text:
Samsung Galaxy - Import contacts from sbu file
I'd a Samsung Galaxy i551. I've done a backup using Kies and it saved a .sbu file. Now I don't have the phone any more and I'd like to export this information to some useful format or at least to view it with the Kies. But I can't find anyway to open the .sbu file.
How do I open an .sbu file generated by Kies?
Thanks!

Take a look at this thread over at XDA-Developers forum. Someone wrote a Java app to extract the contacts out of the .sbf file into VCard files, which are a lot easier to deal with.
Also, in the same thread people report that with the latest version of Kies you can execute a Restore without having a Samsung phone connected to the PC, and extract the contents.
I personally haven't tried either method, so please let us know if they work for you.

I couldn't find the way to open the .sbu with the Samsung Kies (not even with the version you linked). But the java app worked great!

I wrote a program which extracts contacts and Calendar Data.
https://lord-luncher.de/
I am happy about feedback.

A step-by-step tutorial with some pictures would be nice

in the latest version o Kies you select your device in the tree, then go to tab "back up/restore" and click "restore".
Unfortunately you can't restore just something, you should restore everything...


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How to auto start/stop tether if wifi is unavailable/available?
I use my Galaxy S as a wifi tether hotspot for my tablet and laptop, so tethering is always on (I have extended battery so it's ok). But if my phone is in the area where I have wifi internet (for example, at home) I don't need it to act as hotspot and want it to stop tethering and connect wifi. Is there a way to automatically start tethering if no wifi is available and stop it / connect wifi if wifi is available for long enough?

You can do so e.g. with Tasker, adapting the Wifi Tether Profile described in the Tasker Wiki -- provided your phone is rooted:
Requirements

rooted device
Tasker
Locale Execute Plug-In (no longer available -- but most likely no longer needed, either)
Wireless Tether for Root Users

Tasker-Tasks

Tether-On:
Plugin -> Execute Script -> Run Shell /data/data/android.tether/tether start 1, check "Use Root"
(with the Locale Execute Plugin, prefix the command with an ! to mark it as "root command")
Tether-Off:
Plugin -> Execute Script -> Run Shell /data/data/android.tether/tether stop 1
(with the Locale Execute Plugin, prefix the command with an ! to mark it as "root command")

Tasker-Profiles
You now can attach these tasks to any condition, such as e.g. "Wifi Near" with your networks name. You can also add things like "Wifi On" / "Wifi off" to above tasks to customize.
Detailed descriptions can be found in the linked Wiki.

Locale Execute Plug-In is dead

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How can I prevent the battery in my Nexus S from draining overnight?
I have a Google Nexus S and for the past 2-3 days whenever I go to sleep the battery drains completely overnight. I mean when I go to bed the charge on my phone is plus 90% but for the past 2 days it's dead when I wake up. Thankfully I didn't miss work these two days otherwise my boss is gonna kill me.
I have Android 2.3.7
Any advice?

Plugging it in overnight seems like the trivial solution, but other than that, have you looked at What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device?

Something is obviously running overnight. Check Settings | About phone | Battery use first thing in the morning to see what's draining it.

putting it to airplane mode overnight also is a good idea (except you need to get awoken by phone call, or must stay reachable). Some more details can be found at Battery Sony Ericsson XPeria Mini Pro.

There are several things which can be done. Most obvious is to switch it off completely (grin), but that only as a side note. Also, switching it to Airplane mode falls close -- though, when used with a "timer" (via automation apps such as Tasker or Llama), it can be quite a useful thing to not only save some juice over night, but also care for some silence. Another obvious option is to connect it to some power source, which clearly prevents it from running out of juice. But these are just general rules.
In your special case, the problem is some app draining your battery over night. True, above mentioned solutions would take care that there's enough juice left -- but still that's a misbehaving app. So first thing I would do is, after it drained a little (but still enough juice is left, say 30% or more to be sure), go and check your battery stats. You will find them in your system settings, on most devices it is in Settings → About Phone → Battery Use. This should list the most heavy consumers, and your candidate should be on the very top.
Other useful sources on this topic (and here at Android Enthusiasts) include:

How to deal with (orphaned) WakeLocks? (especially when you cannot find the "evil app" in the consumers list)
How can I tell what is really draining my battery?
What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device?

If you are running a custom ROM, check with its makers if there are any known causes for battery drain. Otherwise, (since there are no known issues with stock Android 2.3.7, the battery drain is caused by some app.
Turn off bluetooth and auto sync (leave wifi on), install Watchdog and charge the battery fully, then let your phone idle for a couple of hours. In that time, any apps that misbehave will be listed under the alerts tab of Watchdog. Check that and report here, maybe we can help.
If it does not list any app, try eliminating each of the common culprits for battery drain - social media (older versions of Facebook) and sync apps that constantly use connectivity options, free versions of apps that regularly pull in ads for display, location apps including Google's own reporting service. Uninstall or turn off whichever you can. If ads are an issue, and you are rooted, you can use Adblock.
Also, check for your battery health - if you've been a heavy user for over 2 years, it is likely that the battery has lost much of its original capacity, in which case a battery replacement would be necessary (I know because I have the same problem, and ordered a new battery yesterday). You can find OEM batteries for $30-40 - avoid cheap duplicates, you never know what they could do to your phone.

Shut down your device overnight.
Or just plug it in before sleep.
Or buy a new one. After some time the battery want resist so much.
Oh.. of course... or buy a new battery.

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


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Twitter & Facebook login details periodically forgotten
Amongst others, I have Facebook and Twitter apps installed on my HTC Desire running Cyanogenmod 7.1.
Every few days, it requires me to login again, even though I've previously saved my details. It even asks me again (for Facebook) about syncing Contacts to my phone... it's as if it's forgotten my login to those apps altogether.
I have these 2 apps installed on the SD card, so wonder if that's the problem - I don't have space to run them from the phone as that storage is very limited on the Desire...
Any ideas if there's a setting of some sort that I can change so that it keeps my details?

Yes, it is likely to be the problem. I suppose it's a hack of yours if these apps are on SD rather than internal memory.
As the Android SDK mentions1, applications that use Service, AccountManager and Widget shoudl not be installed on SD card. The Facebook app has an AccountManager, a widget and a Service.

It's not my hack per se, but I guess it's Cyanogenmod's hack that allows me to do it. Shame it doesn't work fully, but I guess I can see why. Interestingly Google Plus and GMail work fine running from SD Card and never need to be reconfigured.

I had the same issue on the same device and cyanogenmod. You just have to move those apps to phone and just move the apps which doesn't appear in the accounts settings. You need the reserve the space for these kind of account syncing apps.

I don't actually have space to do that, so I guess I have to live with it if that's the only way around it.


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Accidentally cancelled update to 2.3 this morning; how do I get it back?
I woke up 2 hours ago and there was the message on my phone (HTC DROID Incredible) that a new update was available and that my phone would restart to download and install the update and of course I click the "Install" button, but the way I was holding my phone was odd and my palm accidentally hit the "Cancel" button as it was counting down to restart the phone and it only got down to 5. Now the update seems to have disappeared. When I go into Settings > About phone > System updates my phone says that my system is already up to date. I also tried doing that *#*#CHECKIN#*#* thing which did not do anything (it said I was checked in but the update didn't come back). I thought the update would have automatically popped back up after 30 minutes but it's been two hours and my phone seems to have no trace that the update was even sent to my phone.

Have you tried rebooting the phone?

@eldarerathis: Yes, that is the first thing I tried, but I'll try it again just to be sure.

Others are reporting similar issues.  Is your build number 4.06, 4.08 or other?  I would suspect that if you missed the initial rollout you'll have to wait a bit, since they would want to do it gradually and not overload the network.  You might get prompted again later or they might enable manual upgrades at some point.
Verizon says you can update over Wi-Fi, though again it looks to be an automatic thing rather than manual, but maybe you'll get a second notification if you connect to Wi-Fi.

My build number says 3.26.605.1 CL264707 release-keys. I don't have anything that says 4.06 or 4.08.

@animuson So you definitely didn't get updated.  I added some info about a possible Wi-Fi upgrade, but I think you'll probably just have to wait unfortunately.

I always have my Wi-Fi connected while I'm at home. I actually turned it off initially to see if it would re-find the update over 3G with no luck, then turned it back on. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how long it takes to get it again. :(

Took a long time to make it back to my phone, but it finally popped back up just a few minutes ago. :D I made sure not to hit cancel this time.

@animuson Glad to hear it :)

You might try doing a manual update.

After a week check system upgrade option in settings when u will open the option they will automatically find new system ....their will be writen deceting a new upgrade and if u will get a new upgrade I will get it...it takes 7-14 days or mabe sometimes less....it also happened with me just wait and u will get new one ......be carefull ..


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"Low on space" warning with over 50% free
I recently started getting the following notification:

Low on space: Phone storage space is getting low.

When I click on the notification, it takes me to the "All" applications screen listing how much space each application takes, and at the bottom it shows:

Internal storage: 296MB used, 452MB free

Why is it complaining about low space when only 1/3 of the internal storage has been used?
Edit: This is on an HTC Incredible both before and after the upgrade from Froyo to Gingerbread.
Edit 2: Looks like it's not just me:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=20201&q=low%20memory&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=20014&q=low%20memory&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=02216e9b3aed01ad&hl=en
etc.
Edit 3: Called Verizon about the issue (expecting to get the standard "do a factory reset"), but instead got escalated to Tier 2. The Tier 2 person looked up the issue in their system and said it was a known bug and that HTC is requesting all people with the bug not do a factory reset but instead call their tech support at 866-449-8358. I called them and they told me a fix (via OTA update) has been released and will upgrade the Android version to 4.08.605.2 (I currently have 4.06.605.3). Last night my phone did try to do another OTA update, but after restarting it complained that it could not install it due to low memory. The HTC rep told me to remove applications from the phone until the low memory warning went away, then dial the following number to force the phone to check for system updates (it normally only does it once a week or so):
*#*#2432546#*#*

I did this and still haven't received notification of a system update, but hopefully within a week I'll get pushed the new version...
Edit 4: Called again (both HTC and Verizon) to see if there was any other way to force the update again, but they told me all I could do is try a factory reset. A lot of people are running into this, more references:
http://gadgetian.com/27505/htc-droid-incredible-vzw-gingerbread-update-4-08-605-2-dwonload/
http://androidforums.com/incredible-support-troubleshooting/183963-low-space-phone-application-storage-notification-12.html
http://community.htc.com/na/htc-forums/android/f/91/t/14260.aspx?PageIndex=5
http://forums.androidcentral.com/verizon-droid-incredible/134223-second-gb-update-patch-reboot-issue-error-log-message.html

I am seeing this only after the upgrade to Gingerbread

@smp7d: I had low space warnings before the update, but they may have been legitimate. After the update it got much worse to the point where I almost can't use the phone without something force closing or complaining about memory.

