text:
Automatic Input Method Change on Samsung Galaxy Tab
The tab frequently attempts to change input method from Swype to keyboard dock. I don't own a keyboard dock. How do I stop this? Can't find it in the Settings.

Have you checked in Settings -> Language and keyboard? Deselecting it from here should help.


text:
Folder or Folder Shortcut on Honeycomb 3.1 home screen
I have a Toshiba Thrive and want to have access to several files in a folder, but can not figure out how to do that without going through the effort of using File Manager?  Is there a way to do create a shortcut like you can do in Windows desktop?

ASTRO File Manager can help you with this, just install it and run it once, then you can add folders by long-pressing the desktop, selecting More and tapping ASTRO. It will let you browse folders and one can be selected by long-pressing it.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Rooted, cyanogenmod. How to get back Sense UI from Titanium Backups?
Similar to Rooted the phone and installed cyanogenmod. How to get back Sense UI? but with the addition of full backups of the old Sense UI packages.
I am running Cyanogenmod 7 on a rooted HTC Incredible 2. I have Titanium Backup copies of all the original HTC Sense UI packages. When I try to restore some of them, Titanium Backup brings up the "Restoring  ..." dialog but it just sits there with the message up. It never goes away, Android does not try to Force Close it, and the message also stays in the Notification bar until the app is manually closed via a task killer. (The system still responds; just Titanium Backup that seems to hang.)
How do I restore these system packages to get the Sense UI and widgets back?

It is impossible. You can only use  Sense UI  on a ROM that incorporates it. To regain it you will either need to return to your stock HTC ROM or see if there are any other ROMS that support Sense.

Just to expand on this answer. HTC's Sense, Sansung's TouchWiz, Motorola's BLUR, etc., are not just simple Launcher replacements. These overlays are very deeply integrated into base Android OS in such a way that they replace many (if not most) internal functions, apps, and framework. CyanogenMod ROM is based on AOSP, which doesn't have any of the internals required by Sense, and is therefore incompatible with it. By the time you incorporate these internals into CM, there would be very little of CM left, and you'd be back to Stock Sense ROM.

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


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File Transfer: How to transfer files betwen my Xperia Neo (Android 2.3) and Kubuntu Linux?
I have bought a Xperia Neo which runs Android 2.3 and I'm running Kubuntu Linux on my Laptop.
I just connected the Phone using a USB Cable and set it to Mass Storage Mode. I expected to have the phone SD card in my devices list, so I can mount it and use it as a file storage. But there were no device added.
A few Googling led me to some Microsft Applications, (Activesync, etc.). Does it mean I cannot connect to my phone's SD Card in Linux?
Should I really use Windows for such a simple task, Tranfering files using a USB Cable?!

Note
With the help of @onik I tried to mount the SD card manually and here is the result:
in Mass Storage Mode
takpar@skyspace:/media$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /media/android/
mount: no medium found on /dev/sdb

takpar@skyspace:/media$ sudo mount /dev/sdb /media/android/
mount: /dev/sdb: unknown device

takpar@skyspace:/media$ sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb /media/android/
Error opening '/dev/sdb': No medium found
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb': No medium found

and in Media Mode there would be no /dev/dsb anymore. But a window opens with url: camera:/MTP Device@usb:001,021/ and empty content.

in Ubuntu, I just had to plug the phone in and set the phone to mass storage mode, and Ubuntu will automount the phone.

There might be a possibility to get it working in MTP mode with the libmtp (http://libmtp.sourceforge.net).

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/36376/cant-explore-files-on-my-sony-xperia-u-using-my-ubuntu-12-10-laptop

In my case (KDE4 on a Debian Squeeze) it worked easily after setting the device as MSC. It was directly automounted by KDE.
To do this just go to: Settings -> Xperia -> Connectivity -> USB connection mode
As I have Spanish language in my Android I suppose the translation will be something like that.
It also worked in the same computer on a WindowsXP inside VirtualBox.

Did you mount the drives from the phone? Once you're connected, you have to open the notification bar, tap on the "USB Connected" notification and press the button to mount the drives. This should make them visible on your desktop.
After you're done, unmount them from the desktop first, then unmount them from the phone, and then disconnect the cable.

I have tried all different conditions. You mean it needs no additional application on PC and should work in Linux too?

Yes, assuming SonyEricsson didn't implement it's own software for the mass storage mode. Try running dmesg after you plug it in to see if any /dev/sd* devices are recognized, and try mounting them manually with mount -t vfat /dev/sd* /media/android (or similar)

I tried, but it couldn't be mounted. I have added the detail in Question, may you check it?

Try mounting the partitions instead of the device, for example, /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdb2

there is no /dev/sdb1, it's just a single /dev/sdb. what does it mean? Is it a proprietary, as @Broam said?

Sounds like it, will verify tomorrow when I get around a linux box.

*buntu needs to have a udev config file manually added to recognize Android devices - see my answer below.

You could always unmount your SD card (if it's removable, like my HTC Magic allows for) and plug it into an SD card reader.
or you could root & run CyanogenMod - CM's Mass Storage mode works great in my Gnome2 install of Ubuntu, don't see why KDE would make it any different.

Thanks. I don't want to open the back lid just for moving some photos into my laptop. so as you say rooting is inevitable. right?!

I'd explore the other answers & check your host computer's dmesg before you go rooting your phone, but I wanted to provide an alternate way of working around the problem.

I'd got the point, thanks. What would dmseg tell me?

Your host computer's dmesg and lsusb would tell you what sorts of devices have connected and what your computer is able to discern about them. That would tell you pretty quickly if Sony is doing a standard mass storage device (and it's failing mount because of some error) or it's something proprietary.
OPINION: it's Sony, so it's probably the latter. I don't trust Sony to implement standards except when they have to.

it seems you're right. the /dev/sdb can't be mounted.

What's the mount error?

For Ubuntu you may need to edit the USB subsystem config files in order to recognize your device's SD card.  Luckily this is super easy :)  I've also answered this question before, if you want to check that thread.
Your Ubuntu system's udev config should be edited as so:

doublecheck that the vendor ID for your Neo is 054c using sudo lsusb; you should see a line something like Bus 002 Device 010: ID 054c:0c02 SonyEricson
using your favourite editor as root edit (or create) "/etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules” and add this line: SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="054c", MODE="0666"
make sure the perms are right for the file you just edited: sudo chmod a+rx /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
restart the USB subsystem: sudo restart udev
connect your phone and see if your SD card shows up now

First of all you don't need any USB cable. You can transfer files from/to your android device with the Wi-Fi network of your device. Just install airdroid on your android device. Then activate wi-fi hotspot on your android and open the airdroid app. Next connect your pc to that hotspot, open any browser in your pc and enter the url provided by the airdroid app there. It will ask for your permission, click to connect. Done. The good news is that this technique works in any Linux distro as well, I tested it on Ubuntu 14.04.1. It just uses your android wi-fi device and there is no issue related to mobile data plan i.e. you can use it without the mobile data.


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How to type a question mark without using the shift key in Swype?
One of the reasons Swype is so great is, of course, that I can write very fast no matter how lenghty is a word. But whenever I have to use a question mark, or an exclamation, I have to hit the shift key, then the punctuation, then shift again to continue writing. Is is possible to have a shortcut for this?

The fastest way I've found is to actually swipe from the "m/?" or "z/!" keys directly to the space bar. That'll insert a punctuation mark and then a space. In the same fashion, you can insert a period or a comma. The other similar shortcut I use creates an "'s" by swiping from the apostrophe to the "s".
Some similar suggestions can be found in Swype's online reference, specifically in the "Swype Gestures" section of http://www.swype.com/tips/advanced-tips/.

+1 For providing some nice shortcuts I never knew about along with a website where's there's more.

perfect, thank you! :) I knew about period-space and also comma-space, but I had no idea m-space and z-space would also work.

Thanks, I was unaware of those shortcuts and I believe they will be very useful to me when ending sentences.

1 for making my favorite keyboard even faster!

No more long-pressing M for me!

You do not have to use shift, if you hold down the 'm' key for a longer time it will insert its alt key,  a question mark.

+1 In fact anything on the top of any of the keys can be entered by long-pressing on the key for about half a second. If you long-press for even longer (around a second) you get a mini-menu popup with even more options for that key.

+1 for you. I've had my Android for nearly 5 months and I didn't know this.

It wasn't until I got Swype that I realized the same thing (holding the key down) works for the standard Android keyboard too.

Long-press works but unfortunately leads to the same problem from using shift: it takes longer time than just swiping.


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Link2sd: boot loop at reboot
I'm happy with link2sd functionality (just installed: everything looks awesome, lots of free space). I reboot and my Acer liquid metal is stuck in bootloop.
I take the sd out, boot again and everything is ok. I pop the sd in while the phone is one and I can't see my apps on sd :(
Something is wrong with link2sd mount script but how can I debug this?

Could you explore /data/sdext2 folder? Is there any files and/or folders?

Can you read the contents of the card on your PC via a card reader? If so, I suggest you back up all the contents on the FAT partition, format the whole SD card, re-partition and try again. With Link2SD, ALWAYS unmount the card before ejecting it.

Have a look at the following
Issue with the Apps that are installed on SD Card after reinserting the SD Card
I was one of the Hard user of Link2SD application. What I observed from this app is that you should not remove your SD card once you have applications on your SD Card. While phone booting some of the applications gets initialized.
If the phone system does not find the SD Card and its applications then it is going to break the link between the SD Card applications and the system.

You might be seeing those applications on Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications
but they won't be accessible.
To answer your question there might be a way but not known to all. You can mail the developer of Link2SD mentioning the issue. They might give you a solution.


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/data/data nightmare: FC's because of 100% Utilisation
I feel like I need to clear things from /data/data every 2 to 3 days to prevent cascading FCs when it becomes 100% full. Is there any possible way to move any of that data to the SD card (and still have it be accessible from my apps), or to increase the maximum size of the folder? I am rooted and running cyanogenmod 7.1 on my HTC Incredible. Thank you all so much for your assistance.

