text:
Water-damaged phone no longer shows battery status or recognizes my SIM card
I have a T-Mobile G2X, and I accidently poored a glass of water on it. It turns on, wifi works and all the apps are the fine. However, the battery status is displayed as a little question mark, the date was reset to 2007 and it wont read my SIM card.
How can I do a clean install of Android? I'd like to see if that solves my problem, but I'm not sure exactly how to do that.
Is there anything else that could fix these issues?

Perform a factory reset. But I doubt that this will fix your problems. Sounds like they are caused by hardware.

I did a factory reset already and I have the same issue. I think the water caused a shortcut and affected the software. if it was hardware related I dont think the phone would turn on and wifi is working etc etc


text:
What do I get if I install a custom ROM instead of installing new launcher, new phone app, ...?
I have been thinking about installing a new ROM, like CyanogenMod (most probably), but thought it would be a mess to return to stock ROM if I messed it up, plus, last time I checked, not all features are guaranteed to work (camera, tethering, ...).
Now, my question is not about how to backup the old ROM, because I found another solution: as my phone is rooted, why not remove the stock launcher, the stock music app, stock browser, all the Samsung Software Update and Holy Quran and Samsung Apps and Swype and all the apps Samsung forces me to use? These are easy to back up (in case), and I can replace them with a browser of my choice, ADW Launcher (CyanogenMod's one), music player of my choice, keyboard of my choice, etc.
So what does a custom ROM offer more than just custom launchers and widgets and looks? Or is my option "utopia"?
Note: I'm not sure if that matters, but I'm on a Samsung Galaxy Fit GT-S5670, Rooted Android Froyo 2.2.1
Another Note: I read this question and its answer, but the answer there only states things that could be done with a home replacement app...
UPDATE It seems nothing can't be done with apps. It's just easier and faster and more stable to use a custom ROM, that is if the ROM for your device is stable enough.

The question you linked has all of the answers. How could you add a kernel to support better overclocking with home replacement app?

possible duplicate of What are the advantages of a custom ROM?

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1874/where-can-i-find-a-good-comparison-of-available-custom-roms

@SachinShekhar Ok, if you feel that all the others are also relevant, then I'm sorry: close this question. Please do consider to update that community wiki.

Technically, as a root user, you can achieve every exclusive thing what a custom ROM offers. But, its not always as easy as replacing home launcher. What if you need to replace kernel for better overclocking support...
A custom ROM is actually pre-cooked out-of-box firmware packaging (with specialized feature). Remember, popular custom ROMs (like Cyanogen Mod) are generally backed by an expert developers team or community. So, even if you have expertise of doing every such things in your rooted device, its very difficult to match a team or community. And, don't forget those nasty bugs and security loopholes...
The main advantage of custom ROMs: Those who have expertise of doing everything with rooted device, generally cook their own ROM. It's because custom ROMs can be deployed to multiple devices. Think how you would port your customizations to other devices... Its a big hassle than cooking own ROM.

Thanks. If I understand correctly, the issue is not with what you can't to do, but how to make it all work out seamlessly. Correct?

@jadkik94 Yes, you've got it right... Easy deployment is also an advantage of Custom ROMs..

Two major cons to simply using a different launcher Vs. a whole new ROM:

Custom ROMs often offer a later version of Android than is available for your device from a manufacturer or carrier.  No amount of launchers will give you the newer functionality of latest OS versions.
Very often removing manufacturer/carrier "bloat" is not as easy as deleting some APKs from /system/app directory.  In cases of custom UIs such as Samsung's TouchWiz, or Motorola's BLUR, or HTC's Sense, many of their apps which replace stock core functions (e.g. Phone/Dialer, Contacts, etc.) are interwoven with the system and each other in such a way that simply removing them may cause crashes or other system instabilities.  Installing 3rd-party replacements does not resolve anything, since these apps are always running in the background, using up valuable resources.

Thanks for the answer. Good point for (1), but I don't think this applies for my phone (unfortunately). As for the second, I was considering to replace these with the "pure native" Android apps for that (from the source). Would that do the trick?

Even if you find the "pure native" versions of core system apps, chances are that you won't be able to completely replace the ones that came with your phone. That is if they work at all with the version of OS currently on your phone.

The comments on this answer suggest otherwise... and the wiki on Cyanogen Mod too (but not for all apps). As long as they have the same package name, I guess they would work. Confusing... anyway, maybe I'll try it out and see what happens. Thanks again.

Then again comments on this question support your point...

I have personally experienced general system instability while trying to "de-bloat" a Motorola Charm (MB502) phone.  For example, removing a seemingly unneeded app "Happenings.apk" started causing FCs while trying to edit contacts.

Also, you may not be able to install AOSP versions of system apps at all, if the framework on your phone is too different from the "vanilla" one.  Even if this works, the manufacturers' own versions would still need to be present, and will always be running whether or not you are using them.

I removed some bloat apps also including Youtube and 2 or 3 apps that come with Samsung devices in the Middle East. I did not experience any problems, but these apps are not "essential" system apps, I did not try other ones, I only assumed it would work. Thanks for your time.

I have noticed in various ROMs some features which I have never seen implemented in applications (not as smoothly). Some concrete examples:

Whisper Systems has a ROM that implements "selective permissions", which supply "blocked" applications with dummy data if a permission is denied. It also has "Full disk encryption for your phone" which encrypts the whole device partition.
CyanogenMod also has something like that implemented at the core, but an application can do almost the same.
I have seen MODs that add options to the menu that shows when the power button is pressed (reboot, reboot in recovery, data transfer, ...). This, I guess, can't be done with an app.
Better overclocking support, although it can be done with an app but does not support all devices after all...
Boot animation is often changed/removed with custom ROMs.
Customized notifications bar (transparent or not, more or less options, different icons near the clock, ...) and UI (dialogs for example and other form elements, etc.)
Customized unlock screens, screen on/off animations, ...

This what I have seen so far.
EDIT To my surprise, as @SachinShekhar pointed out in the comments, ALL this can be achieved with applications, so disregard this answer, I'm leaving it for further reference, if someone turned out to not know about all this... (like me)

For Selective Permissions, you can use Permission Fix app.

I alter boot animations with ROM Toolbox Pro app.

ROM Toolbox Pro app can customize notification bar too.

There are many apps in Play Store for custom unlock screen..

@SachinShekhar Wow! I'm shocked...

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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WLAN Transfer never over 2MB/s
I have a Phone and a Router with WLAN n-Technology, but i never get more Speed than 2MB/s (Only in Speedtests, not from Computer to Phone) I tried SSH, FTP and MyPhoneExplorer.
Any Ideas what i could do / check?

The speed is limited by weakest point in the system. If you are using a class 2 microSD, you can't get speed more than 2MBps even if your network can transfer 1TBps.

Any way to Bench the SD-Card?

@Styler2go: You can try SD Tools.

You should make sure that your router is in n-only mode, since if there's even one g-mode device in the access point, the speed gets dropped from all devices, except if the device has separate chips for g-mode and n-mode.
Also, your devices CPU and RAM can cause limitations. For example, my Galaxy Nexus can handle speeds up to 30MBps whereas the original Galaxy capped at about 10MBps despite being attached to a 100MBps access point.

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


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Can I increase the screen dimming in Android v4?
I've noticed that Android v4 on a Samsung Galaxy Note does not dim the screen nearly enough in darkness or very low light, even when the auto dimming feature is turned on.  Are there any controls I've missed?  Are there any applications that increase the screen dimming?
If not, can anyone make comments on trying to write such an application?  Would I need to modify Cyanogen to do this?

Try the app Screen Filter, it does just what you need with no extra hassle.


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Mobile AP gives "error" when trying to enable
I'm running Android Gingerbread 2.3.3 on Samsung Galaxy S - Captivate (SGH-I896)
I recently rooted my phone because my provider, SpeakOut, only allows internet access through port 80; apps weren't receiving or sending any data and neither was Mobile AP. I rooted the phone and installed Autoproxy to redirect all requests through port 80.
Now when I enable Mobile AP it shows Error; no details given. Is there anywhere to find additional details?
I have tried disabling Autoproxy and have tried enabling with both an Open security and a WPA2 PSK security setting. Mobile AP was able to enable before, but connecting to it gave "No Internet".
Does anyone have any idea of why this may be happening?
Thanks for the help!

I used to get that problem when I was on GB. It stopped when I started using ICS based CM9. One solution while I was on GB was rebooting. After I did that it would work again.


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Can I prevent the off button from locking the device?
I've noticed that tapping the off button locks the device under ICS.  Are there any tricks for making it only shut down the touchscreen and wait for the timeout to actually lock the device?
You must tap the off button to disable the screen when inserting the phone into your pocket because otherwise the phone gets spurious input, but frequently you'll want to pull the phone right back out again.

There's an option for this in CyanogenMod 9, but I'm not sure if it's there in vanilla ICS (I get the feeling it probably isn't, but could be wrong). You can check Settings->Security->Lock Screen to see if you have a "Lock Delay" section in your settings.

There is a lock delay option which works if the screen saver engages, but it's ignored when not when you tap the off button.

There's an option in Security settings: power button instantly locks screen.

Interesting, my Galaxy Note running Android v4.0.3 doesn't offer that option.  It appears Samsung phones running v4.0.4 offer the feature though so probably it'll turn up eventually : http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus/485361-lock-screen-locks-immediately.html

image link is dead. Better to upload to stackexchange's image server.


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Samsung Galaxy Gio network menu
I have a problem with my galaxy gio. It has a network lock (I think) and I've tried to unlock it. The problem is that I have the unlock code but the phone doesn't ask for it. It is there a menu or a key code to open that menu to enter the unlock code or any other solution ?
Thanks

I've solved the problem. The device has a custom rom and you cannot unblock them so. I had to flash the device with a stock one and Odin and then it asked me for network key.

At least on older phones the unlock codes work directly from the dialing interface. Try to enter the code as if you were calling it (from the dialer).