I tried what Verizon instructed you to do in Edit 3 (still waiting). Not a couple of minutes later I had the low space warning again. I'm amazed that there are not more people complaining on this site.

@smp7d: Same here, I called again and they said to wait 24 hours and if I don't see anything call back. They definitely know about it (you can just say "the Incredible low memory bug"). Yeah confused why it's not more prevalent, even one of my coworkers ran into the same thing.

The problem is back. Posted another question.

Got these instructions from http://gadgetian.com/27505/htc-droid-incredible-vzw-gingerbread-update-4-08-605-2-dwonload/?replytocom=18668#respond
It worked for me. My update is installing as we speak. :)
"Here is the fix for those of you still stuck in limbo between the Gingerbread Rollout and the patch, and have not gotten another OTA announcement again.
Clear borked upload from cache
1.Boot into recovery
•Press and hold Power, Choose “Restart” option
•When screen turns off, press and hold Volume Down and Power
2.When the white HBOOT screen appears, use the volume button to move down to “RECOVERY.”
3.Press the Power button to select “RECOVERY.”
4.When the triangle and exclamation appears, hold the Volume Up and Power button at the same time.
5.Using the volume button, scroll down to “Wipe cache partition” and select it.
6.Select “Reboot system now”
You can now wait for the update to show up again or you can follow steps below to force an update check:
Manually change the date on your phone to one year ago. This will trigger an automatic check in with the update servers and you will get the appropriate update.

Menu > Settings > Date and Time
Un-check Automatic to prevent the date and time from automatically updating
Change the date to one year ago (under Set Date)
Uncheck Background data from settings menu under Accounts & Sync (don’t really know if it makes a difference, but I did it anyway)
Go back to the main settings and select About Phone > Check For Update and follow the prompts (I had to do this about three or four times.) It went MUCH smoother over Wi-Fi

Caution…when clicking install and reboot, it will stay at the Droid Eye screen after reboot for a while (~5 mins), but eventually, it did get installed.
Read more: http://gadgetian.com/27505/htc-droid-incredible-vzw-gingerbread-update-4-08-605-2-dwonload/#ixzz1gUZiGs1H"

Thanks for elaborating on the links I posted earlier. I should clarify that when it says "one year from today," it means a year ago (in the past), not a year in the future. That confused me at first.

Excellent! The reformat-cache thing unstuck my creaky old HTC Incredible and it's now happily updating. Thanks!

Alright, finally got it after spending a while digging through Android forums.
This thread explains how to clear the /cache partition. After doing that, this thread explains several ways to get the update to trigger again. The one that worked for me was to temporarily set the date one year in the past.

so are you all set now? i may try this tonight

@smp7d: Yep, the new update installed and I haven't seen any low space warnings since.


text:
Using other block device when conecting Android device to computer as USB storage
When I connect the device to computer, it makes sdcard available to it, as in card reader.
How to make it share not sdcard, but other block device or file?

I would assume that this is highly hardware dependent and impossible without writing and replacing drivers, at best.

How it works? How to make "Use USB connection to transfer files" action manually, from console?

On my device (Sony Ericsson Xperia X10) it is, for example:
echo /sdcard/debian.ext2 > /sys/devices/platform/msm_hsusb/gadget/lun0/file

After it the content of file becomes available on the host. Can write to sdcard file without unmounting it from android.


text:
How can I root my Android on my Mac?
I've been looking into rooting my Android phone, which is a ZTE Score. The only way I've found so far is to use the ZergRush tool (Or something like that..)
But I believe it can only be used on a Windows based computer.. Anyway, I have a MacBook Pro which runs an Intel cpu, and I'm running Snow Leopard. Is there a way to root my phone using my Mac?

Can you post how you got this to work (or maybe accept my answer using the checkmark below the voting buttons if that's what did it)?  Valid questions should stay undeleted and ideally gain an accepted answer so that others can find the question and solution.

I just borrowed a PC for a few minutes.. But I'm not sure that it worked, I may try your solution.

Ah I see.  If you don't that's OK, and you definitely don't need to accept an answer without verifying, but again hopefully this question can help others :)

Yeah, I tried it.. It doesn't work.

I searched for that one click root tool and found a post in XDA's Amaze 4G forum that has a Mac version.  I would expect it to be the same as for the ZTE Score, you can try it out anyways: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1310115

It's not a one click solution, but there are solutions depending on what you want to achieve:

You can install Android SDK and perform rooting with adb by using the tools extracted from a one click solution package (the linked instruction uses the tools from a SuperOneClick 1.x package).
You can use Heimdall (which works fine on a Mac) to install a CyanogenMod ROM. I did this using these instructions for Samsung Galaxy Tab.


text:
How to take a screenshot on a Kindle Fire?
I ran across this question posed on Twitter by Anil Dash:
Is there really no way to take a screenshot on a Kindle Fire? Huh.
I know it's early to tell, but does anyone know if this is true about the device?

It wouldn't surprise me. Until recently it was rare for an Android device to offer a way to take a screen shot without rooting it.

For what its worth, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (with most recent stock software update) allows you to take screenshots (without being rooted). So, I think pre-ICS it's possible...at least in Honeycomb

You can take screen shots with ddms and the Android SDK. It's not hard to set up. See http://www.thefireblog.com/2011/11/16/houston-we-have-screenshots/:

So, here’s a quick summary people:

Install the android SDK tools, then the platform-tools
Edit your adb_usb.ini file to add the 0×1949 vendor ID at the end
Ensure that adb is running properly
Check that your device is online
Run ddms
Start taking your screenshots using the Device > Screen Capture option.

Very cool that this doesn't require root, +1.

This might help:
How to take a screenshot with an Android device?
Basically Android doesn't provide you a direct way to take a screenshot the way iOS does. But Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will.

Yes, except the Fire will not be getting ICS. It's Android under the hood, but they forked it a long time ago and Amazon will be updating it going forward.

I haven't tested since I don't have my Fire yet, but it can be rooted with SuperOneClick, which means you can probably take screenshots with an app like ShootMe or Screenshot ER 2.
I would think Amazon would advertise it if it could take screenshots without root, so I would suspect non-root users to be out of luck.  That said, ShootMe has been known to work on some unrooted phones.  Nobody knows why, but you could try it and hope :P


text:
How can I turn my Galaxy Tab 7" into a Kindle Fire?
I got a Galaxy Tab from work and I don't use it that much, but the screen size and specs look pretty similar to the new Kindle Fire.  I know next to nothing about how things work under the covers but I know that there is a large hacker/modding community within Android.  So is it even feasible to attempt such a thing?  If not, why, in layman's terms please :)

Unless Amazon releases their Kindle Fire source code, there won't be a way to mod a different Android tablet to be a faux Fire. I seriously doubt that will happen
That's not to say that someone won't be able to put together some combination of mods and apps that might approximate some of the Fire's functionality, but that's a pretty daunting task, if Amazon's proprietary changes don't make it completely impossible.
Update: How about that? Amazon actually did release the Kindle Fire source code. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/11/amazon-releases-kindle-fire-source-code.html
Update 2: It seems that someone's got something very close. Android Spin has details.


text:
Apps unavailable after upgrade to Gingerbread
I recently upgraded my HTC Incredible from Froyo to Gingerbread. Everything seems to work fine, except for several apps that had their home screen icons revert to the default Android icon and clicking them does nothing. I believe they are all the apps I had on my SD card before the OS upgrade. If I go to Settings -> Applications and look at the "On SD card" tab, the apps are listed, but if I try to "Move to phone" I get the error:

Failed to move application. The application does not exist.

In Market, the apps are listed as purchased but not installed. What do I need to do to get my apps back?
Edit: It looks like this is related to the out of memory bugs in the new 2.3 update (see my related question). At one point after trying to clear memory the apps came back, but then I got the memory warnings again and they disappeared again.

Did you try to install them again?

I deleted all the apps that couldn't be found. Then you can just install them again, like onik suggested.  Apps that you purchased are linked to your account, so the market keeps track of them, even after deleting them. Purchases that you delete will be organized in the Not Installed section of your My Apps list.


text:
What pros would upgrading to Superuser Elite bring?
I somewhat understand what Superuser does, but I'm curious if upgrading to the Elite version is a good idea... What pros are there? Does upgrading provide any additional features?

You can see the advantages from the developer's home page.
Superuser Elite is the Premium version of Superuser. It unlocks several premium features within Superuser, including:

PIN Protection – Secure your Superuser prompt with a PIN number so that nobody but you can grant Superuser rights to apps
Access timeout – Allow an app to maintain Superuser rights for a set amount of time, so that you can allow certain apps access without having to remember them or press allow multiple times
Ghost mode – Hide Superuser from your app tray and home screen. With ghost mode activated, the only way to launch it is by dialing a secret code into the dialer. The default secret code is *#*#787378737#*#*, but it can be set to whatever you want. Note that this feature will probably be disabled if your device does not have a dialer (tablets specifically).
Advanced log management – Set the log to only store a certain number of entries before deleting the oldest entry. You also gain the ability to set certain apps to not log at all.
Advanced notification management – Set which apps send notifications and which apps don’t
Toast notification placement – If you choose to use Toast notifications instead of Status bar notifications, you gain the ability to set where the notification will appear; top, bottom, or center of the screen, or the default location

I got it for the PIN protection and for beta access (which I believe is over), and of course to support Chainfire.  So far it's been great and the binary updater came in handy a few times before it made it into the standard version.

