text:
How can I tell if I have root?
I've been attempting to root my phone (Samsung Intercept M910, but that probably doesn't matter).
How can I tell that I have actually, successfully gained root? I've run a few apps which require root, and some work and some don't, so I'm unclear if I've gained root or not.

Use terminal emulator (a popular free/open-source terminal emulator is Android Terminal Emulator, available from F-droid or Play Market), open the emulator and type
su
you will know with the message that appears after if phone is rooted or not.
Edit:
There is an app just for this now : Root Checker

A popular free/open-source terminal emulator is Android Terminal Emulator, available from F-droid or Play Market.

What if "su: not found"? It simply implies that the su utility has not been installed (or is not in the PATH), rather than whether we have root...

I got "su: not found". But I still suspect the phone is rooted. What can I do now?

try this app :  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joeykrim.rootcheck

Connect your phone in developer mode via USB and start an ADB shell
adb shell

If you see a # at the beginning of the line your phone is rooted, if it's a $ try to execute the su command, and if you get a # now, your phone is rooted, but if you get an error that su can't be found it's probably not, or the su binary is simply missing.
There are also apps on the market that test if your phone is rooted.

That's not enough. If you see a "$"-Prompt you still can elevate to root via the su binary (typing the "su" command), if you have successfully rooted your phone.

Yeah, forgot that some ROMs doesn't have root as default. Hm, anything else you want me to change now?

There is an application available in the market called Root Checker, that can verify if your phone is rooted, and if you have BusyBox installed.

Does not that just check for the su binary?

That is exactly what it means to be "rooted", is to have su binary installed properly with suid bit set. The su binary commonly comes with an accompaniment program to manage permissions, Superuser app, but this is just for conveniences and ease of use.

Thanks @Lie Ryan, but from some other comments it looks like the phone can still be rooted even if there is no su binary. Is that not correct?

Please see this thread for the reason I am asking: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/127347/can-gmail-be-uninstalled-on-android-5-1-1-lollipop

@Leo: to be precise, there isn't exactly a different state between rooted and unrooted devices in the underlying Linux system. All Linuxes, including unrooted Android, have setuid system call, which is the primary mechanisms used by Linux programs to acquire elevated privilege. Setting up a suid binary itself requires elevated privilege. Many Android system applications on a unrooted device runs with elevated privilege (e.g. adbd, system updater), but they only escalate for very specific purposes. su is a privileged program that allows you to invoke other programs with elevated privileged.

Thanks @Lie Ryan, that was what I thought. But I am trying to understand what the trouble is with my phone (if any, how could Gmail be uninstalled?). As I understand it Gmail can be uninstalled on a rooted Android, but I do not understand exactly why - or should I say "how"? I mean can I on rooted device just uninstall Gmail from the Play Store app, or?

@Leo: in short, being rooted is actually a property of a running process, not the system/device. If a process runs with elevated privilege, they're running as root, this is irrespective of whether su is installed. What "rooted device" in common Android parlance means is that the device is set up so that the user can elevate privilege of arbitrary programs, which is achieved by installing su as a suid program.

I see, @Lie Ryan. So, perhaps, in my case a possibility is that the Play Store app has the setuid bit set (or what it is called on Android)? Is there any way to check this?

You should see the "Superuser" application in the app tray.
Most rooting methods add this app to manage the superuser rights: it appeared for me when I rooted my Desire.

You can install Superuser on a non-rooted device just fine, though. It just won't do anything without the su binary (and will complain that it needs to "update" it every time you run it). The presence of Superuser doesn't really mean you're rooted; running it kind of does, but the update failure message doesn't say "failed to update because you're not root" or anything of that nature (and you can hit "Cancel" and it goes away).

Beside what everyone mentioned,
One super easy way would also be installing an app from Google Play that requires root access.
I suggest DroidWall, which is a must-have firewall for android. Install it, and hit apply rules. If not rooted, it will tell you, and will fail to apply rule.

For developers and to provide an imho more comprising test via adb do the following:
[you@yourbox]$ adb shell
[root&adbshell]$ mount -o rw,remount /system
[root&adbshell]$ echo $?
 0
[root&adbshell]$
[root&adbshell]$ mount | grep system
 /dev/block/by-name/system /system ext4 rw,seclabel,relatime,data=ordered 0 0
[root&adbshell]$ ls /dev/block/by-name/system -la
 lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2016-02-23 19:33 system -> /dev/block/nandd
[root&adbshell]$ ls /dev/block/nandd -la
 brw------- root     root      93,  24 2016-02-23 19:33 nandd

points are that :

Chances are that the adb shell prompt will tell you root@[something] which is clear
but just to check we try remounting /system read-write rw (something that needs root)
checking that the result worked out i.e no error echo $? yields 0
then still checking / following that /system eventually was at a block device /dev/block/nandd in the example that is reported to be accessible only by root

I am aware that this is a "for advanced users only" option, and ad best similar to the other answer suggested by @kyrias, but I think this one is slighly more compatible as mount in contrast to su is more likely to be there.
Also I would like to suggest that a comprehensive test of rootness would involve now to use the root powers and backup the content of the /system and flash it with an alternative system for trial. Else there is a change the adbd is only faking you information, always better to make sure you can test root powers by actually doing something that is visible on multiple channels :)

You can download an application called "Root Checker" that gains root access to your device and tests if it's rooted or not. You can easily understand with that way if it's rooted or not. I can understand with that way and it's extremely easy.
There are a lot of applications called Root Checker but that doesn't matter just install one and you're good to go.
After doing that you can understand is it rooted or not.
If it's rooted you can use every application that requires root with the device you're using.
If you're device is not rooted open the recovery project you've installed (on Samsung devices press the volume down+power+home button at the same time) and from there wipe the data. Then reboot your phone from the main menu of the recovery project and press volume up+power+home button to open the download menu.
WARNING: THE METHOD EXPLAINED HERE ONLY WORKS WITH EVERY SAMSUNG PHONE. AND IT WILL NOT WORK WITH OTHERS. IT CAN WORK BUT NOT SURE ABOUT IT. YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS CASE ON OTHER WEBSITES.
Connect your device to your Windows Computer and using Odin you can flash the necessary files including SuperSU to the device. And after doing those just reboot and bang, your device is rooted successfully.
Max Lee can help you on his website (highonandroid.com) that prepares cool articles about rooting.
You can also prefer The Unlockr that you can find on youtube and theunlockr.com.
Both prefer nice videos that can be helpful to you.

Its easy. Just download some famous root requiring apps(apps which require root) eg:- titanium backup, supersu etc. and see that they work or not. If they work correctly, then you have gained root. If they don't work, it means root is not working.

If they don't work, that might also have other reasons – such as incompatibilities with your device, bugs in the app. Of course if all of them fail, that might be a strong indicator – but a long way to go. Using a root checker, or a terminal app (as suggested in the linked answers) are much faster and more reliable methods.

Checking root is also a good method but according to question details, some apps had worked and some had not so probably root checker can also fail

It's more likely those failed for a different reason: A root-checker, or especially running the su command, has much less complexity, and thus is much less likely to fail.

Yes, you should download root checker basic or pro.


text:
How do I disable the lock-screen when my Samsung Galaxy S II is charging/connected via USB?
When I develop for my Samsung Galaxy S II, the screen locks as usual after the configured time. However, for development it would be practical if the phone would just stay awake while it is connected to my computer.
So,
How do I disable the lock-screen when my Samsung Galaxy S II is charging/connected via USB?
Question: Display On when plugged in is not a duplicate, as this solution does not work on the Galaxy S II. Unfortunately.

@Al Everett: Solution from "duplicate" does not work on Galaxy S II. I am looking specifically for solutions anybody may have found on the Galaxy S II. Please reopen?

Carriers and OEMs really need to stop messing with basic settings like this.

Try the app StayAwake, it should work for Galaxy S II too.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How can I prevent my screen from turning off while on a phone call?
When I'm on a call my screen turns off after X seconds.  Half the time I can't get it to turn back on without pushing the on/off button, which I have set to terminate a phone call (because half the time I can't get the screen to turn back on).  Is there a way to just turn this "feature" off?
In case it matters:

Phone: Samsung Vibrant
OS: 2.2 / FROYO.UVKA6 / 2.6.32.9

It's turned of so that you don't accidentally press a button while talking.

See http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/8667/avoiding-my-cheek-hung-up-on-you-on-an-optimus-t
TL;DR - Use Screebl

I have a Motorola Droid 1, and on my phone, the screen "wakes up" during a call when I pull it away from my face. I'm not sure if it's a heat/motion sensor or something, but considering the Vibrant is newer than the Droid 1, I'm sure your phone works similarly.

@BigCaseyDog Its a proximity sensor which is nothing else then a simple light sensor. If you cover it, Android assumes that you put the phone on your ear, whereupon it disables the input.

Keep screen on during calls
That setting is not available on all phones, but if it was it would be under:
Home > Settings > Call Settings > [Display >] ...
But as for the difficulty turning the screen on
Be sure that the power button does not end calls (Settings > Accessibility > Power Button ends call : make sure it is UNchecked)
Then just pull the phone away and press the power button to turn the screen on.

Part two of your answer did the trick.  I guess I'd only tried the volume keys before to "wake it up"; the power button works, too.  Thanks!

Are you sure that the screen goes off after X seconds? Android phones with proximity sensors usually turn off the screen when they are put on an ear. The Phone should automatically turn on the screen if you uncover the light/proximity sensor (e.g. by removing it from your ear). The Galaxy S does this and I suppose that the Vibrant does so too, because they are basically the same phone models. Other Android phones behave similar.
I am not sure if it's possible to disable this feature. Even if so, you would encounter another problem: Accidental pushing buttons on the touchscreen with parts of your face, which could lead to hang-ups.

On 1.6, my Droid had this problem, too.  Some percentage of the time the screen would not wake up when you moved the phone away from your face.   It went away with the 2.1 or 2.2 upgrade.

