text:
Can't install Google Play Services
I just upgraded Google+ to 3.6.0.44338848 (released late March 2012) and now it won't launch. It says:

This app won't run without Google Play services, which are missing from your phone.

If I tap "Get Google Play services" I'm brought to Google Play where I tap "install" and "accept and download" but then I get "Error: No connection."
(I do have a connection. I can browse the web just fine.)
Now, I should mention that Market/Play has been odd the whole time, I've had this phone, a T-Mobile myTouch 4G running Android 2.2.1. Whenever I want to install an app, I have to go into Applications, tap Google Play Store, and tap "Uninstall updates" to restore the Market app. Then I can install applications. Over time, some process upgrades Market to Google Play but I can't install applications until I downgrade to Market to avoid the "Error: no connection" message. The processes is frustrating. On my old LG phone (also running 2.2 Google Play worked just fine).
I'm been putting up with all this downgrading because it's not often I install apps and usually there's no problem after installing or upgrading an app.
But now the Google+ app is unusable so I'm motivated to do something about the "No connection" problem.
I've read through posts such as http://www.teamandroid.com/2013/01/14/fix-google-play-store-no-connection-retry-error-message/ and Google's help page at How to access the Google Play Store app - Google Play Help but I'm stuck. Please help.

I was able to install Google Play Services by browsing to its page at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms and then logging in, clicking install, and choosing my phone.
Come to think of it, I might start installing more apps this way, from the comfort of a desktop browser. :)
Anyway, I'm able to use the Google+ app again.
I'm still puzzled by the "No connection" business and having to periodically downgrade Play to Market to install anything from my phone running Android 2.2, but I'm glad I didn't have to root it and install CyanogenMod as suggested by some friends.

When I've been unable to log-in to the Google account on an old phone or something, it will often work by logging-in to YouTube with the same credentials.
YouTube is usually a default installed app. Open it up, go to the account settings and log-in using your GMail credentials. I get no futher problems with logging into GMail. It does it at the same time as YouTube.
This sorts it out for me. Hope this helps someone.


text:
Was Firefox ever the default browser for Android?
Before I bought my Android, I heard that Firefox was its default browser. Upon noticing that this is not the case, I had assumed that the Internet browser on the Android was Google Chrome, but I just installed that today. Was Firefox ever the Android's default browser, and what is it now?

No it was never the default browser.

What's the current default browser? Feel free to post an answer so that I can best answer it.

I love when people -1 without a comment.

Firefox was never the default Android browser. The actual default browser is based on the open-source WebKit engine, which also powers the Safari browser on desktops, laptops and Apple's iOS-based mobile devices.
In the other hand, Chrome is based in Chromium and offers more options and performance than the stock browser.

You can read this similar post and here for some more information about the webkit choice by Android.

Chrome also uses WebKit.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Download Region or State for offline Map
Is it possible to download an entire state offline map for Google Maps via a 3rd party app?
I know that if you download the offline map through Google Maps it allows you to download an area roughly equivalent to a city. Currently I've been stitching the offline maps together but its a very long and tedious process.
I'm not concerned about size or bandwidth that it may use.

The reason why there are no apps to do this is that it's not allowed by google maps terms of service.

It should work with Maps (+) (or its ad-financed free version Maps (-) Offline Navigation). This app was developed for exactly this purpose (even before Google Labs introduced the "pre-caching" feature). I never tried it myself, but the comments look promising as well.

Maps (+) (Source: Google Playstore; click image to enlarge)

Nope - there is no way at this time of writing to download maps for Google Maps other than using Google Maps itself. If it denies downloading due to selection of large area, there is no way to do it other then using another app.
If you would like to use a different mapping app, still using Google's offline maps or other maps like OpenStreetMap, you may try using Trekbuddy.  To know more about it, you can read about it from its wiki page and/or see these questions:

How to have my phone guide me through a specific route
How to get maps for off-line usage?
How to import GPS coordinates track for using offline

I use Here maps for precisely the reason that Google only allows downloading a city or surrounding region. Here maps allows downloading of entire states/provinces for offline use with GPS but there is no street/terrain view.

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


text:
Google Now suddenly disappeared
I'm running Android 4.2.2 on a Galaxy Nexus with the February 13, 2013 update of Google Search installed. Google Now was working great until it suddenly ceased to appear today. Widgets now display "Get Google Now", and the Google Now screen itself only contains a search box, not even showing the Google Now-related items that were in the settings menu previously.
I rebooted the phone multiple times and upgraded all apps, but the problem has persisted for the last few hours. What gives, and is there a way to "reset" Google Now?

I'm not sure why Google Now ceased to appear, but here is how to reset it:

Open Settings --> Apps.
Scroll right to All.
Open Google Search, hit Clear Data and Clear Cache.

Open Google Now again and it will walk you through the initial setup guide. My personalized card settings were retained after the clear.


text:
usb otg thermal printer interface to android tab with usb device
I have printer with USB OTG capability which I want to use with my Android Tab (as USB device).
Is this possible -- and if so, will it work for all Android versions from 2.3 up? Is there any driver needed for this communication?

I don't know the device, but usually there's some driver required for the communication with printers. Have you checked the playstore? I never came across something concerning directly-attached printers, but there are several for CUPS or special printers around, not necessarily involving the cloud. If your printer supports PostScript, check out this list.

Did you try this App?  Supports Ethernet, USB or Serial (with serial-USB adapter).
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=qsrtech.posprintdriver
Also, try this app from Opera Mobile Store. If this app doesn't work with your printer, send printer profile to the app server. They might add support.
http://apps.opera.com/en_in/usb_printer_driver_21_developer_edition.html


text:
Why are animations from an Animated PDF not showing?
I am going to prepare PDF presentation, with some basic animations, using LaTeX. A classic example can be found here.
I am able to view animations only when I view the PDF from my PC. No animations are showing while the viewing the PDF in Android. Is it a problem of my device (i.e., LG Optimus L5 with Ice Cream Sandwich) or does Android itself not support this? (e.g., some restrictions like opening a .zip attachment).
I am using Adobe Reader version 10.3.2, build 67615; it shows the images but not animations, while other readers like Polaris Office and Kindle Reader are unable to show the images also.
Could someone explain why this is? Am I missing something? How can I view these animations?

Showing animated GIF is noting to do with the Android or for the matter any operating systems. The application with which these GIFs are viewed should do it. If you had already tried Adobe Reader, try ezPDF which in my opinion is way better than other PDF readers.

@Narayanan: Kindly look the sample more closely. It was not a gif file embedded in PDF, rather it was compiled through LaTeX!

My mistake. Terribly sorry.

The only possible solution is to keep trying every possible app until you ran out of options. I use proOfficeSuite that somewhat supports powerpoint animations, not sure about LaTex though. It reads PDF files too.


text:
How do I change the Google Play country?
Can someone tell me how to change the country preference for Google Play? I have searched high and low but in most of the forums people ask you to go to Gmail settings -> edit profile and change the country there. But there is no place to change the country in settings! There is a something called place (which can be marked as current) but that has no impact on Google Play.
I don't want to circumvent country restrictions, I want to permanently change the country. So it's NOT a duplicate of How can I circumvent regional restrictions in Google's Play Store?.

I am not sure, but this is what I observed. I had observed that Google Play shows currencies and contents based on the GSM/Wifi carrier info. I say this so as I observed when moving to UK and back to India.

@Narayanan: It doesnt do that for me. Still shows the old currency.

As per this web site, it seems earlier restriction was based on SIM and now it is based on IP address. But still not clear about your case.

I contacted Google support on this: they asked me to add a payment method valid in the new country. Tried; didnt work. They asked me to do a hard reset of the phone: tried; didnt work. Sigh!

try this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=694720

I tried all the answers here (add a card, make a purchase, change settings on google wallet) and nothing worked for me. The only thing that worked was going to the android device manager (https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager) on my desktop and locating my device. After that I could go in the play store and download content from the country I am in. (I appreciate if someone can add this as an official answer, I don't have enough reputation for it)

What turned out to actually do it in the end, was to make an actual purchase.
In Google wallet, I had updated all my information, as well as added a new card with my new address attached to it. This in itself however didn't seem to be enough.
Later though, I actually purchased something through Play using the new card, and after that I could access things in Play that previously could not due to regional restrictions.
There may be some form of prioritization between different cards, so it's possible that you need to remove your pre-existing cards as well.
Michael Hoffman mentions that it may be enough to

Click to begin a download until you reach the "Accept and buy" screen

and thus there is no need to complete the purchase. Otherwise, getting a refund after the purchase could save you the money.
For those moving countries, it might be useful to check Googles acceptable Payment methods page.
I don't know if it's necessary, but user Ikon also adds this after adding a new card:

Went to the apps settings and wiped Play's data. Rebooted phone, accepted terms again for Play and now I can install

You can even get a refund afterwards, and the country will still stick. (It doesn't seem to be a caching problem; only updating the information didn't do anything for me for days. You have to actually make a purchase.)

Also, non-US residents should be aware that Amex is treated differently: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/105916
At first I used an amex card and still had the problem, but when I instead used a MasterCard it was fixed.

I dont' have a card from my new country. I guess it's impossible to change the Play Store region without making a new Google account, in this case.

What made the trick for me, after doing all of the above, I also (thanks to google support) deleted the download manager app cache.

If I don't have a US Visa or US Credit Card, will it also work if I load a USD Google Gift Card? I wanted to change my default country to US, because there are apps that I wanted to download which are only available in the said country.

This answer works but Micheal Hoffman's answer below and the solution here are more detailed.

In my case the problem was that I had multiple profiles and though I selected the correct one on payments.google.com the app always took the wrong one. I had to remove all the old profiles and the doing the above procedure to have the market really exchanged in the app.

