to set Input Method back to SwiftKey
I have to set what application I'd like to use when I clicked sms icon (I'm using ChompSMS)

All these happens after a phone reboot.

Do you have either app moved to the SD card (using Froyo)?
If yes, then you need to move then back.  The apps aren't loading when the phone boots, so the phone is reverting to what is currently available on boot  (stock SMS/keyboard).
You have to remember: with Cyanogenmod, it will let you move any app to SD card, regardless of whether the app is set to allow you or not.  I made a similar mistake with Swype.

It seems you're right, I've had exactly the same issue on Cyanogenmod 7, with SwiftKey and Twitter.  I think it might be a bug in the apps in question - I'm pretty sure it was happening with the Facebook app as well but that seems OK now, so possibly recent update fixed the issue.


text:
I have Unknown Sources enabled on my phone, now what?
Along the same lines as this question. What's so special about enabling Unknown Sources, and what are some things that I should do once it's enabled?

I'd upvote but I ran out of votes last night... check back in ~6 hours.

This allows you to obtain and run an application (i.e. the .apk file) from sources other than the Android Market. (i.e. you get it from a download from a developer's site, from an email, etc.). That's it.
Edit:
Once you enable Unknown Sources this post covers the rest: How can I install an app given only its APK file?.

For example, enabling Unknown Sources allowed me to install the Beta version of the Swype keyboard from http://beta.swype.com/ (but if your phone already has Swype then don't do that)

Ah cool. I had always seen "enabling unknown sources" listed as a thing to do after rooting, but never saw an explanation why.

I don't have "Unknown sources" on my Dell Streak. What should I do to get this option??? Please, help!

@Pavel: You must have AT&T as your carrier. AT&T has (in)famously disabled the "Unknown Sources" option. Unless you're willing to root your phone and install a custom ROM, you're out of luck.

Visit m.getjar.com and go nuts! download cranky birds. It seems to be the game so many people like.
I wonder if there is an android version of Cut the Rope out yet.

What's so special about enabling Unknown Sources?

It opens the secondary gateway to allow third-party apps to live and prosper in your Android OS. The first, centralized and trustworthy gateway is the Google Play Store.
That setting allows developers to use (not limited to) the following channels for the distribution of their apps:

through an App Marketplace, such as Amazon AppStore, F-Droid and many more
by Email - when the user open your email on their Android-powered device, the Android system recognizes the APK and displays an Install Now button in the email message
through a Website - this involves forums as well.

Source: Alternative Distribution Options
The most common ways to install an app are:

from a system app, such as Google Play Store
from adb, the command-line tool
from native Package Installer app - works only when you enables that Unknown sources setting
from exploits - the bread-and-butter of one-click root apps

As you can see, the first choice ties you down to whatever was shipped with the device; the second choice is not user-friendly and requires PC; fourth is an unsafe choice from any angle; third is the only one left to a user. Special or not, that is what gives you the freedom to  install apps, not found or not available in your region per Play Store, whenever and wherever you want.
Note that some network providers don’t allow users to install applications from unknown sources. -- Source
It is to be noted that it is special not only to you but to developers with malicious intent as well.
Elena, in the article Protect against harmful apps, has noted:

IMPORTANT: Your phone and personal data are vulnerable to attack by apps from unknown sources. If you allow downloading apps from unknown sources, be aware that your phone may be damaged or lose data.

I suppose that warning stems from their strong believe in the following statement found in the same article:

The Google Play Store helps protect your device by blocking potentially harmful apps. Before an app is published to Google Play, it's reviewed to make sure it's not harmful.

(Emphasis mine)


text:
Is there an app that will list my phone's info in an easily copy/paste-able format?
There's a great Add-on for Firefox called InfoLister, all it does is provide a nicely formatted list of stuff and versions, for example here's what it lists for me:

Last updated: Thu, 27 Jan 2011
  17:03:32 GMT
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0
  (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US;
  rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203
  Firefox/3.6.13 ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729;
  .NET4.0E)
Extensions (enabled: 23, disabled: 7):

Contacts 0.3.2
DOM Inspector 2.0.8
etc...

Themes (1):

Default 3.6.13 [selected]

Plugins (13):

Garmin Communicator Plug-In
Google Talk Plugin
etc...

Are there any Android apps that can generate an easily copy & paste-able list of the phone's version, etc. all in one place? Basically the stuff that appears in Settings -› About phone.

I also wrote an app in response to this question. It's free in the market. Let me know what you think. If you want more information, please let me know and I'll add what I can.
It's called "Android Information Text ".

Looks good, am impressed that one question on here got two different devs writing apps to solve the problem! You can find Reassembler's at http://www.appbrain.com/app/android-information-text/org.reassembler.textinfo

Well out of my own curiosity, I made this to start:
https://github.com/dieseltravis/AndroidBuildInfo

Here it is running on my Moto Flipside:

Upvoted for developer initiative!

Yes of course
SysHard Info - show system and hardware information on Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kinocat.andinfo
Copy Screen

What is your connection to this software? Are you the developer? It seems to be relatively new, so maybe you could share the qualities that meet the requirements of the question?

Who are you and what you want from me?

This stackexchange likes developers to reveal their connection to software they have created to resolve the question. The company name of this tool is similar to your username, and it is a recent build. Is there a connection? If so, you should be clear about that.

Can you only copy the info out of the Pro version?

@wbogacz: Indeed:  "ua" is the ISO country code for Ukraine; and "Andrey" is probably the Ukrainian variant of the English name "Andrew".

In case you wonder why, how to not be a spammer explains it: "Post good, relevant answers, and if some (but not all) happen to be about your product or website, that’s okay. However, you must disclose your affiliation in your answers.". As of current writing, it's unclear if this is an attempt to promote your app particularly or not. Is there a reason why you don't want to disclose it?


text:
Motorola Milestone problems
Before I start, please let me say I've tried pretty much everything, including, of course asking my providers for a new phone, but it didn't work. I also posted a similar question on a programmer's site but they couldn't/wouldn't help me. So here it is: I got the Motorola Milestone and it just has so many bugs, it's ridiculous. When I searched online I saw people complaining exactly about the same issues.

Phone switches off randomly, sometimes during a call.
Phone switches ON randomly, sometimes during a meeting (!)
Music from the MP3 player turns on randomly, so I always have to turn the volume off before turning the application off.

I also tried upgrading etc, but nothing helped.
:/

I have encountered random OFF problem a couple of times and it seemed to be always related to the connection with a Bluetooth equipment. For the random ON problem I would recommend shutting down the sound and keeping the device ON every time. The random music activation should have been corrected with the latest firmware update. In my case, the firmware version 2.1-update1 corrected the random music activation. I would recommend that you make sure all your firmware updates have been done.
These are not the best solutions but that is all I have been able to find. Let's hope the next update to Android 2.2 will correct all these issues once and for all.

I recommend everyone CyanogenMod 6:
http://www.cyanogenmod.com/
http://android.doshaska.net/cm6
The latest version CM 6.1.2 is based on Android 2.2.1 with 2.6.32.9 kernel.
I had a lot of problems at offical firmware (Android 2.1): random reboot, spontaneous music playing, gtalk is not worked, bugs with media scanner which cause 100% CPU usage all time.
I didn't found any bugs at CM 6. Even more my motorola became much faster and less use battery .

Me too recommend this. I am using cm6 on my milestone. Everything works and is smooth too...

Sounds like Motorola has screwed up royally.  I recommend a custom ROM from XDA: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=670


text:
Imported Hebrew vcf contacts come out gibberish
I just joined the Android community. I have been using a Nokia E72. I am a bilingual user (Hebrew/English). I have succeeded in importing my address book 838 contacts with the help of this blog http://myhtcdesire.com/tutorials/how-to-transfer-contacts-from-a-nokia-symbian-phone-to-htc-desire
My Android OS came with Hebrew/English pre-installed. The problem is that in the imported address book all of the Hebrew in contacts show as gibberish.
I tried switching back and forth the default language, but that made no difference.
Any help would be appreciated.

I found the solution here http://iandroid.co.il/forum/topic1999.html

If it's the answer you were looking for, post it as an answer.

