text:
What does it mean the "WIFI" label on the market?

Possible Duplicate:
Wi-Fi icon next to apps in android market

I've noticed that a few items on "My applications" on the Android Market client have a gray "WIFI" label on them. What does that mean?

For example: Flight control, Frontline commando

Usually means it's a large file and requires you to be connected to WiFi to download.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/mnfwa/what_does_the_wifi_label_mean_for_apps_on_the/

You need WiFi to download the app. It could be that the app size is "LARGE", and a download via carrier network is not recommended.


text:
Samsung Galaxy S heat up a lot, getting restarted and slow start up time
I'm using Samsung galaxy S with O.S. 2.3.3. I'm having the following problems.
It is getting heated up a lot. Because of this the battery is drained so faster.
That too when it is getting charged if I place butter it melts down.
It is also getting restarted whenever there is an exception in the app.
I'm having a lot of applications so the start up time is very slow around 3 - 8 minutes to load.

Are you running a custom ROM?

Seems like you have a battery drainer App which also heats up the CPU by holding a wakelock and using the CPU the whole time. You need to identify and remove that App.
The Galaxy S has a pretty nice App called "program manager", also using Androids built-in "what caused the most battery consumption" feature should help you to find this App.

You said you have a lot of apps. Are a lot of them running in the background? If so, they could be the cause of your issues. It could be also possible that you have a virus, or you have an anti-virus (which could be eating up a lot of CPU processes).

I have the same problem and found that the problem is the memory card. If I remove the memory card, the phone is good — battery back up and run with out heating up.

The SDCard alone wouldn't be that much of an hassle, perhaps an app that uses the memory card when is available? Have you checked the running processes to confirm that nothing is using the memory card when it is available?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to identify the latest version of brut map
I use Brut maps as:

This map is for the country that cant use navigation on google map. It has been hacked and can be used by any country now.

I am currently using version 6.0.3 from here.
Do you know if there is a place to find out about the latest release? I'm not sure if the version I'm using is the latest one.

It looks like the author tries to keep the version of his app in sync with the version of the actual Google Maps app.  As of this writing, the official Google Maps app is version 6.1.0 which was released on January 10th 2012.  It usually takes the developer several days to adapt the changes.  The thread you linked seems to be active, so the newest version will most likely be posted there when it's ready.

Well I was searching for a better way if it existed. Looks like there isn't. I'll wait for few more days before accepting this answer :)

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


text:
Looking for application that captures name-card and sync with google contact?
I'm looking for an Android application that captures picture of name-card and can help to sync with Google contact the contact information in that captured image.
If you know one, please share.
ps.
I'm using Nexus One phone.

You could give CamCard a try.

CamCard is a professional business card reader and business card
  scanner. Simply take a picture of a business card, CamCard recognizes
  the business card and saves contact information in Card Holder or your
  Address Book. Then feel at ease to manage cards with CamCard -
  business card reader and business card scanner.

Of course, you can always sync Google contacts.

Google Goggles had this feature enabled last year.


text:
Charging the Asus Transformer (Prime)
Can you charge the Asus Transformer (or the newer Prime) without the keyboard dock?
Since the tablet itself does not have any USB ports, I don't see how you could charge the tablet without the dock or a very clunky proprietary charging cable. However, It seems insane to manufacture and market a high-end tablet that can't charge without a giant peripheral (and sell/price the thing independently too).
Am I missing something? Or, is Asus just insane?

I haven't really been in the tablet world at all, my android experience has been exclusively as a smartphone developer/user. I didn't realize (or even suspect) that the android tabled manufacturers had gone the proprietary route for their connections. I expected that from Apple, but I didn't expect the android tablets to eschew micro-USB or standerd USB. I have one kind of cable for all my other devices (save laptop), and I feel inclined to pass on any device that wants me to carry another cable.

The reason that this is common with tablets is the higher-capacity batteries necessary for a tablet would take an extremely long time to charge with a 5V, 500ma USB-standard connection.   By using a proprietary connector, the manufacturer can spec a higher-capacity charging system.   In the case of the Transformer and Transformer Prime, the connector also supports the keyboard dock and a few other accessories.

It comes with an AC adapter and a charging/data cable which can plug directly into the tablet, though it does still use their proprietary cable connection since it plugs into the same connector that the keyboard dock uses (the other end is male USB).
Using proprietary charging cables is not unheard of - Samsung and Apple have done this; I don't personally like it when companies use proprietary cables, but in this case it's mostly because the charging/data port doubles as the dock connector.
Here's an image from Engadget's unboxing/review of the Prime. The AC adapter is at the bottom.

As others have pointed out, the Transformer does require a proprietary cable for charging. There are a couple of drawbacks to this.

The supplied cable is not very long. My Nexus S phone came with a really long micro-USB cable and it's great, because I can plug the phone in and put it up on a high shelf out of reach of the kids (who know not to touch the wires).
The cable is a proprietary plug on one end, and standard USB device plug on the other end. But don't be fooled: it won't charge from the PC. The Asus adapter (which is AC-USB power) detects the transformer and negotiates a higher current/voltage. The Transformer won't charge in a standard USB plug. You can, however, use the Asus adapter to charge normal USB devices without problems.

I am not sure why Asus went with a proprietary cable for charging. I suspect it's because that port is meant to be a multipurpose port for the dock, charging, and accessories, and that using a proprietary port makes all that much easier. However there aren't really any accessories for it and anyway they could have included a micro-usb port along with the dock/accessory port.
In any case, you would still need the wall plug adapter because of the higher power requirements for charging this device.

The Transformer Prime will charge from a standard USB connection, albeit slowly, if the screen is off.   I've never waited long enough to see whether it will make it to 100%, but I've been able to raise mine from 20% to 40% by connecting it to my computer's USB port.

I think the proprietary charger is needed because of the higher voltages required by the dual-battery design.  I guess you could use the regular usb connector, but it might annoy people when a regular cable did not work because it does not provide the right voltages.  Using the odd connector ensures that the correct charger gets used.

From what I can see, the transformer charger works much simpeler. If you look closely into the USB connections, you can see an extra set of five pins. At the charger USB socket, a pair of these pins supplies +15V to the tablet. References on the net state that is OK to connect a +12V source to the USB power pins.

Most of these answers are correct as far as they go.

You CAN charge the ASUS Transformer without the base using any standard USB source (computer, plug, etc) with the proprietary cable.  The Transformer needs to be off or at least have the screen blank in order for this to work, and with less than 10 volts it will NOT indicate that it is charging...but it is, albeit very slowly.
The included wall charger uses pin 3 of the USB to determine if it is connected to an ASUS transformer or another device.  It supplies 15 volts if connected to the Transformer or base, and 5 volts to any other device so it can be safely used to charge a phone or other device.
Many people have successfully charged their transformer with a direct connection to a 12-volt source like a car battery.  The positive terminal needs to go to USB pin 1 (red wire) and the negative to the ground at pin 4. BE AWARE THAT WHILE THIS WORKS, IT MAY VOID YOUR WARRANTY. Such a charging setup CANNOT BE USED FOR PHONES OR OTHER DEVICES!

Thanks for the answer. Some of this sounds dangerous, however. Can you cite a credible source, please (e.g., XDA developers)?

I've tried several third party "generic" 2.1A chargers (AC and DC) with the proprietary ASUS supplied cable and all of the chargers DO NOT work with the ASUS TF300T tablet. As stated above, you need both the proprietary cable AND proprietary charger to charge. Very disappointing.
With the big push to the micro-USB standard for all cell phones to be more green (don't have to throw out the cables/chargers with each new phone anymore), it's irritating to find a tablet that doesn't do the same. Now, you have to the proprietary charger/cable around and it wont charge with the 2.1A car chargers.
Perhaps there is a technical reason and not just wanting more money from customers to buy the ASUS charger.


text:
How to add Chinese Input Method to English Android 2.2 Phone
I have an HTC Legend with Android 2.2. I can switch between the standard input method (on-screen qwerty) and Graffiti by a long press in an input field.
I would like to be able to type chinese characters (for a dictionary app etc) without using pinyin. For example using wubi, ckc or some similar method.
Is it possible to add a new input method of this sort or to enable it if already built-in?

There are a lot of alternative keyboards available on the playstore, which register as separate IMEs. One example I found is LIME HD Chinese IME1, another one Cantonese keyboard2:

There are several more available (the developer of the second keyboard offers some other variants as well), many are linked on these apps' playstore pages.


text:
Which kernel versions does the udev exploit work?
Which kernel versions does the udev exploit work? Upon googling this, I found articles claiming that it works on Android 2.1 and maybe 2.2, but there is no information about the kernel versions.

We can't help you find the kernel, as it would be considered a shopping recommendation -- this may be helpful with that however.

I am just trying to do some research, for which I need the kernel version. I don't want to buy a device. I am not going to shop for anything.

Whether you pay money is irrelevant -- searching for something to acquire (the kernel) is shopping by SE's standards.  We can help you figure out when the exploit was patched / the versions where it is unpatched, but actually finding somewhere to get the kernel is off-topic.  See the [FAQ].

Fine, can you tell me the  kernel version.

I'm actually not sure that the kernel version matters for this exploit. It was a bug that was patched in the platform_system_core repository, which I think comprises libraries and system files that live on in the /system directory (the README says as much). The patch was committed on July 19, 2010 (in the Froyo branch, anyway).
I'd wager that any kernel with a build date later than that also has the updated system files, so the system wouldn't be vulnerable. uname -a would tell you the build date of a given device's kernel, but beyond that I don't know that you could really line it up with a specific kernel version, especially on devices from different manufacturers/carriers/etc.

The patch should be helpful. Now I'll just unpatch that patch on the kernel that test the exploit. That should work right?

@EknathIyer: Sure, if you reversed the diff the code would be exploitable again, I would assume.


text:
Can I set the minimum brightness of auto-brightness?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100 and I'm getting frustrated with how dark the screen goes. I do find value in using auto brightness but is it possible to limit the minimum or lowest point that the brightness will go? Is there an app that does it better, and I should just turn off the default auto brightness? I would prefer a solution in which I modify a config file though, over installing an app.
A calibrate option would work too, as the issue is worse when in a dim light situation. It seems to bottom out the brightness as if it's a pitch black room, when in fact the ambient light is quite a bit brighter.
Update: I thought maybe my Otterbox case might be interfering, but after some basic tests it doesn't seem to be the case.