I have the same problem occasionally, though not as often as 2 - 3 days, more like every couple weeks. its more the /data/cache directory that gets full for me too, as I do a wipe of the cache and I am fine for a while. How many apps do you have installed? This is very annoying, and I will be watching this to see if there are any solutions to the problem.

Have you tried moving your Apps to the SD Card?  Go to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> Downloaded tab then tap on any 3rd-party app and then tap on the Move to SD card button (if available.)  This should move most of the app to the card, thus freeing up space on the /data/ partition.  Not all apps support this method, but do try it on the largest space hogs like Flash Player and Adobe Air, for example.
Unfortunately moving Apps to SD Card this way doesn't touch the apps' cache or Dalvik cache.  To move those you'd need the old-school "apps2sd" hack.  The basic idea is to re-partition your SD Card and create a 2nd partition with Ext2/3/4 format.  The contents of /data/ folders are moved to the SD Card's Ext partition and the phone's internal memory is therefore freed up.  Then a script is added to Android which mounts this partition at boot time and links /data/app, /data/app-private, /data/data, and /data/dalvik-cache folders to their corresponding locations on the SD Card's Ext partition.
There are some apps on the Market that automate this (except re-partitioning the card, which you'll need to do manually.)  Try Link2sd or Simple2ext for example.  Of course make sure you have a nandroid backup of your phone before trying anything.
There are obvious pros and cons to this method. The pros are the ability to greatly extend the phone's storage for apps, while keeping the internal memory relatively free.  The cons are inability to cleanly un-mount and remove the SD Card (since the apps are mounted on the 2nd partition that the OS isn't aware of,) and possible slow-downs in launching apps depending on the speed of the card.  There SD Card will also be subjected to more wear and tear, since it will be used by the system for reading/writing more than usual.

Thank you! I think this is definitely the best answer for me. I will try it out and see if it is worth the performance hit.

@LauraBooth How did it turn out for you?

Obb2sd. App available on Google play. Writes your app data for each downloaded app (including Google apps that come preinstalled in most androids) onto your external sd.
Have a good file manager, and one of the first few folders will be labeled 'android' and have 2 sub folders - 'data' and 'obb'. These record all your user activity and can fill up memory very fast. Every map, every song, every search, every level you play, every achievement, and sometimes app resources as well are in these folders. The 'obb' folder usually contains the ever-increasing data from some of your downloaded apps.
If you have external SD, a similar 'android' folder exists but the 'obb' folder doesn't always contain the data from apps you moved to SD. Some apps by default ONLY write your internal memory and OBB2SD changes that permission.
Totally solved my memory dilemma.


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Screen goes off as soon I dial or receive a call. CyanogenMod 7.1- stable
In stable mod 7.1, I am facing this problems. I don't know if its a bug or what, please help me out.
My screen goes off as soon I dial or receive a call. After that I am unable to end the call as it never wakes up. Pressing the power button has no effect..
The problem is not just related to ending the calls. I am unable to do anything on my phone as it never wakes up. Then I have to either pull off the battery and restart the phone or plug in the charger to wake it up. It never happened on stock ROM so no hardware problem. I checked the solution for this problem and it was "It seems to be the screen protector is at fault. CM7.1 doesn't play nice with it. I just cut a hole where the proximity sensor is and it basically fixed it. " But IMHO if the proximity sensor does not work properly with cyanogenMod then why does the power button also stop responding.
But if they are related then can you guys please tell me with an image where the proximity sensor is located on a Defy? So that I may try the other solution (cutting the screen protector).

Have you looked at the settings?  I don't remember where specifically they are under the CM settings but there are a few options to tweak screen behavior during calls.

I have tried virtually everything out their in settings, but no luck...

I faced the same problem. After rebooting for bout 5 times its working fine. And it has nothing to do with the settings.

rebooting five times means exactly what? That you just switched on the phone and did a reboot for five times.

I had the same problem and found out it was due to the proximity sensor being blocked.


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Is there a way to change the "text to speech" person's voice?
By default, it uses the robotic woman's voice for reading text to speech.  Is there a way to change the voice to something else?

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/821/how-can-i-change-the-voice-used-for-the-navigation-app-on-android

Yes install some other TTS engine like, this or this. And as the market page says,

To enable it:
  1. Menu > Settings > Voice input & output > Text-to-speech settings
  2. Check "eSpeak TTS".
  3. Set your "Default Engine" to "eSpeak TTS".


text:
What are potential problems/violations that malware apps can do?
There are some apps that I am considering to download which have many permission requirements and have few comments from other past users. The number of downloads are relatively low so I am considering the risks that I can be exposed to.

Can the app record my internet browsing and send it to an outside source?
Can the app upload to an outside source photos that I have taken?
Can the app look at data from other apps and use it?

I am considering apps from the app store and not ones from other places.
Are there particular app permissions which are rare requirements that might indicate a malicious app?

+1 for "Are there particular app permissions which are rare requirements that might indicate a malicious app?"

Can the app record my internet browsing and send it to an outside source?
It may depend on which browser you are using. The stock browser should save it's browsing history within its private storage. If there is no root exploit, an external app should be unable to access the browsing history.
Can the app upload to an outside source photos that I have taken?
If the app requests and gets granted the write external storage permission, it would be able to access your photos. Then it would only need the Internet permission, to upload these photos so some site.
Can the app look at data from other apps and use it?
Usually not. But again, if there is a root exploit available for your Firmware version, it could use it to access every piece of data on your Android device.
Are there particular app permissions which are rare requirements that might indicate a malicious app?
Well, it depends on what the app should do and what permissions are requested. Most Apps that could also run offline, request the Internet permission for Ads. Contact the App developer if you are not sure why the App needs/requests a particular permission. I would be careful with permissions that could also cost you money: Send SMS and Call Phone. I've heard that some strange social network app requests now send SMS for some reason.
Also the READ PHONE STATE AND IDENTITY is pretty common, because it's needed for backwards compatibility with older Android versions. But it allows the app to read for example your IMEI, which is unique to your device.

is there any way of tracking down an application that might be sending out information which I do not want it too?


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"keep screen on if USB debugging" application?

Possible Duplicate:
Disable Display Standby when in Developer Mode missing in Android 2.3

CyanogenMod has this "keep screen on if USB debugging" as a feature in Settings > Applications > Development, but my phone isn't supported by CyanogenMod and so this little life saver is missing.
I searched the Market and all I could find is Screen On which only attaches to an application, not USB debugging.
Is there a simple, tiny app that does only "keep screen on if USB debugging"?

@eldarerathis Thanks! My phone runs 2.2, not 2.3 but I'll give it a try.

I think it's more of a Samsung thing in general. Is your phone a Samsung device?

@eldarerathis Yes it is. :) And I think that the little app you pointed to works for me very well. If you post your comment as an answer, I will accept it. +2.

@eldarerathi That StayAwake app is so buggy that it ruined my screen backlight/locking completely, even after I uninstalled it! I think it should be renamed StayAway... :/

@eldarerathis I forgot to describe the symptoms: Every time I start an application (any application), the screen goes blank and the phone is locked. I have to press the power button to turn the screen on and sweep my finger to unlock the phone. How do I solve this now?


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Changing calendar display
When I first got my Android it gave me the monthly view of my calendar. It has switched to daily agenda. ARGH!  How do I switch it back to weekly or monthly view?

Hit the menu button.
It should then bring up the day/week/month view options.


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Sync iTunes U and Android?
I am a huge fan of the podcasts on iTunes, as well as the iTunes U material. However, I'm having a terrible time finding a slick system to sync the two. Doubleplay never really worked all that great for me. Any other good solutions anyone has used?
I have a Droid Incredible running 2.2.

These guys recommend iSyncr as a solution. Cons: It's not free, and it won't sync copy-protected content.

Have you tried pasting the RSS url into Rhythmbox/Gpodder or another podcatcher, and transferring to device? After selecting the podcast in the podcasts section, simply drag and drop to the device on the left side of Rhythmbox when it is connected.
You may have some success with apps on the phone, specifically, I had seen something for subscribing iTunes podcasts in Podax. I was having a similar problem accessing my university media on Android, and rewrote the Tunesviewer app for Android access, which may work better for you depending on what you're trying to access.

I throw the podcast feeds into my Google Reader account, and then use Google Listen on my droid, automatically downloads the pod casts

Unfortunately, Google Reader is being retired and Google Listen has been killed.

Yeah, this sucks. Looking for a replacement without great success. Google Reader was exactly what I needed.

Alternatively I can recommend the iTunes U App “TuneSpace” for Android

Not bad, but it seems to be missing podcast search and other features.

Apparently that page was removed? Is TuneSpace still around?

TuneSpace is still around, but you need to download the APK file and install as a third party source.  As of this moment, you can get it at http://downloadapk.net/TuneSpace.html


text:
How to make my alarm as stable as a server?
I have HTC Desire with original Android 2.2 (kernel 2.6.32.15-gf5a401c) with HTC Sence. I have not installed any task killers.
Now I have a stock alarm clock application.
Yesterday evening I set my alarm for 6:30am, but got up at 10 being 2h+ late for my work.
When I took my phone, I noticed 3 things

it was showing a message like "Adobe Flash Player cannot be installed without internet connection";
second thing I noted is "Low on space" notification --- common problem for HTC Desire;
my alarm was silently asking me if I want to snooze or dismiss it.

I want

to have an alarm clock on my phone as stable as my bicycle, i.e. which

works as expected;
does not turn off automatically after 1, 5, 10 or 100500 minutes;
does not stop working in case of update or any other event (except airplane mode);

to have Android update like Debian Squeeze, i.e. not to update automatically (at least if it causes problems), but gently suggest to install only security critical updates and to give any other suggestions only by special request;
some logging for my alarm to "debug" problems with waking up.

In the list above I mention not only the alarm, but the whole system (Android update), because I think that tuning off the system can help to stabilize my alarm. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Question

What can be done to make my system and, importantly, my alarm, very stable?
What is the most stable alarm clock app?
Is there any way to make it even more stable (for instance, turn off updates to stick with a stable version)?

