text:
SGS2 I9100G keeps disconnecting from WIFI after installing firmware XXLPQ
2 days ago I upgraded my Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100G from 2.3.6 to 4.0.3 using the firmware XXLPQ. Ever since, my WiFi keeps disconnecting every 10 seconds. I tried all the fixes from this question SGS2 running ICS 4.0.3 can't connect to home wifi but it didn't workout for me.
My phone is rooted and I'd do anything to get the Wifi to work again... Help

Is it from a specific network or this happens everywhere?

I notice this mostly at home, I have a TP-Link router with WPA2 security. My device has a reserved IP on the router

Well occasionally when you update firmware, your router at home will have problems with the new firmware on your phone (due to out-of-date drivers, old firmware on the router, router is unsupported by new firmware, etc.) So if it works everywhere else pretty well, this might be your issue.
My recommendation: try downloading a different kernel (there are plenty out there for the S2), your best bet looking on the XDA-Forums, maybe start here?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=665

Yup - Kernel's responsible for the WiFi drivers in your phone, so try using another kernel like Siyah.


text:
Using an Android phone like a SIP ATA
I would like to get a few Android phones functioning as a SIP ATA so I can make and receive calls via SIP. I realize one could use Bluetooth to pair with something like Asterisk, but I had high hopes there might be a standalone application that would transform it into an ATA. Is there something out that that will allow me to do this?
Edit: Yep, searched Play Store nothing to be found unfortunately.

There is a SIP client built right into your phone (Gingerbread and above). You can find this either in general settings, or in settings for the phone dialer app.
E.g. in Jellybean:

go to the phone dialer page (as if you were going to make a call)
choose the menu (bottom right vertical "...")
tap Settings
Scroll down to "Accounts" and tap it.
enter your SIP account info.

Simple as that!
Depending on what SIP service you're connecting to, you may find yourself in the world of codecs. The built-in dialer will try to use the following codecs:

GSM-EFR
AMR
GSM
G711u
G711a

If you're using regular an Asterisk-based SIP server, then it will mostly likely end up using G711 (aka ULAW). I'm still experimenting, but so far I've had more luck with GSM and was able to tweak my Asterisk server to use that instead. If you're using a 3rd party service, then chances are they've enabled GSM already.
That said, I did use CSipSimple to get as far as I did. It allows easy selection of which codecs will be used when (WiFi vs 3/4G), so it made debugging much simpler. (Btw, their store version is quite old at the time I'm writing this. You can also download daily builds and try those.)

Thank you for the comment but I'm seeking a way to dial out from the device as well as redirect inbound calls to Asterisk right from the phone. As far as I can tell the SIP apps and tools I see now only allow you to dial out from the device and receive calls sent to it.

Ah, so you want to enable the following scenario: call comes into your phone over the cell network, gets forwarded by the phone to a SIP connection back to an existing SIP server, e.g. the Asterisk Box back at the office. Is that it?

mm2001, you got it! That's exactly it. The idea being while in the office it's far better to have the PBX take over the cellular connections so all calls are answered and handled as they should be.

Ok, so now I understand - and also understand why its tricky. I don't know enough about the underlying APIs to know if its even possible without rooting the phone. Like the bluetooth support you mention elsewhere, it opens up the carriers to "abuse" by leveraging in-network calls and similar. I'm guessing the alternative of porting the cell phone numbers to VOIP and having them forward from the PBX to the cell network is out of the question because these are personal cell phone numbers? It could perhaps have the same effect but with more hassle.

You will find nothing as it is not possible, Even you can make / answer calls programmatically but you can't control Voice / media flow due to some restrictions in Android Radio Interface Layer (RIL). for media/voice you have to relay on some other interfaces like Mic / speaker, Bluetooth, hand-free or loopback wires but all these thing are not what you are looking for! So in short you can't use it as GSM Gateway or VoIP ATA.
If you want to read more then please visit Why it is not possible to use Android as VoIP ATA

My Samsung phone has a call on text on other devices feature. This is able to forward GSM voice calls over internet. So some Samsung app is already able to intercept incoming and outgoing audio.

It's possible to use android handsets as a SIP phone.
There's not even a requirement for a call/data plan, you don't need a SIM inserted for it to work.
Search for SIP on Google Play and you'll find some:

CSipSimple
Sipdroid

To clarify: You most probably mixed something up, a SIP ATA is an analog telephone adapter, a device that speaks SIP on the one an POTS on the other side and converts an old telephone into a SIP phone. Android phones won't do that, they are a handset on their own and have no POTS interface. Bluetooth will also not help you to connect to Asterisk. Asterisk is a SIP server and does not allow Android handsets to pair via bluetooth for calls (that's solely for using bluetooth enabled phones as FX0/FXS channels for faxing/making calls).

Nothing was mixed up. The POTS side of business would be the mobile network. Also, Asterisk does most certainly support pairing with bluetooth devices to achieve similar goals to what I speak of and has since (at least) v1.4. See chan_mobile for more details. I am seeking a similar software solution to what might be more commonly known as more of a bluetooth SIP gateway.

Er, ok. Now I understand what you want to achieve. This wasn't clear from a first look at the question to me. Seems like my answer is off topic to your question. Good question though, it's however a little localized and I'm not sure if so. can answer it here. Seems more dev related (I don't know an out-of-the box solution ad-hoc, you might better ask also on asterisk's mailing list also). Could you edit your answer accordingly to maybe include a 'user story' for that to reflect your problem better?

Seems like someone also wants this: http://www.freelancer.com/projects/Android-Asterisk-PBX/Android-SIP-IAX-GSM-Asterisk.html

Well that's pretty much what I was thinking ce4. It's not the most ideal solution but it would be great for those who want to bind our cellular devices with office systems during work hours, and still use them on call while outside the office. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but so far I haven't been able to find anything suitable. :) Seems chan_mobile it might be!

I would just call forward (*72XXXXXXXXXX) the cell phone to the desired SIP DID number. Boom, all calls re-routed.

Was trying to do the opposite...

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Looking for android permission details
I am looking for a list of android permissions and what can be done once a certain permission is granted.
Background: Many apps require permissions which at first sound very intimidating, like READ_PHONE_STATE.
Looking at http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html it states "Allows read only access to phone state." but this clarifies nearly nothing.
Do I need to dive into the code, presuming that part is available?
Cheers

See also our Community Wiki on: What do the permissions that applications require mean?

You already figured it out: when you write an Android app, you can do operations which requires permissions. The complete list is the link you have given : http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html. Most of the permissions listed are very explicit for developpers, but for the user, some can sound mysterious.
To take your example, the READ_PHONE_STATE permission is mostly used to have access to the phone ID. It allows developpers to know how many users (phones) they have. But this permissions also let us know if you are receiving a call or not to react in consequence (if it is a music application: reduce the volume), and things like that.
But, for 2 different Android apps, you can see the same permissions with 2 different uses of it. For large permission as WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE (to write on SD card), one can just write its settings files, the other can put a malware script on it... The only way to know exactly what an app does with the permissions, is to see the code. But, in most case, if it is a non-open-source app, you can't...
I hope I answer your question. If not, I will try to give details with your more precise question.
Regards

As a rule of thumb if you can provide a more detailed answer always do. Oh, and that list is not complete primarily because apps can define new permissions.

@RichardBorcsik Yes, I didn't mentionned that, but as you said, apps can define custom permissions. But it's less in habits... And for the detailed answer, the step after is to explained each permission and its effects; and I think it is too much detailled (for me and for rretzbach perhaps)

The Gmail app has it's own permission(s?).

@RichardBorcsik : yes. But it's Google... I don't know a lot of developpers using this features when they create an app... The thing I wanted to say is that only a little percentage of the app have their own permissions.

Could you please point me to a resource which include the facts you posted about READ_PHONE_STATE? That it gives access to the IMEI, provides information about whether a call is currently being received.

@rretzbach : for sure ! I deduce that from articles in French I read (so, if you want the link, I can give you; but if you don't understand French...) and by reading the android documentation, especially this "class" (don't know if you are a developper are not) : TelephonyManager where you can see after the list, in the Constant, the fact you need the READ_PHONE_STATE permissions to get some constant (like the first one : ACTION_PHONE_STATE_CHANGED). Hope I am understandable.

The best resource I found so far: http://techpp.com/2010/07/30/android-apps-permissions-secure-private-data/

I have merged your two accounts together, so you should now own this question (and be able to properly comment on its answers and so forth). I've also removed the first part of this post as it appears to be a comment intended for Eriatolc's answer, which you should be free to comment on now if you'd like clarification on that answer.

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


text:
Is there a way to adjust the size of the text when reading PDF files?
When I use Aldiko to a book in epub format on a mobile device with a small screen, I can read it without problems. The text is adjustable to the size, the application has no issues.
The opposite is true when I'm reading pdf file. It's always a fight. The text is small and unadjustable and the application freezes.
Is there a way to adjust the size of the text in my PDF files so that they are more easily readable? I don't intend to read scanned pdfs (this would be even bigger fight). I would like to be able to adjust text size, do scaling and not have the application freeze. I'm open to trying other readers if Aldiko cannot handle this.
EDIT: The title was changed, but note that it's not only the change in the size of text. The text should be flexible to various sizes of devices. This is called floating text (or layout) in HTML terminology. A lot of PDF readers can change the text size without the text fitting the device screen.

Use ezPDF Reader and use its text column locking feature in landscape orientation (to kick out blank margins and use large device height as width of PDF). I find it useful on my 4.0-inch screen even for the codes because it doesn't change formatting to reflow text. But, if your screen size is much smaller than my one, it'd be useless to you.
Plus, it features voice reading. You can use that too.

Anyway, text reflow is the keyword to solution here. TY :-)

qPDF Viewer - a free ad-free Android PDF Reader - also has a great text reflow mode. Users can zoom in and out to increase or decrease the font size. Look for "Reflow Text" under the action toolbar "View" menu.

qPDF text reflow messes text up for me (for some reason it takes bit of text from a paragraph and displays them at the end of the paragraph). Foxit Mobile PDF seems to work ok.

The best option is Foxit Mobile PDF.

Does it have Text Reflow function?

Yes it does and that feature in Foxit works better than in qPDF for me (check my comment under Lilou's answer).