Sounds like an encoding problem.  Have you tried importing the .vcf into Google Contacts (on the web) and then syncing your phone with your Google account contacts?  That might provide better results; Android doesn't play nice with multiple languages right now.

What if I do not have internet connection nor wifi on my Android? what then? how the google contacts can be of any help what so ever?

@Miki800 I honestly wouldn't consider a phone without Wi-Fi a smartphone. If you're in that situation, however, consider asking your own question -- most everyone has Wi-Fi so in the absence of evidence otherwise, those considerations aren't relevant here.

I have followed the steps mentioned here.
It's using .vcf technique only. I had to transfer Nokia C3 contacts to Sony Xperia and it worked for me.

Create a backup file in your nokia phone.
For that go to Menu > Settings > Sync and backup > Create Backup
Select only "Contacts" for backup.
It will create a backup file at a location you specified.
Copy that backup file in your PC.
Rename its extension to ".zip" or ".rar" (make sure to uncheck "Hide extensions for known types")
Then extract this file. It will extract all your contacts in root folder named "32" in ".vcf" format.
Copy this folder into your memory card
Then go to "Contacts" in your android phone. press on the 3 grey dots on the upper or bottom right of the screen.
Select Import from the list. Next, select Import from > SD Card / external memory.
It will search for ".vcf" files and popup you the choice to import specific files or all (select "Import all vCard files" to
  import all contacts)
Wait for a while and its done.


text:
Is there a widget that shows free/busy status of one of my Google Calendar calendars?
I have, in my Google Calendar account, several calendars which have been shared by friends/family/co-workers.  Is there a widget which I can place on my phone's home page which will show whether or not a given person (or calendar) is "in an appointment" or not?  I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S, but it is running a 2.2 build (Team Whiskey).

I believe Android Agenda Widget is similar in functionality to the LauncherPro calendar widget. It's quite configurable and has a wide range of widget sizes. Also shows tasks from certain supported apps.

This is certainly in the lead so far :)

Launcher Pro has a nice calendar widget that I use for this purpose.  It can switch back and forth between a month view of the calendar to an agenda view.  I have my own calendar and two other Google calendars hooked in which show up as appointments on my agenda.

Does that widget work in non Launcher Pro environments?  I'd hate to have to swap out my entire setup for just one widget.

Sadly, @GWLlosa, I don't believe it does.  Sorry.


text:
Android 2.2 - Visited Links Color
I just got the 2.2 update for my T-Mobile MyTouch 3G (3.5mm) and while playing around with the browser discovered that, unlike with the previous version, visited html links on web pages are now purple.  I understand the purpose this serves, but I personally HATE having visited links display with another color.
Anyone know of a setting that will disable this?

I don't see anything in the settings for the default browser on my phone (Droid, Android 2.2.1). You're almost certainly going to need to try an alternative browser. I don't know if any of them offer that functionality either, though.


text:
Why is voice-to-text input not working when disconnected from the Internet?
As you know, on Nexus One you can use voice input to enter text by speaking.
Unfortunately, if you are disconnected from the Internet (even temporarily), this feature is unavailable.
Why?
On my Windows laptop I can do this without being connected to the Internet.
Can you explain?

The Android implementation of Talk-To-Text sends your voice to Google's servers, parses your speech into text, then sends the text string back to the handset.  Without access to the internet, it's unable to transmit your voice data to their servers.

That's a great answer, thanks. Do you know why can't Android parse speech internally (just like Windows does) without sending the voice to Google's servers?

My guess would be that the required libraries, software, etc would just bloat up the phone unnecessarily, so they decided to offset the parsing onto Google's servers.  Text-To-Speech may be trivial for a laptop/desktop, but I'm sure the technologies behind it require a fair amount of processing power and storage space, which are somewhat limited on phones.

I believe that the phone could do it, because I was using Dragon on a PC back in the day. That PC was slower than my phone.

Phone can actually do it. But whether to do it on phone or on a server depends on the implementation decided by the parent company (in this case Google). There are advantages and disadvantages of both implementation - When implemented through server, then phone doesn't need to download entire language DB, doesn't need to do heavy processing. But the biggest advantage is that server can improve with every processed word and result of that improvement will reach to user without he doing anything.


text:
How can I copy all or a portion of an SMS conversation?
The built in SMS app only allows one message to be selected at a time.  I would like to copy the entire conversation or select a range and copy it so that it can be pasted into an email.  How can I do this on Android?

SMS Backup+ will backup (and can restore too) your sms messages to your gmail account (you have to enable IMAP in gmail)
The nice thing about it, it does it automatically. It can also backup your call log too email too.

In the stock Android messaging app, you can hold your finger on a message for a few moments and then select the "Copy Message Text" option, then paste it into any app you'd like.
That would work fine for individual messages, as far as entire threads go, that I'm not sure.  I'd probably go the geeky route personally and open up the .db file that contains all the text messages with an sqlite3 binary and manually peruse the database, copying what I need out of it.

huh.. Interesting. Ok so the text messages are in a sqlitedb, eh? Where is the file located?

/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db

Thanks. I'll try this out on my own phone but my buddy isn't a programmer so most of this would be above his head.

I'd also like through my own answer into the mix - not as an android app but as a service you could potentially use if you are an Android/gmail user. http://voice.google.com is a great tool that lets you send and receive texts through the browser as well as sending you transcripts via texts to your phone when people leave voice messages.
You are given a phone number (of your choice) which you can keep forever which in case you change phone numbers, you can always be contacted through that number (but you can block people by phone number and it says the number has been disconnected).
The idea here is that if you give that google voice number to your friend and they send you a text to that number, you will receive it in your google voice inbox as well as your phone and it keeps conversations grouped like you would expect google to do.

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


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How do I avoid problems when going from Wi-Fi to cell data connection (3G)?
I have my phone (Droid X) connected to my home Wi-Fi network, but when I leave it can take applications (Google Maps, Rhapsody, etc) probably 10-15 minutes before they function normally without either doing nothing and/or giving data connection errors.
Something that may be telling (or meaningless) is that the little "3G" icon on the notification bar doesn't appear for a good long while.
Disabling the Wi-Fi on the phone after the fact doesn't seem to help, and the fastest method seems to be just power cycling the whole device.  Is there some better/cleaner/faster way?

You could try using Quick Settings to toggle the 3G connection.  It has seperate toggle switches for 3G and Wifi but when wifi is on it automatically turns off 3G.  When I click the toggle to turn on 3G it automatically disables the wifi.

Matt's answer is great, but you could also try:

Shut off WiFi
Turn on flight mode (Settings -> Wireless and network)
Turn off flight mode
Hopefully you should get a 3G connection within seconds

Here's another method (might be device-specific or 2.2+ only, not sure; it works on my Galaxy S):

Shut off WiFi
Hold your power button for a second to bring up the power/network menu
Click "Data network mode" to deactivate 3G
Click it again to reactivate 3G
Hopefully you should get a 3G connection within seconds


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How do I tether over USB in MacOSX?
How do I tether over USB in MacOSX?
I plug the phone in, pick up:

USB tethering
Share phone's mobile network with PC

which causes the computer to discover a new network interface, but it doesn't just work and the configuration looks like this:

Which telephone number, account name and password is it asking for? I've never got those details from the ISP. I did ask the ISP and the details they gave me made no sense and didn't work.
I'm running the stock Android 2.2 on an HTC Desire, the carrier is Swisscom in Switzerland. I've been told by someone that has the same phone, that plugging it in Windows and doing the same just works without asking for any number or password.

Take a look at this similar question: USB Tethering and Mac ...and see if it helps. It's almost a duplicate but I won't close this one because it has a lot more specifics in the body.

According to this thread, you need to use software like PdaNet to get it to work.

+1 PdaNet, especially for those who don't want to root

I'm really surprised it doesn't work out of the box on MacOSX even when it does on Ubuntu... oh well... Something important to add is that at least these days, for mac and android, PdaNet seems to be free.

The free version only allows you to access sites that you don't have to login to (eg. No Gmail, Facebook...).  If you are going to use it regularly I'd say it's well worth the one time cost of $30.