What is done
I have found the following relevant threads:

"Is there an alarm clock event log?" has no satisfactory answer;
"Which Alarm clock app do you use to wake up in the morning?" suggests Smart Alarm Clock and Gentle Alarm, a similar thread suggests Alarm Clock Xtreme (ad-supported or paid ($2)); I do not have any information on stability of these;
the following threads about alarm clock incidents: [1], [2];
"disable update notification" - done.

Future
Probably at some point I will reinstall Android with a question of solving low internal memory problem in mind. So if there are some solutions for a different version of Android (say 2.3) or advice for installation to make my system and alarm stable I would like to know them.
Update
As roxan pointed out, probably alarm rings just for a few minutes. If it is so, I would like to turn off this feature or set this time to something big (2 hours or more).

I got Gentle Alarm through Amazon, and it couldn't be shut off without an internet connection due to Amazon's DRM.  Very annoying.  I've never had a problem with the stock Alarm app on my SGS.  That said, if you want a stable alarm you should get a dedicated one where less can go wrong.

It's ironic. We all have highly sophisticated multi-function super-duper smartphones. But still we need an cheap old-fashioned alarm clock to get reliable up in the morning. :-D

Honestly speaking, there are a lot of Android apps, which potentially can improve my daily life, but because of stability issues I use them much more rarely than I could. To name a few, Evernote (needs internet for search), Google Maps (sometimes it is too slow, often needs internet), Google Voice (needs internet), Swype (often doesn't work without update). I have internet on my phone but sometimes it doesn't work. I'll likely buy a dedicated alarm soon, but it's not a universal solution. I'd like to apply reasonable effort, if it helps to use useful features of the phone I have.

I also use Desire and this has never/ever happened to me under any circumstances. Alarm would not work if you had killed it but you have clearly specified you don't have any task killer.
As you said there is Snooze/Dismiss screen, the alarm indeed went on. Are you sure you didn't miss when the alarm rang at the correct time? Or are you sure the volume is loud enough?

Both ring volume and alarm volume were set to maximum. I don't know if it rang or not, I just know, that it was not ringing at the moment I waked up. Thus I cannot exclude for sure possibility that it rang for 1, 5, 10 or 30 minutes. I don't know if turns on automatically or not. I should, probably, make an experiment: turn on alarm, and record the sound (so I will know its duration).

Usually I wake up few minutes before my Alarm goes on and it rings when I'm in toilet. It usually is ringing when I come back but sometimes if I take too long in the toilet, the alarm would be in stage as you mentioned with "Snooze/Dismiss" on screen.


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Email App: How to select a subset of IMAP folders to subscribe to?
I would like to set up my email client to subscribe to only a couple of the tens of folders in my work IMAP account. I can't seem to find an option to subscribe/unsubscribe folders in the Android email app on my Samsung Galaxy S2. Am I just not finding it? Or is there another Android email app that provides this (in my opinion rudimentary) functionality?

There are some additional options available in K-9 Mail, but it offers only the following choices: "All", "Only 1st Class folders", "1st and 2nd Class folders", "All except 2nd Class folders", "None". Not sure if this helps in your case, depends on your folder structure.

I believe you are talking about Gmail app and your work account is also Google account. If its so not only you can chose what IMAP folder to subscribe but also what notification you want on that folder.

Press Menu -> More -> Settings
Under Account Settings click your email address
You'll see a option "Sync inboxes and labels".
From there you can chose quantity and folders.

My version of Gmail (2.3.5.2) only allows me to use Google accounts in Gmail. Which version are you talking about?

My answer assumes that OP's work account is Google Account.


text:
Hide secondary account in Android Market
I have a problem with my android phone: I have two Gmail accounts.
The first on is my main account, with everything synchronized on my Android phone (mails, contacts, calendar, apps, ...). The other account is only for emails, and as such I've set it up to ONLY synchronize the mails (and only the mails!), BUT this address shows up in the Android Market app nevertheless. To make matters worse, this secondary address seems to be always chosen by default when I launch the Market app, and I also receive notifications for some apps.
So my question is this: Is it possible to only have the main account showing in the Market app, while still having mail synchronization enabled for other accounts?
Thank you very much

If you press the Menu button and choose the account you want, does it still default to the account you don't want after restarting the Market?

Yes it does, and there is no option to select one over the other, or even delete an account.

You can remove the account that it "defaults" to and try to re-add the account. I think there is some type of bug in the newer version of the market because I have the same issue from time to time. it is not the "default" account, and I have like 8 accounts on the device (all google accounts) but it always wants to use this one.
I found that it "fixes", but usually only temporarily, if I go in to the Application Settings and clear the data for the market app.


text:
HTC Incredible says SMS storage is full, but it isn't
My HTC Incredible refuses to let me view my SMS messages.  It will show the list of SMS senders, but when I click one to see their messages I get blocked by this popup:

Unable to manage your messages because your storage is full.  Please
  delete content from other applications to make more space.

Of course I checked right away to see if I was using too much memory.  I went to Menu->Settings->SD & Phone Storage and saw I have plenty of space:
SD card - Available space: 5.72GB
Internal phone storage - Available space: 6.25GB
Phone memory - Available space: 571MB
I have more free memory than used memory so that can't be the problem.  I tried restarting my phone as well but no change in message.  I also Googled the problem and among all the "me too" responses found that other have this problem where SMS is blocked even though they have plenty of memory.
I couldn't get a clear resolution and I'm worried the answers are now out of date.  ZDNet published a couple of articles on the issue:
Have I solved my Droid Incredible storage problem?
Is your Droid Incredible low on disk space?
Both suggest this is HTC's fault and that there is no fix.  They say you can try clearing the cache on HTC's apps like Peep, Messages and Mail and also advise clearing the cache on your browsers.
I've tried these techniques, but they didn't work.
Does anyone know what causes this and what solutions exist?

Maybe the message is misleading and it's just the db for the SMS app that is "full". Have you tried deleting some messages?

Why would its DB be full if there is more memory on the phone?  txts are tiny and I have no problem with them using some of my extra memory (there's lots)

Well, there could be a hard coded maximum for entries.

The Droid Incredible's available space for apps to store their data is only 150 MB, but it's impossible to view the amount of free app space on the stock ROM.  So the error message is correct, but you have no way to view the available free space.
In technical terms: /data/data is mounted on a different partition than /data, and all your free space views show you the amount of free space in the 750 MB /data partition.
What you need to do is start clearing data for spps that are taking up lots of space and that you don't use often.  One possibility is clearing the web browser's cache.  Facebook is another big data hog.  Check your other installed apps to see how much space they are using on data.
Here's a dump of the df -h output on my Inc:
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs                   206.5M     32.0K    206.4M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   206.5M         0    206.5M   0% /mnt/asec
tmpfs                   206.5M         0    206.5M   0% /mnt/obb
/dev/block/mtdblock3    248.0M    121.8M    126.2M  49% /system
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1    748.0M    237.7M    472.3M  33% /data
/dev/block/mtdblock6    149.0M     79.7M     69.3M  54% /data/data
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2    193.7M     37.1M    146.5M  20% /cache
tmpfs                     8.0M         0      8.0M   0% /app-cache
/dev/block/vold/179:3     6.6G      1.2G      5.4G  18% /mnt/sdcard
/dev/block/vold/179:3     6.6G      1.2G      5.4G  18% /mnt/secure/asec
/dev/block/vold/179:9     1.8G    951.8M    930.1M  51% /mnt/emmc

(Note: I'm running a recent Cyanogenmod build that allows for swapping the SD Card and internal storage mount points -- that's why /mnt/sdcard is showing up as 6.6G while /mnt/emmc is only 1.8G.)
You can see how /data is a 750MB partition with plenty of free space, while /data/data is a teensy 150MB partition that's over half full.
This XDA Thread has a flashable mod that will make /data/data a subfolder of /data rather than a separate mount point, unlocking all that 750MB for app storage and allowing all your free space views to be accurate.  You'll need to root your phone in order for this to work since it also converts the filesystems to ext4 and that's going to require a replacement kernel.  (Recent Cyanogenmod builds already have this support, but if you're running the stock ROM you'll need to flash a different kernel.)

I was getting constant low memory errors on my rooted Incredible until I ran the ext4 on it. So glad I did that, it was annoying the crap outta me. Now I have a Galaxy Nexus and, thankfully, that problem will never happen on it.

To wipe the cache partition (this will not delete your data or apps):

Boot into recovery
Press and hold Power, Choose "Restart" option
When screen turns off, press and hold Volume Down and Power
When the white HBOOT screen appears, use the volume button to move down to “RECOVERY.”
Press the Power button to select “RECOVERY.”
When the Green Arrows and\or triangle and exclamation appears, hold the Volume Up and Power button at the same time.
Using the volume button, scroll down to “Wipe cache partition” and select it (power button).
Select "Reboot system now"

Now you have enough space to download and install the additional update. Verizon released 2 updates for the HTC Incredible, I'm guessing you only got one. Go to Settings> About Phone> Software> Build - 4.06 right? there is a 4.08 that seems to resolve this Low on Space problem.
To get that update immediately (recommend connecting to WiFi first for the download):
Go to Settings> Date\Time> Uncheck Automatic and manually set your clock ahead 1 month
Then go to Settings> About Phone> System Updates and it should be there waiting for you.
follow the prompts, it'll take about 10 minutes.


text:
Why can't I download apps from the Android Market via my PC?
I was trying to find a free french dictionary for android, and indeed I found many. But I can't download them.
The problem is, I don't have access to the internet right now from my cell phone, and what I want to do, is to simply download the application to my computer (where I have access to the internet) and then transfer the installation package to my cell phone, and then install it.
Is it a wrong expectation? Is it an unusual practice for installing applications on mobile devices?
However, every application either wants me to directly connect to the internet and android market to download the application, or to use my cell phone to download it. Why it is so? What is the philosophy behind it?

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/12330/how-to-download-apk-file-on-pc-from-market

Many developers have their own sites and there are other app markets that allow direct download.  But besides that, we can't speak to their motives, you'd need to ask them.  I would assume, however, that they're controlling distribution in order to control distribution :P.  For paid apps this is obvious (piracy prevention), but even for non-paid apps there are developers and others who want to monitor, limit, etc. the download of apps.


text:
How reliable is ICS face unlock?
After following a liveblog of the presentation where Google announced Ice Cream Sandwich, one of the more interesting features announced was the ability to unlock your phone with your face. As in, the front facing camera is able to determine if the person in front of the camera is the owner of the phone.