Reading this again I noticed a truly unintended pun. I wish I could +1 my own question.

Sorry that I don't have an answer for you....but I did want to add that I have the same complaint. The automatic brightness of the screen is too dark for me as well and I wish there was some customizable range (min to max) like the volume range setting on the iPod that could be used for the automatic brightness setting on the Samsung galaxy S2/Epic 4G. If anyone finds a fix, please Please share -- Thanks a bunch!

It looks like this can be done on just about any device with the caveat that your device needs to be rooted and you need to be willing to poke around in your system's framework-res.apk file. These instructions come from a post on XDA with a modification intended to lower the brightness, but scaling in the opposite direction would make it brighter:

Here is a guide on how to perform this mod on any framework-res.apk using apk manager (thanks for the guide goes to desean):

Download APK manager and unpack somewhere
Grab framework-res.apk from your phone under \system\framework\ (e.g. adb pull) and place it in the "place-apk-here-for-modding"
  folder
Run Script.bat and select option 9
Once done, go to projects\framework-res.apk\res\values\arrays.xml and edit your values as per first post.
Once edited, compile the apk using option 11
Qn: Is this a system apk. Ans: y
Qn: Aside from the signatures, would .... least. Ans: y
Prompt: In the apk manager folder u'll find a keep folder..... done then press enter on this script. Press any key to continue . . . You
  have to go to "keep" folder and delete resources.arsc because
  arrays.xml have been changed. After this You can press any key in apk
  manager window.
Once done, input 22 in apk manager and select "unsignedframework-res.apk" by entering the number that stands for it.
  After selecting it You should see in apk main window in the top right
  corner "Current-App: unsignedframework-res.apk". Now press 5 to
  zipalign apk. You will find your completed, zipaligned apk under
  place-apk-here-for-modding\unsignedframework-res.apk. Rename it back
  to framework-res.apk and adb push the file back to your phone

The arrays.xml file should have a section like the below if your device supports auto-brightness:
<integer-array name="config_autoBrightnessLcdBacklightValues">
    <item>32</item>
    <item>69</item>
    <item>118</item>
    <item>177</item>
    <item>255</item>
</integer-array>

Basically, the values are ordered based on detected light from the sensor, with the top value being "lowest light" and the bottom value being "highest light". The values correspond to LCD brightness on a scale from 1 to 255, with 255 being full brightness. You could therefore scale up all of the low light values to be brighter if you wanted.

You can dim down the brightness lower than factory limit by alternative way.
No root need for this way.
Just install "screen filter" apps, such as blue light or other in google.

Note that they do not affect the brightness of the screen. The screen lit to whatever extent it can per the brightness setting but since the screen filter app uses an overlay, the screen is perceived to be dim.


text:
Will upgrading my Unlocked, Rooted (fastboot + superboot method) Galaxy Nexus from 4.0.1 to 4.0.2 brick the phone?
I can re-root if necessary, but we just paid $700 for the phone, and I don't want to brick it.
From what I can tell, upgrading will cause me to have to re-root and unlock the boot loader, which I can do again using the instructions I orignally used to root 4.0.1 (These Instructions)
Will this upgrade brick my phone?

Do you have a reason to believe it might?  Is there a reason you don't just flash the original firmware and re-lock the bootloader?

Well, I know people that upgraded iOS and it broke their jailbreaks, and many reports online of bricked phones when trying to upgrade the OS on a jailbroken/rooted phone...nothing Android specific that I've seen really, especially for 4.0.2 since it's so new, but boss would not be happy if I bricked our brand-new phone.

Well I want the bootloader unlocked, but I just did the upgrade. Lost root, but don't see why I can't just re-root it. I don't know how to re-flash the original firmware, I'm new to Android (we got the phone for the NFC capability, as we are developing an NFC application for use with Android and in the future, the iPhone.).    Thanks for the replies! :)

Well, doing the OTA update to 4.0.2 from 4.0.1 did not brick anything. Superuser is still installed and apps that require root supposedly have root permissions, but they claim they do not.
I will attempt to re-root it, as I don't see why that will be an issue.
Thanks.

You can unlock the bootloader before re-rooting your phone, but the phone will wipe (this is unavoidable!), so back up first...and COPY YOUR BACKUPS OFF THE PHONE


text:
How can I switch the weather layout in Beautiful Widgets from clock/current conditions mode to forecast mode?
I am trying to setup a lock-screen widget set to suit my liking.  I have the top of the screen covered exactly how I want it with the current weather, clock, and battery meter provided by SiMi widgets, shown below.
The bar underneath it is Beautiful Widgets Small Weather.  In many screenshots (including the second one shown, below) I see Beautiful Widgets set in forecast mode, where it shows only the forecast for the next few days rather than a clock and current weather.
For the life of me, I can't figure out how to cause the widget to go into this mode, and I'm hoping others here might know the answer.
This is what I have now:

This is what I'd like the weather line (below my dark conditions/clock/battery) to look like:

Beautiful Widgets installs a bunch of individual widgets that can be used. The one with the clock and weather is the "SuperClock" (or "Beautiful Home", maybe) widget. It sounds like you just need to select "Beautiful Weather 4x1" when picking a widget (unless the lock screen widget thingy doesn't give that choice - is that the case?).

Yes, you are exactly right!  I figured this out myself but a moment ago and came to answer my own question.  You'll get accepted answer as soon as it lets me do so :)  Thanks!


text:
How do I change the default search app in MIUI?
I'm running MIUI 11.20.90 on my HTC Incredible. I recently updated the Google Search app via the Android Market and now the default search app has changed from Google Search to MIUI's built-in Sidekick search app. To be clear, this is only when single-pressing the hw search button; long-pressing the search button brings up Voice Search (as desired) and the default setting for that action is still configurable. I really prefer Google over Sidekick and would like to change it back.
I tried resetting the default search app but can't - under the Google Search app's properties "Launch by Default" says "No defaults set" and the "clear defaults" button is grayed out. I can't find the Sidekick app in the applications list.
I also tried to uninstall/reinstall Google Search but the market only allows me to revert from the update with the message "Do you want to uninstall all updates to this Android system app?" When trying to uninstall Google Search in the OS I get the error "Unable to remove system application."
I think it's silly to have the Google Search bar/widget taking up homescreen real estate when I have a dedicated hw search button, so I'd really like to find a way to get the default corrected.

This in terminal app and restart afterwards did the job for me:
su
mount -o rw,remount /system
cp /data/app/com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox-1.apk /system/app/QuickSearchBox.apk

Found the answer here.

This was easy and exactly what I needed. Thanks so much!

I have couple of additions to the solution dhill provided here. After opening terminal, we need open shell on device with command adb shell. For replacing builtin search, we must replace folder with command cp -r source destination. So, the complete script is:

adb shell
mount -o rw,remount /system
cp -r /data/app/com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox-1 /system/app/QuickSearchBox
reboot

Unfortunately, after system update I must repeat those commands.

There is a problem here. Unless adb deamon is already running in root mode on the device, all of your commands after adb shell would and should fail because  the second and fourth command requires root access, which you've not provided anywhere.


text:
How can I find out which app is putting ads in my notification bar?

Possible Duplicate:
Is this red star icon malware? How to get rid of it?

Recently advertisements have started appearing as notifications in my phone's notification bar. The icon on the ad are either a green plus sign or a white star with a red circle inside it. There is no indication in the notification as to which app it came from.
I haven't installed any new applications, so I assume that some application updated to include this intrusive new ad system. Ads only show up at irregular intervals once every few hours, so removing all my apps one by one until the ads stop is not really a viable option, since I would have to wait several hours in between each uninstall to see if another ad appears. (I'm sure this is by design.)
So is there any way to figure out the source application of these notification ads?
My phone is a rooted/unlocked/whatever HTC Droid Incredible running MIUI.

Possible duplicate of several previous questions.

None of those showed up in the "Questions with similar titles" when I asked this. Sigh. Thanks for the links.

One way is to find by log.
If you have android sdk installed,
run

adb shell dumpsys notification

The output will have details about all the notifications. Using Package name you can get the app that has been pushing ads

You might want to post this answer here instead, since this question has been marked as a duplicate.


text:
Get iPhone contacts into Gmail
I have an Android phone and imported all my contacts from Gmail. Most of my old contacts weren't in Gmail, but on the iPhone 3GS.  Now getting the iPhone contacts into Gmail is proving to be a huge pain, there is a ton of information about this on the web but a lot of it must be outdated and none of the methods have worked for me yet.
How can I get contacts of iOS 5 iphone 3GS, and into Gmail so that they can be visible on my new Android phone (Galaxy Nexus)?
I've been trying for 4 hours and it's very frustrating.

Load the IDrive app on your iphone and your android. Contacts transfered within seconds. Then sync with gmail.

Thank you thank you thank you!   It worked easily, and I didn't even need to open the dreaded iTunes (worst piece of software ever written???)

I use SyncInABlink. http://www.syncinablink.com/SyncInABlink.aspx
It costs $5 but it's worth it if you don't want to use more time.


text:
Android - “SIM card doesn't allow a connection to this network” ERROR
I have a problem with my Xperia X10 (U20i). I purchased it new. It worked fine for a week or so, then I switched to another network operator. When I try to connect automatically it says "Registered on network" but there is no signal. I changed 3 sim cards so far. Still the same. When I put the sim card in another phone that also works, the other phone manages to find the signal. I put back the sim card in my Xperia, it works fine until for some reason I have no signal and the circle continues. I love my phone, I want it to work, with this provider.
I am very annoyed. The network provider doesn't know what could it be, they blame the phone. But the phone works with other providers with no problem so I assume it is something else.
I did a factory settings restore, I checked for updates.
I want to fix it, this issue drives me crazy and I don't want to let it go, I want to FIX it.

Are you sure the phone supports the network & frequencies that your new provider uses in your area?

If you've done a factory reset and you're having the same issue with several SIM cards, odds are overwhelmingly in favor of this being a hardware issue. If you have warranty left, turn it in. If not, this is probably not easily fixed.

I think I am answering little late, but I feel my pointers might solve the issue. But still not sure.