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disable music button
How can I disable the hardware music button on the side of my LG GW620?  I keep accidently triggering it in my pocket, causing random bursts of Foo Fighters when I sit down in a meeting.
Just disabling it while the screen is locked would be best, but completely disabling it would be better than nothing.
My GW620 has been upgraded to android 2.2 (Froyo) using the the OpenEtna firmware.  Prior to this I don't think the music button did anything at all.

You can try Button Remapper, but I am not 100% sure if your device is supported. if its not, you could contact the dev and see if he can add support, he recently added support for the Galaxy S devices.
Edit
Actually, from looking at that thread, it may be supported already. I see there are "media" actions that can be changed...

Thanks for the suggestion - I have installed it but it looks like it doesn't support my device - I don't get any keys listed for remapping, just the Apply button.

Actually, I think you might be able to do this manually by editing the eve_qwerty.kl file.  I'm going to try this, but I'm going to accept your answer since it has helped me understand the subject.

Sorry, this is a bit of a half-answer - I haven't worked it right the way though yet - but I think you could do something like the following using the (amazing) Tasker app.
ON 'Screen Off', IF current music track = "", SET Media Volume = 0
ON 'Screen On' set volume back to normal)

By checking for a currently playing track, it won't mute whilst you are genuinely listening to something just because the screen is then turned off.
Whilst it doesn't disable your phone as such, it would stop the music blearing out. You could also add a vibrate notification to warn you if this has happened.

There is an app on Google Play Store for disable and re enable the music button. Music Button Disabler for android
Hope this help.


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Android marketplace with PayPal support
Are there any Android market alternative that support PayPal payment?

SlideMe supports paypal. but i dont know what their "inventory" looks like compared to android market. You could try to get the PayPal debit card and link that to a google checkout account, if you can...

AndAppStore, but it doesn't offer anywhere near the number of apps as Google's market.


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What are the privacy implications of using Talk-to-Text?
Given that the Android implementation of Talk-To-Text sends your voice to Google's servers, parses your speech into text, then sends the text string back to the handset, what are the privacy implications of using Talk-to-Text?
Does this mean, for example, that anything that I say to my beloved Nexus One is stored on Google's servers?
Do Google TOS refer specifically to this issue?

Anything you say, can and will be used against you!

@Ivo LOL, nice sense of humor! Does that mean that you don't have an answer? ;-)

Well at least that I didn't bother to go read their ToS. If you're worried about privacy, then you shouldn't use such services for things you want to keep private ;)

I would say it is as bad as having a website, twitter, facebook, etc. or even searching on google, bing, whatever. as eric schmidt said, if you don't want it known, don't post it on the internet (in this case, through a google service) :)

@Ryan, is that why eric was fired from his position as ceo? :-D

he wasn't fired, he was promoted.

@Ryan, sure... Then again, I wouldn't mind being "promoted" with a $300MM bonus. :-)

I'd bet they do data mine it and and store the data about what people are talking about and searching but I'd be willing to bet it's not stored in a file with your name or IP on it.  It's far more likely your data would be compromised by you losing the phone or by someone using a wifi sniffer or a data breach at some retail institution like TJX.  If you really want to know what's in the TOS you are going to have to venture to be the first person ever to read the TOS.

@Matt I like your answer. I think keeping some recording could be a great way to advance speech recognition technology. Also, keeping voice signatures as a future worldwide biometric database is not so far fetched (some governments do that already). I didn't think about the data mining though. This seems very google-like.

From Google's Mobile Privacy Policy:

For products and services with voice recognition capabilities, we collect and store a copy of the voice input you make to the product or service and corrections you make to the returned recognition result. To improve processing of your voice input, we may also continuously record in temporary memory a few seconds of ambient background noise. This recording stays only temporarily on the device and is not sent to Google. If you choose to personalize voice recognition, we will associate your voice data with your Google Account.

Good find, @Iain.


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Slow opening of calendar items
I've bought an HTC Desire HD yesterday with Android 2.2 Froyo and HTC Sense. So I migrated my calendar items manually and it seemed to pick up some connections from my Facebook and my Twitter, which was nice..
But:
From time to time the calendar app just becomes really really slow for some reason, the sync icon is running, and the items just won't open. When this happens I keep staring at a blank screen for about 20 seconds which is really annoying...
When I check out what he is syncing its always either Facebook, or the Google calendar.
I already tried to switch these things off, but it does not seem to help :( ...
It even goes to the point where the whole calendar app just crashes, or even takes HTC Sense with it..
How can I make the calendar fast?
Thanks in advance!

A hard reset gave me the solution..

I have this very same issue, why is a hard reset considered a "solution"?  That doesn't go anywhere near telling us WHY nor HOW the problem occured...?

True, but until there is a better answer, it will be your only option I'm afraid..

Settings >> Applications >> Manage applications and selected "Clear cache" and "Clear data" for (where applicable)

Pretty standard steps for dealing with a truculent app.


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How hard is it to modify Android to add/remove required applications
I am new to Android world and I am really curious about how difficult it is to modify OS to add/remove applications. I am not talking about installing/removing apps from Android Market, but actually customizing OS to only include apps of my choice. That includes both standard/system apps as well as apps from Android Market. For example, what if I only wanted to have access to Google Voice application (and nothing else)? I guess in this custom version of the OS, I would not necessary have to remove the application, but could just somehow hide it from user.
In any case, any clues on the amount of effort/approach would be greatly appreciated.

You can modify system image. Pre-installed applications are located at /system/app/ folder. You can add new application to this folder or remove pre-existing applications from that folder.
Applications from this folder are not removable (if device is not rooted).
As a fast example for customizing Android emulator:

Go to Android SDK folder, .../platforms/android-9/images/
Note system.img file, it will be modified (you should back it up)
Extract system.img using unyaffs
Customize files inside extracted folder
Pack new modified system using mkyaffs2image (this tool is built when Android source is built).
Replace old system.img with new customized system.img
Create emulator for Android 2.3, launch it and verify that your changes took effect.

This mostly an overview of process, and customization of a real device is much trickier.

Is a standard/system Phone application in there as well? what would happen if I modified system image to remove the Phone application? I understand it is part of the core functionality of the phone OS, but I am curious still.

I haven't tried to remove Phone.apk from /system/app, but I did try removing Mms.apk package. And everything worked fine. I can't see any reasons why this can't work with Phone.apk.

what would I have to do if I still wanted to have Phone apk available to say make calls from Google Voice application but not have it available to users otherwise (e.g. as a separate app)?

You have several options that have varying degrees of difficulty and effectiveness (depending on what you are ultimately trying to do of course):

Develop your own Custom ROM that only includes only the apps and functions that you want.
Root the device, and then remove system apps that you don't want.
For an unrooted device, you can download one of the numerous apps that hide & lock apps like iLock. I suppose this would be useful theoretically if you had a device that wanted to implement in a business where you were letting your customers or sales people use if for a very specific function and didn't want them messing around with anything beyond that.
I had a 4th option to share but I forgot it as I was typing the other three.  I'll update as soon as I remember it.

It looks like as per CyanogenMod Barebones Wiki I can't just root and remove Phone.apk without causing stability issues. Plus I do want it to be available from Google Voice if not on it's own. Any idea what it would take to have that? Does it mean I'll need play around with building custom ROMs?

You want it so your phone can only call out and receive calls with Google Voice?  You still need the phone.apk in order to use Google Voice.  If you are trying to avoid using cell minutes you need to use SIP/VOIP.  If you are trying to just use your Google Voice number and don't care about the cell minutes you can set the Google Voice app to make all calls with your GV number (but it still needs the phone.apk to do this).  Let me know if I'm missing something, or just let us know exactly what the end result is that you are trying to reach.


text:
How to print screen my application in android phone?

Possible Duplicate:
How to take a screenshot with an Android phone?

How to print screen my application in android phone?

You can use an app called ShootMe from the Market to do this easily (requires root).  You can also use the Android SDK to do it without root, but you have to be connected to your computer.

How about a link?

@Al Posted this just before the web market went live, I think.  Feel free to add the link if you want.

in the android sdk is a tool called DDMS, it will allow you to take screenshots. theres also apps on the market that can do this, but I think they require root.

If you have a Samsung Galaxy S, press the back key and keep it pressed, and then press the home key and release them both.
This will take a screenshot.
It works without rooting, without external applications, and even if the screen is locked.

Awesome. Is this something Samsung implemented themselves and is not available in other phones?

