text:
How can I enable DNS Suffix support on Android? (resolv.conf search)
I would like to add Namecoin support to my Android phone (galaxy s) like this: http://dot-bit.org/How_To_Install_Dns_Suffix
I managed to mount the system as read-write and add a resolv.conf to my etc folder like this:
search namecoin-suffix
nameserver 8.8.8.8

Now it works fine with nslookup but not with ping or any other program. Is there anything else I have to do?
edit 2012-03-11:
looks like Android does not use resolv.conf at all.
tried these properties but no luck yet (can be read/set with getprop and setprop from the shell):
net.dns1
net.dns2
net.dns.search -> space separated domain search suffixes (used e.g. by VPN)

There are additional dns server properties that may have to be changed.
The properties are not persistent over a reboot.

I haven't tried this, but a quick look at Android's bionic libc sources seems to indicate that Android might use /etc/ppp/resolv.conf:
(from http://code.metager.de/source/xref/android/4.1.1/bionic/libc/private/resolv_private.h#113)
 92 /*
 93  * Resolver configuration file.
 94  * Normally not present, but may contain the address of the
 95  * initial name server(s) to query and the domain search list.
 96  */
 97
 98 #ifndef _PATH_RESCONF
 99 #ifdef ANDROID_CHANGES
100 #define _PATH_RESCONF        "/etc/ppp/resolv.conf"
101 #else
102 #define _PATH_RESCONF        "/etc/resolv.conf"
103 #endif
104 #endif

Good call but still does not work with /etc/ppp/resolv.conf


text:
nytimes app - transferring marked articles - from old device to new one
Switching from HTC Aria (Android 2.2?) to Galaxy Nexus (Android 4.0.2). I had lots of NYTimes articles saved as "Favorites" in the NYTimes app. My intention is to transfer this data so that it is usable on my new phone? I am capable of intermediate to advanced solutions.
It seems that the NYTimes app creates a new folder every time it syncs. I haven't found where the individual articles are marked "favorite" and thus where the articles are then stored.

I'm going to try to give an answer that applies both to the NYT app and to apps in general.  The short answer is make sure that you setup both phones with the same Google account and sign into your NYT account in the app.
If an app is properly designed (and I would assume that the NYT app is) then user settings, such as favorites, should get transferred to your new phone automatically.
Some apps use the data backup/transfer functionality that is built into Android, which relies on you setting up both phones with the same Google account.
Some apps instead sync user data to their own servers, which typically relies on your signing into the app with their account.  The NYT does have its own system of users accounts and allows you to sign into your account in their Android phone app (oddly, this is missing in their Android tablet app).
If an app does not implement either of these then you should give it a low rating (using the built-in Android data backup/transfer functionality is super easy so apps really should implement it).
The principle exception to this is cases where your data is very large, i.e. media files, in which case the app should provide functionality or instructions to assist you in moving your data.

Titanium Backup (requires root) is able to back up and restore app data.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Bluetooth A2DP audio occasionally drops out for a second on custom ROMs
When I'm playing audio over the A2DP data path to my car, the audio randomly will drop for half a second, then gradually comes back to full volume over perhaps a second of time. Speaking like a programmer, it's almost like something mutes the audio and then slides the volume up in a loop or something.
This problem did not occur on Bombaridier and the older Synergy Kernel, however it is happening with the newer kernel on Juggernaut v5, Paradox and SlickMOD, leading me to believe something in the kernel or newer system binaries might be causing it. This behavior happens in Pandora, Amazon MP3 and also the stock Music app.
Thinking that maybe a stray notification was the problem, I've tried disabling notifications in all of the apps I know of that notify, I've also tried switching the phone into vibrate and finally into full-silent, but it does not seem to affect the behavior. I have found no likely cause. I wish I was able to log alsa changes; maybe a script running constantly with something like:

while (true)
do cat /proc/alsa/some_alsa_status_entry >> /tmp/alsalog
sleep 1
done

Does anyone else have any ideas as to what this might be? It's really annoying!

Note: I also posted this on xda-developers; if someone provides the answer there first I will certainly post it here.

I have a Galaxy 2s with this exact problem but I wonder if I might offer a suggestion as to what could potentially be the cause. I have no idea how to fix it but I’m hoping that what I share here might help someone who knows more about the way these things work to be able to solve the problem.
I have spent much of my career working in Broadcast Radio, the problem I have heard my phone have with audio dropouts followed by either a ramp up of volume back to the previous level OR an audio dropouts followed by a momentary slight speed shift in the audio playback (sounds a bit like an old cassette recorded when the batteries are starting to fail) many people would probably not notice the later problem because it is very subtle and you have to know what you’re listening for.
Anyway, I believe this could be caused because of a lack of word clock sync between the phone and the bluetooth receiver. I say this because there have been times when I have had digital audio devices such as CD players that are connected to an audio console or digital amplifier and with both devices free running in terms of their clock synchronisation exhibit almost exactly the same symptoms.
You see all digital audio devices require that the audio data be put into frames much the same as regular Ethernet data is transmitted around a network is put into frames, however in order for the audio to be at the correct pitch and speed generally speaking both the playback device (Phone) and the receiving device (Bluetooth receiver) need to have the same word clock, otherwise you end up with the two devices running freely and the audio frames wont by in sync.
Depending on the Error correction implemented (sample rate conversion) on the receiver you can get really odd audio results. I think that this is what is causing this problem. Basically the Bluetooth receiver and the phone aren’t in sync so every few minutes you get a drop out.
It doesn’t seem to happen when you are talking on the phone which makes me think that when you have a call connection as this is bi-directional, the phone is probably synchronised to the Bluetooth device word clock. But when you are listing to music the connection is mono-directional so there is no sync.
Anyway just a thought. Maybe someone out there who understands the way these units synchronise can figure out a fix.

I have a strong suspicion the problem is with the bluetooth kernel module.  Are you running a custom rom that has the DarksideX kernel?

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


text:
Calendar entries that live in Exchange 2010 cannot be edited
After setting up mail and calendar synchronization with our Exchange server (Exchange 2010) and the built-in app, I cannot edit the entries in the Exchange calendar. Adding new entries works fine.
Comment #15 of a Google code issue shows an important hint. It works when the "primary E-mail address" is used when connecting to the account.
Could there be other reasons? How do I find the primary E-mail address (short of asking the system administrator)?

I was able to retrieve the primary e-mail address from my phone: In the details of an appointment, I was listed as attendee under an e-mail address different from the one the account was configured for, and the e-mail address of this attendee turned out to be my primary e-mail address.
I was unable to change the e-mail address for the existing account. After dropping and recreating the account using the primary e-mail address, I can now update details of all appointments on my device.

Although this was posted some time ago, it still seems to be an issue for many. So here is what I found out.
I also use Exchange 2010 and had a similar issue with one twist: I was using my primary email and not the alias. I had to remove the account and reconfigure it with the alias that created the entry. I was able to then edit entries created on other devices (eg PC, tablet, etc) that used that alias. BUT, if it is created with any other aliases (of which I have several), it cannot be edited. So it's not necessarily finding your primary email address; it's about finding which email address created it. That can be found by going to the details of the entry and the email that was used by the 'host' of the event is the email address that has to be used in setting up the account on the device for the device to be able to edit the entry.


text:
application to restore/download all market applications after new rom is installed

Possible Duplicate:
How to recover apps from a factory reset?

the AndyX Rom has a wonderful feature that grabs all applications previously installed from the market once you do all wipes and new rom setup.
ONLINE AndyX ROM™ v6.0 - XXLPH - Samsung Galaxy S II I9100 | forum.xda-developers.com
unfortunately any other custom rom I used does not have this feature so I have to go to the market again and download all app one by one like skype, whatsapp and so on.
is there an app that would work on all the roms which I could use to grab all what I had installed before regardless in which rom I installed the apps? Thanks !

You can use AppBrain to sync the list of your apps to the service, flash, reinstall AppBrain and sync your device again to reinstall your apps.
The only downside is that when you resync your device you have to accept every app install separately. Or at least this was the case when I last used it (ages ago).

That is not the case if you enable Fast Web Install (separate app from same developers).

Is it just me or the link gives 404?

You could use a backup application (I use My Backup myself, requires root access). Actually, Google has some kind of backup and in case you reinstall your ROM or something goes wrong, it immediately download all the apps you had before from Google Play Store (at least it does so for me).

Titanium Backup can do this.  You'd just want to be careful to only do a restore of non-system apps, as your new custom roms apps are likely to have data incompatibilities.

authors: მამუკა ჯიბლაძე


text:
Android Market on Google TV not working after update to Google Play
I have both a Sony and a Logitech device. Yesterday I opened the Market from my Google TV and it immediately began updating it to Google Play. It looked like was not updating for very long time but was showing me the "Updating" message so I though it may take time and left both devices on overnight. When I checked in the morning I think it was installed incorrectly on BOTH devices
So now when I open the Market on either device it shows me this:

When I try searching for something in the provided text box it shows this page:

I am not able to use the Market at all now. I tried to uninstall it but was unable to do so.
How can I fix this issue?

Have you tried doing a factory reset from settings?

market has begun "Updating" again when i tried to open it today .... i will update my answer if it works/or not this time .. thanks for the answer

"Doesn't work outside US currently. We are working on getting a fix out." ...
told me Les Vogel who is the Staff Developer Programs Engineer - GoogleTV
So i think we will have to wait.


text:
Couldn't connect to server Google+
I get an error "No connection: Couldn't connect to the server" when trying to assign my google account to the Google+ app on my 2.3.5 Android phone. Tried several times along the day today, any ideas what else I may try?
I have no connection problems with any of the other apps on the same phone at any time.

Check for a security notification under the notifications. I missed it at first on my tablet.

I had the same problem... Go to Play Store and update your Google+ app and then try to sign in again. It worked for me.