What is the rate of false positives and false negatives for this feature? Can it be fooled by a photograph of the owner of the device? If it fails to unlock automatically, is there a fallback password/pin mechanism to unlock the device?

There must be a fall back mechanism - just imagine you are in a dark room... Front cameras usually don't have a LED flash and without the camera doesn't see anything.

Since Ice Cream Sandwich hasn't been released, I'm going to close this question. All we can answer is speculation and guesses based on demos.

http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/12/2556893/ice-cream-sandwich-face-unlock-feature-fooled-by-a-photo

The ICS' config screen says it's for low security situation. It shouldn't be used for cases where you have sensitive information, and more for the casual user that uses their phones for personal photos; not the type who carries their company's next secret world domination plan. While face unlock is a gimmick, it's a cool gimmick nevertheless, and I'm sure it will be used by the casual users who values convenience more than security, as it is basically an automatic unlock for them.

If it fails to unlock automatically, is there a fallback password/pin
  mechanism to unlock the device?

Not sure about that; but all stock unlock mechanism has a fallback to unlock using your Google Account username and password. I don't see why they wouldn't do that with face recognition.

I still prefer Atrix's fingerprint scanner.

As seen on the Android event today, if it can't verify face it falls back to PIN/pattern.

False negatives are rare in my experience. I did try to take a picture of myself with another phone and point the face unlock at the photo on the screen and that unlocked it. So it's not secure at all.

If it fails to unlock automatically, is there a fallback password/pin mechanism to unlock the device?

It does require you to choose a pattern as fallback


text:
How to delete a specific file in Android so that it can't be recovered?
From my experience a file deleted from a computer filesystem can often be recovered unless it is overwritten with a special program (that's usually called "shredding").
Is an Android-based HTC smartphone any different? How can a specific file be deleted from such smartphone so that the file can't possibly be recovered?

Are you only looking for phone-hosted options, or would you accept suggestions about deleting the file when the phone is connected as a disk drive?

@Bernhard Hofmann: Well, if connecting as a drive makes such action easier - it's much better than nothing.

Related: How to make a complete factory reset, without anyone being able to retrieve my data?

That is unfortunately not so easy.
Since there is not API for the secure deletion of files, it would require root for the "secure delete app" in order to achieve block level access to the storage device. Only  access to the blocks of the deleted file eventually allows an app to overwrite the leftovers of the file with random data. Eventually, because the flash storage device could perform wear leveling. If that's the case, block #42 wouldn't be always the same physical block, which makes the system calls ineffective.
I think that's why there isn't a secure delete solution for android yet. At least I couldn't find one on XDA.

Could a program possibly open an existing file, overwrite it all with trash, close the file and then delete it?

You could program that. But it will be useless, because it is not guaranteed the overwrite will happen on the same physical blocks as the existing data.

Do you mean the filesystem or some other entity will transparently relocate the new written data to new location and mark previously occupied location free?

Yes, it's the choice of the OS where it wants to write new data for various reasons (fragmentation, etc.) and what nearly every modern OS does that. Even if not, there is still the layer where wear leveling could happen.

One simple solution would be to delete the file, then fill the memory with any other data so the space previously owned by the deleted file is sure to get overwritten.
Once the memory is filled up, the file(s) used for the filling can be removed, releasing the space again - only now recovery attempts will find only the filler file, not the original deleted file.
Note that this is intended only for combatting simple home recovery tools like testdisk. There may in theory still be ways to recover at least parts, or even the entire original file - however they would require some sophisticated high-end analysis methods. One example of such a method would be to analyze if some of the data is preserved because of flash wear leveling. However this isn't easily done, and AFAIK would require connecting the memory card to a custom reader device of some sort, and might even require taking the memory device apart.

Wear leveling on most Flash media will not always guarantee that overwriting the file will write over the same physical location on the memory.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_leveling

@Chahk, Yes, I agree, that's why I included the "sophisticated methods" disclaimer. Point is, it's trivial to recover a normally deleted file using home tools like testdisk. If there are some easy-to-use home tools to recover content that's been spared because of flah wear leveling, I've never heard of them. Note that I never said this data flooding would be an absolute method, but quite probably something strong enough for the asker's needs.

I added more details to the disclaimer to improve my answer, and now mention analyzing flash wear leveling as one example of a possible remaining attack vector.

If you connect your device as a disk drive, you can use a utility like sdelete on Windows to securely delete files. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443
From the web page: "SDelete implements the Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DOD 5220.22-M, to give you confidence that once deleted with SDelete, your file data is gone forever."

Will it help against wear leveling mentioned in this answer http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/14739/how-to-delete-a-specific-file-in-android-so-that-it-cant-be-recovered/14742#14742 ?

In all honesty, I have no idea. I don't even know whether there are any Android devices that implement wear leveling. Since it overwrites the original sectors, I would expect it to be unaffected by wear leveling.

Well, if there is wear leveling this program is affected - it does no magic, just opens the file for writing (like any other program would) and writes garbage there, then closes the file. If there's wear leveling the program can't possible know - it uses usual operating system primitives.

I wonder whether using the clean option a few times would provide protection against wear leveling. Since it's beyond our control, cleaning free space a few times ought to "find" the freed sectors and erase them.

Maybe, but I suppose it would take a lot of time.

If the file is on a sdcard then you could insert the sdcard into your notebook card reader and use srm, sdelete or whatever you usually use on your desktop for secure file deletion.
If the file is in the internal memory then probably the only reliable way to completely delete any trace of it (and everything else on the phone) would be to enable full phone encryption in Settings > Security, wait until everything is encrypted (about one hour), and then do a factory reset.
There are also apps in the play store that allegedly can wipe the free space with DoD level algorithms, but I have no idea how good they are or how they work.
And btw, keep in mind that flash memory has a limited number of read-write cycles, so running those apps too often can potentially reduce the memory chip lifetime.


text:
Sync Multiple Devices Simultaneously With One Account
I've got a question regarding maintenance/management with multiple android devices on a single account. For example:

A school has 30 android tablets.
Teachers need all 30 devices updated
The school has 1 account for all 30 devices

Is there a way to sync all of these simultaneously to the same account? iTunes U offers this functionality for iOS devices, but wanted to know if there are any similar services for android devices. Thanks for your help!

What do you want to sync?

That very much depends on how you understand the issue -- and what is intended. In this case, using a single account for all devices definitly has one big advantage: Managing its apps (installs/uninstalls).
If the devices are defined as "school use only" or even for a single class, same applies to the calendar: all class specific events can be defined here (in the accounts main calendar), so noone can say he forgot to write it down. For personal events, each user can add his/her own calendar easily -- so no problem with this either.
The contacts/address book can be seen the same way: it could hold the classes contacts, plus the teachers (as far as needed/wanted) -- which would make it easier to organize team work. As with calendars, it should be possible for each user to access her/his personal address book additionally (I never tried this, so I cannot tell for sure).
So to summarize: If I didn't mis-interprete your question, the answer should be a clear "Yes". I use multiple Android devices with the same Google account myself, and never had any problems with that.

Have you tried this and if so, have you run into any issues with maximum number of devices tied to the Google Account?


text:
No network after installing CM7 on Xperia Arc
After successfully installing CM7 on Xperia arc by following the steps here, my phone doesn't pick up any network. I looked through the forums and see that some people have reported the same problem. I downloaded the stable image from CM home page for Xperia arc.
After scouring through xda-developer forums I came across this new ROM for arc, does it solve the problem? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1310313
Also found these in the forums, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102523&page=127#1263 which essentially says,

Use flashtool to flash baseband_36 (.tft)
Use fastboot to flash cm7 custom kernel (boot.img)
Use recovery to flash the rom (wipe cache & factory reset then flash the rom)
Start your phone and go to apps menu
chose "Dev tools" -> Bad Behavior -> Crash the system server -> reboot

I am using linux and couldn't make sense of the first step to flash the file.
Any help on solving this problem would be very helpful.

A "baseband" would generally refer to modem firmware.
It seems like the first step is to modify the modem firmware so CM7 can use it.
Does this flashtool have a linux binary? (This tool seems to be unique to SE phones, I didn't have to use flashtool to modify HTC phones, only fastboot.)
Found Flashtool. XDA link | Source Code Repository

You have to re-add the mobile network.  The mobile network site should have the info you need.  Go into Access Points in your mobile system menu.


text:
Is it possible to track what information on your phone an app is uploading?
If you are concerned about what information an app is sending about you (your privacy concerns) is there any way of tracking this? Can you see if an app is sending photos on your phone? Can you see if it is sending the text that you type in it?
In general can you log the information that an app (application) sends over the network from your phone? Would it be readable? Or at least should it be readable?

Sniffing the network traffic would require root for the app that does the sniffing part. This can easily be done with "shark for root". But you won't get any end-user friendly information, just the raw packet data that's been send and received from your phone. That information needs to be matched to a particular app and action (e.g. app xy is uploading photo file x123.jpg).
Generally you don't want an app to be able to read and log another apps network traffic for security and privacy reasons. That's why you need root for that.
Even if you could read and log the packets from other apps, it's easy to disguise the malicious data as something normal. It is not so easy to reveal that.
Side Note: If you don't trust an app which has network access, don't install it.  If you really need the app and you know that it works also without Internet although the app requests permission to use it, some custom mods will allow you to block internet access without the app knowing.

can you say anything more about the custom mods to block the internet access without the app knowing?...

,there seems to be a program shark reader, does this help? https://market.android.com/details?id=lv.n3o.sharkreader&feature=more_from_developer#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwMiwibHYubjNvLnNoYXJrcmVhZGVyIl0.

@Vass I've added a link. Shark read does just show contents of capture files. It may be more convenient to view them with wireshark on an PC.

If the phone is rooted, no need for a custom mod in order to block network. DroidWall allows you to block network access for any app, without the app being able to do anything about it. (Basically a frontend for iptables.)