Thanks! I really had no idea what most of those things did, haha..


text:
List of devices with screen parameters

Possible Duplicate:
Where can I find a comparison of Android devices?

Is there any list with devices and their params? I'd like to know if this device is ldpi/mdpi/hdpi and what screen it is small/normal/large/etc.
For now most important for me is to know how Galaxy Note is described by those params?

The most comprehensive list I've ever seen is this article from Wikipedia: Comparison of high-definition smartphone displays.

Yeah, I've seen it. Without dpi I cannot really know what layout the device will choose without having them.

You can use this simple formula to calculate DPI of each device given sceen resolution and size: DPI = sqrt(w^2+h^2)/s, where "w" and "h" are screen resolution and "s" is size. Using this formula for Note, it has DPI = 285. You can do it in spreadsheet, if you don't mind.

But still if you are programmer you don't know what is it DPI. For example HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Tab (first generation) has the same resolution size etc. BUT one is HDPI and the second is MDPI device.

Unfortunately the link above does not work correctly.

@HosseinSeifi Updated the link since the old one is dead.

I couldn't find a list, so I made one myself with DPI :
http://blog.blundell-apps.com/list-of-android-devices-with-pixel-density-buckets/

List of displays by pixel density, which include many consumer devices.


text:
Getting Exchange Email Through a Cisco VPN ?
Is there a way to get my email from my works exchange server if I need to connect using a Cisco Any Connect VPN client?
I can't find an Any Connect Client for Android and I've tried connecting to the mail server directly but it (Obviously) can't resolve the host because it's behind a VPN.

My colleague has just pointed out that ICS will include Cisco Any Connect functionality...
http://www.talkandroid.com/69015-cisco-anyconnect-vpn-support-to-be-implemented-in-ice-cream-sandwich-enterprise-users-rejoice/
Upon Further investigation there is an Any Connect Client for Android, but you need to have rooted your phone to use it:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.cisco.anyconnect.vpn.android.rooted&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5jaXNjby5hbnljb25uZWN0LnZwbi5hbmRyb2lkLnJvb3RlZCJd


text:
Can I recharge my Android smartphone at any USB port?
My girlfirend has just installed a new CD Player on her car that comes with a USB port to connect external devices(Flash card, external hard drive, etc). My question is based due the fact that I told her that if she want to recharge her Android smartophone on her car, she must buy a 12V car adapter to USB(which is very expensive on Brazil). Now, with the new CD Player, I'm wondering if she can use it's USB port to recharge her cellphone with the USB cable. It is feasible? There is any limitations on recharging an Android smartophone on another types USB ports(I mean from another host not only the CD player)?

Would be interesting to know if it works.  Please do let us know if/when she tries this.

There're two flavors of USB ports - powered and unpowered. Unpowered ports can't supply power to the devices and are rather rare. You identify them easily - connect the smartphone to them and see if it starts charging. If it starts charging the port is powered and you're okay.

If the USB port supports USB sticks then it has power to recharge a smartphone. The only question is how much power it has. The USB protocol includes what I would call a "power handshake". Host (radio) and client (smartphone) communicate with each other and the host specifies how many milliampere the client is allowed to use.
If the radio has USB high-power support you will get up to 500mA, without only up to 100mA.
BTW: A plain USB power adapter usually supports up to 1000mA. I assume a simple car 12V-to-USB-adapter would also support that much power.
Therefore even if charging via radio works, charging will take significantly longer.
How many milliamperes are used for loading can be seen on a large number of phones by the Battery Monitor Widget or similar apps.

I usually charge mine from the USB port of my TV decoder (that's always powered on) so I think there will be no problems.

There might be a problem, my car mp3 player smoked up when I once tried to charge my phone through its usb port, the usb cable was damaged too. I suggest she doesn't do that.


text:
How to Remote Control Android smartphone, if not in same subnet
I'd like to "Remote Control" my Android 2.3.x (Oxygen 2.3.2 ROM) from my PC. I know that there are VNC servers available (previously available via https://market.android.com/details?id=org.onaips.vnc) and also apps like Remote Web Desktop (previously available via https://market.android.com/details?id=net.xdevelop.rm).
This works fine, but only if the mobile phone and the "controlling PC" are in the same subnet, or if traffic from PC -> mobile phone is routable.
At work, this isn't the case for me… :/ The WiFi devices are in a separate subnet, and the office network devices cannot reach the WiFi devices. That's done on purpose and is to be accepted as an unchangeable fact (at least for the time being).
If the mobile phone were a normal PC/Mac/Linux system, I'd install TeamViewer on it and be all set. But there's no TeamViewer server for Android, is there?
Well, what are your suggestions? How can one remote control the Android smartphone from a Linux (or any…) system, if the PC doesn't "see" the mobile phone?
I do have USB and Bluetooth available, if this helps.
Cheers.

If your phone is rooted (which I'm assuming it is since you're running Oxygen), you could try androidscreencast. It allows you to interact with a rooted phone over USB using mouse and keyboard. It's not the fastest solution, but then again, neither is a VNC server and the like.
There's a fairly decent walkthrough on how to set everything up on How-To Geek. You'll also need to have adb in order to use androidscreencast (the Android SDK is one way; there's probably also some places you can directly download the necessary binaries).

Hi. That's indeed a cool solution! I had a look on the Market in the mean time, and found the Webkey App. Webkey allows to "proxy" all the stuff thru the developers hosting thing. Works somewhat "fast", but then you've got to trust the dev. OTOH: you anyway have to trust the dev, so… Anyway, the more solutions, the better, and so I'm really thankful for your idea!

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


text:
Low Memory issues on Droid Incredible after upgrade to Android 2.3.4
Since upgrading to Gingerbread, my phone is constantly getting low memory notifications despite having plenty of room. It is causing a number of my applications to fail. I have tried clearing memory but the low memory issue just comes back after a few hours.
Anyone seeing the same behavior? Is there any resolution outside of the standard VW "reformat the phone" solution?

Sounds like a duplicate of this: “Low on space” warning with over 50% free (which was itself closed as a duplicate, though same device in this instance).

That shouldn't have been marked as a dupe as it is a different device and OS version. This is clearly a faulty upgrade. The other could just be high memory usage.

@smp7d: See the edit I made to my question.


text:
What happens to a running program when "home" button is pressed in Android phone?
One thing puzzles me. It looks like if I use some program on Android and press the "home" button I see the home screen and can rerun the program and see that program in the same state as it was before - so looks like the program is not fully restarted, just suspended and then resumed.
Yet that doesn't seem to happen consistently with Air Control game. Sometimes when I'm playing Air Control and press "home" and later rerun Air Control - it is paused (as if I pressed "pause" button) and I can resume the game. Sometimes the same leads to Air Control dropping the game and starting anew.
So it looks like I don't understand something.
What's the deal here? What happens to a program when "home" is pressed? Does it continue running or what does it do?

I doubt that pressing the home button results in higher  power drain.

Pressing the Home switches you from the app to the home screen, whilst leaving your app running in the background. This is a bit like switching between windows on a Windows PC.
Except that when your phone is running low on resources like memory it will start to close apps that are running in the background, so that your phone has enough resources for what you're trying to do now. Games are often amongst the first apps the phone will "kill" to save resources as they often use a lot more memory and CPU than other apps. This is why sometimes your game is still running paused, and sometimes Android has closed it for you.
The Back button is the way to close apps so that they are actually closed.
See also What is the right way to close apps in Android?

The Android Development document Tasks and Back Stack actually covers this pretty nicely. A relevant excerpt:

A task is a cohesive unit that can move to the "background" when users
  begin a new task or go to the Home screen, via the HOME key. While in
  the background, all the activities in the task are stopped, but the
  back stack for the task remains intact—the task has simply lost focus
  while another task takes place, as shown in figure 2. A task can then
  return to the "foreground" so users can pick up where they left off.
  Suppose, for example, that the current task (Task A) has three
  activities in its stack—two under the current activity. The user
  presses the HOME key, then starts a new application from the
  application launcher. When the Home screen appears, Task A goes into
  the background. When the new application starts, the system starts a
  task for that application (Task B) with its own stack of activities.
  After interacting with that application, the user returns Home again
  and selects the application that originally started Task A. Now, Task
  A comes to the foreground—all three activities in its stack are intact
  and the activity at the top of the stack resumes. At this point, the
  user can also switch back to Task B by going Home and selecting the
  application icon that started that task (or by touching and holding
  the HOME key to reveal recent tasks and selecting one). This is an
  example of multitasking on Android.
Note: Multiple tasks can be held in the background at once. However,
  if the user is running many background tasks at the same time, the
  system might begin destroying background activities in order to
  recover memory, causing the activity states to be lost. See the
  following section about Activity state.

Summary: The task is moved to the background when you press Home and sits in memory, not really doing anything and retaining its state. This means that (generally speaking) you can switch back to the task and it will pick up where it left off. However, the Android system can - and will - kill background tasks if it needs to reclaim memory. When and if this happens is entirely up to the system, and is probably why you see inconsistent behavior when resuming.
If the task is destroyed by the system, it will have to be re-created when you launch it again. So unless the application author has taken measures to save the application's state during the destroy process, it will be lost (and saving exact state in things like games is fairly impractical).
Another good (but also verbose) document is the one covering the Activity Lifecycle (there's a nice flowchart if you scroll down a bit).

So they are killed on a per-task basis, not a per-activity/process basis. The latter would allow partial task killing, which is probably undesirable.