I called Google Play support and they sent me these instructions:

If you're having issues viewing your intended country's Play Store and
  would like to change your default payment method or update an existing
  billing address in Google Wallet, please use the following steps:
1) Sign into your Google Wallet account to manage your payment methods
  (https://wallet.google.com/manage/paymentMethods)
2) Delete all of your payment methods from Google Wallet, and only add
  a card to one with a billing address located inside your desired
  country
3) Open the Play Store and navigate to any item available for download
4) Click to begin a download until you reach the "Accept and buy"
  screen (no need to complete the purchase)
5) Close the Play Store and clear data for the Google Play Store
  application (Settings > Apps > Google Play Store > Clear Data) or
  clear your browser cache
6) Re-open the Play Store. You should now see the Play Store that
  matches your default payment instrument's billing country.
If you haven't yet added a payment method to your account for the
  first time, please add a card directly from the Play Store with a
  billing address that matches your intended country location. Then,
  follow steps 3 through 6 to show your intended country's Play Store.

Following these instructions allowed me to install apps limited to my new country without making a purchase.

Followed all the above steps, including adding a new credit card with a new billing address, but it didn't work. So then I went to wallet.google.com, Settings, and changed my Home Address, then went to the Address book tab and removed my old address. I was then prompted to accept the new Terms and Conditions for my new country. Went to the device settings and cleared the data for the Google Play Store application (Settings > Apps > Google Play Store > Clear Data). Reopened the Play Store and it worked! Thankfully no need to make a purchase.

I succeeded in using this method.  An important thing is change the settings of the Google Play app so that it requires entering the password for confirmation before purchase.  Otherwise you will end up actually purchasing the app in step 4.  (You have to tap the Purchase button.  Just seeing the dialog box with this button is not sufficient.)

I had to restart my phone and clear play's cache several times to succeed.

What if someone lives in two countries? (stays for a quite similar amount of time in both of them) and of course wants to use application for both regions.

In my experience, after you install in one region, stays installed, even if you have to factory reset the device and reload everything. I'm betting switching back and forth frequently won't happen.

frequently not, just a few time a year, i think

I've been struggling with this for a week, I even bought an application with my new card. So, it turned out that the address that needs to be changed on Google Wallet is not on the Address Book tab, but under the Settings button in the top right-hand corner.

I did everything in this post and in the first comment, but it did not work.

If it no longer works, I would suggest getting in touch with Google Play support, which is where the instructions came from in the first place. They may have changed how to do this.

It doesn't work for me :/

The settings you have to change are at wallet.google.com. Sign in with your account, go to Settings, and change "Home address" to your new address. You might also have to change your phone number, and your default "Billing and delivery address" in the second tab.
Note that this will not let you buy contents from a country you don't live in, since you need a credit card and an IP from that country.

Already did this. Doesn't work.

@BobbyAlexander Have you seen my answer? I did the same thing, got stuck just like you did, and then tried buying a cheap game with the new card, and then it worked. :)

Do i need to change that address and card info, everytime i'm changing location ? (if someone lives in two countries for similar amount of a time - like, one month here, one month there)

This worked for me without having to make a purchase.

One thing you might try is to uninstall all of the Google Play Store updates. When the updates get re-applied some people have found that it fixed their country issue.

+1, this worked for me. Uninstall updates then a reboot did the job

+1, Tried all of the things in previous answers multiple times. added a new card, do purchase, reset data, reboot. Finally did this and my country was updated correctly

this worked.  I tried changing the address everywhere and even tried making a purchase with the new card before trying this

This worked for me after also updating my payment profiles to use the address in my new country, and disabling my old profile.

If you have ever set up a Merchant account with Google Wallet, then you can apparently not change your country any more.
What I did was creating a new Google account while being in the desired country (physically) and add it as a secondary account on my phone. I was not asked for a phone number or billing details, so I guess that this might also work if you use VPN.
After doing that, I was able to switch to that account in the Play Store app and install a country-specific app. You can keep your old apps, the set of apps on your phone is the union of the apps on all enabled Google accounts. You can easily switch between accounts in the Play store to install region-specific apps.

Google is making it easier, as reported today, to change the country to a different one. From Android Police on 2018/03/20:

Now, Google appears to be taking one teeny tiny step toward making the switch easier for some people. If your Play Store country is set to country A (whether you lived there or, uhm, fooled Google into thinking you did because you made a purchase with a valid payment method and to a valid shipping address in that country), and the Play Store detects that you've moved to country B (likely based on your IP address), you'll get a new option in the Account settings: Country and profiles. There you'll see which country your Store account is on and an option to quickly switch to the new country - provided you have a valid payment method there.

There are some caveats to this:

Keep in mind that this Country and profiles option won't be there for everyone and won't let you switch to any country you want. It appears to only show up when it detects a discrepancy between your setting and your IP address.

More details now: You can only do it once per year, and the feature is not available for Family Library members.

It may be helpful to some to note that some apps will only install if the device itself is physically inside the "permitted country." As an example, while traveling in Israel, my bank did not allow me to install its mobile banking app on my American phone with an American google account. The Play Store complained that 'this app cannot be installed in your device's country.' (or something very close to that :))
It did not help to change my location using fakeGPS. However, I  it did help to install a VPN (I used TunnelBear, since the trial version with 500MB is free), delete the cache of play services, and force-stop google play services and the play store. After doing this, i got 'this app is compatible with your device'. To be frugal, I then turned OFF the VPN before I hit the install button, and the install proceeded without trouble.
Clearly, the check was based on the external IP address of the device, and once the check is made at the beginning, and the Install button is active, you can change your address back to its normal, "forbidden" value.

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


text:
How do I manage CalDAV-provided tasks?
On my phone, I have a calendar synchronized via CalDAV-Sync on a server of mine. On the desktop, I edit them with Thunderbird, and since Thunderbird can associate tasks to a calendar, I was wondering, if is there a way to see those tasks on Android too, since I can already see (and edit) the calendar itself?

CalDAV-Sync provides another app, OpenTasks to support task. From its description,

To get task support, please install this task app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dmfs.tasks

The following YouTube video is a demo of the task app in progress: Preview of task sync in CalDAV-Sync for Android

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


text:
How to move WhatsApp chat history from iPhone to Android?
Just upgraded my iPhone 4 to Nexus 4, and could not find on Google a reasonable answer to this question. Is there any good app that does this? Or, what should be the process?

I made the switch from iPhone 5S to Nexus 6 three days ago. I transferred WhatsApp conversations including attachments from my old iPhone to new Nexus 6 with the help of BackupTrans, the desktop utility mentioned in this article. Here are the steps to transfer WhatsApp messages from iPhone to Android with this software:

Launch the program on your Windows PC or Mac and then connect both your Android device and iPhone to your computer via USB cable.
Click 'Back up my data' when a message pops out on your Android phone’s screen. Now the software will read WhatsApp messages from your Android and iPhone and show them on its main interface.
Finally go to the top tool and click "Transfer Messages from iPhone to Android" button.

Note: You will need enable USB debugging before connecting your Android phone to this program and also make sure you have iTunes 11 or above installed on your computer.
It's a paid program but I couldn't find any other software or app that can migrate WhatsApp chat history from iPhone to Android. There are some apps on Play Store but none of them worked for me.

There is no simple way of doing so, you have to do a lot of technical mumble-jumble for this.
Caution: Do not install WhatsApp on your Android device beforehand.
If you are ready then:
[I have not tried this with Mac, this works fine in PC (Windows) and Linux]

Connect your iPhone to the system (PC)

Do not start iTunes. If starts automatically, then close it.

Open command prompt (RUN: cmd) or terminal.

Now here is the tricky part, you have to search for a folder named "whatsapp". You have to use command line

dir - to see visible contents of the current folder.
dir\a - to see all contents (including the hidden and system) of the current folder .
cd [folder] - change directory (change folder to).
copy the folder "whatsapp" to your system by using copy [source] [destination].

Now simply connect your Android phone and copy that folder in the primary USB storage (memory card).

Now install WhatsApp, authorise it and it will ask you to restore backup. Do it and you are done.

This works between two android devices, but not from iphone to android

yes it does,  tried and tested

Downvoted this answer for the above reason: "This works between two android devices, but not from iphone to android"

Says the trick part is to search por folder name, but dont' show how (see http://superuser.com/a/428094/235052). But still could find the folder.

You can use a third party app to take the data and migrate it. You can use the following apps:

Backuptrans
WazzapMigrator
Dr. Fone

Alternatively, you can email yourself the backup file from the WhatsApp and import it on the new phone:

On your iPhone, launch the WhatsApp App and then go to "Settings >
  Chat Settings" on the interface.   Select the WhatsApp chat messages
  you want to transfer from iPhone to Android and swipe the pane to
  left. Then you need to tap on "More" button and choose "Export Chat".
  After that, you would be asked Whether to attach media or not. ￼
  Choose the e-mail to export and type in your email address as the way
  you do to send an e-mail, and then please press "Send".

How can I import it in new phone, if I email?

On your iPhone, launch the WhatsApp App and then go to "Settings > Chat Settings" on the interface.
Select the WhatsApp chat messages you want to transfer from iPhone to Android and swipe the pane to left. Then you need to tap on "More" button and choose "Export Chat". After that, you would be asked Whether to attach media or not. ￼
Choose the e-mail to export and type in your email address as the way you do to send an e-mail, and then please press "Send".

@Zlatty I edited your answer including your last comment to help people find it directly.

There is no option to import a chat.

As Zlatty's answer mentioned, you can use those paid programs and I think they should work. But they will cost you 2000+ Indian Rupees. Backuptrans has a limit of 20 messages in the trial version, Dr. Fone does not let you restore in the free version.
I will explain how I managed to successfully transfer WhatsApp messages from an iPhone to an Android phone (Nokia 2.1)
So, as this video explained,

Back up iPhone using iTunes without encryption

Use iPhone Backup Extractor (4 files can be extracted for free) to browse to Application Groups -> net.whatsapp.Whatsapp.shared -> ChatStorage.sqlite
This one file has all the chat messages, the texts.