I've already tried that ...

Another method is to boot the phone with a non-supported SIM card, and it should ask for the Network Lock Control Key, or you can try entering #7465625638unlockcode# into the dialer, or #0111unlockcode#, or just #7465625638*# and then the unlock code when it asks for it.

Yeah I've solved the problem. The device has a custom rom and you cannot unblock them so. I had to flash the device with a stock one and Odin and then it asked me for network key. Anyway thanks :)


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My keyboard is no longer switching languages
I have a weird thing in my phone, usually I used to switch languages by swiping the space button. But suddenly its gone. This started after I added temporary a third language, and removed it. Now my only option to change the language is going into the settings and enabling only the language I want. If more that one language is used, the last one from the list is chosen.
Is that a bug or did I mess up the settings?
I'm using Android 2.3.5, on a Galaxy S 2. And I'm using the standard Samsung keyboard that can with the device.

What keyboard are you using?

Also, what exact device do you have?

information added - if anything more is from importance, just let me know :)


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Better Autocorrection on Galaxy Note similar to Blackberry?
I got my first android device ever and it is the galaxy note.  Previously I was on a blackberry.
At the moment, I dislike the auto correction on the Galaxy Note.  If I want to type "and" but accidentally typed "abd", the autocorrect puts "abduction".  With my old blackberry, typing "abd" will display the suggested autocomplete inline.  If you press the space bar, then "abd" remains.  If you press enter key, then it will display the suggested autocomplete of "abduction".  This is great, because you can easily choose between abd or abduction without needing to look to a separate userinterface control for autocompelte suggestions and moving your fingers to a separate userinterface control.
Can anyone recommend a blackberry like keyboard for android?  Or just somethign that let's me easily choose "abd" instead of "abduction" when I mispell "and"?

There's a keyboard better that that of Blackberry: SwiftKey X. Believe me, you'll love its Artificial Intelligence based suggestions. It learns from your typing habits to suggest you better. And, it can learn from Twitter, Facebook, Gmail and RSS Feed too (Quick Learning).

You can try default Android keyboard. Search for Gingerbread keyboard or Icecream sandwich keyboard in play store.


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Nexus S downgrade with Clockwork Mod
I have a Sprint Nexus S 4G running ICS Cyanogenmod 9.  I want to run 2.3.6.
In CWR I've backed up, wipe/erased, wiped Calvik cache, but when I go to install my Sojus 2.3.6 file I get Installing update, Installation aborted.
I don't know why and I feel like I'm missing something obvious.
One thing I noticed about the 2.3.6 package sojus-gwk74-factory-4a34b67a.zip is that in it there is image-sojus-gwk74.zip which is the largest file and what I put on the Nexus S' SD card.
There is also radio-crespo4g-d720sprkh1.img and bootloader-crespo4g-d720sprke1.img which I didn't put on the SD card (or maybe I did, but I can't see them from the install from zip section).
Is there something else I am supposed to do with those files? Perhaps I am supposed to run fastboot before I go to recovery mode in CWR?
Model Number:
Nexus S 4G
Android Version:
4.0.4
Baseband version:
D720SPRLC1
Kernel Version:
3.0.31-cyanogenmod-ga64c18e  android@thebeast #1
Build Number:
IMM76I
Mod Version:
Apex v1.1.2
My problem is the exact same as this guy's: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1429669

You have to use fastboot.
That is all.
This is from my command line command history:
532  ./fastboot-mac flash bootloader bootloader-crespo4g-d720sprke1.img
533  ls
534  ./fastboot-mac reboot-bootloader
535  ./fastboot-mac flash radio radio-crespo4g-d720sprkh1.img
536  ./fastboot-mac reboot-bootloader
537  ./fastboot-mac flash recovery recovery.img
538  ./fastboot-mac flash boot boot.img
539  ./fastboot-mac flash system system.img
540  ./fastboot-mac flash userdata userdata.img
541  flashboot erase cache
542  ./fastboot-mac erase cache
543  ./fastboot-mac oem lock`


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Opening PDF drawings with comments
On some of my PDF drawings the Engineers review stamp block is covering a portion of the drawing.  I am using Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 -7.0 with ice cream to view this drawing.  I did not have any issues viewing the same drawing with the same "Engineers approval" stamp on my Windows 7 desktop. Can someone tell me if there is a solution or if this is an issue with Adobe Reader 10.2.1?

Use ezPDF Reader to view that file.

+1, it does just about everything for PDFs

This sounds like it could be one of two things: either it could be a problem with the PDF reader on the Samsung Galaxy Tab or that the different screen resolution is just making both images appear on top of one another (more likely). Since the tab has a smaller screen it could be "warping" the image to appear differently when in actuality there's nothing wrong with the PDF. You'll need to shrink that PDF.
There are many PDF viewers on the market that will allow you to view PDFs accurately if the PDF reader is the problem. A simple market search for "PDF" should turn up a number of readers. You can try this approach but it's also likely that the reader on the tab is merely warping the image and that there's nothing inherently wrong with the reader itself.
More likely, you can try shrinking your PDFs down to an appropriate size if they're too large. From what you're describing this may very well be the problem, your exact problem may be occurring because the images within the PDF are extremely large.
They can be trimmed down. This will also reduce the overall file size of the PDF (desirable). For more information see: http://www.ehow.com/how_4937702_reduce-pdf-file-size-easily.html


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How can I make my Lenovo ThinkPad tablet charge up faster?
It takes a very long time (half a day) to charge up with a USB 2.0 charger plugged in the wall outlet.

How long does it take?

oh, it takes half a day.

Put your device to sleep mode for faster charging.
check o/p voltage and current of your adapter(charger) and use higher o/p current adapter(this option might produce more heat while charging so could damage your device, proper cooling while charging expected)

The USB standard only specifies a rather low charging rate (0.5 amps), but there are well-accepted ways for devices to get a higher rate (by negotiating with the host).  See How much power does a Galaxy Tab 10.1 charger need to supply? for more details (of course the specifics about the Galaxy Tab probably won't apply to your phone, but the general background info probably will).  If your tablet came with a special USB adapter, try using that to see if it charges faster.
As Sagar notes, turning as much stuff or putting the tablet in sleep mode will help recharge rates.


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How to re-edit /system file to reboot phone?
How does one re-set or edit the /system/build.prop, when changes kept it from booting up again? Rooted Optimus.

What were the changes you made?

bad dalvik.vm.heapsize

Which phone do you have?

Try rebooting into recovery and connecting to the phone via ADB:
adb devices
It should give a message like this:
List of devices attached
01234565ABCDEFG        recovery

You can then copy the file off the phone:
adb pull /system/build.prop c:\build.prop
You can now edit it in any text editor (recommend Notepad++ because it will preserve the Unix style line endings,) and then copy it back to the phone:
adb push c:\build.prop /system/build.prop
If the issue was indeed within that file, the phone should boot now.

reboot recovery how?

Depends on the phone; it's usually different for each model.  Usually you shut it off (pull the battery if you can't any other way) and then turn it on while holding a button or a combination of buttons.  This should be in the manual.  If not, try a Google search for "recovery mode" for your phone's model.

Ok, phone recovery doesn't seem to have done anything, just showed a different boot animation.

Did you have a custom recovery installed to begin with?

You restore the backup you made before editing such a sensitive file.
rm build.prop
cp yourbackupbuild.prop build.prop

If you didn't have the foresight to make a backup, then I guess you can ask for someone with the same phone/software version to send you theirs.

I wasn't able to su, it gave error in adb shell

I was able to restore the factory firmware using the instructions here. Worked with no problem on Windows 7. :)
I guess this is why we should use custom-recovery like Clockworkmod?


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How to run Cyanogenmod for milestone a853 on emulator?
I've successfully compiled Cyanogenmod for milestone a853 and was following these instructions: http://oldwiki.cyanogenmod.org/wiki/Android_SDK_Emulator:_Compile_CyanogenMod_%28Linux%29
and then I run the emulator with this command:
/android/android-sdk-linux/tools/emulator -kernel ./prebuilt/android-arm/kernel/kernel-qemu-armv7

after the ANDROID_ splash screen, the emulator stuck at a black screen without any response. So how can I resolve this problem?

I'd be surprised if this works. The drivers and their configuration are most likely going to be incorrect if you've built for the Milestone.

@eldarerathis♦  The code are from http://android.doshaska.net/cm7 . That's correct I think. I was only following instructions from the url in the question (official cyanogenmod site)

What I meant was that if your build was configured for the Milestone then that's the only device it's really intended to run on. The emulator doesn't emulate a Milestone, it's a generic set of hardware, so I wouldn't think that a Milestone ROM would necessarily be compatible with the emulator's virtual hardware. I've never tried and I have no idea personally, but that's my assumption.

but, I've successfully run the cyanogenmod for moto dorid on the emulator. so what're the differences?


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software update available -- how to find out the details?
My UK HTC Chacha phone running 2.3.5 since the last few months shows a notification since the last couple of days that there is a software update available. But the menu only says that it's a bit over 7MB to downloads, it doesn't specify what software update this is which version  -- how to find out the details?

Your carrier is responsible for sending OTA updates.  Check their website, call them and ask, or try searching for your carrier's name and "Android update".

The ChaCha does the actual updates check by contacting some webservers (*.htc.com) which are listed in build.prop. All released ROM updates are listed at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2094100 but with a 7MB download it must be something else.

The over 7MB to download part could be that the phone is set in a way that downloading files >7Mb would require a Wi-Fi connection.
To avoid data wastage many phones have this feature to enable warning/limit downloads over the mobile data usage. This settings can be managed under the settings options of your Mobile Data option.
Just by un-checking the option you can easily download the update OTA


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Xperia Arc S typing problem while connected to PC?
I am having a problem with my Xperia Arc S, running Android v4.0.3. When I connect my phone to PC with USB cable, and trying to type anything while it's connected, my phone detects a single touch as a multiple random touches (e.g., I press "w", and it writes "wgjr4"), and when I'm trying to delete errors, it deletes one letter and again types several. It's annoying, and there's gotta to be some solution.
Can anybody tell me where is the problem, and how to fix it?

