text:
Browsers that use compression
I know that Opera Mini is available on Android. Are there any other browsers available that compress content to work faster when not on Wi-fi or 3g?

Do you mean can handle receiving compressed content from the originating web server, or that do something like Opera's TurboBoost that dynamically compresses anyone's originally compressed content to speed up mobile access?

@Mufasa: I mean anything like TurboBoost

Just to warn you: these sort of browsers depend on third party servers to receive, compress and feed you the webpages you want. Sensitive data isn't encrypted, and can be accessed from the third party.

Note that a lot of content today on normal http communication is already compressed through gzip. What Opera did was more than just compression, but also rewriting of HTML content to their own binary markup language.

I think not. A least, not efficiently. If you want to do that, you need servers, big servers, so you need a big company to run thoses big servers. So I would be very surprised if that big company doesn't advertise for its product, as Opera did.

amen brother. Its true such efforts require bandwidth and computing power. Which means money, you ain't getting that from random developers.

There is the turbo feature in Opera Mobile -- the same UI as Mini with a more normal renderer. The compression is less effective, though.

Ha.. Ha.. Liked this answer.

UC Browser is as efficient as Opera in compression.

I tried it using 2G connection and it isn't even close to Opera speed.

There are also UC browser and Puffin web browser that have data compression feature. But I always prefer Opera Mini.

yes! Google Chrome and ucmini.co.in are browser that compress the website before showing the result to get fastest access. They use Proxy server for this.
Now VPN Enable concept will be soon launch by browser like Opera, Google, Mozilla to get result fast and accurate in upcoming version.

UC Mini, Opera Mini and CM Browser they all compress data and speed up browsing. Besides lowering image quality can also increase the websites loading speed.


text:
Play audio of flash video while screen is off?
I want to listen to the audio portion of flash on my Droid preferably with the screen off.  Sites like InfoQ.com have great interviews in flash that I want to just listen to.

I have had to keep my phone on and the screen off to save power before. I have made use of this app and it works well for me.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.japp.blackscreen
This app needs the ability to display over other apps, but it has saved me a lot of battery. Hope it helps!

This may be a silly thing to say, but have you tried loading a site with flash, and letting it play? I would have thought it would just continue even if the screen goes blank.
If it does stop when the screen goes blank, can you download it and play it using one of the audio players that supports .flv and has the option to continue playing in the backgound? Is there an app that can play .flv?
Regarding playing non-MP4 or H.264:

Chinese app called Wuzhenhua Player
RockPlayerBase
CorePlayer, but doesn't seem to support Android (it's got a mobile version :/)
DroidACIR says it supports .flv-based audio streams
Another flv player

Here's a SO question about having trouble stopping flash when leaving the browser.
HTH

Yes I have tried.  As soon as the screen blanks while I just listen at my desk (to save battery life) the audio stops.  Example presentation I want to listen to while driving preferably:  http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2010/08/19.html

@Brian Do you charge your phone while driving? If so you could switch on the "Stay awake: phone will never sleep while charging" option under the Development settings to stop the screen turning off.

source: Stack Exchange

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text:
what backup/sync app is recommended for android phones (without computer)?
good software to automatically sync and backup your files without having to connect it to a computer via USB

I heard Dropbox is a good alternative, but I have not tried it myself.

the app is called dropbox? is it available in android market?

I've have DropBox installed, I don't think or can find a way to get it to sync automatically.

If you have root, I really recommend you TitaniumBackup!

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/

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text:
How can I sync the bookmarks in the web browser?
I want to open the bookmarks I saved in my PC to be seen from my cellphone's browser. So I need them synced. How can I do that, say with Nexus One?

Possible duplicate. I answered with Go Marks for that one.

Fennec (pre-release FireFox mobile) is supposed to have bookmark synch.
I haven't tested it, as the Fennec install keeps failing on my Incredible. :-(

I've tried this and it works, but Fennec was soo slow on my Samsung Vibrant (Galaxy S) that I uninstalled it.

This is how I do my browser sync. For info Fennec is out of beta now and officially called Firefox 4 which was fully released recently. It is now much slimmer and faster than the early betas were. market.android.com/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox

Chrome for Android is now out of Beta, and not only does it sync your bookmarks, but also lets you open a browser tab that you have open on another device.

It doesn't quite "sync" the way I'd expect, though: the bookmarks and tabs from your desktop machine are only available to you on the phone if your phone has "sync" turned on.  Unlike, say, gmail, which makes your emails available regardless, and only requires "sync" on to catch up.

Transmute "will quickly and easily sync the bookmarks from the standard web browser on your Android device with Google Bookmarks." (untested)

You can use an app from Google named Chrome2Phone : http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.google.android.apps.chrometophone.
That's a pretty good one !

Pretty sure this only lets you share one link at a time, rather than do a proper sync?

@GAThrawn yup, that's correct.  It also requires you auth your Google account with a server in eastern Europe... a bit on the scary side, IMHO

I used this frequently, as well as the firefox version of the extension, called Fox2Phone.  Sadly, the chrometophone app engine app is defunct.

The Delicious site has an Android app, so any bookmarks you save there will be available on your phone.
Another option is to use Opera on the PC and phone, Opera Link will then sync your bookmarks.

can you link to any of these?

Opera mini my.opera.com/chooseopera/blog/2010/07/14/opera-mini-5-1-final-for-android

http://code.google.com/p/deliciousdroid/

what about xmarks.com?

Don't forget to mention that the xmarks/lastpass bundle also saves and syncs passwords.


text:
Browser to use in 3G with optimized (in size) content retriaval
I need a browser to use when running in 3G due to the fact that its speed in my country is far for nice especially in some areas.
My wish it to have a browser that does not download images, video, ads by default but only text. It should still keep a decent pagination.
Then, if I see an image description that interest me, I would like to click and allow download only that image.
Do you know if does exists a browser with these options?

Twidroyd just release an internal browser that does this. You click a tweet with a link and it loads up just the text on the right side.  A browser app that did this would be awesome.

Try using the Opera browser. It compresses the webpages before sending to your phone.
EDIT: Here's a test done by PC World that Engadget featured showing the Skyfire browser being slightly faster than Opera Mini.


text:
Motorola Blackflip Clock Doesn't Update when its Screen is off
My Motorola Backflip (Android 1.6) doesn't update its clock until the screen is turned on.  This wouldn't be a problem except that the alarm won't go off in the morning unless I'm already up and checking my phone.
This problem does not occur if the phone is charging.
Is this a setting? How can I correct this?

This actually sounds just like an issue that would be in MotoBLUR, especially MotoBLUR v1. This issue may have been fixed in the later releases of MotoBLUR, but initially this was a very buggy product.
If you viewed the log that android writes for any errors that occurred with the first version of BLUR (which is what is on the backflip) there are tons of errors that happen at any given moment. It seemed like Motorola rushed out the product before they were actually ready.

I've long since upgraded my phone, but if someone can verify this I'll mark the question as answered.


text:
Is it possible to merge contacts from different sources and upload them to GMail?
I'd like to merge contacts from different sources -- i.e., imported contacts from phone, from sim card, and from my gmail account -- and upload the ultimate contact on my gmail account.
For instance, I know someone's mail adress using my gmail account, and I import his phone number from the sim card. My goal is to update the contact on the GMail account, in order to have also his phone on internet (it's the perfect backup).
Is it possible ? Is it native or should I use another app ?
I'm using a Galaxy S with Android 2.1, unrooted
Thanks for you're help !

I came up with this process to copy phone contacts to Google.  It should help.

I did that, but I'm still having multiple contacts. Any idea ?

Are you linking the contacts?  Open a Google contact, select options > Link Contact then select the SIM contact.

Ok, that's fine. I'll post an answer including both of your comments. Thanks Niall !

This answer is based on comments from Niall C.
There are 5 phases in the process :

Select each contact, and then link them when relevant. The goal is to have 1 friend = 1 contact.
Export the list (Contact > Menu > More > Import Export > To SD Card), it will work even if you don't have any SD card.
Transfer the file to a computer (the file is quite light, even with GPG keys and user pics)
Open GMail, backup your contact by exporting them
Import the VCF file

And that's all ! Your contacts in GMail have now phone numbers ! Don't worry, GMail merge contacts becase their email adress is already known.
Source : How to move phone contacts to Google?

It works almost perfectly, except user pictures are not imported. I checked vcf file, they present in it, but gmail doesn't import it at all. Can you suggest anything to import pictures?

This is the only solution that worked for me:

Run http://www.transphone.net/android-transfer/delete-android-duplicate-contacts.html (the software is quite spammy, but it works).
Sync all accounts.
Go into phone app, settings, sync all accounts again.


text:
Stock Android on Nexus One?
Is there a good place that documents how to compile Android from source and put it on Nexus One? For instance, I would like to checkout the source files of Froyo from the official repository and put it on my Nexus One... Any suggestions?

I believe this XDA forum post will give you a good head start.  Note: this is written for the Sapphire.
Compiling and flashing a Kernel for the N1.
Another guide from XDA forums.
Compiling systems apps.

Thank you very much. I will start reading them. One related question is that there's a lot of data and apps installed on my N1 as of now. Is there a way I can take a backup of the entire image so that I can flash it back once I am done experimenting with a new build?

@Legend If you want a backup of just apps and their data, check out TitaniumBackup (requires root).  If you want a backup image of your phone, you'll need to flash a recovery such as Clockwork and run a Nandroid backup.  Download Rom Manager from the Market, it will let you flash Clockwork and run the backup inside of the app.  Again, you're going to need to root your phone first.  See my post about rooting here: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1184/how-do-i-root-my-phone

@Legend sure thing!  You might want to experiment with flashing another Rom first before you dig into compiling from source.  Just so you know how to Nandroid your phone, flash a rom, play around with it, and revert back to what you had before.