Copy this file to your Android phone's internal memory

Get the WazzapMigrator APK and open the SQLite file using it, it will create a local backup for WhatsApp Android that it understands.
WazzapMigrator is great, it only costs 490 Rupees. You can find the APK for free online too since it used to be free for download. As of today, the latest Whatsapp version being supported by it is (2.18.248),

Use Droid Info or some other app and find out which variant APK works for your Android device and download that particular WhatsApp version from a site like APK Mirror.

As you set up WhatsApp, it will tell you that it has found the local backup and you will find all the chats in place.

If you want all your media to also be transferred, you need to also somehow copy all the files inside the Media folder into your PC and then into your Android phone. This iPhone backup browser software I recommended only lets you download 4 for free, so either look for a free browser or pay for exporting all the images and videos you have.

As an example, there might be upwards of 700's files we need to bring out.
Once you have the media files on the mobile, the WazzapMigrator app will incorporate it while building the local backup of WhatsApp.

You can take a look at this app I developed: WazzapMigrator. It's an Android app that moves your Whatsapp history from iPhone to Android.
For this you will need:

an Android device already running WhatsApp (do not enable Google Drive backup)
an iPhone Whatsapp archive (ChatStorage.sqlite) - you don't need the actual iPhone, just a recent backup

Details:

You can use any iTunes Backup Extractor to get the file:

How to extract ChatStorage.sqlite on Windows
How to extract ChatStorage.sqlite on Mac

(source: WazzapMigrator)

And? What makes this a good solution?

@AlEverett: because iphone and android whatsapp use two completely different databases and restore from one another is not possible (tested myself)

Worked perfectly for normal one-to-one chats. Unfortunately it doesn't support/convert group chats yet.

I confirm it now supports group chats as well!


text:
Set hostname for SSHelper
I currently use SSHelper to transfer my data to the Android 4.0 device. The app displays the IP address that is currently assigned. Since this IP address changes regularly, I'd like to use a hostname for the device, with all my Linux computers, that works with Avahi/Zeroconf and I have computername.local.
How do I get such a hostname for my Android device?

I am leaving my old answer since the browse and parsing examples may still be useful for some people.
Thanks to the developer's version 5.5 update to SSHelper, you can create a user defined name to be the phones Zeroconf instance name. SSHelper will run the SSH server on a non-rooted Android.

Update SSHelper to version 5.5
Open Android Bluetooth settings and turn on Bluetooth.
Now in lower right corner there is settings to "Rename phone". Customize the name.
Turn off Bluetooth if you want.
Restart SSHelper.

It will register the Bluetooth name as the ZeroConf name. Now, as long as the machine you are connecting from has the avahi/bonjour client software, you can ping, ssh, sftp, or rsync to PhoneName.local. If you do not change your Bluetooth name, it will default register with the Device model name. e.g. "Nexus_4"
# For example:
ping Nexus_4.local
SSH Nexus_4.local

In the March 2014 update to SSHelper the documentation states new changes to it's Zeroconf broadcasting name. In the documentation Configuration section of the details it describes the checkbox to "Enable Zeroconf broadcasting". When this is enabled any other client on the local network, will be able to browse and then connect for SSHelper on the network.
As of SSHelper ver 5.0, the registered instance name is the model name of your android. For instance, "Nexus 4".
Update: version 5.5 allows a way to set the hostname. I am leaving this 5.0 version answer since the below instructions can still be useful.
You do not need to look at the SSHelper app to know which ip/hostname to connect to from your other machine.
From linux (you may need to install avahi-utils):
avahi-browse --terminate --resolve --parsable _ssh._tcp
More specifically, entering this command will SSH connect to the android e.g. "Nexus 4" server without needing to know it's name:
ssh `avahi-browse --terminate --resolve --parsable _ssh._tcp \
| grep "Nexus.*;local;" \
| sed -E 's/.*Nexus.*;local;(.*.local);.*/\1/g'`

For OS X (10.9 Mavericks), there is nothing to install but you must run
dns-sdand then Ctrl + C to kill the process after you see the android bonjour hostname.
# If your model name is not "Nexus 4", Be sure to use your phones model name.
dns-sd -L "Nexus 4" _ssh._tcp local

# this will output something like this:
# Nexus\0324._ssh._tcp.local. can be reached at 192-168-1-6.local.:22

# so now ping by the name found from above:
ping 192-168-1-6.local

Yes, it's really a pity that--accordig to your description--it's not possible to set a human-friednly hostname, just to do ssh MY-ANDROID.local!..

Yes it is now possible to set a custom name. Note the updates to this answer.

I have yet to find a way to create a hostname for an Android device.  What I have done is that I set an IP reservation for my phone, so that every time I go to use SSH (I use QuickSSHd, but it should work for SSHelper) you can at least point to the same IP address.
There is no way to set a host name for the phone, that I have found.

Okay I lied, there is an easy way to change the hostname, but it's not what you'd expect for trying to SSH.  You can use getprop hostname.net and setprop hostname.net NEW_NAME to change the hostname of your phone and how it appears to you router, but this does not let you SSH by hostname.

Actually it's net.hostname, but without your comment I wouldn't have found it.


text:
Is there a way to scan unusual barcodes?
I know there are plenty of apps that can read QR codes and standard barcodes.
Does anyone know of a way to scan unusual barcodes, such as ones found on mail trackers or flight tickets, etc? I imagine the encoding isn't encrypted, just obfuscated, so there's probably something out there already that can read the codes. But I haven't found anything on my own.

The Bar-coded Boarding Pass (BCBP) code is common for flight tickets. There could be other codes too, but there doesn't seem to be any app for it yet.
Mails also have different codes. The US seems to be using Intelligent Mail barcode (IM barcode). IMb Reader can be used for this.
Bottomline: there are several possibilities for the codes. You need to check first what code an airline or postal service is using. Then, check if there are apps for it.


text:
Some applications seem to always stay open, even after I exit them. How do I close these?
When I hold the Home icon down, several apps appear that I thought I exited - how do I actually close these?

Does it matter? Some apps need to run in the background. Android does just fine shutting down inactive apps as needed.

The apps you see when long-pressing the "Home" button (or with newer devices, the "MultiTask" button with the two rectangles) are not the "currently active", but the "recently used" apps. With Android 4.0 and higher, you can simply swipe them out of that list -- which will not only remove them from the list, but also "kindly ask them" to close themselves.
For details on what happens with apps swiped out of this list, please see What actually happens when you swipe an app out of the recent apps list?


text:
How can I find the saved password in Android browser?
I have Prestigio Tablet with ICS. I forgot a password from important site. It's remembered in the tablet's browser. How can I see it without rooting the tablet?

And this site doesn't have a password recovery mechanism?

There is no functionality to view saved passwords included in the stock browser.
The only method for retrieving passwords saved in the stock browser is to open the webview.db file (it's an sqlite database) in /data/data/com.android.browser and look at the password table (it's stored in the clear, no encryption or anything), but that requires root.

The best decision so far is:
Download SQLite Database editor. (Root is required!)
Go to "Application Databases"
Choose : Internet (with icon of Earth and small script com.android.browser /data/data/com.android.browser/databases/webview.db
Choose from TABLES - "password"
Press SELECT*
ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can try those 3 steps, using 2 devices (second must be rooted):

use adb backup com.android.browser to create a backup of browser on your device
use TitaniumBackup to restore to another device
copy webview.db from /data/data/com.android/browser/databases/ and extract password from it.


text:
How can I share my files from mobile device to PC through wireless router?
I have a wireless router and my pc has ip : 192.168.1.101 and my htc desire mobile has ip: 192.168.1.102. But I am not able to ping my mobile from PC. I just want to access my files on mobile through pc. I have also downloaded some app from PlayStore but I am not able to ping my mobile though my pc and mobile are both on same network. Please ! help.

Ping is not necessary for file sharing to work, and many mobile phones have it disabled for various security reasons. What App did you download? Is it displaying an error code?

I am using Wireless File Transfer Lite. As it suggested, when i start this service, It provide me an url : XXXXXX. When I used this address from my browser, it doesn't work at all. I try to ping it from command prompt like ping XXXXXXX but I can't. How can I work on it?

Does it work the other way around (i.e. pinging your PC from the HTC Desire)? It might be a somehow restrictive firewall involved, e.g. on the router. Some routers also have a special settings to allow connected devices communicating with each other.

Your version of Android may not have a ping service as one of it's utilities, so trying to ping your device might not work.  Regardless, you should be able to navigate directly to your device's storage from your PC's file manager by running an Android app like Samba.

Funny. I can ping my Android devices. Even those with stock ROM (like my LG Optimus). And no, I didn't install anything specific for that.

Really?  None of mine respond to a ping - I was under the impression it had been left out, like a lot of other services.  Is yours rooted with BusyBox? It might be coming from that.

Let me test: The Optimus (ICS 4.0.3) is rooted, but no BusyBox installed manually (though TitaniumBackup might have done so). Same for the Milestone² (CM7.2 / GB 2.3.7, TiBu) and the Wildfire (CM9.1 / ICS 4.0.4, TiBu). My CSG2 (not rooted, JB 4.1.1) responds as well, as does the Phoenix (completely stock JB 4.1.1, nothing installed manually, as it's a "demonstration device"). So none of my devices does not respond to ping, whatever configuration they have, as long as they are connected to my WiFi.

I'll edit my answer then, thanks for the testing.

You are welcome, Logos! Was about time I made that sure (up to today, I didn't thoroughly test it -- but now I can say "I never had a device not supporting it"). There are two more devices I can check when they return, though...

Ping is most basic network service provided by all modern devices. Non availability of ping service is rare and that's also the case of ping being turned off manually by users. So, its most likely that your firewall on PC is blocking outbound traffic to the Android device in the network.
Disable the firewall on PC temporarily and test. If you have firewall installed on Android device, disable it there too.
If firewall was the problem, allow all outbound traffic to all ports of Android device's IP (you may restrict to ports in use). If firewall was installed on Android device, do the same thing for inbound traffic.