My reputation is still too low on this site to vote up, so I'm answering to emphaisze Flow's answer.  I keep running into this issue in one of my app's.  I have various spinner controls and you have to explicitly save their state in onPause() and then restore the states in onResume() -- Android doesn't remember their states automatically.
Another complication is that sometimes Android will call an app's onCreate() function when you only expect it to call onResume().
So your issue with Air Control (or any other app) is specific to that app and you should report the behavior to the developer for correction.  Most app's have a contact email in the Market.
BTW, if you want to understand app life-cycle, I recommend Chapter 2 of Ed Burnette's Hello, Android, especially figure 2.3.

Pressing the Home key allows the user to start a new Task, by showing the launcher. All active Tasks (and therefore Activities incl. your "Air Control" example) will call their onPause() method.
It is up to the App (and their Activity) to restore the exact previous state when it comes back visible. It is also possible that the Apps Process gets killed while the Activity is backgrounded, but this should not affect the users experience. The user should not be able to tell a difference if an Activity was just paused or if it also was killed. This could explain the different behavior of Air Control which could be a hint of an faulty implementation of the Android lifecycle management.

I think by "killed" you mean stopped, as opposed to destroyed. I believe in normal Linux terminology when you kill a process (e.g. Activity) you destroy() the corresponding app components.

No, I mean destroyed.

When you press home key the onStop method is called. A killed process doesn't mean the activity gets its onDestroyed method called, though it is indeed similar. "Killing" an  Activity process means the VM is removed from RAM. To me this (Android killing it) seems likely to affect user experience.

Home Button Pressed when in an app:
Most apps will save their state (any bit of data that would be needed to keep itself consistent when being resumed), and the device will switch to the launcher app.
Home Button Pressed when on the Home screens:
This is configurable by many 3rd party launchers; however a lot of them default to bringing you back to your "main" home screen (the default launcher does this).
What your friend might be concerned about:
Switching apps can be memory intensive and cause several disk writes to save the data. This uses battery; however it is usually not the main cause of battery drain on devices (the operating systems are optimized to do these things).
Some applications will continue to run as a background application, so pressing the home button will not kill them (e.g., Google Play Music will still play after pressing the home button).
Your friend might be concerned that by pressing the home button you did not exit the program, and therefore it is still running. Android will unload those applications as necessary.
You and your friend should be more concerned with the display - which uses the most amount of power.


text:
Is there an official Android "Google" ROM?
So I have an old unlocked phone and I'd like to load up my own OS.  I've seen some mods out there.  CyanogenMod seems to be the most popular.  However, I was curious if I could just install a pure untouched version of the OS -- as distributed by Google. I seem to remember being able to download a clean compiled version of the Android OS.
Does Google distribute any binaries like this, and if not, is there someone out there that does?
Additionally, is this even worth trying?  These days is it necessary for Android to be packaged with special drivers and such for all of the different hardware out there?

To answer if Google distributes binaries for your device: No, they do not (Unless you have a Nexus device). They do, however, have the full Android source code available so that if you wanted you could compile the source code for your device. However, that leads into your second question about the drivers and such. Yes, you will need to find the drivers and any other proprietary files that your device requires for it to interface with Android. You would have to search about compiling a custom ROM for your device and how to include these files.
Likely, your simplest choice is find an AOSP (Android Open Source Project) ROM that exists for your device and install that. Check the XDA Forums to see if your device is included on their site. IF so, go into the development sub-section for your device to search for ROMs.

If you need help with it let me know!

Do you have any recommendations?  Would CyanogenMod pretty much be the way to go (most reliable / actively developed / up to date) for something that is closest to a base Android OS while keeping up with all of the drivers for your phone?

It depends on the phone that you have. I run CyanogenMod on my phone  (HTC Droid Incredible) and have no problems with it. Very reliable. And, because its updated so often, if there's ever any bugs they generally get fixed in a very short time frame (1-2 days. Whereas waiting for a manufacturer to push updates to your phones is months). It's fairly close to stock Android (visually). There are plenty of underlying tweaks to the OS but they are all incredibly useful.


text:
How Can I Ressurect My Chat History from Google Talk on Droid?
I'm chatting someone on my Droid, but when I check the chat history in Google Talk, that chat isn't there. This chat is confined to my phone, but I want to keep a record of it off my phone. Is it saved somewhere in the phone in a log file or something? Can I manually forward that chat to my desktop?  I can't ctrl+a / ctrl+c the conversation to my e-mail account, so that's out.  What else?

Did you perhaps go "off-the-record" with that person?

For what it's worth, I just chatted someone on my Droid, and the chat is right there under "Chats" in my Gmail account on the web.

Google chat/Talk sessions can be recorded and saved to your Gmail account using a Gmail setting. From Google's Chat Support pages:

Changing your chat history settings
You can adjust your chat history
  settings in Gmail at any time. Chat history for Google Talk is only
  available to users who are signed in with a Gmail username.
From Gmail:

Sign in to Gmail.
Click the gear icon  at the top of any Gmail page, and open the Chat tab.
From the Chat tab:

Select 'Don't save chat
  history in my Gmail account' to disable chat history saving, or,
Select 'Save chat history in my Gmail account' to enable chat history
  saving.

Click Save Changes.

Keep in mind that if you've disabled chat
  history saving, people you chat with may still choose to save chat
  histories in their Gmail settings. If you would prefer that someone
  you're talking to doesn't save your chat, you can take the
  conversation off the record. If you're talking to someone who is
  connected to the network with a desktop chat client, it's possible
  that his or her software is keeping a separate copy of the chat
  history.

While inside the chat if I tap on menu I see an option to stop to save... (I don't now the exact text in English.
Maybe you selected that menu?
Or did so the person you are chatting with?


text:
Where do I configure DNS and IP settings in HTC Desire S?
HTC Desire S seems to have very scarce WiFi settings. I'm trying to debug a Wifi connectivity issue and looks like it might be a DNS problem. I Googled and looks like many Android devices have some "advanced" settings including DNS server addresses. I can't find anything like that in Desire S.
What am I doing wrong? How do I change DNS and IP settings in Desire S?

In my HTC Desire I find it under:
Settings-> Wireless & networks -> WiFi Settings
Press Menu and select Advanced
Here I can see option to use static IP by selecting "Use static IP"

Thanks a lot. I didn't realize I had to press Menu.

OK just found it. In wifi settings press and hold the connected network you want to set IP to. Pick modify network and in there you scroll down, to DHCP settings and pick static and scroll down to et your IP. Kinda complicated comparing to non sense android. O well. Hope that helps OP or any other fellow searcher.

You probably don't have HTC sense (you're using other ROM). Hence you don't have those settings. I use Hox with Sense as well as OP myself, and I don't see any options there to set a static IP. HTC seems to have disregarded those settings. (ICS 4.0.4)


text:
Can't install skype on android 2.2
I'm using http://www.midoblesim.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=483 and i can't install skype.It says that it's not matching, but still it is downloading it from the market. I gived you that link becouse this isn't an original, android phone, it's some Chinese stuff. But however, how can i solve the problem and install skype and run it correctly ?

According to the web page that you linked, your phone has the following specs:

mtk6516 416 MHz CPU
512 MB ROM
256 MB RAM
Screen HVGA 800 x 480

The Skype FAQ says:

What do I need to run Skype on my Android phone?
To run Skype on your Android phone, you will need a supported phone
  running Android OS version 2.1 or above with least 27MB of free memory
  space on your handset and 600Mhz or more processing power. The
  supported screen resolutions are 320x240, 240x400, 320x480, 800x480
  and 850x480.

So it looks like the app doesn't support your phone's CPU (which oddly seems to be slower than the very earliest Android phones like the G1).
There is more than one official Skype app, it's possible that the one you're using isn't compatible with your phone, but another one might be. See the links in this question to find the Skype apps Can I install Skype on my xperia?

It looks like a knockoff company stole the name of an LG device to trick people.

@MatthewRead oh definitely, doesn't even look like an LG Optimus 3D (and is very obviously missing the second rear camera lens that helps define the "3D" part of the real thing's name) the case reminds me more of a knock-off Nexus One than an Optimus.


text:
How to update GTalk to feature video chat?
I would like to know if it is possible to 'force update' the Talk app. I have Nexus S and I have the video chat in my Talk, but my girlfriend with S Galaxy II (2.3.4) doesn't. I read somewhere on the internet that Talk should feature videochatting from 2.3.4 on, but well... It doesn't so far.

This post from xda-developers will help you if her phone is rooted.

I was thinking about 'official' approach, rather than rooting. But I understand that this means there is no such way. It also turns out it's 2.3.3, she looked it up wrong..


text:
How to disable traffic alert messages which come as flash sms from carrier?
I get this alert message (screenshot from my phone) from my carrier after using the internet for sometime. The problem is that I get numerous messages (20+) like this when my phone is idle. I guess some apps are syncing in the background. The phone is unusable till I hit OK on all the alert boxes. Is there a way (or an app) to make sure that I do not see these messages.

This looks like a special kind of SMS message, sometimes called "flash SMS", that shows up instantaneously on the phones screen. I don't think that there is an option to block these messages and even if it would be possible I wouldn't encourage you to do so, because you could maybe miss some other important information.
I think the best approach would be to ask your carrier from disabling these messages for your number. I am sure that they are able and happy to do so.