Thanks for the advice. I will do as you suggested. Really excited to learn this stuff now :)


text:
What are the known Android keypad commands (dialer codes)?
There are a lot of different keypad commands in Android. What are the known ones?
Some of them are listed here :

*#*#checkin#*#*:  Phones home to check for updates.
*#*#info#*#*: Enters a detailed phone information menu.
*#*#1472365#*#*: Access to the GPS config menu (useful for patching Galaxy S GPS failure)

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/37020/what-are-androids-secret-telephony-codes

Hey, do these still work in newer versions of Android? I just tried on a Moto X (2013) running 4.4.4 and a N6 on 5.0 without luck. On the Moto X, the commands are at least 'accepted' in that they disappear from the dialer when a complete one is entered, but even this part doesn't happen on the N6. EDIT: None of the commands appear to have any effect on the Moto X except for #*#checkin#*# which, after a moment, does display a 'checkin succeeded' notification.

This page has a good listing of keypad commands.
Here is the post:

*#*#4636#*#*

This code can be used to get some interesting information about your phone and battery. It shows following 4 menus on screen:

Phone information
Battery information
Battery history
Usage statistics

*#*#7780#*#*

This code can be used for a factory data reset. It'll remove following things:

Google account settings stored in your phone
System and application data and settings
Downloaded applications

It'll NOT remove:

Current system software and bundled applications
SD card files e.g. photos, music files, etc.

PS: Once you give this code, you get a prompt screen asking you to click on "Reset phone" button. So you get a chance to cancel your operation.

*2767*3855#

Think before you give this code. This code is used for factory format. It'll remove all files and settings including the internal memory storage. It'll also reinstall the phone firmware.
PS: Once you give this code, there is no way to cancel the operation unless you remove the battery from the phone. So think twice before giving this code.

*#*#34971539#*#*

This code is used to get information about phone camera. It shows following 4 menus:

Update camera firmware in image (Don't try this option)
Update camera firmware in SD card
Get camera firmware version
Get firmware update count

WARNING: Never use the first option otherwise your phone camera will stop working and you'll need to take your phone to service center to reinstall camera firmware.

*#*#7594#*#*

This one is my favorite one. This code can be used to change the "End Call / Power" button action in your phone. Be default, if you long press the button, it shows a screen asking you to select any option from Silent mode, Airplane mode and Power off.
You can change this action using this code. You can enable direct power off on this button so you don't need to waste your time in selecting the option.

*#*#273283*255*663282*#*#*

This code opens a File copy screen where you can backup your media files e.g. Images, Sound, Video and Voice memo.

*#*#197328640#*#*

This code can be used to enter into Service mode. You can run various tests and change settings in the service mode.

WLAN, GPS and Bluetooth Test Codes:
*#*#232339#*#* OR *#*#526#*#* OR *#*#528#*#* - WLAN test (Use "Menu" button to start various tests)
*#*#232338#*#* - Shows WiFi MAC address
*#*#1472365#*#* - GPS test
*#*#1575#*#* - Another GPS test
*#*#232331#*#* - Bluetooth test
*#*#232337#*# - Shows Bluetooth device address

*#*#8255#*#*

This code can be used to launch GTalk Service Monitor.

Codes to get Firmware version information:
*#*#4986*2650468#*#* - PDA, Phone, H/W, RFCallDate
*#*#1234#*#* - PDA and Phone
*#*#1111#*#* - FTA SW Version
*#*#2222#*#* - FTA HW Version
*#*#44336#*#* - PDA, Phone, CSC, Build Time, Changelist number

Codes to launch various Factory Tests:
*#*#0283#*#* - Packet Loopback
*#*#0*#*#* - LCD test
*#*#0673#*#* OR *#*#0289#*#* - Melody test
*#*#0842#*#* - Device test (Vibration test and BackLight test)
*#*#2663#*#* - Touch screen version
*#*#2664#*#* - Touch screen test
*#*#0588#*#* - Proximity sensor test
*#*#3264#*#* - RAM version

I tried some of the above commands with a HTC Incredible and none of them worked.  Is is just me, or are these fake?

Many of these doesn't work in Samsung (Pie) either.

Here are the standard vanilla codes that should work across all devices:
A quick grep through the source code revealed these secret dial codes (for Android 4.1):

4636 (show debug info in apps/Settings)
8351, 8350 (start/stop voice call debug logging or so in apps/VoiceDialer)
36245 (debug email in apps/Email)
8477 (? in apps/Protips)
225 (debug calendar in providers/CalendarProvider)

I did also check all available Google Apps from http://goo.im/gapps (Versions 2.2-4.2 w/o 3.x):
Android 2.2 and 2.3:

8255 (Google Talk)
46, 7867, 2432546 (GoogleServicesFramework)

Android 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 Jelly Bean:

8255, 46, 7867, 947322243, 2432546 (GoogleServicesFramework)
759  (GooglePartnerSetup)

Note:
This functionality is realized via regular broadcast intents and filters, i.e. any app that wants to can define their own code and subscribe to those broadcasts. Also note, that the above code are only the visible open sourced part (CyanogenMod here), and Google Apps (which I did unpack and then scan). If you're interested in doing it yourself, unpack them with apktool and grep through their AndroidManifest.xml files for this way):
egrep -r --include=\*xml SECRET_CODE\|android:host=\"\[0-9\] .
It will find occurences in AndroidManifest.xml:

    <receiver android:name=".checkin.CheckinService$SecretCodeReceiver">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.provider.Telephony.SECRET_CODE" />
            <data android:scheme="android_secret_code" android:host="2432546" />
        </intent-filter>

Here's another linky

There is an free app "SGS Tools" on the market which gives you all the collection of commands.

I assume many of those are Galaxy S specific or even Captivate specific, though?

Unfortunaltely, all Android devices will have a different set of secret codes.
Some of them are specific to some devices, some others aren't.
Secret Codes are generally defined by the applications installed on the device.
If you want to have a valid list of secret codes available on your device, you should use an automated secret codes crawler. Then you can search online for it's meaning.
I recently developped an Open Source app that crawls AndroidManifest.xml files on your device to found secret codes, and allows you to execute the secret codes available on your device.
You can get it on the Play Store or on the GitHub repository Android-Secret Codes.

Uh-huuu... Are you now answering all our secret-code questions with this answer? ;) Will you apply the updates I've pointed to in the first place to all of them as well? #D Thanks for helping out!

The code *#*#4636#*#* will not work on some Samsung devices; even with ADB, you don't have access to the menu.
However, there is a work-around with root access. Just type the following in a terminal on your phone and the hidden testing menu should appear:
su -c "am start -n com.android.settings/com.android.settings.TestingSettings"

It may be easier through my app Root Essentials that can do this and more. You can find that test menu under "Device Info".

Sorry, while this answer is useful on its own, I'm afraid it doesn't really answer this specific question... This answer might be more suitable for other questions that asking about this issue instead.

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


text:
How to improve camera shooting responsiveness?
Is there a camera application (or other solution) that has quick response time between button press and taking the picture?
On HTC Hero, the delay from button press to shutter is painfully long - focusing, etc seem to take a lot of time with the stock camera app.
On HTC EVO with the stock Camera app, distant shots focus and shoot quickly. However, closer shots can take some time focusing.

Its the same on the droid too.

I'd be content even with something that works like the "half-press" option on many cameras.  When half-pressed, the camera focuses and sets up for lighthing.  Then when fully pressed, the shot is taken immediately.  An app with two separate buttons, one to take readings then lock the settings, and one to shoot would be fine.

Whoops, my bad.  I misread you question.  Actually, the Droid does have the half-press focus feature and the time between button press and shutter isn't half bad.  The time between opening the app and when you can actually take a picture is painfully long for me because it has the normal app opening lag, then the shutters does something weird and it automatically tries to focus... I'm impatient.

On EVO startup time is great.  Button is a software button only, so there's nothing to half-press.

Oh, that's not cool :(

I think that if you tap on the screen to set a place for the focus, you'll gain some seconds for the effective shoot.
It's also allow you to focus on a special part of the picture.
I hope it's help.

Turning off other processing features, like face recognition, may also improve performance... though at the expense of other benefits.


text:
Does Youtube app playback not work with wifi?
On an HTC Evo with Sprint, when trying to playback a video, the Youtube app regularly (always?) reports it can't play a video when I'm connected to a reliable wifi network.  If I immediately turn off wifi and use only the Sprint network, it works fine.
Is this really the case?  If so, why?

My G1 has the same problem and my wife uses the same wifi to watch youtube on her phone

After some experimentation: the EVO on Sprint can playback YouTube over WiFi.  The problem is likely some domain being blocked by the hosting WiFi network which is necessary for the YouTube app.

That must be a carrier restriction, as I am able to playback videos on my Moto DROID v1 on Verizon form the YouTube app regardless of which network I am connected to.


text:
How to drag in the web browser without moving the page?
With the stock browser when using a web page has a feature that requires dragging, how do you drag without moving the page?
For example, cropping an image on the Gravatar site requires dragging the boundaries, but whenever I try to, I end up moving the page... but not dragging.
UPDATE: I did notice on a third-party page with Google Maps embedded that the map did drag correctly.  However, the above example still holds.

I don't know the answer either way but it may be helpful if you specify which browser you are using as there probably are browser specific aspects to this behavior.

With sites like Gravatar or Twitter's image cropping, I've found that the two finger "pinch" gesture works.

On my LG Optimus V, that just zooms. Not useful (to me). And I get the same behavior in Skyfire as the default browser.

Double tap to enable drag?


text:
What controls the 3G radio sleep time?
Is there any way to control how/when the 3G radio goes to sleep?
Is that, in fact, what it is doing?

JuiceDefender allows you to turn your radio on and off and to set triggers for this.
Tasker will also do this.
One thing to note, the "3G" radio is the same radio that you use to make voice calls, at least it is on CDMA phones.  By controlling the APN you can turn on and off your 3g data and reap gains in battery life without turning off the radio.
I'm not 100% on this but I believe for phones that aren't yet on Froyo (2.2) an app is required to control the APN like APNdroid or QuickSettings. I'm not sure how well these work with the automated trigger apps mentioned above.