I suspect this is the same on my phone, only it hasn't gone away with any updates :(

I had been having exact same problem for a few months on my LG-P500, but have just fixed it. I found that the proximity sensor had gotten covered with dust as the screen cover had slightly lifted in the area of the proximity sensor. Once I cleaned it off it worked fine again.

You can disable the proximity sensor or simply go to call setting and you will find an option that reads keep screen awake.

I guess T-Mo took that option off the Call Settings page...

maybe, but on a standard unlocked android phone the option exists.

I'm not quite sure how to turn the feature off but when I had my Droid Eris, it would do the same thing.  I found that if I simply hit one of the volume buttons on the side, the screen would come back on without having to end the call.

I have noticed (while searching like mad to put my phone in a universal waterproof case for my handlebar, where the proximity sensor is hidden), that when the Bluetooth is on the screen stays on during a call.
Also, as Brian says here,  when I'm on a ride with the "Strava" app running and I receive a call, the screen goes black, but if I press the "back" button, it goes back to Strava with the screen on.

I have the same problem of the screen dimming in my LG during a phone call. It matters because I have to sit and listen to really long conference calls, and I have to be ready to turn off Mute to answer a question.
I haven't found the settings that have been mentioned. My only work-around is to be in another app, and when I have to go to the phone, I click the call icon in the 'Second Screen.'
So, now I have one  tap instead of 2 taps to wake the phone. That's a marginal improvement.

To keep the screen and disable the proximity sensor launch another program while on a phone call. The screen will remain on while the phone is against your ear.

+1, works. Pressing the home button to put the call app into background also works, you need to wait a second for the effect to be switched off though.

If you enable the touchpad while the call is coming in, the screen will stay on even when the phone is pressed against your face.  For instance, if you answer a Google Voice call and have to push "1" to pick up the call.
Of course, this will result in you repeatedly pressing the buttons with your face, causing GV to say "this call is being recorded" and possibly hang up, but hey, you asked for it.

02-09-2013 - When the screen goes dark (by factory default) while on a call can be very frustrating. I just purchased a new Samsung Galaxy Proclaim, an Android phone, and this solved the problem.
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Power Button ends call : make sure it is UNchecked
Then when the screen goes dark while you're on a call and you need for it to come back on for pressing prompt numbers, account numbers, or whatever....just press the power button to turn the screen on. Since you've unchecked the end call by pressing the power button...the screen will now come back on and will not end the call. Hope this helps.

You noticed the OP explicitly checked that feature because he wants to be able to end a call, and the screen didn't turn back on? So your suggestion just brings him back to where he was before: Being unable to get the screen on, AND being unable to end a call.

I lived with this problem for a few months but eventually I hit my breaking point.

Searched Google & tried other suggestions for fixes
I realized I just wasted way too much time...

So I came up with a plan of my own:

ripped the phone apart
unplugged the sensor from the board
turned the phone on to test & it worked!
I have an S4 and on my hardware this sensor was attached to the audio jack as well
I needed my audio jack still so I ripped the sensor off the audio jack and threw it in the garbage with much satisfaction
put everything back together
lived the rest of my life with one less phone problem

Software workarounds are usually better (of which there are several).

Point missed: "* voided my warranty for good"

does your device have shake your phone to activate camera feature? If so just shake phone then hit back button to get out of camera mode. Also on some phones it will light up screen when plugging into power or unplugging.

From your description, it sounds like there may be an issue with your proximity sensor. The proximity sensor should turn off the screen instantly when you put the phone to your face during a call. The way you described the screen turning off after X amount of time sounds like it's just normally timing out. You can use an app called AndroSensor to test the functionality of your proximity sensor. This would also explain having to turn the screen back on manually instead of it happening automatically. Also, you may want to look closely at the sensor, there may be dust on it preventing it from working properly.
As others have noted, the Vibrant should have an option for disabling the sensor. Is this option already checked? That may have something to do with it.

I found a couple of settings in Cyanogenmod which could be useful. I am not sure if they are available in vanilla Android.

Also, the proximity sensor application in HTC is pretty good. But I am not sure about Vibrant.

The best way that I find is to cover the screen for a few seconds and then release. This is the same mimic as if you are calling into voicemail or a feature for which you are required to press a key. This is the best means that I have found to keep all features enabled.
BTW: I find it odd that you have the power button set to hang up. I believe this is a feature you setup in order to advert another issue. Maybe solving the hang up feature problems will assist with this one as well?

I've tried that hand trick repeatedly -- no joy.  I set the power button up to hang up because I couldn't wake up the screen to hang up calls...

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


text:
App <X> isn't working correctly. How can I fix it?
I have an application that isn't working correctly. Either it's not launching, or not responding to commands, or some of the functionality isn't doing what I expect.
What are some simple steps I can do to try to fix the issue on my own?
(This question and answer are intended to be a canonical and generic source for dealing with apps that aren't working quite right.)

The steps to take with an app that just isn't working properly are:

Rotate the device

if that doesn't help
From Settings | Applications | Manage applications | <application> or Settings | Apps | <application> (depends on your version of Android)

Force stop

if that doesn't help

Clear cache

if that doesn't help

Restart the device (turn off/turn on the device, or use the "restart" option if you have it)

if that doesn't help

Clear data

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

uninstall and re-install

Final step: Report a bug and wait for the next version.

If you have multiple devices, install the application on other device and verify if same issue exist. Contact the developer instead if the problem persists.

I would highly recommend switching "Clear data" with "Restart the device"! Restarting device helps in many situation and issues an isn't an intrusive way of resolving problems. Clearing app's data certainly is an intrusive way, because many applications may not work correctly after that or you may loose a a lot of settings, data etc. (i.e. entire achievements and the whole gameplay usually goes hell, if you try "Clear data" on any kind of game).

@trejder: That seems reasonable. A restart is certainly not destructive, just time consuming.

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


text:
Is there a one-click widget to make my phone completely silent?
I currently use Mute All but it requires several clicks. I like the ease of Silent Toggle Widget but it doesn't turn of media sounds.
Ideally the widget would also turn of haptic feedback.

Related: How can I make silent mode affect media volume too?

I created a Task in Tasker called Silent  that does this and created a widget that allows the one click behavior you are looking for.
Basically Silent is just a set of tasks that set the notification/ringer/system volume/etc to level 0.  Here is the XML for the Silent.tsk.xml if you want to import it.
<class cl="Task" sr="">
<nme>Silent</nme>
<id>14</id>
<class cl="Action" sr="act1">
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg2">
    </class>
    304
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg1">
        <val>1</val>
    </class>
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg0">
    </class>
</class>
<class cl="Action" sr="act0">
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg2">
    </class>
    305
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg1">
        <val>1</val>
    </class>
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg0">
    </class>
</class>
<class cl="AppIcon" sr="icn" ve="2">
    <icn>2130837581</icn>
</class>
<class cl="Action" sr="act4">
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg0">
        <val>1</val>
    </class>
    256
</class>
<class cl="Action" sr="act5">
    <class cl="StringArg" sr="arg5" ve="2">
        <val></val>
    </class>
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg4">
    </class>
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg3">
        <val>1</val>
    </class>
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg2">
        <val>3</val>
    </class>
    <class cl="StringArg" sr="arg1" ve="2">
        <val>Vibrate On</val>
    </class>
    <class cl="StringArg" sr="arg0" ve="2">
        <val>Vibrate On</val>
    </class>
    550
</class>
<class cl="Action" sr="act2">
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg2">
    </class>
    308
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg1">
        <val>1</val>
    </class>
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg0">
    </class>
</class>
<class cl="Action" sr="act3">
    <class cl="IntArg" sr="arg0">
        <val>1</val>
    </class>
    258
</class>

With Audio Muter you should be able to set the media volume to silent, however it's a paid app.

Audio Manager (free) and Audio Manager Pro ($2.99) fully solve this issue very cleanly.  It gives complete control over haptic feedback and the 6 distinct audio volume controls (including media volume), and lets you construct profiles that can be toggled with one-click widgets.


text:
Connecting to X11 on linux
I used to connect with SSH to school server on iPad with iSSH, which can work as X11 server, and remotely work through SSH and X11 with iPad as a server.
I thought since it is easy with iPad, it will be easy with Android. But silly me! It is not, as I see.
In this SE question and on other places, people are telling "don't use X11, just use VNC!". However, I can't see how can I remotely start x11vnc on a machine where I am not a root on.
The situation is as follows: I am NOT a root on the server machine. There is linux running on the server machine. I do NOT have physical access to the server. I can connect to the server through SSH.
When I log in to the server and I try to run x11vnc like this:
x11vnc -forever -shared -rfbauth ~/.vnc/passwd -create

I got this scary looking error message after trying to connect with AndroidVNC application (the error is displayed on the server and the x11vnc immediately crashes). If I don't use the -create option, x11vnc shows this scary message and x11vnc crashes before even waiting for the client.
So. My question is quite easy. What should I do to connect to the linux machine and do something simmilar to what I did with iSSH and X forwarding?
edit: aha, it seems like in our school we use outdated X11vnc version, so that's why it breaks. Awesome. Well, I probably can't persuade the admin to actually update it, so I will need another way of remotely running graphic applications, if nothing like iSSH exists.

I found out that it's possible to just run vncserver on the client - and it "just works".


text:
Remove bloatware from Acer Liquid Mini (E310)
I am trying to remove Apps installed from phone vendor, like docs to go, without success.
I have read How can I uninstall applications that are locked by phone vendor? and similar topics and I have tried the Titanium Backup Chuck Norris mode but somehow documents to go appears again at reboot.
I tried to find a custom rom but for this phone it looks like there is no one.
Or maybe I wasn t great at searching...
How can I get rid of documents to go forever?