No connection, couldn't connect to the server.  From deleting Google Play services. If you delete the Cache on some apps, you will have Sync problems. Shut the phone off, 30 seconds.   Turn  the phone back on. Main settings:  Turn Airplane mode on 30 seconds. Turn Airplane mode off.   This should work.  Last resort:  Factory Reset.  Located on phone menu settings.


text:
Is there any way to replace the desktop dock app on the Droid 3? Or at least change the widgets/dock area icons in productivity mode?
I have the Motorola desktop dock for my Droid 3 (on Verizon). When I drop the Droid in the desktop dock it lets me bring up either nighttime mode or productivity mode. I'd like to change what happens in productivity mode. I don't need two calendar views, for instance, and I'd like to have the Gmail app on the right side, instead of messages, and I'd like music instead of the camera app.
Does anyone know how any of this can be modified? I'm happy to spend a few dollars on an app if it will be able to take over from the built-in one when I put the phone on the dock.

If you've got a replacement app, you could utilize Tasker for that:

Condition: Docked
Task: Start App [your-replacement-app-here]

On the next docking, you would be asked for the app to perform this action with. Decide for "Tasker" and see if it works as expected. If it does, make it the default next time.
As alternate app you could e.g. use Desk Clock Plus, which might even support this without the help of Tasker.


text:
Configure email notification with Calendar app
If I create an appointment in the Android* calendar application, I can add a reminder that will pop-up on my phone at the configured time.  It will automatically synchronise the event with Google Calendar (which is great!).
If I create the appointment with Google Calendar, I can add a reminder that will either be sent as an email, be sent as a text message or appear as a web-browser pop-up.  Again, the event will be synchronised with the phone.  I really like the Google Calendar email notifications as they appear in Gmail Manager as well as on the phone, so I'm much more likely to notice the reminders when I'm at work and have my phone on silent.
Is there any way to create an appointment in the Android calendar application and at the same time set up a reminder to come by email rather than as a calendar reminder notification?
Thanks in advance for the help.
* HTC Desire, CyanogenMod 7.1.0, Android 2.3.7

Go Calendar
Tap the event you want to add a reminder for (or create a new event)
Tap Add reminder
To the right of the time drop down you should see Notification as a drop down tap this.
Select email

Tried on Android 4.1, Google Nexus 5.
Hope this is what you're looking for.

It is possible to create default event reminds by accessing your calender through the Google Calendar website.

Access your settings

Wrench Icon > Setting

Access your calendar's specific settings

Calendars tab > Click on your calendar

Add a default reminder

Notifications tab > Add a reminder

Most mobile devices with calendar applications support pop-up reminders and may chime and show a an alert to notify you of the event.  I prefer this method so that I can specify a special sound for calendar notifications vs normal emails, but this is where you would create an email notification.
It seems you want to remove the pop-up notifications, and add an email notification.
You can create a new calendar and adjust it's notifications if you don't want to receive an email for every event/only want email notifications for specific events.

Thank you for the detailed answer. But OP wants to use calendar app.

This is using the calendar app.

But you've said in the beginning of the post that it can be done by using calendar website. Correct me if I'm wrong or misunderstood you.

It's a one time process that may require login to the website.  I am unsure as to whether these detailed options are available within the calendar app itself, but are definitely available and only need to be set up a single time within the web interface.

@earthmeLon, You're suggestion doesn't work anyway.

@HappyNomad Works great for me.  Any part in particular you're getting stuck on?  What Android device are you using?

I'm using Samsung Galaxy S2.  I'm wondering if it's because the calendar is not in the device's primary account, but I have no way to test this.


text:
Problem with accents in Xperia x10 Mini Pro using CyanogenMod
When you press and release the button in the bottom-left corner, it normally comes up with smilies and accents. If you hold down on it and press "e" once, it will give you "é".
But with CyanogenMod's mod, it doesn't work. It just does the same as the blue button. Can anyone help?

Maybe it might be worth your while to try the latest LegacyXperia to see if it fixes it up? CyanogenMod no longer support those devices, this is where LegacyXperia steps in, to continue the support from where FreeXperia left off, have it running on Xperia Mini, JB ftw.

As far I as I know this feature is available on Stock ROM given by the manufacturer. May be someone might consider this and do a work around to fix this issue on CyanogenMod ROM.
Even this key doesn't work with other soft keyboard applications.


text:
How To Switch To A Higher Storage SDHC Card With Less Hassle And Problems?

Possible Duplicate:
How to upgrade / swap SD card without losing data and installed apps?

I am about to switch to SanDisk 16GB SDHC from 8GB storage flash card of same brand, but currently have following problems:

Sometimes Android OS forcecloses and restart fixes problem for a while:
This happens again and again by touching back button until switched from application or a home button.
Android Market v2.3.4 does not update apps:
Apps that are set to update automatically are stuck at "Downloading" as progress meter does not move and i have to update manually by cancelling download which negates the point in automatic app update. Gets stuck at download progress bar but progress bar is animated. After cancelling automatic download, i can re-download again manually.

Should aforementioned problems be taken care of before switching to a higher storage card or after? Additionally how would you go about rectifying aforementioned problems?
I want to upgrade manually to Police Market from my old 2.3.4 but i cannot see .APK file of old market and cannot backup it. Maybe i should just backup old SDHC card with Android Market 2.3.4 and keep this one just in case but copy this one as well to newer SDHC card, update old Market from there to Police Market and in case something goes bad, i have backup of old SDHC card?

Multiple questions in one, so let's see how to address them:

if those issues you report already happen with the "old" card inserted, they probably won't get worse with the "new" card (if they are card-related at all) -- so I would not connect these two. Though I had that #1 problem with a certain card (but not with another), after a ROM switch (replaced stock by Cyanogen) the problem switched as well (lucky me, now the new and bigger card had no problems anymore) -- so there might be certain compatibility issues, and switching cards could even get you rid of that FC problem. But mostly, such FC problems are rather solved by cleaning the cache of affected apps, or (worst case) doing a factory reset. If your device is rooted, wiping the Dalvik Cache (an option available with enhanced Recovery) would be an alternate approach to the factory reset, in case the Dalvik Cache got messed up.
the market issue should not be related to your SD card either. Here it may help to clear the market cache (via apps->manage apps).
concerning your .apk, the solution could be provided by apps like AppMonster -- which creates a copy of .apk files from installed apps to your SD card (the Pro version even does so automatically on each install/update, so you can easily switch back to any previous version of an app when the latest version shows problems).
keeping the old card for a while (leaving it untouched) never can hurt, as it provides another backup :)

The main problem I referred to is specifically discussed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1446961


text:
How do I get the Android 4 web browser to read arbitrary web pages out loud?
Can the Android browser in ICS read any web page out loud with TalkBack? How? It reads user interface elements, and some parts of specially scripted web pages (google.com) but I don't see how to make it read ordinary web pages.

I have no idea how to achieve this natively -- but you could try Talking Clipboard, which can not only read everything you copy to the clipboard -- but also handle web pages directly. It even supports picking the web page's address from Pocket / Read-it-Later, can read from arbitrary text/html files stored locally, and also ePub books.


text:
How to clear the keyboard autocomplete suggestions
I need to completely clear the autocomplete words my Sony Ericsson Xperia arc has learned. I used it for entering some random letter combinations (CAPTCHA entries) and now they are part of the autocomplete for some important prefixes. How can this be done? Looked in the settings screen but no luck.

This is positioned high in Google, so I'm gonna paste my solution here. I own a Sonyericsson Xperia Arc S and the Personal Dictionary list was empty.
The way to go was to go into the app listing (all apps), find the Xperia Keyboard service and Clear Data.
It resets every keyboard configuration, but it's how it works.

On some devices (even Xperia ones), it's, "International Keyboard".

You can clear learned words under Settings --> Language and keyboard --> User dictionary. Long press on the learned word and then edit or delete.

This solution does not apply to recent Sony devices unfortunately. They can learn words without being added specifically to the user (personal) dictionary, which is what the OP and myself had a problem with.

Go to setting ---> Controls ---> Language and inputs ---> keyboard and input methods --> (setting icon) behind your keyboard type -- > predictive text --> clear personal data .. :)
That's all :)

Clearing the words by Setting:Language and Keyboard:User Dictionary works only for words you've saved manually.  To unlearn words that were learned automatically, you need to go the the app that drives your text input and clear the data for that app.  For example, on my Casio Commando, I go to my list of apps, click on XT9 Text Input app and click on "Clear Data.

For xperia

Go to setting ---> Controls ---> Language and inputs ---> keyboard and input methods --->Select the Keyboard you using (eg., Xperia Keyboard)--->Settings icon--->>Use my writting style--->In My Words you can delete the words you want to remove or you can go to Clear data to clear all your words.

To clear the autocomplete suggestions and be able to type the message: double tap on the word you are trying to write, than try to finish writing your word.

Open any app like mail or message and start typing, predicted text will be displayed. Just long press it and select remove from prediction.. Done

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


text:
Mute the external microphone when a headphone is plugged in?
I'm running Gingerbread on my Samsung Galaxy S II. I dock it on my dash in my car and plug a 3.5mm cord from the phone to my stereo aux input.
I often listen to music from my phone through my car stereo, but when a call comes in and I answer it, there is terrible feedback on the other end because the caller hears both my speakers and the audio from the phone.
Is there anything I can do about this other than to switch to a traditional headset?

How will you talk on the call with the mic muted?

Community bump prevention: this question was closed because the question seems to have been abandoned (OP hasn't visited the site after posting the question, and no answers have score above 0). If anyone can evaluate the existing answers, feel free to vote accordingly and reopen the question (or mod-flag the question requesting for reopening). For anyone else having the same issue, please post a new question and refer to this question as additional context.