What is APN...?

It stands for Access Point Name.  Basically its a string of data that is used to identify and connect to a data network like your carriers 3G network or it's 2G network, or the MMS service or the other data roaming networks.  Its more of a setting than a "thing" but for all intents in purposes, when the word is used in the context of the "end user" it is basically referring to the Data connection or the way the phone connects to the data connection...

Since turning off the cellular radio disables both the data and voice connections, there are apps that allow you to use the APN to disable the data connection. These apps aren't actually disabling anything, they are rewriting the string of data so it no longer works and then fixing it again when you want internet.  I don't know much about the technical implementation of this but I do know you don't want to uninstall your APN disabler while it's disabled because you won't be able to turn it back on (unless you reinstall it and turn it back on). Hope this helps.


text:
How to change dashboard icons?
I want to be able to change the dashbord icons/text on my Android.
I've got HTC sense on the phone, but I'm currently running ADW.Launcher.
I know there's another launcher widget that allows photos as icons, but I'd like something so I can get the sleakness of the iOS icons e.g. http://dribbble.com/shots/57799

I asked this last week: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/366/how-can-i-change-the-icon-of-a-shortcut-on-my-home-screen

Desktop Visualizer

It's the best I could come up with.


text:
Is there a way to automatically change SMTP server?
I have a friend with a ntlworld.com email address. For desktop setup the SMTP server is smtp.ntlworld.com, but this only accepts email from IP addresses served by Virgin Media (who bought NTL) as ISP. When on 3G, they can use the SMTP server of their network provider.
So is there a way to have one SMTP server for WiFi and another SMTP server when not on WiFi?

Basically I had the same problem, and if you had an iphone spits on ground I would say yes (you can set more than one smtp server up and if it fails on one it'll try on the other) . . you can just get round it by turning off the phones wifi when you want to send an email (at home)
Emails can be sent over the phone network using their smtp server (smtp.orange.net for example) but as soon as you hit your home network (via wifi) the  orange out-going server will not work (because it doesn't know  who you are because you are going through your own ISP), where as if you change your smtp server back to ntlworld it would work (because you are using your home connection)(hope that made sence?)
O2 solved this issue, because they had a user name and password for their smtp server, so even if you sent an email over wifi (at home) it could authenticate who you were and subsequently send it.
I tried explaining this to orange . . .  it fell on deaf ears

They support authentication to use the mail server to send email - particularly since these days the service is run by Google.  This page covers the settings in detail, but the key points are:

Configure it to use authentication
Configure it to use SSL
Configure it to use port 465 for SMTP if selecting SSL didn't change it already

There are a number of apps that allow you to program-without-programming to set up conditions on your phone that trigger changes in settings and such. Tasker is one a friend at work uses, and I know there was at least one other (though I can't remember the name right now). I've never used them personally, so I don't know exactly what trigger conditions they have (such as switching from a specific wifi network to another data connection). You may want to check those out though and see if they meet your needs. Oh, another is Locale, which looks (according to appbrain) to have a lot of plugins developed for it to add additional triggers and actions... you may even be able to get a plugin written for it to do what you want if there isn't one.


text:
Why do certain apps run even when I don't use them?
I've found that certain apps (Amazon MP3 and Stocks, for example) will occasionally be running in the background even when I've never once opened them. Why is this? This is not desirable - those CPU cycles are mine, not theirs!

Do you have widgets for these apps on the home screen? Could be as simple as that.

This does not answer the question, but you could root your phone and disable the autostart with autostarts, or just remove them with Titanium Backup

Those apps come with the phone and can't be turned off or removed unless you root.  Blame your carrier.  There's really nothing you can do about it non-rooted.  I feel your pain.

This goes with another post I made about a slightly different issue.
Background apps usually just respond to events. Events they care about, which is usually nothing for these sprint apps.
They take up RAM. HOWEVER unlike a desktop, when android wants ram it will remove anything in the "background" that it wants  (older first) to free up space.\
The only exception to ram freeing up is when it sends notifications (a permanent icon in the notification bar... like a downloading icon from the market while the item is downloading).
So don't worry so much about it. These bloatware apps don't harm your android unless they do anything because batter is a big concern. Careful with facebook/twitter as they ping the service every few seconds, you can disable the "pinging" by just disabling the behavior, they won't do anything then. Even the messenger app might get removed from memory, when the system does a background synch it wakes up, loads, runs, and goes back to inactive.

Pretty good explanation. But a desktop system, at least all major ones, will take inactive applications, or even parts of applications, out of RAM and page them out to disk.

Yes, and no. In a regular OS your programs should not be taken out of ram and onto swap unless memory is an issue. However on the desktop these apps can take up small chips of your cpu. And taking up CPU means swapping if they are on disk. And the swapping is what kills you more than the cpu usage. Sometimes bloatware is written badly and just kills your computer, but thats different stories. I remember spending 3 hrs removing bloatware from a new Acer. Not because it was hard to find, but there was so much of it.

Most of my background is with iPhone, and there are certain launch daemons that run when the phone starts up. Sounds like this is the case here too. Dennis from this post says

The only thing I know of, like I point
  out, requires rooting the phone and
  voiding the warranty.  Go to
  /etc/rcx.d and remove the associated
  file with the executable. (This, of
  course, assumes that the filesystem
  follows the same hierarchy as every
  other Linux distro I have run.)

Hope this helps!
Thomas

Before rooting your phone, a not-so-easy operation, you should have a try to disable the auto launch when the phone restart.

It's not possible with the baked in carrier apps.


text:
How do I quickly change the default action of a contact in the favorites widget?
I see no obvious way to change the default action of a contact that's added to the Favorites widget. I have to remove that contact from the Favorites group, and re-add that contact (which then prompts me for the default action, like View Contact, or Send Mail). Is there an easier way?

Finally tried this, it's quicker to do the following:

Select the contact name from the Favorites widget (the icon performs the action, the name shows you their details).
Select Menu > More.
Select Set widget action.
Select call, text, etc.


text:
Wifi won't connect when SSID has space character?
When trying to connect to a WPA2 network from an HTC Hero running 2.1, I can't connect if the hidden SSID has a space in the name.
Has anyone else encountered this problem?  Is it known to be an Android issue?

It's not so convenient that HTC phones have 'HTC Network' as the default, is it? ;)

I've never had this problem on my android device (note3) but my wife and daughter's iphone 6 and 6s couldn't connect when there was a space in the ssid. I changed the ssid to have no spaces and they could connect perfectly (Nov'17).

Yes and yes.  http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=8035
I haven't seen any resolution to this except changing the router's SSID if you have access to it.

Thanks!  I hunched the space was the problem and ended up changing the SAID, but was never sure it was really a bug with Android or not.

Its not so bad when its your AP and can change it but they really need to fix thnugbug.

Fortunately the AP I was having a problem with had a guest SSID option.  We just added the second SSID and were able to connect without affecting the other established users.


text:
Is there a way to display Interstate Rest Areas on Google Maps Navigation?
I've had several instances where this information would have been useful when navigating w/ Moto Droid, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to get to interstate (USA) rest areas in Google Maps Navigation.  Are they grouped in with something else? Called something else?
I was thinking of suggesting this to Google, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't already there and missing it.

while looking for the version number (4.5) to add to this question, i found an option to add from my maps: Layers --> More Layers --> My Maps --> select a map created ahead of time (by myself or others).  it gets the job done.

A bit of a hack.
Thanks to an answer in the gis.stackexchange.com, I was able to contact the owner of a web mashup (driven by a google spreadsheet) who created an KML export link.
http://tables.googlelabs.com/exporttable?query=select+col3%2Ccol1%2Ccol2%2Ccol4%2Ccol5%2Ccol6%2Ccol7%2Ccol8%2Ccol9%2Ccol10%2Ccol11%2Ccol12%2Ccol13%2Ccol14%2Ccol15%2Ccol16%2Ccol17%2Ccol18+from+261434+&o=kmllink&g=col17
Copy/Pasting this link into the search box in Google Maps on my droid displayed the rest areas on the map.
There's a limit to the number of points the map will display out the KML, so if you are zoomed out too far, you'll only get a cluster of points.  So make sure you are zoomed in close enough--having a few states visible should still work and be no problem.
When the map points load, the extent changes. I guess it's to the extent of all the points that were loaded from the KML.

Nice find. I'll have to try that.

I'm also attempting to contact google mobile team and see if they would consider adding this type of data as a layer--that would be a lot more convenient.


text:
How to highlight nickname instead of first name/last name?
I would like to highlight nicknames in the contact list using a bigger font and first/last name under that, in smaller font (practically opposite as implemented by default)
Is it possible?
I am running Android 2.2 (CM6.0.1)

Not with the stock Contacts app.

Could you suggest me a different way to reach the result? Another rom, or a market app?

There are quite a few Contact List replacement apps in the market, you won't need to root or replace your ROM since the default Contact apps is just another regular Android application. I haven't actually used them, so I can't recommend any good ones, so you will have to play with them and see which ones you'll like.

I've tried Go Contacts and Go Dialer and it seems really handy with useful features and beautiful look!
P.S I wanted to post a comment but I don't have adequate permission for "comment everywhere" right now!

This seems like an answer to me.

The app is no longer available. How do solve this issue these days?


text:
Samsung Moment telephone through AUX
I have an iPhone, and while in my car, I can connect to the radio through my AUX jack and use the phone that way. The iPhone microphone picks up just fine and I hear the person through the car speakers. While I don't think Apple intended for it to be used this way, it works just fine.
My mom has the Samsung Moment, and when we tried that in her car, I couldn't hear her at all. Does Android disable the microphone when an aux cable is plugged into the headphone jack? If so, is there any way around it? Has anyone had success with using an Android phone in a vehicle radio like this?
Thanks!
Thomas

I have a Motorola Droid and I plug in a FM transmitter into the headphone jack and my mic still works (because I use this to make calls while driving).
Does the AUX cable also have a mic on it?  If so, maybe that is overriding the phone's mic input.