Try using AirDroid
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.airdroid

This should help you to manage files on your android device through WiFi.


text:
Installing Jelly Bean on China-made Ice Cream Sandwich tablet
I just bought this China-made tablet, Flytouch, and it has Ice Cream Sandwich installed on it.
Is there anyway to install Jelly Bean? I Googled some and couldn't find a good source. Do you know any? thanks

I found this forum thread that tells you how to update the firmware to one that runs Jelly Bean (Android 4.1.1). It appears to be an update to a stock firmware update that came out for the tablet sometime last year.
This does appear to require your tablet to be rooted

...and when that link stops working, what will be the value of this answer?

Downvoting is not the answer to that. The content of the link is far to long to post

That's a fairly short post that will easily fit here, but you could summarize it.  Most of it is cruft.


text:
Connection between Ubuntu and Nexus 7 does not work well
Following the instruction in http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2004182
(I also see many other similar guides online)
The above method, shortly, is editing the file
(Do not follow the instructions below for connection, since it omits many steps and only for a description purpose. Using the link above if you want to do connection.)

sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

And put the device information in the file:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666"

It starts udev

sudo service udev restart

Create mount point and permissions

sudo mkdir /media/nexus7
  chmod 755 /media/nexus7

MTP in Nexus 7 is enabled.
(Do not follow the instructions for connection, since it omits many steps and only for a description purpose. Using the link above if you want to do connection.)
I successfully connect my Nexus 7 to Ubuntu 12.04.
For the first several trials (mount and transfer, then unmount), it can drag and drop files from Ubuntu to Nexus 7.
Now after I mount, I can see all folders and files of Nexus 7 in mounted folder in Ubuntu. But I can't drag and drop files anymore.
It would pops an error window, but with now any explicit information what's wrong.
How to solve it?
Another question: when I succeed in transferring files through mounted media, I transfer music files in Ubuntu to a folder in Nexus 7, such as /SoftwareEnginneringMp3. But all music files were automatically placed in the music folder. How to solve it?
I searched online and find some similar complaints. But I am not lucky to find the solution.

Could you please include an abstract from "behind that XDA link"? Makes it easier to answer. What tools are you using now, how do you connect the device? MTP?


text:
Galaxy S3 Providing Audible Voicemail Notifications and Alarm reads the time out loud
My Galaxy S3 just started notifying me of voicemails by stating out loud that I had a new voicemail. In addition, the alarm now states the time out loud as it plays the normal alarm music.
I have checked and the Driving Mode is turned OFF and the alarm is set for melody.
I receive no voice alerts for new emails, texts or incoming calls.
Please advise.

@AlEverett The solution in the question you linked was to turn off driving mode. The OP says he has already checked that it is off in this case.

I had the same on my galaxy 4. Eventually I called AT&T and they fixed it on their end.

Did they say if the phone (hardware) was defective? Or was it software-related?


text:
Flash Custom Rom on china tablet
I have a chinese tablet with the allwinner a13 chip, that I want to flash a custom rom to. Rom Manager doesn't recognize the device, so I can't install clockworkmod recovery...
So how can I go about flashing a custom rom to this tablet?
same specs as seen here http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/51050-quantex-9-kb901/

Didn't they have any hints on that where you got the ROM from? Usually when they're posted, some README goes along.

Nope. The Rom manager message (I assume that's what we're talking about) just said that I had to wait till it was supported.

Micromax Funbook is a clone of AllWinner A10 chipset based tablet. I once had to flash a ROM and asked this question.
The link that I had used to flash the ROM including the ROM itself are available in the answer.  You could try that flash tool to install a ROM of your choice - but there is a pretty good chance for you to be in trouble if you flash an incompatible ROM.

I recently bought a Trio Stealth Pro 7c, which uses the Allwinner a13 chip. In order to flash a rom, you must use LiveSuit, which is a Chinese-made, Windows-only program. You boot your tablet into recovery mode, and LiveSuit will flash the rom you provide.
The rom must be in a specific format, so if you want to create a custom rom to distribute, you have to go through a lot of steps. For more details see this forum or this post*.
There are a number of pre-built roms for A10, but A13 roms are more difficult to find (if only for the fact that most people don't realize there is a difference).
You can install ClockWorkMod on your tablet, if you want, but you probably won't be using it to flash roms. I did, but I am still unable to simply flash a rom properly. You can still to full nandroid backup and restores.
*Full disclosure: I wrote this post. Actually, your question caused me to finish my rough draft and post the finalized version.

Thank you - Does this mean I can't backup the existing rom, or can I use nandroid (pre LiveSuit) to create a backup of the current rom, should I need to revert?

I think you can back up the existing rom using nandroid. The backup will only be restorable via the recovery tool (CWM). But note that when you flash a new rom via LiveSuit, it also wipes out your custom recovery. So after flashing the new rom, you must reinstall clockworkmod in order to restore the nandroid backup.

Follow the 5 steps

Root Your Android phone

To Know how to root it just type [model] root in google & follow it

Install the free app Rom Manager  From clockworkmod in google play
Download the rom You want to try in sd card

4 Flash it
5 Reboot

That's a pretty generic guideline, no emphasis on specific device as per the OP's question - specifically a chinese tablet with the allwinner a13 chip and also, the OP mentioned Rom Manager doesn't recognize the device, so I can't install clockworkmod recovery


text:
Changing language option on ColorNote
By accident, on the Android ColorNote application, I changed the language from English to Chinese. How do I change it back to English?

It's probably easiest to clear the application data and cache for Colornote. What device are you using and what version of Android?

Perhaps you already don't have this issue anymore, but could you provide the link to this app, so that this question can be answerable? I searched "ColorNote" on Play Store and I found this. Is it the app you're using? However, I don't find any settings to change the language. Instead, it follows the device's language.


text:
Battery usage for keeping apps open
How much of an effect does it have on the phones battery life to keep applications such as the contacts application open. I ask because that app sometimes takes long to open the first time depending on how many contacts you have I guess. I'm running android 4.1.2 on an galaxy s3 if that makes any difference. But I'm wondering whats the best practice from an user as well as developer perspective with regard to keeping apps open as a posed to the old school conservative thinking of closing everything when it's not needed.

In Linux/Android it is not recommended to close apps or use task killers.  Unlike a Windows computer/phone, Linux/Android can keep applications "running" in the background which doesn't use any CPU or networking (unless it's a media player).  It has actually been proven that closing apps causes more battery drain, because instead of Android being able to recall the app that was in memory it has to relaunch it, which requires more memory use as well as CPU.
You are better to leave apps running.
Sources:
How To Geek and
LifeHacker

But does the closing of apps free up memory to make the phone run faster? I've heard it does, and it appears to after I kill some apps

Seems legit, tho still wondering about the memory as SSumner mentions

Yes apps left "running" will consume memory, but the way that Android/Linux manage memory is way different than how Windows does.  Empty memory in Android is wasted memory.  Android is built to use as much memory as it needs, and if apps or activities are consuming that memory it will close them.  You should not interfere with the native memory management of Android because if you do, at some point the system will have to restart those apps that you or your task manager closed.


text:
Android 4.1.1 consumes too much memory
My HTC One S has been upgraded to 4.1.1 and I noticed that it started consuming too much memory.
When I had 4.0, average memory consumption was about 300-450 MB. But now it is on the level of 700-850 MB. Is this a normal situation for the current version of Android or did something go wrong after the upgrade?
All system apps were upgraded with the OS. I have 1 GB of RAM.

Have you a record of how much memory the apps used to use, and how much they use now?

I experienced the same problems when my htc one x updated from ICS to 4.1. With ics it barely used half of the 1g ram and everything was fast and smooth. Now with JB it is almost always using 900m and no way near as fast or smooth and will freeze up sometimes and the only thing that helps is clearing memory. I have installed the update and did a complete wipe after trying to resolve the freezes.

This could count as a good sign: There should not be such a thing as "unused RAM". Linux and Android in special do a good job to make the best use of it by caching things. If there is any RAM not currently needed by running apps, it can be used to keep e.g. pieces of the file system for faster access -- which also helps to save battery life. Once there is additional RAM needed, those caches are the first things to be cleared.
For more details, I recommend to take a look at the following related questions and their answers:

0 ram free on ICS
Are there guidelines on how much free RAM a phone should have?

I read the answers in the links above and have a question: will not it degrade performance by clearing that RAM for a new app? If the RAM is free it could simply occupy it, but now unused RAM has to be freed up first and then to be occupied.

Au contraire. It would degrade performance if you'd permantly kill apps, and they had to be loaded again: I/O reading from the (slower) storage, initializing the app, etc. And by killing the app you would also "clear" that RAM (just to have it re-filled by the re-starting app in most cases). Leave that headache to the system :) The only things which might need some adjustment (in some cases) are OOM values (i.e. the configuration of the system behind this).

what is OOM values? Honestly, I had asked the question about memory usage because I felt that my htc is working a bit slower than with previuos version

See e.g. Auto Memory Manager, which serves this issue. But "feeling slower after update/upgrade" can have many reasons (never version might need more ressources, update can have "messed up" something, etc.pp.).


text:
How can I decrease the font size of incoming messages on the Samsung Galaxy Note permanently?
After the regular update of my Samsung Galaxy Note to Android 4.1.2, the font size in the messaging section is quite oversized.
By using the volume keys I can indeed reduce the font, but this setting is not saved.
My device is not rooted.

Is your device rooted?

@ZnewmaN: Nope.

You could perhaps download a font from the Google play store? I've seen some fonts packs up there.
e.g.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.develop.plugin.font&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5kZXZlbG9wLnBsdWdpbi5mb250Il0.
Some of these will more than likely require your device be rooted.
Or you can change the size of your phone's font. To do that go to settings\display\font,
You should be ably to manipulate the font.
Wasn't much to go on so I hope this helps.

Indeed, the global font size setting affects the font of the messages. Putting this on the smallest option unfortunately makes other text difficult to read. Thank you anyway. I think I have to live with it for now.