@Slavo Yep, it's part of TouchWiz.

Ice Cream Sandwich has this built in, I believe. On my Galaxy Nexus, I hold down Power + Volume-Down, no matter what's on the screen. (It can even be at the lock screen.)

Unfortunately this does not work for me on a generic 7inch tablet (DGM T-703) with ICS (Android 4.0.3)

In Cyanogenmod (7) you can press the power button to get to menu. There you can choose to take a screenshot. The screenshot is taken and it goes to same folder as photos taken by camera.

For a Samsung Galaxy Y press the menu button and the power button at the same time to take a screen shot.

I prefer the app AndroSS.  It requires root access.  It's options include:

Choose between .png and two different compressions of .jpg
Choose whether you want to use the hardware camera button or shake the phone in order to take screenshots
Choose how you want to be notified that the screenshot was taken (toast popup, sound, or vibrate)
Choose whether you want it to remain active until you manually disable it or if it should disable itself after one screenshot.

For Samsung Galaxy FIT press Home + Power at the same time and release. The image will save in Gallery->screenCapture.


text:
How to create a url link file in Android?
In windows, we can create a .url file to link to a website. How can I do this on Android? I want to send some links to my Android device from my PC.

It depends on what you would like to achieve.
If you want to just send a link from your computer to your Android device you have several possibilities:

Send an email to yourself containing the URL. Of course you need to have that email account synched on your Android phone. Then open the mail there and click on the link. Admittedly, this is a not very elegant approach
Another approach is to use Chrome2Phone. It consists of a mobile app and a Google Chrome extension that adds a button to your Chrome browser. By clicking on that button, a link of the currently open tab will be sent to your mobile phone and directly opened there on the browser. Here's a Youtube video that explains how to set it up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQb243niMlg

If you want to have links on your Android homescreen, you may create bookmarks in your Android Browser and then add them by long-pressing on the homescreen, then choosing "Shortcuts" followed by "Bookmark"

Cannot run chrome2phone in China. the appspot site has been blocked by GFW

Numerous alternative solutions here.

In Jelly Bean, create links as follows:

Create a Bookmark in your browser.
Go into apps list and click widgets tab.
Scroll to Bookmarks widget and press and hold, then drop on home screen where desired.
When asked, select browser bookmark to associate with
bookmark widget.

Works on Atrix2, YMMV.

Yeah -- but that creates a shortcut on the homescreen. OP wants to share a link to his PC, which doesn't work this way.

A very nice solution I use daily is Pocket. Several apps support it directly, and for others it's available via the "Share" menu. You can think of that like "bookmarks in the cloud".
On the PC, you can access your "Pocket bookmarks" via their web service using any browser, or use the Pocket addon (available e.g. for Firefox). I cannot think of an easier way to share links between the two devices!


text:
Is it possible to run Minecraft on an Android?
I was thinking in using some tools to convert the JAR into an APK. But will my Nexus One have enough memory? And what about the controls?

Egad, please no.  I lose enough time and sleep to Minecraft as it is without having it on my phone :)

Minecraft Pocket Edition is available in the Google Play Store and Amazon's Appstore. Engadget has a  hands-on of the game, and "SonyEricssonDev" has a video showing Minecraft being played on the Xperia Play.

The pocket editions seems to give the player unlimited resources as the first versions of Minecraft did.

I know nothing about Minecraft but I can't see how it would be possible without rewriting big chunks of it.  Even if you can convert the JAR to an .apk, there are many Java classes that are not part of the Android API.  Furthermore, Android does not include AWT, Swing or Java 2D/3D, it has its own UI and graphics APIs, so the user interface would need to be rewritten.

Minecraft uses lots of native per-platform code, mostly for OpenGL, audio and input handling. They supply versions for Windows, Mac OS and Linux i386/x86_64 - barely there's a chance that you can run that on a MIPS/ARM device..

Android cannot just "run" native Java applications. Android does not have a Java Virtual Machine. Android uses a Dalvik Virtual Machine, which is completely different.
While android applications are written in Java, it is a "subset" of actual Java. so even if you could run the jar files through a "converter", there is no guarantee the code is actually supported by Dalvik.

You can run a JAR provided that is a midlet for mobile (j2ME)
There are some JVM available in the market. I used them a lot in the early days of my G1 for some "killer apps" (Opera Mini, QQ)


text:
Samsung Galaxy 3 Questions
I plan to buy a Samsung Galaxy 3. Here are my questions:

Does the Galaxy 3 have a front-facing camera?
How is the main camera (in terms of clarity)?
Can the browser support multiple windows?

No - one 3.15MP camera on the rear 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus, Geo-tagging, face and smile detection, Video- QVGA@15fps.
Here's a comparison of the Galaxy 3 alongside images from its peers.
Yes, the default browser does indeed support multiple windows.

Now that the phone is released, I believe Sparx's answer is incorrect for part 1.
It has an 8 MP rear camera, and a 1.9 MP front facing camera.


text:
Restoring contacts after X10 mini pro upgrade to 2.1
I just upgraded my X10 mini pro to Android 2.1 . As suggested in the instructions did I perform a backup which seems to have created an file (~ 160 kB) with extension .sbf in /sdcard/data/backup/ on the phone.
After the upgrade, I tried to restore from this file (using the same 'Backup & Restore' application which comes with the operating system). While it seems to remember which applications were installed (but I had to configure the wireless access again by hand...) I do not get the contacts back, although it claims to restore the contact data.
Unfortunately, I never exported the contacts separately to a file nor did I store them online.
Is there a way to get the contacts back ?
Or is there a way to read the contents of the .sbf file ?

I just discovered that I seem to have the list of contacts on my gmail account (not clear to me why...), but I think the answer to this question might still be useful to people who run into the same problem and don't have their contacts synchronized to their gmail account...

Andre!
I´m so glad I read this page! I could retrieve my contacts from gmail even though I had never ever save a contact there.
I have to say is a complete lack of respect to go ahead and copy your contnacts into gmail without your permission.
This should not happen.
But thanks!!

I've the same problem. After the update from Android 1.6 to 2.1 and a Restore of Backup made with "Sony Ericsson Backup and Restore" (updated to last version) software my Contacts are missing! I've no on-line (gmail) or outlook sync ... I hope to extract them from .sbf file.

Well, this Sony Ericsson sync tool seems to work, specially if you want to move contacts from another Sony Ericsson device from your new one (They claim you can also synchronize your data from other devices, as long es they support SyncML).
But I personally use Gmail's contact management, which is easy to use, practical and safe. Obviously is a good idea to auto-synchronize it, as you did, even if you weren't aware ;).
After reading your post I've been playing with the Backup & Restore tool, and I realized they warn something like:

Contacts synchronized using other services are not included.*

*I don't know if this is the actual English message, cause my phone is in Spanish, but should be somehing like that, shouldn't it?
Regards.

Thanks for the answer. I think I didn't expect it to backup or restore anything I synchronized to other services but I expected it to restore the contacts I backed up a few minutes before...

once you've restored the data, go to contacts and press the left menu button, and go to import/export and import from memory card. I nearly had a heart attack when none of my contacts were restored but that sorted it out :)

thanks, that's what I tried but most of the contacts were not present in the file it imported from as far as I remember.


text:
How can I change the MAC adress in Android 2.2. HTC desire wifi mac address?
title explains all................................


text:
Charging over USB can be harmful?
Considering that charging over USB can take around 5 hours (to only 1-2 hours it would take from the wall mounted plug), can it be harmful for the smartphone battery if it's always charged from USB?

Charging from a computer over USB may actually be better than fast charging from a wall socket. Reason1) Batteryuniversity has shown that Lithium Ion batteries that are charged too fast will die sooner. Reason2) Charging slower will not heat the battery as much, which can prolong battery life

Been charging my Lumia 710 most of the time through USB, and have been noticing increased battery life over the past weeks.

I don't see how the duration of the charge would relate to whether or not it's harmful to the smartphone.  I have never seen any documentation that keeping a phone plugged in perpetually (whether plugged into USB, AC or DC) would cause any harm to the phone itself.  An argument could be made that it's harmful to the battery.
Constant charging is not generally a problem for Lithium Ion Polymer batteries (which most new cell phone batteries are).  It is in fact better to frequently charge them, and not let them fully discharge.
One factor that does degrade the battery life of all Lithium Ion batteries is heat.  The more heat it's exposed to the faster it will lose capacity, so I can see how keeping it plugged in may keep it warmer longer and theoretically degrade the battery life.
Here are a couple good resources discussing battery life:

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/tech-issues-bug-reports-suggestions/1974-understanding-battery-life.html

Excellent answer, thank you. I meant battery as well.

I believe the slower charge from USB would keep the battery temp lower than a faster charge, so it may actually be beneficial.

The issue is to not let the battery specifically lithium battery be full changed and not let it completely discharge . let it be between 40 to 80 percent. by using USB is more suitable because it let the battery to be slowly charged with significant absence of heat to damage the battery. Thanks


text:
Traffic for Skype and other apps on Android
I've recently bought an HTC Desire and I'm wondering how much traffic some apps generate. I actually want to know two things: how much traffic (estimation, of course) is generated when syncing with gmail/facebook/weather, and how much traffic is generated when I'm online on Skype and when I talk over Skype.
Edit: to clarify, I'm thinking if I should leave some syncing and if I should talk over Skype over 3G, since I have only 1GB per month of traffic.

See also this previous question http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/45/is-there-a-good-app-for-monitoring-the-amount-of-data-traffic

Just download an app from the Market called PhoneUsage. It will track how many minutes, text messages, and data you use. You can even view a break down of which apps use how much traffic, and it only tracks over 3G, not WiFi.

The sync traffic for gmail/facebook/weather/... is neglectable (If you have normal text messages with small attachments).
For Skype voice calls, you should estimate 4-7 KiB/s (~ 25 MiB/h).
Users always underestimate the 1GB included traffic. I had the same thought, that it could get tight at the end of the month. But I forgot that:

At home and at work my phone uses WLAN and therefore doesn't utilize the data plan
1GB is very much, if you just do some surfing/browsing. (Of course, if you start downloading DVD Images or some kind of torrents, the 1GB will be consumed fast)


text:
How to set MAC address on (HTC Desire) Android terminal emulator?
I typed into the terminal this:

ip link set eth0 address
  XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

the XX for my numbers and so on.
But it says permission denied.
Source: http://androidforums.com/incredible-tips-tricks/78668-how-spoof-mac-address.html

I doubt Android supports this, there's no legitimate reason for changing the MAC address.  Any method to do so would also be chip-specific I think.

I merged your old question with this one so you should be able to edit it now and clean it up a bit, all under your new ID.

This seems like your terminal doesn't have root access. Is your phone rooted? and did you type su to get to the root user first? On my phone you can tell if you're using root privileges by checking the prompt, $ = no root, # = root.

i didn't root..

As far as I know, you need root to do this.

Root is needed so if you have that turn on your wi-fi and write
su
iplink set eth0 address XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

and it's done.
("iplink" without space between)

Check http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1525230
You actually need to change some stuff in the bcm4239 driver to allow it to read the mac address from somewhere else. The above kernel reads the file /data/local/mac.dat.

An answer which requires the reader to go to a different site to get any useful information isn't really an answer.


text:
Is there a way to recover a deleted SMS?
I deleted an entire SMS thread by mistake from my HTC Wildfire. Is there any way I can retrieve that thread ?

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/11742/all-of-my-texts-disappeared-what-can-i-do/

Unless the messaging app you are using has a specific backup function or a trash folder there's no easy way, however, it may be possible for a data recovery professional (its not cheap) to recover them if the area in the memory hasnt been over written yet. Flash memory does not have data reminance like a magnetic drive. One overwrite and the data is essentially gone.  I have also read that some android phone store sms messages on the sim card (I have a cdma phone so I have never seen it) and if so you may be able to recover them from the sim with a sim reader. Ultimately its not likely you are going to recover them and any attempts will be costly or hard.

Not quite true about Flash memory, I've recovered deleted photos from SD cards a lot of times for people, though it's not from data permanence, more that the software only wipes the file record, doesn't bother deleting the actual data from the card. Still, doesn't change your answer as I don't think any of the popular SMS apps store your messages on the SD by default, most store them in the internal system  memory where this isn't practical.but rarely store more than about 50, so most smart phones ignore that and store internally.

You are correct.  The phone doesn't delete the actual data, as you point out, but for all intents and purposes, once it deletes the file record, the storage space holding the data in question is free to be over-written, at which point the original data will be lost.  I was typing that answer on my Droid so I didn't go into as much detail as I could have but I thought I covered that when I said "it may be possible ... if the area in the memory hasnt been over written yet".  Now I can see that was not completely clear.  Thanks for the clarification.

There is no way to recover them using the default Messaging application.
I don't know any application which would be able to recover already deleted messages. I mean this technically this is not possible.
However there are messaging replacement applications with backup functionality.

Is there any app to do that ??


text:
How to return to call when screen blanked
I was on a call and I was put on hold by the other person. The screen blanked after a time (as expected).
When I hit the power button to return to the call. I found the call dropped.
How can I resume the phone without losing the call.
(2.3-gingerbread samsung-nexus-s)

Related, in that someone was looking for the opposite behavior: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2972/hang-up-using-button

Check in settings > accessibility and see if theres an option for the power button to end the call. If there is make sure it's unchecked.

Thanks Matt. Wouldnt have thought to look under accessibility.....


text:
What program can I use to compress (zip,rar...) and password protect files on my Android Froyo
I was just sending a backup via mail to my Google account.
This backup contained readable information (csv format) from sensitive data.
Does anyone knows of a program to compress files (in .zip format, or .rar if necessary) on my Android phone (running Froyo), with a password protection used while compressing.
That way I can compress/protect my data before sending it via email.
Thanks.

Dual File Manager

It appears that the program is now called Dual File Manager XT


text:
Is there any way to sync my Outlook calendar to my Samsung Galaxy S without Kies?
I am trying to sync my Outlook 2010 calendar to Samsung Galaxy S using Kies.  For some reason, it doesn't sync.
Kies has a nasty habit of hanging, so I would really like to use something else, if possible, instead of trying to understand why it doesn't sync to begin with.
Are there any tools out there that will sync the calendar directly to the phone without using Kies?

Have you thought about doing this over the air, rather than using a desktop client for the sync?
If you use Outlook, presumably your company uses Exchange for it's mail servers? If so, and if they allow Exchange Active Sync, and/or have Outlook Web Access enabled, then you could sync your phone's mail and calendar directly with them over the air.
The built-in Mail client can be used to connect directly with Exchange, or there are third party alternative Exchange clients like Touchdown, Moxier or K-9 Mail

My company does not allow Exchange Active Sync with Android phones, only with iphones and Blackberries.

Really? Mine specifically bans iPhones, but is looking at allowing Android 2.2+ & WM7 along with full support for Blackberries via our BES.

You might give Google Calendar Sync a try. It's a tiny application which will run on your Windows PC and synchronize your outlook calendar with googles calendar, so you'll have all your appointments always on your mobile. Works like a charm for me, and you'll not nitice it's even running.

My calendar has some data that I don't want to sync to Google for security reasons (the IT department where I work would not be pleased).  I want to copy the Outlook calendar directly to the phone.

You can do this using the native Exchange app on your device. On my Galaxy S5 using Android 6.0, it's in Settings -> Account -> Accounts -> Microsoft Exchange Active Sync -> then I tap on the specific Outlook account I'm trying to sync.
Below is a screenshot of what it looks like on that next page. When I had this exact same problem, I found that "Sync Calendar" was not checked. I'm not sure where in my app updating or activities that this got unchecked, but putting this on immediately solved my sync problems.
For your device, it's probably buried somewhere in Settings as well, but it's not too hard to find once you get in there.


text:
Is there a browser that will display Armenian letters?
I have just got a an HTC Desire as a present and I want to view www.mathnet.am which is an Armenian site. But insted of Armenian letters I see squares. I have read some advices in some forums, but could not solve the problem. Please help.
By the way I can't see www.Google.am (this is the Armenian variant of it) letters too. The same squares :(

Here is the link, where that kind of browser (Hay Web Browser) can be downloaded: http://webdroid.life.am/
Here is the facbook group, where Hay Web Browser is being discussed, and the creator can answer to your questions: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_191625270874191&ap=1

I've tried visiting both those sites in a few browsers, and see the same problem with the square boxes rather than letters. It looks like this probably isn't a problem with the browser(s) but more that the fonts being used to show the sites in the browser don't have all the necessary characters.
Are you able to see Armenian letters in emails or text messages at all?
There was a previous question about installing Hindi fonts, that no one's come up with an answer for yet. Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) does add support for more languages, but unfortunately Armenian doesn't seem to be one of them.

You just need to update your OS version into latest - that's all you need to do.

Have you done this with this device? Does the OS update include Armenian language files?

authors: علی اکبر ایمانی


text:
Always Show Images for Emails
Is it possible to configure the built-in mail or Gmail clients to always display images?

There is a modified version of Gmail app available over on XDA if you feel like you really need to always show images and are willing to replace the "stock" gmail app.
It may require root, not sure.
edit
here is another thread on a gmail that shows images all the time.


text:
Any recommendations regarding flashing a particular rom on a Nexus One?
I was wondering and hoping that someone might point me in the direction of a nice and stable rom for a Nexus One.
Currently I'm running the Rodriguezstyle v2.42 which is pretty stable but I just don't like the iPhoneiness of it too much. And it came bundled with too much stuff that I don't need.
Prior to this one I've had the Cyanogenmod 6.1.1-N1 which I had to remove because I could not get the Market application to run for the life of me.
So, what I'm looking for (ordered by most important first)

robustness/reliability
speed/performance
no bloatware - less is more :)
the sense ui (not required but i'd like it if available)

I recommend the newest version of CyanogenMod, your Market problem was probably a one-off or has been fixed.

@Matthew - my Market problem has not been fixed. I just re-flashed the latest stable version (6.1.1) for the Nexus One this morning and the same - the Market craps out every single time. That's pretty major!

That's really too bad.  I'm sure the devs woukd be interested in helping you fix it though.

Try doing a full wipe, then flash.

@Ryan, I've tried. I wiped everything I could/knew how to. And then started from scratch. I reflashed the baseband to 5.08.04, then flashed the cyanogenmod-6.1.1-N1 firmware. I suspect there's another online backup that cyanogen does because even though I wiped everything from the recovery console and the flashed the baseband and firmware upon first boot the phone still had my wallpaper image.. odd!

You may need to ask on XDA or CM forums.  I'm not sure what the process of reporting bugs is for CM.

There is a setting, when you first set up, that "saves settings to google". I think there is an option to disable that when you are on the setup screen, in the menu, but I haven't have a CM compatible device in a while.


text:
can I push 'hanging' sending email in gmail outbox?
I sent out three (big emails - 6 pictures from my mobile camera) very quickly one after each other. Now after 10 or so minutes they are still in the gmail outbox folder. I experienced the same when I was connected via both wireless or mobile network.
Can I somehow push the emails to be sent out? I tried to open them and send again but it didn't help.
Last time this happened I deleted them and sent out slowly one after each other again and it went ok.
HTC Desire 2.1

you could try disabling the sync options, then re-enable them.

I will try that. What always helps is to delete gmail data from application settings

This problem is a known bug in Android 2.1 (don't know if it is still present in newer versions). There is not much that you can do except being careful not to send too big emails. From my experience, it will eventually be sent but it can take up to a day.
Be careful because it will block all the emails you sent after the large one! It seems they need to be sent in the order they were created.
A solution to this problem is to use the Dropbox application, to upload your pictures to Dropbox, to "long press" on the filename, then "Share..." and "Share a link" by email to your recipients. This will only send a link by email so the message will not block as it does with large files.

I have the same problem, I think also for emails without attachments. The solution is to open the respective email. When I open it (by tapping on it in the Outbox), it gets sent within a few seconds (the caption goes from "Queued" to "Sending" to "Sent" or something like that within seconds).

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


text:
Are there any performance issues after upgrade from Android 2.1 to 2.2?
I have Samsung Galaxy S GT-i9000, now I want to upgrade its OS from 2.1 to 2.2. However, through Google i have found that many people are facing performance issues after the upgrade.  Does anyone have experience with this, and can you tell me how to get 2.2 to perform well?

Performance is generally a very subjective thing. There are apps that will measure specific aspects of performance, but that won't always correlate with what you feel from using the phone day to day.
Generally, one of the reasons for upgrading to Froyo is that it should give you performance benefits, see this previous question on Froyo's performance. In addition to that, Samsung have rolled in some fixes for previous performance problems (if you're using the official Samsung build): amongst other fixes, they've changed things so that the filesystem lag is less of a problem on Froyo; they've changed GPS and aGPS performance to get rid of a lot of those previous problems,;and they've fixed some of the serious problems in their customized apps like the music player.
One thing you may find after any upgrade is that your phone still has outdated data left in its caches and temporary areas that are only relevant to the previous version. These can cause performance problems straight after the upgrade. To get round this, you can either go through all your apps list after the upgrade and clear the caches, or reset your phone to factory settings after the upgrade and then reload all of your data. Be warned that both of these (especially the second option) can and will lose some of your settings and data, though anything saved on your SD card or saved on servers on the web will be safe, so make sure you back up anything on the phone that matters to you before doing this.
Personally, I found my Galaxy S performed much better after the Froyo upgrade. However I did do a factory reset on it (for a different reason related to changing Google accounts over) which will have helped in the short term.

I  don/'t remember performance issues after upgrading to 2.2, but after upgrading to 2.2.1 my Galaxy is much and I do mean much faster.


text:
How to show own photo in SMS conversation?
How can I show my own photo profile icon in SMS conversations? I cannot find where to set it.

It depends on your device and what app you are using. On my Droid 1 running Froyo if I add my own cell # to my contacts the default messaging app uses the avatar that is set with that contact entry.  if you add this it may take a little while for everything to sync up and for the pic to begin to display. In Handcent SMS you can set custom contact specific avatars.

Your tip worked perfectly.

In my case Matt's solution didn't work, so I found this solution on http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?tid=3a41f790937732e1&hl=en

This is caused by a few different problems.

If you go into Settings -> About phone -> Status and the My Phone Number section is Unknown or not your number, then your problem is that the phone doesn't know which contact to use for you.

If your number is in there and correct then it may not know which contact to use, if you have multiple contacts with the same number.

Unknown Number
In the first case (unknown number) you will need to use another handset to change the number. Find someone (possibly on the same network as you) with an iPhone and get them to let you put your SIM card in it, on the iPhone go into Settings -> Phone -> My Number and then enter your phone number, hit Okay and then eject the SIM. Put it back in your phone and it should just work, if not follow onto the next procedure.
Multiple Matching Contacts
This is easier from gmail, find all the contacts you have with the same number as your phone (with and without country codes) and delete/merge them, if you deleted them create a new contact with your details and avatar in it and save.
After syncing with the mobile your Messaging app should show the correct avatar.

I have a Huawei Ascend g300
Click on your 'Messaging' icon to get a list of your conversations.
Then click on the menu button below your screen, click Settings. You will see a title 'Common Settings' look below Common Settings and there is 'My Picture'. Click 'My Picture' to choose a profile photo from your Gallery or take a photo with your camera. Easy
I found it by accident as I was searching how to add a picture of me. Not having a Profile Picture was driving me insane!!!! lol

I have a droid bionic and I went into my contacts and at the top it says your profile and I filled it out and put my picture in there and it worked perfect.

In Handcent, I just found out by exploring, there is a file called "hc_account_picture.png" which gives the picture to the "Me" Contact internally.
/data/data/com.handcent.nextsms/files/hc_account_picture.png
is the full path. just copy the new graphic file here and then restart the phone!!!


text:
How can I connect my Samsung Galaxy S to a television?
My Samsung Galaxy S has settings for TV-out, but I don't see anywhere to plug any cord from the phone to the TV.
How can I connect it to my TV?

According to this blog post, you need a 3.5mm -> RCA/Phono cable, and it goes in the headphone socket of the phone.

See this page for the Galaxy S's standard TV-Out cable as sold by Samsung, this plugs into the 3.5mm headphone port on the phone.
It can also output HDMI via an adaptor that plugs into the micro-USB port, though this has the obvious disadvantage that you can't plug it into power to charge at the same time as playing.

Don't forget DLNA using the AllShare app, if your TV system supports it.


text:
How to force network operator selection once and for all?
I'm using HTC Desire running stock Android 2.2 (with HTCs enhancements). There's a network operation selection in Settings / Wireless & netwokrs / Mobile networks / Network operators, which allows to "Search networks" (and thus select one operator manually) or "Seleect automatically" (which would probably connect to anything it will find).
There are 3 major cellular network operators in my region currently and they allow inter-operator roaming, but for a huge roaming fee. I want to avoid this huge fee by manually forcing selection of operator once and for all. It seems to work if I select my operator (say, "Operator A") in "Search networks" mode mentioned above, and it kind of works - until I travel underground and GSM module faces following situations sequentially:

Operators A, B, C are available (on surface) => using preferred "operator A" and everything's ok
We move in the subway, no GSM network is available at all => everything's ok, it shows that network is not available
We start to emerge on the surface, and "operator B" becomes available, while "operator A" (preferred one) does not. Device stops execution of whatever was running and pops up annoying menu to "choose" new connection opportunity - "operator B". One can dismiss this menu with "Return" button, it as situation slowly changes and more operators become available, this menu would pop up a few more times.

So, the question is - how do I force mobile operator selection once and for all, and disable that extremely annoying (interruping currently running activities) popup menu with recently found cellular connections?
UPDATE: I'm using GSM / GPRS / EDGE / 3G (HSDPA) networks and in fact question refers to both voice and data traffic, so restricting APN probably has nothing to do with it. Normally, concurrent operators in the same region don't allow to roam through each other, so this problem probably doesn't exist for most normal users.

I've got a CDMA phone so I'm sure our options are different but I do have two that look like they'd be helpful to you.  I can toggle data roaming, and I can set my roaming mode to "Home only".  Do you have any options like this?  Also, are you talking about just Data or voice too?

"I'm using HTC Desire running stock Android 2.2 (with HTCs enhancements)" sad to say that might be your problem right there. CyanogenMod has options to disallow roaming, and it seems to allow you to force a provider (although granted I only get one choice, AT&T)

APN Lock may work.  It appears to give you the ability to block certain networks APN's which won't affect your ability to use Voice or SMS but won't allow your phone to make a data connection with the networks you block (by changing the APNs so you phone fails to connect).  I'd be careful though, messing with the APNs can cause problems this app doesn't have any comments yet.

I don't think it will work, as I don't have problems with APNs specifally: in fact, I have only 2 APNs (one for generic internet communication and other for MMSes) and I don't need any "locking" with them. I've clarified that question refers to both voice and data cellular transfer now.


text:
Problem with my thumbnails in gallery
I have a problem with images in my gallery. The thumbnails of my photos are not the actual images when I view the image. The thumbnails are the photos which I have deleted or my other images in my phone. What might be the problem why the thumbnails are not the actual images? Is it messing with my caches?

A comparable issue happened to me twice. The first time my audio files database was empty after a synchronization that went wrong. The second time my pictures application was never able to load the thumbnails. Each time the solution has been the same: clear the multimedia database.
To do so, go in "Settings" -> "Applications" -> "Manage applications". Then make sure you set the filter to see all applications. Find "Media Storage" in the list and then press "clear data". After that, you will need to wait a little bit for the database to regenerate, you may even have to reboot the phone to trigger the database generation.
This should correct your issue, and many more issues related to the multimedia database under Android.

That should fix it.  I think it's probably due to TouchWiz is this case though.  I've noticed thumnails don't change when you edit photos sometimes.

i haven;t seen a multimedia storage in my applications. i have filtered it to see all applications. but there is no multimedia storage. there is a media storage. i've tried to clear data of it and restart my phone but it didn;t fix my problem.

Media Storage is the one I was talking about, sorry for the confusion. If it didn't solve your problem I can't see what else you could do. Maybe try again and make sure you let some time for the phone to rebuild its media database after you reboot the phone.

After folwing top settings my all pictures are deleated.so dont try it

Download android photo recovery on PC  & launch it.
Connect android device with USB  & click start.
Check box in-front of gallery & click next.
Select "deleted thumbnail".& click "recover"


text:
Android and Network attached storage server
I am trying to organize my digital archive (pictures and movies).  My wife and I store a lot of stuff  on our Android phones. Before I buy a NAS device I would love to hear which protocol I should be looking to use with a NAS. What I want is to connect my Andoid phone in most natural way to a NAS and to be able read, write and use pictures from the NAS.
Is there any good client for NAS servers, or is there any file explorer which cloud be integrate whit NAS so I can browse files.
It would be ideal if I could find some sync software that would automatically backup data from my phone to a NAS.

I have a NAS that uses standard Windows shares (SMB) and I use the Image Transfer app to push all my new pictures and videos to my server over wireless (it's a paid app but very cheap and in my opinion worth the small fee).
Also see this previous question: App to sync photos to a network drive over wifi? which has a few alternatives and where Image Transfer came top.
My device comes with a web-page interface, which is how I do most viewing of pictures, files etc

Image Transfer, that's pretty cool.  I really wish someone would develop a Windows Home Server solution for Android (backup or access data to the server).

@Bryan I keep idly thinking about it (I have a Windows Home Server) but there's another WHS add-in I want to do first (mobile sync related but not to do with files) and I never find time for that. I know there's an iPhone app for WHS that does some of this backup and restore, so it should be possible to borrow that app's server end, and attach a new Android client to its APIs.

@Bryan in case you haven't seen it already: WHS Phone https://market.android.com/details?id=com.whsphonetrial

Nice!  Thanks for sharing, I'll check that out for sure.  I absolutely love my WHS :)

ES File explorer has the ability to connect to any shared folder using SMB, I’ll recommend you to give a try.
If what you want is the possibility to copy files manually from/to your NAS server from/to the phone, this is a perfect solution, it’s free, easy to configure and super easy to use.
If what you want is an automatic sync of some phone folders to your NAS shared sources, then you are searching for something else.

As technology and apps have moved on....I've tried a few different apps,the best IMHO being ES and FS file explorers from Google Play to manage/stream  pictures,video and music and files, but I've found X-plore to be the easiest to get on with juggling files. Microsoft WHS2003 and a 2015 Android smartphone in synergy - who would have thought it?


text:
HTC Desire crashed, deleted all SMS/MMS. Can I recover?
Been a reader of SO/SE for a while as am getting into Android development. Just wanted to ask a quick question. Hope someone can help. :)
I have a HTC desire (2.2 with HTC sense, as per stock), never rooted and little used (basic apps installed, not used for any dev) I use as just a phone really. Hence I was very surprised when it crashed the other day and all my SMS/MMS were deleted (the stock HTC Messages app was empty)!
I know I should not have rebooted the device (as file recovery may be easier as it reduces chances of file space being overwritten), but was told to do so by T-Mobile advisor.
Upon reboot, found the stock HTC Messages app used for SMS/MMS was was now populated by SMS that was saved on the SIM. Hence I think, the Desire recreated the SMS/MMS content using the saved SIM messages as a start.
What I would like to know is can the older SMS/MMS be recovered? I assume they are stored in...
/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/smsmms.db
...and that this file (originally with 500+ messages) has been overwritten by a new smsmms.db (now containing ~5 messages), but as I am new to Android/Linux am not sure if this assumption is right e.g. the new smsmms.db file could be written to a different disk location (as is common on FAT32/NTFS file systems in Windows) and hence with the right know-how the original file can be recovered (I've recvered many files like this in Windows without issue).
Does anyone know how to recover SMS/MMS messages like that, or how to recover/undelete files from these devices in general (I don't mind if it is only a partial file and I have to rebuild/extract messages).

Related/duplicate: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/5414/is-there-a-way-to-recover-a-deleted-sms

Not a dupe, but that question could potentially help.

Are you sure the messages have actually gone? I don't have an HTC, but a lot of phones have an option to either view the SIM card texts, or the on-device texts, have you checked that switched you to the other mode?