This is only when connected via USB? Are you using the standard keyboard?

Do you use a self-powered usb hub (with a bad power source)? Bad rippled power supplies may distort the touch screen inputs (for capacitive touch sensors). If not, try a self powered hub and see if it's better... (if your pc pwr supply is causing this)

Yup even I have a Xperia NEO had I have also faced the same issue. I tried reporting it on the Sony Mobile forum but it seems it is a unresolved bug. Seems the issue is with the current supply, which makes the screen too sensitive resulting in multi-touch. Try disconnecting and try typing after sometime, seems to help in my case.


text:
HSDPA/3G not working and Power off when plugged to charger
I am not sure whether anyone has this issue before. My phone is: Samsung Galaxy Ace GT-S5830.
From today morning onwards, 3G or HSDPA not working in my phone. When I plugged the phone to the charger or plugged into the data cable, the phone shut down automatically. Does anyone have this issue before? Or is there any application or a way to fix the issue or find out the issue
Thanks

Sounds like a hardware problem to me.

@roxan: Exactly. The model was for European region :) Now I changed the model :) Thanks

Well in that case can this question be marked/edited as [SOLVED]... :)

This could possibly be software or hardware related. If you power the phone down first and then plug it in, does it start charging or does it do nothing? If it doesnt, I would start to lean towards some type of hardware failure (hard to say for sure though). Have you also tried a factory reset on the phone? If it is software related for some reason, then a factory reset may fix that up.
Did this issue appear out of no where, or did you recently install new apps or something when the issue started?

Actually it happened out of no where. I reset the phone again and install the applications as well. But still I am getting this error


text:
Can apps be installed to or otherwise use the external SD card of the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0?
I have a Samsung Galaxy 2 7" wifi only tablet using ICS 4.0.3. Samsung states that all apps on ICS must run from internal storage (8Gb). I have a program that requires more storage for the data files than can fit in internal storage. I have a 32 Gb external microSD card installed with sufficient room for the data files. Is there a way for the app to be associated with the data files on my external storage card so that I can run the app?

Did Samsung specifically say this has to do with ICS? It sounds like the way they've configured their devices for a while now (with an "internal" SD card partition that apps would use).

Samsung said that this is a function of ICS.  The following is one of the answers given by Samsung on their Support site for the Galaxy Tab 2, 7".  "Thank you for contacting Samsung.
The SD card can be used to store media like videos, music and photos. Apps are programmed to work strictly with the Android OS."

Use Samsung Kies to successfully connect your tab to PC, Samsung Kies supplies the drivers for your tab to be recognised by PC, when connecting you will also have the usual window pop up to give you access through explorer to both the card and the main tabs "drive", you can select through Kies where you place your media, internal or external. Hope this help.

Will Samsung Kies allow me to store and operate the application from the external storage card where I need to store the data files?

Yes, samsung kies is like iTunes in Apple products. It lets u download add and do all the things u need to do with the SD Card or your mobile in general

This doesn't appear to answer the OP's question at all. The question is whether or not an installed app can use the external storage card - Kies has no bearing on this.


text:
Where to modify the pseudonym used to rate Android apps?
I am currently rating android applications that I downloaded with the username firstname.lastname where firstname and lastname are mine.
However, I would like to put a pseudonym on it because my real name reveals to everybody the device I am using, which should be private. Currently, my rating looks like this one:
firstname.lastname on May 22, 2012 (Samsung Galaxy S2 with version 1.0)

I looked into my public profile of Google+, but I cannot find something which looks like firstname.lastname.
I looked on the Google Play website, but I did not find related preferences.
Where can I change this name? Is it in the device itself or what?

Ok, I finally found it. I need to click on "edit/modify" close to the e-mail addresses in the google account setting
https://www.google.com/settings/
Then the hidden nickname option appears.
Thank you for your suggestions.

Can you add please a screen?

Change your nickname in your Google account settings.

Where is this nickname option ?

Now accepted answer is obsolete. Now go to https://myaccount.google.com/personal-info then click "Choose what others see" then you are on "About me" page and in section "Basic info" next to the name is arrow, click it and there you can enter nickname.
But nickname can not be used standalone but only combined with name and surname. Google fail!

Welcome Mike! I edited your answer just a touch.  Freudian slip? ;)

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


text:
Speech-to-Text Uppercase Letter Problem
Whenever I compose any type of message through speech-to-text, a problem occurs which is rather annoying and seemingly, there is no workaround.
The problem:
Android capitalises the first letter of the sentence, which is great.  But it then proceeds to capitalise every occurrence of the same letter wherever it appears throughout the rest of the sentence.  For example:
This senTence is an example senTence ThaT has been composed Through speech-To-TexT.

I have turned auto-capitalisation off and this (obviously) results in no capital letters being used either at the beginning of the sentence, nor are any occurrences of the letter I capitalised.  This is almost as annoying as the main problem.
I would like to know if anybody has had a similar problem and, if so, is there a solution to this problem?
I have a Samsung Galaxy Note and am running Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread).
Many thanks.

Is it the same for all apps or just certain ones?

All apps - please see my answer; it explains the solution.

Interesting Problem..

I have discovered a solution for this problem.
The only apparent way around it is to change the keyboard from the default keyboard to the Swype keyboard.
Click here if you would like to know what Swype is; at first I was a little dubious, but it really is quite marvellous and accurate!
Why this resolves the problem, I do not know, but I am just happy that it does and am certain that this will provide some respite to those of you who are also experiencing this annoying problem.

it probably solves your problem because Swype uses Dragon Dictation (to my knowledge) to handle their speech-to-text instead of Google's, which sounds like what you were having the problem with.


text:
Outlook Style Android App
I use 2010  Outlook running on a PoP3 server.  I just bought a Galaxy  Note and love it.  But I need an e-mail app like outlook that will allow me to setup folder and rules to move specific e-mail in their correct folders.  I don't care about syncing with Outlook on my window x64 O.S. because my server handles that for me.  But I need the portability  of my note with a sort of sophisticated folder/rule e-mail app.  I don't mind paying for it, as long as it just doesn't delete my mail after 30 days.

Try Touchdown. Their feature list includes "Email Folders" and allows for rules/filters (per this thread). If you like it, make sure to buy a licence before the 30-day trial is up.
I'm not an Exchange-on-Android user myself, but of those I know who are many prefer Touchdown.

Thanks I will look at it. I am a believer in purchasing software.


text:
How can I flash ClockWorkMod on my Samsung Galaxy Fit running froyo?
I was following instructions on xda-developers to install a new ROM, then it linked to these instructions about installing CWM on Samsung GT-S5670. The problem is, there's a Warning there that says:

I take no support for RFS file system So this Recovery will not work
  for Stock ROM or Custom ROM that using RFS file system. Also this
  Recovery will not work for froyo baseband

My device matches both conditions.
I did a mount and checked the output, both /system and /cache are RFS. And I'm running stock Android 2.2.1 JXKA4 baseband (And there's no official update from what I know).
Now, I searched everywhere, and found someone who ported this to support RFS filesystems. I'm not sure that's what I want though, because I will be installing an ext4 ROM.
I also read in the forums about people bricking their device with ROM Manager, as it is not currently supported... (and with the method I linked to also with android 2.2)
I guess I definitely need Odin, but can't find the right version (official or not) of CWM to flash? What do I risk trying to flash the one on xda-developers forum, most probably bricking right?
Or maybe should I use another recovery for my device?
UPDATE:
I just read this thread. It seems there is not other way but to:

First of all upgrade to Gingerbread via Kies/ODIN. Then, install CWM
  via ODIN. Download any ROM and flash via CWM.

So, for CWM 5 on Samsung Galaxy Fit to work, you need to have Gingerbread flashed, and ad my phone has never had the Gingerbread official update, I think I will have to flash another stock ROM (another region), then flash CWM, then probably flash a custom ROM.
Additionally I thought I might install that RFS based CWM to backup stock ROM, then go on flashing a custom ROM.
I'll try it, and if it works, I'll post an answer and accept it.

You should be able to flash the recovery with Ext4 support and then immediately flash the ROM, but I don't know the details for sure.  You are unlikely to perma-brick unless you flash a bootloader, Odin-ing to stock should undo anything else.

@MatthewRead The problem is that I can't make a Nandroid backup before flashing CWM or similar, and I'd rather do that beforehand... I don't want to take any risk.

Odin is better than Nandroid, but I understand.

This is what I ended up doing, just in case this might help someone else:

I tried flashing CWM 5 for RFS file systems via Odin. It's actually straightforward, and then the phone reboots normally. However, trying to get to the recovery mode fails. (I'm not sure how exactly, but it wouldn't work for me, I think it hanged at the recovery screen with android written on it).
(I freaked out) Then I downloaded a stock ROM (indian, based on 2.3.6) from samfirmware. Flashed it through Odin again. The device reboots (and takes some time) and you're on 2.3.6!
Then I flashed CWM 5 for Galaxy Fit (also from Odin) from the forums. It went smoothly. It will also boot into the stock ROM, and into the recovery.
From there, I didn't really try to do a Nandroid backup. (I supposed it would fail).
Then I formatted /data, /cache, ... Then moved the update zip file (the ROM) onto the SD card. And from recovery, installed it.

It's really not a big deal, if you're worried as I was. A simple backup of all your user data and apps via TitaniumBackup or similar, and your contacts synced to Google or exported to the SD in csv format, and you won't even feel the transition.


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Does Unlocking bootloader affect network lock?
Will the bootloader unlock procedure as shown on the HTC Dev website affect my network lock?
I have an HTC Aria, which was originally SIM locked, but I got unlocked from a shop. Now, since I'm working on Android apps and HTC devices, I want to unlock my bootloader, but I'm worried that it will re-lock my device to the original carrier.