Thanks for pointing out the term "flash SMS". I found a solution by googling it. My argument for disabling it is this - what if I need to make an emergency call? I might not have time to keep hitting the OK buttons on all those messages. Anyway the solution that worked for me can be found here http://www.digitalgupshup.com/how-to-stop-block-flash-service-sms-of-vodafone-india/

@pkdevil You should post how you disabled flash-sms as answer to help others with this issue. :)

Balance Update / USSD blocker
You can install this app to block the Flash messages
This Does not support Android 4.2.2

This is a problem with your carrier where they send the last data usage details whenever a data connection session ends. It is not possible to disable it unless the network provider disables it.
However, you can try this small workaround by going to Messaging, selecting Settings in options, and disabling Cell Broadcast settings.
Thanks


text:
Mobile Network not available despite full coverage
I've been to my network provider and the problem is with my phone.  I woke up on Tuesday with an unread message but have been unable to respond since.  My lock screen says that I can make "Emergency calls only", but shows full network coverage.
I have CM7 on the phone, and tried a new install last night to no avail.  I did spill some water on the phone about two weeks ago, but the phone has been working fine since.  Most confusing is I received the text above at 08.00 and the problem has been present since at least 10.00 on the same day.
Any advice is welcome. Samsung Galaxy S2

if you spilled water on it, that may be the cause of the issue. You rebooted the phone and you still have the same problem? Try a different sim (if its GSM network), and try your sim in a different phone.

Well it worked for over a week after the water damage so not sure why it suddenly stopped.  It's definitely not a sim issue, I was in the store today and go a brand new sim that worked on the clerks phone

Try installing the standard ROM, if this also doesn't work you can be sure that this is a hardware problem with the phone.
I think the problem occurred when you spilled water on your mobile phone. It will oxidize and become damaged over time. If you had lost your phone in salt water, it would be destroyed immediately. When you lose your phone in water or spill water on it, you should take out your battery immediately and deliver it to professionals to clean it before it oxidizes.
Since the phone has been in contact with water, your guarantee is void.
How a water sensors looks like: http://altinett.no/2/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/futkskade-mb.jpg
There is two water sensors in this picture. One looks like a black circle and white in the middle, this censor has not been in contact with water. The other censor to the left looks like a black circle with red in the middle, this has been in direct contact with water.
How an oxidized motherboard looks like: http://altinett.no/2/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/fukt-korrosjon-lcd2.jpg
This case is irreversible.


text:
Use 3G connection on my Android in Ubuntu
I would like to use the 3G connection on my android with my Ubuntu. Is there any method to do so?

Possible duplicate, could have a helpful answer for you: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2486/non-root-tethering-app-with-ubuntu-client-for-moto-droid-on-verizon

Over USB? Over wifi? Is your phone rooted? Have you looked at the multitude of other questions in the tethering and wifi-tethering tags and tried the solutions there?

Easy Tether from Mobile Stream should work. It's a way to share your internet connection with another device via USB. Get the Lite version (does not support https, or tethering to gaming consoles) or the Full version.

Supports Windows 7/Vista/XP (32-bit and 64-bit), Mac OS X
  10.7/10.6/10.5/10.4, Ubuntu 10.4+ and Fedora 13+

Full version supports the following:

Tether PS3, Wii, XBox via PC Internet Connection Sharing, you need a
  computer for game console tethering.


text:
Shortcut to switch profile on CyanogenMod
On my Android, I was looking for configuring profiles and under Settings found that I can configure profiles and there are some pre-existing ones like Home, Work, Silent, etc, with further settings to customize each of them. I'm assuming that this is a feature of my CyanogenMod installation and not part of Android itself.
Now, my question is what is the easiest way to switch profiles (say switch from 'Home' to 'Work'). I tried to find an option in the notification bar widget buttons in the CyanogenMod settings but couldn't find. Is there something that I can do that is quicker than going to Settings > Profiles > Select profile, may be a widget or something that works with the above mentioned CyanogenMod profiles and preferably not a new application with new profiles.
PS: I can see an option to 'Toggle Sound' but that's for switching Sound/Vibrate/Silent modes, whereas I need to switch profile.

Holding the power button brings up the "power options" menu. In there you can choose the profile.

wow! can't believe I missed that! Thanks @Ryan!

There is now (confirmed with 10.2) a Profiles tile in the Quick Settings panel, which is quite handy.

I had basically the same question. I noticed the option via the powers button, but wanted to have some kind of shortcut on the homescreen.
I found a solution using the app CyanogenMod Profiles Shortcut. Works for me on version 6.


text:
Web based Google Talk chat notifications sent to my device
When I chat in Google+ through my desktop, my two android devices get the conversations as well. Anyway to stop that from happening? I don't want to necessarily log out of the Apps since I can walk away and I want to still receive messages, but if a conversation is occurring via website, can I have the Apps ignore it?

I don't think there's really any way for the app to know this. All it sees (I assume) is that you got a message, and it probably has no idea that you responded via the web client.

I get a notification when I have gmail or google+ chats open sent to my device, but as soon as I continue the conversation in the browser, the notification goes away on my device.

@RyanConrad: Hm, interesting. I didn't know it would do that (I don't really use Google's chat service).

@eldarerathis Yeah, each client has a specific ID and I also see the same behavior as Ryan where only the last-used client receives messages.

yeah, I'm not. I just had a convo with someone on G+ and the entire convo is on my Asus Eee Transformer, with a little notification it's going on..... wait a second. I wonder if the alert is just the initial talk request, and I'm viewing the history of the item... I think that might be it. Can someone confirm?

Uhm, just clear the alert then close G+ on your phone, then you should see if you get another one for each message.

Someone write an answer so I can mark it

It appears the message is initially logged to my phone, and tablet, as Google says "Hey there's a new mmessage fofor you." Once I start in on the convo it only runs on the one device.


text:
How do I get the new "Music" section of the market to show up?
It appears Google has updated the market application. Including documentation in the new Google Music application for a link to /music in the market. The link does nothing on my phone except take me to the home screen of the market though. I'm super excited for this new feature and would like to use it now. Is there a way to force the market to update or anything? I'm using stock 2.2 Froyo on T-Mobile Defy (rooted)

Indications are that you just have to wait as it rolls out: http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/11/16/google-music-support-is-rolling-out-to-the-android-market-now-no-update-necessary/

Actually after seeing the dim prospects of Google Music (come on, no The Used?) I've decided to make due with Spotify Premium.

I just did this, and it works.  Go into Settings > Applications > Manage applications > All > Market  then clear data, and cache.  I had to reboot the phone after.  But once it reboots, go into the Market, and the music section should be there.

Clearing the data also clears the cache.

that worked perfectly :)


text:
How do I reboot Samsung Galaxy S when it locks up? Is pulling battery bad?
My Samsung Galaxy S (Captivate) occasionally locks up, so that the screen freezes and it doesn't respond to any user input.  I also cannot hold the power button down to bring up the menu to Reboot, Turn off, etc...
The only thing I know to do is open the back and pull the battery out and turn it back on.
So, my questions are
1)  Is pulling the battery to hard shut down harmful to the phone?
2)  Is there some button sequence I can press to restart the phone?
I'm running a 2.3.4 Gingerbread based ROM.

Holding Power + Vol Up for 10 seconds or so will reboot the phone into recovery.  From recovery, I already have the option selected to reboot phone, so I can press the power button again.  Not sure what users can do if they do not have ClockWork Recovery.

Android is pretty resistant to faults resulting from sudden power loss, but there's always a risk of data corruption/loss, depending on open apps and files at the moment.
Have you tried holding the power button longer, for about 15 seconds (until the screen goes black and the normal startup screen appears)? On my Galaxy S this triggers a hard reboot, meaning that the phone forces itself to restart without regard to the usual shutdown process. I'd think it's a bit friendlier than pulling the battery, but nevertheless, it's a "wrong" way to reboot.


text:
Is it possible to use the Kindle Fire's browser in a full screen mode?
So we got a Kindle Fire at work today, and I've been playing with it a bit to see what all it can do. One thing that I thought would be neat is to try our new web-based application in the Fire's Silk browser to see how it stacks up against some of our other devices (like my Xoom and the Galaxy Tab 7).
In general it's okay, but it's starting to really bug me that the status bar is always visible when I'm using Silk, instead of filling the whole screen. There's also a tab bar at the top that I can't get to go away, and the bottom menu bar appears to be persistently visible. When you read a book, all of this goes away and then you bring it back by touching the screen, and I really like the full screen look.
Is there any way to run Silk in a "full screen" mode, specifically one which hides the top status bar? I checked around in the settings and whatnot and haven't been able to find anything. Bonus points: Is there a way to hide the tab bar or the bottom menu bar similar to the book reading app?

I haven't found any way to remove it

This appears to have been added in v6.2.2 of the Kindle Fire's system firmware. I updated today and there is now a fullscreen button at the far right of the bottom menu bar in the stock browser. Pressing it hides the menu bar, the status bar, and the tab bar.


text:
Accessing the Android Market using a US SIM card from outside US
I have a Nexus S phone with Android 2.3 and a SIM card from a Canadian carrier. While I'm in Canada, I want to download applications from Google's Android Market (e.g. Google Music) without rooting my phone.
Will it work to replace the SIM card with a US SIM card (e.g. AT&T GoPhone)?  If I did that, everything should work smoothly, correct?

You can install the Google Music .apk without rooting.

You'll be accessing the Market over Wi-Fi so I'm not sure this would help.  Is the phone unlocked?  (Related: How can I circumvent regional restrictions in the Android Market?)

@MatthewRead: yes, I am going to use a WiFi connection. I don't think ip address will be a problem, but if it is then I can use a WiFi that goes through a proxy. My phone is unlocked, I am not locked to any carrier (Nexus series are all unlocked).

@Flow: I am aware of that. I want to download these apps directly from the market (and be able to update them later directly from there). I don't like downloading the hassle and security risks of downloading the .apk files from other places (which are often outdated). If I can get this to work it would be much better.

I would appreciate if down-voter explains the reason for down-voting my question.

+1 I have no evidence, but I think that Google uses the carrier to determine the country of a particular user. The carrier also shows up on the market if you have signed in. But maybe they use additional more sophisticated methods.