I do the same thing and it works fine on my Droid.

Thanks for the replies, but nope. The AUX doesn't have a mic on it. It's just a standard 1/8" to 1/8" connector

Try this: plug in any set of headphones (that do not have a mic).  Call someone.  Try talking to them.  Does the mic work then?  Maybe the FM transmitter that you are using is the problem? This is the one I use: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E43GOO/ref=oss_product

Good idea Bryan. I'll try that next time I see her. I don't have an FM transmitter though, the head unit has an AUX input jack.

@Thomas well, using headphones should either tell you one of two things: 1) Something is wrong with the AUX input jack 2) something is wrong with the headphones jack of the phone (or a software problem of the phone?)


text:
How do I use the emulator with AppInventor?
How did you enable an emulator for AppInventor? I want to test out the junk that I created on a emulator, before using it on my phone.

Check out this page on the App Inventor website on how to use App Inventor with an emulator.


text:
My Google Voice services keeps getting stuck on “restarting”
The "UpdateService" for Google Voice constantly keeps getting stuck on "restarting" and therefore I miss out on receiving SMS messages from Google Voice. I've already been trimming down on some unnecessary services and it doesn't seem like it has helped a whole lot. Any other suggestions or thoughts about this problem?
I'm currently running CM6, but it happened before on stock too.

I haven't seen this particular issue before, but Kevin Purdy's "Holy Trinity" of steps to take with apps that just aren't working properly is:
From Settings | Applications | Manage applications | <application>

Force stop

if that doesn't help

Clear cache

if that doesn't help

Clear data

and if that still doesn't help, try the nuclear option:

uninstall and re-install


text:
Application Always Downloading
I notice sometimes an app (in this case Dropbox) is always downloading when I go into Market > Downloads. I even uninstalled it. So it doesn't appear in my application list but it still says Downloading in the Market. The progress bar is empty.
I couldn't find anything on the web. Has anyone else experienced this?

I had trouble downloading the latest update. What I did was from the list of applications in the Market, I did a long press and Cancel download. After that I was able to select it and download it successfully.

That did it. I think I had tried cancelling the download, either after a short press or via the menu, but it kept starting up again (without finishing). Thanks!


text:
How can I increase the size of the Google Maps cache?
Currently the size of the Google Maps cache on Android is very small in comparison to the IPhone Maps application. A bigger cache would improve the maps application significantly by helping the maps appear a lot quicker than they do now.
There is an issue raised on Google Code with some further details (link) but wanted to raise it here just in case anyone knows a solution.

The Brut Mod can cache map tiles on SD card. So you get large cache.
Caching feature is by default disabled, you need to turn it on in setting.


text:
What is assisted GPS?
This site describes the Galaxy as having "Assisted GPS". What does this mean?

Assisted GPS is a system which can improve the startup performance of a GPS satellite-based positioning system.

Wikipedia has your best answer.

More specifically, it uses the cell network so that a GPS fix converges faster.

Does it need a good Cell signal to work and is there a cost to battery life

Performance will vary depending on the quality of the time signal from the cell tower and the data rate you're able to achieve.  GPS by itself is very battery intensive, but the overhead for the assisted part is fairly minimal if there's good cell coverage.

When A-GPS works, it can have significant battery life savings since it lets you get a GPS fix faster and get done using the GPS faster.

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


text:
Google voice not checking for messages
Just recently I've missed a few text messages via Google Voice because the alert hasn't come through.  As soon as I open the app the backed up messages arrive and trigger the alert.
I have background notifications turned on (or at least I think I have - Background data is "enabled")
Any ideas?

I'm having the same problem here.
Check running services under Settings --> Applications --> Running services.  Is the Google Voice update service stuck on restarting?
If so, you might want to try and remove apps that are running services.  In other words, uninstall apps that you aren't using that are causing excessive amounts of services to run and eat up your free memory.
You can also try Al's suggestions.

It seems to be running although it only has 9 minutes of up time vs 20 mins of uptime for all the other services.

In the Google Voice app settings, turn off/uncheck the following:

Voicemail display - View and play voicemails from the phone call log

Once I did that and made a test call/vm, I received the notification just like I expect.


text:
Bulk uninstall applications
I like to try out lots of apps. Often a site like Lifehacker or Droidlife will feature several that are similar in functionality and I will install them all in order to compare features.
That leaves me with lots and lots of applications that I end up not wanting to keep. Unfortunately, I can only uninstall one at a time.
Is there an app or method that would allow me to uninstall a bunch at a time?

There are tons of apps that do batch uninstalling but here's a simple free one that I know works: Uninstaller Pro
A lot of the more full featured app managers also have a batch uninstall option.  I like to consolidate functions into as few apps as I can.  Now I use SmartBar which has a good app manager with batch uninstall.

I tried both smart bar and uninstaller pro, and get prompted to confirm for each app and after the uninstall, so to uninstall 50 apps I have to tap on 100 OK buttons. Is this SN android security feature / limitation?

Scripted via adb & pm (package manager):
If the SDK is installed and you like to use the commandline, that's about the quickest way I know of:
Downside: you only get to see the package names, not the friendly application names (There's seemingly no easy cli way. For programmers: get application name from package name)
Downside 2: Be sure what you do, you might uninstall every app on your phone if you don't edit the list.
 # Use android's package manager 'pm'
 # list all 3rd party pkgs (using the '-3' parameter)
me@local:~$ adb shell pm list packages -3 > /tmp/pkg.list
 # Use whatever editor you like (grep, vi, GUI) to edit the list
me@local:~$ vi /tmp/pkg.list
me@local:~$ cat /tmp/pkg.list | sed 's,.*:,,' | while read a; do adb uninstall $a;done

Maybe also an improvement for a limited number of apps:
Google's Play Store now offers improved per device management (since around Google I|O 2012):
Go to My Android Apps (login required) and you see "Apps installed on [Device Model]". Per app you have an:

Update button (if there's an update)
Uninstall button (except for system apps)

Using this you can easily uninstall apps on specific phones or tablets using your internet browser.
See also this accepted answer: Remotely uninstall apps?

While updating and uninstalling from the web Store makes things much easier (I really like it) you still need to do each app one at a time.

@Al Everett: Added scripted solution also. Better? :-)

It's an option. Not one that will work for me, but someone else can probably benefit.

There are a ton, aren't there?
One I'm looking at is Apps Uninstall.
A nice feature it has is the ability to mark apps to protect them from accidentally bulk uninstalling.

It's been awhile since I used it, but AppBrain's app will let you sync to your AppBrain account...  so it should uninstall apps you remove from your AppBrain account, but I can't verify that since I don't use it anymore.
Not a batch uninstall, but in LauncherPro you can drag and drop apps to the trash can, hover for a few seconds, and then drop to uninstall it (instead of removing it from the homescreen).  Works from the app drawer too.  This is the method I usually use.

The problem with his method and most other methods I have seen (at least on my CentOS 6 and Ubuntu 10 machines) is that CRLFs were at the end of each line of the /tmp/pkg.list file, so the uninstaller instead of uninstalling com.google.chrome, was actually attempting to uninstall 'com.google.chrome^M'  ... notice the CR return character. By doing dos2unix, there is 'Success', not 'Failure'. His sed script may have originally been a substitute for dos2unix, but was mangled when posted.
[CentOS6]# adb shell pm list packages > /tmp/pkg.list.txt
[CentOS6]# adb push /tmp/pkg.list.txt /tmp/
[CentOS6]# adb shell
android:/root # dos2unix /tmp/pkg.list.txt
android:/root # for f in \`cat /tmp/pkg.list.txt\`; do echo $f; pm uninstall $f; done;

The 'Failure' problem has more to do with the ADB shell appending a DOS line ending ^M (on CentOS Linux anyway).
Since I did everything from CentOS 6, I was surprised to be bitten yet again by 1980s technology that was never as good as the technology from 1969. I guess Google wanted to make things easier for Windows users of the ADB shell.
(I had edited (appended) to ce4's answer, but apparently that did not take.)

Also, for windows users of the adb shell hmmm... you did not happen to be using notepad or similar? They do not handle Un*x format files - Notepad2 or Notepad++ would have been a better choice in which it can handle that :)

i bulk uninstalled a bunch of applications to copy to /system/app/ because my phone is stuck in safe-mode.  The phone is still booting.  i believe i should be able to provide proof that adb itself even when run on Linux is appending DOS newline characters.   No windows was involved, i mainly use CentOS, Ubuntu 10, and other flavors of *nix.  i only use windows to administer ADS.

let us continue this discussion in chat

How does this even answer the question?

Al, the question was how to bulk uninstall applications, the script i posted above does exactly that.  Notice the 'pm uninstall' part.

For Windows users, after generating the list packages like this
adb shell pm list packages -3 > pkg_third.txt

Open and edit this file, leave only packages that will be REMOVED.
In PowerShell, execute this script
Get-Content '.\pkg_third.txt' | ForEach-Object {

    $packageNameCleaned = $_ -replace '.*:', ''
    Write-Host "Removing $packageNameCleaned"
    & adb uninstall $packageNameCleaned
}


text:
HTC Sense restarts frequently on Hero 2.1 - can low memory cause this?
Often when I return to the home screen from using an app, the HTC Sense UI (running 2.1) restarts.  It seems to be worse when more apps are running.  Does it shutdown to free memory, is there a stability problem or something else?

This has been happening to me more and more often (multiple times a day). However, my Incredible was rooted more than a year ago, so hasn't installed any updates since then. Not sure if there's a connection.

Whenever android needs more ram, it will kill anything in the "background" the HTC sense is background if you are playing a video game or any other app. So when android sees that it needs ram, sense with it's fairly large memory footprint is a prime candidate. Think nothing of it. If it crashed you would get a "force close". Some launchers do tricks to force them to not be killed by android BUT that has a negative effect on ram availability for foreground apps.