No, the bootloader has no bearing on a SIM/network lock. The HTCdev site explicitly states this on the bootloader unlock page, in fact:

Please note that unlocking your bootloader does not mean that you will
  be able to unlock the SIM lock. Unlocking your SIM lock is at the
  discretion of your operator/carrier and is not part of the bootloader
  unlocking scope.

The reverse is also true, but the main point is that the two concepts are unrelated.

Yea, I wanted to confirm for the reverse process.Thanks alot "eldarerathis"

@user981 I disagree (partly) with the reverse bit. If the SIM is locked, you cannot unlock the bootloader.

@DanB I've not seen a situation where that was the case. Have any sources that support your statement?


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No GPS reception on Asus Slider SL101
I am the owner of an ASUS SL101 tablet, runing Android 4.0 (ICS). Using the "GPS Test" app,  I cannot get any GPS signals, even when standing outside for extended periods of time. I have a standalone GPS that has no problems getting GPS signals under the smae conditions. Is this a harware or software issue, and is there any way to get any reception on the tblet? One of the tablet's primary purposes was to be a GPS, and at the moment the function is completely useless. Help is much appreciated.

Could you possibly post up the system log from the phone when you're trying to connect to the GPS?

@Peanut How do I find the system log?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2882253/how-do-i-get-the-logfile-from-an-android-device so set up the PC and device and then turn on the GPS when you're outside/near a window/somewhere where you can get GPS, then plug the phone back into the PC and take the log off it. Or there's this application: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xtralogic.android.logcollector&hl=en but the reviews for it are mixed.

Unfortunately, I would say you probably have a hardware issue here. I have had two phones do similar things, one did not connect at all, the other would connect only for a moment before basically shutting the GPS down. Both of these ended up being hardware issues resulting in me returning the devices. My best advice would be to try multiple apps to test GPS signal, ( I use GPS Status or Tricorder), and if you get no GPS reception from any of them, contact your manufacturer, or the people you purchased it from. Usually resellers will refund or replace products that malfunction without provocation.
If you do get signal with any of them or you get partial GPS signal sometimes, I'd still contact your reseller or manufacturer with the issues, while continuing to test it in different places alongside other (Android 4.0, if possible) devices.

I used GPS Test, I will try the two apps you listed. I am reluctant to return it, as I have done so three times already.

That's rotten luck :/ I feel the GPS malfunctioning is far too common of an issue. As I said, I've had two do it, and it kills a lot of things I would like to use my phone for.

So this is the manufacturer's fault and not Android's, correct?

It was in both of my cases.

What do you mean by that? What did android do wrong?

I meant the hardware was the issue in both my cases, not Android


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Root Nook Color without removing Nook OS
I have a Nook Color 1.3.0 and a Mac OS X computer. I have a microSD card with ClockworkMod and such for installing the Android OS, but I would like a solution that would allow me to root so that I don't need Honeycomb or ClockworkMod to install and run things from the Market. At the very least a terminal emulator would do. Can anybody help me out?

It sounds to me like you want to keep a rooted version of the nook OS (which will have to be rebooted to run non-BN apps) (quoted from the cyanogenmod wiki)
Prior to rooting the Barnes & Noble Nook Color, it is recommend you register it with the Barnes & Noble.
Setting up uNooter
In order to properly flash an uNooter image to a SD card, you will need to use an USB card adapter or have an internal SD card slot on the computer. Writing the uNooter image to the SD card will wipe it, backup anything of value and/or importance elsewhere.

Download the uNooter image:

uNooter: http://cmw.22aaf3.com/encore/root/uNooter.zip
md5: 4e1e7be9939aaef43d3a1d04cb17b2cd

Unzip the uNooter zipfile.
Write the uNooter image to the SD card:

Windows

Due to Windows not having the ability to write images to drives, you will need win32DiskImager to accomplish this. Latest version should be fine. http://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download
Insert the SD card you are going to use to write the uNooter image to.
Open win32DiskImager.
Select the downloaded & extracted uNooter image with the folder button.
Select the drive letter for the SD card.
Write the uNooter image.

Linux

Insert the SD card you are going to use to write the uNooter image to.
On the computer, open up terminal and navigate the directory where the extracted uNooter image is located.
Once in the same directory as the uNooter image, type the following commands: umount /dev/ NOTE:  is the device file associated with the SD card, e.g., sdc or mmcblk0, and NOT the mount point, e.g., sdc1 or mmcblk0p1. dd if=uNooter.img of=/dev/ bs=1M

Mac OS X

Insert the SD card you are going to use to write the uNooter image to.
On the computer, open up terminal and navigate the directory where the extracted uNooter image is located.
Once in the same directory as the uNooter image, type the following commands: diskutil list NOTE: This will help you identify the SD card. Make sure it is the SD card & not one of the hard drives of the computer. diskutil unmountDisk /dev/ NOTE:  is the device file associated with the SD card, e.g. disk2. dd if=uNooter.img of=/dev/ bs=1m
The uNooter image is now setup on the SD card. Continue to the next section.

Gaining Root Access

Power off the Barnes & Noble Nook Color. Also if the device is connected to a computer, disconnect it.
Insert the newly setup uNooter SD card into the Barnes & Noble Nook Color.
Connect the Barnes & Noble Nook Color to the computer. This will trigger the Barnes & Noble Nook Color to power on (the screen will remain off) and allow uNooter to root the device. This screen is black for up to ten minutes.
The computer will see a new USB device.

Windows: The computer may complain about missing drivers. Simply cancel through them at this time.
Linux: The Barnes & Noble Nook Color will show up the computer as a RNDIS ethernet device. You may ignore this.
Mac OS X: The Barnes & Noble Nook Color will show up as an additional Ethernet device. Just cancel when you see the dialog box pop up.

Once this occurs, disconnect the Barnes & Noble Nook Color from the computer. The Barnes & Noble Nook Color may restart itself. If it restarts normal, continue to the next step. If it does not, power it off, remove the SD card & power it back on normal.
At this point the Barnes & Noble Nook Color is rooted.

Two notes from my experience:

Use a small SD card, as you will not be able to reuse it.
I recommend going to the cyanogenmod wiki, setting up ClockwordMod, and installing Google Apps, as this will not activate adb. Sorry, not enough reputation to post the link.

256 MB should be enough for the SD card

Have you considered running Android directly from the SD card? It runs great (just don't go cheap on the SD card), is surprisingly easy to set up (the hardest part for me was being patient for the Nook to finish its initial charging), and if you have any problems or change your mind, you just pop out the card and it's a bog-standard Nook again.

i do have a nice 2gb micro sd

It is possible to set up dual boot for the nook color.  Booting normally will boot into say cyanogen, pressing volume down during boot will boot into the nook stock rom.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1275859


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Alarm Clock Plus says wrong temperature; wrong by 20 or more degrees
I enabled the "Say time before alarm" and "say weather before alarm" features on Alarm Clock Plus, but when alarm activates the wrong temperature is being said. Not by a few degrees, but by 20 or more. For example, the temperature is 30 C, and I hear "It is 2 C"! I did not have this problem with the free version.
I have Galaxy S2 and it seems that the temperature is read from Samsung's built in "News and Weather" app. I tried changing my location in "News and Weather" thinking that the data for my location may be corrupted, but it did not fix the issue. No matter which location I choose, it says the wrong temperature.
How can I fix this so that the correct temperature will be used? I'd really hate to rate this alarm app badly as it's really good except for this irritating bug.

Is it always off in the same direction -- i.e. always says a lower temperature? Could it have to do with units, e.g. using °F instead of °C, or even °R?

@Izzy unfortunately the issue is not with the Farads and Celsius

Maybe it's getting wrong data from its provider. I have two devices with AlarmDroid running, and noticed they give different temperatures for the same location even -- though not that far different.


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Autoplay video on device boot
I have a Noontec A9 Android Smart Box TV thingy that needs to play a video on loop for a very long time.
I found multiple apps that can do this but I am looking for one that will start playing the video as soon as the app starts.
The device is going to be placed in a duty-free area. The problem is that between 12 and 6 AM the power is switched off so the player will turn off and on in the morning. Using Automateit I can start an app at boot but I just cannot find one that will auto play the video.
Any idea on what I should do? Maybe another solution? The device is rooted.

Hi, I' don't have a solution for your problem but I' would love to get a screenshot of AutomateIt running on Smart TV :-)

@Muzikant I will make one screenshot. But this is not the SmartTV, is the Noontec A9 Android Smart Box TV

posted my question here http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/36794/play-loop-video-on-startup

First, make that video player default for video files. Then, use Tasker to Open File on boot. Open File action can be found in File action category. Device Boot context can be found in Event ~> System category.


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How can I use my PC's keyboard in the Android emulator?
I want to run/test Android apps on the Android emulator and I want to type using my PC keyboard, as it lets me type and test faster.
When I use the emulator though, it only accepts input from the native Android (on-screen) keyboard. How can I enable my PC keyboard for use within the Android emulator?

My keyboard works with default settings on an emulator instance. Do you have any advanced settings configured for your AVD? What OS are you running? I'm not entirely sure what would have an effect on this, but we might need more detail on your setup.

I didn't do any thing thing special other than normal settings, and my OS is Win7 32bit

As @eldareathis said, by default, your keyboard should work in the emulator...  Not sure what would cause it to not work

originally this question as asked at the time when I was using Eclipse and now most people including me use Android studio and I don't have this issue any more so should I just close this question ?

I had the same issue after upgrading the developer tools (v20.0.0v2012...). All of a sudden none of my android virtual devices would accept any input from my physical PC/Mac keyboard.
This is how I fixed it:

Eclipse > Window menu > AVD Manager
Select  your virtual device and click Edit
Under Hardware, Click New
Select Keyboard Support then click OK
Edit its value to yes
Now you have to click off onto another item in the list, like "Abtract LCD Density" or something. This seems to make the UI keep the "yes" change.