I haven't tried it but I think it should work just like the app Market Enabler fakes the SIM ID.


text:
Why does Android GMail app pop an icon for new mail when I delete a message in web GMail?
I have my GMail Android app set to notify on new messages.
However, it ALSO pops up notifications when I simply delete an existing (new or read) message from the web-based gmail.com
Is there an explanation of why this happens and how to stop it?
I saw a related question on A.SE -  Gmail notification sound only for new mail - but it was for notifications when marking messages as unread or moving the messages into Inbox.
Also, it wasn't answered and the only helpful comment wasn't something I can use (Turn on "Notify Once" setting) since this would ALSO stop per-new-message individual notifications which I need to have.
UPDATE: If it matters: Droid X, rooted stock Froyo 2.2. Gmail - latest version but this behavior was the same for the last year, with all versions of the app (likely since day 1, I just didn't use gmail on the web back then too frequently).

Which phone, Android OS version and GMail app version are you using?

@Chahk - updated with deatils.

I've seen similar behavior (a notification after reading/deleting previously unread messages in the web interface). My first guess is that the Gmail app only knows that the number of unread messages has changed - it doesn't know how it has changed.

That's extra annoying since the standard mail app has no problem like that with my Yahoo account


text:
Is there an easy way to un-root Android 2.2 on Droid X rooted via z4root?
Is there an easy way to un-root Android 2.2 on Droid X rooted via z4root?
The reason is that I would like to apply a Gingerbread 2.3 update from Verizon, and that update ALWAYS fails to install.
Since I never had a custom ROM on the phone, my first guess is that the problem may be due to being rooted, but I don't see an "Unroot" option in z4root.
Please note that factory reset is NOT an answer I'm looking for.

How exactly is the update failing? Any error messages? The more information you provide - the easier it would be to diagnose and offer ideas.

@Chahk - see http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/15797/ota-gingerbread-2-3-update-fails-to-install-on-droidx-rooted-stock-froyo-2-2-1 for details of the failed update (this question is specific to "how do I unroot", since it's quite possible that the update fails for a different reason, AND I'd like to learn how to unroot independently of update failure)

Out of curiosity: what version of z4root do you have?

@eldarerathis - 1.1.0 z4root

Aha, the unroot button was added in v1.2.0. See my answer, maybe that will help.

z4root added an "Unroot" button in version 1.2. Version 1.3 added "force unroot" (not entirely sure what that means). You can grab the most recent version from the XDA thread, then you should be able to simply hit "Unroot" and be on your way.

Yep, that worked. Didn't solve my OTA problem though :(


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how do I use my motorala blur 3-G or internet full time when I not a wi-fi spot?
I have a wi-fi connection at home. can get on internet, facebook and everything else, with my wi-fi connection. How do I use my motorola blur, that has 3-G full time?

Android devices' inherent behaviour is to opt for a WiFi connection over mobile EDGE / 3G / 4G data. In order to force a device to use the mobile data connection instead of the WiFi, just turn off the WiFi.
There are a number of apps like Llama / Locale / Tasker that can automatically enable/disable your WiFi connection depending on your location and other user-specified conditions.


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How can I install an updated version of Android on my device?

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

I have an Android mobile device which has Android 2.2 and I want to update it to Android 2.3.
What possible ways are there for me to update the OS?

You don't say what phone you have, this makes a big difference to the answer. See this previous question for a list of release dates for official Android 2.3 updates for various phone models: When will my phone get the Android 2.3 update (Gingerbread)?

Actually, I m developing an application for checking the compatibility of OS version. For this upgrading OS in device mode help me to check.

You have two options:

If your device manufacturer has released an update, you can use that to update your android. Manufacturer updates are generally released OTA, and they are device specific so you need to check whether the manufacturer has released an update for your device or not.
Install a custom ROM. Custom ROMs like cyanogenmod can be used to upgrade Android but remember that it is not official upgrade and you lose the device warranty provided by your device manufacturer.

Thanks @ Atul Goyal. I have one more thing to clarify. It is possible to get the Android OS separately [official version]..? or how about getting Custom ROM for the same.?

@GnanamR just the bare Android OS won't work on most devices (except possibly for Nexus models) as it won't include drivers, etc for your model's hardware. If you just want to test with the bare OS you may be best using the Android emulator.

@Atul Goyal's answer is not very accurate.  You can usually get both stock ROMs and updates from the manufacturers website.  Generally they are .ZIP files that you put on the root of your phone and flash.  If you can't get them from the manufacturer, usually you can find them on XDA.


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Wi-fi problem after tablet stand by
I have a couple of tablets for a school software.Tablets are mid 2.3 gingerbread. They work ok. When they start, it checks for wi-fi and automatically connects. My problem is, after 30 minutes of inactivity, when they get into stand-by, after I unlock the screen my wi-fi connection is not available. But if I turn off/on it works ok. I was wondering how can I fix this so that when the screen goes into stand-by when it wakes the wi-fi will work. (The tablets are in a different city and I can't turn the wi-fi on manually or by remote). Any help is welcomed. Thanks.

Go to SETTINGS > WIRELESS > WIFI SETTINGS.
Press MENU > ADVANCED. Ensure the WiFi Sleep Policy is set to NEVER. This will make sure that your WiFi remains always connected. This may however result in a marginal increase in battery consumption.

In that case, a brief search would have turned up similar answers. :-)


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Realtime task activity viewer for Android
There are many times when an app just stops responding and I'm not sure whether it's still working on something, or has just gone dead. Titanium Backup has done this on a number of occasions. If I could just see a list of apps and what memory and CPU percentage each is using, I'd have a better idea of whether to wait or kill the app.
Is there any way to show the nature of the activity going on with running apps, something like Windows Task Manager?
BTW, I do not like the Android's "Wait/Force Close" dialog since it usually comes up prematurely.

Sounds like OS Monitor might do what you want. I believe it just uses the top utility to get process info. Screenshot:

And note that tapping on one of the rows will expand it to show info like memory use, priority, and so forth.

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


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OTA Gingerbread 2.3 update fails to install on DroidX (rooted stock Froyo 2.2.1 / unrooted back)
I was trying to install the Gingerbread (Android 2.3) OTA update available from Verizon for my Droid X.
However the update ALWAYS fails to install. It downloads fine, pops up a message saying that the update (4.5.605.en.US) is about to install and needs a reboot, then reboots when I OK it.
After the reboot, it pops up "Update Status: The Software Update Failed" error box.

My only possible suspicion as far as the reason is that my DroidX is rooted via z4root - I posted a separate question on how to un-root it ( Is there an easy way to un-root Android 2.2 on Droid X rooted via z4root? ) in case that suspicion is true.
UPDATE - I unrooted using latest z4root version. The problem with OTA was NOT fixed.

You may need to SBF back (unroot) to stock Froyo before taking the update.  Although, if you are going to do that, there are probably SBF files for Gingerbread already floating around out there that you can use instead.

@shambleh - unroot via z4root didn't work :(

Probably going to need to do the SBF then.

As far as I have read (in some instances) rooting the Droid X can prevent an OTA upgrade from being applied.  If that is the case here, you can perform an operation to return the phone back to its stock state.  In the case of the Droid X, this would be referred to as SBF.  An SBF file is used with a corresponding piece of software (like RSDLite for windows or sbf_flash in Linux) to completely reset the phone.  Here is a site with the files and tools used - Droid X SBF files.  There are many sites and videos that can walk you through this process.
Your best bet is to SBF back to .602 and then you should be able to take the update, but you will lose root and your phone will be fully reset.  As with everything root-related, you are fully responsible for any issues with the phone.  I, nor any others members of this site take responsibility for any issues or damages you run into with your handset.

I was hoping to avoid a full reset... thanks for the info anyway. I now have extra incentive to look at CM instead of stock OTA since I'll have to fully back up and reset anyway :)

@DVK Understood.  My DX is on Liberty 3 right now and it's a pretty good ROM (CM is still in nightlies for DX,last I checked).


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Is there a "hardware reset" for the Galaxy S?
I have had my Samsung Galaxy S for less than a year, and never did anything like rooting it. Just normal use.
About 60 minutes ago I opened from it's "sleep" state to check a web page and left it on my desk where it went to "sleep".
Now about 10 minutes ago, I tried to open it again, but it's dead. Touching the screen doesn't bring up anything. I press and hold the power button which doesn't do anything. I don't remember the battery being low, but I plugged it in anyway.
The recharge screen doesn't come up and it still won't start even with the power cord plugged in.
What can I do ? Is there some kind of hardware reset I can do ?

Did you wait some time after the power cord was pluged in? It is normal that this takes some time to show the charging screen if the battery is not charged at all.
For a full factory reset (that is the most reset that can be done by the Galaxy S), you want to boot into recovery mode by powering off the device, and then booting it by holding down the Volume Up + Home + Power keys. A menu should appear that offers the "Factory Reset" option.

Sounds like the phone simply froze up. Try taking out the battery, putting it back in, and then press the Power button to start it.


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EeePad Transformer ADB problems with drivers on Windows7 x64
Sorry for the cross-post (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8185773/eeepad-transformer-adb-problems-with-drivers-on-windows7-x64)... I was told this is a better place for my question.
I have 2 Windows7 x64 machines.
One of them has got both drivers (ASUS Android Composite ADB Interface and Transformer TF101) and when i run adb devices I get the device listed as expected.
The other one has only got one of the drivers (ie. the ASUS Android Composite ADB Interface is not there and there is no unknown devices or apparent problems in Device Manager).
Any ideas?

Ok, I uninstalled and deleted the drivers for the tablet and then reinstalled manually and it worked.

I would reinstall the TF101 driver and install the Android SDK drivers.  This XDA post has some additional info.

I tried this but the TF101 ADB (in the Android directory) driver won't install... My other Win7 x64 has got the driver installed, otherwise I would guess that this driver is not suitable for x64. Is there another Asus driver (maybe a different version) that I can try? Or is there a way to force the ADB driver to install - in device manager there is no unknown device?

I have also tried this but no luck: http://android.modaco.com/topic/342845-tool-tf101-rootkit-gui-v13-hc32-v8659-updated-2382011/ Could it be something to do with my usb controller?