Installing a different rom simply did the job.
Right now I'm using 2.3.5
Unfortunately I just have guides in Italian and French but a little google translator did the job :)
French:
http://www.acer-club.fr/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=3336&sid=64e715b102a9932965fa871175c01da9
Italian:
http://www.androidiani.com/forum/modding-acer-liquid-mini/80562-guida-installare-android-2-3-5-su-acer-liquid-mini-custom-rom.html

Maybe you want to tell use which ROM it now is for you Liquid Mini?

I've edited the post :)

Root the phone and download root uninstaller, once you grant root access to the app you will be able to remove all the bloatware.

Does this work where Titanium fails? I somehow doubt it.

I've not used Titanium, but every single bloatware was removed from my phone with root uninstaller.

I have no trouble removing with titanium but as soon as I reboot everything is back in place

just try using this and let me know what happens !

No luck... same problem... at reboot everything is back :(

ahh, that is surprising, it works perfectly for me ! Has your phone been rooted properly ?


text:
Home button for wake sleep
Using Verizon Samsung Droid Charge how can I wake the phone using the home button instead of just the side power button? (My phone is rooted.)

well, in my opinion, you can use Cyanogenmod 7 ROM. I have Cyanogenmod 7.0.3 and I can wake my phone using the home button. You can use the ROM Manager to install clockworkmod and download cyanogenmod 7 specific to your phone:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.koushikdutta.rommanager&hl=en
Refer to the following guide for installing cyanogenmod 7:
http://www.redmondpie.com/install-cm7-on-galaxy-s2-using-rom-manager-how-to-tutorial/
The guide is for samsung galaxy s2 but its almost similar for all.
Best of luck!


text:
Always shows "Local calendar cannot sync with Google calendar. You need a google account."

Possible Duplicate:
“Local calendar cannot sync with Google calendar…” bur it can? What?

It says this every time I try to make a new event on my new Bell Samsung Galaxy S II, then gives me an option to "Go to account and sync," so I do. I click on my specific account then click "Sync now." Contacts and Gmail complete and the sync circles disappear, but Calendar's stops spinning very quickly, then doesn't move, then disappears a bit later. I go back in to make a new event and the same error appears.
I made a test event, and it appears online when I check from my laptop, but the message still appears every time I make a new event.

New version of this: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/13693/local-calendar-cannot-sync-with-google-calendar-bur-it-can-what


text:
Downgrade to official LG GT540 2.1updated
I've installed Android 2.3 (Cyanogen Mod) to my LG GT540 phone, but it's too unstable. I would like to downgrade back to 2.1update (it's the OS I have when I buy the phone), or any official newer version. Where can I get official LG version, and how to install it? Thanks in advanced.

Did you try the answer on this other question tagged "downgrade"? http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/11981/nexus-one-manual-update-and-back-to-previous-version-to-2-1-android

Where can I find original rom?


text:
Contents of .bookmark_thumb1
I've got one of these folders on my HTC Desire 2.3 and I'm assuming that it's standard across all devices. It looks to contain screenshots of pages that I have visited using the built in browser and I'm guessing that it's to dispaly them in the bookmarks/frequently visited list or when I'm changing windows.
My question is is it safe to delete the contents of this folder? It doesn't occupy much space but there are sites in the list that I know I won't be visiting again and it seems pointless having them around.

Yes you can safely delete the folder. For details and a permanent solution (to stop regeneration of this folder) check this


text:
Prevent apps being uninstalled
My kids love playing with my Android. However, they don't always understand what they are doing, and occasionally I find that they have deleted some of my apps (strangely, never the ones they play).
Is there any app that can make uninstall more difficult, or make access to the apps menu more difficult (e.g. require a password)?

I think that your question is covering the same ground as this previous one about locking the Application Settings menu http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/7117/i-want-to-password-lock-my-applications-settings-but-no-other-settings if you want something more general to lock certain apps, see my answer below

Install Smart App Protector with its helper app (for enhanced reliability). Make sure to make it device administrator. Then, lock Package Installer and Play Store using it (lock down other market apps too). With one tap, the app can lock all apps which could uninstall it. The app facilitates this for its own security, but its solution of your question.
And, I can bet... after that your kids can't uninstall an app without developer level expertise.
Update:
After your comment, looks like your app launcher is capable of uninstalling apps directly like Play Store. So, lock your Launcher too. From your screenshot, its Samsung TouchWhiz launcher having package name tw.launcher. Lock this package with Smart App Protector. But, it'd lock your app drawer too.
If you don't want to lock your app drawer, best way is to switch your Home Launcher app & lock Package Installer, Play Store etc. Done!
Alternate launcher apps have more features as well as memory efficiency. So, its better in all other aspects. If you don't want to spend money, I'd recommend you Go Launcher EX. If you can spend money for this, I'd recommend you ADW Launcher EX.

This is the essentially the same as GAThrawn's and it fails exactly the same way

@Shahar Not exactly same.. I've targeted Package Installer. Can you tell me how exactly it fails?

Looks like you are saying it without trying.. One thing, I want to clear: As long as your device is open for installation, you can't disable uninstallation natively. Locking is the only way!

I don't know what it looks like. I installed your app, locked the Package Installer and Play Store. Then I went to the menu and deleted applications with nothing stopping me from doing it.

@Shahar Menu? What type of menu? Can you elaborate your steps? I am now getting feeling that you're talking about removing icons from homescreen..

This menu link. When I press the menu button on the bottom left, the application items shown have a little minus sign on them, and pressing them deletes them from the phone.

@Shahar Tapping that minus sign should redirect to package installer for uninstallation. But, if its uninstalling directly, see my answer update..

Yes, it's uninstalling directly. In Smart App Protector, I don't the option to lock packages, only applications.

@Shahar That's the same thing in this aspect. Its a system app.. Look for Launcher or TwLauncher name. The name generally contains Launcher word..

Finally found it, and it works. I'm fine with locking the app drawer. Thanks for your help and patience.

let us continue this discussion in chat

What does "make it device administrator" in your first paragraph mean? I'm looking at info on an app (Android 4.3) and see buttons to Force stop, uninstall and clear data, but nothing about being admin or not. Thanks!

@DarrenCook Go to Device Administrators from Settings ~> Security..

There are quite a few apps in the Market which will lock certain apps behind a password, a search in the Market for "applock" should find most of them.
I haven't actually used any, so can't give you a recommendation, but these should allow you to lock the Market and Settings apps behind a PIN number, to keep your kids out of them.

From what I can see, the applock apps prevent unauthorized running of the applications. This is not what I'm looking for. I want to prevent my kids from uninstalling applications, not running them.

@Shahar if you set the app to lock the Market app and the Settings app, then your kids shouldn't be able to uninstall any apps, no need to lock anything else if you don't want to.

I tried a couple of these apps, but even after locking the Market and Settings apps, I was able to both enter the menu and uninstall applications, with no lock screen shown in the process.


text:
Can I use tasker to turn LTE/4G mode on/off on my Droid Bionic?
I'd like to turn LTE on while I'm at work and off at home; I have the appropriate profiles, but I can't find an appropriate action.   Is this something that could be done with an intent?

I was hoping the "Wimax" or "Mobile Data 2G/3G" Net Actions would be what you need, but after looking around it doesn't look like Tasker supports 4G on/off switching. Per Tasker forum user Pent regarding this issue (on a different phone):

If this isn't currently a feature is there any way to implement it?

It isn't and there's no 'official' way to implement it. I was hoping
  there would be something in ICS, but don't think there is after a
  quick scan.
One day I'll have to do some research, but I prefer working on
  features that will still work going forwards and benefit everyone.
Pent

Sorry for the bad news.

Thanks.   I found this writeup on the Motorolo dev site that talks about how to detect the network type, but I found no sign of an API that would let you change the preference, so there's probably no way for Tasker to implement it.  :-(

Why don't you just go to settings then wireless and networks then mobile networks and change it from both 4G LTE/CDMA to just CDMA when you get off work? Problem solved, check it out.

The point of apps like Tasker is to automate tasks like what you describe. You can't do anything with Tasker you couldn't already do manually. So, your answer isn't really an answer.

Gina, that's what I've been doing, but @Al Everett is exactly right; I was hoping that Tasker could take care of it for me.


text:
Is there a way to reduce the CPU and memory usage of the stock Browser?
The stock browser in Gingerbread 2.3.3 seems to take a lot of resources in terms of CPU and memory.  This causes other apps, including the launcher, to be killed.  Are there any steps I can take to reduce the footprint of the browser?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S (AT&T Captivate) running a ROM based on Gingerbread 2.3.3.

One obvious solution is to use a third-party browser.

Most (all?) are worse, though.  Did this happen to you with other ROMs?  Are you using the stock launcher?

@Al, true, but there's a service I run that only work with the stock browser.  Otherwise I'd consider Dolphin.  Wasn't a fan of Firefox.

@Matthew, looking at the ROM page it says AOSP launcher.  (http://serendipity7.weebly.com/index.html) Not sure what that is.  It does seem to be worse with my Gingerbread ROM as opposed to my previous FroYo ROM. Both done by same people (Serendipity).

AOSP = Android Open-Source Project. In other words, it's the same launcher that would come with a Nexus device. It doesn't look like they've removed Samsung's Touchwiz from the ROM, so that might be one reason it gets killed so much -- the AOSP launcher is not the special-built-in-don't-kill-me launcher. Admittedly I'm not clear on how that works though.

The only things I know of are turning off images, Javascript and plugins.  You probably don't want to do all that but setting plugins to "On demand" is quite useful -- pages with Flash ads and such won't waste your data or battery in addition to demanding less from your phone, and it's just one click to allow a particular object to run if you want to watch an embedded video or something.

Would clearing cache improve performance significantly?

@Chance I don't think so, that would force a fresh/complete download of every web page you visit which would just use more resources.