Please check in what mode you are ? I mean are you in WCDMA only, GSM only or GSM / WCDMA preferred mode ? The best for both 3G and 2G could be GSM / WCDMA preferred mode which can switch the signal based on the 2G or 3G network. So try to change to other modes also(GSM only(For 2G only signals) or WCDMA only(For 3G only signals)).

If still no help then follow the next step.

Backup all your data to SDCard or PC and try Factory data reset. Don't do the Settings reset. Because it will do a reset of other things(Like display, Volume, etc). Factory data reset option do a reset of all the things in your phone. So make sure that all the data in your phone(Contacts, Call Log, SMS, MMS, Market Applications, etc) backed up properly.

If still no help take the phone to a nearest Sony Ericsson Customer Care center.

It might be a good idea to erase all cache, etc too

@NeelMehta - Factory data reset does it. So no need to explicitly delete the cache.

Have you tried manually choosing a network in Network & Wireless, or manually setting the APNs for your new carrier?
Also, is the phone unlocked?  If it locked to another carrier, you won't be able to use it on your current carrier until it's unlocked.

yes i have tried so many times, but still disconnecting that network.

A locked phone should stop you and prompt you for the Network Unlock key. Since you don't get that prompt, either one of two things is happening:

Phone is permanently locked (incorrect network unlock key entered too many times)
Phone is unlocked

Do you have a third provider you can test, or borrow a SIM card for?
The phone doesn't say "SIM not recognized"/"Please insert a SIM card" so my guess is frequencies. What GSM frequencies are used for the new provider?
I had a phone (Euro-version OpenMoko FreeRunner) that didn't do one of the frequencies used for GSM in the US - it would work on 1900MHz but not 850MHz - which meant that I would not have signal when many other AT&T users would.


text:
What to check when buying a used device
I'm thinking about buying a used Android device and I want to know what should I check on the device before I buy it?
Is there an app or something that does some sort of testing on the phone?
Are there any problematic parts that I should check?

Like what? I assume you'd do a factory reset, so really all you need to check is that all the hardware works. Make sure the screen looks good, try all the buttons, and take a shot with the camera.

Well, I hoped that there might be an app out there that can do that testing for me...

Don't forget to check for water damage.

Every phone that is sold by a reputable retailer
  (T-Mobile, Cingular, Verizon, Sprint, etc.) should contain a tiny
  indicator that clearly shows if water has attacked your phone. This
  little item is typically called the liquid damage indicator, or LDI
  for short. In almost every case, a red or pink indicator means that
  there is water damage. A white indicator means that there is no water
  damage.

Here is the detail.

You also might want to check with Voodoo CarrierIQ detector if this device is clean. Besides, I also bought a used one and when you manage to reset it you should be fine. Type *2767*3855# for this if the password is no longer available. If your password for resetting is still available (e.g. if the previous owner knows it) there is no need for this combination obviously.

I didn't understand why I should type 27673855# what will this do?

It is possible to remove the CarrierIQ if rooted...

@kfir It's one of the Android Hidden Codes, which you can use to check if your phones features work corectly https://www.xda-developers.com/codes-hidden-android/

The other answers cover some device specific things to check for, or fixable software issues. I'd take a different approach - check the hardware basics (screen, audio, buttons) and equally important - get on the phone with your carrier before buying to make sure the device can be activated - not blacklisted as lost/stolen, for instance.

Some Samsung Galaxy S2 units that have outdated firmwares may have yellow tints on the LCD. This is not a sign for alarm; just upgrade the firmware and everything will be fine. In case the yellow tint is still there after a firmware upgrade, consult with Samsung Service Center to have it checked or replaced. (Yellow tint: Samsung Galaxy S2 - Screen Problems)
Pink camera spots were an issue too, but seems to have been fixed by firmware upgrades. Again, check with Samsung if it cannot be fixed by firmware upgrade.
I guess the only thing you need to check is if the basics works - camera, radio, 3g, wifi, sms, bluetooth, etc. (Camera spot: Samsung Galaxy S2 Camera Pink Spot Problem)


text:
Android-adapted BusyBox binary for rooted phone
I would like to place a place BusyBox on my rooted Android phone, and I would like to have a version that has "sh" as an alias for "ash" so that I can replace the standard /system/bin/sh with a symlink to busybox. Also, I'd be nice to have it always read in /system/etc/profile.
Of course, I could just compile BusyBox myself, but I feel there should be a "default" BusyBox binary for Android that does all that. Is there?

There is busybox installer program in Market. Also good rooting programs may install busybox themselves.
You can install it manually into /system/xdev/ (with necessary symbolic links)
Here is one I have:
/system/xbin # md5sum busybox
26d429e0541c42684225a880dc331053  busybox
/system/xbin # ./busybox
BusyBox v1.19.0 (2011-08-14 23:46:58 CDT) multi-call binary.
Copyright (C) 1998-2011 Erik Andersen, Rob Landley, Denys Vlasenko
and others. Licensed under GPLv2.
See source distribution for full notice.

Usage: busybox [function] [arguments]...
   or: busybox --list[-full]
   or: function [arguments]...

    BusyBox is a multi-call binary that combines many common Unix
    utilities into a single executable.  Most people will create a
    link to busybox for each function they wish to use and BusyBox
    will act like whatever it was invoked as.

Currently defined functions:
    [, [[, acpid, add-shell, addgroup, adduser, adjtimex, arp, arping, ash, awk, base64, basename, beep, blkid,
    blockdev, bootchartd, brctl, bunzip2, bzcat, bzip2, cal, cat, catv, chat, chattr, chgrp, chmod, chown, chpasswd,
    chpst, chroot, chrt, chvt, cksum, clear, cmp, comm, cp, cpio, crond, crontab, cryptpw, cttyhack, cut, date, dc, dd,
    deallocvt, delgroup, deluser, depmod, devmem, df, dhcprelay, diff, dirname, dmesg, dnsd, dnsdomainname, dos2unix,
    du, dumpkmap, dumpleases, echo, ed, egrep, eject, env, envdir, envuidgid, ether-wake, expand, expr, fakeidentd,
    false, fbset, fbsplash, fdflush, fdformat, fdisk, fgconsole, fgrep, find, findfs, flock, fold, free, freeramdisk,
    fsck, fsck.minix, fsync, ftpd, ftpget, ftpput, fuser, getopt, getty, grep, groups, gunzip, gzip, halt, hd, hdparm,
    head, hexdump, hostid, hostname, httpd, hush, hwclock, id, ifconfig, ifdown, ifenslave, ifplugd, ifup, inetd, init,
    insmod, install, ionice, iostat, ip, ipaddr, ipcalc, ipcrm, ipcs, iplink, iproute, iprule, iptunnel, kbd_mode, kill,
    killall, killall5, klogd, last, less, linux32, linux64, linuxrc, ln, loadfont, loadkmap, logger, login, logname,
    logread, losetup, lpd, lpq, lpr, ls, lsattr, lsmod, lspci, lsusb, lzcat, lzma, lzop, lzopcat, makedevs, makemime,
    man, md5sum, mdev, mesg, microcom, mkdir, mkdosfs, mke2fs, mkfifo, mkfs.ext2, mkfs.minix, mkfs.vfat, mknod,
    mkpasswd, mkswap, mktemp, modinfo, modprobe, more, mount, mountpoint, mpstat, mt, mv, nameif, nbd-client, nc,
    netstat, nice, nmeter, nohup, nslookup, ntpd, od, openvt, passwd, patch, pgrep, pidof, ping, ping6, pipe_progress,
    pivot_root, pkill, pmap, popmaildir, poweroff, powertop, printenv, printf, ps, pscan, pstree, pwd, pwdx,
    raidautorun, rdate, rdev, readahead, readlink, readprofile, realpath, reboot, reformime, remove-shell, renice,
    reset, resize, rev, rm, rmdir, rmmod, route, rpm, rpm2cpio, rtcwake, run-parts, runlevel, runsv, runsvdir, rx,
    script, scriptreplay, sed, sendmail, seq, setarch, setconsole, setfont, setkeycodes, setlogcons, setserial, setsid,
    setuidgid, sh, sha1sum, sha256sum, sha512sum, showkey, slattach, sleep, smemcap, softlimit, sort, split,
    start-stop-daemon, stat, strings, stty, su, sulogin, sum, sv, svlogd, swapoff, swapon, switch_root, sync, sysctl,
    syslogd, tac, tail, tar, tcpsvd, tee, telnet, telnetd, test, tftp, tftpd, time, timeout, top, touch, tr, traceroute,
    traceroute6, true, tty, ttysize, tunctl, ubiattach, ubidetach, ubimkvol, ubirmvol, ubirsvol, ubiupdatevol, udhcpc,
    udhcpd, udpsvd, umount, uname, unexpand, uniq, unix2dos, unlzma, unlzop, unxz, unzip, uptime, users, usleep,
    uudecode, uuencode, vconfig, vi, vlock, volname, wall, watch, watchdog, wc, wget, which, who, whoami, whois, xargs,
    xz, xzcat, yes, zcat, zcip
/system/xbin # ls -l | grep busybox | wc -l
348


text:
How to change Gmail sync frequency in ICS?
I am using a stock Nexus S that has been upgraded to ICS 4.0.3. I have noticed that Gmail syncs far less frequently since the upgrade - at the moment it appears to be syncing approximately every 8 hours.
I cannot seem to find the menu screen that allows me to configure the frequency of the the sync.
Settings > Accounts & Sync gives me access to switch on or off syncing and would seem to be the logical place for this functionality to live, but I cannot see anything that lets me control frequency.
Similarly there appears to be no settings around this within the Gmail app itself.
Am I being blind or is this functionality no longer available?

If you use the Gmail app the mail is pushed instead of synced and therefore you cannot find the sync frequency setup.
However, if you set up your Gmail account in the Android Email app, where you can have your non Gmail accounts (POP3/IMAP/Exchange), the mail is synced and you can set the frequency in the Account settings, inside the Email app.

For what it's worth -- I have an IMAP account set up, and its settings are accessible from the Settings/Accounts page, as well as from inside the Email app.

So if the Gmail app works on a push from Google, there's no mechanism for controlling the frequency? Push implies (in my mind - possibly not googles!) that as a mail comes it, it would be pushed to the app. This how it appeared to operate prior to the ICS upgrade.

Yes, that is right. When the email sync is set to push, the mails should appear in your phone at the time you get them. Therefore, no sync frequency is needed.

You can only set how much E-mails are synced in the GMail settings.
Goto Gmail > labels > organize labels > click on the label you edit want.

Now you have tree options, 4day, all or nothing. If you choose 4 days, GMail downloads the E-Mails of the last 4 days, if you choose all, all Mails were downloaded and nothing say what its doing.

I will try a different setting and see if it changes the behaviour of the app. My 3 options were None, 30days or All. 30Days was selected and I've moved it to All, Many thanks.

Youre welcom. If I helped you, vote up. :)


text:
Why do single apps override launcher setting to not show statusbar and how to avoid this?
Using GO LAUNCHER EX I disabled statusbar, but when starting Firefox the statusbar shows up again, dolpin hd doesn't csuse this behavior. Is there any hack or app to generally not show the statusbar?

Sorry, but you cant prevent this.
The developer can set in the AndroidManifest.xml if the Activity (the screen you see) hide the statusbar or not. This is the setting, if you are interested in: @android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar

Thx, just saw dolphin hd offeres a menu setting for (not) showing statusbar. Is there no way to request in Android, if statusbar is on/off in android general menu settings?

No, there is no setting like this.


text:
is Android single task or multitasking and multithreading?
I am trying to understand why I cannot keep listening the audio of a YouTube video on my Galaxy S 2 while moving to another application for example reading a wikipedia article on the browser.
is there any architectural limitation which prevents this in Gingerbread (hopefully will be removed in ICS) or is only the way Google made the YouTube application?
Edit: tried out YouTube application in ICS 4.0.3 today and behaves the same as in Gingerbread :(((

I assume it is just the YouTube application. Google Music (and nearly every other music app I have tried) will continue to play if apps are switched, or even if the screen is turned off (YouTube stops if the screen is off as well).

Related: How to play YouTube audio in background/minimised?

Video rendering, which would have to happen even if the application is not "active" but still playing, is going to use a lot more battery then "normal usage". So if you are not "watching" the video, it stops in order to not waste precious battery power.

yeah but to use YouTube as radio, it could disable the video rendering and only play the audio! :)

You could - but that's simply not how the Youtube app is designed ;)

It's not a limitation of Android, but a "feature" of the Youtube app to conserver resources.
If you want to use Youtube as a music player, I think you should be able to find an application that allows you to do exactly that in the market.
TubeMate lets you listen to only the audio of a Youtube file (you have to download it in advance, though), and that should work in the background.

If you want an android app that would allow flexible management of the Youtube streaming protocols in a way that would support selection of just the audio portion of the media stream while discarding the video track, keep an eye on VLC for android. It is still 'under developement' but would probably address the 'audio only' feature.
From a more technical perspective, it helps to break the issue down into available Youtube network protocols for media streaming RTSP. RTSP specs allow a client to make a request using the DESCRIBE command to which the server responds with an SDP data segment (see details below). Youtube servers can respond in a variety of protocols , sending underlying streams that in turn use a variety of encodings -one for audio, one for video- to transfer the media bits across the network to the client. Over the mobile networks, a feature that goes to youtube in order to receive both audio and video tracks before discarding video while playing only audio is not a good practice because of the heavy network requirement for the unused video stream. You can get around the network inefficiency with some further technical drill-down.
RTSP and SDP standards observed by Youtube would allow a streaming client (android device) to request ONLY the Audio during the Client/Server handshake steps and negotiation steps around the network connection setup that will do the media streaming. In this case, no video would be sent and the android player would be configured on an audio only stream. Some CLI command details and some protocol details on this ‘youtube audio only’ scenario follow.
A youtube, format 1 audio only track for a particular video is available at the following RTSP URI:
rtsp://v8.cache8.c.youtube.com/CigLENy73wIaHwlcw_gs85OUchMYDSANFEgGUgx1c2VyX3VwbG9hZHMM/0/0/0/video.3gp

From the RTSP URI for the entire video (audio track plus video track) , the following CLI expression makes use of 2 media clients openRTSP and mPlayer going to Youtube where it then GETS/PLAYS just the Youtube audio track by requesting only channel=1.
./openRTSP -a rtsp://v8.cache8.c.youtube.com/CigLENy73wIaHwlcw_gs85OUchMYDSANFEgGUgx1c2VyX3VwbG9hZHMM/0/0/0/video.3gp | ./mplayer -cache 8092 - -rawaudio channels=1:rate=8000:samplesize=2:format=0x73616D72

This CLI expression is further described in a link at the bottom.
Youtube ‘feeds’ describe the available stream formats for any Youtube video, including the RTSP URI’s mentioned above. For a Tech explanation of Youtube streaming formats see the entry for ‘format’ 1,5,6 in the long table.
The following request gets a feed from Youtube that includes the variously formatted RTSP URI’s that are available for that particular video:
http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/rowntreerob/uploads?vq=cpST8yz4w1w&prettyprint='true'

The gory details of a connnected RTSP SESSION in which the full SDP description is requested for a particular youtube video so that just the audio track could be streamed/played are here.
Key to numbered lines in above link:
82 – the RTSP DESCRIBE request
101 – the SDP response
103 – video track’s format
116 – the attributes describing the audio track
line 165 – the audio track setup by the player
184 – the audio-only playback
201 – using a separate CLI expression this is playback of a previous download on just the audio track


text:
What is the ODIN tool?
Recently, I've been learning about rooting/flashing android devices and I often come across web-pages mentioning "ODIN".
From my common sense, I've come to realise that it is some sort of Windows GUI software that helps you in flashing/tweaking android devices.
However, my concern is that wherever it is talked about, it is only provided as a downloadable binary blob .exe file hosted on third party file hosting services. Which raises concerns over trustworthiness of that downloadable file.
So my questions are - What is ODIN? What is the canonical website? Is it open source? If yes then, what is the canonical URL for repository?

Odin is an internal Samsung tool used for flashing firmware to their devices (via Download mode, bypassing recovery etc.).  Importantly, it also has the ability to repartition the device storage based on a .pit file, which can save you from softbricking (when flashing goes wrong and recovery/the bootloader fail).  It is not open source and to my knowledge they have not intentionally released it — a few versions have been leaked.  For what it's worth, I have used the version posted here without issue.
Heimdall, however, is open source and duplicates the functionality of Odin.  It claims to be more reliable as well, in addition to being cross-platform (Odin is Windows-only).
Both tools appear to work best with Galaxy S devices, so if you're using another device you probably want to ensure someone else has tried it and succeeded.  Another note is that they use .tar packages layed out differently than the normal update.zip format used by recovery and OTAs, so you need to get the proper package for it to work.


text:
How can I disable root on a modded device?
Is it possible to disable root access to applications on an Android device again after installing modded firmware?
I would like to try Cyanogen or one of the other custom ROMs, but I'm wondering whether that poses a security risk. Do all installed applications get root access automatically, or can that be disabled?
I want to keep the Android security model the way it is or at least for applications to ask for my permission before they can access sensitive data.

Possibly related/helpful: How do I protect my phone from malicious apps once it is rooted?

Actually, another one that might help you: Security risks of rooting your android smartphone (itself closed as a duplicate of Are there any risks to rooting a device?)

If you install SuperUser you can control which apps are allowed root access.  By default it blocks all requests and asks you what you want to do.  You can give an app access indefinitely and revoke it at any time, or allow only specific requests with a timeout.  Most rooted ROMs come with it pre-installed, including CyanogenMOD, and many rooting methods will install it for you as well.
As an alternative, you could remove the su binary and Busybox from your device to effectively un-root it.

Question from zpat: Where do I remove the su and busybox from exactly?


text:
Updating my Nexus S from 2.3.6 to 4.0.3
I have an unlocked GSM Nexus S I bought from a friend. I'm currently running version 2.3.6 (which was pre-loaded on the phone). I really like the way Ice Cream Sandwich looks, so I would like to upgrade to 4.0.3.
I've looked around for tutorials and it seems I'm going to have to root my device and install a ROM. However, I can't seem to find an ICS (4.0.3) download from any reputable sources. They all seem to be hosted independently by users. Is there a place I can download the update from Google/Android directly?

The GSM version should have gotten an official OTA update: http://www.androidguys.com/2011/12/16/google-announces-ice-cream-sandwich-update-for-gsm-nexus-s-devices/ (unless unlocked devices didn't get it, I guess)

In general ROM-searchers are reffered to this question, but I think this is sufficiently complex enough to stand alone.  I've added the condensed version of my answer from here to the canonical post though.

@eldarerathis: The OTA update was delayed/paused due to problems discovered

Post your baseband, (In System Info) and we can point you to the right update file

Google hosts their flagship device OTAs online, fortunately, under the codename crespo for the Nexus S.  Some searching along those line resulted in this Android Police post (affiliate links removed):

Well, that didn't take long. Here are the instructions to [get] your Nexus S rocking ICS right now. Do not try this on the CDMA Nexus S!

Download the OTA Package

Rename it to update.zip
Copy it to the root of the internal storage
Power off the device, hold Volume Up and Power to reboot into the bootloader
Select "recovery," then hit the power button
Once the warning triangle appears, hold the power button and hit volume up
Select "apply update from /sdcard" and choose the update.zip
Once the process is finished, simply choose "reboot system now"

Once it reboots, BAM! You've got ICS. Congratulations!

The link there is http://android.clients.google.com/packages/ota/google_crespo/VQ8PQk_V.zip.  Koush notes that this is for the T-Mobile version, the i9020T.  From dottech.org:

There are unofficial reports that the update works for i9023 (the Super LCD version of Nexus S); and can work for i9020A (the AT&T/Telus/Koodo Nexus S) by flashing compatible radio files. If you are a brazen fellow you can attempt to update your i9023/i9020A with the T-Mobile ICS package but be warned: You might get a brick.

I am moderately confident that if you were to accidentally download the wrong package, your device would refuse to install it.  So, given that, and the URL being hosted at Google, I'd try it.  In any case, I followed the instructions at http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/16/2641496/manually-install-android-4-0-3-gsm-nexus-s last month, and it's worked fine.


text:
apps(tasks) restarting even after killing them

Possible Duplicate:
Do I really need to install a task manager?
apps automatically starting?
How can I stop applications and services from running?