Also ASUS Sync does not work... No device found


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How can I boot my Epic 4G Touch into CWM?
Rooted using http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EwEYVB_ut4 process. Boot in cwm and the enter button (power button) doesn't work or is locked. Long press of button will reboot the device though. Downloaded latest cwm via ROM Manager and hit "Restart into Recovery" from the ROM Manager UI. Power button still doesn't work in cwm, except for long press. Now though, the device will only boot into cwm. Pulled battery, start and same thing... cwm.
Reapplied http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EwEYVB_ut4 and still have the same issue, device restarts into cmw only AND the power button only works on long press so I can't wipe and install any other ROMs on my SD to try to get out of this.

The volume buttons work, I assume?  I'd try re-flashing CWM from ROM manager, making sure that it doesn't try to flash the regular Epic 4G recovery instead of the Epic Touch.

Yes, the volume buttons work. But the phone only boots into CWM or Download mode, so I can't get to the OS or ROM Manager.  Thanks.

Ooh, I see, that's much different.

Flashed the lostKernal via Odin again and it restarted into CWM again. Select button still doesn't work in CWM. Been restarting over and over, pressed various combinations of buttons and it magically booted up ok. I afraid to restart the phone again though.

was this ever resolved....i was having the same issue?

You have to use the Home button on the device (yeah, the Led lit one, it doesn't light up, but use it).  The Power button doesn't work for selecting options in recovery....

If Recovery is broken and you can't boot into the OS, you're going to need to flash your device via Odin.  Edit: Now that you've got it booting I would still re-flash, personally, just to wipe away any issues.  Download Odin here and read that whole page so you understand how Odin works.  Odin's very powerful and can damage your phone if misused, but can save you many a time (as it has for me) if you do things right.
Then you need an "Odin-able" ROM to flash.  Stock is best, such as this one.  That page also has instructions for Odin, which are basically:

Boot into Download Mode
Connect your phone to the PC
Start up Odin and ensure it sees the phone (reboot the phone and try again if not)
Load the ROM you downloaded into the PDA field of Odin
Hit Start and wait till it says it was successful before disconnecting your phone.

After you've flashed a stock ROM you could flash another that's pre-rooted or has CWM in order to get to where you want to be.  I would highly recommend that over trying the method that got you into this mess in the first place :).  This rooting method seems better/simpler.  Flashing modified kernels can be pretty tricky, and you normally don't want to do that in order to root.  I always keep my kernels as close to stock as possible.


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Restrictions of a Kindle Fire in Canada?
I wanted to order a Kindle Fire in Canada but I saw that it wasn't available. Now I really wanted one and I could always just cross the border and get one. What I want to know is how restricted will it be in Canada. I hear it's probably only the Amazon content distribution system that won't work, meaning I still get a full-featured Android tablet with the Android market. I should be able to get any apps and any books from the Android market that I can normally with my phone in Canada.
Is that how it's looking?

I've got a friend bringing me mine next month, I'll make sure to answer this if no one else has by then :P.  It's possible Amazon will use (some of) the same restrictions as the Appstore, in which case this post may be useful.

Just to be clear: the Market is not included on the Kindle Fire. I believe it's possible to get it if you root, but I don't know if it's possible without rooting.

@eldarerathis Oh snap, that changes everything.

Just got a Kindle Fire as a gift.
So far I've been more than disappointed.

No apps
No Amazon Prime membership.
No Cloud.
No MP3's
No storage.

Yes Facebook works.
Yes I can check my email.
Yes I can browse the web.
Bottom line is, if you're in Canada, spend a few more bucks and get a tablet that you CAN use...

I got a Kindle Fire and returned it to get a proper Android tablet. Unless all you're doing is reading Kindle books, a proper Android tablet is so much nicer.

I have a kindle Fire I received as a gift and live in Canada. The Amazon App Store is visible but you cannot download anything. It says "this service is unavailable in your region" The web browser works fine, as does downloading books from Amazon .ca
You can see the content for sale or borrowing in Amazon Prime, but get the same message.


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Why are some apps on the market incompatible with my device?
I own a Motorola Flipout, Android 2.1 stock ROM. According to the market the app "Handyticket Deutschland" is not compatible with my phone. The required Android version is 1.5 or above. How can I tell why the app will not work for me?

The Flipout has a comparably small screen. Is it possible that the publisher just forgot to mark my phone's display resolution as supported?
Note: Users from outside Germany see a different message. I believe, those country-restriction are unrelated.

The Android Market has various filters which are applied to the apk in order to find out if the App will run on your device. The most obviously one is the Android version you are on (also called the SDK level).
But this is not the only criteria. There are others like:

Screen Size
Software libraries

Google API
OpenGL

Particular hardware features that are required

Bluetooth
(front) camera
Vibration

Unfortunately it is not that easy to find out why an App "isn't compatible" with a particular device, even for the developer. There are some tools that an developer can use to find the current filter criteria for an .apk but this will not tell him why the Android market doesn't show an app on a device explicitly.
In your case, the small screen size seems to be the reason. You should e-mail the developer and ask him to fix this, if it isn't intended.

Bottom line, is there a way to bypass the filter? My device isn't supported officially, but I once had the app on my decive (via apk from my friend) and worked great.

If you run a custom Mod you could change your device properties which are signaled to the market so that more apps will show up.

Is there some app that does this I'm on a rooted phone with stock ROM

@Shimmy - a late response to your comment,  but you can edit the device properties with a build.prop editor (numerous available from the Play Store). Be cautious of what you change with it,  you can really mess your device up (boot loop).  Most have the option to make a backup before applying any changes.

@Shimmy You could fetch the APK from Google Play (via a third party) and then sideload the app. It usually works.

From Google App compatibility with Android

When searching or browsing the Google Play Store app, you'll only see apps that are compatible with your device. When using the Google Play website, a device will be grayed out if it isn’t compatible with the app you’re attempting to install. This usually occurs because the app isn’t available in your location or designed for your device's screen size or version of Android
Developers have the ability to target applications to specific devices based on screen size, mobile service provider, location, and a number of other factors. App compatibility can change over time.

(Emphasis supplied)

Is there a generic way to do that?

From the same source

For compatibility information about a specific app, contact the developer directly using the information provided on the Google Play listing

For some apps, reason is displayed ,as in screen shot below from my device ( version incompatibility )

Few years back incompatible apps would state reasons by clicking on a plus sign next to app as mentioned here

Google probably took out the "+" control because that would make it too easy to diagnose the problem.

There can be a number of reasons an app may be shown as "incompatible":

Android version (This hit me the most on my old phone)
CPU architecture (eg. ARMv6, ARMv7, ARMv8, x86) - some devs may be lazy and only compile for ARMv7 and v8
Hardware features such as camera flash or barometer or screen size
As a way to excuse a regional lock (thank you EA!)

I have seen some devs quote support by device rather than by the features of any device. I don't claim to know the whole process, but I assume that this is because most people don't know or care about all these details.

Already have good answers here, but just to add ---
There are some developer APIs that are only compatible with some specific Google Play Services version / Android OS version / Screen version (as already mentioned in the other answers), and not having these specific components or specs may (sometimes) cause the application to:

Not start / run.
Crash / Cause other apps to crash.

Google Play Store itself is helping to avoid any unnecessary bad user experience.
Although most of the APIs are backward compatible, even developers are encouraged to use the most recent version of a specific API they are using.

Android is constantly changing and improving, and the best way to maximize it's benefits is to always be updated as much as possible.

Several factors are taken into consideration when installing applications from the PlayStore.
Here are the most noticeable I have found :
 • Root Access - Safety Net
 • Android Version Compatibility
 • Your area's laws or regulations
 • Tax related selections by developer's
      ( released to select countries )
 • Device hardware compatibility
   ( Eg. 2GB RAM Required )
Usually if you can identify the issue then you can try to find the solution.
 This was a very popular discussion with Pokémon Go because of the minimum RAM requirements.

If you use your device regularly in more than one country, it is essential, I think, to create a google account in each country. Don't forget your phones can have many accounts associated to them. For example, I cannot download "BBVA Wallet" to any of my devices using the account I created in the UK (in fact the app is not even listed on the phone), but if I create a new account in Spain then I can download it to all devices by switching to this account in google play.
PS: it wasn't worth the trouble in the end and I deleted the app in question in less than a day :(

I think root is a problem here, especially if you're using root app.
It's a bit irony google try to limit the users

Yup, was exactly that. Wanst passing the Safetynet.

But I was asking in a more general matter. Like can I have a list of everything that is required to install something from the Play Store

@Fredy31 No, you weren't asking at all. You're not the OP.

I dont know what the glitch was but pretty sure when I commented this, this answer was on a different question, that was mine. I guess 2 questions were merged.

Yep, here is my question: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/186719/is-there-a-way-to-see-why-an-app-is-incompatible-with-your-phone

Some apps may need the exact version... like if it says Android 5.1... you might as well need Android 5.1. Even if it says, "Android X.X and above"... you should try to get Android X.X (X being the same value and version).


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Why is my Android fetching http://xtra3.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin upon start?
I notice my HTC Desire fetches http://xtra3.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin when it boots (and before I enter the PIN).
What is that ?
Here's the HTTP Request sent:

GET /xtra.bin HTTP/1.1
Accept: */*, application/vnd.wap.mms-message, application/vnd.wap.sic
x-wap-profile: http://www.openmobilealliance.org/tech/profiles/UAPROF/ccppschema-20021212#
Host: xtra3.gpsonextra.net
Connection: Keep-Alive
User-Agent: Android

I just noticed today that gpsonextra.net resolves to https://www.qualcomm.cn/ , when requested via a web browser. Strange.

Not strange at all: GpsOneXtra is Qualcomm's implementation of using aGPS.

That is done by gpsd. The XTRA files are the current GPS Almanac. The location of where to download the XTRA files to is defined in /system/etc/gps.conf.
These files contain data that speed up the GPS, which will result in faster GPS position fixes.