That's what I thought.  My performance seems to be much better recently, and the things I can think of is that I deleted the Google search box widget from my home page, used OCLF and changed minfree to strict, and changed Googlesearch settings to not search text messages.  I think the last thing improved Google app performance, but I don't know if it would affect browser.


text:
Has anyone found out why some BIONICs won't charge fully on non-BIONIC wall chargers?
This seems to be a fairly common issue.
Upon attempting to charge my Motorola DROID BIONIC with two non-Motorola microUSB wall chargers, I couldn't get the phone past 40%. With the Moto charger, it charges fully (though apparently pretty slowly).
I know the BIONIC's battery is a 3.8v, and my chargers are all 3.7, but the voltage difference doesn't seem large enough to cause a problem. Is is possible the BIONIC can read the difference in the voltage, even if it is small, and is coded not to fully charge on these non-Moto chargers?
Both HTC chargers I've tried were 200mA. It seems maybe the amperage is too low to charge the phone. I'll try and find a higher power one to test.

I doubt the 0.1 V difference is enough, but it's possible that the charger has a chip in it that allows the device to determine what it's connected to.  What's the amperage, though?  That's probably relevant.  And does it matter whether the phone is on or off while charging?

Both the HTC chargers I tried are 200mA. Perhaps the amperage is just too low - this would make sense.

If you don't have a higher capacity charger available, try turning the display off, and if you can, enable airplane mode to reduce power consumption by the radios.   This might give the 200mA charger a chance to make some progress.

@David 200mA is tiny, I'm surprised you can charge anything much with that. The on-board USB ports on PCs are a maximum of 500mA and people complain that they're far to slow for charging compared to a wall plug charger

Does the phone begin discharging at 40%?  Does it indicate that it is still charging, but the charge never exceeds 40%?
I have had charging issues with my Motorol DROID v1.  What I've come to understand is that the power delivered by the car adapter is less than the power drawn by the phone when the GPS is on.  I would suspect that a couple of factors might be in play here:

Connectivity problems

If the connection between the charging cable and the phone might be poor, perhaps due to poor connector seating or swelling due to heat.  It could be that, after charging for a period of time the phone heats up and expands to the point that the connection is lost.  The phone stops charging, cools, and the connection is made again.

Phone behavior at or above 40% charge

Do you have Tasker or some other automation tool running that has rules about which features / services to run at a particular charge level?  If so, you could be seeing that the services cause the phone to draw power at the same rate that it is charged, preventing further charging.
These are really just guesses.  If you have one, I would try hooking up a 3rd party charger that is rated for the same power output.  If the phone charges completely this way, even though it is not a Moto branded charger, it is a pretty good bet that your HTC chargers just aren't cutting the mustard with your Moto phone.

After testing with yet another 3rd party charger (this one is 500mA), it seems to work, if slowly. It seems like these old HTC 200mA chargers are pretty useless for this thing.

I doubt this.  I've charged my BIONIC using the following:

Griffin technologies Power Jolt Dual car charger - rated 1A
Motorola car charger for original Motorola DROID - rated 850 mA
Motorola Wall charger for original Motorola DROID - rated 850 mA
Motorola wall charger for BIONIC - rated 850 mA

In addition, I've used 3 different USB charging cables connected to my computer in 2 different ways - to a powered USB 2.0 HUB as well as directly off the motherboard USB rear connector.

USB gold plated ferro-core cable from monoprice connected to powered USB hub - rated 500 mA
USB original Motorola cable that came with the BIONIC connected to the powered hub - rated 500 mA
USB gold plated ferro-core cable from monoprice connected to motherboard USB - rated 500 mA
USB original Motorola cable that came with the BIONIC connected motherboard USB - rated 500 mA

All have charged the phone perfectly fine.
In addition, I've also charged the spare battery in the battery charger using the Griffin in the truck and both Motorola wall units at home to a full charge.
So far, I've had no issues with charging.  Now, any charging performed through the computer USB and / or powered USB hub takes much longer than car / wall charging, but that;s to be expected, with a 35% increase in amperage in those versus regular USB.
I also have the power saving elements of the UI completely disabled, and I live in an area with only 3G access, but I have not disabled 4G on its own.

That's the thing - it doesn't seem to affect everyone. Kellex over at Droid-life had the problem as well, but a number of users are saying they don't experience it. However, the HTC chargers I tried are both rated 200mA. Maybe they're just too weak.

200mA? That's way below USB standard - USB 2.0 is 5v 500mA (connect at 100mA & ask for more power) - no wonder it doesn't work!


text:
How to make a URL desktop shortcut have the page's favicon?
Theoretically, it should do this automatically. In practice, sometimes it works, sometimes not. All the pages below have proper favicons, but only the O Globo and Amazon favicons made it to the desktop icon. (The former in a better way, as you can see.) I added them the usual way, with Menu -> Add -> Shortcut -> Bookmark.
This is a (rooted) Milestone running Motorola's official 2.2.1 update. These are the pages involved:

http://moglobo.globo.com
http://cracked.com
http://mobile.formula1.com
https://mobile.twitter.com
http://www.amazon.com
http://www.supervia.com.br

Any reason for that erratic behavior?

It has to do with the site having an icon for "apple-touch" defined in the page. for example O Globe has the following:
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="favicon.png" />

And it works. There are differences in how other versions of android handle this. Here is an article explaining some how this works a bit. There could also be a "catch 22" to this though, as I see that the mobile Twitter site does have the apple-touch-icon-precomposed but doesn't seem to show the icon. This could be because of something Motorola did differently in their modified version of Android, or it could just be a bug.
If the site does not define the icon, then you can use a tool like Any Cut to change the icon.

It seems "Any Cut" app is removed from Play Store.


text:
How to unbrick/reflash Nexus S using stock ROM, stock tools
I have a Nexus S that seems to have bricked itself.  I have never modded the ROM or phone, and it was totally stock.
Now, it boots right int the white Google logo and stays there forever (I let it sit like this overnight and for many hours during the day, with several hard reboots.).  The only way to get the phone to reboot from this state is to pull the battery.
I've downloaded the official Android SDK, and would like to reflash this phone back to a stock Google-provided ROM, using Google-provided tools.
Everything I've found on the internet is for ClockworkMod, Cyanogen, etc.  I don't want to mod my phone, I just want to reflash a stock image using the "official" tools, but haven't been able to find instructions on where to get the images and how to do it.
Any other help on how to unbrick this phone would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.samfirmware.com/WEBPROTECT-i9020.htm has the European 2.3.3 firmware. Maybe that'll help

@Sparx link broken.

You should try a factory reset before trying to reflash the phone.  AFAIK you need to unlock the bootloader (voiding your warranty) to flash a ROM, even on the Nexus S.
Instructions:

Turn the power off. If your Nexus S is frozen, pull the battery out and reinsert it
Hold the Volume Down button

Press and release the Power button
You are now presented with a menu that allows for Fastbook, Recovery, Clear Storage, and Simlock

Select Clear Storage by pressing the Volume Down button
Press and release the Power button
Now simply confirm your decision: Volume Up for YES and Volume Down for NO

Yup, tried this already.  No effect, phone still reboots to being stuck in the white Google logo.

@slacy OK, so after some research it appears Google does not provide the factory images. They do, however, provide the OTA update packages. Which means if you have anything but the latest version we could try applying the OTA. Do you know what version you have?

FYI I had to RMA the phone to get it back and working again.


text:
Why is my GPS reception poor?
I get very poor GPS reception on my Droid X.  When I turn GPS on, the little icon in the overhead bar has a flashing center, which means it hasn't found a satellite.  It takes forever to lock on, if at all.
I've found it's better if I move around -- if I walk a 100 yards or so, it will often lock on, but not always.
This seems to have changes recently.  It was great, then something changed.  I just hard-reset the phone, so it has fresh settings (and I was having the problem previously, so it's nothing I did then reset).
Is something wrong with the phone?

There are a lot of potential variables here, but a hardware failure is certainly one possibility.
After over a year of use, my Nexus One's GPS became terribly slow to lock until I had moved a bit (like you said, maybe 100 yards) or was outside in a relatively clear area. I assumed this was because the GPS chip had, over time, started to develop problems and was likely throwing errors - oftentimes it would have my location totally wrong, and it wouldn't come on/off correctly.
Download a GPS test app, like GPS Status and Toolbox (link here), and see how long it takes to pick up satellites.
Also, are you using a custom ROM? I've found some ROMs "tweak" Android's default GPS settings, and this could potentially cause issues.
Really, there a ton of possibilities here, so it's hard to say. But aging hardware sounds the most likely to me, unless you've recently started using a different custom ROM or kernel, or recently received an update from Motorola.


text:
Several general questions about Sony Ericsson Live View
First does it have an acceleration, compass, or "gyroscope".
Second can it make noises?
Third does it work for HTC Sensation?
Thanks ahead of time.

From the Sony Ericsson website, the Live View specs page has no mention of a compass, gyroscope, accelerometer or similar. It doesn't mention anything about speakers either but does mention controlling phone calls and music playback on your phone, which would suggest its not designed to make noise itself but to control the music/sound on a phone (or other compatible device) that it's connected to.
The compatible phones page (other brands) lists a number of HTC phones, but not the Sensation. It does however say:

Compatible with most other brands on Android 2.0 and up that are
  equipped with Bluetooth™ 2.1.

According to HTC's Specs page for the Sensation it has Bluetooth v3.0 compatibility, so it is likely that it will work with the Live View.


text:
How can I update my Desire S from Android 2.3.3 to Android 2.3.4?

Possible Duplicate:
How do I update the OS in my device?

How can I update my Desire S from Android 2.3.3 to Android 2.3.4?  Is it possible to update the OS for this model?

does not seem to be any update available at the moment from Settings > About phone (last option in the list) > Update (1st option)

Updates are usually mandated by your carrier. What carrier do you have?