My other AVDs that don't have this "keyboard support" hardware property added do NOT accept my physical keyboard input.

Seems like a bug for me. This trick works.

Doesn't work for me, the Keyboard Support value resets back to "no" after saving and closing out the window...

Justin, my original post mentioned a click-off step but some dummy (looking at you Flow or ce4) removed that info. After you change to "yes" click-off onto another item in the list and this seems to make the UI remember the "yes" setting. I updated my butchered post with a step 6. :-)

Please try the following settings. My environment (Target: Android 4.0.3 - API Level 15) successful.
AVD - Edit - Hardware: - New... - Keyboard support - yes
AVD - Edit - Hardware: - New... - Keyboard lid support - no

Do you know of a way to enable while the emulator is running?

What's up with the Keyboard lid support?

You need to change the config.ini file in your .android directory. This file is found under the main hard drive directory.
From there, open the avd file and you will see a list of virtual devices. Open the desired device and then open the config.ini in notepad. Then copy this text: hw.keyboard = yes and then save and close. The next time you open your emulator, you should be able to use the keyboard.
You can also open up the hardware-qemu.ini file in the same directory as the config.ini file, and then you can see a list of all the hardware options. Change the hw.keyboard from no to yes.
Hope this helps!

This answer is for those who built the emulator from source (i.e. Following instructions from source.android.com).  You need to modify a property in the following file:
external/qemu/android/avd/hardware-properties.ini

In the following section of that file change the default value from no to yes:
# Keyboard support (qwerty/azerty)
name        = hw.keyboard

type        = boolean

default     = yes

abstract    = Keyboard support

description = Whether the device has a QWERTY keyboard.

Then rebuild (using make).  At least this worked for me.

It's even easier. You can set this property in the AVD manager: Add a key 'keyboard' with value 'yes' in the hardware properties list.

I had this issue despite having the correct configuration, and realized that the actual problem was that the focus was on the emulator control buttons windows, as reported in this issue.
To check if this is your problem, see if pressing space actually presses one of those buttons, and if pressing tab moves the highlight focus square between elements in the emulator controls. If that is the problem, then you should be able to work around it as follows:

Select the extended controls (The "..." button in the emulator controls)
Change to any item in the extended controls window by clicking
Close the extended controls window

The focus should now return to the main Android emulator window, not the emulator controls, and key presses should go to Android apps.

Thanks for pointing to that issue! I used the mentioned workaround there with a shortcut executing "xterm -e exit" to get the focus back. That is faster then opening and closing the settings menu. Issue seems to be related with the xfce window manager

Try Ctrl + F11 or NumPad 7. That should enable your keyboard, unless is disabled from somewhere else.

i thought Ctrl+F11 was Portrait/Landscape orientation?

Yes Ctrl+F11 switch between orientations and not enable the keyboard, same with numpad 7

Yes it does switch between the orientation, but it also brings up the keyboard.

@slybloty  I am talking about enabling keyboard of my PC in emulator not side keybarod in the emulator

I know it's a burden, but I'd suggest to uninstall and reinstall it, unless you've already done it.

@slybloty I have already latest version and have just installed it

As a few have indicated here, the PC keyboard should be enabled for the AVD Emulator instances. Judging by what the emulator page on the Android Developer website says about key commands and such, it does not appear there is a way to enable/disable PC keyboard usage within the SDK. Your best bet is re-installing the SDK, and try again.

I already have installed newer version of sdk

If you are using Xamarin.Android in Visual Studio 2010, you can enable Keyboard Support as follows:

Close your AVD
In VS2010, go to Tools > Start Android Emulator Manager
Select the AVD Name that you want to add Keyboard Support for, then click the Edit button
In the Hardware area, click the New button
In the Property dropdown, select Keyboard support, then click the OK button
The Keyboard support Property is added to the Hardware list. Change the Value from No to Yes
Click the Edit AVD button

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


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How can I tell if I have ClockworkMod recovery installed?
How can I know if my Galaxy S2 has ClockworkMod recovery installed? I want to install CyangenMod and installing ClockworkMod is the first step. I'm running Android 2.3.3 and I use a Mac laptop, if that's relevant.

chances are if you don't know, you don't have it. are you running a custom rom now?

ok thanks, just from the comments in cyangenmod, it seemed like it's there by default.

The easiest way would be to install Rom Manager. The first item in this app says "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" and under that it will say something like "Current Recovery: ClockworkMod 5.0.2.2" (see below). If it does not say this, or has nothing here, chances are you don't have it. If you don't have it and would like it (and are already rooted, of course) you can directly install it from this app.

Rom Manager Screenshot (click image for larger variant)

The easiest way to find out if your Galaxy S2 already has ClockworkMod Recovery installed is to try and boot into it.  Turn off the phone, then hold the Volume Up, Volume Down and Power buttons at the same time.  (For international version of the GS2 you need to press and hold Vol Up + Home + Power combination.)  If it boots into ClockworkMod - you have it installed :)

it actually did boot into ...something.. But i sure didn't install it. does it come by defaut?

There is a stock recovery installed on every Android phone. However with the default one you cannot flash custom ROMs, only updates that are signed by the manufacturer/carrier.  ClockworkMod allows flashing unsigned ROMs, and has many more low-level utilities and tools.


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Android Dumpstate Crash Logs Appearing Randomily
I own a Galaxy Nexus, currently running Android 4.0.4 and ever since I've updated to 4.0.4 I've had problems in that it randomly asks me to share content (without saying what it is) and when I view the files it attaches I see that it includes a dumpstate log and a screenshot.
Is there a way to find what is causing this or stop this from happening?
Samsung support don't give me any help besides the usual battery in-out reboot and restore to factory defaults (which I have both tried already).

Could you post the log up somewhere?

The log is about 4MB and contains a lot of information which may be personal or too revealing about what's happening on the phone (e.g. GPS position, email address, etc.). Is there an automated way to reliably anonmyise a dumpstate?

Not that I know of, you could just search your name/email/dob and replace all with *s? A 4MB log seems huge! :/ You could try looking at the logcat from your phone just after this share content thing pops up, there's an app called Android System Info for that.

It seems you are accidently triggering the generation of a bug reports, as described on this google support site (click on the nexus link):

Generate a bug report immediately:
  Press Volume (in between Up and Down) and Power at the same time (after a >significant delay -- up to a minute -- the device will vibrate if successful and open a new message in Gmail).

In my case, my device had a case which was triggering the bug report by inadvertently pressing 'volume' and 'power'

That sounds like a likely cause, and the delay explains why I hadn't noticed what it was. The button positions on the Galaxy Nexus is just so stupid though...


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Why my phone does not need to update the password?
I changed my gmail password a day ago, but my phone does not require me to put in the new one. I can still access my gmail with the old password. Why?
Phone is rooted, sim unlocked , running android 2.3

Your phone doesn't store the password, it has some kind of session key.  I would have expected it to be invalidated when you changed the password, but apparently Google doesn't do that.  You'd have to ask them why.

Are you sure that you are not seeing locally cached data? I just tried it my self and changed my Google password. Directly afterwards the GMail app wasn't able to send or receive any mails on my Desire with 2.3 custom ROM.
Warning to everybody who want to verify this on his own: If you try this on your own remember that you can not change your password back to the original one. Google saves it and you can never use it again!

Wait what? You can never change it back? Do you have any link to the relevant support doc?

I don't know if there is any support doc for that, but you can try it out: Just go to the password changing prompt and you will be shown a warning.

And I have read in a forum that the password history is not just the last 10 passwords as it is common in corporate environments.


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How can I give my Samsung Galaxy S2, with ICS, a name?
When my Samsung Galaxy S2 ran on Gingerbread I had a unique Bluetooth name set on it to differentiate from members of my family when I wanted to receive files by Bluetooth from their devices. However, since my upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich I cannot see how to give my phone a name so that others searching for my phone by Bluetooth can find mine without others having switch theirs off to distingiush mine as the only one with its Bluetooth switched on. Can anybody help with this? Thank you for any help offered.

I have a "Rename Phone" option on my Galaxy Nexus under the overflow menu (the 3 little dots) of the Bluetooth settings page. Do you have that on your SGS2's settings?

considering you're running the Samsung stock ICS
go to "Settings" then "Bluetooth", turn your Bluetooth on, click the menu button (the one left of the Home button) and click "Device name". then edit your device name.


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Google Voice Input special characters and symbols no longer working?
I use Google's default voice input all the time, for texting and navigation and searching and such. Previously, if a scenario arose when I needed to include a symbol (such as an exclamation point!) or a special case, like a smiley face ":-)", I simply said these into the voice input:
text mom i love you exclamation point smiley face

used to yield
Text to: Mom
Message: I love you! :-)

now yields:
Text to: Mom
Message: i love you exclamation point smiley face

I noticed the change after upgrading to ICS (AOKP, latest builds) but realized the issue now happens across OS usage, which I would attribute to Google's interpretation methods changing. Does anyone else have this problem or know how to fix it? I loved this feature!

This was fixed somehow after switching back to Cyanogenmod 7.1. Sorry I don't know exactly what caused it, but for anyone with the problem, I'd suggest flashing a more stable ROM (if you're rooted).