I notice this annoyance too.
Looks like the best solution is to enable volume key text resizing, and leave it enabled.
Once you disable it, the Messages app resets the text size to the huge (on the Galaxy Note, that is) font/bubble size.
This won't be noticeable on other phones; the real cause is that the GNote is big, which is what all GNote owners like about it. :)

Peculiar. On my GS3 on 4.1.1, it saves the font size (i.e. after closing and opening it again, it is the same size as I set it with the volume key.
This may wipe your messages (find a way to back them up if you'd like them), but have you tried clearing the Messaging app's data in Application Manager -> All?

I deleted the data as suggested. The messages are retained, the settings are not. However, the font size is reset to extra-large after a reboot.

Shucks! :( Hmm...I find it very peculiar behavior. If it ever bothers you to no end one day, I might suggest ChompSMS as an alternative. Very clean and easy to use and with a TON of customization options. :)

I have a GS4 vers. 4.3
I had the same problem. But the use of the volume key solves my issue.  Resized using
volume key while in the messaging mode.  Viola!

He has tried resizing using volume keys but the setting isn't saved, I think that's the problem.

Just had the same issue on a Note 3.
I was resizing the font by "pinching" the screen. It would not save; I'm stuck with the huge font.
So, I used the size volume key instead to resize the font. Now, everything works fine.

This was on a note 3


text:
Android system RAM usage
I've been trying to figure out how Android/CyanogenMod manages RAM internally, and what exactly I can trim down.
I'm running CyanogenMod 10.1-M2 right now, but the memory usage has stayed fairly consistent over the updates ever since I installed the CM 10 about a half a year ago.
Here are my questions :

What could Trebuchet be doing eating away 100M RAM by itself?
For that matter, systemui is eating over 70M RAM as well. A rough calculation of the video RAM requirements (4 colors x 1200 x 720 ~ 3-4MB) is nowhere near hundreds of megabytes, even if you have, say, 10 layers on your launcher and System UI, each taking the full screen.
system_server is taking ~150M, is that normal?
I guess if you take into account services shown by dumpsys meminfo it all adds up, but I wanted to check.

For info, running dumpsys meminfo shows :
Total PSS by OOM adjustment:
   118491 kB: System
              118491 kB: system (pid 406)
    79619 kB: Persistent
               50892 kB: com.android.systemui (pid 19167)
               23670 kB: com.android.phone (pid 688)
                5057 kB: com.android.nfc (pid 697)
   112547 kB: Foreground
              112547 kB: com.cyanogenmod.trebuchet (pid 25585)
    97764 kB: Visible
               62079 kB: android.process.acore (pid 23677)
               13137 kB: com.google.process.gapps (pid 886)
                9092 kB: com.google.android.gsf.login (pid 6452)
                8151 kB: com.google.process.location (pid 855)
                2753 kB: com.android.nfc:handover (pid 788)
                2552 kB: com.android.smspush (pid 811)
     8094 kB: Perceptible
                5558 kB: com.android.inputmethod.latin (pid 9662)
                2536 kB: com.android.location.fused (pid 3493)
    67783 kB: A Services
               26124 kB: com.facebook.katana (pid 27504)
               16481 kB: com.facebook.orca (pid 26218)
               12152 kB: com.google.android.apps.maps:GoogleLocationService (pid 24846)
                7467 kB: android.process.media (pid 24905)
                5559 kB: net.nurik.roman.dashclock (pid 24926)
    28482 kB: B Services
               10988 kB: com.android.vending (pid 26889)
                7018 kB: com.google.android.apps.maps (pid 18348)
                5104 kB: com.dropbox.android (pid 25070)
                2710 kB: com.bel.android.dspmanager (pid 26346)
                2662 kB: com.cyanogenmod.updater.updater.service.UpdateCheckService (pid 25156)
    54121 kB: Background
               14159 kB: com.google.android.apps.plus (pid 27352)
               12993 kB: com.facebook.katana:providers (pid 27538)
                8600 kB: com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox (pid 27427)
                4848 kB: com.evernote.skitch (pid 27408)
                4101 kB: com.google.android.apps.maps:LocationFriendService (pid 27488)
                3833 kB: com.google.android.gms (pid 27474)
                2890 kB: com.google.android.partnersetup (pid 27445)
                2697 kB: com.android.defcontainer (pid 27379)

top shows :
  PID PR CPU% S  #THR     VSS     RSS PCY UID      Name
  406  1   0% S   101 689020K 138244K  fg system   system_server
25585  1   0% S    23 581124K 136528K  fg u0_a40   com.cyanogenmod.trebuchet
19167  0   0% S    20 507824K  71216K  fg u0_a36   com.android.systemui
23677  0   0% S    33 526580K  56076K  bg u0_a1    android.process.acore
27504  1   0% S    29 505836K  43828K  bg u0_a112  com.facebook.katana
  688  0   0% S    44 530180K  33860K  fg radio    com.android.phone
26218  1   0% S    24 491392K  31792K  bg u0_a92   com.facebook.orca
  128  0   0% S    10  69020K  27900K  fg system   /system/bin/surfaceflinger
27754  1   0% S    15 481612K  26892K  bg u0_a127  com.google.android.apps.maps:LocationFriendService
26889  0   0% S    29 495588K  26356K  bg u0_a55   com.android.vending

If you have plenty of icons and widgets running on your homescreen with live wallpaper, then trebuche using 100mb+ of RAM sounds reasonable. system_ui also caches screen bitmaps to reduce lags when scrolling and switching apps. Android will automatically reclaim their memory if a foreground app needs it so it shouldn't be an issue for concern. As for system_server, I dont have  it and I think its abnormally consuming your RAM

Also, may I know your Phone model? (Xperia Z, HTC One, Nexus, etc)

@forums: Phone's a Galaxy Nexus. And system_server is a core component for Android that's running services, that's why I'm not that surprised by it using 100+ MB of RAM given that Facebook takes 40M on its own. Trebuchet is what's really baffling me, even with caching and widgets. The reason I'm asking this question, by the way, is that my phone becomes really laggy after a while, with Trebuchet/System UI getting OOM-killed each time I open an app.

Might a look at My device is getting slow, apps start misbehaving/crashing. What can I do? prove helpful then?

@Izzy: CM 10.1-M3 fixed a lot of things, although I'm not sure what happened. And removing the main Facebook app did wonders, I discovered it was registered on more or less EVERY system intent, and the whole phone just went haywire whenever I enabled the data connection -- I don't keep data enabled all the time, and, every time I turned it on, I suppose Facebook had to download and process tons of things. Other than that I don't have a lot to say.

Ha! I don't wonder about that. One of the reasons I avoid FB completely: next to its "privacy" is its data hunger. As you've got your problem solved: would you mind setting up an answer and accept it?

@Izzy: Sure! Just doing that.

These things helped a lot :

Looking at which apps drained the most power. Performance improved a lot after uninstalling Facebook and a few other apps I had downloaded over time.
Upgrading to CyanogenMod 10.1-M3 helped. They fixed a nasty memory leak, which probably accounted for parts of my issues.
A little before the first 10.1-RC candidates, the CM team tweaked memory settings that had changed without warning in one of the releases.
If you're running low on storage, you might want to run fstrim /data on a root shell. It seems to be a technical limitation of SSDs when they're low on space.


text:
Viewing app's internet activity by URL?
How would I go about viewing the activity of an app based on what HTTP requests it is sending and receiving?
For example, I have an app that gets me statistics for a video game I play. I want to know where this app is sending the request to in order to retrieve the data that is displayed within the app.


text:
Is it enough to restore /data with ClockworkMod? (Maybe changing systems as well
I definitely don't want to restore cache files. Why would I want to restore system files as well? If I understood Izzy's answer here, as a normal user (not a system developer) all I need is to restore the /data folder, right? Should work when changing systems under it.
As I understand, Titanium Backup is also not needed when using Nandroid/ClockworkMod.
By "normal user" I mean that I'm not a developer.

If that "normal user" didn't use his root power to modify things in /system (and it's left intact and complete, incl. the "root files"), that might be. Or not. Or partly. You need to state the conditions: Restoring to a new device? Or after a factory-reset of the same device? Or after a ROM flash? Or after the device has been returned from repair? Depending on the pre-condition, the answer might be a "yes", "no", or "maybe". // The question you refer to is just about the .apk files, by the way. It's not a complete view on the entire system :)

I'm sorry. It's too technical description for me. I don't understand much of it.

In which case you'd rather stick with the "normal way" instead of developing your own "special solution". I will try to sum up something helpful to explain.

As explained in my comments on the question itself: a restore is more than just the .apk files. All parts of the system need to fit together, or you might run into trouble (unstable system, things not working as expected, apps crashing, and the like). There are different approaches to backup and restore, and one should not mix them without the required experience.
Nandroid
A Nandroid backup (as it's done by e.g. ClockworkMod) basically creates full images of all your device's partitions, without any abstraction. This does not necessarily mean one could not pick single items out of a Nandroid backup, but its not that trivial. If you restore a single partion only (such as /data), it must fit the other parts of the system. The /data partition also holds the /data/dalvik-cache, for example, which consists of the byte-code for all installed apps, optimized for the ROM which created it. If you e.g. would restore the /data partition from a backup of ROM-X to a device with ROM-Y, those DEX (Dalvik EXecutables) would not fit. Also ROM-Y might use different directory structures for several things, which are not reflected here.
You see, it would not be such a good idea.
ADB Backups
Backups created with the adb backup command are a different case: they are "abstracted". If you look into such an archive, you will not find the directory structure reflected. Thus at least in theory, an app backup (including the apps' data) created on ROM-X should restore fine on ROM-Y, as the ADB daemon on the device should take care of what belongs where.
Titanium backup
Somehow comparable with the afore-mentioned ADB backup. TiBu uses its own format, and furthermore offers a "migration mode" when restoring backups from a different ROM. TiBu can also extract apps/data from Nandroid (and ADB?) backups, and hopefully fits them in fine even between different ROMs.
Other details
As you correctly noted: No, Titanium Backup is not needed to restore a Nandroid backup. The same script collection (Nandroid) used for the backup process would take care for the restore as well, again from the same place (ClockworkMod recovery). But as described above: Titanium Backup is able to read from backup files created with Nandroid.
As a last line, I want to repeat what I wrote in the beginning: Nandroid, ADB Backup, and Titanium are using completely different concepts. Though it is possible to mix them on a restore, this should only be done by experienced users understanding those concepts and knowing what they are doing.


text:
How to get Picasa/Google+ shared photo's URL quickly from Android mobile device?
My sister doesn't use Google+ so it is quite hard for me to share an individual photo of my Picasa album with her.
Currently I can only do that from a PC - opening picasa web album site, open the album, select the need-to-share image, then get the shared link from the box on the right.
I cannot quickly do this from my Google Samsung Nexus phone since the mobile version of Picasa web does not have get shared link like the PC version.
How can I get shared/embedded link of that photo the quickest way?


text:
How do I bypass the Verizon activation on a Samsung Fascinate?
I want to use a Samsung Fascinate (model SCH-I500) in WiFi only mode for development and testing purposes. The device has been factory reset and boots to the Verizon activation screen. How do I bypass activation? Do I need to root the device?

You used to be able to bypass the activation screen by tapping in all four corners of the screen (start in the top left and work clockwise from there). Don't know if it still works, but you could try that.

After doing some additional research I finally came across a YouTube video on how to bypass a Samsung Galaxy S Continuum activation screen. The steps outlined in the video are very simple:

From the Activation Screen select Emergency call.
Enter the following *#83786633 (*#TESTMODE) which will disappear when you press the last 3
A toast with the text Softkey is enabled will appear
Then press the home button

Emergency, dial: *#83786633 and a message will pop up saying "Softkey is enabled" then press the home key.

Install a stock or a custom ROM that best fits your need from, e.g., Samobile or xda. This way you can select the android version and its flavor.


text:
How can I play video over my LAN?
I have a Mythbuntu computer on my home LAN where I store all my music and video files.
I'd like to be able to watch video that is stored on my Mythbuntu computer on my Galaxy Tab 10.1. The videos are in a variety of formats and sizes. I understand that some sizes might be too large to stream over the LAN, but I think it should be within the ability of most hardware.
The Galaxy tab connects via wifi to the home network.
I have tried some apps that claim to be MythTV front ends, but they have proven to be difficult to set up in that they require a lot of MythTV specific settings.
I'm looking for a solution that is independent from MythTV, and just plays the video files in an independant player, much like I would open a video file on my desktop computer with VLC.
Is that possible, and if so, how?

Isn't MythTV uPnP compatible? If so, you could use any uPnP client, like e.g. BubbleUPnP.

@Izzy: BubbleIPNP worked like a charm. Make that an answer and I'll green check it.

As MythTV is uPnP compatible, you can use any uPnP client for Android. A great app for this purpose is e.g. BubbleUPnP, which not only serves as a client (so you can access what MythTV provides), but also as a server, so you can use it even the other way around and integrate it as a "media provider" with your MythTV installation. This way you are also able to stream media contents from your Android device to your other uPnP capable home devices.

BubbleUPnP: Where to output, what to play (Source: Google Play; click image to enlarge)

AirPlayIt is one software solution that will stream video files from your computer or file server to an Android device. It simply streams things Android can play and transcodes things it can't.
Plex is another popular solution.
You might also investigate any number of UPNP media streaming solutions.

VLC for Android!
This is the port of VLC media player to the Android™ platform. VLC for Android can play any video and audio files, as well as network streams, network shares and drives, and DVD ISOs, like the desktop version of VLC.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.videolan.vlc


text:
How to save map cache of my city on SD card for use with Google Maps, possibly with no expiry?
I don't have enough rep. to comment under other's post, so I had to open this thread. I read some threads on Google Maps here and the question still persists.
Is there a straightforward method to cache my city's map strictly onto the SD card (as I am running out of internal space), possibly in a way that this cache doesn't get deleted in 30 days? On the other hand it would be cool if it auto-updated itself with the latest map updates, points of interests from Google, strictly when on Wi-Fi.
I already heard of Google's native solution, and of Brut Mod -- but don't know if any of the two would come close to my goal. How can I achieve it?
Edit. Added link for Brut Mod. Sorry, don't have the link any more for that other question.

Hmpf That would belong to the category Recommendations again, and thus be off topic according to our [FAQ]. A little re-phrasing could save it from that fate, let me see... How about this? A link to that "Brut Mod" would be helpful (never heard of it). And a link to that "other post" as reference.

Isn't it like I'm looking for a solution to a problem?

I didn't flag it for closure, as a re-phrasing converted it from "which one is better" (speculative/subjective/recommendation) to "how can I solve my problem" and thus made it on-topic again (I tried to be helpful, and preventing your question from being closed ;) How To Ask Android Questions The Smart Way provides some more very useful hints btw ;) // Thanks for the added links, I will dive into it.

Looks like your question just was reduced by the "Brut Mod". On the last page of that XDA thread you'll find: These Maps apk files have been removed due to a copyright infringement complaint from Google. Which only leaves you with either Google Labs own pre-caching -- or taking a look at e.g. Maps (+).

So did this solve your issue? Shall I convert it into an answer?


text:
How to unlock android phone which is locked by entering wrong pin
I have a Pantech Burst Android phone runs on ICS 4.0.4. Which got locked by entering wrong pin several times. Now it is asking to login to Gmail to unlock the phone but neither phone data nor wifi is enabled.
How to unlock it. Any help will be appreciated.

Weird case, it should give you an option to connect to a wifi hotspot when its locked and needs a connection. Try waiting for an hour, if I remember there is a 30min cooldown if too many attempts failed.

All methods known to me are presented in an answer to Cannot unlock tablet as have no internet connection?. The topic sounds like an exact match to yours, by the way :) Good luck!


text:
How do I remove an app installed if the buttons in "Manage Applications" are locked and can't be pressed?
I didn't download the application from Google Play and got the apk from a website and installed it on my tablet. But the app wasn't the one I needed and it was just making offers for me to get other apps.
Now I want to uninstall it but in "Manage Applications " all the buttons there are locked and can't be pressed, including the uninstall and move to SD card.
What do I do to get rid of it? It's taking up space on my internal memory.

Then install an uninstaller?

Could it be the app registered with the Device Administrator? As you didn't offer a link or even name to the app in question, we cannot check that. But you could take a look into Settings->Security->Device Administrator. If it's in there, remove it here first. Then you should be able to uninstall it.

Thank you, Izzy! I did as you told me and it worked, I got to uninstall the app.  Many thanks!

Glad to read! As this was the solution to your issue, I made it an answer. If you please "accept" this (by clicking the "checkmark" next to it), other users with similar problems can see here's a solution to the problem. Thank you!

Some apps register with the "Device Administrator" to avoid accidental/unwanted de-installation (e.g. child-protecting apps, so the child does not simply uninstall it -- also stuff which implements additional "rules", such as MS Exchange related apps). In this case, you need to remove them from the "Device Administrator" first:
Go to Settings→Security→Device Administrator and check if the app is listed there. If so, remove it from here. Now you should be able to uninstall the app.


text:
Contacts from iCloud to Android
I have a Samsung Galaxy S III Android phone and need to transfer my iCloud contacts to that phone. How do I accomplish this? Can you recommend a FREE app for this or some other method, please?

According to an article at Maggo (German; Google-Translate variant) you can use CardDav-Sync for this:

start the app
select "Create new account"
fill in the settings:

Servername: contacts.icloud.com
use SSL
Username: your iCloud user
Password: your iCloud password

hit "Next". The app now checks the entered data
on the next screen, you don't need to change the Account name. Check "Sync from server to phone"
tap "Finish", and your contacts should be transfered from iCloud to your Android device.

CardDav-Sync setup: Step 3 and step 5 (source: Google Play; click images for larger variant)


text:
Unresponsive menu button on several Android apps
I have noticed on several apps there is a menu button/icon (three vertical dots) but it is unresponsive and I'm wondering if it's just me or the app. I initially assumed it was just the app, but I have noticed it in several apps now. The menu button responds to a tap, in that I hear the "tap" sound and the button highlights momentarily, but nothing happens - there is no menu?!

Three apps I have noticed today that have a "do nothing" menu button:

Compass (called "Tiny Compass" in the Play store)
BBC iPlayer
Stack Remote

Is this really a "problem" in the app?

This menu button is a backwards compatibility feature. It's displayed on all apps that say they are designed for a version of Android from when Android devices had physical menu buttons. (That's Froyo or earlier.) The Android system can't tell whether such an app needs the menu button or not, so it has to display it to make sure the app is usable on newer devices without the hard button.
If the button annoys you, contact the author of the app and ask them to update their "target version". They can do this and still be compatible with older versions of Android.

I had the same problem. The menu wouldn't respond in Gallery, Setting, and some other applications.The restart didn't work.
I tried closing all the application by double-tapping the home button and then reopen them again plus using 'clean master' app. This seems to work (sometimes) tho.
Don't really know why, but for me it helps.

This seems to be a different problem to the one listed in the question. The question addresses a spurious non-functioning soft-menu button that appears on all devices, in the soft-menu bar, when it is not required. You seem to have a problem with a legitimate menu button not responding.


text:
Specific App install from Google Play fails, where to see log?
I'm trying to re-install a paid app from the Google Play Store I had previously installed before doing a system update.
The installation fails silently after downloading. (Other installs from the Market work fine.)
Where can I see a log of what went wrong?
My System is a CM10 nightly built, so there might be all kinds of problems.
The app doesn't show up as previously installed in any OS app lists, but turns up as 'not installed, no backups' in the Titanium Backup list, so there must be some residues from the former installation left.