My mobile carrier is Airtel in india. I dont think they will porvide the updates.

madlymad's right, there is no official update.  XDA has several 2.3.4 custom ROMs, though.  Should you choose to go that route, read a few of the linked ROM threads and then follow the instructions for the one you want.


text:
Is there any way to filter out Tegra-only games?
I've noticed that Android Market sometimes allow me to download 3d games even when they are not compatible with my device (LG Optimus One p500), for example because the games require a Tegra GPU. Is there a way to filter Tegra-only games from the Market?

I expect the developers need to do better in describing what hardware their systems will run on.

Not with the original Android Market, as there is currently no option that would allow an developer to specify the App as Tegra (required|optional) in the app's manifest.
Maybe some alternative markets provide this search filter. But I am not aware of one that does it.
Off-Topic: If you want to know which Apps (mostly games) are compatible with your Tegra device, check out NVIDIA Tegra Zone.


text:
Why does my HTC Desire play a tune (like notification) without a visual message?
A friend of mine has a HTC Desire and every so often it play a little tune (like a message notification) even though there are no messages or calls. What's causing this?

Do any application icons appear in the notification bar (the top-left corner)?

It might be caused by a notification set for a calendar event (or a task, if you have a task organiser that integrates with the calendar). I found that if I dismissed a calendar notification, it would continue to activate but it wouldn't appear in the notification bar! I had to go through my calendar, look for events with notifications, and disable any outstanding ones that I found.


text:
How can I improve the noise cancellation on my Nexus One?
Despite the highly praised Nexus One built-in noise cancellation, I need to use speech recognition in an extremely noisy environment with better noise isolation/cancellation.  Is there a so called "speech recognition microphone" that would help?  I'm not aware of the complexity or performance of the noise isolation algorithm used by the N1, is it as good as I'm going to get?

Questions asking for opinions are generally not a good fit for this site. You've already chosen a solution to your problem; you're just asking for validation. Please read the [FAQ].

I've rewritten to be more of a "How can I solve this problem?"

If you are working in a high noise environment, a traditional mic isn't going to help you.  Even with a noise cancelling secondary mic it will be very difficult for the equipment to pick your voice out of the noise and isolate it.  You might look into a throat mic instead, which grabs your voice by direct contact with you rather than conduction through the air.  These are especially suited for noisy environments.

Throat mic is probably the best bet, I'd agree. The N1's noise cancellation doesn't work well in environment with particularly high wind noise or droning machinery, I've found.

@JadeMason +1 already for introducing the existence of a "throat mic" to me. I will definitely check that out but the fundamental question remains: Will it work in tandem with Nexus One's built-in noise cancellation existing hardware+software implementation? have you tried it? Does it work? Does it work better? Thanks.

The way noise cancellation works is that one mic is picking up the ambient noise while the other mic picks up identical ambient noise as well as your voice.  The processor then inverts the phase of the ambient only feed and combines that with the ambient + voice feed to cancel out the ambient noise.  This process relies on two very similar microphones picking up sound in a very similar way.  The throat mic will be picking up sound in a very different way from the ambient mic on your Nexus One, so the phone's feature is likely unnecessary and  useless with a throat mic.


text:
Unable to use apps that access the Internet on wifi
I have recently had a pretty weird problem with my new LG Shine Plus which I hope you guys could help, here is what I did:
When I first sign up for the phone, I purchased a one month data plan just to try things out, everything was great and I was able to use the data plan and wifi when I am at home and downloaded quite a few applications and they all worked perfectly.
I cancelled a data plan since it cost quite a bit, however I am a student and there are both wireless networks on campus and in my residence room. As a result, I have turned off the Mobile Data Networks.
After that, all the applications, for some reason, stopped working. When I opened up the Advanced Task Killer Free, for example, it will show You must have INTERNET and ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE permissions in AndroidManifest.xml and when I tried to hit KILL selected apps, it will crash. On Bloomberg, it says android.Manifest.permissions.INTERNET permission not set in AndroidManifest.xml file before crashed, and on a whole bunch of other apps, they just crash as soon as I open it up.
However, the most interesting bit is, I was still able to access the Internet on my mobile browser (tried several website that I know I did not go before just to make sure those are not cached pages) on wifi and I can access Android market on wifi as well.
So I turned Mobile Data Networks back on in hope that would resolve the problem, but the same thing happened even with the Mobile Data Networks turned on and now I am unable to use any apps I installed  I have verified that I have the apn set up properly in there.
By the way, I have link2sd installed, but it was installed while I was using the data plan, and it worked fine then, I have also had AdBlock installed, which I have already uninstalled it and even apps without any add (dropbox) is crashing at the moment as well.

At this point, I would suggest doing a factory reset. Your problem would likely require more troubleshooting than it's worth to fix. Make a backup if possible. Google should remember the free apps you've downloaded and re-install them.

In my experience Google only remembers non-paid apps when switching devices, not when wiping a device already associated to the account, so I'd advise to export/write down the list of installed apps.

I am really hoping not to, since it is just a lot of trouble to reinstall everything, but I guess if that is what it takes to fix the problem, then it is what it is :(

Thanks, it is fully working now after I wiped out everything, indeed I had to reinstall all my apps, but at least everything works, wohoo!


text:
Optimum video codec for low end Android phones?
While I know Android phones play mp4 the best, I wanted to know what other specification in this container is the best for playback, (the bitrate, resolution, fps etc). Or perhaps some other codec/format that Android can (or is designed to) play smoothly and with an acceptable file size/quality ratio?
I searched the Android developer page and tried the H.264 setting on my converter etc, but the file fails to play natively on my handset and when I tried to open it using RockPlayer. It plays slowly and the video-audio gets out of sync progressively. I tried many external players. However, 3GP videos from my Nokia phones play smoothly (even natively). So I want to know what is ideal for my low end phone (video should be normal quality and size)?
My phone is a Huawei IDEOS U8150 running Froyo with a 320x240 resolution and a 528 Mhz ARMv6 processor.
Also if anyone has tips, what types of encoding is recommended, if I'd be using the software decoder mode in apps like RockPlayer, so I can achieve more file size compression yet achieve smooth playback?

I don't think this has a real answer.  All formats have size and complexity tradeoffs; what you really need to have smooth playback on a low-end device is a low quality video :P especially with software decoding.

I agree, but I don't need even close to 360p (the youtube video quality) on my 320x240 resolution, so I'd try lower quality. What I want is some optimum format for my device.. I can't just go on trial and error with video encoding on my laptop which is already slow and there are countless options on the converter I use. I would require a rough estimate on which I can tweak my settings on.. from someone who probably tried a video convert for low end android phones.

It seems that most of the H.264 encoded video files do not work in Huawei IDEOS u8150 using the Hardware renderer mode.
3GPs , H.263s and less complex video profiles work at full speed in HW mode.
Most FLV video files play on Software Rendering mode (ARMv6 MXVideoPlayer) at appreciable speed (sometimes lagging at certain points, but overclock to more than 600 Mhz, and it runs fairly good at all points)

Standard MP4s or MPEG-4 Part-2 compressed video files seem to be the best file format to play on low end android phones which is easy on the CPU (plays perfect in HW mode) and has good balance between clarity and file size.

Here is my HandBrake Preset for Huawei IDEOS u8150 optimum video format : http://depositfiles.com/files/gbqtxevo4?redirect (320x240 resolution)

I got H.264 (x264 encoder) to play with these settings on my Huawei U8150

Main profile
320x240 (original video was 4:3 which helps, 16:9 or 2.35:1 should become even easier to decode)
and tuned with the 'fastdecode' setting

I used ffmpeg as the frontend, as Handbrake makes selecting the "fastdecode" option impossible
ffmpeg -i "inputfile.avi" \
    -sws_flags lanczos+accurate_rnd \
    -vf "scale=320:-1" \
    -c:v libx264 \
        -crf 23.0 \
        -preset veryslow \
        -profile:v main \
        -tune fastdecode \
    outputfile.mp4

the resultant file was only 10% bigger than the one using high profile and no fast decode
I would also recommend using MX player as it actively resyncs the video and audio for those occasional slow downs it may have, but fastdecode seems to fix all the slow downs I could find.

The Huawei IDEOS u8150 uses the Qualcomm MSM7201A system on a chip.  That chip uses a QDSP4000 core for media processing.  The QDSP4000 core natively supports MP4 encoding and decoding.
In order to take advantage of that feature and avoid software decoding, you will want to store your video in MP4 format.  You can reduce the resolution of the video to match the display of your phone (320x240).
A great tool for transcoding your video media is Handbrake.  You can use Handbrake to transcode to MP4 format at 320x240 resolution.  Once you find a combination of settings that work well for you, consider publishing it as a preset for other u8510 users to try.

afaik, MP4 is just a container format and the H.264 video standard that most MP4s come these days do not work well or does not even play at all on the hardware decoder mode!

I have a phone with the same specs... I found that If I encode using wmv2 and wmav2 it actually plays smoother, go figure. libx264 is a lot more complex of a codec and takes about 30 sec. to start playing a movie, but quality will be better. For a player I use MXplayer with the arm6 codec pack. Within MXplayer settings I set it to use software video decoding and hardware audio encoding as default. Here is a sample of my encoding process:
ffmpeg -i input_movie.mp4 -vcodec wmv2 -b 200k -acodec wmav2 -ab 64k -ar 32000 -ac 2 -s 320x180 output_movie.wmv

I let my little daughter use this on long car rides to keep her occupied. Obviously you'd want to tweak the bitrates and resolution to what you want. But this is good enough for her.


text:
What is the difference between Fastboot and HBoot mode?
and why can't I see an option to boot into recovery mode on my HTC Hero (Orange UK)?  Is it already in recovery mode when I can see the Fastboot/HBoot menu?
Initial menu after holding vol-down when booting:

Initial menu after holding vol-down when booting (click image to enlarge)
If I press back, I get the following screen:

(Click image to enlarge)

Where are you looking for the option to boot into your recovery?