I have some apps running in background using cpu all the time and draining my batery. I want to stop them.
I have a latest task manager to kill the background tasks but BUT some of the tasks(apps) are restarting even after killing them, WHY ?
Is there any way to permanently kill a particular task ?

Disable autostart on boot and restrict background execution

No, these tasks are services. And I think the developer starts the service START_STICKY which means, the service get every time restored if killed (normaly not through a taskmanager, only on low memory).
I would suggest you, to remove the task manager. Android is not designed, that the tasks get killed.  If Android need memory, the system frees the ram on it own.

thanks. Is there any way to stop START_STICKY services ?

No,  sorry. It has a sense that the services are sticky.

In addition to Leandros' answer, if you want to prevent these services from running the only real option is to uninstall the app that owns them.  For system apps you'll need root, and to be careful not to remove something that's needed by the system.
Autostarts can edit which apps receive which events — some apps start based on your network connectivity and so on — but services designed to run constantly can't be changed this way.

I don't want to remove apps.i want to stop them runnening in background. Is there any terminal command to do this?

@sam From above: "if you want to prevent these services from running the only real option is to uninstall the app that owns them".

BTW, Autostarts is free software (= open-source), also available from f-droid.org, which is important to know for those who don't want to install non-free software (non-community-reviewed, possibly malicious code).

@imz--IvanZakharyaschev Please stop spamming that comment.

@MatthewRead I wanted to write down helpful information; it would help me when I was in search of such an app. Of course, unfortunately, you'll get all those notifications for the new comments--I'm sorry for this! (But I couldn't do this improvement without disturbing you with the notifications at SE, unfortunately.)

@imz--IvanZakharyaschev I'm not worried about the notifications for myself, but it's a side note at best.  It's not appropriate to add this everywhere the app is mentioned regardless of context.


text:
How can I move apps to SD on my Samsung Galaxy Ace?
I want to move some apps to my SD card, and from Googling around I found that it's possible to do this if the device is rooted.  How can I root my Samsung Galaxy Ace?

Samsung Galaxy Ace runs at least Android version 2.2 and is upgradable to Gingerbread, so the device already has the possibility to move apps to the SD card. Though, not all apps support this. You can move an app to the SD card by navigating to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications and click on the app you want to move. Then you click the button Move to SD card.
If you root your device you can move apps that doesn't support App 2 SD, as well (except for launchers and widgets which must be installed on internal storage). If you are running Android 2.2 you can use the desktop program Super One Click to root. If you are running 2.3 you can read a tutorial here.
Hope that helps!

@ajgam "so the device already has the possibility to move apps".  Well, know, it doesn't. It appears to put some proxy between the SD card and the file system. One "App 2 SD" program reports "the device does not have a real primary external storage or the primary external storage is emulated" (this on an SD card that contains all my music, and the music can be played on the phone).


text:
What size of SD card can an HTC Desire accomodate?
I have replaced my 2gb sd card with a 16gb one so i can store more music. Now I can't get the phone to play any music at all it says to make more space before opening app'. Any ideas?

It should be able to take up to 32 GB SDHC cards like almost all other devices.  Did you format the card?  Settings -> SD card and phone storage -> Unmount SD card and then Format SD card or similar, make sure to backup anything on it first if needed.

I can confirm that 16GB and 32 GB cards work without problems on stock Desire

As per the phone specification

microSD, up to 32GB, 4GB included,

It's INFURIATING that HTC fails to mention this in the pdf manual.  I've been looking and all that's mentioned about it is how to put the card in.
I found one review that claims up to 164 GB but I wouldn't swear to that. One other review says the spec is 128 GB and that he tested a 64 GB card that worked flawlessly.
I'm sure I saw something in out other paperwork that came wit the phone that said 32 GB but not sure about that.
I was looking because my wife wants added storage for hers. I'm going with 32 GB. My own failed a few months ago and I'll probably never own another HTC product because of that. The SIM card popped out for no reason and the mechanism was junk, others have mentioned that and it seems a really stupid way to make it, (SD card is retained the same way) one guy said both failed on his within a few days or each other... again, dumb design and I'll never own another HTC because of that.
But most phones seem to specify up to 32 GB. IMO all phones should be able to use what ever size card you can get no matter how large and you might find out a larger one will work. Perhaps they're concerned about seek time or something but who knows. But it's storage, not operating memory.
Thing is when I got a 32 GB card for my phone I'm using now you could get a 2-pack having 2 16 GB cards for 10-15 bucks but a single 32 GB card was 20 bucks. So a larger card might not be worth it.  Gigs is a lot of storage for a phone. You might need that much if you're running a bunch of apps that need storage but if it's just pics and such you probably want to back those up on PC or cloud storage anyway.

"The HTC Desire 510 comes with 4 GB of internal storage, but has an expansion card slot that supports microSD memory cards with up to 128 GB of additional storage." Direct quote from HTC website


text:
How can I flash my Galaxy 5 (GT-I5500) via Linux?
I like to know if there's a way to flash my Galaxy 5 (I5500) via Linux. I found Heimdall, but it only works with Samsung's Galaxy S.

I've seen people post about using Odin and some indication that Heimdall may also work.  I personally would experiment, but I understand if you don't want to take the risk.

I tried to use Heimdall but it's not compatible with G5. Have an alternative to it?

Have you tried Odin over Wine?

you can use mobile odin to flash ROMs directly from your device.Galaxy 5 (I5500) is supported. See the thread at xda developers: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1347899

Many people at xda make tar's from update.zip files. Maybe there is a way to make update.zip cwm flashable files from odin flashable tar files.

I could never get Heimdall to work properly.  I wound up flashing my ROM directly from ADB instead:
adb shell
/sbin/recovery --wipe_data
/sbin/recovery --update_package=SDCARD:romname.zip

(romname being whatever your zip file's name is, and at the root of the SD card)


text:
Installing CyanogenMod on Newsmy NP-711 tablet
I have a Newsmy NP-711 Android 2.1 tablet (terrible device, cannot recommend it to anyone), and I would like to install CyanogenMod on it.
On their page, they only have downloads for specific phone and tablet models. Is there no "minimum-build" that might work for non-listed devices? And how would I go about installing it?

Each build has drivers and other configuration elements specific to the device it targets, so I think the best you can really do would be to find a supported device that has similar hardware and pray (or port it yourself). That's my understanding, anyway.

Any ideas what might be similar enough?

I haven't a clue, really. I don't know anything about that device and I don't see a detailed spec sheet readily available.

Nope.  Mobile device drivers tend to be highly specific and there's no sort of defaults that will work across devices.


text:
How can I fix or troubleshoot my Internet connection problem?
I am using a Sony Ericsson Xperia running Android 2.3.4. When I try to access online applications like Gmail, Facebook, Android Market etc. I get an error that says No connection, retry? or No data service provider.
How can I overcome this problem?

Are you using mobile data or WiFi? Have you tried both?

Make sure this isn't a DNS issue.  In the browser try navigating to the website by its IP address as opposed to the name.
On your computer open command prompt and type in ping google.com and press enter.  The 4 numbers 1-3 digits long separated by dots is the IP address (e.g. 74.125.113.106).  Now on the phone open up the browser, and in the  navigation bar type in "http://" followed by the IP address you got from your computer (e.g. http://74.125.113.106) and press the Go key.  If the website loads - your phone has a bad DNS entry.  The Market has several apps for changing phone's default DNS.


text:
How do I set mp3s as ringtones on ICS?
I just upgraded my Nexus-S to Ice Cream Sandwich, I can't find the option to set mp3s as ringtones for my contacts? what am I missing?

Go to the contact you want to add the ringtone to, press the menu button in the top right corner and select Set ringtone. The mp3 file has to be in the /sdcard/Ringtones/ directory for the phone to find it.


text:
Does the default email app support IMAP?
Does the default email app in Android 2.2 support IMAP rather than just POP?

Default email app on my G2 supports IMAP, including encryption. I personally use K-9, which is free.

Do you use GMail? Or the default "E-Mail App"? Which device you own (Samsung has another than stock google).
But I remember, that both of them support IMAP.


text:
Do prepaid phones have issues with downloading certain Apps in the Android Market?
My company has written and published some Android Apps on the Android Market. A couple of times now we've had complaints from customers who are not able to download and install the App - I believe the Android Market website is not letting them download it to their phones.
We're still trying to get more details from the customers but one thing I've noticed in common is that these customers are on prepaid providers (specifically, Boost Mobile and Cricket).
One of our App's requirements in the store is "full Internet access" (the android.permission.INTERNET intent must be doing this). I have no idea how these prepaid providers tend to handle data usage. I can't imagine that they have unlimited data but they have to have something, right?
Has anyone run into a problem with using a prepaid Android phone and trying to download Apps from the Android Market?

I've got a Virgin Mobile android phone, but they also give me unlimited data with the prepay (with throttling added come March), so I can't say if hard limits break it. But, at least not all prepaid phones will.

The Market does seem have the ability to restrict apps by carrier, I think. I don't really know how that works or if it would be a factor in your instance, though.

Google will block apps from carriers if so requested by the carrier, from what I understand, but they should be invisible and not merely fail to download.  What exactly is the error they get / behavior they see?  If it's just general failure then you should probably take it up with Google support -- we can only help with the end-user side of things here.

@MatthewRead: yeah we're still trying to pull the exact error from the end users but in the meantime I'd ask if anyone knew an answer off the top of their head (like "oh yeah prepaid phones can't do that...")

Right.  It would be extremely bizarre if that were the case.

@Schnapple I have a test phone on Boost running Gingerbread. If you provide a link to the apps I would be happy to try to download them and take a screen shot of any errors I see

I have noticed that apps larger than 20MB are marked with a "Wi-Fi" badge that indicates the app can only be downloaded via Wi-Fi. Maybe the carrier controls that limit?

I highly doubt it's to do with being 'pre-paid' or not.
More likely, it could be from a number of reasons. Such as internet connection where carriers can limit the download file size.
I personally know that DL'ing larger files over the carrier network will fail unless it has a 'resume' or some sort of authentication feature.

The internet permission should affect how your app runs (or if it's visible on the market) but I wouldn't expect it to affect installation.  Do you have any additional permissions that you require?  Is your app set to download by Wi-Fi only?
Is it possible that you sometimes access a feature that you haven't requested in the manifest?  For example, if you don't have access to a 3G network to you query the ConnectivityManager to get a different connection?  Your app may exhibit certain behavior only when it encounters a specific network configuration.  You'll have problems only when your app tries to use a permission that it hasn't requested.
If your app is paid, it could be a problem with the customer's payment method (carrier billing may be a problem with prepaid).  I sometimes see repeated attempts to purchase an app of mine, which are all declined.


text:
Galaxy Mini can't connect to the Internet over Wi-Fi
I purchased a Galaxy Mini with 2.2.1 a few days ago and I can connect to my home network (the wireless icon appears) but I can't surf on the Internet. I verified it got an IP correctly and tried many suggestions but no luck. It worked once at home and on a friend's network.
My router is a wireless-n Linksys.

This sounds more like inconsistent wifi settings.
Since your phone shows its connected, try to visit your router's web interface through the phone to see if its connected properly. (note that please use stock browser and no proxies for now) If this doesn't work, most likely its the problem with wrong password or security mode like WEP/WPA.
If the above works, then I suspect you to have a DNS problem. A rooted phone can let you custom-set the DNS on your phone. Try to set it to Google's DNS.
Just to confirm if its a DNS problem, try entering an IP address of a website rather than the domain name.

it's solved :), just remove DNS from router setting and enjoy ^_^

A few things to try:

Reboot your device
Change the router to use 802.11b/g instead of 802.11n
Change the router channel (to 1, 6, or 11 if using North American channels)
Change the security from WEP to WPA or vice-versa
Ensure you have no MAC filtering or firewall rules on the router
Switch the router from using the 5.0 GHz band to the 2.4 GHz band, or vice-versa
Other suggestions posted in answer to Windows laptop works with Wi-Fi AP, phone claims it is connected but can't access Internet

unfortunately, nothing helps :'(...is there any hope ??

I have been using Galaxy Mini for the last 2 years. WiFi is working with normal network. But in our company, advanced WiFi mobile is not responding. After Googling, I found out this phone does not have 'direct WiFi' options like higher-end phones (eg. Galaxy SII).
I suggest you change the phone!

I don't quite understand why Direct WiFi is required for connecting to Internet via WiFi? Direct WiFi is required only to connect to other WiFi devices (other than access point/router) to share data like files etc.


text:
Moving applications to SD card leaves some data behind

Possible Duplicate:
Should apps take up any internal storage when installed to SD?

I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace. I have recently rooted my phone and now I can move the apps to the SD card, however it does not seem to work the way I expected. When I move the app to the sd card, some footprint of the app still remain on the internal memory. For example, recently I downloaded an app which took up 5MB of storage space. After moving it to the SD card, it still appears to use 3MB of space on my internal storage. Is it possible to move the app completely to the SD card?

The system doesn't move everything unfortunately -- the answer to the dupe explains.


text:
How do I check who is connecting to my hotspot?
Is there any way to check who is connecting to my hotspot? I am using a rooted Samsung Galaxy SII.
I use the SII's tethering feature in: Settings > Wireless and network > Tethering and portable hotspot > Portable Wi-Fi hotspot settings > Portable Wi-Fi hotspot to create my hotspot.


text:
Good non-developer Android emulator?
Personally, I own an iPhone. However I would love to see the Android UI. I know a person who does have an Android, but never see it enough. I'd really love to have a good emulator that non-developers can use just to test out the Android UI. Is there any sort of apple app, Mac app, or non-developer tool out there to run the Android UI? Thanks!

Just Wondering, What's wrong with the SDK's emulator?

Maybe its too slow.

Try Android x86 as a virtual machine on Virtual Box. this is by far the best working android I have seen...

It has the basic, default Android UI.
It is fully functional.
It works 4 times faster than my HTC Sensation

Android X86 ISO files: http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/list
How to install it: http://dev.blogs.nuxeo.com/2011/10/speeding-up-the-android-emulator.html

Can you connect this to the Google or Amazon App Stores?

You can install Android Market, just google "android vending apk", download an apk, in console type "adb install filename.apk".  This is not certain to work without crashes since the market apk was designed to work with ARM processors, but if you'll be persistent enough you can find a stable enough market version.

KitKat version only works on Intel PC's, not AMD.

Have you given the Amazon Appstore's Test Drive feature a try? Super simple, runs in most browsers - simply find an app in the store for which Amazon has Test Drive available then click the big green Test Drive button (a list of Test Drive apps is here). Once you have a Test Drive session open click the home button on the bottom of the emulator to access the homescreen then voila, Android!
FWIW I personally don't think the SDK emulator is a bad choice even though it is developer-focused. Quick and easy instructions are at How To Geek if you're interested.

Yeah, you don't need to be a developer to install the Android SDK and run the emulator. Most of it's done through a GUI, too.

Genymotion is an accelerated emulator, which may let you get a better feel for the UI and graphics applications.
I believe it paravirtualizes graphics (OpenGL) calls, using the host's graphics processor to accelerate the emulator.

If you are still searching the best solution would be Bluestacks. Its vey fluent and does not lag.

Lags on every computer I've installed.

There's an iOS app called Dreamboard that allows you to use the Android UI on your iphone/ipod . It's just a launcher that changes the theme so as to give you a feel of how the Android UI looks like. Please note that, inorder to download this app, you should jailbreak your iOS device. I currently have this app on my ipod touch, downloaded from AppCake(which i downloaded from Cydia after jailbreaking my device)
Here's a video link: Dreamboard in action
Hope this helps.


text:
Builtin Ice Cream Sandwich Application keyboard shortcuts question
In previous versions of android, you could specify application keyboard shortcuts (for example, Menu+G to launch GMail, etc.) but that functionality seems to be gone from Ice Cream Sandwich.
However, there are a few that seem to be builtin, but I can't seem to customize them. They seem to be control+b for browser, control+p for people, and control+a for calculator. (Note that I'm not exactly sure which particular modifier key it is, it's just the one labeled control on my touchpad bluetooth keyboard)
Does anyone know about these or how to customize/change them?
Thanks!

is "Settings-Applications-Quick Launch" not working for you ?

That doesn't seem to be there anymore in CM9

These settings are just not finished in CM9 yet


text:
Keyboard scroll down in Google Reader app
How can I use the arrow keys in my keyboard to scroll down on a page in the Google Reader app?
I can scroll down only via the tactile screen, which is not easy to be done when wearing gloves in winter time.

There are (inexpensive) gloves that work with capacitive touch screens.  http://www.agloves.com/

What about Google Reader via the Browser?  I haven't tried it recently so don't remember how well it works on Mobile.

It doesn't seem to be possible.
At least not in the post it self. In the list of posts it is however.
The only way I am able to scroll in posts, is sideways, which changes the post.
It could be done programmatically though, by combining and rewriting some stuff. But then it is of course no longer Google Reader :)
A suggestion however (which is what I do) is to make a small hole in the thumb of the glove. Then the skin is able to make electric connections on the touch screen :)

No luck then. I posted the request on Google Reader's App website: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/reader/thread?tid=2d12029dc59dbb51&hl=en


text:
I accidently deleted LG home on my LG p500 phone
I did a system reset after having deleted LG home on my LG android phone p500. I thought the system app would be restored, but the fact is now. I don't have a "desktop". I cant get to anywhere now on my phone, it is just one big black screen. Anyway that I could fix it? Thanks a million.

Your best bet would be to reflash the ROM, since system reset only clears the user data, it won't restore system apps. A quick google search revealed this tutorial on how to reflash stock ROM: How to flash Original Firmware on the LG Optimus One P500

As long as your Google account still is configured on the device (and the latter is connected to either WiFi or the mobile network), the simplest solution would be to visit the Google Playstore, log in with the same account you're using on your Android device, chose an alternative launcher app (e.g. Holo Launcher), hit the "Install" button, and approve its permissions. A few minutes later, the app should be installed on your device -- and you again have a working home-screen.
There's a big mis-conception about factory-reset, as the name is misleading: It won't reset to "as shipped from the factory", but simply remove all settings and user-installed apps -- so it looks like "fresh from a factory". For details, see the factory-reset tag wiki.


text:
How can I copy to the clipboard on a stock phone?
This is something that has been frustrating me ever since I first did a fresh ROM installation on a smartphone.
I have an excessively complex password for my Google account. It would be impossible to type it into my phone by hand. Usually I would get it into my phone through QR code. But on a fresh installation, I have no QR code reader. I also can't install one, cause I can't access the market without my Google account.
So I put my password into a .txt file and put it in my phone. But when I try to open it, the application that is used can't copy text (like HTMLViewer on CM7) and no alternatives are available.

The key is not putting the password into the file, but make it the filename. Then you can rename the file in the file manager and copy the password through the rename dialog.

Alternatively, you copy the .apk for a (properly gotten) QR code reader to your device and install it through the file manager, as long as Settings -> Applications -> Unknown sources is checked.


text:
Delete draft sms in ICS
I see there are some other threads here about the same thing but they are not for ICS.
If I start to write a sms to someone and not send it the text will be stored as a draft.
How can I delete this?
The only options I can see is to delete the entire thread witch is not really an option.
Has anyone found the trix?

I honestly don't know if there's an easier way to do this but I just long-press the previously entered text, select all of the text (the weird grid icon in the top right in text selection mode) and hit backspace on the keyboard to delete it all. When the text area is blank it will no longer put the "Draft" notification on the thread.

On my phone this just solves the problem a small time. After some time the draft text will come back.

I was having a hard time trying to figure out how to delete drafts in outlook on my Samsung A tablet and discovered by accident, all I had to do was swipe the draft left and it deleted.  So simple, but I couldn't find an answer anywhere.


text:
How can I reduce the length and intensity of SMS notification vibrations?
After upgrading my Galaxy GT-i9000 to Gingerbread, the vibration when receiving an SMS is unbelievably long and hard. Before the upgrade (2.1?), the vibration was two short vibrations. How can I customize the vibrations, or get the "normal" vibration? This long vibration is not pleasant.
P.S. The vibration intensity config is only applied for the vibration when hitting a button, not for receiving SMS.
P.S. 2: And the camera is extremly slow when taking picture..it is focusing everytime, and it takes 2-3 seconds to take a photo. Before the upgrade it took like millisecond:/

Ask your camera question separately, please.