Most likely you have too many services running at once that are eating up all of your memory.
Check running services under Settings --> Applications --> Running services. Look at the colorful memory bar at the bottom of how much free memory there is.
Look for services that are high on memory usage and that you don't use anymore.  Ask yourself if you really need that service running or not.  If you don't, remove it.  See if that helps.  You'll probably see a better performance boost everywhere if you are being bogged down by excessive amounts of services.
Additionally, you could try out a new Home launcher such as LauncherPro.

All helpful points, thanks.  However, I would still like to know if low memory is the cause.


text:
How can I access the /android_asset/ folder on my phone?
or in other words:

Where is it?
Can I access it without root access?

I've been searching in ASTRO file manager but I can't find it.  What is the full path?

What is this folder used for?  I've never heard of it before?

I'm not sure if it's even a physical location or a dynamic one that is app specific, but I'm trying to change the page that is opened when I open a new tab in Dolphin HD.  It points to file:///android_asset/new_tab.htm.  I'd rather it open to my homepage, and since there's no setting to do this I figured I'd edit this file and make it exactly what I want.

Ah, it sounds like the assets folder of an APK. You may not be able to alter it since APKs are signed by the developer.  See CommonsWare's answer.

Have you seen this? enter link description here Probably a duplicate answer

Where is it?

It is inside an APK file for some application.

Can I access it without root access?

You can download the APK to your desktop and unZIP it.

Dolphin HD...points to file:///android_asset/new_tab.htm

Since Dolphin HD is not open source (AFAIK), you have no way of changing this behavior. You also cannot modify this file unless you sign the resulting modified APK file with your own digital signature, in which case you would never again be able to get an update to Dolphin HD.
You may wish to contact the Dolphin HD developers and suggest a feature that meets your needs.

Is the app run from the APK or is that just an installer package?

@matt: It's a bit of both, really. AFAIK, though, assets stay in the APK file and are loaded out of there.

Ohhh, I think I'm getting in a little over my head.  Thanks for the help.

I was actually able to find the file.  I was trying to email myself the APK from ASTRO (long click on file) and it always showed it as attached to my message but it was never there when I received the email.  I was able to get directly to the file when I chose "Add Attachment" in gmail.  It brought me to the APK file and then let me browse inside the file instead of running it.  I emailed myself the new_tab.htm. Unfortunately it doesn't look like I'll be able to get it back in there.  Oh well, emailed the Dolphin HD dev, hope they add the feature.


text:
shutting down hasn't finished (2.1)
my battery was getting flat so HTC Desire 2.1 decided to shut down. That's fine but the shutting down never finished.
Put it on charger. And when clicking Power Off nothing happens. The phone is slow to operate.
Is there anything else I can do except taking the battery off?

I would remove the battery at this point.

well I did so but is there anything else I can do to fix that or even prevent from happening?

My Desire always did this, I have no idea what caused it, I always just ripped the battery out, it didn't seem to do any harm. Upgrading to Froyo fixed the problem for me.

I plan to upgrade. Let us see

no problem with that issue on cm7 any more

A while back I read something that suggested this problem could be caused by a dodgy SD card. The suggested fix that seemed to work for me was to unmount the SD card and then power off. I have since bought a new SD card and the problem has gone away entirely.

I tried to unmount the SD card and it did not help. I hope Mr.Froyo will help ....


text:
The loud speaker on my Samsung Captivate stopped working! Is my phone broken or can I fix it myself?
The speaker at the back of my phone, used for ringing and playing sound without headphones, is completely silent. Do I need to have it repaired?

The Samsung Captivate's speaker can work its way loose, usually after the phone takes a hard knock (like being dropped). In most cases you can fix it yourself by opening the back and pressing HARD on the speaker with your thumb. You should probably power the phone off to do this.

Oh man! Didn't think it was going to work but it did! Thanks a lot for the TIP. If it was my question I would have accepted this as the answer! :-) Thanks for the question & the answer!

It sounds like you're up to fixing it yourself. Here are TechRepublic teardown links in case you need them. Just make sure you have the proper tools (and patience). Good luck!
TechRepublic Teardown - Main
Speaker Assembly - Front


text:
Does android 2.1 have any specific built-in ebook apps?
I'm thinking about getting a Samsung Galaxy S phone, I want to know a bit more about its capabilities as an ebook reader
Does it have any built in applications for reading? And if so which formats does it support?

See also http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/3424/android-ebook-options-ereader-apps-kindle-nook-google-books

Android 2.1 doesn't have any preloaded ebook readers but specific phones may have something preloaded.  The pre-loaded apps depend on the carrier, but regardless you can download different ebook readers from the Android App Market for free.  Unfortunately none of the current ebook readers are a complete solution as they all have major limitations.  Here are the main players:
Free & Non-proprietary (free app & free books)
Aldiko: Supports ePubs with and without Adobe DRM.  There are thousands of these books available; Aldiko also has an included store selling commercial, DRM-protected books. Great user interface.  Aldiko also has a paid app that has more features.
There are a bunch more that do the open source books in the app market but none hold a candle to Aldiko.
Proprietary (these are all free apps but in most cases you have to buy the books)
eReader:  Only reads PDB files and you have to sideload the app.  There area several book stores that sell books in this format including ereader.com and fictionwise but these books are usually twice as much as Kindle or Nook books.  Barnes & Noble used to sell PDB ebooks but swicthed to a DRM'd ePub.  This has got a great (powerful and easy) UI and used to be my favorite when I could get books from B&N but now it is useless to me.
Nook: Reads open ePubs and DRM'd ePubs you buy from Barnes & Noble.  The UI needs a lot of work compared to eReader and Aldiko.  *I just abandoned this for the Kindle app.
Kindle: (this one comes pre-loaded on the T-Mobile Galaxy S) Reads DRM'd (.azw) ebooks you buy from Amazon.  *This is now my ereader of choice.
Kobo: Reads ebooks from kobo.com.  I haven't bothered with this since the Nook came out.  It used to be able to read Borders.com books but I don't know anymore.  The old version of the app didn't allow for offline reading but they might have fixed that.
Most of the major proprietary readers (Nook, Kindle & Kobo) all have about the same selection of new release books at the same price (about $12.99 per book).  I expect these apps to get a lot better in the future it's just a very frustrating that I used to be able to use a much more robust and user friendly app (eReader) with new B&N books, but now I have had to downgrade to the Nook.
But to answer you question (got off on a tangent there, sorry): If you get the Galaxy S from T-Mobile you'll have Kindle pre-loaded, but even if nothing's pre-loaded you can download all or any of the above mentioned apps for free from the Android Market (except eReader which you have to sideload).

Update: Amazon just recently updated their Kindle App with a few key features (that I came to love in eReader) that make it a Nook killer in my book:  1. Ability to highlight text and make notes 2. Ability to long click on a word and look it up at dictionary.com or wikipedia.  I'm switching to the Kindle App now although I'm annoyed that I just bought two Nook books.

Very comprehensive answer, thanks for your time :)

Think the bundled eBook reader may depend on your network/country. My Vodafone UK Galaxy S came with Aldiko pre-loaded, but I mainly use the Kindle app (although it uses a DRM'd format there is a large selection of free books to keep you going).

I only use FBReader since it does full screen text reading the best. But I have to convert all my books from whatever format I get them in into the fictionbook format.

You should add Endless Reader to this list. It supports Open Formats (text files!) and is really quite good. I switched to it when converting to other formats like ePub became a pain.

In the US, at least, most editions of the Galaxy S are shipped with Quick Office, a pretty functional document viewer that includes Word & PDF support. It's basic, but works.
Beyond that, quite a few 3rd party apps are available on the market, including Adobe Reader, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and a handful of readers supporting non DRMed formats like TXT and epub.

I prefer FbReader but none of the android readers are as good as Stanza for iPhone.  I find them all quite disappointing:(.

My TMO Vibrant came with the Kindle app, but as Saiboogu said, they're all downloadable, too.

I am using Laputa reader and I am very much satisfied with same.

That looks like a good ereader.  Can it display DRM protected ebooks?

I think so it doesn't support DRM protected books.

My Samsung Galaxy S came with the Aldiko e-reader pre-installed.  Apparently, this is pre-installed by Samsung, not my carrier.  It is specified in the official Galaxy S website in the user guide, under tools.


text:
Is It Possible to Know the Location of the Caller?
If I'm using an Android, is it possible to know the physical  location of the person who call me/ I call to?

yes if you're 911, there are laws all over the world restricting devices from broadcasting the owner's location information without their explicit permission, except for the emergency response services.

The emergency response authority does not have that feature in the EU IIRC, it was apparently bandied about in the media that they were going to implement it in 2015...and let's be honest here, as a individual average Joe User, why would you want to know the physical location of the caller?

Yes. I have not tried the WorldCallPlaceAndTime App but it looks like what you want. Below you can see the summary and screenshot from appbrain.
EDIT: Based on the comments on appbrain, this app just determines the caller's location based on the phone number's area code. If you want to know the phone's physical location, you'll need to use something like Google Latitude, which does not give you the caller's location during the call (yet).

This program shows a small
  CUSTOMIZABLE info window during
  incoming/outgoing call: country,
  region, city (or mobile operator) and
  LOCAL TIME in that place (worldwide)!
2.0: colors option for donators, bugfixes
tag: call location,calllocation,who's
  calling,wer ruft an,caller id,who
  called

I was going to say, the only way you'd know is by area code or public number listing.

This app flashes the info for half a second yes it technically meets the specification but is not particularly useful.  Do you know of a way to fix this?

You can only do a lookup for a house phone. A mobile phone you don't know where they are most likely unless you have a subopena.

Download Mobile Number & Phone Location form Google Play Store.

A brief description about the app and why  does the app is useful to question, both points are required in the answer. Consider adding them.