The keywords "period" "comma" "exclamation mark" and "question mark" have always worked for me using Gboard voice typing.  These can be fluently integrated into your dictation and Google should insert the appropriate symbols.
However, I have found this to not be the case for other functions like "new line" and "new paragraph".  I am now on Android 12 on my OnePlus 7T pro and when I hit the mic button (top right corner of gboard), the word 'Initializing' briefly appears (directly to the left of the mic button) followed by 'Speak now'.  The moment I start speaking, this changes to 'Listening...'.  Once I pause my speech, Google types what I said and the status returns to 'Speak now', but the microphone remains active for another second or two.
Now here's the trick:  Once you start speaking and the status changes to 'Listening...', you must pause and wait for it to change back to 'Speak now' before saying 'new line' or 'new paragraph'.  You must also say these by themselves without other following words.  If you say these along with your speech without pausing, Google will just write them out as words.  If you wait for 'Speak now', the action takes place.
I have experimented a bit and found that "enter" also works the same as "new line".  It also looks like this is global so this works regardless what app you are speaking into.  For example, it works in Google Keep when I want to


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Alternative of CyanogenMod-5 but Android 2.1 for HTC Dream G1

Possible Duplicate:
Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

I am currently using Cyanogenmod-5 (Android 2.1) for my HTC Dream G1. But it runs quite slow and I dont want to go back to Android 1.x series.
I am looking for some other Android 2.1 OS (other than Cyanogenmod) which are faster and have low memory requirements or does it remain the same among all Android 2.1 distributions?
Another reason for change is that every 1 or 2 months, Cyanogenmod-5 starts behaving funny and I need to re-install my OS. For example, currently I am unable to read any texts (Messaging service - SMS) on my phone; application keeps on crashing. In the past similar issues were with Gmail and GTalk.
So, I want to switch to something other than Cyanogenmod but Android-2.1. Any suggestions?

This seems like it's essentially a "shopping recommendation" style of question (albeit without monetary exchange taking place). How will you assess an answer as correct/incorrect? What prevents this from becoming a potentially unending list? See "Where can I find X ROM" questions should be treated like shopping questions for the meta discussion about these types of questions and the linked duplicate for resources/lists that may help you.

I was looking for some suggestions of different ROMs that I can use for my HTC Dream G1.


text:
Can I connect my device to a Cisco pix VPN?
We are buying quite a few tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich. Will it be possible for us to connect these tablets to our Cisco pix VPN? I know that Cisco have launched an app but it is for ASA. I have looked and not found anything that could do this.

Cisco offers a rooted AnyConnect vpn client, and it turns out they also have an ICS AnyConnect available in the Play Store as well. This should help!

Cisco also offers AnyConnect apps specific to device manufacturers, you could try those out too. You'll see them in the play store on the left side in the "More from this developer" section

AnyConnect for Android requires Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Boot image 8.0(4) or later - I am not sure if this would work with our Pix

i don't know then :/ there are some other mobile vpn clients out there, but most are poorly updated and only apply to a narrow range of situations (having tried most of them myself :P )


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How to remove "Scrapbook Photos" from stock Gallery?
A folder named "Scrapbook Photos" appears in my gallery app, but whenever I try to delete it, it remains. It doesn't contain any items, trying to navigate into the folder simply redraws the main gallery screen.
How can I remove this nuisance?

You can delete it at picasaweb.google.com.  (Click on the album, and then use the 'Actions' dropdown list.)

That is not an actual folder on the device. It's from your Google++account. It contains the pictures that are displayed next to your profile picture. If you don't have any, it will still show up on your device except it will be empty.
It cannot be removed.

Ah. Well that makes sense, since I just activated a Google+ account. I'm rather annoyed at how many tendrils Google+ has snaking their way through everything.

What's worse is that this folder shows up even if photo sync is disabled.

This, and any other, folder of this kind (added automatically to Gallery, without reference to local on-device folder) is always added from Picassa, even if you have never used that service. If you're using newer versions of Android (4.1+) such folders should be marked with small Picassa icon in the bottom-right corner, where you have standard folder icon for yours folders.
These folders are often not editable from the device. I.e. you're saying about deleting this folder over and over again, while I ended-up with more than five such scrap folders without any kind of option to delete either entire folder or any of its contents. What was even worse (and more frustrating) you can have such folders even, if you don't use particular service at all. For example I had a lot of such garbage folders though I haven't activated Google+ and I haven't uploaded anything to Picassa.
The only way to remove such folders is to login to on-line service, it belongs to (Google+, Picassa etc.) and remove it there. In my case, using Picassa (that I have never used before) and remove any garbage Google has automatically added there solved the problem. You should be able to achieve the same, once you login to Google+.
Alternatively, you can disable Photos sync at all, if this is an option for you. But I've heard reports, that this may not help at some certain situations, especially, when source for additional folders is not Picassa, but Google+ or similar service.

I would find the folder through usb mode or a file system explorer such as X-Plore and delete the folder manually. Then it should be removed from the Gallery.

adb would work too, if you like that sort of thing.

I have Astro and AndSMB but haven't managed to find a folder names "Scrapbook Photos"

i'd hook it up to your computer and do a search on the device.

and did you look manually or do a search?

I used Astro's search feature to look for files and folders from the root, including all subfolders. I'm starting to think this gallery album is not a folder but a remnant in a settings file of some sort.

in the gallery, does the folder have a small thumbnail that looks like this http://runwaymagazine.co/Email_Blast_Images/social_network_logos/picasa_logo.gif?

Your link doesn't work, but I'll infer from the URL that you mean the Picasa logo. There is no icon; most other albums have a folder icon. I'll update my question with an image.

@jlehenbauer: This is a virtual folder, added from Google account (Google+, Picassa or similar service). You can't locate it or delete as it does not exists on device, it has no reference or connection to any existing on-device folder and will most likely be recreated, even if you manage somehow to delete it, until you won't delete it on-line in the service (Google+, Picassa etc.) to which it belongs to -- see my answer.


text:
How do I make my phone number appear in my friends' phones?
I updated my number on Google+, but that's not displayed in my friends' phone or their Google Contacts. It appears when they see my Google+ profile, though.

Your numbers are not synced to Google Contacts. Your friends need to install the official Google+ app in order to see your numbers.

Other users' address books are not synced with your G+ profile AFAIK.  Your friends would have to either manually update their Google account contacts on the web or manually update their address book on their phone.  Either way, if sync is turned on for that account on a friend's phone, updating the one will update the other.


text:
Is there a way to look inside and modify an adb backup created file?
I created a backup of my Galaxy Nexus with adb backup. The resulting file is named backup.db and it's somehow encrypted.
I wanted to restore the backup, but it stops when it comes to restoring com.android.providers.contacts. I used adb logcat to find out what's going on and found out that com.android.acore crashes during the restore process.
I'd like to gain access to the data in the backup and remove the contacts database to restore everything back to my phone. Are there any other ways restoring the data from the backup?

I believe none of the answers without using Java will work on encrypted phones. See my answer here: android.stackexchange.com/a/224474/95893 summing up the use of nelenkov's app (github.com/nelenkov/android-backup-extractor). Unfortunately Izzy's Adebar perl scripts ab2tar will not work on encrypted backup files.  Similar:  https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/28481/how-do-you-extract-an-apps-data-from-a-full-backup-made-through-adb-backup

The file is not encrypted, unless your specify so when creating the backup. It is however compressed (using deflate). You can find out the exact format by looking at Android source (com/android/server/BackupManagerService.java) code, and, technically, should be able to extract specific data from it. However, IIRC, there are some file integrity checks in place, so it most probably won't work if you just delete a bunch of data from it. Unfortunately the restore command doesn't seem to have an option to restore a particular app/package only or exclude a package.

Thanks! That's at least a starting point to look inside the file. Would have been easier if I hadn't provided a password for the backup.

If you provided a password, it is indeed encrypted. `BackupManagerService' has details on the actual encryption algorithms, and key derivation paramters (salt, iteration count etc) are written in the file header. Since you know the password, you can derive the key and decrypt the data. So it's still doable, but not particularly easy...

Yes, I'm currently extracting everything from BackupManagerService to read the contents of the backup file. It's a good amount of work, but I need my data back...

@ingorichter I started working on this and posted a ton of notes below, in a "community wiki" answer. Feel free to add to it.

I started working on this. I'm posting my results so far here as a "community wiki" answer for two reasons: first, if someone else wants to join in, there's a place to talk; second, if I get pulled away from this project, there'll be hints for someone else to start working.

The backup logic on the host is entirely contained within https://github.com/android/platform_system_core/blob/master/adb/commandline.cpp, in the function named backup. The function is very simple: it validates the command line options, sends the command mostly as-is to the adb daemon on the phone, and writes the phone's output to the file. There isn't even error-checking: if, for example, you refuse the backup on the phone, adb just writes out an empty file.
On the phone, the backup logic starts in service_to_fd() in https://github.com/android/platform_system_core/blob/master/adb/services.cpp. The function identifies that the command from the host is "backup", and passes the unparsed command to /system/bin/bu, which is a trivial shell script to launch com.android.commands.bu.Backup as the main-class of a new Android app process. That calls ServiceManager.getService("backup") to get the backup service as an IBackupManager, and calls IBackupManager.fullBackup(), passing it the still-unused file descriptor (very indirectly) connected to the backup.ab file on the host.
Control passes to fullBackup() in com.android.server.backup.BackupManagerService, which pops up the GUI asking the user to confirm/reject the backup. When the user do so, acknowledgeFullBackupOrRestore() (same file) is called. If the user approved the request, acknowledgeFullBackupOrRestore() figures out if the backup is encrypted, and passes a message to BackupHandler (same file.) BackupHandler then instantiates and kicks off a PerformAdbBackupTask (same file, line 4004 as of time of writing)
We finally start generating output there, in PerformAdbBackupTask.run(), between line 4151 and line 4330.
First, run() writes a header, which consists of either 4 or 9 ASCII lines:

"ANDROID BACKUP"
the backup format version: currently "4"
either "0" if the backup is uncompressed or "1" if it is
the encryption method: currently either "none" or "AES-256"
(if encrypted), the "user password salt" encoded in hex, all caps
(if encrypted), the "master key checksum salt" encoded in hex, all caps
(if encrypted), the "number of PBKDF2 rounds used" as a decimal number: currently "10000"
(if encrypted), the "IV of the user key" encoded in hex, all caps
(if encrypted), the "master IV + key blob, encrypted by the user key" encoded in hex, all caps

The actual backup data follows, either as (depending on compression and encryption) tar, deflate(tar), encrypt(tar), or encrypt(deflate(tar)).