Found a solution. in short: delete /data/data/com.name.apk/ . Will post as answer as soon as new-user-block is over.

Have you installed it on the SDCard previously? Is any error message shown? The only way to check the logs that comes to my mind is using adb logcat (as most logcat apps can no longer access the full logcat with JellyBean without some additional handwork, due to changed security measures).

Our comments just crossed... This brings up another candidate, if one doesn't want to do that manually: SD Maid should ferret such "remains" and clean them up.

No, the app wasn't installed to SD. And thanks for the SDMaid link. Will try this out too. Might also clean out other stuff.

That's correct. Shall I leave that for you to include it with your answer?

If just included my way (with mostly onboard tools) in my answer. If you want to write an own answer recommending the app, you'll get a vote up from me.

Did so, with a more detailed description. Also took the freedom to re-format (and upvote) your answer. Good work! If you don't like the way I formatted your answer, feel free to roll-back or re-edit :)

Thank you very much. I'll also appreciate the re-formatting.

Glad to help! Btw: You might want to re-phrase your question to match the answers LOL -- as they are nothing about "where to see the log" :)

To answer myself:

Downloaded the .apk of the app on a PC with the help of the APK Downloader tool, and put it onto the phones SD card.
Used Terminal application (part of CM10) to switch to root (su),
then tried to install the downloaded .apk file via pm install com.name.apk

Got an error code: INSTALL_FAILED_UID_CHANGED, googled that and found a solution:

Removed /data/data/com.name.apk/ folder completely via terminal
Tried pm install com.name.apk again -> SUCCESS (Would probably also have worked with normal Play Store install.)

Seems that each app gets a unique UID on first install to manage its access rights on files and folders. If the system thinks it's the first install, it assigns a new one, then can't overwrite/delete old settings/data folders previously set with another UID.

Glad you've found a working solution! To make it easier for people being afraid of working with the terminal:
On the Google Playstore you can find the app SD Maid, which (amongst other things) can take care for "left-overs" of uninstalled apps, which it calls "corpses" (so the part relating to this is the "corpses finder"). To do so, it reads the list of installed apps from the package manager, and then checks for e.g. directories which should not be there:

SDMaid: "Corpse Finder" and "System Cleaner" (Source: Google Play; click images to enlarge)
In your case, you've uninstalled the "foobar" app, which has the "package-name" of "com.foobar.app". Reading the list of installed apps, SDMaid thus does not find it -- so the folder /data/data/com.foobar.app would be identified as "corpse" and offered for cleaning.
So the big pro for the "average user" here is not only that he can avoid the command line, but also does not need to figure out tha apps "technical name", as SDMaid does that itself. And as "nice-to-have", the app also brings a file manager, file searcher, app control (freezing apps etc), and more.
Last remark: your device must be rooted for SDMaid to work. But so it must if you want to manually remove that directory, as the su step in your own answer shows :)

I don't know who you are.. but you have no idea how much you helped me.. tons of thanks dude.. :)


text:
How can I protect my photos from Apps?
Camera saves them on SD, so everything can just upload them wherever it wants.
I heard of apps that claim to protect photos within them but the only thing they did is making them hidden from the user with hidden folders, but thats not what I call protection.
It also doesnt protect them from apps which dont care about dotted .files or .nomedia.
Is this lack of protection intended?
What can I do?
PS: If the protector you recommend is an app, please let it be one that is available on the developers site because I have no access to playstore.

Consider buying a dedicated camera and not using the camera on your phone.

Best thing I heard today!

I'm afraid there is no real protection possible, for multiple reasons:

as you stated, all apps can read everywhere on the SDCard. This does not require any special permission
apps with the INTERNET permission are not restricted in using the network in any way -- they even can create their own sockets and implement their own ways of communication
while using an encrypted container would look promising on a first look, the camera app could not access this container either when it's not opened -- and if the container is opened, other apps could access it as well. So even using such a container and have it replacing /sdcard/DCIM does not work for your purpose

Summed up: if you want that level of protection, you either...

cannot use any app requiring the INTERNET permission (no way for that, as several of them already come pre-installed with your device)
need to root your device and set up a firewall forbidding all apps to access the internet (which, outside the EU, would void your warranty)
need to have mobile-data as well as WiFi disabled all the time, and never connect your device to any network

As none of the above is really practicable, you need to compromise: When selecting the apps you want to install/use, check beforehand how trustworthy they are -- and keep your fingers away from "suspicious apps" as well as "suspicious sources".
As long as you're only concerned about the photos you take: If you find a camera app which can use an encrypted container solely by itself, this might be a way to go (I never heard of such, but it would be possible to create it, so it might exist). Another possible thing would be a "container app" that lets you specify which apps are permitted to access it. But keep in mind that your gallery app (which you use to view the photos) most likely will have the INTERNET permission as well...
EDIT: As Compro01 pointed out in his comment below, with Android 4.1 and up you can add some protection by enabling the "protect SD Card" item in the developer options. If that is activated, apps (including your camera app) need to have the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE respective WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission to access the SDCard.
Moreover, PerennialPinömpel found an app named
InformaCam:

InformaCam, part of the SecureSmartCam suite of mobile apps, is a tool that allows users to embed expansive metadata into video or still images; encrypt media to trusted destinations using PGP; and securely upload media to trusted destinations who are capable of accepting InformaCam media.

Unfortunately, neither that app nor the full suite is available on Google Play currently. I also could not find an .apk on the mentioned site, so one would have to clone its Git repository, and compile the app.

Okay and outside of the android permsiion world? Any Root-tool mod or similar?

How can the situation be so much worse than on desktop?

Ah didnt recognize the last section, did you edit?

I found this: https://dev.guardianproject.info/projects/informacam/wiki/Overview

How can it be "better" on desktop? All your computer programms can do the same, and do not need any explicit "Internet" permission. And no, I did not edit my answer (yet) -- you would see an "edited" remark like on your question (where I only added the "security" tag). // The app you've found seems a valid answer to your question; unfortunately, it seems not to be available in the playstore...

There are actually permissions to control SD card access (WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE and READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE), but these are not enforced by default.  You can force enforcement of these in 4.1 and later by enabling "protect SD card" in the developers options.  But if an app does have permission, they can still do whatever they like to anything on the SD card.

@Izzy - I think you misread the question.  He's specifically wanting apps that aren't only available in the play store.

@Compro01 the answer is also for other interested users. And the OP didn't specify the app must not be available on GooglePlay -- only that it should (also) be available at a place where he can pick the .apk directly (others might be hesistant to do the latter -- aside from the fact that there's no .apk on the InformaCam site either). The question further is not about Is there an app for X (which would be off topic), but about possible solutions.

an hour of searching through links from the tor and activist millieu did not bring up anything  promising..       if an actual solution is available in play store only so be it, but i have not found one there either. yes I search for a solution, regardless if its an app, android modification or linux-userspace-y stuff thats could be in customroms.  As for now the only valid approach I see is modifying android or on top of that cyanogenmod at source level for whatever I could think of. too bad I am really inexperienced in that field, particularly for android.

The answer block is quite informative now, should I mark it answered or wait until there is really a solution?

That's completely up to you. Even if you mark it now, and tomorrow comes an answer which seems better fitting, you can "switch over" and accept the other instead (which would remove the "Accepted" checkmark from this one). If you estimate your chances of a better answer higher when there's no "accepted" answer already present, you can also wait.


text:
How to separate the two pieces of the AC adapter for Samsung tab 2 7.0
I am trying to separate the two parts of the Samsung tab 2 7.0 AC adapter, since I am traveling to a country with different outlets.
I have tried pulling them but nothing seems to work.
Do you know how they can be separated?

They might be undividable. But that shouldn't be a problem to you: why not simply obtaining some travel adapter?

To Close Voters: This does not meet the criteria for "Not Constructive". Further, it's about hardware specific to an Android device.

The Samsung Power Supply Unit (PSU) I have (same for: Tab2 7.0, Tab2 10.1, and S3 Mini) just requires a firm pressure, to remove the Australia/New Zealand angle-prong portion.
Push the power-prong element away from the bottom (with CE notice) of PSU. There is no release or catch, to stop this action.

(If this does not exactly match shape/appearance of your PSU, then disregard.)

The alternative approach is to instead obtain a Samsung 30-PIN to micro-USB adapter. This allows you to use ANY standard phone PSU or PC (USB to micro-USB cable) to re-charge the battery.

ebay > Micro USB Female to 30pin for Samsung galaxy tab P1000 .. adapter


text:
The process has stopped unexpectedly - recovery
When I start my tablet Archos 7 Home tablet it shows this message box:
Sorry!
The process android.process.acore has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.
Force close

The only possibility I have is to press the button Force close and then the message
appears again.
I tried to reset the tablet with pushing the needle into the reset hole on the back of the tablet,

but after starting the tablet the message appears again.
Now, I'm trying to solve it inspired by this question as follows but I have stuck
$ adb shell
$ recovery --wipe_data

I can only mount the tablet and browse through the directories in it. Can I destroy the files of the application that cause this error message?
How would you solve it?

You are mixing up a lot of things here. What is your real issue: a) connecting the device via adb, b) doing a factory reset of your device, c) solving the force-close? (Recommended reading: How To Ask Android Questions The Smart Way). Please split your questions into separate posts, so they can be taken care of.

@Izzy The issue is described precisely at the beginning. Everything after words Now, I'm trying to solve it... is the solution that I tried and failed because I can't see the attached device.

OK, got it. A bit lengthy; you still should make the second half a separate post (and link it). I just updated the force-close tag-wiki with some generic information which might prove helpful to you; as this might take a little to be "propagated", I will copy it into an answer here. // PS: As for the adb stuff, do you have USB Debugging enabled on the device? Most devices don't show up without that.

@Izzy OK I will split it.