I thought I might see it as an option on the skateboard screen.

Do you have Bootloader as an option on your HBoot menu? When I select that on my EVO (it's the first choice) it takes me to another menu, which has Fastboot, Recovery, and a couple of other things to select. Choosing Recovery on the second screen would be what you want.

Do you know what partition(s) the skateboard screen loads from? (boot? boot+system? )

I'm not sure where it lives, actually. I don't think it's on either of those, though, since I've overwritten both without modifying my HBoot at all. Yours is definitely different than my EVO's, too. On what would be the equivalent of your first screenshot I have four options to choose from. I also have an "engineering" version of HBoot, but I don't know if that would add extra menu items or not.

"HBoot" mode is something of a misnomer, really, that I usually see when people mean "reboot into your HBoot menu". I think the reason these got conflated to each other is because Fastboot mode activates by default when you land on HBoot on most (possibly all) HTC phones. They do exist separately, though, as devices without an HBoot menu can still have a fastboot mode. This is definitely a little confusing, though, since what's really happening is that you're getting rebooted into HBoot which is then immediately loading Fastboot. You should be able to get to the bootloader's main screen by selecting Bootloader from the Fastboot screen.
Essentially, though, HBoot is just a bootloader, which gives you the ability to chain-boot into several other partitions or modes (including fasboot). I say it's not really a "mode" because it doesn't really allow for any interaction, it just loads and waits for you to choose something else from the menu (with one exception, see below).
HBoot also has the ability to install a properly named and signed zip file if placed on the root of your SD card, which it will attempt to do right after the bootloader has fully loaded. This seems to have been designed as a sort of last-ditch reflash method, and used to be a part of several manual rooting methods on HTC phones (which is now largely unnecessary). The exact naming convention depends on your device, but they're usually of the form PC[some number]IMG.zip.
Fastboot mode is the state your device goes into so that it can accept fastboot commands, which largely deal with manually flashing partitions on the device. Notably, you can flash unsigned partition images when in fastboot. It's handy for recovery purposes, but also useful for development and generally hacking around (depending on what you're doing). You can read a bit about the details of fastboot here.
Your "recovery mode" (or recovery partition) is different from HBoot. It is a separate partition on your device which contains a very basic kernel and GUI that can be used to repair and/or restore your system, with the features varying depending on the exact recovery you are using. Typically a manufacturer will ship their devices with their own "stock" recovery, but there are many custom ones available which are more robust. There is a related Android Enthusiasts question which also discusses this.

For Nexus One, fasboot is not active when HBOOT menu is shown.


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Why does my power button take screenshots?
I haven't installed any screenshot applications, in fact my phone was recently wiped when upgrading to gingerbread. I have Gingerbread 2.3.4 and I use the GoLauncher homescreen. Samsung Mesmerize from US Cellular. I know they install bloatware but I've used this phone for months and it only did this after the upgrade to gingerbread (that I know of).
On occasion when I hit the power button the screen turns white and the phone vibrates, and I get a toast message saying "screen captured saved as image file" or something like that. Half the time the power button does that, half the time it turns off the screen normally. Right this second I couldn't replicate, it's very random and frustrating. What could cause this? I see no unusual running apps unless GoLauncher is doing this, and I see no setting related to this in their app.

When you hold the Home key and tap Power, it takes a screenshot.  Unfortunately sometimes lag causes the Home press to be delayed/extended, so if you press it and let go before hitting Power it will still happen sometimes.
The original SGS suffers from this issue as well, though it uses Home+Back.  I would try the same workaround I propose in my answer to that question:

Go to Settings -> Applications -> Running Services and click on ScreenCaptureService to end it.  You'll have to do this every time you boot up your phone, unless you get a task killer or can remove it somehow, though either of those may have other side effects.

It appears to be the back key that does it on my phone, but that helps at least, thanks. A very annoying feature I never heard of...

Hold your home button and your power button at the same time. Then hit the power button then it will lock it. It works just fine.


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What is an RUU?
I read that it stands for "ROM Update Utility".
What does it do?
How is it run?
What partitions does it affect?
How does it unroot a phone?
Can I accidentally use the wrong RUU on my phone?

An RUU is a Windows executable file (HTC currently does not support Mac or Linux) that installs a ROM to your device. It will overwrite the following partitions:

System (the /system mountpoint)
Boot (the /boot mountpoint)
Recovery
User data (the /data mountpoint, this means you lose all of your personal data)
It may update your radio image (if newer)

You use an RUU by simply connecting your phone and running the executable file. I belive HTC Sync may also be required, but I haven't done this in a while.
The reason this unroots your device is sort of twofold, though it depends on your exact configuration. First, the su binary and Superuser app are typically installed to your System partition when you root. Since this is overwritten with a stock version of the partition, those two things will not be present. This prevents you from making calls to the su binary which is needed to grant root permissions to an app.
Secondly, the Boot partition has a flag which defines whether or not adbd (that is, the ADB daemon) runs with root permission, called ro.secure. The default value for this on a stock boot image is 1, which means that it is not running as root (so 1 represents "yes, it's secure"). Many custom ROMs set this to 0 so that you can immediately get a root prompt when you use adb shell, and also so that you can execute privileged commands without the need for a shell (i.e. adb pull).
Per your last question, I don't think you can run an improper RUU, but I've never tried. It does go through a verification process before the upload, at which point I assume that it checks to ensure that you have the proper device and whatnot. My guess would be that the verification would fail if you tried to use one on a device it was not designed for.
If you want more information, I managed to dig up a PDF from HTC's site which outlines how to use an RUU on the HTC Magic (Rogers wireless version). The steps are generally the same for any Android device, though.
Also of note, there is an open-source program which is designed to provide the same functionality while being cross platform. It is simply called HTCFlasher, and I have not used it myself. You can find it on Google code if it's of interest to you.


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Is my phone liable to explode if I charge it with a charger that came with a different phone?
My friend and I both have droids and we often user each other's wall chargers out of convenience. I was told that it's possible that my phone might explode if it's charged with a charger that wasn't built specifically for my phone. How true is this across droids?

See also http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/4494/are-android-chargers-universal-in-terms-of-power-voltage-amperage

Don't most modern electronics have overcharge protection circuits? The current should be impeded automatically once it exceeds a certain level, shouldn't it?

While this is standard cover-your-assets boilerplate, the truth is you can charge your phone off of pretty much any USB charger out there, as long as the following things are true:

The output specification is +5V DC, and at least 500mA. If it's more (700mA, 1000mA) you are generally fine; the phone will only draw what it needs. My HTC Magic's "official" charger is 5VDC 700mA.
The data pins in the charger are shorted (most modern chargers will work. If an iPhone charges off the usb plug with its cable, it means the data pins are shorted).

If you use a car charger, do not get the cheap ones. Car power is a lot noisier than household current, and you need a charger that can survive crank (starting the engine).
If you live in a country where power is unreliable, you may want to charge off a UPS or other power conditioner.
I have charged successfully with a Garmin GPS watch charging brick, the charger from an older smartphone (FreeRunner), and the USB outlets at Southwest Airlines waiting terminals (although I'd turn off USB debugging and USB mass storage before using a public USB charging kiosk.)
If you don't trust it, don't use it! Phones are expensive.
If your device DOESN'T charge off of USB (Pandigital Novel)...check the plug size and the output specification.
If your device uses a funny plug (B&N Nook Color - it's MicroUSB, yes, except that their plug in their cable is longer), then you need that cable.

+1 for disabling USB debugging.

yes, it is absolutely safe to charge a device with a charger that has more current capacity than needed.
Ohm's law tells us the relation between current, voltage, and resistance:
I    =     V      /     R

(current =  voltage  / resistance)
Since the voltage is held constant (5V), the only factor that determines current draw is the load (another term for resistance) the device places on the charger. Thus, the device will only draw as much current as it needs and no more.

Exactly! This is the most misunderstood aspect of electric device specifications: that the current is not a property of the device or the power source, it's a function of the voltage of the power source and the resistance of the device's circuit. A device's current spec is how much current it should draw to operate properly (e.g. a 12.5 A vacuum cleaner runs best at 12.5 A), and the current spec of an adapter (charger) is the maximum it can safely carry. The adapter can't force more current on the device than the device draws at the given voltage.

If you use a charger whose amp spec is lower than the amp spec of the device you connect it to, then the charger either it won't deliver the desired amount of current, or it will overload (even then, it's a lot more likely to be ruined and stop functioning than start a fire). But there's no problem with a charger whose current spec is higher than the device's.

In traditional electrical terms, it is always better to oversize the wattage of a power supply to at least 125 percent.  So, if a smart phone uses 700 mA, then a 700 mA charger is at the tippy top of its capacity and could possibly fail.  1 A (a.k.a. 1000 mA) is safer.  The phone will only draw what it needs.

Droids? as in Motorola Droid phones or Android phones?
To the point, check the specifications on the chargers, if they're the same there's no danger.  Most of the chargers use a 5V line to be compatible with USB charging but the amperage may differ. For example, Galaxy S uses a 0.7A charger, and Galaxy Tab 10.1 uses a 2A charger. I wouldn't try to charge my Galaxy S from the 2A line, but it would be ok to use a lesser amperage for the tab, but this would result in a lower charging efficiency.

The device will only draw as much current as required (certainly in the case of the Galaxy S, almost certainly for all other android devices), so you would be entirely safe using a higher current Micro-USB changer.

Maybe it charges just what it needs, dissipating the rest as heat?  Could it overheat?


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Phone connected to charger full time - never sleepmode - any danger?
Yeah, might sound strange, but I managed do install Debian Linux on my Android phone. Because the phone needs very little power, it is, for me, the perfect server.
I plan to disable sleepmode and to leave the charger connected to the phone at all times.
Is there any danger in overheating, fire and so on?