Xodo PDF Reader is a good option, text reflow works really well.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xodo.pdf.reader

You can use K2pdfopt to convert the pdf to your screen size.
Or if you are using an Android device, try KOReader, which has the most advanced support for dynamic pdf reflow.

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


text:
Why is custom recovery a prerequisite for flashing a custom ROM?
I have read in many guides that before flashing, we need to have a custom recovery like CWM installed. I am not able to understand why is this a prerequisite for flashing a custom ROM. Can I flash a ROM without custom recovery?

Stock recoveries usually check the update.zip file being flashed for a specific signature that is only known by device's manufacturer and/or carrier.  You cannot therefore flash custom ROMs on stock recoveries, hence the need for a custom recovery which bypasses said check.

Yet sometimes the signature can be kept intact or forged. In those cases the stock recovery will do fine. For example you can flash a new recovery using the stock recovery with a SGN n7000.

Technically, it's not prerequisite, but convenience.
You can download an update using your handset and store it locally on the sdcard, then reboot manually into recovery. Or use Rom Manager to do all that in an app and enjoy backup/restore and OTA updating without the need for a computer.
Stock recoveries won't let you do all the fancy stuff that a custom recovery let's you do.
Among them are:

backup/restore
using adb in recovery mode
flashing custom .zip's (that's what you'll need)
format individual partitions
wipe individual parts (Dalvik Cache, /Cache)

Some handset makers have their own means of low level access to flash. Fastboot then has not all needed commands built in.

HTC/Google/others: fastboot
Samsung: fastboot, proprietary (Heimdall open source flash tool)
Sony / SonyEricsson: fastboot, proprietary (Flashtool by Androxyde)
...

U said that it is just a convinience, but is there a possibility that the stock recovery will not allow the flashing of an update if it is not signed? In that case it is a necessicity rather than a convinience right?

Yes, stock recoveries won't allow that (often). You can use other means besides any recovery to flash images (Heimdall & Flashtool being 2 of them). So for Sony & Samsung you can bypass to use a recovery (theoretically)

why do you call odin fastboot?


text:
Boot hangs after firmware update
I flashed my Samsung Galaxy Ace (GT-S5830) with the Cyanogenmod 7.2 release, the install went fine without any errors.
Powering the phone on shows a black screen with the word "ANDROID" in white, and it stays there. I left it alone for up to 30 minutes to humor the "may take up to 5 minutes" caveat.
I tried this answer without success (broken link to PDA zip, the one I googled is obviously incorrect). Looking into this issue more, this answer also yields broken links. (Seems a common issue for fast-paced firmware releases. . .)
I cannot seem to find a firmware for GT-S5830, which I could update via Odin. I can still power on into recovery mode, so installing from sd card is also possible, but I'm lost for what to install if the CMod did not work.
Edit: I had the phone reset by the store staff. I am a bit jaded that I could not install a nicer release on it, but hope to get this right next time!

it's not quite clear what you're looking for, do you want a way to fix the CM install or a stable stock firmware for your S5830?

did you do a data wipe after flashing ?

@svarog I did a data/cache wipe before flashing, as per the instructions.

@jlehenbauer I am looking to get my phone in a usable state again. I'd like to use the CM release, but a stock firmware will also do. What I don't want is to go back to that crufty Samsung firmware I had before.

Sounds like you're stuck in a bootloop. If you backed up your phone before you flashed the release, reflash that image.
If not... Well try reflashing the ROM release. If this still doesn't work, flash an older version of CyanogenMod, or your phones stock, factory ROM.

I had nothing on the phone to keep, so I omitted the backup. I get the sinking feeling I should have. I will try an older release and stock ROMs, thanks!

Best of luck to you! It's never a good place to be in.


text:
How To Disable htcCheckinService?
This process causes CPU spikes and sometimes incredibly slows down whole system. I need to know how to disable it. Tried with Quick System Info PRO but it won't allow me to end process or close it.
HTC Desire S
Android 2.3.5

Have you considered flashing Cyanogenmod? This will rid of any HTC related junk.

No, it's a couple of months before my warranty expires and I am intending on doing that after.

If your device is rooted, you could check with an app like Autorun Manager whether there is a corresponding Listener established -- and if so, deactivate that. Just a guess, I did that with other apps -- but as I flashed CM a while ago I cannot test with Sense anymore ;)


text:
Does the bootloader need to be unlocked to flash my phone
I am not able to relate between bootloader unlocking and flashing. From what I understand, when I flash my phone with a custom ROM, it writes to the /boot partition and hence the bootloader has to be unlocked. Is my understanding correct, or can I flash a ROM without unlocked bootloader?

A locked bootloader means that you won't be able to install software updates(or flash recoveries, ROMs) that hasn't been signed by the manufacturer/carrier.
So the answer is "Yes, you can flash an unsigned ROM but it won't get loaded by the locked bootloader".


text:
Remove CWM from Xperia Neo V
How can I remove CWM from my Xperia Neo V?
EDIT: I have obviously rooted my device but I did not unlock the bootloader. (At least I assume that I didn't do it accidentaly -- in any case, I didn't root my phone using the official method.)

The boot loader is unlocked yes? If it is, I am not certain if it can be re-locked again for the OTA update to proceed.
Do not accept OTA updates if the bootloader is unlocked!
Best bet would be to use the Sony's companion phone software under Windows and let that update it manually instead :)
Do not try that in a virtual machine/virtual box/vmware!
Edit:
Why don't you go into Settings > Applications > Manage Applications, then uninstall it from there, or if you have Titanium Backup installed, just un-install it from there. Its an ordinary apk app, that is somewhat, IMHO, misleading. I'll explain why in a minute.
Sony has this strange and unusual concept of recovery/bootloader. In general speaking, there is two partitions out of many, for the sake of the edit, I am specifically focusing on boot and recovery.
The general consensus is this, there's two partitions, boot and recovery, boot is what you know, is responsible for bringing up the system when the power key is pressed. This is highly specialized machine code that is tied intimately, as per the manufacturer/OEM.
Recovery on the other hand, is where you can do basic recovery, that is, clean the data and cache partition, and re-flash the stock ROM as indicated by the OEM.
In Sony's case, the reason, that your so-called CWM is in fact an APK is because, it would p^&$ off a lot of users if it was installed directly on the recovery partition, ... the big gotcha... yes, there is, for some obscure reason, Sony decided to bundle Boot and Recovery into the one partition, that's where the danger lies with Sony handsets, flash it directly into that, its buh-bye to your handset.
As for accepting OTA updates if bootloader is unlocked, there's some mechanism or checking going on in respect to the OTA zip file (I'd guess) for the presence of locked bootloader hence the warning I mentioned above. Use the Sony PC Companion suite software for Windows if you express a desire to go with the official updates from Sony.
So there you have it, a bit of knowledge and empowerment in understanding the nuances of Android when it comes to manufacturers. Yeah, I don't understand myself why the two are "merged" into one partition as a result, hence there will be the danger of messing up Xperia handsets.
What got me questioning about it was, why the .... was it being dumped into /system directory which is where the real ROM lies in, then it dawned on me the reason, that's why there's a big fat warning and notice about unlocking bootloaders via the Sony way.
IMHO, there really should be two partitions - boot and recovery, after all, if that's the case, it would make modding and customizing even easier but maybe due to whatever reasons Sony had, they decided to have that combined into one.
(Samsung has definitely the two partitions but its not as easy as it sounds but that's a discussion for another time :) HTC is the same as Samsung, Zte - which I have the Blade in my possession has the two hence its popular on modaco due to the ease of hacking and modd-ability)
In fact, you can actually still flash custom roms even with the bootloader locked - that was news to me but I'll leave this edited answer for now.

I think there's a reason you're having a hard time finding information about how to relock the bootloader and install the OTA: according to this thread you might brick your phone with the OTA update. Why do you want the OTA instead of some custom ROM to begin with? Are there any unique features? I'd play it safe if I were you and just go with custom ROMs in the future as well, mixing it up doesn't seem to be a good idea.
Here's some info on relocking the bootloader anyway, but I'd suggest you find and try some roms instead from the Xperia Neo V Android Development
 forum.
edit I'd like to add that I consider it bad form to downvote my answer, as there was no information available when I posted this answer on whether your bootloader was unlocked or not.

My bootloader isn't actually unlocked which is why I can't use custom ROMs. I'd like to keep it this way for the time being in order not to loose the warranty.

I wasn't aware that you could even install CWM while keeping a locked bootloader, are you certain this is the case? If so, I don't see what the problem should be with installing the OTA update if the bootloader is locked, if your warranty is still valid then you could just turn it in if something fails.

Am quite surprised CWM is there even with locked bootloader!!

If I understand this post correctly, "There is no distinction between bootloader and recovery. Fundamentally, there is two partitions - boot and recovery", you can't have a locked bootloader and CWM installed at the same time, your bootloader has to be unlocked because you're running a custom recovery (CWM). Is this incorrect?

If it is actually possible to unlock the bootloader from software -- and not using Sony's official method -- then it may be unlocked. As I said, I don't remember the actual rooting method I used. When I have time I will try to flash an unofficial kernel to check if the bootloader is still locked.

"Correct, for the custom recovery to be in place, the locked bootloader must be unlocked which is what I was saying earlier on one of the Q&A's about the Xperia Neo having CWM in a locked bootloader which has me surprised" (permlink) - also I'd like to point out that I've read that there's bootloaders that pose as locked but still accept custom ROMs, so they're not actually locked.

This is the app that I used to install CWM: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pvy.CWMinstaler -- it advertises that it works with a locked bootloader in the first sentence.

Allright, well then we've settled that :) Key phrase from the xda-developers thread: "It is not 'true' recovery per se, since it installs in /system, but all the CWM functions should work."

Gotcha! :) Fair enough!


text:
Sony Ericsson WT19i doesn't detect my wifi network
When I bought the phone and tried to connect to my wifi network it worked fine, but after 2 days, I don't know why, it just doesn't detect my wifi network.
When I go into Settings->Wireless & network Settings-> Wi-fi settings my network doesn't show up there. Lots of other networks appear there but not mine.
I tried configuring manually with SSID WPA/WPA2 PSK and it says not in range. After this I tried rooting phone but still no luck.
I have a Galaxy SII and 2 other computers working correctly with my network. What's causing the WT19i to be unable to find it?