You could make use of e.g. Tasker -- an automation tool which can react on different situations and handle a lot of things (basically, sometimes I think 80% of questions like "How can I...with Android?" could be answered by "Use Tasker!". Though it doesn't come "cheap", on the developers website you can get a 7-day trial to check first. It's worth every cent of its 5 bucks!).
So with tasker, you do simple math:
condition + task = profile

For your case, it's probably something like...
Profile "docked-in-car"

Conditions: (they are always connected by AND with Tasker)

"headphones plugged"
"docked"

Tasks:

"audio -> mic mute"
optionally: "keyguard off"
optionally: "display timeout 0" (as it is connected to a power source, so you can continually see what's displayed)
most likely: "start app -> [music-app]".

Save & go. Now, when you dock your SGS2 and plug in the 3.5mm cord, mic should be muted -- and additionally some other nice actions executed.

I used to use Ultimate Car Dock until my car started supporting Android Auto.  I assume that you can not use Android Auto ?  Because that would sort it out.
I would recommend Ultimate Car Dock.  It also gives you hands-free control of the mobile, if you use a car bracket or stand, or holder.
It allows you to make up screen of actions (and people that you can call or message to)

You can add your music player to this or you can use the built in music player

Just a note, Android Auto was released in 2015, long after the question was posted.


text:
Disable device lock when pressing Gnex power button
When I press the power button on my Galaxy Nexus to turn off the screen, it immediately locks the phone, and I have to enter my code the next time I turn the screen back on.  However, if I let the screen timeout and turn itself off, I don't have to enter my code when I turn it back on.
This is highly annoying.  I'd prefer the device to only lock after a period of inactivity.  What's the best way to make that happen?

You may want to take a closer look at the settings of your Nexus. Some devices offer different settings for delays of turning device-lock on ("Timeout"). Especially if you're running a CustomROM, chances are good (e.g. CyanogenMod offers these options). As they are always at different places, it's hard to say where to look: security is a likely place, and with CM it's in the CyanogenMod submenu.

Stock ICS and Jelly Bean already support this option.  Go to Settings > Security and uncheck the Power button instantly locks option.  Now, your phone will lock only after the desired period of inactivity.
Note, you may have to set the Automatically lock option to something other than "Instantly" in order to get the delayed lock.


text:
Dim the back light to low battery level
Even when I set the backlight onto its dimmest, it is still very bright when using it in the dark. However, when you have low battery it appears even dimmer, so I know it is possible to get it to that level.
Is there anyway to set it to this reduced level?
If it makes any difference, I am using a Galaxy Ace (2.3.3).

I'm currently using Screen Filter. It reduces the brightness of your phone below the level of what Android OS provides. Works for me and is a good battery saver. Hope this helps.

Good find thanks :) Working perfectly so far, I also like the fact that I can set it to 50%, then still use the 3-tier brightness settings the stock power control provides. It's a lot easier on the eyes already, and if I get a battery saving then that's a real plus.

Glad to know that it helped :)

You can use Dimmer available on F-droid (an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform).

Dimmer
Lower brightness
Lower the brightness beyond the limit through a filter.
License: Apache2

Current version (3.3.1) apk.


text:
What's causing my games to sometimes exit to the homescreen?
I have a Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray.
When i first bought the phone, it came with a 4GB class 2 microSD without a brand name.
I could play games without problems and it was pretty stable.
Then I bought a cheap 32GB microSD without any class. I moved my files from the old card into a new one by copy-pasting them. When I play games (mostly big-sized games) the games will sometimes suddenly crash to homescreen without any "force close" option.
Then I thought it was maybe because of the cheap microSD so I bought a new Transcend  32 GB class 10 microSDHC.  It is fast enough for HD games, and I'm satisfied with it, but the same problem happens - games will sometimes crash to homescreen.
Is this because of my storage space? Maybe I installed too much stuff on it? I have 80 MB free space. Maybe this is the cause?
My phone condition:

Rooted
No other modifications applied.

Please limit your question to be a single question. Your query about voice calls should be a separate question.

Get a logcat viewer off of Android Market (Catlog is decent) and launch it immediately after a game crashes.  See if you can find the actual error message associated with the crash.

The Android version might be helpful to know as well in this case: when it comes to logcat viewers, due to changes in the security regulations, they got trouble with Jelly Bean which need to be considered (if not updated then, they were no longer able to read logs). Also: How much RAM does your device have? What are the RAM conditions when the error occurs?

If your foreground app is being closed without warning, the suspect is no other than Kernel. It generally happens when Kernel runs out of memory. In such case, Kernel reclaims memory by killing other apps, otherwise the device would be crashed. In such situation, Kernel doesn't respect multitasking (apps with background services, apps having icon in status bar etc) and in some cases, even foreground apps (when its very critical). When Kernel fails to do it due to CPU unavailability etc, the device really get crashed. This is how it works.
In your case, one or more reasons are responsible:

You've a load of lots of background running apps which draw lot of memory even during game play.
The game requires more resources than your device hardware provides. Its less likely because game runs most of times, but its possible that game does a lot of memory caching which outruns currently available memory.
There's memory leakage bug in atleast one of your installed apps.

When it comes to fully filled big storage, system requires somewhat more resources to locate a file in it, but it doesn't cause this type of problem. You can reduce memory card size or files in it to lower down performance impact, but its not recommended. Its better to hunt down and remove always-running apps which are not extremely useful. Even if its useful, you should find its alternative which doesn't always run in background.
In the last, you can always install CatLog to see what happened after game crash. If you find it as alien language, Google it or ask here.

thank you so much, i will definitely try that. Currently downloading it.  :)

In such cases I would highly suggest to try to replicate the problem while usb debugging is enabled. Install the android sdk which will give you the necessary tools to "logcat" what's happening. The messages might give you a clue what is causing the sudden shutdown of your application.
After having installed the sdk you can simply start the logging through Terminal/cmd by

adb logcat

A picture for illustration (click to enlarge):

As suggested it might be a problem with low ram. Sony Ericsson Xperia S Phones sometimes feel sluggish especially if you use a lot of "widgets" such as the timeline and media player widget on your homescreen as they are quite ressource intensive. This might be indirectly linked to the shutdown of your games if there are many background services running there just won't be enough free ram for the game.

Thanks for the suggestion. But i will try the catlog app first as i dont have android sdk on my computer.  My computer's performance is worse than my android lol.  But thank you so much, i might try it.

oh someone edited my question and actually changed the meaning a bit.  I was asking "is this because of my RAM?", yes i made a mistake that i said "RAM storage space" before, but what i meant was my RAM.  I still have about 14 gb of storage space.

Actually, you don't need to install the entire SDK for that -- all you need is the adb executable (I use it this way; it ships e.g. with root-exploits intended for Android 4.x).

Download Advance Task Killer from Android Market. Then, open it, go to Settings and select auto task kill.

If possible, please provide a link to the app. :)

How shall a task killer be helpful here? "Auto-task-killing" is a very bad thing (enough posts about that, so I do not go into details here as they are not related to the question). In short: Task killers are only good for killing hanging tasks which hog resources and cannot be closed otherwise.


text:
Find a stolen Android device without sim card
I'm looking for an app that could help me find/take pictures & record sound/ erase my data / block device if I lose my cell.
I don't know if is it possible, but will be really useful if the app can work even if there is no sim inside the device/ switched off or have GPS/internet connection disabled.
Thanks in advance!

Check this question. Lots of useful answers there.
link

I had asked a similar question to this one: How can I make my phone/tablet ring remotely without a SIM card?

Cerberus can be activated by both it's web service and via text message.  If you're rooted, it can be integrated into the system apps and so survive a complete wipe.  FYI, NO app will let you track your phone while it's turned off :)
It can also turn on the GPS remotely, has real time tracking using Google maps (looks like Google navigation in a web browser), take pics/record sound & video, sound an alarm, hide itself from the app drawer so thieves won't know it's there, remotely lock the phone with a code, wipe the system, display messages, download the last 10 texts and phone calls, and LOTS more.
Cerberus is $5, and worth every penny. It can be downloaded from Google Play, but the download section on the official site has Cerberus APKs that can be flashed and integrated directly into the ROM.

It's not integrated into the kernel. A helper apk is moved to system/app.

Noted & corrected :)

AndroidLost is my personal favorite. I don't know if it can turn the device on, but I know it works for everything else. My favorite feature is the pop-up message you can send that takes a picture with the front facing camera when they click OK. If you don't have access to your phone, install it via the market link and login on their site!

I couldn't find any anti-theft app that can be activated in any way besides sending a text message. What you can do, however, is installing one of these apps and immediately activating it before losing your phone. Having GPS continously activated may drain your battery more than you'd like to, though.
Of course, your phone can neither phone home nor be remote controlled unless it has some sort of internet connection. But Wifi should still work without a SIM card.
The most popular apps for this sort of thing seem to be Prey and Where's my Droid. The latter requires the paid pro version if you need remote wipe.

Google Latitude tracks your location — that would work until they wipe your phone, of course.

Assuming the phone hasn't been wiped , and is logged into your account, and has some form of network access, Android device manager can locate, wipe and lock your phone. With newer versions you need to enable location access. I tested location and ringing on a phone with wifi, but no functional sim card (I have an old cancelled one inside to keep it from complaining).
Without any way to communicate with a phone its tricky. Prey is pretty nice, has a proven track record (and a pretty impressive recoveries page) and can be activated over text. It will also activate itself on a sim card change or removal, and try to call back so it may be useful since the phone will have to be turned on eventually to get any use of it.
Nothing can track a switched off phone, short of magic.

You could try Android Device Manager, but your phones 3G must be online or it must be connected to WiFi

Journeyman Geek's answer already mentioned that. In future, please take care to avoid repeating previous answers, which just wastes everyone's time.


text:
Android Tablets: Use USB to Ethernet connector?
Do Android tablets generally support USB to Ethernet adapters? And if so, which models?

How to make Ethernet work on Android over OTG?

Looks like 'no', with some xda-developers work.  If you want to connect to a LAN, why not go with an access point the size of a deck of cards?  If you want extra security, you might turn off your wifi router's beacon, use WPA2 without WPS, and turn on its MAC address filtering.  Your device will connect without the beacon if you 'Add Network'.

Is this still the case?

@Alex, if it's changed, the feature you're looking for from the new devices is "USB host".

To my knowledge, the Motorola Xoom does support the USB to Ethernet adapter solution, but I don't know of any others. Even the Xoom however requires some serious work, and you will need one of two custom kernels for the Xoom as well as an adapter based on a particular chipset. For more information, check out this XDA article and the threads it links to.

I'm using a Toshiba Thrive (OS 4.0.3), a Curtis KLU MID704 (OS 4.1.1, and one of the Rockchip clones) a Polaroid branded PMID704 and a ZTE phone. Of all these, the Polaroid and Curtis have Ethernet support in the settings. I'm using a Radio Shack Belkin USB-to-Ethernet adapter, which is supported off-the-shelf by Android. (Only the Toshiba Thrive has a full size type-A USB jack.) The Polaroid is "broken" in that the Ethernet doesn't work. You click on it in settings and it clicks but does nothing. The Curtis works, it shows me my IP and MAC address in settings and I can set static IP parameters including IP Address, Gateway, NetMask, and 2 DNS servers.
However, the Android frameworks (in the Java(tm)-like language) are broken. The connection managers only support WiFi and Mobile Data. You can inquire about the Eth0 device but can't open a connection or do anything with it.
I know...I've got a $70,000USD contract hinging on solving the ethernet connection problem and it's getting frustrating. I've got google people telling me it's in there, but I can't find API's or examples. Supposedly Google's working on it.

The most easy way to use LAN to your Android device is to connect your LAN cable to a portable wireless router ( about US$20 in ebay ) then you can use WiFi service from your LAN cable.

Not really answering the question here, you could do with expanding it a bit if you think you are.


text:
Shortcut to mark all SMS text messages read?
Is there an app that has a homescreen shortcut to mark all SMS text messages as read?  Or an app that does this when I run it?

Install Go SMS Pro & use its Mark all read option (Its in More tab of options menu). As data container of text messages are shared between apps, changes will be reflected in stock messaging app too.

Any option for less clicks? Is there an option to mark the message as read when it's short enough to read it in the notification?

Go SMS is kind of heavy on my RAM.

ChompSMS has a "mark all as read" option

But ChompSMS and it's lightweight analogue Textra SMS don't support dual-sim.


text:
Is iris really this useless or am I doing it wrong?
Just tried to use iris, the supposed Siri clone for Android:

Me to iris: "Remind me in two hours to get cascade"
iris: "What is your real name?"
Me: Why does it need that? "Josh"
iris: "Definition of 'Josh': to jest or tease playfully"
Me: "You're useless."
iris: "Definition of useless: not fulfilling or not
  expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome"
Me: "Exactly!"

Am I doing it wrong or is iris really just not fulfilling or not expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome?

From what I've seen, Iris isn't supposed to be a competitor for Siri, but rather just a (mostly) joke app that just tries to replicate some of Siri's snarkiness. It's for laughs, not productivity.
If you do want to be productive with voice commands, there are some options. Vlingo and SpeakToIt Assistant spring immediately to mind. There are others.
This might be helpful: Lifehacker: How to get a personal assistant like Siri on your Android phone for free

You need to make sure to ask the right questions.
Here are a few

calender (Remind me of the meeting coming friday) or (set a reminder this friday)
Alarm (Set alarm at 540 am)
Call someone (can you please call Bob)
text someone (send a text to Bob)
search nearby (find me a nearby coffee shop)
play music (play the song rolling in the deep)
ask movie reviews (should I watch the movie Mission Impossible)
watch videos (show me a video of cat singing)
find news (what is the news about SOPA)

These are just a couple of the commands available.


text:
Can I root my stock-Gingerbread Captivate without flashing a new kernel?
I updated my AT&T Captivate to the stock Gingerbread a few weeks ago, and I've had nothing but problems since -- hangs, lockups, and that constant TetheringManager crash.  I'm about to do a factory reset, but I'd really like to be able to back it up properly first, which of course requires root.
I've done a little research, and SuperOneClick definitely does not work in my situation.  I've seen some people refer to flashing a new kernel, but a) I've never done it, b) it sounds a bit scary, and c) I don't need anything else out of a custom kernel, other than root access.  Is that my only way forward in this situation?
(I found this similar question, but people seem to have ignored the "how do I root" part once they figured out that the OP didn't need to in the first place)

Unfortunately for us (not so much for manufacturers and carriers,) Gingerbread closed the exploits that were previously being used to gain root privileges on older Android OS versions.  This means that tools like SuperOneClick and similar will no longer work.  The only way to get root on Samsung devices with Gingerbread is to flash a pre-rooted image onto the phone with a tool like Odin or Heimdal.
Forums like XDA-Developers and Rootzwiki contain detailed instructions for flashing such an image (kernel only, full stock system, or a completely custom ROM.)


text:
Transfer *.contact from PC to Samsung Galaxy S 2
How can I transfer my contacts from my PC (win7) .contact (iPhone 4) to Samsung Galaxy S2? I no longer have the iPhone 4.

If I'm understanding what you are saying, you synced all your iPhone contacts to Windows and have *.contact files in the Contacts folder.
So download Samsung Kies and you will be able to sync the contacts from PC to phone.
Alternatively, in Windows export your contacts as a CSV file and then import this into the Gmail/Google account you have linked to your phone. These contacts can then be synced from Google to your phone.

EASY SOLUTION
Solution that I found was dumber than expected:

Make sure the .contact files are in your C:/Users/username/contacts folder
Go to Kies, on the top right corner make it "lite mode". (next to the X / close button)
Click on the Sync TAB
Sync contacts with Windows Contacts.

Crazy eh!?

If you are going to change your iPhone or just want to take backup of your iPhone contacts, here is a simple way to export your iPhone contacts as csv file in Windows 7 and you can open this csv file in Excel. You just need your iPhone and iTunes running in Windows7. Windows XP users here.
Export iPhone contact as CSV file or to Excel
Download and install iTunes, after installation Run iTunes.
Connect your iPhone with computer using data cable.
On the safe side backup your device first, Right-click on your device and select “Back Up” (in-case of any problem with iPhone Contacts you can restore your device later).
When iTunes finish the back up process, Click on “Info” tab
Click on “Sync Contacts with” check box, select “Windows Contacts” from drop down menu and click “Apply” or “Sync” button
Press “Windows + R” keys form keyboard to open “Run” window and type “wab” in “Open” filed and hit OK
Click on tiny arrow and select “Export” as shown below
Select “CSV (Comma Separated Values)” option and click “Export” button
Click on “Browse” button, choose location to save iPhone contacts as csv file
Select iPhone contacts fields that you want to export and hit “Finish” button
You will see this message if iPhone contacts exported as csv file successfully, hit “OK” button.
Now you can use this csv file to import iPhone contacts in any other application or device or you can open this file in Excel to view all iPhone contacts.


text:
Can I use arrow keys?
I've got a Samsung Galaxy Tab GT-I9100 running Android 2.3.5.
I love the "Swype" keyboard except I really want arrow keys. Is there please a way to add them or switch them on?
(Background)
I know I can tap the text entry box and a little pointer appears, but that's just not usable. Often, the vertical bar is always several characters off from where I drag the pointer to. If I want to insert text somewhere outside the visible area, its near impossible to get it to scroll to the right point.

The version of Swype pre-loaded on most Gingerbread Galaxy S's does have arrow keys built in.
Swipe your finger across from the Swype button in the bottom left corner of the keyboard to the SYM button alongside it, and you should see the cursor control screen instead.

Just tap the ABC button to get back to the normal keyboard.
(the other useful extra keyboard you can get is a proper num pad by swiping from the Swype key to the F key in middle of the keyboard).

+1 for another Swype feature I hadn't noticed.   Works on my Droid Bionic (2.3 Gingerbread) and Transformer Prime (4.0.3 ICS).

Yes yes yes! Thank you. Exactly what I was looking for without having to download anything new.

Really great...

As of today this still works but the "sym" key is now a "1234" key and pageUp, pageDn, Home, End have been removed. With Android in general, I wish there was a way to define my own keys more easily. Also I think the  Android volume rocker should switch keyboards. And rolling back to older versions (like Hacker's Keyboard allows) should be easier :-/

Following keyboard apps have arrow keys:

Hacker's Keyboard
Go Keyboard with its Pad Plugin

Simply install them.
Hacker's Keyboard is not liked on smartphones due to its small buttons, but as you are on tablet, I'd recommend it to you. It has all keys found on a PC's physical keyboard (including even Control, Alt etc keys). Take a look of it:

Use Go Keyboard if you want style. It supports more layouts, themes and languages. It supports swipe-based input, too.

Go Keyboard is my primary keyboard. But, when I use Connect Bot to access my remote servers, I switch to Hacker's Keyboard.

I love Hacker's keyboard especially because it does show arrow keys along side characters just like out normal PC keyboard. Other keyboard apps unnecessarily replaces character keyboard with arrow keyboard, so I need to jump between two different keyboards if I have to constantly use characters and arrows together. What now I am missing in Hacker keyboard is swype. Is it possible to have swype on Hacker's keyboard? Or is there any other app which provides charachters+arrows+swype on same screen together? Also Go Pad plugin is not for phones so no way to get arrows with Go on phone?

@PJBrunet You can select text using shift + arrow keys using hacker's keyboard

Current version of Swype (as of this writing) doesn't have the arrow keys feature.  I would suggest putting in a feature request on Swype forums.
With that said, there are many alternative keyboard apps on the Google Play Store with the arrow keys built in.

Arrows are back in latest version. I'm using it now in Android 4.4.2


text:
Changing vibrate length of default email app on galaxy s2
I have connected the mail app from the galaxy s2 to my email (exchange). The notification (which I have set to vibrate) is just a very short vibrate. It seems very likely that I will often miss this notification (unlike the gmail app for example which vibrates for a much longer time). Is it normal for the vibration of the default mail app to be very short? And if so, is there a way to change that?

There are two methods you can use to adjust the vibration duration:

System Configuration

Tap your device "home" button;
Tap your device "menu" button;
Tap "Settings";
Tap "Sound";
Use "Vibration Intensity" to adjust the duration.

This may not be available for all devices/Android versions

Custom Application
There are a few applications available from Google Play Store that you can use to adjust vibration timers.
Vibration Notifier by j4velin allows you to set a vibrate interval and additionally alows you to specify the duration of each vibration:

Let your device vibrate every X min. when you missed a call / received an eMail


text:
Why does Google Maps Display Routes/Waypoints Differently on Phone than on PC?
And how do I fix it?
I am trying to display a specific route between my origin and destination, rather than letting google maps choose the route.  So, I create the route in google maps on my PC and then email the route to myself so that I can open it on my phone.  For example:

Note the white circles on the blue route indicating that I have dragged the route away from its default.
The link is:
http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=22202&daddr=38.902418,-77.069841+to:38.908511,-77.053798+to:38.9456351,-77.0422782+to:39.00056,-77.03989+to:39.0174369,-77.0432333+to:20902&hl=en&sll=39.004912,-77.02652&sspn=0.089509,0.183506&geocode=FTzOUAIduXlo-yk34EFN2La3iTFBkycb6n588Q%3BFZKaUQId7wFo-yktwDKhRba3iTFCpG9KdYsdWw%3BFV-yUQIdmkBo-ym5an6ntbe3iTFJCATBLUUQZA%3BFWNDUgIdmm1o-ymfOuDwOMi3iTEfD6EAX58b7A%3BFfAZUwId7nZo-ykh5TBQz8i3iTHdODB7bMR3-g%3BFdxbUwId32lo-yn38LS2Mc-3iTEUl-sEkNiw-Q%3BFS7IUwIduXlo-ymj3f5RBc-3iTHt3MhgKrzmqQ&mra=dpe&mrsp=4&sz=13&via=1,2,3,4,5&t=m&z=13
When I click on the link on my phone and ask that it be opened in google maps (as opposed to the browser), I get the following result:

Clicking through the waypoints using the arrows at the bottom of the map, it seems like when I hit the 14th waypoint, the position of the waypoint jumps onto a previous waypoint, even though the text of the directions remains correct.  I haven't been able to discern a pattern to this remapping.
Why does this happen?  Is there a way to avoid it?
Note: I am using a Droid Bionic running Android 2.3.4.

Sounds like a bug to me.

Does this happen when you search for directions within the Maps app?

To answer Chahk, this does not happen when I search for directions from within the Maps app, but I cannot specify a route by dragging Google's suggested route to the route I prefer (like I can on an PC).  I find that Google Maps is very good at getting me where I'm going, but I'm better at optimizing a route for my daily commute.  I'm doing the above to force Google to give me a traffic prediction for the route that I intend to take.

To answer the original question, according to Google's official post, Maps on the phone take real time traffic conditions into account when calculating directions.  This could explain the discrepancies between the directions you found via PC earlier.
The bug you are describing could be a side-effect of this, when Navigation is trying to be too smart for its own good, and the route from web is confusing the computation of real-time directions.  I would submit this as a bug report to Google.

How do I submit a bug report to Google?

I couldn't find where to file actual bug reports.  Posting on the Google Maps forum would probably be the next best option.  https://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/forum/#!forum/maps

Thank you, Chahk.  I have copied this post to the Google Maps Forum


text:
Connecting Android to Fedora to browse the web
I have bought an Android phone Spice MI-270. I wanted to connect the phone to Linux Fedora so that I can browse the web using the services provided on my SIM card. How can I connect the Android phone to Linux Fedora to use the Internet ?

Why do you need to connect to Fedora to use Internet from your SIM card?

@ roxan i want to use internet on my laptop

If you want to use the internet connection your Android device provides to access the internet when working on your laptop, this is called Tethering (this Wikipedia article gives you closer information). The followint Q&A gives you some closer information on this topic:
Use 3G connection on my Android in Ubuntu
Though the title mentions Ubuntu, the solution provided there explicitly states to also support Fedora -- and it should work via USB cable.
Starting with Froyo (Android 2.2), your device can also directly act as a Wifi Hotspot (just check in the setup under Wireless & Networks) -- which of course requires your laptop to support Wifi (but which laptop does not?). When running into trouble with this, you might want to check this Q&A:
Tethering an Android 2.2.1 (Froyo) using Wifi

If your question is rather the other way around: Your laptop having internet, and you want to use that connection from your Android, this is called Reverse tethering. In this case check:
Connect Android device as wifi adapter to a PC to create an ad-hoc network
More on reverse tethering you can find checking the questions tagged reverse-tether.


text:
Will a Motorola DEFY+ sync with my Outlook calendar and contacts?
I'd like to buy a Motorola DEFY+ as it fits my needs almost perfectly. However, I read some test reviews which are claiming that the Outlook sync options are quite weak.
Does anyone know if this phone will synchronize with my local Outlook calendar and contacts? Are there any known problems which might occur during the synchronization?

Actually I bought the Motorola Defy+ and I'm disapointed, as it seems there's synchronization is only possible via Google account.

Thanks for your answer. As you described, the situation looks quite disappointing.


text:
Galaxy S2 restarts
My Galaxy S2 restarts occassionally. In addition, it sometimes loses connection with my service provider (even when the signal strength is good). I just have to switch it off and back on again.
I have upgraded the software to the latest version. Everything else works fine. No problem with making calls, connecting to wifi etc.
Is this a hardware or software issue?

I just saw my S2 in mid reboot when I happened to glance at it on my desk. What's going on? OS auto update?

did you clear dalvik cache ? did you wiped data from previous rom ? sometimes when you flash a new rom provider info can get purged, have you tried searching your provider's website for any info on adding it back ?


text:
Date of ROM installation
Is there any way to know when I flashed my last custom ROM?
Atleast a smart way to find the approximate date/time using some logs deep down in my android would be good.

Try the following in Terminal Emulator or ADB shell:
su
ls -l /system/

The date stamps on the read-only files/directories are the time they were created, i.e. approximately when the ROM was installed.

Great answer. There's no need to issue the cmd "su". I issued only the second line without root access and it worked great.

For me, this indicated 2009, which is certainly incorrect. Nexus 5.


text:
Can I share my Google Play "cloud" music with a family member?
I've uploaded all of our music to Google's "music in the cloud". I can play it on my Android phone (Droid X). I'd like my wife to be able to play it as well on her HTC Incredible).
Is this allowed?
How do I do it?
(One way would be for her to log in as me but that seems like it might cause problems with both of us logged into my account).

Any music you purchase via Google Play Store or upload via Google Music Manager application is tied to whichever Google account you selected within the app under Menu -> Settings -> Google Play account.  Starting with Android 2.2 (a.k.a. Froyo) you can add multiple Google accounts on Android devices (phones, tablets, Google TVs, etc.)  Therefore if your relatives' handset/tablet supports multiple Google accounts, you can add your own account under Settings -> Accounts & sync on their device, and then within their Play Music app's settings you should be able to change the account to yours.  The music should then be available on their device to stream/download.

Isn't this option granting the family member/friend full access to the user's account?

@Dror: Yes, but it's the only way to do it. You can't share the music across accounts.

@Dror Alternatively, you can create a new Google account specifically for music purchases and add it to both your and your wife's phones. That way personal stuff like email and calendars can stay separate while music (and maybe books as well) can go on the shared account. Just don't forget to switch accounts in Play Store before buying music or books.

Using the Google music uploader tool, you can also download all (Purchased only, I believe) music from any given Google Play Music account.  You could then switch accounts (or better yet, a different computer), and upload that music to a different Google Music account.
It would be a manual sync process, as the uploader tool won't automatically download purchased songs.

You can also download music you uploaded yourself but only up to 2 times, AFAIR.

The 2 download limit only applies if you download from the web client, the uploader tool does not have that restriction.  http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1233029

Is this practice allovied by the licence?

The original question was referring to music that the user uploaded themselves to the cloud, it's unclear, but I'd wager the new "Auto Matching" feature may further muddy the waters somewhat.  I'd call it "Questionable"

@Brandorf - it's a good idea and I looked into it, but you can not share a single Google account among many users.  See here:
https://support.google.com/a/answer/33330?hl=en
Google Play does let you share Streaming Music that you subscribe too though.  AFAIK you can not share any purchased music, whether purchased from Google Play or otherwise.

These answers seem outdated.  In my experience you CAN now share playlists with anyone who is a Google Play member.  However, in my experience those playlists only work with songs that are available for purchase from Google Play.  Private or collectors music that I've uploaded to the Cloud myself seem to break the playlist even if I've made the playlist public.   They can see the list but when they try to play it nothing happens.

Two phones logged into the same account work OK in Play Music. I have set it up this way here. The only restriction is that only one can be playing, or have a track in the queue, at the same time. Clear the queue and the other phone can start playing.

The one-access limitation applies to Google home devices, too.

I have dealt with the same issue. Wanting my wife to have the same access to my almost 4K songs without her having full access to my main Google account. Remember, Sharing your google password is a NO NO. Even with a family member. It give access to more than you can imagine. Web history, every photo you've taken, downloaded, or deleted. Web history, location history, and text, call, ability to track you via GPS, remote everything, and or wipe, lock, or completely erase.... and thats just your phone. Computer, Tablet, even track what you were doing on a friends computer even if your on the other side of the earth. If your logged in, more data is being collected than you think. Even if you think you know. And its all accessible. By you, Google, anyone who has your email address and password, and now (since a year ago bill passed) the Government. The ability to secretly track, take pics, video, and record audio, when your phone looks like its off. Unless your batteries off, its possible. Just knowing your email address, begins an array of info linking to info on you personally. Ever googled your email addresses? Scary. So with that being said, you shouldn't just log in with here phone, giving her access to your music because you cant separate everything else listed above. Its so scary, I dont even want to know my own Google Password. LOL. The only ways to share your music library is to...
A... Download your entire music library, log out, log in to her google music, then upload that folder. Note: It will be a large file. Even Zipped. (Ext. HD suggested) AND you can only download your music twice. EVER. one song or everything.
B... Upload your Music folder (once downloaded) to your Google Drive. Thats a Google Feature that you CAN SHARE with other Google accounts. Any type of files. Pictures, music, documents, or extensive that only special programs can open. From there, she could pick songs and play them one at a time, or down load them to her phone, or DL/UL to her Play music.
C..... I really like the shared Google account option. DL/Up load your music to a NEW Google account and share everything from Music, Books, and Emails. You can even pick what you want to share (sync) on your phone with that account, Giving access to Photos, and what ever. Just remember not to use the same password for the new account. (That make the whole point useless)
D..... What I have done so far is, download or buy music online with my computer, and upload it all to MY play music, KEEPING the music files on my Hard drive so, if she wants any music I have, I just log-in to her account, and upload it from the same source I uploaded to my account with.
F it..... I'm taking my music, and uploading it to my own server.Then I can do what I want with my music. So, neaaaa (Sticks tongue out)
It does stink that you cant simply share music like you can contacts, pics, or documents. Before the internet was dominated with massive servers, the web was mainly peer to peer. So with that being said, I support Torrent client software, and the index search engines that bring us all together. Long Live pirate Bay and its developers. (whom sit behind bars because other people share stuff with one another online) And these guys just made finding things to share simple, without uploading or sharing anything copyrighted themselves. Google Pirate bay justice for more info. You cant write your name on everything. I paid, Its mine, and I like to share. As long as you "Be Fair, when you Share"

This answer is quite rambly and almost half of it is irrelevant to the question. It's great that you have some good suggestions, but try to stay on topic. This is a Q&A site, not a forum, so answers have to be focused and relevant.


text:
Google talk in Sony Ericsson XPeria Mini Pro
I've a Sony Ericsson XPeria Mini Pro with Android 2.3.3 and GTalk didn't came installed. I search it in the market and can't find it.
Is there any way to get it installed?

Are you sure it's not there? It's a pretty core app. It's very rarely called "GTalk" or "Google Talk" these days, try looking for it under T just called "Talk"

I thought that may be I could share the apk file through bluetooth from another phone and I succeed. Here are the steps:
All the steps are for the phone which already has GTalk installed.

Open file manager.
Go to System (outside sdcard) -> applications.
Search Talk.apk.
Send it to the phone where you want to install GTalk by bluetooth (or any other way).

Once Talk.apk is already in your phone, just click it to install the app.
I think (not sure) the second step requires rooting. Also I'm pretty sure that the native file manager doesn't allow you to go up from sdcard. I would need something like Es File Manager or Astro File Manager.

Odd that it wasn't pre-installed. I think your best bet would probably be to search XDA-Dev and install a separate Google Talk apk.

I've found it.. I didn't make a BIG search but I found an easier way..


text:
Battery Sony Ericsson XPeria Mini Pro
I've a Sony Ericsson XPeria Mini Pro with Android 2.3.3. I noted that the battery ends really fast.
I don't have enable GPS service, Mobile data, Bluetooth. Only phone and wifi. In less than two days the battery is drill out. I don't listen music and I don't play any games.
I'd like to know if apps are closing correctly but I can't find any app which tell me which apps are runing (without mixing with the running services).
My guess is that may be the services (facebook, what's app, etc) are trying to connect and if I'm not connected to wifi there is no internet so they will keep trying and trying... Could it be the cause?
Thanks!

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but: "less than two days" is actually pretty good for an Android phone.  I've got one of the fanciest Android phones there is -- a Nexus S -- running Android 4, and I don't think I've ever gotten a full day's use out of it.  I even carry around a spare battery (http://goo.gl/kd4jO, which I recommend).

Really?? Even without playing, mobile data, bluetooth, etc?? I convinced my girlfriend to change the OOOOOLD nokia 1100 to a smartphone and now she is complaining (with reason) of the battery. In the nokia 1100 she had about a week of autonomy!!

@Diego but her old Nokia 1100 barely did anything that used battery. It's background services and data traffic that uses up the battery, and the old Nokia didn't multi-task or have anything other than background voice comms services running, and would barely have used any data connection, instead of the always on data you have now that's continually looking for updates. Smartphones are small computers that are constantly working, it's a rare laptop that can run more than 4 or 5 hours on a battery.

Yes, sure.. I'm not saying that her old Nokia was better than a smartphone.. but it is a little bit shocking the difference :/

I'm not sure, but I suspect that turning off "Account Sync" improves the battery life.  You can do this easily via the "Power Control" widget; it's the button that looks like two arrows pointing at each other.  Of course that means you won't get notified when you get an email ...

Does this turn off all sync or only with the accounts in the settings?

There's a list of things one can do to improve battery life. The easiest (attention, black humor) is turning the device off, next to switching it to airplane mode. In general these two things are not worth a consideration -- but with all things operable, I've seen no smartphone yet lasting more than 2 days. My old HTC Buzz currently makes it a week (7 days, and still 40%+ left) -- but it neither has a SIM card inserted, nor Wifi enabled (so you see, most energy goes for being permanent online; I just carry the Buzz as backup, since I didn't yet transfer all apps to my new phone). My Motorola Droid 2 ends up at about 70% at the end of the day (after about 17h runtime; so it would basically last ~2 days), and I'm not really doing that much.
But to provide something useful, here comes a short (and incomplete) list:

One of the largest energy consumer is the display -- so this area is where you can save most:

make the display timeout as small as possible (and just as large as needed). 30s is a good value.
you probably do not need 100% brightness, so turn it down as low as possible. Handicap: if it is not bright enough when you need it, it's hard to find the appropriate setting. On some devices/ROMs some toggle-switches are integrated into the status area (if not, there are apps to do this), so you can blindly draw it down and hit the correct corner to toggle it up.

at least on the Motorola Droid, there's one consumer clearly topping the display using twice as much: UMTS up/download. So if you do not really need to constantly transfer big data, or rely on UMTS as there's no GSM available (unlikely), switch 3G off and force your phone to GSM mode. Not relevant for data only, but also for talk (just with less energy difference).
WiFi is also a main consumer -- even in standby. So when not needed, switch it off (same for Bluetooth).
as we are in this category: Though often suggested, GPS standby is not worth mentioning -- as long as it stays standby. Only problem here are apps that will then make use of it for localized ads and the like. So if you rarely use GPS, just turn it off as well.

I could almost write a book on this, as there would be so much more to be mentioned. So just some little additional hints concerning apps which might be of assistance:

Battery Saver has an interesting concept: Running a service in the background, it regularly checks the systems report on the strength of cell and Wifi signal (the system updates those data either, so that's no costly action). Finding one (or both) of them too weak to be useful (e.g. if you're sitting in a bunker, or some Faraday box), it switches them completely off -- and checks in intervals whether it makes sense to turn them back on. This is especially useful if you often experience "dead zones", where your cell radio would then power up to max, desperately trying to find some cell tower. And talking about "limiting your smartphone experience" makes no sense here: you either get no contact, as thee's no signal ;)
JuiceDefender is available in multiple versions (ranging from basic to plus to ultimate), and some hold it very high. It tries to save energy in several ways -- the best known being to "stutter" your data, by switching off all background sync, only permitting it in intervals. It offers much more possibilities, also depending on the version used.

Again, these are only very basic hints -- there's much more one could do. So you could use some Profile apps like e.g. Tasker or EasyProfiles, Timeriffic or Llama -- to adjust your settings based on different situations. So you can e.g. put your Android device to airplane mode when you sleep (time based), adjust screen timeout when reading ("when  runs"), switch Wifi off/on when leaving/returning home (location based), and many other things. Guess you've got the idea :)
EDIT:
If you're still awake at this point, and like to read more, checkout What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device?


text:
What is the best pre-stealing practice?

Possible Duplicate:
Is there a way to block access to or wipe my Google data for a lost/stolen phone

I would like to know what is the best/recommended practice to prepare myself to the day when my smartphone (Samsung Galaxy Ace) will be stolen.
In the ideal world I would like to be able to accomplish (in order of importance):

Secure my personal data stored on the phone. In particular, by personal data I mean emails accounts, calendar etc. Furthermore, by secure I can live with remotely permanently erase the sensitive data.
Enhance the chances of retrieving the phone. This can be accomplished basing on:

Physically locating the phone (using GPS)
Communicate with the finder/thief
Turing my phone into as unique one (making loud noises or blinking screen)

Remotely manage/access the phone

These are the main things I could think of as important in this future case. If you think I missed something, feel free to correct me. If I used non standard terminology please let me know.
Thanks.

There are, like, lots of questions about this kind of thing on this site. Have you read them? Do you find them inadequate or leaving you with further questions? A selected few: http://android.stackexchange.com/q/2492/981, http://android.stackexchange.com/q/3494/981, http://android.stackexchange.com/q/18644/981, http://android.stackexchange.com/q/19444/981

One more pretty good one: http://android.stackexchange.com/q/12608/981

Those applications are good in theory. My suggestion, write down your IMEI. If your phone is stolen, report it to your carrier. This wont necessarily stop anything if it is a GSM device, but couldn't hurt. Any of the apps that claim to help you track your device down after stolen are basically useless. I could take the phone and have the battery out before I walk out the door. Then once I am clear, I can pop out the SIM, turn the device back on, and do a full data wipe. any app you installed to track is gone.

What Ryan said. Your efforts are better oriented towards damage control, not prevention. Use per-application protection (e.g. PIN codes, in-app passwords) where available. Application-specific password for your associated Google account is also strongly recommended and will prevent locking yourself out of your Google account, at the very least.

There is an app named lookout that can track your device for you using geo - coordinates, and can remotely wipe all data from your device, using mylookout.com from your pc.
Wheres my droid will make your device ring (if not on silence). For more information, you can visit this link. If you have anymore questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them.

The app Prey Anti-Theft is made for exactly this purpose:

Prey lets you keep track of your laptop, phone and tablet whenever stolen or missing -- easily and all in one place. It's lightweight, open source software that gives you full and remote control, 24/7.

Application available from Google Play Store.


text:
What's the difference between free and premium version of Aldiko Book Reader?
When it comes to epub format ebooks reading, Aldiko Book Reader is the best Android app on Earth and nobody will oppose it, as I think. I have been using it for 5 months and really satisfied. Now, I am thinking about purchasing its premium version in hope to get more useful features. But, I am unable to find what I'll get new with premium version. Its page on Play Store doesn't have anything about "Premium Exclusive Features". Please, help if you've used premium version.

Answer is in their FAQ:

The free version is advertisement supported while the premium version
  is not. Both the free and premium versions have the same set of
  features at this point except the premium version will get faster
  updates.

Faster updates are digestible, but I've never found ads in free version. Means, I'll not get any additional feature with premium version.

@SachinShekhar: Maybe you're right. I also use the FREE version.

you can't use highlighter in free version


text:
Getting my Angry Birds (and other) data files onto my Galaxy Nexus?
So...with my HTC Hero, there are two Angry Birds custom files - highscores.lua and settings.lua.  Easy enough, I copy them off to my PC.
However, on the Galaxy Nexus there's a) no SD card option and b) connecting as a MTP device only seems to show certain folders, and certainly nothing Rovio (Angry Birds makers) related.
So how on earth does one get your AB scores into the new phone?
Even with Titanium Backup, you'd need an SD card option on the Nexus to copy across, surely?

What's wrong with the internal storage plus a file manager?  There's also email, Dropbox, Wi-Fi file browsers, etc.


text:
How to upgrade google play app?

Possible Duplicate:
Phone not updating Market to Google Play?

I'm having 3.4.4 of google market. But google has change it to google play and upgrade it's app to 3.4.7  But it doesn't upgrade when I launch it.
How to upgrade it? Thanks!

It doesn't update itself on launch, the update would come over the air at some convenient (for Google) occasion. I don't think you can control this yourself.

Google will push this update automatically... but not at app launch. So, just wait.
There're ways to do this manually, but that's not guaranteed safe. Play Store is just a re-branded version of Market app. There's no change at all. You'll find only icon & label changed wherever involved.


text:
Change main Google account login address
When I activated my first Android phone, the Galaxy Note, last week it forced me to create a Gmail account for it.
Seeing no other way out, I did as I was told.
However, seeing yet another google mail address pop up was quite annoying, so I decided to try to get rid of it.
I managed to remove Gmail from my account permanently, and go back to my normal e-mail address to login to Google, but my Android device isn't following. It still has the gmail address set as login.
Is there a way to just change the login address? The account behind it is the same.

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/q/2569/981, http://android.stackexchange.com/q/614/981

If you aren't rooted, you've to do factory data reset to change your primary Gmail acccount. (Settings > Privacy > Factory data reset.)
If you are rooted then you can use a file manager program to rename  /data/system/accounts.db file and restart the phone.
You can find the detail steps with illustration here.


text:
Can I run Windows Phone apps on Android devices?
I need to run a Windows Phone 7 app developed for our company but no one has a Windows phone.
Is there any way I can run it on my Android, perhaps a simulator or something?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402563(v=vs.92).aspx

There is currently no way to run Windows Phone 7 apps on Android devices.

I believe you, but can you cite a source?  Of course, how do you cite a source for something that doesn't exist.

@Chahk - see my answer below! :)

Windows uses Win32API binaries, along with an optional virtual machine called .NET CLR for .NET binaries, which encompasses C#, VB.NET, and Managed C++.
Whereas, Android apps, are written in Java that targets DalvikVM.
The nearest is MonoDroid, which enables apps written in .NET languages and sort of transliterates the compiled bytecode suitable for DalvikVM... I say transliterate.. it's not exactly 100% on the ball either and it's expensive as well! The added bonus with it, is cross-compilable for iOS too :)

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


text:
WhatsApp contact's icon not showing
I have WhatsApp installed on my HTC Sensation running Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread). I also have other social contact related apps such as Google Voice, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. For my Google Contacts, it links each of these services up to the people in my address book.
When using WhatsApp, only a few of my contact's icons shows up for the screen with recent messages. When I view the contact in my address book, they have an icon (headshot) either from Google contacts, Facebook, or some other social service.
Why do only some of my WhatsApp contacts have icons showing? The other WhatsApp contacts default to an Android avatar. I've refreshed the WhatsApp contacts list and the problem still persists.

Same stuff started to happen to me recently. Suddenly all display icons were gone. And not just in Whatsapp. Also in Viber.

I might be wrong, but isn't the profile pictures in Whatsapp contacts put up by the users themselves? Which means to say, if your contact did not put up a profile photo in his/her Whatsapp profile, it would default to the Android avatar. Certainly seems that way to me...

@Void WhatsApp contacts can sync with existing Google Contacts. So even if they don't set one, it can use the sync'd icon, if it exists.

well, my whatsapp is with same issue...

Maybe you are talking about the contact picture. The contact picture is only visible if the user has specified it.
By default you can have contacts sync with all account but Profile pictures will not be sync'd in app. Each app may have different profile pictures.
Try this: go to sdcard -> whatsapp -> profiles Pictures->
Here you should see what and how many pictures are there. Only those will be shown in WhatsApp contact list.

Try to do as WhatsApp FAQ say, mainly (try other way on link too):

you can use all your contacts, not just the "visible"
  ones. To do this:
Go to the Contacts Help screen:  From the main Chats screen, tap the
  pencil icon > [Menu Button] > Help Scroll down and tap the "Show
  Invisible Contacts" button If you have any invisible contacts, a
  checkbox will appear. Make sure that it is checked.

The "Contacts Help screen" is accessible by WhatsApp menu.
Doing so, my contacts that were invisible - that ones that use it and change its visualization are probably most of people that use avatars - become visible again.

Simply, Your phone is not giving ample space to Whatsapp. If that contact is stored on your sim card, move it to phone. In 2.2 to 2.3.6, we are a li'll helpless as it will not update automatically.
a li'll tech :
the contacts photos which are not being shown are those whose photo tag is not saved in your device.
Now just make sure that all tags are there in your phones contact list.
Android automatically sets ph_tag=FALSE if no contact photo is there and anything (any app) below Android 3.0 (API level 11) can not change the tag to TRUE.
So when whatsapp gets ph_tag=FALSE against any contact, no space is allocated to it for saving a profile pic.
There may also be such issue that the Raw Contact is on SIM space and not in phone memory, hence it is not getting any space to save DP against that particular contact.

Nice idea -- but how to make sure? Can you please answer that from a "simple end user's perspective" -- one that doesn't now about API levels and where to find/adjust some ph_tag?

Simply, Your phone is not giving ample space to Whatsapp.
If that contact is stored on your sim card, move it to phone.
In 2.2 to 2.3.6, we are a li'll helpless as it will not update automatically.

Found the issue. Uninstalled and re-installed Whatsapp solved the problem.

I recently have changed my place, basically, I moved out from my country. When I came to a new country, I got a new sim card and I saw that there were missing contacts on my WhatsApp. Even if I tried to refresh all contacts, did not work.
This is because I had not added my phone contacts with the country code. After then, I changed all my contacts with the country code prefix numbers. Then, it has worked. So, the WhatsApp icons came as well. This might be your problem.

Is the app up-to-date? If not, just go to the Play Store and update it.


text:
Android USB Gadget Driver
I am trying to get Ethernet over USB working for my Nexus S.  I am running Ice Cream Sandwich v4.0.3 and have rebuilt the kernel with USB Gadget support turned on.  When I connect the phone to my Linux box and run ifconfig -a, usb0 shows up both on the phone and the Linux box.  I run ifconfig to set both sides up and everything looks correct but I cannot ping from either side:
PING 192.168.22.2 (192.168.22.2) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.22.1 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.22.1 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable

I also have a N900 running Maemo Linux that does allow Ethernet over USB.  I compared output of ethtool, ifconfig, route, and arp between the N900 and the Nexus S and all are very similar except the arp output.  It shows (incomplete) for the HWaddress for the Android connection:
Address                  HWtype  HWaddress           Flags Mask            Iface
10.1.3.1                 ether   00:1B:17:05:30:13   C                     eth0
192.168.22.2                     (incomplete)                              usb0

The only other clue I have is that ifconfig shows on the Linux side:
usb0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 66:E4:64:10:D1:A9
      inet addr:192.168.22.1  Bcast:192.168.22.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
      inet6 addr: fe80::64e4:64ff:fe10:d1a9/64 Scope:Link
      UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
      RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:42 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
      RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:9039 (8.8 KiB)

and on the Android side:
usb0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 7A:78:28:52:9C:A0
      inet addr:192.168.22.2 Bcast:192.168.22.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
      inet6 addr: fe80::7878:28ff:fe52:9ca0/64 Scope:Link
      UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
      RX packets:202 errors:0 dropped:202 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:36 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
      RX bytes:47294 (46.1 KiB)  TX bytes:1728 (1.6 KiB)

Notice the dropped packets on the Android side.
It seems like I am almost there..  any suggestions?
EDIT:
I rebuilt the kernel with a gadget kernel module (I have tried both g_cdc and g_ether) instead of built in support.  I am not sure if the following is due to that or just being out of sync in my earlier post.  If I run ping on either side, the TX and RX numbers actually match on both sides, but the Android side is dropping them for some reason.
Host side ifconfig:
usb0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 12:23:34:45:56:67
      inet addr:192.168.22.1  Bcast:192.168.22.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
      inet6 addr: fe80::1023:34ff:fe45:5667/64 Scope:Link
      UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
      RX packets:33 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:734 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
      RX bytes:1140 (1.1 KiB)  TX bytes:37684 (36.8 KiB)

Android side ifconfig:
usb0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 5E:89:C6:D8:BC:08
      inet addr:192.168.22.2  Bcast:192.168.22.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
      inet6 addr: fe80::5c89:c6ff:fed8:bc08/64 Scope:Link
      UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
      RX packets:734 errors:0 dropped:734 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:33 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
      RX bytes:27408 (26.7 KiB)  TX bytes:1602 (1.5 KiB)

ANOTHER EDIT!!
After using arp on the host side and ip on the android side to manually add entries, the Destination Host Unreachable errors went away but still no ping response.  I ran Wireshark on the host and the messages from the device are not correct.  The displayed mac addresses do not look right and the protocol is unknown so just displayed as 0x7aab.  After looking at the actual data in the message it appears that there are two zero bytes prepended to the message.  If those were removed it looks like everything would line up and work.  Has anyone ever seen this or know where in the code this can be fixed ?
YET ANOTHER EDIT!!!
After booting everything up this morning, I did not create the fake ARP entries and ran the pings again.  According to Wireshark there was an ARP message coming from the host and an unknown message coming from the Droid, but they were identical lengths.  After examining the contents of the messages, the Droid was sending what appeared to be a valid ARP message as well but it was shifted by 2 bytes - two extra bytes at the beginning and the last two chopped off.

What's the topology between devices? device-device? or are you going through a switch? if it's device to device, what kind of cable are you using?

I am using the standard micro-usb cable that came with the phone, so device-device.

It looks like there is an issue with the byte alignment.  I found this post:
http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-omap@vger.kernel.org/msg20797.html
and based on that made the following changes to drivers/usb/gadget/u_ether.c:
257,258c257
<
<   //skb_reserve(skb, NET_IP_ALIGN);
---
>   skb_reserve(skb, NET_IP_ALIGN);
513d511
<         int                     i=0;
599,606d596
<
< if ((int)skb->data & 0x2) {
<   skb_push(skb, 2);
<   for (i=0; i<length; i++) {
<     skb->data[i] = skb->data[i+2];
<   }
< }
<

I can now ping in both directions over the USB.  If anyone knows of a better way to address this, please let me know otherwise I will go with this.


text:
is it 100% safe to install Custom Roms
I wonder if is possible for those people who download the Android source code and customize it then release their custom roms to hack the API or any other part of the codebase like GMail client or network stack so to push in the rom some kind of spyware, virus and so on...
my main concern is that I like to experiment custom roms made available by any developer online but I really would not like to get my traffic sniffed or my Google Account pwd stolen.
Any idea? is Android safe by default in this way or could it be altered?

No piece of software that you install on any hardware of any form is 100% safe unless you are the author or you've read all of the source code, verified its safety, and built it yourself. Okay, so this may be something of an oversimplification, but it's actually not too far off in most cases.
Custom ROMs are no exception to this. Yes, a ROM author could put spyware, a backdoor, or just about anything else they wanted into a ROM if they wanted to maliciously exploit it. With AOSP ROMs I suppose the possibilities are somewhat magnified since the Android source itself could be modified to contain some kind of exploit or spyware.
It's also worth noting, however, that running a manufacturer stock ROM isn't necessarily a safer option if you're concerned about privacy.
The question "is Android safe by default" is in some ways kind of a meaningless question. Is it designed to be safe? Well yes, data is protected at the application level and apps are sandboxed. Any OS is intended to be safe, but all of that goes out the window when you run a ROM that's not pure AOSP. On top of that, the nature of code is that it has bugs, with Android being no exception. Custom ROMs and manufacturer ROMs alike can absolutely have the potential to introduce (either intentionally or unintentionally) ways for your data to be sniffed or stolen.

This is one reason why open source has such high value.  You know exactly what you're getting and you can help fix problems if you find them.

Is anyone aware if TeamNexus' NexusOS roms are safe? https://github.com/TeamNexus

While this question is not often asked, it is one of the best concerning Android safety out there. Custom ROMS are not safe at all. Ise only official firmware and OS.

It's very interesting that you should recommend avoiding custom ROMs because they might contain spyware, and using official ROMs instead, when  several are known to contain spyware.


text:
I'm trying to put a ROM onto my SD card in my phone through USB storage?
But i cant find the folder for my SD card anywhere, does anyone know where i need to put the ROM?

What type of phone? What version of Android? How are you trying to copy it over? What operating system are you running on the PC you are using (if relevant)? This is not enough information.

You should be able to mount your SD card to your computer, and it will show up as a separate drive from the internal storage.

Easiest option is to shut the phone down, remove the SD card, and put it into an SD card reader in your computer. You generally have to reboot into recovery or a bootloader anyway, right?
Typically the folder is /sdcard on the phone's filesystem. If you can put the phone in "Mass Storage" mode (as opposed to Kies or MTP mode or whatever stupid your manufacturer does), it should just be the /sdcard folder.
If you have to flash a recovery or a new bootloader first, you can flash from  /data/local as it is supposed to be user-writable.
If you have adb set up, you can use the adb push command.

For my samsung galaxy ace phone, i had to install samsungkies to be able to mount the sd card in the pc, didnt work alone. Maybe is the same with you

You should be able to drop the ROM image anywhere on the SD Card and then use, for instance, ROM Manager to install it; Just open ROM Manager and select 'Install ROM from SD Card' and browse to where you dumped the ROM REMEMBER TO BACKUP YOUR EXISTING ROM BEFORE PROCEEDING


text:
Save battery by switching to 2G after a few minutes of inactivity
I'm looking for an app that'll switch to 2G only after a few minutes of inactivity. The idea seems simple enough, but I can't find it.
JuiceDefender just disables the data connection, and re-enables it every 5-15 minutes. But that's a bit too restrictive for me.

Use Tasker… It supports all such type of automations..

AutomateIt is a free alternative to Tasker which has similar utilities: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=AutomateIt.mainPackage

my phone/provider seems to do this automatically. most of the time it is connected via 2g. when surfing to a new page it switches to 3g and after some inactivity it goes back to 2g.

Tasker is able to do it, but only on Cyanogen.

JuiceDefender can do this. It also can turn off data completely, and turn it on every 5 minutes or so to let stuff sync.

Can the free edition do this? And an unrooted device? Because I can only choose to turn it off, not switch to 3G.

@skerit: Yes, the free version on an unrooted device can also work to turn of data.


text:
My Galaxy S II is not properly allowing me to use USB storage mode - how can I fix this?
My phone Samsung Galaxy S2 is giving me issues with 2 removable drives(Drive E and F) shown on my computer. It also doesn't allow me to connect to USB mode.
Has anyone had this issue before with Samsung Galaxy S2?

Can you be more specific about what the problem is?  It's supposed to show two drives.

Yeah, that happens to me with my Galaxy Ace. I had to download Samsung Kies. I just run Kies and then works great as USB storage (you don't need to use Kies, only run it).

I found that Kies installed the proper USB drivers on my Galaxy S, but the Samsung USB Drivers package did as well.


text:
HTC G2 crashes, comes back on falsely saying battery level is 0%
Recently my G2 has started dying whenever I use it for more than 5 consecutive minutes. When I reboot it I need to plug into a power source or it will not reboot and it reports that I have 0% battery even though I actually may have 95% or more. Removing the battery does not help - only a 5-minute wait period - could it be some overheating issue? It does not feel warm to the touch.
If I leave it off for about 5 minutes and reboot it, it then correctly reports battery life. I have had this phone since September 2010.
I am running Gingerbread 2.3.4.
Has anyone else experienced this?

I'd try getting a replacement battery. For less than $20, you either locate your problem or have a spare battery.

It is possible that the problem is in your battery more precisely in battery controller.
There are a few possible solutions:

Try recalibrating your battery.
Try removing /data/system/batterystats.bin.
Put somebody's battery inside (if you know somebody with the same model) and look how phone works. If it works fine with somebody's battery then just buy new one.

Thanks for your response - how do I recalibrate the battery?

Also my /data folder is empty

http://myhtcdesire.com/tutorials/how-to-improve-your-battery-life-calibration-tutorial . There are some more tutorials in internet. All those tutorials propose to make a couple charge-wait-boot cycles. I had some issues with my pocketbook`s battery but I solved it by charging and resetting my device in random order :|.

Install JuicePlotter from latedroid.com to see what happens to your battery


text:
Why does Android offer updates for all the gmail accounts on the phone?
I have multiple gmail accounts on my phone and I get Market and other updates listed for each of these accounts. That is simply annoying.
How can I disable that and instead set one account as my primary account for updates and such like?

I used to have this issues on the Droid X2. It seems to have stopped with a market update, some time back. Are you using the latest market (Play Store or whatever nonsense it's now named).

You probably used different Google accounts for different apps. Switching accounts will show different apps.
I guess all you can do is uninstall the apps from one account, change accounts to the one you would like to use and then reinstall them.


text:
Note taking app with handwriting recognition that includes math typesetting (latex preferably)?
Is there some notetaking app that can recognize math and typeset the result using latex? I recently came across with this website: [1] http://www.reddit.com/tb/p88ty that does recognize equations and display them using Latex and MathJax, but it's not a full fledged note taking app.
I do a lot of draft calculations (I'm a physicist) and if I could replace pencil and paper for my android tablet this would be a major organizational upgrade in my life. :P
I've tried a few notetaking apps (Quill and Supernote are the best ones I could find), that are ok, but none of them have handwriting recognition (with or without mathematical symbols).
Is there such an app that works like Quill, can save notes with multiple pages and would convert it to typeset text and math?

Please note that "Is there an app that does X" questions are off topic here (see the [FAQ]). A hint to your question, though: Try searching the playstore for latex -- this yields some 300 results, shouldn't be too hard to check.

S Note that comes with the galaxy note 10.1 has all that, but the math engine has its limitations. As an engineering student I do lots of  work with matrices and it doesn't work that well with it....but it does integrals quite well.