You can run tcpdump on the background(compiled for Android processor of course) in a shell, save the captured file and analyze later with wireshark on your pc. That solution will not tell you what application sent the data, but enables you  to examine what your phone sends and where. The great benefit is tcpdump under normal situations does not consume many resources, so you will not experience any lag on your phone.

Is it possible to track what personal information an app is unloading? In general, the answer is no.
Sniffing the precise data the the software is uploading - either through installing some specific software on a rooted device, or by sniffing the traffic elsewhere between the device and the Internet (e.g. on your wireless router) - is a very good idea and will help you understand what the application is doing, but unfortunately the actual information might be mangled in some form or even encrypted, in a way which will prevent you from really knowing what the application is sending.
Actually, it's a known security problem - for instance take a look at this academic paper, which proposes a way to track how your personal data is used during the application execution; though its proposed approach does have some limitations and can be circumvented by other tricks.
My personal rule of thumb is to avoid applications which require both Internet access and access to private data, unless I have a high level of trust in the author.


text:
Android Market gone after emulator reboot
I have installed Android Market on Android Emulator successfully using steps mention in [How to] Install Android market on Emulator
Market is installed without any issue but after emulator reboot Market is gone.
Can anyone help me in solving this problem?
SPECS

OS=Ubuntu 10.04
Android-SDK=2.3.3(API Level 10)
Eclipse Indigo

AVD Details:

Name: AVD
CPU/ABI: ARM(armeabi)
Path: /home/ma/.android/AVD.avd
Target: Android 2.3.3 (API level 10)
Skin: HVGA
SD Card: 512M
hw.lcd.density: 160
vm.heapSize: 24
hw.ramSize: 256

Can show the details of your emulator?

@JPM: Added Details.

The Android emulator is resetting the system image when rebooting. You can find the changed version of the system.img in your /tmp here:
/tmp/android-username/
It usually has a name like emulator-*. Copy that file before shutting down the emulator.

I searched my system for that file but no luck. I got windows 10

When you restart the emulator make sure that "Wipe use data"  is not checked.  Also update the SDK to the latest.  Not sure but I remember some issues with the emulator and user data on older versions.

"Wipe use data" is not checked.

What revision # is your SDK Tools and SDK Platform tools?

android-sdk_r13-linux_x86

Installing the market in the emulator is not that simple because by default the system partition is resettet on every reboot of the emulator.
If you want to make the changes permanent you have to delete the file /system/app/SdkSetup.apk
If you copy afterwards the two necessary files GoogleServicesFramework.apk and Vending.apk to /system/app/ you will have an working market inside the emulator.
Hence, using the adb shell you have to execute the following commands:
mount -o remount rw /system
rm /system/app/SdkSetup.apk
adb push Vending.apk /system/app/
adb push GoogleServicesFramework.apk /system/app/

BTW: The necessary APKs can be found here: CyanogenMod Wiki Latest Version/Google Apps

I already did that, but no effect. Removed the SdkSetup.apk but on reboot everything all the changes reverted back.


text:
When will my device get the Android 4.0 update (Ice Cream Sandwich)?
Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) was officially announced on October 19, 2011.
(You can review the high level SDK changes in Android 4.0 or the official changelog at the official Android Developer's site.)
Of course, not all devices will get this update right away and others won't get it at all. Each manufacturer and carrier often choose to add their custom modifications which tend to delay the official release.
When will each device get Android 4.0, either officially or unofficially, if ever?
See also:

When will my tablet get the Android 3.x update (Honeycomb)?
When will my device get the Android 4.1 update (Jelly Bean)?

Google has announced that only some of the newly released phones, probably in the later half of 2011, would be getting the updates atleast for now. Other devices like the Samsung galaxy s series may never get the upgrade.

@Kiran Do you have an source (link, etc.) for that?

https://supportforums.motorola.com/community/manager/softwareupgrades shows all of Motorola's Android devices and versions.

Engadget has a page where they're keeping up with pronouncements from OEMs: http://www.engadget.com/updates/which-devices-will-get-ice-cream-sandwich/

JR Raphael at Computer World also has a continuously updated list: http://blogs.computerworld.com/19341/android_40_upgrade_list

Should unofficial ROM hacks be added to this list? For example, I'm running 4.0 on my Samsung Galaxy S already, available from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1363593

@onik: Yes, within reason. I wouldn't add raw alpha versions. If it's a relatively complete version, indicate that it is Unofficial and link to where one can download the image.

Motorola explain why it can take so long to get updates like ICS out to people's devices: http://www.motorola.com/blog/2011/12/07/motorola-update-on-ice-cream-sandwich/

I bought a Nexus S in December 2011 with 2.3.6, 2 weeks later it was updated to 4.0.3, some weeks ago it was updated to 4.0.4.

@ott: Got something that announced it that we can link to?

@AlEverett I haven't made a screenshot when the upgrade notice came (I'll do that next time), this is a screenshot of the current system state: http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/5201/screenshot2012070408233.png

This community wiki will list all of the known and rumored dates for devices. If you have an update make sure to follow the format that's been established, and the following guidelines:

Keep phones in alphabetical order listing the manufacturer and model
Specify if the date is confirmed or rumored and link to the source
If there is an unofficial release, link to the site where it can be downloaded

Note that devices that do not meet Google's Compatibility Definition will not receive a Google-sanctioned update. In the case of the major manufacturers and many others, that means they won't release an update at all since Google's certification is important to their business.
Phones
Google Nexus ONE

Official: never (confirmed)
Unofficial: Oct 2011 (alpha)

Google Nexus S

Official:

GSM - T-Mobile (GT-I9020): Soon (rumored)
GSM - AT&T (GT-I9020A): Soon (rumored)
CDMA - SPH-D720: April 2012 (confirmed)

HTC Amaze 4G

Official: May-June (confirmed), June 16th 2012 (unconfirmed)

HTC Desire

Official: never (confirmed)
Unofficial: November 2011 (beta)

HTC Desire HD

Official: never (confirmed)

HTC Desire S

Official: By the end of August 2012 (confirmed)

HTC DROID Incredible 2

Official: To be determined (by the end of August) (confirmed)

HTC DROID Incredible S

GSM (international)

Official: 2012-July-2 (confirmed)

Verizon

Unknown

HTC EVO 3D

Official: Early August 2012 (confirmed)

HTC EVO 4G+

Official: May-June (confirmed)

HTC EVO Design 4G

Official: 1 August 2012 (confirmed)

HTC Incredible S

Official: June-July (confirmed)

HTC Raider

Official: TBC (confirmed)

HTC Rezound

Official: August 2012 (confirmed)

HTC Rhyme

Official: June-July 2012 (confirmed)

HTC Sensation

Official: March-June (confirmed)

HTC Sensation 4G

Official: March-June (confirmed)

HTC Sensation XE

Official: March-June (confirmed)

HTC Sensation XL

Official: April-Jun (confirmed)

HTC Thunderbolt

Official: 31-Jan-2013 (confirmed)

HTC Velocity 4G

Official: March-June (confirmed)

HTC Vivid

Official: March-June (confirmed)

Huawei Honor U8860

Official: 12 January 2011 (confirmed)

LG Optimus 2X

Official: 2012 (confirmed)

LG Optimus 3D

Official: 2012 (confirmed)

LG Optimus Black

Official: 2012 (confirmed)

LG Optimus LTE

Official: 2012 (confirmed)

LG Prada 3.0

Official

Germany and Italy: 4-July-2012 (confirmed)

Motorola Atrix 2

Official Q3 2012 (confirmed)

Motorola Atrix 4G

USA (MB860) Official Q3 2012 (confirmed)
AsiaPac/EMEA/LatAm (MB860/MB861/ME860) Official: (TBA)

Motorola DROID 3

Official: never (confirmed)

Motorola DROID 4

Official: 2012 August 14 (phased update) (confirmed)

Motorola DROID Bionic

Official: Early Q3 2012 (confirmed)

Motorola Droid RAZR

Official: 2012-06-21 (confirmed)

Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx

Official: 2012-06-21 (confirmed)

Motorola Photon 4G

USA Official: Q4 2012 (confirmed)
Japan Official: TBA

Samsung Captivate Glide

Official: 7 Sep 2012 (confirmed)

Samsung Galaxy Note

Official: March 2012 (rumor)

AT&T: July 2012 (confirmed)
T-Mobile: August 2012 (at launch) (confirmed)

Samsung Galaxy S

Official: never (confirmed (1), confirmed (2), confirmed (3)) but Android 2.3-based firmware upgrade to give some ICS-like features

Samsung Galaxy S Advance (GT-I9070)

Official: unknown (Techzek, Slashgear, Samsung Forum)

Samsung Galaxy S 2

Official: March 2012 (rumor)

T-Mobile: May 14th (unconfirmed)

Samsung Epic 4G Touch

Official: August 2012 (confirmed)

Skyrocket

Official: July 2012 (confirmed)

Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman™

Official: TBA (confirmed)

Sony Ericsson Xperia active

Official: TBA (confirmed)

Sony Ericsson Xperia arc and Xperia arc S

Official: March - May 2012 (confirmed)

Sony Ericsson Xperia mini and Xperia mini pro

Official: June 2012 (confirmed)

Sony Ericsson Xperia neo and Xperia neo V

Official: TBA (confirmed)

Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY

Official: TBA (confirmed)

Sony Ericsson Xperia pro

Official: TBA (confirmed)

Sony Ericsson Xperia ray

Official: TBA (confirmed)

Sony Xperia P

Official: 17-August-2012 (confirmed-official)

Sony Xperia S

Official:

Three: 29-June-2012 (confirmed)

Tablets
Acer Iconia Tab series

Official: April 27, 2012 (confirmed)

Archos G9

Official: Early Feb 2012 (official)

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer

Official: Feb 23rd (Feb 24th for North America) (official)

ASUS Transformer Prime

Official: January 2012 (rumour)

HTC Flyer

Official: Q1 2012 (rumour)

Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet

Official: May 2012 (offical source)

U.S.: 1-July-2012 (confirmed)

Lenovo Ideapad K1

Official: June 15 2012 (working date) download (not OTA update) (source)

Motorola XOOM

Official:

US Wifi models - Mid Jan 2012  (confirmed)
non-US Wifi models - Q2 2012 (confirmed)

UK: August 2012 (confirmed)

US 3G models - Q2 2012 (confirmed)
non-US 3G models - (TBC)

UK: August 2012 (confirmed)

Unofficial:

US 3G/LTE models (CyanogenMod "Kang", Team Eos)

Motorola XOOM Family Edition

Official: Q3 2012 (confirmed)

Motorola XOOM 2

Official: Q3 2012 (confirmed)

Motorola XOOM 2 Media Edition

Official: Q3 2012 (confirmed)

Motorola XYBOARD 8.2

Official: Q3 2012 (confirmed)

Motorola XYBOARD 10.1

Official: Q3 2012 (confirmed)

Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0

Official: 3 August 2012 (confirmed)

Austria: July 2012 (confirmed)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

Official: 4-July-2012 (confirmed)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9

Official: August 2012 (official)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Official: August 2012 (official)

Toshiba Thrive

Official: 3Q 2012 (confirmed)

Devices that are getting Gingerbread updates that add some ICS features should not be added here. Only devices that are actually getting Ice Cream Sandwich should be listed.