TrueCaller ($6.99) does area code lookups plus public directory lookups.  If the number is in a public directory it'll tell you the person's name & address (if available) otherwise it defaults to showing the location based on area code. I've never used it and it does not have very good reviews in the app market but it seems like a lot of those are from people with unrealistic expectations and people who don't want to pay for apps.

I was trying to get TrueCaller app and it says "This app is unfortunately no longer available on the Android market."

@swiftBoy updated link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.truecaller


text:
Will the HTC Desire HD have superior hardware than the Samsung Galaxy S?
I'm thinking about ditching my iPhone and going Android, so far the best contenders are the HTC Desire HD and the Samsung, which one has superior hardware specifications?

It really depends what you mean by superior. The Desire HD will be basically the same as the existing Desire but with a 4.3" screen and will have the same amount of internal storage as the Galaxy S.
The Desire HD will have 768 MB of RAM instead of 512 MB on the Galaxy S.
But the Desire HD will have the same Snapdragon processor as the old Desire, whereas the Galaxy S has the superior Hummingbird.
However, the Desire HD will have a 8 MP camera whereas the Galaxy S only has 5 MP, and the Desire HD has dual LED camera flash whereas some of the Galaxy S phones don't have a flash at all.
That sums up the major differences, and personally I'd lean toward the Desire HD, but you should compare for yourself and see what better fits your needs:

HTC Desire HD specifications
Samsung Galaxy S specifications

In addition to you excellent answer I can add that the GPU on Galaxy S is superior than the one mounted on Desire HD, so if you main goal is gaming could make some difference.

Actually with the new Adreno 205 GPU which is on par with the one in the Galaxy S and along with the faster CPU, the Desire HD should be as fast if not faster.

In fact the Desire HD also has a better CPU than the Desire (Snapdragon QSD8250 vs Snapdragon MSM8255). In the end the combination of the better CPU plus the (way) better GPU than the Desire, the Desire HD becomes quite as fast as the Galaxy S.

I chose the Desire HD over the Galaxy for a couple of fairly qualitative unscientific reasons.

I've had good experience with other HTC android phones (I adored my HTC magic).
To my eyes at least, the Samsung Galaxy has been styled to look just like an iPhone 3g. If I wanted something that looked like an iPhone, I'd get an iPhone.

On a more scientific level. As has been mentioned, while the Desire HD is still clocked at 1Ghz, it's snapdragon is the latest revision, made with the smaller process than the old Desire, and with the improved graphics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapdragon_%28processor%29
The screen on the desire is also bigger (and to my eyes awesome), but most reviews I've read say the colour and sharpness of the Galaxy is better. The Desire HD is also a big package overall, it may be a little too large for some pockets, I don't know how much more comact (if any) the galaxy is.

+1 At last someone agrees with me. I spent the best part of a week trying to work out whether I REALLY wanted the Galaxy S (this was months before Desire HD) amazing phone, amazing hardware, but the guy that designed the look and shape of the outside of the phone needs to be taken outside and shot! Sure, it looks great, but only because the designer of the iPhone 3G did a great job. The number of people who think I have an iPhone at first glance really p's me off!


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Voice command slow with large contact list?
On my HTC Hero running 2.1, the voice command is slow - both startup and processing.   I have a large contact list (on the scale of 1000 contacts), and I suspect that is the cause.  Does anyone know if there is a correlation between the two?  If so, is there a solution other than trimming the contact list?

I have a similarly sized contact list and I've found that the Voice Dialer is both slow to load and slow to find responses on my Moto Droid (on 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2).  I stopped using the Voice Dialer and started using Voice Search (aka. Voice Actions) by saying "Call Jane Smith mobile."  I've found Voice Search to open quickly and to find contacts quickly. Both of those apps came preloaded on my phone and are from Google.
While I don't know the architecture of either app it would make sense to me that the Voice Dialer would be affected by the size of the Contact list more directly than the Voice Search app.


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Uninstall Sprint apps without rooting?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I uninstall applications that are locked by phone vendor?

Is it possible to uninstall stock Sprint apps (such as Sprint TV and Nascar) without rooting the phone?  If so, are there any undesirable side effects?

Depends on your definition of 'rooting'.  Depending on your phone, you may be able to simply install a custom Recovery on the device, boot to that, and either manually remove the apps through the adb shell or using some sort of installable script fed through the recovery in the form of a .zip file.  (That's how it works on the Samsung Moment.  Again, not sure what device you have and what options would be available in the custom recovery of that device)
The custom recovery will give you 'root' access to remove what you need to remove, but it will be separate from the regular Android, which will in no way have root.  So if you're worried about the security risks involved in potentially allowing other apps to gain root access, that's not something that could happen with just a custom recovery.  However, if you're looking at it from more of a warranty standpoint, and simply don't want to make unauthorized modifications to the phone, well, not much that can be done unfortunately.

No. Sorry. Anything "System" cannot get uninstalled without being root. Some apps like ADW.Launcher allow you to "hide" them by making app groups in the app picker list. These apps will still start during boot, but like all android apps, as long as they are not running, they won't consume anything other than ram, and if android needs more ram they will be the first things just removed from ram the second the phone needs it.

LauncherPro will similarly let you "hide" the apps too.


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How to remove corporate settings?
My DroidX just got upgraded to 2.3.15 (android version shows 2.2) over the air.  After the upgrade the phone forced me to set a pin number.  The phone is not currently connected to an Exchange server, but it used to be.  A couple of weeks ago I removed then Exchange settings for contact list sync and I uninstalled TouchDown.
The strange thing is that the Exchange server that I was connected to didn't have a requirement for a password, so I'm not sure where this setting is coming from.  When I look in Location & Security > Select Device Administrators I see "Corporate Sync" listed in there, but there doesn't appear to be any way to remove the settings.
I no longer work for the company with the exchange server, so I can't connect back to it.  I'd rather not wipe the phone and reset it if I don't have to.  I would also prefer not to root the phone as well.

FOR ROOTED PHONES ONLY
Well I've had the same problem as the original poster ever since I updated it to Froyo. My exchange account I previously had on the phone was using a remote administrator certificate that I could not remove. Yesterday I worked out a simple solution using R/W access to the /system/app folder.
Using a free root file explorer named Super Manager. I navigated to /system/app and renamed the file PolicyMgrProvider.apk to PolicyMgrPrivider.bak. This removed the remote administrator policy and allowed me full control over the lock screen. After I switched it to No Lock I went back and renamed the file to PolicyMgrProvider.apk.
No problems what so ever.
I did rename the file BlurEmailEngine.apk to a .bak at the same time, so if its not working disable that app as well long enough to change your lock screen settings.
I know you don't want to root your phone, but unfortunately its probably the only way you'll get that stupid PIN lock gone.

I just upgraded as well and had the same thing happen to me. However, in my case I am still connected to an exchange server. I know our IT guys are very open with not locking down our phones with stuff like this and I have had Windows Mobile phones connected to the same exchange server with no need for a pin number.

Open Phone Settings
Open Location and Security Settings
Go to Select device administrators

Mine currently says "Corporate Sync" is one of the device administrators, but doesn't allow me to remove it. You may be able to remove it since you have removed the connection to the server.
I suspect either the phone wasn't enforcing the settings set by the exchange server correctly or that there has been a bug introduced in the new version.
NOTE: I know this wont work for the person asking the question, but might be helpful to others. I was able to remove my exchange account, change my password back to Pattern instead of PIN, re-add my exchange account, and the phone did not force a PIN to be set.

Lucky. So far I've had no luck. May have to setup an Exchange server to connect to just to remove these settings (if that will even work).

Open up My Accounts application from application tray.
Select the Corporate Sync account you wish to modify.
Your Corporate exchange account settings will be displayed
Select Remove account to remove this Corporate Exchange account from the handset.

Seen here
Troubleshooting page in case of further problems.

There's the problem.  I don't have a corporate account listed there.  I've got the stupid Verizon Backup Assistant, my two non-gmail POP3 email accounts and my gmail account.

I tried the suggestions here with no luck. The solution I tried only works on a rooted phone.
Background: Removed Exchange/Corp Sync account, screen lock remained, and could not be disabled.
Install a Terminal emulator, install Busybox - need to edit one or two files with vi command.
DroidX:

Open terminal emulator.
su
cd /data/system
vi device_policies.xml
Open a line below policies

Add <!--
Escape out (volume up and the E key)
Go down to /policies
Open a line before it
Add -->
Escape out and save file :wq
Check list of files with ls command

The Droid 3 had a file called mot_device_policies.xml which additionally needed the same changes as described above.
The changes comment out the policies and after a reboot, you can turn off the screen lock!

FWIW, I just tried the steps posted above by mru and they did exactly what I wanted - removed the corporate account and freed my lock screen.
That said, there was one very minor glitch.  I tried to remove the PIN requirement immediately after I removed the account, but the system would not let me.  As you can imagine, I was disappointed.  But I went in awhile later, and the restrictions had been removed.  I had to enter my PIN one more time, and that let me reset the security to my preference.

This should be posted as a comment rather than as an answer.

Android 4.4 makes it easy.
It allows you to remove this (at least for me it did), by selecting the option, Clear credentials (Remove all certificates) from the Security menu.  Immediately, I was able to set no password/lock-code on my device again.
Hope this helps!


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Shuffle Controls work with Android?
I've used an iPod Shuffle for the past year and have come to appreciate the control "pod" on the headphones. Here's a link to the Sony buds I use. The controls up by the ear work very well on long bike rides or even when lifting at the gym. Don't have to pull the player out of my jersey or shorts pocket to change volume or skip to next song.
Now that I'm using my Android phone for music, I'm wondering if anyone has spotted any little hacks or apps that would enable iPod Shuffle headphones to work with an Android?

So you've tried it and it didn't work?  I use the music controls on my Motorola S9 bluetooth headphones on my Droid as well as on other devices.  I know the bluetooth stack that controls playback controls is standard, it seems odd to me that the wired headphones would only work with iProducts.