One option is to disable the notfications from the built-in messaging app (in the Messaging app, press Menu, select Settings and then scroll to the bottom and take the tick out of the Notifications box).
You can then use a 3rd party app that gives you full customization of the notification options, like SMS Popup which gives you control over the vibration duration and pattern, as well as a lot of other notification options.

thanks. i have sort of "fixed" the camera. Downloaded an app that cam take out the autofocus and i can snap a picture anywhere on the screen.
Though incomming calls is very annoying, because lots of calls i cannot answer :S

I will assume you use androids default SMS app. Open it, go to settings -> notification settings -> vibrate pattern. If you are using a specific SMS app, setting this up might be similar (if the app supports it).

Thanks for the reply, but i dont got any vibrate pattern setting in the default sms app im afraid:/


text:
How can I sync email automatically without removing local messages that have been deleted on the server?
Outlook on my computer deletes the server's copy of the message when it syncs, which unfortunately causes the Email app on the Galaxy Nexus to delete its local copy of the message when it syncs.
Is there a way to automatically download new email and receive notifications when it arrives without having it sync the deletions? In other words, once the email is downloaded to the device I want it to stay on the device unless I delete it from the device, but I don't want to turn off sync completely.
A related issue occurs when I've synced all the email in Outlook and the Email app on the phone deletes all the messages -- the Email app crashes when the Combined Inbox view is empty.  Is there any way to fix this?
(Aside: Is there a way to intitiate a send/receive of all email accounts from the Combined view in the stock email app?)

Definitely a bit wordy, I pared it down.  You should also consider splitting separate questions into separate posts in the future.

Thanks for the suggestions, but after thinking about it for a while I'm going to try a completely different approach which better meets my objectives.
I've added my other pop email accounts to my Gmail account choosing for each to leave a copy of the email on the server after downloading into Gmail. I'll remove those other email accounts from my Nexus, stop using the stock email app altogether, and rely solely on the Gmail app to manage my email on the device. Each email account has been labeled in Gmail so I know which accounts the email is coming in from. The email on my device will now stay synced with Gmail which will be unaffected by using Outlook on my computer. Outlook will stay unchanged - set to download all of the email from each separate account and remove the messages from the server at the same time. Messages already downloaded into Gmail will stay in Gmail until I delete them.
And most importantly I won't have to be worried about disappearing email on my device, I'll still receive notifications on the device when new email arrives, and I don't have to be bothered with the buggy behavior of the stock email app. Win-win-win.

The behavior you described is what I'd expect from an account that uses both IMAP and POP protocols. Your emails are deleted from the server when you open Outlook and sync over POP but when you sync your phone over IMAP it keeps the mails on the server.
You can get the desired behavior by switching your outlook sync protocol to IMAP. This keeps the emails on server and you have to manually delete them. Also, you should check out k-9 mail, it's a better replacement for the stock email app.

Thanks onik. I don't want to keep the email on the server. That would leave me with 4 different email boxes to manage. I like being able to download everything into Outlook. What I don't like is having email, once downloaded to my phone, disappear from my phone without me telling it to. Will K-9 mail accommodate this?

I found the option Sync server deletions in K9, which seems to be what you're looking for. Once you have added the account, long-press it and go to Account settings -> Fetching mail ->Sync server deletions and uncheck it to keep the mails on your phone.

Does having the sync option enabled for an account literally mean that the account will remain synced with the mail server - regardless
  of type?

The Sync option means your device will connect to the server automatically at established intervals. If your device sees what is on the server or simply download mails depends on which kind of connection you use (IMAP --> emails stored on the server, POP --> You can keep local copies of emails, this is a giant simplification.)

If the answer to my first question is Yes - is there a way to automatically download new email and receive notification when it
  arrives without having it disappear when I get around to downloading
  the message in Outlook? In other words - once the email is downloaded
  to the device I want it to stay on the device unless I delete it.

You can configure you Android email app to download copies of mails using POP protocol, but this is not the best option. In this case if you download some mail in your PC between connections of the Android device this would not see the mails that arrived between the last connection and the connection of the PC.
I think the best option is to configure your Outlook to keep a copy of the emails on the server and keep your Android device configured with IMAP and sync activated. With this configuration your Android will see every mail you receive, and your Outlook would have a copy of the mails you do not delete from the server using your Android Device.
There is no ideal solution if you want to have a copy of each mail on each device.

"POP --> You can keep local copies of emails" - This is exactly what I want, but it's not happening. I can't keep copies locally. They all disappear as soon as I download into Outlook. I don't mind that my inboxes are not identical between my phone and my computer. But once I download an email locally to my phone I need it to stay there unless I delete it. Like I explained in my unedited post - this seems to be the behavior with sync turned off, but then getting email into my inbox becomes a huge pain. No notifications and must send/receive each account individually.


text:
Import OPML file to RSS Android?
I have "liferea feed reader" on Linux for RSS feeds. Is there a way I could import all my added feeds there to Android? (NOTE: the extension of RSS exported file is "opml".)

Android doesn't have a built-in RSS feed reader, but there are many RSS feed reader apps (and websites) that will happily import an OPML file.
If you want to use a website, or an app with a website-synced back end, then Google Reader is very popular, and you can definitely import OPML files into Google Reader. On your device you can then either visit the Google Reader webpage, or use the Google Reader app, or one of the other many Android apps that sync with Google Reader.
To import an OPML file into Google Reader, click the cog/gear icon in the top-right of the page, then click Reader Settings and then  Import/Export. You should then see the option to upload your OPML file.

Note that Google have announced that they're turning off Google Reader effective July 1, 2013.

RssDemon imports OPML files.
JustReader says it does, but I couldn't find it and have asked the dev about it.


text:
Is it possible to link the Shazam Encore app to the online My Shazam account?
It seems like I'm missing something.  My phone has about 20 songs on it and when I logged into My Shazam today I expected them to show up.  Instead I find the following.

The Shazam 'My Account' settings ask for the phone number of the device; which is entered.  No where on the site can I find verifications that tags shouldn't be synced.
Is it just me or is tagged song syncing not available?


text:
Increase Wi-Fi Roaming Aggressiveness on Samsung Dart?
I have a T-Mobile Samsung Dart (which IIUC is a re-branded Samsung Galaxy Mini) and a Wi-Fi network in my apartment with two access points.  When I make Wi-Fi calls while walking from one end of my apartment to the other, the signal from the access point I was originally connected to (AP1) degrades to the point of being unusable.  By the time I get to this point the signal from the other access point (AP2) is strong but my phone doesn't roam to AP2.
Both access points are set up with the same SSID and security settings, so roaming should "just work".  It does work when the Wi-Fi connection is idle, although it usually takes a long time for the phone to figure out that the signal from AP1 is weak and start using AP2.  Using Wi-Fi calling seems to make Wi-Fi roaming even less aggressive, probably because the Wi-Fi NIC is busy sending data instead of scanning for hotspots to roam to.
How do I configure my phone to roam more aggressively between Wi-Fi hotspots on the same network (same SSID and security settings)?

Even if the other AP connected, you will lose your call. When you switch access points, you are going to drop the wi-fi call.
The device may have a hard time figuring out if it should switch to AP2 because it is still connected to AP1 and it can still see AP1. if the signals overlap, it will connect to the strongest one at the time, if it is already connected, it will not attempt to connect to another AP until it is no longer connected. Once you go completely out of range of AP1, the device scans and sees AP2, then it connects. It doesn't matter how "strong" the signal is for another AP, if you are connected, it will not see another AP. Then once you disconnect, the device needs to go in to "scan" mode.
If your router supports it, you could turn down the power of the AP so they don't overlap (or if they do, it is only slightly). but then again, if your router supports that, you could also increase the power so you don't need the second AP.


text:
Why can I not install Firefox on my HTC G1/Dream with CyanogenMod 6.1?
I have a HTC G1/Dream with CyanogenMod 6.1, based on Android 2.2.1. I would like to install Firefox, which requires Android 2.0 and up. But I cannot find it in the Android Market, and when I try to install it remotely from the web Android Market, I can see "This article is not compatible with your device".
What could be the origin of my problem?

What does it say when you try to install?

Firefox also requires an ARMv7 processor. The HTC Dream/G1 is officially unsupported because its processor is ARMv6. See the supported/unsupported device list on the Mozilla wiki:

These devices have ARMv6 processors and are not compatible with
  Firefox for Android:
...

HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1, Android Dev Phone 1)

...

The answer to this question from eldarerathis is currently correct; now, though, ARMv6 support is in the works too, and it can be downloaded from Mozilla.
(However, the Aurora build of mobile Firefox worked better for me than the nightly build last time I tried it; however, I have a slightly unusual device using a QVGA (small) screen and a keyboard).


text:
Upgrade and Rooting Motorola Xoom Paths
I have a UK Motorola Xoom, Wifi only version. It's currently running 3.0.1 and is rooted.
I'd really like to upgrade to 3.2 and stay rooted. What's the best path to take with this?
I can't download the official "over the air" update, because that clashes with the rooting process I have performed (I assume) as that bricks the device. I have been using it for a while and have many settings and apps in place. I assume there is no way I can do an in place upgrade and keep everything as it is?
I assume I will have to use something like Titanium Backup, then find a pre-rooted 3.2 image and flash that on, then restore my apps and settings? Can anyone confirm if this is correct or not?
Finally, if that is true, can anyone point me to such an image for my model tab?

You could try CyanogenMod 9 (there's a release candidate now):
CM9 has support for the Motorola Xoom (wifi), and the Motorola Xoom (Verizon) at this point.
Here's CyanogenMod's update guide from their wiki for the Xoom.
You have to backup your device in advance, of course (using TitaniumBackup for example).

I cannot find CyanogenMod any longer. The site seems down :(

Alas, CyanogenMod has shut down. You may find the info in the mirrors:
https://www.reddit.com/r/cyanogenmod/comments/5kfo0m/the_cyanogenmod_archives_full_downloads/ (see Browsable pages)

alternatively, have a look at the successor project site:
http://lineageos.org/community/

The path I have taken is to install Wingray. This is a build of CM9 (Android 4.x ICS) specifically for the Xoom table. So I got to go strait to ICS and keep root. Just had to re-flash with this image!

Just a bit of nitpick: Wingray is a codename of Xoom MZ604. You installed SGT7 for Wingray.


text:
Real time device share on Apple TV via AirPlay
I see that there are apps that will broadcast certain things to an Apple TV via AirPlay, but is there a way to send a view of the screen in real time via this method?  I have seen iPhone 4S doing this, but the only apps I've seen for Android advertise that they broadcast media files as if they're being sent as opposed to streamed.

I don't know of any apps that can do that, but (supposedly) any Android 4.2 device can do that with a wireless display adapter connected to an HDMI-enabled TV. I also found this project by E.S.R.Labs, which they successfully get a Nexus S to mirror it's screen (albeit onto a Raspberry Pi). Mirroring functionality is also sometimes limited due to hardware requirements.
I also recently found that a developer was able to get Miracast working on Nexus 7 and 4 variants. Check it out on XDA with videos. Something cool to note with this project is that the mirroring capabilities are all software based; no need for additional hardware. Hopefully that will also lead to further development for mirroring on devices that don't already have the hardware inside of them.


text:
Seeing Huge Amount of Data Usage with Google Music
I have recently purchased the Galaxy Nexus, and I am extremely happy with it. As part of that purchase, I decided to bring all my music into Google Music. So, I've been using Google Music on my way into and home from work (about an hour total a day) and I am seeing a huge amount of data usage from Google Music. (Everything else combined doesn't come close to what it uses.)
Here is a screenshot of my data management window:

Why is this happening? Is there anything I can do to prevent it from heavily using data like it is?

An hour total should use ~144 MB for 320 kb/s music.  Less that double that for 6 days seems perfectly reasonable given that your music is probably not all that quality.  Why do you think it should be less?

@MatthewRead - I guess, based on what I have seen in the past with Pandora, this seems significantly higher. I could listen with about the same frequency on Pandora and it didn't use nearly the same amount of data. Guess I should be glad that I am still grandfathered on the unlimited plan.

OK, I think the answer to your question is that Pandora's stream is never more than 64 kbps for mobile devices, whereas Google Music uses 320 kbps MP3s and there's no downsampling.  That's 5 times the amount of data, assuming Pandora doesn't use a better format than MP3.
Since Google Music transcodes your files, I don't think you have much of an option here.

Thanks, Matt. I was afraid it was something like that. I guess I'll have it download my content on my wireless connection so I can go on long trips without racking up huge amounts of data charges.


text:
Access to android usb port from chroot linux?

Possible Duplicate:
Android chroot ubuntu - is it possible to get ubuntu to recognise usb devices

IS it possible to communicate over the real USB port of an android host when running linux in chroot?


text:
Combine/merge/concatenate/unsplit long SMS/text messages?
I've Googled and searched the market and can't believe there's no such app. Maybe some other SMS management app has this simple function, to unsplit messages longer than the 160-character limit that were broken into more than one part? Handcent and GO SMS Pro don't mention it.
For some reason (see the answers posted before Feb 17, 2013) people don't quite seem to "get" the problem. Here's a screenshot:

For whatever reason (incompatibilities between carriers in following the Concatenated SMS protocol etc.), I receive messages split in parts of <160 characters. What I'm looking for is a very simple app that would let me select two messages and join them into one, specifying which should be first.
SMSes are stored in a SQLite database, and it would be pretty trivial to append to one field the the contents of a few other fields based on a drag-and-drop interface. I'd code it, but I'm not experienced with Android development, and others could make such an app far faster.
I posted a request on xda-developers but the bozo admin there moved it and nothing happened.

SMS message concatenation seems to be a function of your phone's network technology (CDMA/GSM), the SMS application's support for the standard, and the message's origination/destination carrier combination.
Some carriers don't like long messages (over 160 characters) coming from other carriers and will not allow the correct message headers through to your phone, meaning your phone can't piece things together. A quick pulse of opinion  on the issue also seems to indicate that CDMA networks are worse at transmitting concatenated messages, although the facts look to lean more toward the idea that CDMA was just behind the standards adoption curve. Your phone, of course, also has to know what to do with a long message when it sees one; mileage will vary.
Personally, when my dinc was stock it was very obviously up to Verizon to decide to give me a long message in one big piece - long messages from friends on other carriers were the only ones not concatenated. Now that I'm on MIUI the built-in SMS app seems to do better at it, but I don't text like I used to so I can't say for sure. I recommend trying various SMS apps, but you may be stuck under forces you can't control.
tl;dr - Many factors play into how long SMS messages are displayed on your phone.
(Info gathered from Wikipedia, research, blogs, and forum posts, among other places)

This is nice research into the history and tech details of SMS concatenation. The reality is that I receive messages split in parts of <160 characters. What I'm looking for is a very simple app that would let me select two messages and join them into one, specifying which should be first.

I've encountered similar problem and thought I might share my solution with the others who are having trouble with split messages. Maybe it's not the easiest and most "user friendly" workaround but it worked for me. Mind you that I've repaired (?) like this only about 40-50 messages - I wouldn't recommend my way for bigger amounts of SMS.
My solution:

Download SMS Editor app by Ray Y (big THANKS for the author!)
Find each split/corrupted SMS and by simple copy-paste and deleting chosen messages you should be able to put thing back in the order.

Hope this helps!

Welcome to [android.se]! Thank you for your contribution, we really appreciate it. If you have a moment, please take a [tour] to understand how this site generally works. I also cleaned up your answer since we try to focus to the answer directly. Hope you understand!

I am confused what you are looking for. SMS messages are no longer then 160 characters. If you type a message longer then that, SMS apps, like the "core" sms app, or handcent show then like they are 1 message, but, in the background, they are still sent as multiple messages.
If you send a message that is 170 characters, you are sending 2 SMS messages. One that is 160, and one that is 10.

I'm looking for a simple app to let me merge consecutive incoming SMS messages. Preferably automatically (I came up with a simple algorithm and I'm doing this on SMS backup files (XML), but even manually would do, after the messages arrived in my inbox.


text:
How to specify where Samsung S5830's camera saves photos to
I have a Samsung S5830 phone which has Android on it.
When I look at:

Task Manager -> Summary

It appears that my, small, sim card is being filled up with data whilst, my larger, External SD card is relatively empty.
I'd prefer the camera to save images to my SD card. Not the sim.
But, I have no idea how to tell it to do so.
Any suggestions?

Photos captured by camera were not stored on sim card, BTW. Probably they gets stored on SD-card(is available).

Thanks for your comment. If I remember corectly, I was given the impression that it was being stored on my sim because my camera stopped working saying "Full" whilst having loads of space on my SD card. I solved the problem by transfering the images onto my pc which made the cam start working again.

What options do you have when you hit the "menu" button while in the camera app?

The menu button (the soft key to the left of the lower button) does nothing. Offers no options. There are various settings softkeys surrounding the view. But these are to do with how the picture is taken (flash on|off|auto, etc) and not how it is saved.

Your device, Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830, should be running Android 2.3. If so, you can set the storage location while within the camera app:

Access the camera app;
On your screen should be what looks like a cog wheel, tap on it;

for your device, while in landscape, should be at the left/bottom of your screen.

On the next screen, there's a scrollable list, make your way to part where you can set your storage location, tap on the prefered location to select.

The camera app should now store the photos taken into the selected location (Memory card or internal storage).

Thanks for your answer. My phone is a Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830, but it is not running Android 2.3. It runs Android 2.2.1. Which may be why there is no storage location setting in my camera's settings.
Do you know if it is possible to upgrade handsets to higher versions?

@JW. There are some recent firmwares available for your phone that you can install using KIES.

@JW. If you are running Android 2.2.x Froyo, by default the camera stores images to your external SD Card, at least according to the information from the manual.


text:
How to improve tethering while travelling in a train?
While traveling in trains, I like to surf the internet via the mobile browser or via laptop that is usb tethered with the android phone.
Many times I have realized that in rural areas with bad GSM network coverage, it is possible to get html pages on the phone whereas the laptop cannot get the page.
After switching to 2G-only the surfing on the phone is much better now but surfing on the laptop is still bad.
I also read why-usb-tethering-goes-off-after-a-while but I do not think that my problem is caused by the network operator because surfing on phone still works.
Any ideas why this happens?
Are there any settings on the laptop to improve the situation?
I am using android 2.2 samsung galaxy fit and a win7-64bit laptop using the e+-gsm/umts phonenetwork

At a guess, Win7 isn't built to handle network interruptions like a phone OS would be.  I don't think we can help you with that.

does the same happens while Wifi tethering? It could be simply because many websites turns into mobile view, which loads much faster in places with no 3G, while the laptop insists on loading the full version.

You can change your "User Agent" to Android or iPhone, this would speed up browsing on the Laptop. (There are several addons for every Browser out there which can do this)
But would only display the mobile sites, which are designed for use with a mobile device (e.g a Smartphone)


text:
How can I root my HTC Incredible S?
I have an HTC Incredible S and want to install Ice Cream Sandwich, which I don't think is officially available right now. How can I root it?

possible duplicate of When will my device get the Android 4.0 update (Ice Cream Sandwich)?

Doing a simple Google Search provides you with a list of How-Tos:

How to Root HTC Incredible S
How To Root Your HTC Incredible S
How to Root HTC Incredible S
All-in-One S-Off and Root Method for Incredible S

Even video tutorials are found:

Root Your HTC Incredible pt 1
Howto Unlock HTC Incredible S + CyanogenMod 7 Part 1 (part 2 and 3 are linked there)

With so many sources available, you should be able to find what you're looking for. And in case it's all to scary: We already have August, so...

HTC Incredible S to receive Ice Cream Sandwich update by end of August

While references are fine, we want to be a self-contained resource.  Per the FAQ, answers that are mostly links may be removed: http://android.stackexchange.com/faq#deletion

@MatthewRead See the list of "possible duplicates" above? I just wanted to point out that the question would be easy to answer by an easy Google search. Sure I could have simply said so -- so the links are just giving evidence. You know I usually don't give "link only" answers.

I'm not concerned with "usually", just these instances (went through all the rooting questions linked in the list today).  I've cleaned up the question comments that are no longer relevant due to the policy change on 1-question-per-device vs the 1-giant-root-everything-post.

bootloader by htc: http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/