Be great if we could have confirmation of some of these dates... i.e. have people actually been able to upgrade to ICS and what date did it occur. Or should this be on another question?

@Michael: I don't think that would be very useful. Updates generally roll out over days or weeks. Further, it's one person's word, where we prefer to link to Android news sites. And you've got to figure that multiple people will chime in; what good is a dozen "me too" posts?

Motorola has fallen back on the Atrix 4G: https://forums.motorola.com/pages/00add97d6c

Droid-Life keeps an up-to-date listing of many of these phones which shows also when there are delays or exceptions such as was the case with Bionic. Their list can be found here http://www.droid-life.com/2012/05/22/when-is-my-android-phone-getting-ice-cream-sandwich-verizon/


text:
Where can find older versions of Apps?
Is is possible to download older versions of Android applications?
Is there some kind of online archive for all versions of Android apps? Like how you can find older versions of some Windows app.

The site Freeware Lovers collects freeware Android apps and has old versions for many of the apps they host. (Also for BlackBerry, Symbian, and Palm OS.)

Some alternative repositories, such as F-Droid, allow you to choose which version you want to download; all versions ever offered are in the repository.
For most other sites, including the Android Market, the latest version is all that is available.

They seem to keep only last 3 versions

The safe and correct way to get an older version is contacting the developer.  Maybe they will just give it to you or maybe not - there is a reason why they updated it in the first place.  Most importantly they will want to know why and you won't get any hacked malware version as is possible from other sources.

APKMirror from "Android Police"
You can find previous versions of some common apps installation files such as Google Play services, WhatsApp, and Google Play Store.
Note that what you may recall as different versions of the same app might be actually listed as two separate apps. For example, Google Calendar and Google Calendar (old) are listed separately.

I found this site: apkpure
From about:

APKPure.com is a website providing smartphones software downloads founded in 2014 by APKPure Team[...]
[...]We offer one of the most comprehensive collections of Apps, Games, and history version list. All download works guarantee 100% no extra extension needed.[...]

I found LeipzigMOVE (de.tafmobile.mobility.leipzigmove) on apkpure, but not on apkmirror. Even older versions. (Can’t ensure integrity, though...)

I have a tool that can do this [1]. However it is limited, in that you must
provide the version number. Here is example getting YouTube version 4123 (October 2014):
googleplay -a com.google.android.youtube -v 4123

I havent found a way to list the available versions, so you would need to find
the version number somewhere else.

https://github.com/89z/googleplay

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


text:
Android phone not recognized when connected to Ubuntu, by 'adb devices'
Upgraded my HTC Slide to Froyo. Connecting Ubuntu 10.10 via USB.
As per instructions here, http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/device.html
    $ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0BB4", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"
    $ ls -l /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 72 2011-10-23 20:57 /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
    $ adb devices
    List of devices attached
    ????????????    no permissions

did you execute chmod a+r /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules ?

Check you have usb debugging enabled and plug out and in again

Had this very issue earlier tonight myself.
The 51-android.rules needs to be world read-execute, and it's probably best to run service udev restart (or reboot) after changing this, then re-plug your device.
If it still doesn't work, double-check the vendor ID you've supplied; with your Android device connected, run lsusb. HTC also use the vendor ID 18d1 on newer devices.

Or /etc/init.d/udev restart

My HTC device is at least an year old. Yet, I had to use 18d1. The android website says 0bb4. Dont know why 0bb4 doesnt work any more. http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/device.html Thanks for the answer.

I had this issue myself when rooting my kindle fire and I did:
$ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="1949", MODE="0666"

Then in my ~/.android/adb_usb.ini file I added
0x1949

Where 1949 is the vendor id for the kindle I believe.
And after restarting the box, adb devices shows my kindle.
Or instead of restarting udevadm control --reload-rules and adb kill-server && adb start-server should be sufficient.

If you only need to work with devices on a very infrequent basis, you can restart the adb server daemon as root.
./adb kill-server
sudo ./adb devices
Please note that it's not a good idea to make the daemon run as root - any security issues in the daemon will now have root access and ANY user on your system who can run adb (not just your user account) can access the devices - as you're basically ignoring all permission settings in 51-android.rules.
As of note, you do not need to be root to shut down the server - just use ./adb kill-server again.


text:
SD Card keeps getting unmounted on my HTC Desire
The SD card in my HTC Desire keeps getting unmounted every now and then and it's very annoying. From what I'm seeing, the SD card is removed only when some kind of multi-tasking with the files on it happens.
Example - Listening to a song that's stored on the SD + Using an app that's stored on the SD.
I haven't rooted my phone and don't intend on doing it. The phone is currently on the official Android 2.3.3 build.
I've tried another SD card but the problem still persists.
It's still under warranty, but I thought I can fix it myself with some help from you guys. :)

Which SD Cards have you tried? (make, model, size)

Hmm, recently had my card spontaneously unmount, and die as it turns out. Would like to hear from others with similar experiences. Not rooted Desire HD, running 2.3.3 here.

When this happens, is it plugged into a computer via USB?

I'm having the same problem with the same phone I can fix it by formatting the card but I'm getting tired of re-installing my apps every few days

I had a problem with cheap sd cards from ebay doing this, I spend a little more these days on them.
There isn't much you can do here if you don't intend on rooting the phone or anything. If it was mine I would wipe the thing and re-install a fresh stable rom and test that for a few days.

You mean to say there is problem with stock ROM?

@roxan yes there may be some kind of corruption in the stock rom as the user has tried multiple sd cards, it would be easy to test this by installing a fresh stable rom on the phone with an image recovery, HTC support may even do this very thing with a stock rom.

Wouldn't factory reset be the better option?

Sure that is just in the settings but as far as I know it just deletes all the user data and may be unlikely to affect something like fix the sd card like this, worth a try I guess. Its not the same as installing a totally new rom and kernel.

A friend had a similar problem playing mp3 in his car with a slow card. Try at least a speed 4 card. The speed of the card is shown inside a small, unclosed circle on the card.
For reference, I just bought a 16gb speed 10 microsd card from Amazon for $22.

If your phone is connected to PC then might be getting chances of not detecting SD Card in Phone.
Try to change setting for removable device like below

Drag Down Status Bar and select USB Connection Option
if you are getting option like Windows Media Sync, USB Mass Storage , None then Select None
Go to Phone Setting --> Applications --> Development --> and Uncheck USB Debugging

Try this,
it may help you..

Its not happening while connected to computer.

And don't forget. If none of the previous answers seemed useful try formatting the SD card and delete any existing partitions using Linux Disk utility.

I am an authorized dealer for metro PCS and we have to warranty out the device as this Is a hardware error from the manufacturer. It happens every now and then. So take your device(s) to your local dealer and warranty your phone. No matter of rooting will help this as it is a hardware defect.

We bought a new Epic 4G for my mom a while back, and her SD would do the same thing. Just randomly unmount. Turns out it was a hardware issue, and they replaced the phone and the SD card. Sorry, but you might be out of luck :/


text:
Software update never worked in Samsung Galaxy S2
Whenever I try
Settings -> About Phone -> Software Update -> Check for update
I get the error message "Connection failed"
More Information -

I am connected to Internet. and Internet works in my phone.
I have configured Samsung account in my mobile.

How are you connected to the internet?  It needs to be over a data connection, not Wi-Fi.

Seconded - I've tried over a data connection as well as WiFi. Same error. Hoping for an update for India from the current 2.3.3

@MatthewRead Yes its over data connection only

Galaxy S2 doesn't support OTA updates...so it's unlikely that you will be able to check for updates from your phone. The same "Connection Failed" error comes to me when I try that in my phone.

then what are the other ways to update the phone software?

@emaillenin download Kies for your computer and connect the phone via USB, it should prompt you for updating.

Dial *#8736364# to check for an update.

same error "Connection failed" when tried using this way


text:
Will any headset work with android?
I'm looking for a good headset, preferably with mic, answer button and volume controls.  I see iPhone compatible everywhere but no mention of Android compatible.  Do they use the same specifications, and do I need to worry about compatibility when buying a wired headset?

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/7605/why-cant-i-use-my-iphone-headphones-with-my-htc-thunderbolt

Headsets with mic, answer button and volume controls which are iPhone compatible, in general, will not work with Android headsets. The mic and the sound will work, but the buttons will not.
Headset with mic and only one button will work without problems.

Are there any with more buttons that will work with Android phones?

Sadly I'm not aware of any 3rd party headsets.