I noticed my moto e is making this request, but i dont know if my data provider has blocked this dns and the request is not been resolved. Since i can only wireshark while the device is connected to wifi, i'm not able to make a tcp dump or something like that while the device is on mobile network to know if the request is getting unresolved. Any thoughts?

Do you have any idea whats going on? in my case.

I Post a question here


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If I flash my ROM or wipe my device after buying an app, will I have to buy it again?

Possible Duplicate:
How many times an Android Market's application can be installed?

If I buy an app and after a few days I decide to wipe out the data on my phone and install a new ROM, will I have to buy that app again or can I download it for free since I had already bought it earlier? Can someone please confirm?

No, the market keeps track of your purchases.
Purchased apps can always be downloaded using the Android Market, assuming you are signed in with the account that you used to make the purchase.

No, your App purchases are tied to your Google account. This also allows you to install a purchased App on more than one device. For example I can install Apps that I bought on my smartphone and on my tablet.

As Gary mentioned, so long as you set up your phone with the same account(s) you had on it before you flashed the ROM, the apps will download and install for you.  Your apps follow your account, not your phone.
You can also use an app like Titanium Backup to backup your app(s) + settings and then restore them after flashing a new ROM.  This is my preferred method, as you don't have to spend a lot of time on the settings again.  The free version lets you do one backup total at any time, which is good enough for a casual user, and there is a batch mode to let you back them all up at once (I don't recommend doing that with system apps across ROMs though as you may get strange results).  It does require root, but if you're flashing a new ROM anyway that shouldn't be an issue.


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Lost huge internal memory while debugging application on device
I started developing Android apps recently. For debugging purpose I used my device. Debugs and all went good but lately I realised that 32MB of my internal memory is missing.
I have gone through all the applications, cleared caches but nothing helped.
Does anyone have any idea as to how should I get back the 32 MB's of Space on my Device.
Device: HTC Desire
Android Platform: 2.3.3

Not sure, as devices are setup differently -- but the word "debugging" suggests it:
If you are rooted, check whether the directory /data/tombstones exists. If so, there might be some "tombstones" inside. Being root, you can delete them (they are owned by system, and give no permissions whatsoever to other users).
Explanation: Tombstones
Tombstones are what the dead are covered with, and so it is here. On Linux/Unix known as "core dumps", this is what some apps leave behind when crashed to death: the process' memory dump for analysis by the developer. Only few applications throw tombstones, I guess they have to be explicitly enabled by the developer -- which might happen implicitly when toggling some debug flags.
Up to now, I didn't discover tombstones of that size (all I've seen was between ~30kB and ~250MB), but that doesn't mean they cannot be bigger...

Handy Note: 32 megs is between 30k and 250meg! So you have seen tombstones of that size! :)

What did I write there? That should have been 2.5MB max...


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The last App update keeps downloading after reboot
When I update an app everything works fine. Android Market shows that the update was succesful and nothing is downloading. Also there are no items in "downloads". But when I reboot, the progress bar of the update that I've just installed reappears in the notification area and the download stars again and it finishes without installation. After another reboot it stats downloading the update again and so on.
There is only one update that is being continuously downloaded after reboots and it is always the last update that I've made.
I've already tried clearing Android Market's cache and checking if there are some items in downloads.

I remember that I had the same symptoms, but they disappeared suddenly without me doing anything.

You need to clear the data of the Download Manager and of the Play Store. Go to:
Settings -> Applications -> All

Now for both of the apps mentioned above choose Clear Data and Clear Cache.

Try this. Select the application in the update queue and cancel the update. Do this for all pending items. They will still be in your My Apps queue  marked download. Select one of these listings and choose update. It should finally finish the update process for that app. Do this all other apps marked update, one at a time.

Like I wrote, there is no update process. Update was applied succesfully the first time the patch was downloaded.
The only thing that happens is the downloading process of the patch after every reboot.


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Can I use an Android OS card on the new Nook Tablet?
I am debating between purchasing the Kindle Fire or the Nook Tablet for my son.  My main concern with the Kindle is the limited memory.  I love the fact that the Nook has the slot for an SD card.  However, I've noticed that the prices on many of the games and such on the B&N Nook store are much more than those on Kindle.  I read somewhere that there is an Android OS card that can go into the Nook MicroSD slot to make it a full Android tablet.  Is this true?  Where would I get this card and how much is it?  (I'm really totally new to this... sorry).  Would this mean that I would be able to go to any Android App store and download games and such from there?  Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

An "Android OS" card? I've never heard of such a thing. If you've seen something like that it's probably a scam. That said, Nooks have been rooted and the Android Market installed.

@AlEverett It's not a scam.  The Nook Color boots off of the SD card before it boots off of the internal memory.  An "Android OS" card is a SD card that has CyanogenMod or similar loaded on it.  So when you plug in the SD card it boots into CyanogenMod and when it is removed it boots to the regular B&N software/OS (which is built on top of Android). Although you don't need to buy one of these, you can actually make the SD card yourself

@BryanDenny: Learn something new every day.

With the Nook Color it is possible to both root the tablet and install a custom ROM.  Some users have even gone so far as to setup their Nook Color to dual boot.  In this scenario, the unit will boot the stock Nook OS when allowed to boot from internal memory, or boot a custom ROM when instructed to boot from the SD card.  This is likely the scenario you read about with regard to an "Android OS card".
The Nook Tablet is quite similar to the Nook Color, but has been modified from the earlier device to have a locked bootloader that will only load a ROM signed by Barnes & Noble.  While it is still possible to gain root permission on this device, it is not (yet) possible to load a customer ROM.  Due to this, you may not boot the unit to an alternative ROM stored on the SD card.  You can, however, install the Amazon AppStore, Google Market, GMail, and other apps to get more utility from this tablet.  You can find instructions and details over at XDA-Developers:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1354487

Was just about to post this but you beat me to it. People sell these SD cards with CyanogenMod or some other ROM on them so you can boot from either the SD card or internal memory (I've done it with my Nook Color before).


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Is there a way to transmit all sound over wifi from my tablet to my pc?
I want to transmit my sound (from youtube, music files on the tablet, etc) from my tablet to my computer.
The closest I can get is controlling my library of music on my computer, but I really want to be able to play a youtube video from the youtube app on my tablet and have it play through my computer.
I don't mind buying apps if that is what I need. Any help will be appreciated.

I don't think you will be able to use the youtube app to get where you want to go but there are a quite a few DLNA (google it) based alternatives out there which could be what you are looking for. I am currently evaluating some of them but my objective is a little bit different and probably the toolset as well. Good luck, maybe someone else have good app suggestions.

I'm assuming by the title that you don't want to use bluetooth? It only goes ~30ft, but it's fairly simple and works well in most scenarios. Your laptop most likely supports A2DP, and thus you don't need to buy or download anything.

Oh, and A2DP supports controls such as play/pause/skip/volume, which is a nice bonus.

In general it is at the moment impossible to stream all audio from your android to another receiver.
There's no app which can help you because android itself has no APIs for grabbing audio.
But sure you may use a specific player, e.g. one for YouTube and one for music and so on.
I really know what I'm talking about because I'm developing an app for general streaming audio since several months (it's really hard work with rooting, kernel-module etc.).

Try looking into Plex. I have never used it, but I hear it is good and works on a multitude of devices.

I'm not sure if this is a solution for you but to conserve my processing power for gaming I stream movies on my tablet right beside me while I play and at night I'd like to listen to all of my audio through my USB headphones. I plugged a dual-sided 1/8th inch jack into my tablet and the microphone port on my computer, go into Sound>Recording Devices, right click on the proper device, go to properties, Listen, then check the "Listen to this device" and apply. Occasionally I'll get a weird feedback noise but it's solved my problem and I hope it can help anyone else looking to do something similar.

For the Youtube specific part of your request specifically, Google have released an official YouTube Remote app, that allows you to control playing YouTube videos on a PC from an Android phone/tablet. You visit http://youtube.com/leanback on your PC, and the app then interacts with it.


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Flashing Android Source - Droid X
(I previously asked this on StackOverflow and was directed here.)
I'm hoping for some clarification on the requirements and/or process of flashing a custom build of Android to a device. I've built a stock version from the AOSP and tried a few different times to flash it on my Droid X, all unsuccessful. I was thinking (or hoping) that the process of rooting the device would also unlock it to allow this, but maybe that's not the case. It looks like the phone still can't be touched at kernel level.
Anyone know what's up here? There's a lot of ROMs for the DX, so it seems like there's a way, or do all those ROMs modify only a superficial level of the Verizon image? I just want to know what's going on under the covers.

Is it flashing and then just not booting, or is it not flashing in the first place? I wouldn't expect it to boot, since the AOSP source wouldn't have any of the drivers you need, and the kernel might not even be compatible.

No, it doesn't flash. I was guessing the bootloader looks for a signed kernel?

eldarerathis is right, you'd need to build the Droid X source in order for it to just work without modification.  Drivers are the main issue here; unlike Windows, for example, Android does not include a vast number of drivers to enable it to work on most any hardware.  Android also runs on much less standardized hardware than PCs.
Most ROMs you see tend to be modifications of the stock image, possibly with custom kernels built from stock.  It's rare that they're fully built from the manufacturer's source, and even rarer when they're built from the AOSP (apart from the Nexus devices).

Well perhaps that's the part I don't understand; where do the ROM developers get the Droid X source? Modifying the stock image would first require reverse engineering it to source, no? I thought the Droid X Source was modified from the AOSP, as was everything else, but the modifications (and probably drivers) are not public.

@jarvisteve As far as I understand, manufacturers are required to release most of their source due to the open-source licence agreements of the Android project.  Motorola has posted the Droid X source here.  And no, there are many modifications that don't require modifying binaries (and those that do don't necessarily require source. I've hex edited binaries in-place myself.)