Check this forum out, since you're rooted now:
SGS2 I9100G keeps disconnecting from WIFI after installing firmware XXLPQ
Try installing a new kernel (usually found on XDA).


text:
All of my launchers keep crashing, my only fix is to factory reset. I need help for backing up valuable data
I have a Galaxy S2 running on ICS. It is not rooted.
Recently it keeps crashing. No app will start with the exception of lock screen and the notification curtain. My menu button does not work so during my research on this problem the "download GO Launcher and set as default > clear data" solution will not work. I want to keep this post as short as possible so here are some links on my first problem:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1417244
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1541223
(These two posters fixed their problems due to their menu buttons being able to function).
Looks like my only fix is to do a factory reset (though if anyone has a few suggestions, please post them!).
Unfortunately not being able to access any apps means I cannot do back ups. I want to restore my phone to the pre-crash state as much as possible. I have a valuable memo on the "Memo" app that comes with TouchWiz. Can this be done?
EDIT: Forgot to mention that it's best not to void my warranty by flashing or rooting. My S2 has some screen burn ins that I need to get fixed and they'll be checking.

If y'all came to Sprint you wouldn't have to worry about ROMs and rooting. They give support and repair regardless of root now. Jussayin ;)

Good to know, however: I only buy my phones unbranded for some time. SEMC (and others?) don't allow to unlock a bootloader if it's a branded phone (for fear of sim unlocking I guess)

Basic walkthrough for any phone:

Alternative 1:

Flash a CWM recovery
For Samsung, use Heimdall. download for 'Galaxy S2' or 'SGH-i777', depending on what you own
Heimdall also supports a dump command that can be used to backup all flash beforehand
Command to flash: heimdall flash --recovery CWM-recovery.img
Enter the newly installed CWM recovery
Do a backup in CWM to your external sdcard (be sure there's enough space left)
switch off & check the backup on your PC (it's located in /clockworkmod/backup/ on the sdcard)
If you're sure your backup is OK, enter CWM again and do a full wipe
Reboot your phone, do the first-time-init (Google Account and such)
Install Titanium Backup + its Pro key
in Titanium Backup: extract from nandroid backup

Alternative 2:

Applicable if your fastboot mode supports the extended command 'boot'
Compatible devices: Google's Nexus Line, HTC Desire with patched HBOOT loader and others

Steps:

Enter fastboot mode and load a recovery into RAM (without flashing): fastboot boot recovery.img
Continue with step 3 from 'Alternative 1'

Alternative 3 (Samsung only, but broken on Galaxy S i9000):
not tried yet, see this as an idea as for now. You're on your own with errors on extraction & restore
Heimdall implements a 'dump' and command and a means to print the partition table (PIT):
heimdall dump --chip-type NAND --chip-id 0 --output nanddump.out.img
heimdall print-pit or heimdall download-pit --output nand.out.pit
You may then cut the NAND dump into pieces (one for each partition) and name them accordingly. If successfull, you can then access your data and continue at Alternative 1, step 8 or 4

Thanks will try this when I get home. I didn't specify that I cannot flash but this seems like a last resort anyways (post updated with more info on that). There is absolutely no way I can back up app data without flashing/rooting? Not even through Kies?

If you want to wait, I have a chance to test with a  S2 tomorrow. But at least, the heimdall dump will work without any changes: 'heimdall[.exe] dump --chip-type NAND --chip-id 0 --output out.img' The stored data in the complete dump is however not easy to extract and generate a backup from it.

I can wait, no problem. Thanks a million for putting in the effort for me.

I added 2 more ways for getting your data back (2nd was in a comment I deleted)

@meiryo: had no chance to test on friday (it's a pool device). Do you still need those findings? (tomorrow is the next chance)

Very sorry for the late response (I lost my password for this account) but resorted to method 1 and it worked well. Thanks for your efforts :)

Nice! Thanks for letting me know. You can buy Triangle Away to reset the flash counter and revert to an orig. Recovery if you want to send it in for replacement under warranty

As you are running ICS, you might want to take a look at the question Full Backup of non-rooted devices. All you need for that is the Android SDK on your computer. Starting with ICS, full backups are supported this way even if you are not rooted. Details can be found in the linked question's answers.


text:
Can you auto reject phone numbers natively with a Droid phone?
I have a Droid X and I'm trying to set up an auto reject list and it looks like I have to download a third party app to do it. Am I missing something?

This depends on the features that come with your Droid X, as they may be slightly different than other brands of Android phones.
On my phone (Cyanogenmod 7.1 Gingerbread) there is a setting under Menu -> Settings -> Call Settings -> Blacklist, and another forum user says in Android 2.1 there is an option under Menu -> settings -> call settings -> all calls -> auto reject.
Others say in some contacts applications you can long-press a contact and choose to block them specifically.
Another good solution is to use Google Voice to handle calls and voicemail and such. It's not built in to begin with, but it's a Google service, so like second party.
Although,

In ICS you can specify a reject list that matches certain criteria
  (Start with, Ends with, Includes, Exactly the same as). This way you
  could specify Start with 1-800 and it would reject all calls that
  start with 1-800.

according to a post on this forum. So if you're using an ICS ROM, you may be in luck, as most here are skeptical about the Droid X getting an official ICS update.

FYI, on my phone (CM7.2), you can long press the end call button and block them that way. I figured this out after having inadvertently blocked someone for a month. >_< Too easy to do by accident.

Mr. Number. Options to block calls and/or texts. Gives you options of sending straight to VM or disconnecting. Very good at recognizing and blocking spam. I also set mine to divert unknown #s to VM. Figured if they wanted to talk bad enough, they wouldnt have their # blocked, lol.
I realize this isnt native as you were asking, but much better than any native way.

Thanks for the tip. Would you mind to share a link with us?


text:
Sync music folders between phone and tablet
I want to use a DJ returnable app on both devices, send want a fast way (WiFi) to keep the music folders sync'd. I always buy from my phone so just need to transfer existing music and new downloads from the phone to the tablet, it doesn't need to sync automatically but I do need a way to do easy multiple/bulk file transfers.
What is a good way to do this? Wifi preferably but bluetooth if I have to.

possible duplicate of Complete Dropbox implementation for Android

DoubleTwist with AirSync will do this, as long as they're connected to the same WiFi network and looking at the same location.
For bulk file transfers, most file explorers (like ES File Explorer) allow you to browse devices from other devices on the same network.


text:
Reset texting settings
I have Google Voice on my Android and originally I didn't have texting, so I checked the box that has it send text from Google Voice all the time.  But recently my phone company just randomly gave me texting.  So I wish to be prompted every time I send a text message.  How can I reset my Droid so it asks what medium I wish to send my text from?

Go to settings > Apps > Click on the app that is being used as your default messaging medium (Google voice in your case) > Press Clear defaults.


text:
Change the keyboard at the password unlock screen
I have a Samsung Galaxy 4.2 player.  I've gotten this to replace my old IPod Touch.  I've been happy with it, but I'm having a problem with the unlock screen.
I've set my unlock screen to use a password.  But my issue with the Samsung keyboard is that it doesn't "pop-out" the letters as I type them.  Instead, it simply lights the key in a subtle way - too subtle for me to notice when I accidentally tap the character beside the one I intended to.  As a result, I mistype the password frequently, which is pretty annoying.
The Gingerbread keyboard I have does pop out the characters as I type.  I've been happy with it, but I can't seem to find a way to use that keyboard as my keyboard to unlock the device.
So my question is: is there a way for me to change the keyboard at the unlock screen?
Thanks!

What os version are you on? 2.3?

Correct - 2.3.6.


text:
Headphone music controls not working correctly
I recently purchased a set of earphones (HTC RC E160) with music controls (next, play/pause, previous buttons).
Strangely, they do not appear to work on my Samsung Galaxy Ace. The play/pause button works properly, but the 'next' button does the same thing as the play/pause button and the 'previous' button does nothing at all.
I've tried making a testing Android app which tries to capture the button presses and obtain information about them. The previous button just goes completely undetected, but the next and play/pause buttons both display identical information.
Does anyone have some insight into what is going on? I'm unable to tell if my earphones are faulty, or if there is a compatibility issue.
EDIT - just tried on a Samsung Galaxy Tab, all three buttons work, except the next and previous buttons alter volume instead. Confused.

Maybe it could be something to do with the firmware of the phone? It's possible it's not supported with the Ace.

My 2ct: The headset connector has 3 signal lines (l/r stereo + microphone) and a common ground. I'm not aware of some standard that manages howto encode multimedia controls with those 4 lines. basically, each control button is assigned to a signal line and pulls that low (shorts with ground line) when a button is pressed. It's up to the phone model to support this and decide what button event to generate in Android. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=aws.apps.keyeventdisplay shows your key presses also.

thanks for the info ce4. That app is useful, and confirms that I'm receiving the same data from both the 'next' and 'play/pause' button.

by the way, do you think it's the hardware telling android what event has occurred or if it's android getting the data and turning it into an event itself?

The solution lies in your first sentence. You're using an HTC headphone.
Music controls are not standardized so every manufacturer implements them differently. As if this wouldn't be enough, different models have different implementations too. The only headphone that's guaranteed to work is the one that came with your device.
Apple on the other hand has a certification program to make sure that 3rd party accessories will work with iDevices.


text:
How can I change screen timeout based on whether my phone is/not charging?
I'd like my screen to stay lit while charging but have a timeout when just on battery. Is ther any way to do this?

Have you tried checking in your system settings?

Yes, double checked, not there on galaxy s3 running ICS

Maybe that needs to get back to android so they can put that in the next release. Gingerbread has it, so should phones.

With Tasker you can automate this to have different screen time-out values depending whether or not your phone is connected to a power source:

Create a new Profile and name it "Screen Timeout".
For Context select State -> Power -> Power.
Select "Any" for source and press the OK button.
Tap "New Task", name it "Increase Timeout" and tap the "OK" button.
Tap the + button to add a new Action, select Display category, and then Display Timeout action.
Drag the sliders for "Secs", "Mins" or "Hours" to your desired values for when the phone is connected to a power source.
Tap the "OK" button, and then tap it again.
Long-press the "Increase Timeout" action and select Add Exit Task option.
Tap "New Task", name it "Decrease Timeout" and tap the "OK" button.
Tap the + button to add a new Action, select Display category, and then Display Timeout action.
Drag the sliders for "Secs", "Mins" or "Hours" to your desired values for when the phone is running on battery.
Tap the "OK" button, and then tap it again.
Ensure the Tasker is enabled by toggling it ON (switch at bottom-right corner) and then tap the "OK" button.

You should be all set.  If you want to get fancy, you can add actions to both tasks to display toast messages.

There's an option to keep your screen lit while charging, try:
Settings -> Developer Options -> Stay Awake

I've triple checked, developer options doesn't have a stay awake setting. IIRC my wildfire had it, so I'm v surprised. Maybe they don't want to encourage screen burn?

I see from your comment that you use Galaxy S3, that device has a HUGE screen and I wouldn't be surprised if Samsung removed that feature (I know the S2 have it).

I noticed using the phone reduces the rate it charges so ur probs  right. I wish they'd asked me first!!

You may want to try any power widget for eg. like this one.
You can place the widget on your home screen and use the "always on" toggle to keep your phone always on during charging.

It's not the solution... he wants automated solution.

"Always ON" keeps screen always ON even when device is on battery.

Install Widgetsoid and add it's toggle widget Stay Awake on homescreen. Just, turn it ON and your screen will never timeout as long as the device is under voltage.

Dead link.  Even google's own links to the google play store don't work.


text:
Is there any way to stop Google removing apps from the phone?
Back before Android had gone mainstream, there was an incident where Google removed an app using a feature called Remote Application Removal.
This potentially allows Google to start removing political or anti-authority apps although I'm aware they have so far only used it to remove malware.
Still, I don't trust Google or any other corporation very much and would rather do everything I can to keep them out of my phone.
I already use CyanogenMod 9 (latest nightly 2012-06-21) but since I use the Market/Play it is kind of beside the point.
Is there a way to hack the Market/Play app so that it can't delete apps from the phone without specific authorization from the user?
Alternately, is there a way to set up per-app permissions in CM9 so I can prevent the Market/Play app from deleting anything?
http://android-developers.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/exercising-our-remote-application.html
http://phandroid.com/2010/06/24/google-can-remotely-remove-apps-from-your-phone/

The Market is a system app, so it can do whatever it wants.  I'd suggest you don't use the Google apps package if this is a concern.

I realize all that.

You could use droidwall to block gapps from accessing the Internet except when you install apps. Paid apps will maybe break if they have a scheduled recheck of their licence however. Plus: Website based installation requests (play.Google.com) won't work. It's not a perfect scheme but it's almost bullet proof http://code.google.com/p/droidwall/issues/detail?id=168

Is there a way to hack the Market/Play app so that it can't delete apps from the phone without specific authorization from the user?

Yes, there are tools to decompile an APK and DEX files and make modifications and put them back together again; you'll need root, the appropriate softwares, lots of knowledge about Dalvik and Java bytecode, and many weekends spent on reading. Also be warned that you're breaching the TOS of Google Play.
And ... good luck, you'll need it.

Hacking the Play app is probably no feasible option. And as Matthew Read suggests, as a system app, it can do what it wants.
The only other options I can think off is using an alternative Android app market.
You can find some here: http://www.howtogeek.com/106175/the-top-5-alternatives-to-the-android-market/


text:
Does the Google Drive App create a folder that syncs automatically?
On my computer I have a Google Drive folder that syncs to the cloud.
Is there a folder like that on my android phone after installing Google Drive?
The idea would be to make a 'photos' folder in there and save all my photos from the camera in that folder.

I do not believe this is the way Google Drive works. The app, if I am not mistaken, allows you to view (and edit some Google documents) but maintains them in the cloud. While it does allow you to download them, it saves them to your Download folder for local use only.
You can choose photos you've taken from your gallery and upload them to Google Drive, but (if I am not mistaken), there is no automatic folder syncing option.
You can use Google+ though. It automatically adds all your photos to a Google+ album only you can see. Given, not as easy as Drive, but still a good auto-upload option. I don't know of an easy way to get them from there to a Drive folder though :/

You can also use FolderSync. It could sync folders with Google
  Docs, and still works after Docs upgraded to Drive, Google Drive is
  fully supported. Just choose Google Docs when adding account in the
  app. In case, you don't want to pay, its [free lite version][3 is also
  in Play Store, but with some limitations.

Thanks for the above goes to Sachin Shekhar.

interesting. i also saw this: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/22614/google-drive-directory-syncronisation do you have any experience with that app?

I don't, but it looks like a good choice! I'll add it to my answer here.

@mkoryak I do have experience with it. Google Drive on Windows has some issues, but this one is perfect. I haven't encountered any bug yet. Once, my deletion wasn't going under sync and app always downloaded deleted files. So, I contacted developer. He responded quickly. It wasn't a bug, but a setting glitch.


text:
Why do phones have default limited user rights (not rooted)?

Possible Duplicate:
I've rooted my phone.  Now what?  What do I gain from rooting?
What does “to root a phone” mean?

I just spent half a day finding a rooting guide for Nexus S and I was wondering why root accounts aren't available on Android phones from the beginning? Being derived from Linux, why isn't it like on Linux with the root account and other accounts?
I am thinking maybe malware protection, but there are malicious software that can do harm without root account right? What are the major benefits?

edit your title because it contradicts your question, bad tagging too. Having devices not give you Super User permissions basically helps novices from accidentally misusing important files, directories or system resources thus potentially damaging their devices, gives the rom makers a place to store their own applications and content without worrying users may delete them (see, bloatware), prevents you from flashing roms or do other things that legally may void your warranty etc..

It is "like on linux". The root account and other accounts are always there, you just don't have access to them.

Android is not derived from Linux. It uses the Linux kernel.

@RichardBorcsik Actually you can't just replace a vanilla linux kernel in an android distro. Making it a major fork at the very least. In that sense it is fair to say android is derived from linux, i.e. it is an androidified linux.

@jiggunjer Where exactly do you draw the line?

why root accounts aren't available on Android phones from the beginning?

Standard android apps are subject to Android permission system, which requires apps to declare the permission they require in a Manifest file. An app that have root access can easily circumvent around this permission system.

Being derived from Linux, why isn't it like on Linux with the root account and other accounts?

It is just like Linux. Even in desktop Linux distros, notably Ubuntu, the standard root account is disabled by inaccessible password.

I am thinking maybe malware protection, but there are malicious software that can do harm without root account right?

Yes, for example, there are malware apps that can send your contact lists to a shady server in a third world country. In a phone without root, these malicious apps will have to declare the permission to read your contact database in the Manifest, which is read and displayed before installing an app, giving you the chance to cancel installation. In rooted phones, it is possible for an app to read your contact database without explicitly declaring it in the Manifest, by asking for root permission instead. There are many other potential security breaches that can simply be avoided or minimized by disabling root access.
Also, in some systems, root can modify system files; modifying system files can make it impossible to completely revert to factory default (because those modifications would persist after the revert). Without root, one would have to use the bootloader to flash system file; greatly reducing the risk of malicious apps installing itself in a way that will persist over a factory reset.
Shipping phones without root also reduces the cost of customer support, as the number of ways that a customer may shoot him/herself in the foot are greatly reduced.
"With great power comes great responsibility", The sudo Lecture, also Ben Parker.

the standard root account is disabled by inaccessible password. Not really. The "owner" (first user created) can easily access it using sudo su - (especially on Ubuntu, yes). If afterwards he calls passwd, he can even login using root and the password he assigned. So exactly this one of the points where Android differs from Linux.

@Izzy: in Unix/Linux terminology, a "disabled" account is an account that is set to an unusable password. You're correct to say that other users accounts can still run setuid executable to a "disabled" account to effectively gain their privilege. However, this is not really a point of difference between Linux and Android, because both OS behave the same in this respect. Instead, the major difference is that neither su nor sudo is preinstalled in Android.

OK, I won't split hairs on that -- put that way, you are 100% correct: without a working su/sudo, one cannot gain su privileges -- and stock Android comes without them.


text:
Search/route with pre-cached google maps?
I understand that its possible to cache Google maps for offline use.
But is it possible to search or calculate new routes with the pre-cached map without connecting to internet?

doubt it. Most of the Maps functions depend completely on internet connectivity.

This is not possible at the moment (but maybe in the near future).
Reason:
Google maps data is stored as raster image tiles without any meta information (street vectors, streetnames, interceptions and so on) besides the geolocation per tile.
This means routes cannot even be calculated offline even if someone wants to.
Maps is deliberatly an online service, Google wants you to be "connected".
You have to either buy one of the many pro routing apps (from Navigon, CoPilot or others) or use one of the Open Street Map apps that also provide offline routing (I really like OsmAnd+ or OsmAnd free). See also Open Street Maps wiki for more apps and info.

During a recent event, Google said that this functionality is coming soon: http://androidcommunity.com/google-maps-offline-coming-soon-to-android-20120606/


text:
Wifi shows error on Huawei U8500
I can not turn on my android device Wifi. It shows error. My device is Huawei U8500. I am using CyanogenMod 7.2.0 Update-6. Please help with this?

What's the error? You've used the cyanogenmod tag. Does that mean you're rooted and using a custom ROM?

Yes. My phone is already rooted.Still i am suffering with my wifi. How can I solve it. It shows error .. nothing else. I am using custom rom . Android version 2.3.7

What is the error message? Can you provide more details? You currently to vague on your information to help you

You phone, Huawei U8500 may have the boot kernel and the system modules with different versions.
Since you aren't providing the error message contents, I'll assume that you're just getting a plain wifi error notice instead of the usual wifi connecting to...
Generally speaking,

The kernel (which is on boot.img) must match the WiFi modules version (which is on system) if not, WiFi cant be loaded.

What you need to do is:
Install 7.2 and flash the boot separately, so the boot kernel and the system modules can obtain the same version.

A similar case:
You can read about a similar case in detail at:

cyanogenmod - Issue 5435: Wifi error after 7.2 install on Incredible S

To summarize it:
A user performed an update to the system version 7.2, but didn't flash the boot to the same version.
Every time the user tried to use WiFi, the message wifi error was presented.
If he rolled-back to the previous version, the WiFi worked just fine.
After some discussion and exchanging of ideas, he came up with a solution:

Resolved. Here is the clear solution (not completely clear earlier).

Install CM 7.2 OTA when prompted
DO not roll back to 7.1
THEN extract boot.img from the cm 7.2 zip, reboot the phone to bootloader, fastboot flash boot boot.img using PC

So what was happening to this case:
When the user had 7.1 installed and the phone had:

boot - 7.1 kernel
system - 7.1 modules

After the installation of 7.2, the phone had:

boot - 7.1 kernel
system - 7.2 modules

When re-installed 7.1, the phone had:

boot - 7.1 kernel
system - 7.1 modules

so everything worked
When the user installed 7.2 and flashed the boot separately the phone had:

boot - 7.2 kernel
system - 7.2 modules

and everything worked

Related reading:

cyanogenmod - Fastboot

Sounds useful but I have no idea what to do. Can somebody write that in plain language with nice little pictures for those of us who don't live in the world of system names and numbers?


text:
When will my device get the Android 4.1 update (Jelly Bean)?
Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) was announced at Google I|O 2012 on June 27, 2012.
(You can review the high level changes in Android 4.1 at the official Android Developer's site.)
Of course, not all devices will get this update right away and others won't get it at all. Each manufacturer and carrier often choose to add their custom modifications which tend to delay the official release.
When will each device get Android 4.1, either officially or unofficially, if ever?
See also:

When will my device get the Android 4.0 update (Ice Cream Sandwich)?
When will my device get the Android 4.2 update (Jelly Bean)?
When will my device get the Android 5.0 update (Lollipop)?

JBQ has made the source to Android 4.1 available around 48hours ago and CM are "merging" manually the changes to the source base.

Here's an article from Android Central which talks a bit about why updates aren't just automatically added to devices that can probably handle it as well as some speculation about some popular and recent devices.

Related: Why aren't the manufacturers updating the phone to the latest Android version when it's available?

This community wiki will list all of the known and rumored dates for devices. If you have an update make sure to follow the format that's been established, and the following guidelines:

Keep phones in alphabetical order listing the manufacturer and model
Specify if the date is confirmed or rumored and link to the source
If there is an unofficial release, link to the site where it can be downloaded

Note that devices that do not meet Google's Compatibility Definition will not receive a Google-sanctioned update. In the case of the major manufacturers and many others, that means they won't release an update at all since Google's certification is important to their business.
Phones
Asus
Padfone

Official: 2013-03-25 (confirmed)

Google
Nexus S

Official: mid-July (confirmed)

HTC
Desire C

Official: Never (confirmed)

One S

Official: unknown date (confirmed)

One V

Official: Never (confirmed)

One VX

AT&T: 2013-08-02 (announced)

One X

Official: 2013-03-07 (confirmed)

One XL

Official: unknown date (confirmed)

LG
Optimux 4X HD (P880)

Official: 2013-04-07 MyLGPhones.Com

Optimus G

Sprint: 2013-March (confirmed)

Micromax
A110 Canvas 2

Official: 2013-March (confirmed)

Motorola
DROID 4

Released to Verizon customers March 19, 2013 (confirmed)

DROID BIONIC

Official: 2013-04-16 (confirmed)

DROID RAZR

Official: 2012-03-07 (confirmed)

DROID RAZR HD

Official: 2012-12 (confirmed)

DROID RAZR MAXX

Official: 2012-03-07 (confirmed)

RAZR MAXX HD

Official: 2012-12 (confirmed)

Pantech
Discover

Official: 2013-07-31 (confirmed)

Samsung
Epic 4G Touch

Official (via Samsung Kies): 2013-03-28 (confirmed)

Galaxy Ace 2

available: 2013-05-15 (SamMobile)

Galaxy Nexus

HSPA+

yakju, takju

Official: 10-July-2012 (officially confirmed)
Unofficial: 28-June-2012 RootzWiki, XDA

yakjuxw, yakjukr etc...

Official: Unknown
Unofficial: 30-June-2012 XDA

CDMA

Sprint:

Official: 2012-09-06 (confirmed)
Unofficial: 2012-06-28 ACSyndicate

Verizon Wireless:

Official: 2012-09-21 (confirmed)
Unofficial: 28-June-2012 RootzWiki (ROM 1, ROM 2)

Galaxy Note N7000

Official: Unknown date
Unofficial: 2012-08-10

Galaxy S II

Official (Sweden, Norway and Denmark): November 2012 (facebook post via GSMArena)

Galaxy S III

Official (Verizon Wireless) 15-Dec-2012 (confirmed)
"Confirmed" 29-August-2012 (international models specifically)
Official (Sweden, Norway and Denmark): October 2012 (facebook post via GSMArena)
Official (Bell, Rogers, Sasktel, Telus, and associated brands in Canada): December 3, 2012 (twitter post)
Official (Mobilicity, Vidéotron and Wind Mobile in Canada) - December 14, 2012 (twitter post)

Galaxy Stellar

Official: March 2, 2013 (source)

Sony
2011 line up (Xperia Arc S, Ray, Mini (pro), Neo (V), ...)

Declined by Sony UK for the top model Arc S (source)

Xperia T, TX, V

Official:Feb-March 2013 (confirmed)

Xperia P, J, Go)

Official: End of March 2013 (confirmed)

Xperia S, SL, ion, acro S

Official:After March 2013 (confirmed)

Xperia U, Miro, Tipo, Sola

Official: Declined (source)

Xperia TL

Official: 1-Mar-2013 (confirmed)

Tablets
Acer
Iconia Tab A500

Unofficial: 30-Jun-2012 (confirmed)

ASUS
Transformer TF101 + SL101

Official: unknown date (confirmed)

Transformer TF201 + TF300T + TF700T

Official, unknown date (source)  (source, English)

Transformer Pad TF300

Official: 18-August-2012 (confirmed)

Lenovo
Thinkpad Tablet

Official: Never (staff post)

Motorola
Xoom

Official (Wi-Fi variant): 23-July-2012 (confirmed)
Official (3G/LTE variant): Q4 2012 (Motorola blog post)

Why the rollback? There are separate entries for US operators, I thought it would be relevant to have separate entries for european users also.

I rolled it back because the edit summary said it was adding a separate Verizon entry and there already is one. Go ahead and restore the change. Note, though, that most "normal" users aren't going to know what build codes are or what they mean.

That's true, exactly why I wrote and answered this question. And if one goes searching for information on how to upgrade before OTA, one is bound to bump into the matter.


text:
airdroid app FileManager doesn't access to sdCard
AirDroid is a impressive app, but I'm not able to access from pc to th SD content, only to the internal folders (also named sd card I think)

What's the question?

¿?
The AirDroid app in the pc have an "Files" button in order to show an Explorer like File Manager, but the content is shown is the on in the "internal memory" of the device.
But the device have also an SD Card (16 GB in my case), these content can't be accessed.

File Expert will give you both on-device, Explorer-like access to your files, and access over WiFi from your browser, an FTP client or Bluetooth.  You won't need a separate browser-access app.  It is well reviewed and free/no ads.

Thanks, I've installed the app, but some is going wrong, because I don't see the app in my device (Woxter Tablet).
I will try tomorrow.

Installed, and shared the content using browser, works BUT HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM OF AIRDRID:

external sdcard is not available
shows an sdcard but this is the internal one

The app itself have the same problem, the external sdcard are not visible.
The device have three storage as I can understand: - internal memory, 1 GB - internal sdcard, 16 HB - external (removable) sdcard The problem is I can't access to the removable sdcard from the browser pc using airdroid app. Of course I can access to the external sdcard in my device.

I've contact with other AirDroid user and this is an known bug for the developer, to be resolved in future version.

What do you mean with the "internal folders" are also named "sd card" seems weird to me.
Maybe you assume /sdcard is a local folder? Which it isn't that's the location of your SD card's content.
Above, when you want to access your SD card's content in your PC, it have to be dismounted from the phone which will make apps installed on it inaccessible. Mostly you have to approve the dismounting of the SD card manually from your phone. I can imagine that when AirDroid is installed on your SD card it cannot dismount it because it has some necessary files on it.

Maybe there is an conflict between those named "sd card".
The devide have three storage as I can understand:

internal memory, 1 GB
internal sdcard, 16 HB
external (removable) sdcard

The problem is I can't access to the removable sdcard from the browser pc using airdroid app.
Of course I can access to the external sdcard in my device.


text:
Handcent SMS Delay sending feature
I'm using the Handcent sms app on my Galaxy Nexus. I set the delay sending feature at settings -> send message settings -> delay sending. The feature worked for the next few messages but then stopped. Any ideas as to what may have caused this and how to fix it?

In HandCent you can set delay settings for individual contacts. I'm pretty certain if you set this then the global setting will not override it so maybe you have set the delay to 0 on some contacts. Hope this helps.


text:
Does Huawei u8160 support USB host?
I have a Huawei u8160(A. K. A Vodafone 858) which is running Cyanogenmod 7.2.
I was wondering if it supports USB host so I can connect a keyboard or a Flash drive.

Read [this]: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1259739
After you flash the latest rom you could flash the usb host mode which is [here]: http://goo.im/devs/psyke83/roms/u8160/hotfixes
called usbhost1-cm-7-20120729-MADTEAM-u8160.zip
Enjoy.

sorry but the link is not found


text:
Droid Charge SCH-I510 Memory Dump Crash
I am a Android developer who has been noticing horrible performance and memory dumps that are crashing my Droid Charge SCH-i510. Besides the lack of roadmap for the phone ( because obviously they are targeting newer models) I know it will never really be updated again.
But I would like to see if any one else is having these issues and if they were able to pin point it. Does anyone know how to solve this issue or overcome it? Obviously not everyone will have the exact same issues.
But I notice the issue when processing images as well when a specific thread is chewing resources.
I reached out to Samsung and I was told to "Not have a lot of apps installed on the phone" or to "Not use so many apps on the phone" I tried to explain to them that Android when not using an app has a lifecycle that will free up resources from apps not being used so that it will not run out of resources. They just responded to that as "We are sorry you are mad"
Great job helping your dev's pin point an issue.

Please read the [FAQ]. "I just wanted to kind of see...", "I would like to see what everyone thinks..." and "Thoughts, feelings, other complaints?" are not the kind of questions which work here. "You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face."

I updated my question to fit your changes. However maybe I was not descriptive enough. I need peoples thoughts and feelings about what they did to solve the mem dump issues. Sorry for the inconvenience.

You're still basically asking for discussion. You should ask about a solution to a specific problem.

How is this possible? I am asking to see if people could pin point the problem. I in a situation where my main development device is acting up. I need a solution not a discussion.

Ask a specific question. Don't ask "anybody else having issues".

I'd suggest you might probably want to ask for how to detect which app is at fault.

Maybe get rid of your current firmware? http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1146

I figured out why this is happening. The problem is due too a bug that most other Android users are having running 2.3.5 and higher. It happens when more than 50 apps are installed on the SD Card. To which it seems there is no work around for as of yet.
So we are stuck ATM.

Search the logcats for stack traceback. Try uninstalling apps one at a time, to see if the problem disappears when you uninstalled a certain app.
If the issue come from an installed application, then you should uninstall that app and/or contact the developer to fix the crash.
If the issue is system level, then there is not much you can do. You can either downgrade to a version that crashes less, or try upgrading to custom ROM, although with custom ROMs the crashes could also get worse.
It should be noted that newer Android versions have better application management than older versions. I recalled that there is an improvement that comes either in 2.1 or 2.2 or 2.3 that significantly improves the way the out-of-memory killer works.

I see what you are saying but I doubt highly that it has much to do with the apps that are installed. I think what you are trying to suggest is to see if any app has a process or thread that is causing the issue.
Having looked I don't think log cat is the correct place for this because you can't actually see the heap memory.The DDMS maybe a better solution because I could  actually look at memory allocation to apps and see where isn't getting repurposed when not in use.
I feel like this is going to be a ROM issue which is what I was worried about. Which like you said I need a new rom.Thanks

@chenger: I guess the inevitable question is that, what makes you so sure that it's not an installed app? If it is a ROM issue and you have a stock ROM, then you should be able to find many people on the internet having the same issue.

@Ryan: Because having done some research on this. Many other Charge users are having this issue. On numerous Charge forums Verizon and it's subsidiaries are suggesting they are " Working on a fix for all the problems" this. They came out with a patch that is supposed to clear up lots of these issues but the plain fact is it just dosen't. If it were infact a memory leak from a app I would be able to trace the memory stack back to the culprit. As of right now I am not seeing that. Thanks


text:
Does Swype Beta collects typed passwords?
Their FAQ doesn't mention this, but when I enable Swype on my Galaxy S2, I get a notification warning me that it can collect all info, including credit card numbers and passwords.
Does it collect such data?

That's a standard Android warning. You get that warning when you try to install any keyboard.
Nope, it won't collect any such data.

How do you know it won't?


text:
Stock widget in Apex Launcher
How do I get to use stock widgets (like email) on HTC Sensation 4G running on ICS and Sense 3.6 with Apex Launcher Pro?

Long press an empty area of your homescreen and choose widgets. Doesn't that work? You need enough space to be able to place the widget, though.

These widgets are not standard widgets. They use non-standard APIs of the Sense launcher and thus that other launcher's don't have and thus, they can't use them.
This is why, you can't use Sense widgets with custom launcher.

Most widgets can be added by going to the Widgets section in the App Drawer and long pressing them, then selecting an empty area of the homescreen to place it. You will see all standard widgets there, except for the HTC ones. Those widgets are made specifically for and locked to the HTC Sense launcher, unfortunately.

FYI long-pressing doesn't work in Android 4.x. You need to select the Widget out of the app drawer.

Ah, my mistake. I'm using Apex Launcher and forgot that was not standard of the stock launcher. Edited the post, thanks.


text:
Holo on HTC Vivid
I recently got an HTC Vivid from AT&T. It came preinstalled with the Android 4.0 update that some HTC phones got, along with HTC Sense 3.6 as the default launcher. Now I read about Google's announcement that said all phones running ICS (with android market/google play) would need to have the holo theme. Now I wanted my device to be a more pure android experience, but I don't want to start flashing mods and rooting. Is there any way to:

change the launcher to the stock launcher WHILE still having the option to switch back to Sense 3.6
see if the theme being used is infact holo, or if it is some htc-made theme - and if so, how I could change it

You could always just install an alternate launcher. I see a number of them in the Google Play Store. There's also a Go Launcher theme.

I would prefer the stock launcher. But if I can't find a way to get it, I'll end up using it


text:
Bad ROM flash - Kindle Fire stuck in boot
My KF won't finish booting.
I started to root my KF from my iMac using these instructions and with the files it points to.  I got as far as flashing it with FIREFIREFIRE which appeared to complete normally but at the fastboot reboot following, the device hung with its splash screen displayed ("kindle fire").  I waited 3 min and restarted it - same behavior.  I tried a hard reset and got the same behavior.  The KF has Android 2.3.4 and Kindle Fire 6.3.1.  A copy of the terminal output (with comments obviously inserted later):
jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ adb kill-server; adb devices
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached
1836002600000001    device

###  Neato - iMac sees the KF.
###  Into and out of the shell:

jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$
jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ adb shell
$ ls
config
dropbox
cache
sdcard
acct
mnt
vendor
d
etc
ueventd.rc
ueventd.omap4430.rc
ueventd.goldfish.rc
system
sys
sbin
proc
init.rc
init.omap4430.rc
init.goldfish.rc
init
default.prop
data
root
dev
$ exit

### Push fbmode utility to KF and run it:

jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ adb push fbmode /data/local/fbmode
4976 KB/s (510876 bytes in 0.100s)
jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ adb shell chmod 755 /data/local/fbmode
jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ adb shell /data/local/fbmode
jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ adb reboot

### Flash the KF with FIREFIREFIRE:
jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ pwd
/Users/jeff/Downloads/Kindle/RootingTools/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools
jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ fastboot -i 0x1949 boot u-boot.bin
creating boot image...
creating boot image - 210944 bytes
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [  0.055s]
booting...
OKAY [  0.003s]
finished. total time: 0.059s
jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ fastboot reboot
< waiting for device >
^C

###  At this point, the KF hung, as the instructions said it might,
###  displaying its splash screen: "kindle fire".  After 3 minutes,
###  I forced a shut down and restarted it. It displayed the splash
###  screen and hung again.  I tried a hard reset - held the power
###  button down for 60 seconds, and restarted it.  Same behavior.

###  adb and fastboot get no response.
###  The power LED stays green.

jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ adb devices
List of devices attached

jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ fastboot reboot
< waiting for device >
^C
jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ adb shell /data/local/fbmode
error: device not found
jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ adb shell /data/local/fbmode
error: device not found
jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ adb devices
List of devices attached

jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ adb reboot
error: device not found
jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$ adb kill-server; adb devices
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached

jrobert@Gacrux platform-tools$

###  Growl on the  iMac responds to my unplugging the USB while
###  the KF is powered up ("USB Disconnection  kindle").
###  Growl doesn't respond to my plugging in the KF's USB
###  with the KF powered up.
###  Growl responds to my powering the KF up or down with the
###  USB connected.  The KF file system does not get mounted.

adb and fastboot client get no response, and neither lists a device.  Growl on the iMac responds to my unplugging the USB while the KF is powered up ("USB Disconnection  kindle"). It doesn't respond to my plugging in the KF's USB with the KF powered up. Growl responds to my powering the KF up or down with the USB connected.  The KF file system does not get mounted on the iMac.
I can power it on and off with the power button (it requires a push-and-hold to shut down) and the power LED lights and goes out when I do.  I've tried push-and-holding the power button as soon as the LED lights; the unit shuts down after 10 seconds or so, just as in any forced shut-down.
I've ordered parts to make into a factory-cable and hoping I can recover it with that.  Is there anything else I can try in the meanwhile?

@eldarerathis: Thank you! That appears to have been exactly right - it's running now.  Please make this an answer so I can accept it.  But now I'm curious about its boot behavior - during boot up, the "kindle fire" splash screen blinks out briefly - twice - during boot, during the time before the "fire" animation begins. It doesn't seem to be an issue but I don't remember that happening before I messed with it.

Mine does that, too, assuming I understand what you mean correctly (the static logo appears, then flickers a bit, then the animated logo appears). I don't know if it's always done that or not, to be honest.

There are the two things of note that I see in your data:

The instructions indicate that you should use fastboot -i 0x1949 boot u-boot.bin. This is actually not correct, because the fastboot boot command is intended for hotbooting a boot.img, not a bootloader (they are different). The original XDA instructions give the proper command, which is fastboot -i 0x1949 flash bootloader u-boot.bin. This will install FIREFIREFIRE on your device, overwriting the stock bootloader.
Generally, if your KF hangs at the boot splash screen, it's stuck in fastboot mode. You can reset it to the normal boot mode by connecting it to a PC and executing fastboot -i 0x1949 oem idme bootmode 4000 and then rebooting. If you have FIREFIREFIRE installed you can leave off the -i 0x1949 flag because it uses a different vendor ID.


text:
unity3d apps crash unexpectedly on Cyanogenmod 7.2
I have a Huawei u8160 which is running Cyanogenmod 7.2.
So all of the unity3d apps crash unexpectedly on start .
And I think that the error is because of missing kernels or libraries.
And I want to know if I can install any of them so I can run these apps.


text:
Installing Android on Nokia N96 need help

Possible Duplicate:
Can I install Android on my non-Android device?

I am using Nokia N96 mobile phone with S60 OS.
Is it possible to load Android OS in my phone.
From where can I download the OS.
Which tool I have to use for OS installation ( tools like PC suit/ OS installer )
After installing the Android OS is it possible to put back the old S60 OS?

It is not possible.

i doubt an android kernel could interact with a non android compliant device.

But I heard that people are using Android for nokia phones

see this link

possible duplicate: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/6840/can-we-uninstall-symbian-and-install-android
http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/6849/can-i-install-android-on-my-non-android-device

@SarinJacobSunny the original poster confirmed that as a fake.

@Chahk, sorry I didn't get you, what you ment by fake?

Fake, as in "not real", a lie.  He most likely is just playing a video, or an animated GIF.


text:
Uploading and sharing geotagged photos
I would like to be able to upload photos with geotag data to an online database that gives access to a controlled audience.
For example it is possible to use Picasa with a joint Gmail account that the photographer uploads to, but the viewer will have the login credential to the Gmail account and therefore can edit/delete these photos.
Is there a way I can accomplish this?

You could also do just what you said with Picasa, just make the album public or give them access with a link.

@jlehenbauer: I agree with Flow, the edited version seems good to me. I'm reopening this.

You could do this with Picasa. Simply create an upload account for the photographer, (you could then upload from your computer or directly from your phone) and choose to share the album or individual pictures with the viewer(s) via private link.


text:
How can I access data (such as WiFi keys) in an encrypted Titanium backup?
How can I decrypt an encrypted "Titanium Backup" backup using standard (Linux) tools?
Example:
Wi-Fi serves as a practical example, many other uses may apply to the solution I'm looking for.
If I quickly want to access backed-up Wi-Fi credentials from my Linux box, I know a fast way. With encrypted backups, I'm currently out of luck.
That's my quick & dirty way on how to do it without encryption so far:
me@local:~$ adb shell
root@android:/ # cd /sdcard/TitaniumBackup/
root@android:/sdcard/TitaniumBackup # ls *W*46.*gz
com.keramidas.virtual.WIFI_AP_LIST-20120622-105046.tar.gz
root@android:/sdcard/TitaniumBackup # gunzip -c *W*46.*gz | grep -C1 MyAccessPoint
network={
  ssid="MyAccessPoint"
  psk="supersecrecretpassphrase"

Some details on the company's site: https://www.titaniumtrack.com/kb/titanium-backup-kb/titanium-backup-cryptography.html

There are no standard tools as of now yet. TiB uses their own format which they kindly shared with me when I asked them the same above question.
In fact someone needs to write it still. It could be done in Java or even using bash + openssl only.

Is it public, or do I need to ask them myself, if I want it too? I had a look at the encrypted files, but gave up as I couldn't figure out exactly how it's encrypted. I could write something in python (CLI only)

It belongs to SO, that's why I didn't post it here. You can see their answer here https://plus.google.com/101760059763010172705/posts/MQBmYhKDex5

Thanks, it's really helpful. I'm kind of stuck because python doesn't seem to have a usable way to decrypt PKCS8 certificates, so I'll have to use openssl. Anyway, I'll ping you once I have something working.

I'll go for the (harder) bash+openssl thing once I find time. PS, python has an openssl package: http://packages.python.org/pyOpenSSL/

I have found a working solution on GitHub:
https://github.com/phyber/TiBUdecrypter
1. Install/upgrade dependencies (on Ubuntu)
apt-get install python2.7
pip install --upgrade docopt
pip install --upgrade six
pip install --upgrade PyCrypto

2. Get script from GitHub

Download: https://github.com/phyber/TiBUdecrypter/archive/master.zip
Extract the ZIP

3. Decrypt a backup
python2.7 tibudecrypt.py com.keramidas.virtual.XML_WIFI_AP_LIST-20140711-012128.xml.gz

I wrote an implementation in PHP:
https://github.com/bhafer/TitaniumBackupDecrypt
Usage:
php TitaniumBackupDecrypt <.tar.gz file>

2023 updated answer for OS with Python3:

Download: https://github.com/half-duplex/titanium-decrypt/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
Extract to any folder

Install requirements:
python -m venv venv
. venv/bin/activate && \
python -m pip install -Ur requirements.txt

Decrypt archive:
. venv/bin/activate
python tdecrypt.py my-encrypted-backup.tar.gz

According to the Titanium Backup Knowledge Base, TB backs up with public/private key encryption. If you have the private key, you should be able to access (decrypt) the backup file. The easiest way to do this seems to me to be via TB itself, and then perhaps re-save it as non-encrypted.

This link is also included in my original question, but it doesn't answer it. There's only some vague info about 'assymetric (rsa) and symmetric (aes) encryption'. That's not sufficient information. PS: I have an open ticket at titaniumtrack.com about this whole question. Let's see what they answer.

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


text:
On Maps, Directions, how do I get a route's baseline duration
How do I get Maps, Directions, to give me a route's baseline duration (as given by maps.google.com) as opposed to just the "In current traffic" duration?
maps.google.com gives me a duration (what I am calling baseline) plus "In current traffic" duration. Maps however gives me just one duration equal to the maps.google.com "In current traffic" duration. I want Maps to give me the baseline duration.


text:
Does Google Navigation work offline?
I know that I can download and cache parts of the maps in Google Maps. When offline (e.g., in flight mode, but with GPS enabled) I can explore these parts of the maps.
But when I try to use the Navigation to get directions, it seems it doesn't work offline (even when navigating inside the cache map areas).
So, does the navigation feature always need a connection (either WiFi or 3G)?

Unfortunately, yes. For now, that is how Google has created the Maps application; you cannot use Maps (or Navigation) without internet access.
There are other apps that exist, though, that allow you to download maps for use offline. Sygic and Navfree, for example, both allow you to store maps on your device and then only require a GPS fix to give you turn-by-turn directions. Note you still need internet (WiFi or data network) to download the maps the first time, but after that, you're free to shut data off.

You can use Maps without Internet access if you have pre-cached the area.

@roxan: yes you can use the cached maps (as I have written), but you cannot use navigation (i.e. calculate a route) when offline.

I don't think this is correct.. Google maps does use the internet in order to do its route calculation.  Very often if you have no internet access  it stalls on "finding best route". https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/196223/google-maps-with-offline-maps-sometimes-gets-stuck-on-finding-best-route

Since the OP's question was dated back in mid-summer of 2012, things have changed a bit with Maps and has been updated since.
In agreement with other answerer's who have pointed out you can download the maps for offline usage, no calculation is needed, if using Maps, what I found actually surprised me, the GPS navigation still works even if off-line and not using any 3G/Wifi either!
With the maps, hit menu, tap on Make available offline, then you can pan and zoom in on the location of the map, to increase the size of the map for offline usage, it may be required to zoom out if you want a big area of maps coverage.
Then the download will happen (WiFi needed preferably as depending on the size of the offline map, it will take a while - not your conventional nippy download speed)
Furthermore, if browsing on desktop pc, hit up on maps on the google site, and select your starting point and ending point as destination, if planning a journey, and save that as "My Places". With the maps app, it can sync up with "My Places" and pull it down and be used with the off-line map! That surprised me
The GPS navigation will actually show where you are and the route to take.
Caveat Emptor: Be sure to have plenty of battery juice as the GPS is working 100% on it
Simply enable GPS, all data switched off, and as its oft said - Let's hit the road Jack and... profit! \o/

it (often at least) needs internet access to calculate the route , that's with maps offline too.  https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/196223/google-maps-with-offline-maps-sometimes-gets-stuck-on-finding-best-route

Internet access is needed for the routing calculation at the beginning. Navigation using a precached area will work offline.

what do you mean for routing calculation at the beginning?  if you go to some postcode you haven't gone to before then it will probably need internet access then?  it could even need internet access for any postcode how do you know which ones it has cached route calculations for and which it hasn't?

I will suggest gvSIG mini maps which will allow you to download map tiles for offline usage.
But for navigation,POI search Internet connection is needed.If anyone have any clue about how to  do offline routing/navigation or POI search , Please let me know. THANKS for any help.


text:
How to transfer BlackBerry 9700 contacts to Android phone?
I have a BlackBerry 9700 BOLD and a Samsung Galaxy SIII and I need to transfer as much of my contact info from the BB to the Galaxy SIII. I already know that if I save numbers on my SIM card they will be transferred but I can't save everything on it.
I read a lot of articles about using "Google Sync" app for BlackBerry to sync with Google's cloud and then back to Android again. But the problem is that I went there now http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/ and it seems they stopped BlackBerry support for Google Sync.
So my question is how to sync as much of my data from BlackBerry to my Android phone without using Google Sync?

Can you export the contact data? To a CSV file, perhaps?

I should be able to. Out of curiosity I searched on GooglePlay and I Found a free app called Rainbow Contacts which seems to be very very promising. I Will try it tonight.

RainbowContacts worked great. Imported 252 contacts but the app crashed when it was done.

Used RainbowContacts app for Android to connect to BlackBerry via Bluetooth and import contacts.

Transferring Blackberry contacts to Android
Galaxy Note 2

Turn on Bluetooth for both devices
Pair both devices to each other
Go to Blackberry's Bluetooth setup, and select the Android phone- for me it's SGH-T889 renamed Galaxy Note 2.
Press the enter key or trackpad, and the device menu will pop up.
Select  "Transfer Contacts"
Your Android device will popup a request to accept a file named Phonebook.vcf'. Choose ACCEPT
Your Android will now accept your complete contact list!
Your welcome! Now if your in LA  buy me a chocolate
puddinf cake and a Coke. My name is Paul.

After going through some useless posts all over the internet, I came across one app in BB App World - Quick Contact Transfer. This works great. You may need to shell out few rupees to buy it though.

I had same issues with this transfer also. I had problems on transferring my notes to the Android platform. I have literally hundreds of notes and a lot of task items. I could not figure out how to transfer them.
Then I found this little app that makes it much easier. It uses my blackberry backup file to transfer even my sms texts from the blackberry to android.
Oh! The name of the app 2can look it up on Google Play.
Sweet.

You can't even bother to provide a link?

I had a B9700, too. And i know many apps don't support b9700 bold. But i found one called NetQin Contacts Sync, and it did a wonderful job!
It did just what it advertised to do, done the task in seconds. NetQin Sync is available for blackberries, android phones and iphones, so moving contacts from one of the three to another is no problem for NetQin. And, it is completely free!
you can check out the procedures here:
http://be-tasty-azur.blogspot.tw/2012/11/how-to-move-contacts-to-android-iphone.html


text:
Multiple SMS Threads
I have been having a problem with the default SMS client recently and haven't found a solution yet. The problem is that when I am texting with certain friends, there will be two threads going: one thread for texts I receive from them, and one thread for texts I send. The problem has always occurred when I first text someone but it is the wrong number (I type the wrong area code by mistake). The person obviously does not receive the text, but when I change the contact's number and text to the correct phone I get all of their replies from the number I originally typed in, which causes two threads for the same person.
I was hoping that somebody might be able to provide an answer for essentially merging the two threads. I have a Samsung Galaxy Slide and it runs on Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread). Thanks in advance for your responses!

Have an entry in 'Contacts' for each one of your friends (Contact -> Add new contact, then enter their number and details) and then enter SMS chat with them any time by entering into their respective 'Contacts' profile and clicking on the 'Send Message' icon to begin SMS chat.
Or just use an Chatting app like WhatsApp which has native support for all modern mobile OS's (Android, Blackberry, iOS..) so you could avoid retyping the same number again and again.
Or just stop mistyping those area codes.

I would love to stop mistyping those area codes, but what's done is done. I have my friends in my contacts, the problem is that the first number I had typed in their profile was wrong; now their replies always end up in the thread that contains the original number I typed. Is there a way to fix this issue?

have you tried deleting both threads ?

Yes, I tried it once. The problem still occurs when they text me back.

Well, I did a little research and found it to be a bug in the default sms app, without any solution.
However I may have found a something that may or may not work, try http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1227352


text:
How do I find out if an app can be moved to the SD card before I install it?
Is there a way I can do this?  Too many times I install an app, only to uninstall it, because it can't be moved to SD.

Sometimes the developer writes if its supported in the app description.

Some related discussion: How to find only SD card movable applications on the market?

if your phone is rooted you can use link2sd :
play store link
Home page
but you'll have to partition your SD card first using mini tool partition wizard
and here's the Tutorial on how to partition your SD card
This Can move immovable and -of course- movable apps more efficiently than app2sd and saves more space because normal moving moves a small part of the app to SD card ,while Link2SD moves a big part of the app(but not all of it(user experience))
If your phone is not rooted:
1.Market apps : you can't know because market downloads apps and installs them instantly.
2.apps which you have their APK you may find out by looking in the manifest.xml file inside the APK in android:installLocation="auto" as @Rafael said.

If you have the APK file you can open it (e.g. by apktool) and in its AndroidManifest.xml file, there should be a string, something like android:installLocation="auto". If you cannot find that string, then that app can only be installed in internal storage of the device.


text:
Is there a weather app that can be moved to an SD card, with a separate widget program?
In know some apps offer separate widget apps so you can move the main app to the SD card.  Is there any weather apps designed like this?  I haven't been able to find one, so does anyone know if one exists?

You can move any of them to SD card... only their Widgets wouldn't work.

@SachinShekhar Edited the question to take that into account.

@SachinShekhar Are you sure 'bout that? I know that I can on my CM device, but I have that s2e app installed which allows me to. Can you store any app to your SD card by default?

@Steven For "by Default" thing, there's a glitch... the question is asking different thing.

@Steven And, that statement was for weather apps.. There are other things than widgets which can screw things up..

Separate widget app may be available in case when wigdet covers only a small subset of the main application functionality. However, for the weather app and weather app widget the main difference is the screen representation, the processing routines are almost the same. I'm sorry to say, but it's very unlikely to find the weather application with the separate widget.
Moreover, with the Froyo/Eclair moving into the obsolescence quite steady and newer version of Android having "unlimited" app storage in the range of 8-16GB, it's very unlikely the new developers will ever be inclined to make that kind of widget app.

What do you mean by unlimited app storage?  You can only store as much as you have room for, unless you don't have to store the app on your phone.

by "unlimited app storage" I meant "any contemporary android device comes equipped with 8-16GB of internal storage, where you may store your programs, which renders completely unnecessary moving content to SD or vice versa"


text:
Do regular Bluetooth keyboards work with Mororola Droid X running Android 2.3?
I remember reading couple of years ago that most (or even all) normal Bluetooth keyboards would not work with Mororola Droid X running Android 2.2. (surprisingly this didn't seem to be covered on Android SE)
Does anyone know whether the situation has improved since then by introducing Android 2.3 stock ROM, or better/more capable Bluetooth Keyboards? Or was the problem with Droid X hardware and thus unfixable?

Download BlueKeyboard JP from the Play Store. This makes it a lot easier to set up a bluetooth keyboard.
Here is how to set it up:

Install the app.
Then go to Settings > Language & Keyboard.
Check BlueKeyboard JP and go into its settings, and then into bluetooth settings.
Enable Bluetooth and scan for devices. Make sure your bluetooth keyboard is on also.
If you see it in the devices list, click it and then it'll ask you to enter a PIN. Just type 4 numbers (0000 or 1234 for example) and press OK.
Once you do that, on your bluetooth keyboard, type the same number sequence and press Enter and it should say your keyboard is "Paired, but not connected" on your Droid.
Go back and disable Auto Capitalization, select your keyboard in the Selected Keyboard tab and you should be good to go. To try it out effectively, disable your Android keyboard (or select the Bluekeyboard JP keyboard in the Input Method tab) and go into any app and select a text field and it should say that the keyboard is trying to connect in your notification bar. Once it does, try typing and it should work!

The Google Play page has some reviews from Droid X users saying it works just fine for them. That said, a lot of reviewers (on various devices) complain of unreliability.

How is this an answer for whether DrodiX problems with BT keyboard were resolved in 2.3 stock ROM vs. are they hardware limitations? In the second case the program won't help at all

@DVK I've added more info to Conn's answer.


text:
What's the difference between "cdma_shadow" and "shadow" builds in CyanogenMod 7.2

In 2011, Motorola Droid X was somewhat supported by CyanogenMod 7.1+, and was known under "cdma_shadow" tag: http://download.cyanogenmod.com/?device=cdma_shadow&type=nightly
It had - and still has - only 2 official nightlies builds (the latest from 2011-11-16) and no RCs or stable releases.
Now, I just found another tag ("shadow"): http://download.cyanogenmod.com/?device=shadow&type=nightly
It has 4 nightly builds (last one 2012-06-17), all 3 RC builds and a stable build.
However, that other "shadow" build looks suspiciously wrong to me:

Clicking on "Motorola Droid X" from CM device page links to "cdma_shadow" (the one with 2 2011 nightlies and no stable releases).
To the best of my knowledge, CM7.2 never worked well on Droid X.
The tag lacks "cdma" prefix.

Q1: What is the "shadow" tag? Is it a new name for Motorola Droid X for CM7.2? Is it non-CDMA version of Droid X? A cdma_shadow port without working CDMA radios?
Q2: How well does this "shadow" stable build support Verizon's Motorola Droid X?

A little extra info: I just downloaded the actual "shadow" stable ROM, and "build.prop" file has this:

ro.build.fingerprint=verizon/shadow_vzw/cdma_shadow/shadow:2.2.1/VZW/23.340:user/ota-rel-keys,release-keys
  ro.product.model=DROIDX
  ro.product.brand=verizon
  ro.product.name=shadow_vzw
  ro.product.device=cdma_shadow
  ro.product.board=shadow

... abd further down ...

# Default network type.
  # 4 => CDMA / EVDO.
  ro.telephony.default_network=4
  ro.com.google.clientid=android-motorola
  ro.cdma.home.operator.numeric=310004
  ro.cdma.home.operator.alpha=Verizon

As a note, I searched a bunch of forums, and only got not-very-official-looking advice, ranging from "shadow is the new cdma_shadow" to "cm7.2 doesn't work on DX unless you use unofficial builds + separate camera fix"

EDITED
Found the official source where can be read that the Motorola Droid X build was renamed to shadow:

Also worthy of note: the new release files have a slightly modified naming-scheme, including the codename instead of the commercial/common name in the filename. So the following is a handy “translation chart” to make sure you don’t mis-identify your device...
...
shadow -  Motorola Droid X
...

Original Answer
At cyanogenmod downloads, the build identified by cdma_shadow stopped at cm_shadow_full-154.zip (the available links are broken).
When they were resumed, they've been renamed to shadow, being shadow the codename for the Droid X.

Droid X formerly known as Droid Xtreme, has the development codename "Shadow".
CDMA Stands for: Code Division Multiple Access. It is the general system used for 3G services.

Related information:

CDMA Technology - CDMA is a wireless technology standard used by Verizon Wireless in all of its phones, and by certain other carriers in the countries listed at this link.

Trying further to justify this answer:
Here's the metadata found at /META-INF/com/android/metadata for the cm-7-20120624-NIGHTLY-shadow.zip where can be seen the reference to the cdma_shadow:
post-build=verizon/shadow_vzw/cdma_shadow/shadow:2.2.1/VZW/23.340:user/ota-rel-keys,release-keys
post-timestamp=1289194863
pre-device=cdma_shadow

And yet the information presented on the menu hover effect:

Besides from this, the cyanogenmod documentation, forums and wiki pages reveal no better insight and are mentioned to be outdated. This seams to be the best official justification for the build rename.

Yeah there's 4G/LTE (currently rolled out in some parts - Scandinavia I believe, there's ongoing dispute on this in the UK and Ireland with proprosal to roll out in the EU but licensing of spectrum issues, currently actively used in USA), GSM is Europe-centric, CDMA.. am not 100% sure which area of globe that is, Asia? IIRC, anyone would know for matter of interest. The reason I pointed this out, asian companies - Samsung/HTC is notorious for bringing out variants of the handsets to match the market, even source is slighly different between GSM, CDMA... :)

Is there a source for your claim that "they [the builds] have been renamed to shadow"? That is my suspicion, but some sort of confirmation is what I was looking for. I now perfectly well what CDMA and shadow mean, but having similar build names a proof does not make.

It is not a question of having similar build names, if you place your mouse over the "shadow" link, it appears "Motorola Droid X"! And that's on the official CyanogenMod Downloads page. Sorry, but besides this "official" information, their documentation, forums and wiki pages don't give much enlightenment to the subject and appear to be outdated.

Took me awhile to find it, but just edited the answer with the official source (change log for the
CyanogenMod-7.2.0-RC1), hope it helps.

@Zuul - YAY! The first link is exactly what I was looking for! +1 and accept!

'Shadow' refers to the base model of the phone, cdma_shadow being the Droid X on Verizon, and the regular shadow is likely the Milestone X, a GSM phone released overseas.
While the software is mostly the same, there is likely some difference in the hardware, almost certainly the phone's radio, and sounds like the camera as well, according to what you've been told.
It's not uncommon for the different phone+network combinations to have different codenames, another examble would be the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, with Verizon's LTE version called "toro", and the later Sprint version called "toroplus"

Then how do the "build.prop" references to cdma are explained?

@DVK Good question, but that's not the only anomaly. The build fingerprint shows 2.2

@RichardBorcsik - I am guessing you consider it an anomaly because 7.2 is supposed to be Gingerbread (2.3) based?

@DVk Yep, that and because it shows the device name, not a Nexus as it is on all other CM roms. i.e: my ZTE Blade running CM9 has the fingerprint of gGlaxy Nexus


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