Android phones mostly use the standard layout of the 3,5mm jack, but there are some special cases. For example, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 uses a slightly different jack than Galaxy S. The difference is barely visible by the naked eye, but when I use the Tab headset in Galaxy S, the music sounds like it's mono, not stereo and the answer button doesn't work. I'd advise you to test before buying if possible in order to eliminate any unfortunate surprises.


text:
Is CyanogenMod rooting the phone?
If I install CyanogenMod, will I have 'rooted' my phone? Is CyanogenMod a rooting program, or is the procedure of installing CyanogenMod rooting, and CyanogenMod is something needing root?
Is CyanogenMod a type of android release? Considering to install it is similar to a new android update?

for 99% of devices, you have to have a custom recovery image installed on the device in order to install CyanogenMod. And usually, to do that you have to have the device rooted. So you have to have a rooted device before you can install cyanogenmod.
CyanogenMod comes rooted and yes, it is an android release. Rooting a device, while it will void your warranty, is not really that "bad". Think of it like having access to the administrator account on your PC as opposed to a "limited user" account.
You also have to keep in mind that CyanogenMod does not work on all android devices. You can only install it on devices that are supported.

Different enough for me :P +1

@Ryan Conrad and Matthew Read, will CyanogenMod reduce the internal storage space taken by apps? I do the move to SD card option, but they still take a lot of the very finite storage up. Will CyanogenMod improve the situation?

It isn't going to really change any of that. They may have a larger partition for /data/data but I am not sure. For the most part, it will act like just about any other version on android in that sense. I have a lot of apps installed and I sometimes run out of space in the /cache and have to clear it out, but I had that problem before when I used Stock TouchWiz by samsung too.

@Ryan Conrad, so there is no solution to get a really large number of apps on the phone? I heard that there will be a change where apps get stored on the SD card via encryption and not internal storage. Will I only need to update the android to do this? Or do the apps need to be engineered in a special update as well?

Even when the app is stored on the SD card, the app is still going to store its settings and data in the /data/data directory.

@Vass To answer your first comment on this answer, Cyanogen is just a different version of Android - when you install it you're wiping your device and installing from scratch, like switching from Windows XP Home to Windows XP Pro. Cyanogen is usually smaller than vendor-modified builds (due to not having the bloatware that they usually install), but I think it's a bit larger than the stock Google build.

If you're asking whether installing CyanogenMod will void your warranty, the answer is yes.  Flashing a ROM has much greater potential for harming your device than the average rooting method.
It's not necessary to root in order to install CM in some cases, but usually it is, and CM itself comes pre-rooted.
If you want to find out more about CM you should go to their website.

Here is the what Cyanogen mod is:
Cyanogenmod is a custom ROM made by developers (or you may say freelancers) and it is an opensource GPL licensed software. Actually cyanogenmod is modified version of actual android software released by Google. Developers at Cyanogenmod make software specific to various devices.
And if you want to install Cyanogenmod you will have to root your phone and flash it with Cyanogenmod.
This will surely void your warranty. Cyanogenmod is like installing a clean new android software and it is quite fast than Stock one, as it does not contain any useless apps pre installed and also it is capable of using phone's processor to its full level which is often limited in Stock ROM's.
I am using it on my Motorola Defy and it works fine, though there are some bugs but its okay.
Note: Installing Cyanogenmod without following correct procedure may brick your phone (i.e. make it permanently unusable).
I would recommend you to read their wiki for more info.

CyanogenMod is a full operating system replacement. When you install CM, you replace the entire system software that comes preloaded with the device. Depending on the device, doing so may require gaining root access by some means or may require little more than unlocking the bootloader.
Devices that are less locked-down, especially Nexus devices, require little effort to unlock the bootloader and install a custom recovery image, which in turn enables the installation of an alternative operating system. More heavily secured devices, such as older Motorola smartphones, often require the use of tools to exploit system vulnerabilities to do the same (the CM installation instructions for the Droid 2 are a good example).
To answer your question as written, installing CyanogenMod effectively roots the device. CM includes su and a root access manager as part of the base system.


text:
Marketplace offers downloads in notifications but when I tap notification none are available
I've seen some other places with this question, but no answers that explain/help with what's going on.
I've got a Droid 3, and about once a day I get a notification that there are updates available for my apps. When I tap the notification to be taken to the market place; however, there are either no apps to update or the wrong number of apps (i.e. notification says 2, only one app is available).
Does anyone know why this is happening or if there's a way to resolve it?

Do you have multiple accounts tied to the Market app?

Another possible issue is that the app you are being alerted to is set to auto-update, so that by the time you notice the alert the app has already updated.

Are you referring to the Amazon-Appstore, not the Android Market? I have the same problem on my Xoom and Droid 3 with the Amazon-Appstore. From what I can tell is that it may be an update alert for one of the Apps that I have tied to my account, but not installed on my device.

I have this same problem with the Android Market. I have a Nexus One, 2.3.6, and it is not due to auto-updating apps as there is no report of download or installation.

No multiple accounts, no auto-updates conflicting things. The Android Market, not Amazon App Store. I do have multiple devices so I think the answers below about getting update notices for apps not on a particular device is likely.

If you have multiple Google accounts setup, click menu, then accounts, to make sure the proper account is selected. Then click menu, then my apps.

I don't have multiple accounts - but a good answer for those who do!

I have noticed that having multiple android devices can trigger my update notifications. I, of course, use the same account for both devices but when updates are available on one, they are not aways available on both. I'll typically get a notification on both devices.

Potentially the same issue as in my answer.  +1 for another explanation.

You could try clearing the cache/data for the Market app.
Settings->Applications->Market, select the Market app, then click the "clear data" button. (You may need to force stop the market app first)

This is a little bug with something in the marketplace.  The way i have fixed it is by uninstalling the updates for the market.   Just go to settings - applications - manage applications - go to market and select uninstall updates.  Launch the market, it will be a much older version.  Give your phone about 30 minutes and the market will update to the newest version and you will no longer have the update notification issue.

This could potentially be caused by having an app that has been restricted since you downloaded it.  If it's no longer available for your device / network / location then it won't show up in the Market, but it's possible that the Market still checks to see if a newer version is available.  I believe I had this issue back with the v2.x Market, but not since I uninstalled the app in question.

notification for restricted apps or location-locked apps don't show.. I confirmed it on my Android Market 3.3.11

Did your phone come with some apps pre-installed on it? That can sometimes cause issues with the update process. Pre-installed apps are often placed in the system directory and the market might not properly update them. If you can, see if the apps that are listed as updatable are pre-installed.
Another potential issue is a mismatched signing key. It's more common if you install development versions of apps, but an app that is signed with a key that doesn't match the market version cannot be updated.

The latest version of the Market will automatically update apps that you have allowed to auto-update. The checkmark notification will disappear from the notification area immediately after the update.
Those apps that aren't allowed to auto-update will be unupdated so when you go to the market those will be left unupdated.

It's not clear to me that this answers the question.  If the checkmark disappears for updated apps, and remains only for un-updated apps, the counter should be consistent.  But the OP says that it is not consistent.

I know I have the same condition on my phone as he describes. I assumed it was because some of the apps had already been auto-updated while others were not. I don't think there's anyway for the notification to change the number of apps to be updated to reflect those that auto-installed as that installation occurs AFTER the notification is generated.


text:
Is it possible to use the camera without unlocking first?
Is it possible with Android phones (like with iOS 5) to take photos directly from the lock screen without unlocking first?

With just the stock Android experience, no. That is, until Ice Cream Sandwich is released.
That's not to say that OEMs haven't added their own changes that do allow for launching the camera app without unlocking, or perhaps a clever developer making a change to the lockscreen.

CyanogenMod 7 includes the ability to launch any app from the lockscreen via custom app starter or gestures.

Yeah, just one day after asking I got the HTC update to Sense 3.0 where there is a link to the camera on the lock screen. With Sense 2.x (or other OEM firmware) WidgetLocker is an acceptable workaround (see Bryans answer).

There are apps in android market which provide an alternate lockscreen such as WidgetLock or MagicLocker(Free) through which you could have direct access to camera from the Lock Screen. Also with some custom ROM's based on CyanogenMod, you could add shortcuts to any app on the Lock screen.

WidgetLocker does this, but as far as I could see from the description in the Android Market, MagicLocker does not.


text:
How can I force the Market to reinstall an installed app?
I have an app, installed from the Market, which I just updated. The "updating" notification was present for several hours, so it appears to have gotten stuck somehow.
I believe it now claims to be the current version, but to be sure, is it possible to tell the Market to re-download and reinstall the current version of the app?

Did you try a reboot?

As far as I know there's no way to tell the Market to reinstall an app.  I was hoping you could do it through the Market website but I just tried and it refused to install an already-installed app.  (Which bothers me because my phone and the website will definitely be out of sync regularly, I do too many third-party restores and so on.)
That said, you could clear the data for the Market (Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> All -> Market -> Force Close, Clear Data) and reboot your phone, then start up the Market again and look to see whether the update is available again or not.  If it's not then you can trust that the latest version is installed since it grabbed that info directly from the system, and if not you can attempt the update again.

+1.  Clearing the Market data and cache is a sure way to get back in sync.  In later Android versions (2.2+) you may also have to clear the data for "Google Services Framework" app.  Upon first launch after making you accept the terms of service, the Market always rebuilds the list of currently installed apps and their versions.

Thanks. It seems to have been successful, though the exercise found a couple of other apps that needed updates.

This is no longer relevant in modern Android versions; there's no "Market" app.

You can't "reinstall". All you can do is just simply uninstall it and install again.

I take the back up of all the applications regularly to my SD Card. Sometimes I uninstall them because of some issues. If I need them I install from my SD Card directly.
Now I open the My Market Account in Android Website using my Google account. It shows all the installed applications even though I removed them and installed again.
I feel this answer isn't completely relevant to the question. But I am sharing a way to reinstall the applications from Android Market. Anyways you can remove the application and install it again.


text:
Titanium Backup Dropbox sync scheduling
I'm using Titanium Backup to automatically back up to my SD card. I also managed to get the "Sync to Dropbox " feature to work. How I can I automate "Sync To Dropbox"? I don't see it as an option when I add a schedule.

Is it not immediately synced when something changes?

Matthew, the timestamps on the files in dropbox are set to when I manually ran it. It doesn't appear to be doing it automatically.

It was added in a recent update as a pro-only feature.
Edit schedule -> when finished -> Sync to Dropbox

Note that this is only available in the Titanium Backup Pro version.

Didn't realize this, edited to reflect this.