Doesn't go into the fire/heat danger but this previous question covers what happens with the charging of your battery when you leave it plugged in constantly http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1020/does-constant-charging-harm-my-cellphone

Depending on the phone, my biggest worry would be screen burn. I have a Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant and I have screen burn at the top of my screen from the time and the notification bar.  A screen like a Super AMOLED is actually a lot easier to get screen burn then I thought it would be. It is actually pretty annoying now, I have to limit the background images I use, otherwise the burn is really noticeable.

In that case, Debian has screensavers, it's just a matter of turning one on. :)


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disable volume buttons
Problem at hand: I keep pressing volume button on my Nexus S when it is in my pocket. Most notably when playing music. More often than not it results in increasing volume, which is incredibly irritating.
Had exactly the same issue with Nexus One.
Desired solution: A tweak/app that simply disables volume button when the screen is off (or locked?)
I looked through the android market and found a few half baked solutions... I don't really need a widget or a prompt to revert volume change or a being have to run an extra app when I actually want to change volume.

Sorry for my initial answer, didn't finish reading the question!

I had this problem a LOT with my Thunderbolt. The solution I went with was to buy a low-profile TPU case for it and I've LOVED this solution. Not exactly what you're asking for but it might be something to consider. I chose a $5 "S-Line" case from eBay that lots of people sell. It's great and adds a lot of protection at little cost and is as low-profile as you can get a case to be imho.

While having the music player minimized, You could try running an app that "uses" the volume control hardware keys ( The only one im aware of is emulators that can map these keys to A and B buttons in SNES games etc.. ) When running those emulators, I noticed that I couldn't change the volume no longer and it only made my mario jump.
And emulators can suck up a lot of juice.. you might want to try running some other app that'd do the trick.. Since this type of hack is possible, im sure there is a possibility of making a very low battery consuming dummy app that does only the job of nullifying the volume controls..


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Why is Clockworkmod taking up so much memory?
Question: I was checking the memory storage and found that under miscellaneous, Clockworkmod took up 4.5GB of memory. Is that normal? I’m operating on a HC 3.1 3G 10.1 Tab. with 16GB only. Now I have 4GB left. The rest of the other files are less than 50MB.
Please advise.

Is it a backup that's taking up all that space? Do you have 4GB or so of data (music, photos, etc) on your device?

Check your backups in /sdcard/clockworkmod/backup. It sounds like you have a lot of backups in there.

@eldarerathis, Ryan, one of you should probably post that as an answer :)

I would check your /sdcard/clockworkmod/backup folder and remove any old backups you have in there.
You can also remove them from within Rom Manager under Manage and Restore Backups. Then click on the older backups and select Delete from the menu.


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Watch and download youtube video simultanously
So I can watch a youtube video, great. But once I go out of range of wifi I can't play it.
So the other option, is, I use a program to download the video. But I can't play it before it's downloaded.
So is there like a program that you see the video, but after it has been downloaded, it's not discarded but permanently saved ?

Probably below [tubemate or easytube] apps really very helpful and it will give exactly what you want. There is an another way too, if you are using firefox app, you can try "save from.net helper" add-ons, that can download your video while watching video.

There are apps like TubeMate or EasyTube that let you download Youtube videos to your phone internal storage or to the SD card in order to allow you to see these videos whenever you want wherever you want.
Maybe this is what you are looking for.

You could always:
Set it up downloading using 'TubeMate': http://www.androidfreeware.net/download-youtube-tubemate.html
Then watch it on the normal YouTube app!
If you go out of range, hope that the download has finished and you can carry on watching it offline!


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Searching and filtering Android Market app reviews
There seems to be no way of filtering or searching the app reviews in Android Market. This is a problem because it's usually the low-scored reviews that are most useful - they give an idea about what people are finding as disadvantages, so I can decide whether or not those are relevant to me or not.
Is there some way around this restriction? Does Google provide the review data in some way that could be searched, for example all reviews on one big page?

This would be nice, much like Amazon.

These days, the Google Play Store (renamed Android Marketplace) does in fact have review filtering based on the rating.
Just click on "User Reviews" and the "5 stars", "4 stars" titles for the bar graphic are now clickable, and clicking them displays only reviews with that rating.
Thanks, Google!

The comments are not searchable from the market app, nor are they searchable from the site, but you can search google using site:market.android.com my search terms here and it does include the comments when searching.
All the comments are also visible on the market site under the "user comments" tab for the application.

However, the site-wide google search isn't limited to a particular app. And the comments on the market web site are only displayed 10 at a time, so they're not very searchable.


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Is there a Google Docs editor for Android that actually works?
I have tried several Google Docs editors for Android and none of them has fully featured editor functionality. Selecting things like fonts and colors is absent and I have actually tried two editors that completely messed up a document I had initially created using a computer. I read several reviews stating similar things. Does anyone know of a way to edit Google Docs documents using Android?

What's wrong withe the original google doc app?

Have you actually seen the user interface of the spreadsheet app on Android?

@Flow The editor is completely flawed. I ran into three bugs in three minutes. One of them was that a number of characters were inserted into the document at random. I tried both the official Google Docs app and just using the standard browser to access Google Docs mobile web pages. Same bugs occurred on both.

I just tested QuickOffice Pro and it will do this.  It didn't seem to ruin my existing google doc either.

I have tested QuickOffice (trial version), and it works flawlessly on simple documents.

One reason you will not find an editor for android that supports fonts is probably because almost all android devices only come with 3 fonts, Droid-Serif, Droid-Sans and Droid-Sans-Mono. There are some devices that have other fonts, but from what I have seen, they are not "standard" fonts like you would see on a PC/Mac.
Also, the editors are limited because of screen size. You may see better editors come along with tablets, but even then, you are limited in screen real estate since you would need to have the on screen keyboard open with the editor.

As I write in my answer, Firefox for Android is able to present all fonts.

There is a Google Docs app available on the market but I myself wasn't too keen. However, there is an called Documents to Go which allows the creation and editing office documents and Google docs.
To edit and create though you do need the paid version of the app as the free version is only a viewer but you need the free version installed with the paid version as the paid version is an unlock app. The app can be found at https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dataviz.docstogo&feature=search_result
Hope this helps

I am not willing to spend the money needed to test the editing capabilities of Documents to Go. I have been disappointed by so many other editors. I also doubt that Documents to Go will have real-time syncronization.

Not entirely sure what you mean by real-time synchronisation. If you are talking about the google docs sync then it is instant as soon as you save to google docs it will be there on any other device with access to google docs. It is quite an expensive app but you can try it out for 15 minutes and then uninstall it if to get your money back if you are not happy with the app.

The best solution I have found so far is to access the desktop version (not mobile version) of a document with the FireFox browser for Android. This way, I am able to see all fonts just fine and edit the document without it suddenly adding characters at random or messing up the document. The only problem seems to be that FireFox does not seem to understand when to present the keyboard. I can force this by long-pressing my menu button. Sometimes I have to fiddle a bit before the characters I type show up in the document (maybe the reason for this was a flaky connection).


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want Calendar to stay open in its own window - HTC Evo
Working fine with Exchange sync of agenda view of Outlook Calendar.  How do I keep the Calendar open in its own slide window without having to push the "Calendar" icon?

Errr...Android doesn't really have a concept of "windows". Do you mean a widget?

You need to use the calendar widget and put it on the home screen. The widget doesn't really have any options, if what it supplies you isn't enough information, you will need to get a 3rd party app that has more info.
I use Business Calendar Pro. It shows an agenda widget and can display events from multiple calendars. There is a free version, but it is well worth the ~$5.00.


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Stop Android GMail from receiving GTalk offline messages notifications?
I've been trying to find a way to stop getting notifications on my phone when I receive offline messages to my GTalk account. It's highly annoying to be falling asleep and suddenly receive an email notification on my phone and once I open it, it's someone saying good night or some such.
Anyone know of a possible solution?

If you still want them to show up in your inbox, things get complicated.  You would have to create filters to label every kind of message you do want notifications for, and then in the Gmail app you would turn off notifications for the inbox, followed by syncing and turning on notifications for the label you just created.
If you don't care if they show in your inbox, do the following from the web GMail:

Go to Mail Settings -> Filters -> Create new filter
Put youraddress@gmail.com in the To field
Put Chat with in the Subject field
Hit Next
Check Skip the inbox
Hit Create Filter

Alternatively you could turn off the saving of chat history, which disables offline messages, but that has its own downsides.

Thanks! I really appreciate your suggestion. It's exactly what I needed.

You should set some things on your phone:

go to "Settings" page,
select "Accounts & Sync"
unselect "Background data"

You can't receive any Gmail messages, since you stop connecting with Google server. If you want receive Gmail messages, reselect "Background data".


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Save an image in Android browser
When I save an image from a WebPage in android browser, can you please tell me where does that go? Which directory does that file go?
I tried mounting the phone to my computer, but I can't find that file.
Please help.
Thank you.

Use a file manager such as ASTRO File Manager. I'll use my file manager quick to check though.
EDIT: So on my Galaxy S2 the directory is /sdcard/download. /sdcard is the root directory on my phone and not actually an sd card. It's the 2GB of app storage on my phone


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Upload a downloaded file
I downloaded a zip-file with the browser to my phone. Now I want to either upload it to a web site (form POST) or mail it as an attachment.
In the stock browser (HTC Desire with Android 2.2) I can only choose to upload from Gallery, Voice recorder, or Music.
In the Gmail app I can only attach photos and in the Exchange app can't seem to attach downloaded files either.
And finally, in the list of downloaded files in the browser I can only choose to Open (fails for zip) or Delete the file.
Is there another way?

Install a File Explorer, say EStrongs File Explorer, and you would be able to upload arbitrary file from the browser or attach files to Gmail.

Thanks! I can't believe I didn't think of that.


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How can I turn OFF encryption on a Honeycomb tablet?
I used the "Encrypt tablet" option on the "Location & security" page of my settings to fully encrypt my up-to-date Asus Transformer. Honeycomb encryption seems a bit flaky so I want to un-encrypt my tablet again. How can I do this? (the option on the settings page still says "Encrypt tablet" and underneath it says "Encrypted", but tapping it does nothing, and I can't find any way to decrypt the tablet again)
Owen

Did some research on this myself before I turned on encryption on my Iconia... the only way to decrypt the tablet is to do a factory data wipe. The UI should have gave you this warning when you chose "Encrypt tablet" (the Iconia sure did). If you back your stuff up, wipe, and restore your backup, you should be fine. (That's where root + Titanium Backup + ClockWorkMod + Nandroid comes in handy)
This Engadget post shows the UI and it's warning about the inability to decrypt.


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Disable force close vibrations
I am developing some applications for Android and I'm getting some errors and force closes.
This is rather annoying, although not as much as annoying as the loud vibrations the phone does (a long vibration and 3 quick ones). This is very unpleasant for me and for my workmates.
I've set Sound >> Vibrate to "Never", but it keeps coming on and on and after searching through almost all the entire phone settings, a solution is still to find.
The device is the SGS running Froyo.

You're probably not going to like my answer, but I don't think there's anything you can do about it. I've tried to turn this off myself in the past, but the Android OS is such that you will receive a force close vibration no matter what. Now, regarding your application actually force closing, here are my two best guesses (since I can't see any of your code):

You are trying to use a feature that requires documentation in the manifest file.
You are overburdening the UI stack by not threading processes that take a long time to accomplish (i.e. contacting a server and receiving data, handling remote data, etc.), which can be solved with AsyncTasks.

Also, if you are getting frequent force close errors, please use DDMS. It's an absolute God send for this kind of stuff. I know a lot of people who just try to "figure out" where they went wrong. Debugging is a skill in its own right.
Sorry I couldn't directly answer your question. I instead tried to pinpoint where else you may be going wrong with your applications, which, to me, would seem to be a bigger issue.
EDIT:
To show you how I arrived at this conclusion:
I firstly tried to look through all settings (including my Galaxy S manual), and obviously no cigar.
I noticed that there are two classes that a developer must look into to at least see if this vibration can be turned off programatically (for your specific program). These classes are the Notification and Vibrator classes. Upon inspection, you can see that there's nothing within these classes that will allow you to do that. It's a system property. Realizing that you must put in a "vibration" intent into the manifest in order to even manipulate the vibration should further prove this point:
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.VIBRATE"/>

I wasn't really prepared to mess around with the actual Android low-level code so I brought the issue up with my friend (who has been messing around with the actual Android kernel and OS itself for a while) in order to validate my suspicion. He said that this property was built in. In other words, you would have to override the property within the OS itself in order to change the force close vibration. For me, that was the end of me trying to turn off this property.

Thanks for your answer. The force closes and errors are not my main concern, I mean, I am building and testing some wrappers for native libraries, so I expect to get a lot of them; and it's not that I can't solve the problems, I just can't stand the vibration the phone makes when I can't :) (btw, I was simply making a cheap joke in the question...)
Thanks for answering though. Perhaps you can improve your answer by mentioning the steps you took when trying to turn it off and why you think there is nothing to do about it.

Haha I know exactly what you mean by the force close vibration being annoying as all hell. I'll edit my answer to show you what I attempted.


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How do I upgrade my Android OS from 2.2 to 2.3 on an HTC Desire?

Possible Duplicate:
How do I update the OS in my device?

I am carrying a HTC Desire. I want to upgrade the OS from Android 2.2 to Android 2.3. How do I upgrade the OS?

Check out on this following forums

modaco
Cyanogen
XDA Developers

Note:  Please ready instructions carefully before performing anything. You can break your phone. You have to do everything on your own risk


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Do all current Android versions require rooting for bluetooth tethering (PAN)?
Looking at apps like "Wireless Tether for Root Users" and "tether Blu", and questions like "Are there any Android phones that allow Bluetooth PAN off the shelf?" it seems that Android would require rooting for providing Bluetooth tethering (PAN).
However another app "PdaNet 3.02" boasts that it "supports both USB Tether or Bluetooth DUN" and "does not require rooting". Also, coming from Symbian it would seem weird that what I've considered a basic feature isn't available without hacks.
I would try the PdaNet app myself, but the unfortunately it is incompatible with my phone, which is still running Android 2.2.
So what's the deal? Is bluetooth tethering available in 2.3 or will it require rooting even then?
(Apparently in some countries tethering as a concept is restricted, and thus blocked from phones. However, I live in Finland so my phone is not tethering-restricted in this way, e.g. Wi-Fi tethering (creating a Wi-Fi hotspot) is a feature available for me out-of-the-box.)

My Galaxy S with 2.3.3 has no option for bluetooth tethering, but my Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet running 3.1 has such an option. I am not entirely sure if the option comes from stock Android because it doesn't get listed on wikipedia. So I assume that it's an modification from Lenovo.
2.3 will require root for bluetooth tethering if there where no modifications by the manufacturer and I think bluetooth tethering hasn't found the way in stock android yet.

For Android 2.2 I belive you do need to root the device to install a tethering app. However, Android 2.3 does have tethering over wi-fi or USB built but I find that it doesn't work that well so I have still rooted it and installed the app. I don't know if the problem with the built in tethering is a problem with my phone or android overall so you might find the built in version works fine.
Hope this helps

No, it seems Android 2.2 also has tethering over Wi-Fi (or USB) built-in, without rooting, unless restricted by country or phone provider regulations. Well, at least my phone does have both Wi-Fi and USB tethering built in, and it's running Android 2.2. That's exactly why I find it so strange that Bluetooth tethering would suddenly require rooting.


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My HTC Android Touch is creating problems some times
All of a sudden with out touching the screen my phone works on its own like moving between screens.  If I touch on one option it may navigate to some other. It happens very rarely, but it's impacting my ability to use the phone. Can any one suggest a solution?

Do you have an HTC Desire or HTC MyTouch? The tags say one thing but your title (seems) to say something else.

It might be a digitizer problem, you should take it to a warranty. Usually problems like that can be cause of a digitizer issue.

this started to happen after i downloaded an app from the market. prior to that it was great. but after downloading that app all the heck started. anyways I have uninstalled that app but i did not get rid of the problem completely as it was peeping in sometime or the other.. but rare..

@yrksundeep: Have you done the usual quick steps? Cleared the data of the app, restarted the phone, etc.? Have you considered a factory reset? That said, I think Reigo is probably right that it's a hardware problem. That it happened right after you installed an app is probably coincidental.

@Al Everett: If you say that it is a hardware problem... I am confused whether it would get set or not... Can some one plz elaborate the problem at which part it is ocured.

I don't know what the heck you're trying to say. If it's a hardware problem, you need to get the store you bought it from to replace it; we're not going to be able to help you.


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How do I update Android on my device?

This Community Wiki question is designed to be the "canonical question" for questions asking how to upgrade one's device to a new Android version.

I want to get a newer version of the OS for my Android device. How can I do that?
See also: Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

This is a Community Wiki post. If you see a way to improve it, please go right ahead and edit it.

There are multiple factors that go into the answer in your particular case.

Is there an official update from the carrier/manufacturer? Then use the official method.
Is there no official update, but has someone created a ROM that you could install on your rooted device? Then you need to look for how to update unofficially.
If you have a little programming knowledge, and you know about Linux device drivers, you could try to make a custom ROM for the device. Start with an existing ROM project such as Cyanogenmod and port it to your hardware. This will take a lot of effort, there's a risk of bricking your phone, and it might not even be possible for your device (because of lack of drivers). If you still think it's worth a try, ask the developers of the ROM you're starting with where to start. (Note that questions about writing custom ROMs are off-topic on this site.)
If there is neither an official update nor a custom ROM, and you don't have the knowledge or free time to port one yourself, then your only other option is to buy a new device.

Official
First, check to see that there is an official update for your device.

When will my device get the Android 8.0 update (Oreo)?
When will my device get the Android 7.0 update (Nougat)?
When will my device get the Android 6.0 update (Marshmallow)?
When will my device get the Android 5.1 update (Lollipop)?
When will my device get the Android 5.0 update (Lollipop)?
When will my device get the Android 4.4 update (KitKat)?
When will my device get the Android 4.3 update (Jelly Bean)?
When will my device get the Android 4.2 update (Jelly Bean)?
When will my device get the Android 4.1 update (Jelly Bean)?
When will my device get the Android 4.0 update (Ice Cream Sandwich)?
When will my tablet get the Android 3.x update (Honeycomb)?
When will my phone get the Android 2.3 update (Gingerbread)?
When will my phone get the Android 2.2 update (FroYo)?

For most devices, you simply go to Settings | About phone | System updates. If the update is ready for your particular device, it will tell you so. If you're lucky, you won't even need to go that far, as there will be a notification telling you that an update is ready.
Note that it takes time for carriers and manufacturers to add their customizations to the OS. Just because a new version has been announced doesn't mean it's immediately available for your device. Even when a particular OS update is announced for your device, it is almost always a phased rollout, meaning that it could be days or weeks from the official release for it to be available for you. (Very often the update file is made available for savvy users to update manually.)
Some device manufacturers/carriers have slightly, or grossly, different ways of distributing updates. Samsung, for instance, was notorious for requiring users to use their Kies software, although recent updates have come over-the-air.

How do I upgrade firmware on my Samsung Galaxy S without using windows?
What can you do with Samsung Kies for Android phones?

Unofficial
If there is no official update for your device, you either need to wait for one (if one will be made) or install a custom ROM. There is a vibrant mod community that works very hard to make new OS updates available for old devices and devices where the manufacturer/carrier is very slow to do their customizations.
Rooting and flashing ROMs to your device is too large a topic to be covered in this post.  Please refer to these other questions for that:

How do I root my Android device?
Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?