What is a force-close?
If an application encounters an unexpected state or some other programming error, it will issue an force close. In most cases you will be presented with a form that allows you to send log files and the cause of the force close to the developer. Doing so will help the developer to fix the bug.
First aid

if it happens rarely, you might be able to "ignore" it. Contact the app's developer if it repeats from time to time. An extract of the logcat might be helpful to locate the issue.
if it persists: a reboot might solve it
if it still persists in a loop, preventing you accessing the device otherwise, and the app in question is one you installed yourself, you can boot into safe-mode and remove that app
if instead it's a system app, a factory-reset might be needed
if your device is rooted, you might boot to recovery-mode and "Wipe Cache" before going to factory-reset. If this works out, you won't lose any data.

Helpful questions/answers dealing with force-closes

How to fix a force close loop on Android with phone access?

My device is not rooted. It persists in a loop. My data are backed up, so I can afford lose it. I'd like to go to safe-mode but there is not volume up key on my tablet.

It persists in a loop so I can't do anything with the tablet, only to repeatedly press the "force close" button.

Your tablet has no volume buttons? I mean, no hardware buttons to adjust the volume? I never heard of such a device. I have an Archos 70 IT myself, and that has them. But apart from that: If it's always android.process.acore (which is a system process) causing the force-close, there's not much you could do from within safe-mode -- except if immediately before the problem started you installed some other app that may have caused this. In the latter case, you could of course remove that app while in Safe Mode.

No it has not volume buttons. Here is the manual. It's Archos 7 Home Tablet

Here somebody has the same problem with volume button.

I wouldn't call that a "manual" -- but I now believe you for the buttons (Foxtrott Uniform Charlie Kilo!) How do you boot into recovery/safe-mode then? There are not much other buttons you could "hold". Googling didn't trun up anything either. You might try to "play around": Reset and hold the "Power" key while it boots up, and the like.

I wasn't able to find the right combination of two positions of power button and reset hole and the timing of events. But when trying to find some information on archos web I have found firmware here and instructions here which helped to solve the problem.

Wow. So a factory-reset can only be done via a firmware upgrade. And in case you're stuck in a boot-loop (and thus cannot connect it "as an external hard drive"), you're lost... ouch. But glad you've solved it! If you still feel you should be prepared for a possible "next time", it might be a good idea to contact their service and ask about this. If they come with good answers, next good idea would be to ask a "how to factory reset" question here and answer it yourself :)


text:
How can I monitor my phone usage between two top up
I have a prepaid mobile subscription and I want to know how much I phoned between two payments. There are plenty of applications that can track my phone usage in general, but I am missing the feature to specify which days I paid my bills. Is there any such thing?

What version of Android? That capability is built in to 4.0 (ICS) onwards.

I am using android 2.2

Have you tried searching the Play Store for "prepaid"? I see a number of possibilities.

Try aPhoneMeTiX completely offline phone usage analyzer. Generates graphs and reports which you can share easily.
PS - I'm creator of this application.

What's your affiliation with this app?

@DanHulme - I have updated my answer. Thanks for your comments

Thanks, it is a nice app and does exactly what I need! (The design is a bit unnatural for an android app, but it can easly get used to)

Thanks Peter. Your feedback is appreciated and glad you liked our app. We will be soon releasing app with facility to monitor data usage ( 3g, wireless etc ). Any other feature that you liked/disliked or see in future?

We have launched "Phone Usage Monitor" advance version of aphonemetix. That allows user to monitor 3g as well as data. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rachittechnology.PhoneUsageMonitor

I couldn't find such a feature shipping with Android itself -- but: Yes, there is. Or rather: there are. Plenty. It would become a long list. Watch out on the Playstore for DroidStats or Call Meter 3G -- both apps allow you to specify the "payment day" (DroidStats is probably easier to use, while Call Meter can cover more complex scenarios).
There are also others like e.g. PhoneUsage, and more (you can follow the related apps for more suggestions).

I tried these apps, and the problem is that neither of them support prepaid plans. I can set my billing day, but for a prepaid, there is no such thing... What I would really need is a simple app that keeps track of how much I paid and since how much I used my phone

You didn't specify that part (though I should have guessed it from the word "prepaid", sorry). In that case, I don't know a perfect solution.

hmm... looks like the perfect next hobby project for me to create one... :) thanks anyways

If you cannot find it, make it -- yeah, many of my programs started out that way. Good choice -- and good luck!


text:
Problem with attaching Archos device on Ubuntu
On my laptop I have Ubuntu 12.04.
1) mounting the tablet
$ sudo mkdir /media/tb
$ sudo chmod 777 /media/tb
$ sudo mount /dev/sdc /media/tb

2) downloading and updating Android SDK
$ cd ~
$ wget http://dl.google.com/android/adt/adt-bundle-linux-x86-20130219.zip
$ cd ~/adt-bundle-linux-x86-20130219/sdk/tools
$ ./android update sdk

3) editing rules for my device. Each hardware device has its ID. According to Archos
   website my vendor ID is e79. According to this website I should also edit ~/.android/adb_usb.ini.
$ sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

After editing the file has this content:
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device",
ENV{PRODUCT}=="e79/*", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="e79", MODE="0666"

$ sudo chmod a+r /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
$ sudo vim ~/.android/adb_usb.ini

after editing the file has this content:
0x0e79

$ sudo chmod a+r ~/.android/adb_usb.ini

4) updating the information
$ sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
$ cd ~/adt-bundle-linux-x86-20130219/sdk/platform-tools
$ ./adb kill-server
$ ./adb start-server
$ sudo reboot
$ sudo mount /dev/sdc /media/tb
$ cd ~/adt-bundle-linux-x86-20130219/sdk/platform-tools
$ ./adb start-server
$ ./adb devices

List of devices attached

You can see that I have problem with attaching my device.
What else would you try to solve it?

Do you have USB Debugging enabled on your tablet? Most devices are not listed without that, as this setting starts the ADB service on the device.

@Izzy Probably no. I can't change anything in the tablet settings now (it's in the endless loop), I can only press the force close button.

Yepp, I remember. I was hoping you would remember if you had enabled it previously. In that case, I guess, you'll have to solve the other issue first (most likely via a factory-reset). Then check again with USB-Debugging enabled -- and report back if it worked out.

@Izzy USB Debugging solved it. You can write as the correct answer and I will accept it. Thanks.

For adb devices to list your device (and other ADB commands to be able to work with it), you need to enable USB Debugging in your Android device. This will start the required services (the ADB daemon) on the Android device, which is what then responds to ADB commands issued from your computer.
Besides: If you are not going to use all the development stuff from the SDK, but simply wnat to interact with your device using ADB commands, you don't need to install the entire SDK overhead. See Is there a minimal installation of ADB? for details :)


text:
HTTP not accessible on laptop connected to Hotspot?
I have the $60 unlimited MetroPCS LTE plan. The hotspot works on my laptop and MP3 player, but I can't browse websites that aren't in secure mode on the laptop. Are they blocking port 80, or is there something else I can do to configure this?
The phone is not rooted, and also it's not malware-related or a network misconfiguration on my laptop. HTTP mode works fine when connected to other networks.
Any thoughts?

I'm confused with your question. You talk about your laptop and MP3 player. Then later you talk about your phone and laptop. [In any case, I think this is not an Android issue, but your WiFi, since you say you can browse non-secure websites using other networks]

What confuses you? I have my MP3 player using my phone's hotspot for internet. I also have my laptop using the same hotspot. I just brought up my MP3 player to eliminate the prospects of someone saying the hotspot isn't working. My laptop browsing via other networks eliminates the prospects of the laptop network card being culprit.


text:
Problems cutting people off
I am a complete novice with these phones.  When I have a call I seem to cut people off with my cheek on the screen - how can I stop this?

Are you saying that you are accidentally hanging up on people because the screen is touching your face?

The simple (and stupid) answer is to try holding the phone a little bit further away from your face (as in, make the handset touch your ear but not your cheek) -- however, if this keeps happening it seems more like a problem with the handset, and you should bring it up with the manufacturer.

This should normally be prevented by the proximity sensor. Either your device doesn't feature one (which would make me wonder), or something is wrong with it. What device do you have, and what Android version is it running?

If  you cannot keep distance between screen and your skin (cheek) as bigbadonk420 said. Then, in my experience, always speak from your phone with headset connected. There by not having the tension of cutting the call and giving freedom to the hands simultaneously.  Simple isn't it...

One solution you can try is to lock the screen after placing or receiving a call. This way you won't cut the call accidentally by touching the screen.


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How do I access google play music from the Philippines?
I am not able to access the google play music because my country isn't supported. I used VPN with a US account and it asked me to login. When I used my email, I receive the error again that my country is unsupported. Is there any other option? You help is highly appreciated.

A quick google search gave me this. Try this and see if it works.

See also: How can I circumvent regional restrictions in the Android Market?. @Papul you might want to make that an answer, including an excerpt of the description. Sounds promising.

You have to create a gmail account using an US-based IP address. For that install any VPN app, run it, selecting the country as US, or any other country that supports Google Play Music. Then create a gmail account from the phone itself. Log into it, and you're done.

It's because your e-mail was created using a Philippine IP address.
If you have a Android phone, root it. Note that this voids warranty, and may have a chance of bricking your phone.

Does rooting help? Will it let OP access Google Play from Philippines?

Rooting will not solve the OP's question at all, since Google's geolocation restriction are done via IP checking on their servers, not your device.

You can use a VPN such as Hideninja free/paid on Google Play. It will bypass geo restrictions.


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Galaxy Note 1 has become slow after upgrading the phone 4.1.2
My Phone (Samsung Galaxy Note) has become really slow after I have upgraded my phone with 4.1.2. And I don't have any much data in my phone. I am really unhappy with this update. Can we do something about it?

You could check if some of the steps here prove helpful: My device is getting slow, apps start misbehaving/crashing. What can I do?

I have the same problem after upgrading. Clearing caches didn't help. I will be downgrading the OS. Look elsewhere on this site on how to downgrade.

See my solution on this question. Perhaps it helps. http://android.stackexchange.com/a/45332/8649