Yes, I've tried it. No love. Since the headphones are sold specifically for Shuffle I won't be too surprised if they're not standard. But would be cool if some enterprising person figured out a way to get 'em to work :-)

That would be cool. Sorry I didn't have an answer, but you could always sell your ipod lovin earbuds on ebay and buy an Android friendly pair.

maybe I should start a new topic for this... but do you have a link to an android friendly pair that isn't bluetooth?

+1 @Matt for selling the ipod earbuds :) @Chris_K it looks like, at least currently, in order to have all the controls like volume, skip, pause/play, they have to be bluetooth. I haven't found any that do all that from the 3.5mm jack. The ones for the vibrant are "supposed" to answer call, pause/play & skip song, but the only thing I can get mine to do is play/pause.

Many earphones come with these controls near the V-split of the cables or elsewhere. I even have two pair that came with, respectively, my ADP1 and my Nexus One. Obviously they work. I guess yours really only were designed for Apple.

I have something that will help you control your phone with headphone buttons, but I am not sure it will work with your shuffle headphones. There is an app called Headset Button Controller on the market, and there is a trial version to try out first. You can set it to take commands from headphone buttons (for example, my headset has one button and I can set it to pause/play if i press it once, go to next song if i press the button twice quickly, etc) it is worth a try

Apps like Headset Button Controller are the most likely to do what you ask. That said the headphones you use have to be hardware compatible with the Android device you are using.
My Sennheiser  MM50's are designed for iPhone but work on my Google Nexus S and HTC Incredible S, so I'd expect the same to be true of other iPhone compatible headphones and Android devices.
That said, the MM50's do exhibit different behaviour on either phone (e.g. press on Nexus mutes the call as I'd like, but on Incredible it ends the call - Grrr).

Jays Headset control. Works perfdectly on my HTC Desire HD with House of Marley Exodus headset which controls are made for iphone-ipod - playing default music player, Poweramp, 3, DS Audio, Youtube, Tune In Radio, Jazz Radio, etc, etc. Wonderful! I have read in the review it also works perfectly on HTC One X, HTC Incredible S, HTC Sensation, SGS2, Sony Experia S.


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Can you read a USB flash drive from an Android phone?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S (i9000) with Android 2.1.
I am wondering if it can read a USB flash drive. It will be really useful to copy files across USB drives so you don't have to carry laptops around.
I think if there is a cable/converter to plugin a USB into the phone and there is an app to read the connected USB drive, I don't see why it can't be done.
The problem is do the cable and app exist?

Yes and Kinda.
You're talking about USB On the Go (OTG) and Android is capable of it but it's not officially supported.  I couldn't find any apps in the app market that handle it but here are a couple people that got it working:
http://sven.killig.de/android/N1/2.2/usb_host/ (this guy basically turned his Nexus One into a whole work station)
http://www.tombom.co.uk/blog/?p=124
That second tutorial tells you to hack a cable but you can actually buy an OTG cable so this isn't necessary.
Also, I've seen some phones claim they are going to come out with USB OTG a while ago but I don't recall anything ever materializing.

I see, it doesn't seem to be a very easy task. Thanks Matt!

Yes, too hard for me.  This really is a must have feature that I hope they come out with an easy solution for.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 officially supports USB OTG. It seems it has a special adapter.


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What do I have to do to get my file system to recognize foreign characters?
I have some MP3 files that have Cyrillic in the mp3 data, as well as being named Сyrillic (the file names themselves as in "музыка.mp3". Is there some additional language package that can install to have my music player and file system render the Cyrillic data correctly?
I realize these are two separate features. I'm happy to get answers for both.
TIA

My assumption would be you need to install some kind of language package, buy a phone from the country of origin for that language, or convert the files back to English language.
When I go to Settings > Language & keyboard and look at the languages I can only choose from English and Spanish. So to install another language search the market for it like so, "Russian Language Pack". Install and go back to the language place in settings and select it. Then see if you can play the files.
If that doesn't work you are going to have to try the other two options.


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Does Android 1.5 Cupcake support WMA decoder?
I pushed some WMA files to emulator yesterday, and I found all of these music files can be played well by the music player, So I was confused.
I found that Android 1.5 didn't support the WMA codec, which is announced in the SDK
documentation. I also didn't find a WMA decoder in PV OMX.
How does this happen?

There isn't just one thing called WMA, WMA describes a whole set of different audio formats and technologies that all normally have a .WMA ending. Some of these are DRM encrypted, some have higher or lower level quality than others, some are optimized for voices. It's entirely possible that although your audio file has a .WMA extension and container, inside that it's actually a type of codec that Android can already natively handle.
See these links for a bit more explanation: Gentle Introduction to Video Encoding: Lossy Audio Codecs and Wikipedia - WMA

The same file doesn't play on my android phone (xperia x10 mini), having 1.6. I'm aware of the wma container, but the codec is also called wma. It's mime x-ms-wma is implemented in the omx source code only as a framework, calling dummy classes. It's getting really confusing now.

I believe an actual Windows Media Audio decoder would require to be licensed from Microsoft to be included as such in Android. Like how Microsoft Exchange intergration is liceanced from Microsoft by handset manufactures to include in their Android phones (HTC I think does so off the top of my head) and why Exchange by Touchdown I assume costs $19.99.
Like GAThrawn said, the .wma files you claim are probably MP3 or another format Android natively supports with a mislabeled file extension - try encoding some yourself and give it another try. :)


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How to use Google Talk voice and video calling on an Android?
How do you do Google talk voice and video calling from android.
The google talk application only appears to allow text based chatting. But Google talk on the desktop supports both voice calling and video chat.

There is no official Google talk voice/video chat for Android phones. You can use Google Talk in Android 2.3.4+ to make video chats now. Additionally, any calls made via Google Voice are done via cell tower (using your minutes), not data.

That last part is not necessarily true. There is a workaround to make VOIP calls over Cell or WiFi. http://lifehacker.com/5354607/make-and-receive-free-phone-calls-with-google-voice-and-android

@Webs I meant natively with the official app.  There are always workarounds :)

No worries Bryan, I figured as much.

Google voice is not available in my country New Zealand or in most other parts of the world.

this is not what the OP asked though, he's asking about Google Talk, not Google Voice.

@BryanDenny The Answer to this question is not up to date. Please update your answer.

@flow Fixed post

Sorry to bump an old question, but you can now make both audio and video calls from android with google talk if you have 2.3.4 (gingerbread) or higher.
1


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Where to copy wallpapers?
I downloaded some wallpapers for my phone using the PC. Now, in which folder of my Android phone should I store them in order to be visible in Wallpaper Gallery?

A quick solution : just copy them in DCIM (to use Gallery as a source) or store them in Picasa.
It'll allow you to get them from another handset if you want :)
EDIT (Thanks to Matt) : You can put the file in any folder of your FS, and Android will find it and suggest it as a wallpaper.

agreed, but want to add that you can store them in any folder and as long as they are picture files Android will allow you to choose them as wallpaper.  You don't need them to be in a "wallpaper" folder.

Yes, that's true. Works the same way as the music. I'll edit my answer .

I tried put in a folder wallpapers inside the SD but they are not retrieved by gallery. Do you have any suggestions?

Done! Using Media Rescan it update gallery with the new content added to SD, thank you.


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Is there a good app that lets me to the app updates in one go?
Right now in the market you have to manually update each app, is there an app that automates this?

Users can update several apps at once using Android version 2.2.
An answer in the Android support forum says:

They have added this already but this
  is probably limited to market client
  app on Android 2.2 aka FroYo and
  higher firmware.

Also, I don't see anything in the market would bring this out for pre-2.2 phones, but it could be out there.

I use AppBrain it automates the install procedure a bit.

But you still can't update all at once without 2.2, right? ;)

No, the AppBrain app works just fine with older versions. It merely goes through each app in turn. You do have to press buttons at each step, but it will at least go through each one without you having to go back to the market each time.

If you're after apps that automatically update themselves when an update is available, as of Android 2.2 there is an option to mark an app to automatically update. Then you'll never be bothered by an update alert for that app again (unless the security profile changes).

The only catch to this is that if you are rooted, you may experience difficulties with automatic or manual updating from time to time, especially with system applications. I suppose that does apply to any version though.

On 2.2 (all I have access to) use the Marketplace app,
open the menu, select My Apps.
All your installed apps will be shown, any with available updates will be shown at the top.
I don't see a way to then Actually update all that have available updates though.
And apparently on older versions this feature is not available as a part of the marketplace.

At the bottom of the screen will be a button that says "Update All".

I don't see it on 2.2.

If you've got the newly redesigned Market app (with the curved green area at the top) the Update All button is now at the top of the My Apps screen, if you've got pending updates to be installed.


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How can I attach a web page to an email?
I need to send a web page as an email attachment using GMail, not as a link to the page, but the entire page saved and attached to the email. I don't see any way to do this with the Android web browser. Is there a way to do this that I've missed, or are there other browsers that can accomplish this?

Dolphin Browswer HD has an option to "Save Page."  I tried it on this page and it saved it as 1606.htm.  I then went into gmail and chose to "add attachment" and used ASTRO file browser to attach it.

also, fyi, I was going look on your website for your email and email it to you but it appears that programwith.net is down.

Yep, its down. I really need to do something about that someday. :-)

The Xscope browser lets you save webpages but I can only seem to be able to attach pictures to emails from the Gmail app so you might struggle attaching the webpage.

If you use something like ASTRO file manager and can find the saved file, you should be able to share it with any number of apps.

I downloaded and tried Xscope, and it only allows me to download images or linked files. I could not find an option to download an entire page.

FYI, Downloading the HTML of a webpage without authorization from the owner of the site would probably be breaking terms of use of said site. If this is your website you maintain/own, then you should be fine here.
As for an app that can view source code of webpages try:

HTML Source Viewer
Search Marketplace for "html source" and there should be others too.

Not sure if any of them can copy/paste code, but its worth a look.