Yes I have checked. Went to TMobile store as thought it may be a known problem, where they rebooted phone to check that.I prefer not to reboot as if any data loss does occur on a device I know best thing to do is put it in Airplane mode or similar (where no signal/messages/calls are sent or received) to minimize risk of potentially overwriting data and then attempt recovery

Yes I've checked & went to TMobile store as thought it may be a known problem, where they rebooted phone to check.
I wanted no reboot because know if any data loss did occur best thing to do is put in Airplane mode or similar (where no signal/sms/calls sent or received) to minimize risk of potentially overwriting data & and then attempt recovery.
Anyway, upon reboot SMS application had zero content & appeared to rebuild the database by importing messages stored on SIM.
I think best approach now is a linux level data recovery as file may be (at least partially) overwritten, but am not sure.

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/11742/all-of-my-texts-disappeared-what-can-i-do/

I don't hold out much hope that the .db file was not overwritten, but I recommend mounting the phone storage to a PC (preferably Linux as Mac will write immediately and Windows might also) to attempt recovery.  I don't know what tool to use offhand but search results look promising http://www.google.com/q=linux+file+recovery

Thanks. Does the phone have to be rooted to do this? Will try a few things out and write back if I'm successful.

Yes, you do need root to access /data like that unfortunately.

Also had a problem with an HTC Thunderbolt constantly crashing. It sounds like your messages are gone, but for future reference, the best solution I've found is SMS Backup +. This app will keep a copy of your SMS and MMS messages synced to your Gmail account and/or backed up to an SD card.

I use McAfee WaveSecure... When I charge up my phone at night, it backs up my SMS and Contacts.  I can also lock down my phone and make an alarm go off if I can't find my phone from anywhere on the web.
It's free to download and I highly recommend it.


text:
What can I do with DLNA on an android smartphone?
What can I do with DLNA on an android smartphone?
I understand it allows wireless streaming media, but beyond that I have trouble finding details.
Will DLNA enabled smartphones receive data from servers? Will I be able to hit "play" on my smartphone and listen to it on my DLNA enabled stereo?

Have you seen this question? http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1051/dlna-enabled-media-player

Also see this question http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1660/can-i-get-dlna-on-my-droid

An Android phone with DLNA should be able to both send and receive.  My Galaxy S uses an app called AllShare to manage it, and there are others like 2Player in the Market. I'm sure you could stream to your stereo.

Learend some more.  DLNA has more than one standard.  Many devices are DLNA certified, but they need to be DLNA "Play To" certified if you want to stream from your phone to your device.

You're right but for an android device, it is the app that needs to be able to playback, control or stream. For other DLNA devices, the software inside can not be changed.

This app from Qualcomm uses DLNA to play your media from your phone: http://www.appbrain.com/app/skifta-beta/com.skifta.android.app

Found a great video about Skifta today that explains a lot of what DLNA on a smartphone can do: http://phandroid.com/2011/02/03/skifta-brings-first-readily-available-dlna-certified-app-to-market-froyo/

DLNA-enabled TVs, for example, can be used as an external monitor without HDMI or any cables. I want to show my large family my vacation pics on my phone but the screen is too small for all of them to see at once. My TV should be Wi-Fi enabled and DLNA-certified and I should have a wireless router too, obviously.

Connect my phone and TV* to the same Wifi network coming from the same router.
Using the brand appropriate "device media sharing" program** on my phone and TV I connect them to each other.
Now I select the video, picture or music file to play and it will be play through my home Wifi network to my TV and maybe vice versa. So everyone can enjoy at once.

*The same can be done with a DLNA enabled music player or anything.
**Media appropriate app can be found by searching up on Google or Youtube or any other search engine.


text:
pdf reader which has zoom and width locking?
I have both Adobe Reader and EZPDF. Are are both lacking. I want to lock the width and zoom and everything once I have a pdf open to my preferred settings. I just want to page up or down when sliding/swiping.
In ezpdf the settings menu keeps popping up irregularly when I slide. Sometimes it zoomed in or out. I see the words 'ln' or 'sf' overlaying the pdf and I don't know what they mean. Some I am locked in a page. I can't on the next or previous page.
In adobe Reader I can't zoom in to will the width of the page. It has minimal settings.
Is there a pdf reader that displays the text to the full width of the screen and locks everything so it doesn't do erratic stuff?

ezPDF has an option to remove this overlay: Bring up the popupmenu, tick Settings. In the Link section there is a checkbox marked "Indicate Link". Uncheck and the Ln overlay is gone.
Version 1.9.5.3

I really find APV PDF Viewer much better than all the famous readers.

On top of that, it's Open Source (Google code project page).

And what is that? An answer that is little more than a link to another site is not helpful. What is it? Why do you think it's better?

The dev version of the APV PDF Viewer (apv-0.3.3dev01) can do exactly what you want.

Release version (October 14, 2012) in play store works great, but make sure to go into the settings to choose what various taps and presses do. To get it work to my liking, I disabled the zoom buttons, and make the top/bottom taps go page up/down.

In EZpdf, the "Ln" means there is a link on the page, and the "Sf" means you have horizontal scrolling locked (I have no idea what the f actually stands for).  Those overlays annoy me too, so I am going to decompile the apk and remove that text.  That should solve the problem!

Try VuDroid. It's Free Software. (I have issues with it on my PD Novel as it seems to not like resistive screens, but it's fine on my phone.)
Another option is DroidReader which I have not tried.

The problem is with the individual files, not the app. If the file supports it, you can use the reflow text view in adobe reader which locks the width and allows you to zoom while still seeing the full width of the page. Some files don't support this.  Others only support it to a certain level of zoom. Apps that try to overide the docs settings can cause those inconsistencies you mentioned. I've found Beam Reader to be the most powerful pdf reader but my trial ran out and I wasn't willing to pay $10 for it.

I don't want to reflow the text. In iRead or iAnnotate on my iTouch I can zoom to a level I like and do a persistent lock on that level. I can't find app which does the same on the Android. It does this on any pdf file.

Mantano Reader does everything you want. It uses the same engine as Adobe Reader Mobile (Adobe Reader Mobile SDK), so it's very fast even on ARM v8 (initial Samsung Galaxy Tab).
It has some problems with color saturation though.

ezPDf does exactly what you need....

OP complained about ezPDF. Can you explain to OP what needs to be done to make it work for their needs?

ezPdf costs 1 dollar but is realy worth it
You can lock the scroll from the menu - the zoom setting is automatically saved
and you can go to the next page by pressing the small arrow on the lower right

OP complained about ezPDF, suggesting it as an answer is not helpful.


text:
Galaxy S contacts - Media tab. What is it for?
Called supplier and researched the web no one seems to know.
Go to contacts. Select a specific contact. Look at the top of the screen.
It lists four tabs   Info -- History -- Activities  -- Media.
Does anyone know what the media is for and how to use it.
Rogers and samsung cannot even tell me?
Frustrated

I believe it's for displaying photos, videos, etc. uploaded by the contact on Facebook, Twitter, et al.
Edit: Confirmed, it shows Facebook photos uploaded by my contacts from Facebook.

Seconded, for all my contacts that are linked with Facebook contacts, it has all of their Facebook photo albums in there (which is nice as the Facebook website's made it harder to get to a contact's specific album).


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Application To Set Default Calendar Reminder
We know that Google Calendar application has a way to set reminder / alarm. However, there are times (well, almost every time) when I forgot to set reminder and I missed it :(.
My question is, is there an application (preferably free, as I don't have CC and Google's Android market doesn't support PayPal, yet) that can help me set defult reminder for every event I have? So that if I forgot to set it on calendar application, this application will help me remind events.
I've already test Calendar Snooze. But, it require me to set an alarm first.

I found an app: Business Calendar Beta (free) that support default reminder.

My native calendar app on my Droid 1 running 2.2 has an option to set the default reminder time in the app settings. All my events have this reminder unless I specify otherwise.  You can also set this on the web calendar.

My native calendar app on galaxy 551 running 2.2 too. But, I can't find the option :(

@silent: Menu | More | Settings | Default reminder time

my native app doesn't have 'More' :(

You can put a default notification in the web google calendar.
(Settings -> calendars -> Notifications).
If you select "popup notification", a notification (with sound) will be launch on your phone too.
All events created in this calendar will have this default notification.

This changes the notification default for events created on the website, but not for events created on the phone.