TODO: write up the code path that generates the tar output -- you can simply use tar as long as entries are in the proper order (see below).
Tar archive format
App data is stored under the app/ directory, starting with a _manifest file, the APK (if requested) in a/, app files in f/, databases in db/ and shared preferences in sp/. If you requested external storage backup (using the -shared option), there will also be a shared/ directory in the archive containing external storage files.
$ tar tvf mybackup.tar
-rw------- 1000/1000      1019 2012-06-04 16:44 apps/org.myapp/_manifest
-rw-r--r-- 1000/1000   1412208 2012-06-02 23:53 apps/org.myapp/a/org.myapp-1.apk
-rw-rw---- 10091/10091     231 2012-06-02 23:41 apps/org.myapp/f/share_history.xml
-rw-rw---- 10091/10091       0 2012-06-02 23:41 apps/org.myapp/db/myapp.db-journal
-rw-rw---- 10091/10091    5120 2012-06-02 23:41 apps/org.myapp/db/myapp.db
-rw-rw---- 10091/10091    1110 2012-06-03 01:29 apps/org.myapp/sp/org.myapp_preferences.xml

Encryption details

An AES 256 key is derived from the backup encryption password using 10000 rounds of PBKDF2 with a randomly generated 512 bit salt.
An AES 256 master key is randomly generated
A master key 'checksum' is generated by running the master key through 10000 rounds of PBKDF2 with a new randomly generated 512 bit salt.
A random backup encryption IV is generated.
The IV, master key, and checksum are concatenated and encrypted with the key derived in 1. The resulting blob is saved in the header as a hex string.
The actual backup data is encrypted with the master key and appended to end of the file.

Sample pack/unpack code implementation (produces/uses) tar archives: https://github.com/nelenkov/android-backup-extractor
Some more details here: http://nelenkov.blogspot.com/2012/06/unpacking-android-backups.html
Perl scripts for packing/unpacking and fixing broken archives:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27840175#post27840175

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

Great and detailed answer from Nikolay Elenkov. However I should added that somebody already develop a software that do just that and package it here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/adbextractor/
The package contains both Java and Perl tool. I myself prefer Perl over Java any day, so I extracted the Perl codes, make sure they are executable, installed the required Perl library, and run the backupdecrypt.pl against an adb backup file, and it convert it into a tar or gzipped tar file without any issue.
I even formed a one liner in Bash 3 that allow me to do adb backup directly to gzipped tar file:
adb backup -f >(backupdecrypt.pl -D -z - backup.tgz) -all

Hope it helps.

Yeah, they packaged the tool (the Java one) I wrote:) I also helped port the thing to Perl. If you didn't read the READMEs, it might not be immediately apparent that the writeup came first, then the tools....

I have taken backup but it has not created .ab file, instead it has created .backup file. I want to know how to extract it. Also i am not sure whether it has taken all the photos and video's as backup?

For explore existing backup file, try http://www.adb-backup.com page, it is simple without "dd", "tar", ...
Data is not stored on this server. I've developed this online service to make it easier to view backups without manipulating with dd / tar or installing additional software. I'm author www.adb-backup.com

I'd be very careful about uploading an adb backup (and providing the password) to a random website... The data included in the adb backup is private and you have no way of knowing what the site does with the backup. It could be harmless but I wouldn't recommend doing this.

Data is not stored on this server. I've developed this online service to make it easier to view backups without manipulating with dd / tar or installing additional software. I'm author www.adb-backup.com


text:
Galaxy Tab P7500 won't boot
I was trying to install a custom ROM from recovery menu, but it failed and now my tablet stuck on Samsung Logo and won't boot. In recovery menu I get these errors:
E:failed to mount /system (Invalid argument)
E:install_application_for_customer:Can't mount /system

in 'apply update from/ sdcard' menu, I face an empty list, which means the sdcard is not mounted.
What should I do to survive my tablet?

Now, the only option you've: Flash ROM over USB using Odin (if you have Windows PC). You can find firmware files for your device on Internet (look XDA Forum).

Thanks so much, I did that, and It worked. I added the link to your post.


text:
Disappearing Icons on Galaxy S2
On my Samsung Galaxy S2, sometimes all of the icons will disappear from the home screens except for the 4 built in icons (phone, messaging, web, applications). This sometimes happens at startup, and sometimes happens after the phone has been running for a while. It can only be fixed by rebooting the phone, although that is not a guaranteed fix.
More recently I've encountered an additional problem: Sometimes when the icons disappear, the Applications button stops bringing up my applications menu.
Any suggestions on how to fix this?

It's a critical problem.. Backup your data and hard reset your device.

define "critical problem"?

Sounds to me like the launcher app is having a problem. What happens if you clear data for the launcher app? Or install a 3rd party launcher?

I guess I should update this: Eventually, a more serious problem started occurring where my phone wouldn't turn on. I took it to a service center, it was diagnosed as a hardware defect and they gave me a replacement phone.

I keep having this problem on multiple devices, all the way to Android 12. It's not a hardware problem for sure. In fact it may be just a symptom of multiple different underlying problems, but my current best guess is that the fault is with the specific launcher app, and replacing it with a 3rd party app should help. The default launcher app seems to often be heavily customized by the vendor, which goes toward explaining how the bug is propagated into each new android version.

Just a thought based on what I experienced.
I saw icons disappearing on an Android tablet, when I move the apps to SD card or apps installed on SD card instead of internal default flash memory. Are these apps installed on an external SD card? if the SD card is not initialized when the home screen becomes active, they may not be available.

I do have an SD card, but I don't think any apps are installed there.


text:
Backup and restore Android Settings and Application through ADB
I would like to ask if it possible to backup and restore all Android Settings and applications through ADB.
I tried:
adb backup -all
adb: unable to connect for backup

It is not working, while all other commands are working.
Is it possible to use this bmgr ?

i am using adb 1.0.29 on win7-64 and get the error adb: unable to open file ./backup.ab when executing adb backup  -all. does adb devices find your android?

yes I can see the device id.

I've had a similar issue when submitting multipe package names on the command line. The problem was (is) the number of packages to backup is too long. I needed to split it in multiple command calls

Make sure debugging is enabled and the device is connected.  Also, remember to actually select the "backup my data" button on the device itself (the device requires confirmation).  If you don't see such a screen on your device, you're quite possibly running a pre-ICS (< 4.0) phone, which will unfortunately will not have the feature.
Also, bmgr is not a solution for this-  It's a tool for testing apps that handle their own backups using the backup API by manually firing the "backup" and "restore" methods on the backup agent in the application, not shelling into the device and copying data to/from the development machine.

Yup - for me the problem was old version of Android on my phone, pre 4.0.  Thanks!

Does this actually include settings/data?

Here is my command for backing things up
./adb shell ls -l -a | grep '^[^l]' | sed -e 's/^d.* \([^ ]*\)\r$/mkdir sav\/\1; .\/adb pull \/\1 sav\/\1/' -e 's/-.* \([^ ]*\)\r$/.\/adb pull \/\1 sav\/\1/' | /bin/bash

list all files
ignore links
for

files : output an adb pull command
directories : make the dir (in case we pull sth empty) and output an adb pull command

execute everything in bash

There are some files where I get a permission denied - but as this backup is made in order to root the device, I can not get more permissions :(

This indeed appears to backup all files (minus the "permission denied" bits) even on older Androids (in this case, Gingerbread 2.3.3). I use this variant (added -p param to mkdir to avoid some error messages and removed ./ in front of ./adb): time adb shell ls -l -a | grep '^[^l]' | sed -e 's/^d.* \([^ ]*\)\r$/mkdir -p sav\/\1; adb pull \/\1 sav\/\1/' -e 's/-.* \([^ ]*\)\r$/adb pull \/\1 sav\/\1/' | /bin/bash

A much simpler way to do a recursive backup of all files, without needing any fancy regex is "adb pull /."

If I understand you correctly, this link might be what you are looking for. To summarize:
1) Run adb devices to make sure your device is attached.
2) Run adb pull /data/app ./ to grab all the app APKs and put them in the current folder.
    a) Or Run adb pull /system/sd/app ./ to get apps on the SD card.
3) Settings are located in various places, so find out where and then use the same adb pull command to grab them.
And then the link details how to restore based on Mac or Windows.
Alternatively, it looks like the bmgr command you mentioned would also work with a few simple commands (adb shell bmgr backup <package> to backup and adb shell bmgr restore <package> to restore). What more are you looking for?

As Alexander Lucas notes in his answer below, the bmgr command is a tool for developers to test app backup/restore.  It does not actually copy any data off the device, so its unlikely to be useful.

Doesn't work on adb 1.0.30 with Gingerbread device: pull: building file list... 0 files pulled. 0 files skipped.

Your adb pull will not work on non-rooted devices for private app data. And bmgr is only for controlling googles cloud backup

problem is probably due to more than one device/emulator connected.
check adb devices if it shows more than one device then it might not be able to connect specialy to emulators.
run adb usb it will restart other devices, then disconnect/reconncet usb cable, now run
adb devices
it should show only one device.
now do
adb backup -all
and you should be good to go :)

what I would have to do if I use the command locally via a terminal emulator for android?

Make sure to run the SDK update and specifically check the box for Google USB Drivers and update the SDK.
After enabling USB debugging on your device and plugging into your PC, you should get a prompt about installing drivers. Even if its successful open device manager and find your phone, right click and update drivers and point it to the Google USB driver folder in the SDK > Extras > Google USB and let it update the drivers.
Then you should be able to pull full backups off your device.

This fixed the issue for me when I was having it.  The drivers were not the issue, but the ADB version itself was too outdated.