Uhh...you download the HTML of a page in order for your browser to render it, so your statement doesn't make any sense. Besides, all of your browsers on the desktop have "Save as..." functionality.

I'm pretty sure the browser doesn't actually "download" the code in the sense the code is stored locally on your system. But rather it interprets the code as presented to it by the web server. So I think most people would know what I was stating here. And yes all browsers do have save as functionality, but you need to check the copyright and terms of use of the website you are visiting. Just because you can do something of questionable legality doesn't mean it isn't illegal.

The code is stored locally on your system. That's what is saved in your browser cache.

"Breaking terms" is so wrongheaded, I don't know where to start. How do you think the web became successful? People viewing source and copying code, that's how. It was designed from the ground up to force sharing of code.


text:
Can I hide a program from ongoing activities in the notification bar?
Is there a way to hide the notifications that a given application shows in the Ongoing Notification bar?

It depends on the application, AFAIK. Do you have any specific ones in mind?

Some applications don't have the option to remove the notification itself. Does that mean it's impossible to remove the notification?

correct.  What app are you using?  Some apps put it in the notification bar such that the OS doesn't kill the app (such as Locale).

It's my understanding that whether the OS will kill an app depends on how the app handles the application lifecycle events. The official documention doesn't indicate that it matters whether the app places a notification.

As of Android 2.0, the system requires that apps that run constantly in the background, and that require a certain level of priority so that they don't get killed offhand (like music apps), put an Ongoing Notification. This was to prevent abuse of requesting this level of priority without letting the user know that it's occurring.
You can read about this here:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Service.html#startForeground(int, android.app.Notification)

But some apps allow you to hide the notification but still allow it to run in the background. I use Gentle Alarm which allows this. I think it is an app by app basis.

Gentle Alarm probably does not run constantly in the background, but rather schedules an "alarm" with the system for that app to be woken up at the proper time, which then sounds the actual alarm.  My answer is specifically about apps that run constantly in the background (such as music apps).

Try Smartbar.  I used to use it and it allows you to put shortcuts in the notification bar as well as hide icons in the notification bar.  I can't remember off the top of my head if it hides the icons put there by other apps but I think it does.  Sorry for the cheap answer, I just can't remember and I don't have time right now to download it and try it out to be sure.

As others have said, you can't remove an ongoing notification from the notification bar. It's there to alert the user that the app is constantly running, and without it the app could potentially be killed at any time by the OS.
That said, if you are running Jelly Bean (or newer), there is the option of disabling all notifications from an app. The setting is per-app and can be found in Settings > Apps > (select the app) > uncheck the "Show notifications" box. The one caveat to this method is that the app will no longer show any notifications in the notification bar, but if that's acceptable to you than I've found this method to be an easy way to stop my notification drawer from filling up with unnecessary notifications.

I would talk to the developers of apps and ask them is they plan to include the option to remove the app from the notification bar. They may oblige such a request. You could also leave a comment for the app and add that as a side note.
CM team and other ROM developers do create flashable updates to their ROMs so that icons and other items can be removed from the notification bar, but they usually do not do this for specific applications. You could check out information on this in the forum of the ROM you are using.


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Is there a way to edit Google Documents with Android
Is there a way to edit Google documents from an Android device?

We can now edit Google Docs with our mobile with the official App :)
More information can be found in this blog entry from the official Google Documents blog.

There are apps out there now that should make it easier to use google docs on your phone but an official app will be out soon according to CNET news.
Google Docs Coming to iPad, Android

I also found out this one as an alternative : http://sites.google.com/site/gdocsforandroid/

Documents to Go has support for downloading, editing and syncing your Google Docs from your device. The initial sync is slow and saving to Google Docs sometimes fails, but support is there.


text:
Is there an offline maps application for Android?
Google Maps is great, but unless you have an unlimited data plan, it's going to cost a lot downloading all that data all the time.
Do you know of any (preferably free) good offline map application for Android? Ideally one that can do navigation (preferably with voice) and in my location (Sydney, Australia).

Note: Google now provides offline maps.

Hmmm... How to use Google Navigator with that option of offline maps?

Yah, there is a terrific one, called Maverick Lite.
Off-road GPS navigator with OSM, Google and Bing maps. Support for offline maps & multi-touch. Build-in compass, timer and trip computer. Share your current or planned location. Record and upload tracks to GPSies.com. FourSquare support.
And it's free. the paid version costs about $4

I've been using AndNav2 with offline maps and using "show trace" to show where I've been.  I tried Maverick the other day and it's so much better.  I migrated all my maps to Maverick format and deleted AndNav.  :D

Maverick is no longer able to download Google Maps, due to prohibition by Google.  Happened to Mobile Atlas Creator, too (though older versions of each still work...)  Of course the other company's maps don't have nearly as much detail about places. :(

Oh, nevermind. ;)

Hey, it's on Google Play!!! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.codesector.maverick.lite&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5jb2Rlc2VjdG9yLm1hdmVyaWNrLmxpdGUiXQ..

There are quite a few that use openstreetmap data. This is a review of MapDroyd and BigPlanet and the openstreetmap wiki has a comparison of android clients - look in the first column and look for "online + offline".

OSM data is really crappy in the US compared to Google Maps.  In Europe OSM is much better.

In the near future Google Maps for Mobile 5.0 will be released, whose new features include offline storage of area you visit frequently.

update: it's been released

It still can't do offline navigation. It caches the maps, but doesn't plan routes.

There is a hack for Google Maps that allows for cached offline maps.  It can only do navigation in the normal way while connected to the Internet though.
Brut Google Maps

I like Waze.  It is free, works offline (synchs when you're connected to the internet in some way other than 3G).
Its main advantage is feedback from users.  It provides live traffic updates from other Waze users.
You can find it here:
http://www.waze.com/download/android_download/

Hummm. Nice to know that Waze can work offline :) But in some way can it save maps from some cities to navigate some days without internet???

You can created offline version of Google Maps with on your PC and use it with RMaps application on Android. Works very well for me.
You can download RMaps from Market: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.robert.maps&hl=en
And here is a guide on creating offline maps: http://xslab.com/2011/03/rmaps-offline-navigation-tool-for-android/

Recently, there is a new option: Sygic. This is one of the most important companies in the development of navigation software for mobiles. TomTom has also announced that will launch an Android application in the next months.

but paid, or not?

NavFree is free and allows you to download maps for offline navigation.

I used it, but every time I put it on backgroud it closes so I have to remake my route...

I use Custom Maps a lot myself, but you need to put a map image on your mobile yourself and match a few points up with Google Maps to make it work off-line. I often grab screenshots off NZ Topo Map for taking bush with me using Custom Maps.

You wrote the latter app, right? Could you add a disclaimer to the answer? See May I promote products or websites I am affiliated with here?

OsmAnd is free popular Offline maps for Android.

Unlike other apps, OsmAnd uses Vector based (not pixel) maps, which allows it to have crisp and clear viewing at ANY zoom level.
Includes POIs (points of interest), so you can search and locate the nearest restaurant, gas station, or recreational park.
Point to any location on the map and save it as a favorite.
Offline directional navigation to: POIs, favorites, or road intersections.
Optional extra app for voice navigation that speaks to you.
While navigating to a destination, it displays: your speed, remaining distance, and estimated time of arrival.
Alerts for speed limits and speed cameras.
Ability to avoid: toll roads, ferries, unpaved roads, motorways.
Supports Car, Bicycle, and Walking modes.
Supports dark color night viewing.
Automatic zoom based on speed.
Have the map stationary with north up, rotate with the compass, or have it rotate in the direction you are traveling.
Record (track) a path on the map with GPX routes.
A plugin to save where you parked your car, and alert you when your parking time is about to expire.
A growing number of free Plugins that are being contributed by the community every day.
Supports Many languages. Here are just a few: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese.

The best part is OsmAnd is GPL Open Source.
You can help support this project buy purchasing the OsmAnd+ version. This gives you access to download an unlimited number of maps, and access to Wikipedia sight seeing POIs. This app is well worth over double the price they are asking.
OsmAnd

A very good navigator is MapFactor Navigator Free. As the name suggests, it's free (as in "free beer", not "free speech") and it uses Open Street Maps (free as in "free speech and beer"), directly downloadable by the application menu.
As of today it's still in beta, but I tried it and it works well, comparable to if not better than Sygic, which I was using before.
MapFactor Navigator is on Google play.


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What is a "Froyo"?
The older Android versions are called "cupcake" and "eclair". Where does 2.2 get it's name from?

It's actually Froyo, not FroYo.

It's short for Fro zen Yo ghurt. I have no idea who came up with the idea to name it after frozen yoghurt though.

Hehe. Cool. ...

They go alphabetically, Donut, Elcair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb...  I guess they could have also gone with Frappe.

@Matt - Don't forget Cupcake. They go from Cupcake to Zatar.

http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/images/4/2009/05/cupacake_01.jpg

Whoops, how could I forget Cupcake!?  What do you think they'll do for X?

@Matt - Xiaodianxin.

They'd all be desserts or sugary goods.
After Gingerbread (2.3) and Honeycomb (3.x) it's rumoured to be Ice Cream - see the pattern?


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How to Disable Screen When Using Visual Voicemail?
Anyone know of a way to get the screen to automatically turn off when listening to a voicemail? I'm used to the feature of my HTC Evo and HTC Hero, where the proximity sensor automatically detects my face and turns off the screen. This doesn't seem to happen with the visual voicemail app, which is pretty annoying.
On multiple occasions I have accidentally deleted and called the person that left a message for me giving the impression I have fat cheeks. :(

Same thing happens to my with my Droid when checking my google voice messages.  I think that the proximity only works with the Phone Dialer maybe?

Man I would love to figure out a workaround for this as having that screen stay on is really annoying.

You can download "Proximity Sensor" from the market. But app states only works for Hero. :(

You could use Tasker to handle the proximity thing.  Additionally have you tried clicking the power button?