Could not find it.. So, click on Edit and in the pop-up window scroooooll down to the bottom. See? :)

In my experience, Titanium Backup didnt work like what i wanted it to do. So now i use RealSync Pro, witch automatically syncs all photos from phone to dropbox each time i'm on my home wifi network.
Works great!
Get it HERE.

Titanium Backup doesn't have this feature yet. But, you can do this to automate it:

Install Dropsync.
Link TitaniumBackup directory (whatever it is) with a folder on Dropbox.
Configure Auto Sync interval of Dropsync to whatever you want (Scheduling).

Done!
Free version of Dropsync allows only one directory sync which is enough for this job. I have been using Dropsync for 5 months and I haven't faced any issues yet.

It's a pro-only feature that was added a while ago.

Yup.. I've re-checked it after your answer. It was there! Thanks..


text:
Should apps take up any internal storage when installed to SD?
I'm running very low on interal phone memory storage - I'm down to 5 MB of the 180 MB available. I understand that not all apps can be installed into SD card, and those will instead use up my internal storage. Luckily, those are rare.
However, I recently installed an app that is listed as being installed on the SD card, not internal storage. Even so, after installing it I'm now getting the "low on space" warning. The app takes up 16 MB, and I seem to remember I had a bit over 20 MB internal storage space before... So judging from the space, it looks like it's still taking up space on internal storage.
So my question: Should an app that's installed onto SD card take up any internal storage?
What could be causing this? Does the market store the installation files somewhere in internal cache or something as weird? Why on earth do I need to worry about apps consuming space, when I have gigabytes of free space for them on my SD card?
My device is GT-S5570 running 2.2.1.

An app consists of dex files, apk files, data files and libraries.
When you install apps in SD card, not all of the parts of the apps are kept in SD card. Some of them remains in internal Storage.
However if you have a rooted phone, you can use program like link2sd to move all the pieces of app to SD card.
EDIT:
You can use program like app2sd to easily see what program can be moved to SD card. You can manually move shown apps or ignore some of them.
If you go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications, the size shown there is the size its taking in the internal storage. This is just my guess based on the calculations performed by noting the free space on internal storage, moving some apps to SD card and subtracting only the reduced space of the apps.
I'm sorry I didn't mention you need second partition for link2sd to work. But if you had given hint in your question that you were willing to root, I'd have talked in more depth about it. Also your main question was whether apps moved to SD card should take internal storage  or not. It wasn't about link2sd, the term just came while answering. Anyways, beside second partition you are recommended class 6 SD card. I've written a blog post about using link2sd here, you might find it useful.

Is there an app to find out how much internal space apps on SD card actually use?

If you go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications, the size mentioned per app in there is the size that it uses in internal memory.

Really? It looks to me like it just shows the application's total size in that list...

Look at the size of an app before and after you move it to SD, the size reduced will be the size gained in internal storage.

Eh... What I was asking for is being able to know that before using link2sd to move it to SD, so that I could know which apps I should in fact move to gain back my space. And what do you mean by reduced size - how can the size be reduced if it's just moved around?

Am I correct that I would actually need to have a second partition on the SD card for link2sd to work? If so, would be worth mentioning in the answer as well.

@Ilari: Unfortunately, there's no way (currently) to know how much space-savings you'll get from moving an app to the SD card until you actually move it. Me, I use SD Move and SD Watch and move everything to the SD card that I can.

Seems to me like DiskUsage does tell me beforehand exactly how much space I would gain by linking the entire app to SD with Link2SD. And I would assume "moving to SD" by conventional means would release (at least) the "apk" size that DiskUsage reports for the app.

You could use the DiskUsage app to see how much space the dalvik cache takes up. My understanding is the cache doesn't move when the app moves to SD. Combining that size with the data size should give a good idea as to how much will remain on the internal memory.

DiskUsage does not require root.

Diskusage seems to show three types of stuff that apps store on internal storage - data, apk, dalvikCache.  What are these?

If I use a tool like link2sd to move all of the app's stuff to SD, is the app size that's displayed in DiskUsage exactly the amount of internal storage I will regain?

Hmm, seems apk is only with apps that aren't on SD. So "move to sd" really means just "move apk to sd"?

There is no standard size on what gets left on internal memory and what goes to the SD card, however your problem might not be related to what you have downloaded, it might be due to your caches - most of which are on the internal memory.
Have you done anything to clear these out / limit them thereby freeing up space on your internal memory. If you have Astro or Android Assistant these have built in programmes to assist in this (free), or you could get a purpose built app to clear the caches. Alternatively from home page go into Menu - Settings - Applications - Manage Applications. Wait for them all to load. Go to the All tab and then press menu - Sort by Size. Go through them one by one checking cache size and clearing out where necessary - also useful for giving you an idea of whether there might be an app you really don't use and hence want to remove.

A little lateral thinking works for me. I too have limited space on my phone, and certain apps I like to have access to but only use occasionally. I use the Androzip app to back-up those onto the sd card and then delete them off the main phone memory completely. I then quickly re-install the relevant apk file when I need to. Works well.


text:
How can I set different ringtones - one for new email and one for new SMS in Nexus One?
Currently I can't find the selection box anywhere in the configuration in my Nexus One to allow this; i.e. they are the same and when I'm expecting SMS from my friend, I get distracted by the emails and vice versa...
So, is it possible everyone? And if it is please show me how. Thank you!

To deviate from the generic notification ringtone, the app itself needs to support it. Are you using the stock email and SMS apps? Gmail, at least, allows for changing the notification ringtone that it uses. (In fact, you can setup individual notifications by account by label.)

@Everett You are correct! Thank you. Please move your comment as an answer so it would be selected as accepted

Sure thing. Done.

To deviate from the generic notification ringtone, the app itself needs to support it. Are you using the stock email and SMS apps? Gmail, at least, allows for changing the notification ringtone that it uses. (In fact, you can setup individual notifications by account by label.)

If I go to Message - Settings I see options to choose different ringtones. Similarly if I go to  Gmail - Settings - Main account, I can see options to choose ringtones. But I am using HTC Desire.

Thank you. It would help HTC users though.


text:
Can I disable e-mail notification sounds streamed to a bluetooth hands-free car radio
Is there a way that one can automatically turn off the email notification when one is connected to a bluetooth-enabled car radio, ie. while driving, and only respond to incoming call notifications? Once the bluetooth connection is broken, the suppressed e-mail notifications should then be delivered.
Alternatively, if the e-mail notification is sounded, the phone should not maintain a bluetooth streaming mode status to the hands-free kit and the radio should revert to whichever audio/radio mode was previously in use.
The phone is from the Samsung Galaxy range.

You could use an app like Tasker. Next to Location and Time, Tasker can also act on certain system events. I use this e.g. to "switch to night mode" when I place my Droid2 onto its docking station, turning it (amongst others) into "silent" mode. Similarly, you can have it react on "Bluetooth connected", and have all volumes adjusted to your convenience -- e.g. notification volume to 0, but media volume to 6 (for some music). Many more possibilities wait there...


text:
Windows laptop works with Wi-Fi AP, phone claims it is connected but can't access Internet
There's an Asus 240 MIMO Wifi access point. There's a laptop running Windows XP that uses that access point no problem for years so far. And there's an Android based HTC Desire S smartphone that has problems. The objective is to make the smartphone access the Internet via the Wifi access point.
I open "wireless networks" configuration pane, "enable" Wifi - it goes through "scanning" and "obtaining IP address" stages, says "connected to TheRightNetworkName". The Wifi symbol is displayed in the bar under the top of the screen. Yet when I try to open any page in a browser if wouldn't do so and claim there were problems accessing that page.
I tried the following (listed in this answer below, thanks to user Matthew Read):

rebooted the phone - doesn't help
checked MAC filtering on the AP - it is disabled
disabled the firewall on the AP - doesn't help
tried to change channels - doesn't help, the AP has 13 channels if that matters
tried to change to 2.4 GHz - looks like it is already the only option, couldn't find any way to change the range
didn't try to switch from WPA that is currently used to WEP because it feels quite scary - I can mess things up
tried switching modes - b, g, b/g - doesn't help

How do I debug and resolve this issue?

What kind of security is on the network? WEP? WPA? It almost sounds like the network is using Mac address filtering.

@PortableWorld: WPA is used, no MAC filtering, I updated the question to include my findings.

Make sure that you are using DHCP on your phone; if you have a static DNS set and it's the wrong one, you won't be able to browse the web.  Go to Settings->Wireless And Network->Wi-Fi settings, hit the context button (or right click button, or whatever you call it), select Advanced, and make sure Use Static IP is unchecked.

DHCP is used - checked that already.

As a complete shot in the dark, have you tried using a browser other than stock and seeing if that works?

Yes, I tried Firefox - results are the same.

Assuming that the smartphone connects to the AP as you say, try the following.

Take the IP of the phone.
Connect to the same AP your laptop
Run ping ip_of_phone from cmd (if you are using win) or from Terminal
If you can do a ping means that something is wrong, perhaps with the DNS
If you can not ping, probably something is wrong with IP assignment. Perhaps a two devices have the same IP. A common mistake is that people assign an IP to an AP and do not exlude that IP from the DHCP pool of the router.

I tried that - ping succeeds. What else can I check?

Can you try using staic IP (whatever IP you are getting for the phone) and in DNS use 4.2.2.2 and 8.8.8.8

First ensure the phone is using the right password for the network and try rebooting the phone.
Then play with with your AP, one of these at a time:

Reboot it
Ensure MAC filtering isn't on
Try disabling any firewall it might have
Ensure it uses channel 1 or 6 or 11 (assuming you're in an 11-channel region)
Try switching to 2.4 GHz if it's broadcasting on the 5.0 GHz band
Try switching from WPA to WEP encryption or vice-versa
Try switching to or from mixed mode (e.g. 802.11 b/g rather than just 802.11b, etc.)

If nothing changes, please provide your phone model and I'll try to help further.

I checked everything except switching to WEP - that feels very risky. I updated the question to include my findings and phone and AP model.

@sharptooth Fair enough. Does the phone work OK on other Wi-Fi networks?

Yes, it works on another WPA-protected network okay.