I have a GS4 that I needed to backup and unfortunately ran into this error. after a bit of head scratching (and swearing) I found a fix that I hope will work for you. I was able to find this by just running abd and scrolling through the help documentation. I found that -d is a parameter that "directs command to the only connected USB device". So after plugging and chugging I got it to work for me. The command I used was:
adb -d backup -apk -shared -all -f C:\Users\NAME\backup.ab
Hope this works for someone having the same issue I had.

I had the same issue and am also pre-ICS. What I did to work around it was used an ls of / and awk (with grep to skip links) to create a batch file that pulls each actual directory onto a directory on my PC.


text:
Music players that can import M3U playlists?
OK, so it seems that (unbelievably) Winamp for Android is so extremely stupidly designed that it can't import M3U playlists.
So, I want a player that can import M3U playlists.  I'm running CyanogenMod 7.  I have copied some MP3s I want in a playlist to a directory on the sdcard, and used the "My Playlist Maker" app to make an M3U file that references the audio files inside that directory.  Does anyone have some ideas for good music or media players that can import this M3U playlist?
An additional requirement is that the player be able to set itself as the default player to be used with Bluetooth - Winamp, for example, has the "Control headset" (use Winamp to control the headset) checkbox setting.

OK, I'll answer my own question on this one because I just came across MortPlayer. It does EXACTLY what I want: it will load M3U files or just play all files in a directory.


text:
Mail Insists on Being "Push"
Phone: Sprint Nexus S 4G with the ICS update.
I have email accounts (hosted Exchange) set up and working without issue. Well, one small issue: No matter what "Check Frequency" I choose, they insist on being "push" mode. I have one at 10 minutes, the other at 15 minutes -- but the second an email hits that inbox the phone dings.
Drives me nuts -- and wreaks havoc with playing music...
Is there a setting somewhere else or new in ICS that I need to be looking for? Anyone else having a similar issue?

Contact your hosted Exchange provider to turn the Push off. They are enforcing it.
Another way: Turn your email notification off or set its ringtone 'Silent'. But, its inconvenient.

Interesting idea. The hosted Exchange provider, in both cases, is Office365. I'll poke around the admin control panels today and see if anything pops up.

This was, indirectly, the answer.  I had to delete and recreate the accounts. As part of the creation process there were new prompts about sync frequency.  More at http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/160/p/54767/196231.aspx

Install Juicedefender and set it to only allow data connections with the interval you want. You might need one of the paid versions if you need this to work on WiFi as well.


text:
Replace HTC Sense "recent apps" by stock ICS
I've just ordered my new HTC One X phone which will be my first Android phone and ships with Android ICS and HTC Sense. I've seen some reviews on YouTube and the only thing I didn't like from HTC Sense was the "style" they use in the "recent apps"-switcher. Is there any way to revert only that one "style" back to original ICS? Maybe someone could also explain to me what the "Launchers" are everyone is talking about... Are they like the explorer.exe on Windows? Are they responsible for the whole look and feel? Or is something like the "recent apps"-switcher a separate process?

To answer your question about launchers:
Yes, they are like explorer.exe on Windows. Most launchers will replace the home screens and app-launching window. Some may even affect the app-switching, but you might have to play around with them.
A short list (note: not complete) of Alternative Launcher apps:

Nova Launcher
ADWLauncher / ADWLauncher EX (Paid)
Go Launcher EX
LauncherPro / LauncherPro Plus Unlocker (Paid)

Looking at the above apps you can see how they change the look-and-feel of the bulk of Android's UI.
I have tried most of the above, and each have extensive options and tweaking abilities to get your home screens and app launchers to look the way you want them.


text:
How can I open the keyboard on my Android tablet?
I have just bought a NATPC M009S ULTIMATE Capacative Android Tablet PC Android 4.0 ICS and I can't find any way of accessing the keyboard.
How can I open it?

It should pop up when you tap on a text box.
If it doesn't, does there appear a small keyboard icon in the bottom right corner?

Wow,that was quick. I don't have a text box or a small keyboard icon!

I can now access the keyboard,thank you, but when I try to enter my BT password to connect to my Wi-Fi,there is no way to get the keyboard back,to do that! Perhaps the battery is too low? I will put it on for 6 hours and see if that makes a difference.Many thanks again.

I have sussed it all now! Very many thanks again!

It should pop up when you hold the menu button. I don't know if this works on tablets with Android 3.0 or higher but it will work on Android 2.1, 2.2 & 2.3.
Good luck!


text:
How can I install Firefox on an Android with no service or Google account?
This is for a very narrow use case with a phone that is used as a mobile GUI environment only. The phone has no service and is not associated with a Google account, so it can't access Google Play. Is there another way to install Firefox?

You can grab the latest .apk on a PC from Mozilla's FTP server and sideload it, as noted on Mozilla's wiki.
If you're unsure of how to sideload an app, you can find a variety of methods in How can I install an app given only its APK file? (some require internet connectivity, many do not).


text:
Connection Timeout on Google Play
I have a brand new ASUS Transformer Prime tablet running ICS which I have been using for the first time over the last few days.
I can access the internet without issue using the email, Gmail, browser, YouTube apps, but not Google Play. When I try to use the Google Play Store app it shows a "loading..." message for a few minutes and then stops with a "No Connection" message.
Any ideas how I can fix this?

I was on the verge of packing the tablet up and returning it to Amazon and thought I would try one last thing. I took the tablet to a friends house and tried it on their WIFI just to double check it was not my network. The table worked first time and I used Google Play to install a number of apps.
I then took the tablet back to my house and Google Play continued to work and I installed some more apps.
I have no idea what my router was blocking that prevented Google Play from working but it seems fine now. If the problem returns I know the issue is with my router now, not the tablet.

Note that the market in your device is actually an application trying to connect to a distant service in a certain why, while the internet simply loads web pages if a connection is found. I personally get the same issue you've described a lot so when it happens I just switch to G3 instead and it works. so it may just be an issue with the market app.

I am also using a ASUS Transformer Prime tablet but the Play runs very well in that. I would suggest the following,

Restart the tablet.
Try to charge for atleast 8 hours

Also did u install the latest firmware that is being provided by ASUS, that firmware is a bug filled update. Do not update that. If you have updated it then it could be because of that.

What does charging have to do with this?

Sometime due to poor battery the tab is not able to connect properly to the Wifi or the 3G/4G data connection. (My own experience)

And it takes 8 hours to charge it up?

8 hours is generic time that I wrote since that is the time duration one should charge when they take their device out of the box. So 8 hours completely saturates the battery.


text:
Why is CyanogenMod zip not being found when I try to install it?
In order to help fix my problems with USB connectivity, it was suggested to me that I upgrade my kernel and ROM. I upgraded the kernel fine, it seems, but for some reason upgrading the ROM, which is CyanogenMod, keeps failing.
I have tried both ways of upgrading, via recovery and via the ROM manager (for which I purchased the full version). However both fail the exact same way, which is that I get an error message in the recovery interface that says the zip file for the ROM is "not found", despite the fact that the location it says it can't find the file is exactly where the file should be.
Here's what it looks like:

It says there is a log in /sdcard/clockworkmod/ directory, but when I look at that directoty, all that I see is a file called recovery-update.zip. There are no log files that I can see anywhere.
I have re-downloaded the zip a couple times to be sure it is not a corrupt file or anything, so I think the file is okay.
How do I get the zip to be found so that it can be installed?

Try renaming the file to update.zip.

It was necessary to completely wipe all system data before flashing the ROM. Once I did that, the file was found as normal.


text:
What determines if a phone will accept a microphone in the audio jack - hardware or software?
I have two Android phones: a Nexus S and a T-mobile G2. I just bought a new set of headphones that have a built-in microphone. The Nexus S seems to recognize audio input but the T-mobile G2 does not. Is it a hardware limitation or because I am running Android 2.3.6 on my G2 and Icecream Sandwich on my Nexus S?

Both, plus the specific headphones as onik notes.

Most likely it's a difference in the TRRS layout of the headset.
For example, I have two "similar" headsets, one that came with Samsung Galaxy S and another that came with Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Even though they look similar to the naked eye, if I use the Galaxy S one with my Tab, I only get mono sound due to a minor difference in the TRRS layout.
Sometimes I can remedy this by pulling the jack a little out of the plug, but it's very tricky to keep it in the correct position.
Anyway, you should test the jack with different headsets to verify that there's no physical damage to the jack.

Hmm.. but it's the same headset being tested on both phones. Shouldn't it be some difference in the phones? The jacks for both phones work normally for just listening to music.

@Eliss Yes, that's what i implied with my example. My devices have slightly different layouts in the jacks, therefore the headsets work perfectly in their own devices. Most likely your devices have the mic pin in a slightly different position, preventing it from connecting to the plug on the G2, even though it works in the Nexus S.

I had exactly the same thing using the headphones from my old Galaxy S in my current Galaxy Nexus, it was worse than Mono, I was only getting one channel of sound, which meant on a couple of the podcasts I listen to, I could only hear one of the hosts talking. Switching to the headphones that actually came with the Galaxy Nexus (which looked identical other than using a different colour of plastic in the jack fitting) fixed that.

"It's not a hardware limitation, most likely it's a difference in the TRRS layout of the headset." <-- isn't that a contradiction?

@LieRyan Good point, I was thinking about hardware in the electronic sense :) Fixed now.


text:
Is it possible to leave some apps in the internal memory while using S2E?
Well, is it possible? I have a Galaxy Ace with the official CyanogenMod ROM. I only have a class 4 micro SD card and is using the SD Speed Increase app.
I was wondering if I could leave some apps (like handcent sms, go launcher ex, etc) in the internal memory while retaining other apps in the sd-ext partition. Thanks.

S2E moves the whole applicator folder to your ext partition. If you want to move specific applications you need to use something else.
Something else in this case can be Link2sd. You can pick apps and even data to move.


text:
Display Text Message on Lock Screen
Is there a way to display unread text messages on the lockscreen?
The device I'm using is a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus.