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Jelly Bean on the Galaxy Nexus - forcing an update?
I bought my Galaxy Nexus in New Zealand - via parallel importing. I believe it came from Russia, given my manual was in Russian(!).  But it works perfectly and is genuine.
A colleague there bought one from the same source the next day, and his arrived a day after mine.
I then moved to Canada, and got a Rogers sim card.  All good.
However, my ex-colleague got a 4.0.4 upgrade about 8 weeks before myself.  I tried forcing an update, but no luck.
Then last week, I finally got 4.0.4, and about the same day, my old colleague emailed to say he got an OTA update to 4.1.
What gives? Is it a geo-fenced roll-out? How can I force an update? (I've  gone to system updates to check for an update, but no luck).  Or would I have to root and do it manually? I'd prefer not to if there's a simple way to force an update...
Baseband I9250XXLA2, Build IMM76K.I9250XWLD2

There are many variations of the Galaxy Nexus. Most likely, your phone is yakjuxw, which gets the updates from Samsung. The other phone is either yakju or takju, which use Google's own updates, which are released quicker.
The versions are interchangeable, if you don't account for international customizations or possible carrier modifications. For example, see my answer here on how to change the yakjuxw firmware to takju Jelly Bean, which can be then officially upgraded to 4.1.1 via OTA.

Baseband I9250XXLA2, Build IMM76K.I9250XWLD2 - can one use that to determine yakjuxw or whichever?

That's the same as I had, don't know if it means yakjuxw definitely. Although, it seems so, because the factory images for yakju/takju over here are IMM76I.

I waited very impatiently for the JellyBean update for few days last week and finally did this to get JB on my Galaxy Nexus.

Manually trigger the update by clearing the data in Google Services
  Framework and then check for System Update in Settings.

You might have to do this multiple times though. I had to do it 5 times to get the update. You might be lucky to get it in fewer attempts as well.
Btw, I got my phone from US and I stay in India. I am not really sure if this really matters.

I had the same problem: I bought my phone from Amazon.com and got stuck on 4.0.2 with no OTA upgrades. When I looked into it, it turned out that I was running a firmware (yakjujp) that was set to get updates from Samsung, as opposed to getting them directly from Google.
First you need to determine if your device is receiving updates directly from Google, which you can tell from its build name. I ended up temporarily installing this application (warning: contains gratuitous ads) and looking at the "Brand" field. If you're not on "yakju" then you'll need to switch builds in order to get official updates from Google.
I followed these painful Windows instructions while I really should have looked at these ones instead (and ignored most of the steps given how much easier this process is on Linux).
The whole procedure can be summarized like this:

Backup your phone.
Unlock the boot loader (which erases everything).
Reboot into fastboot (hold down Volume Up and Volume Down then press the power button).
Flash all of the different firmware images.
Reboot and reinstall/reconfigure apps.

This is summarized from a blog post I wrote about manually moving to the "vanilla" 4.0.4 yakju firmware, and shortly after I received the 4.1.1 OTA update from Google.


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Access Company Directory on Samsung S3
Does anyone know how to access Microsoft Exchange company directory on Samsung S3?  This used to be available on my previous phone (HTC Desire) but I can't seem to find it on the Samsung S3.

Assuming you already have the Exchange account added on your phone, if you go to Contacts, and search for a name, it should bring up directory results. Make sure you hit the search or enter button on the keyboard.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Is it possible to add an audio bluetooth profile to my phone?
I want to make my phone act as a bluetooth speaker/headset because the audio jacks connection on my laptop is kinda broken (won't play audio on both ears unless the headset plug is midway inserted). Add to that the fact that the audio coming out of my laptop's speakers aren't too loud. My phone, however, fills in that gap by having quite good and loud audio and the headset jack on my phone isn't messed up like the one my laptop.
So upon thinking of ways to do this, I realized that I could add a bluetooth profile to my phone so that the laptop will be able to detect it as a bluetooth headset. However, I couldn't find any info about doing this.
I'm using an SE ST17i and I'm rooted so rooted solutions are applicable. I hope someone can help me out.
P.S. I know of the AirFoil approach but would rather prefer my above approach if possible because I don't like keeping my wifi on all the time.

See my answer to a similar question - the problem is that within the Bluetooth AD2P profile (for stereo quality audio) Android phones aren't designed to be a "sink" (a receiver of media) only a source. You're right in that this is a limitation of the Bluetooth stack on your phone, but so far the info I've found says that trying to alter the stack comes with moderate amounts of pain and compromise. Perhaps you're more adventurous than I?

Thank you for the prompt answer. Based on what you've linked, it seems my only ray of hope is from using a CM-based rom.

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


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I want to restore my Galaxy Tab 10.1 to Factory settings?
As my question suggests I want to restore my Galaxy Tab 10.1 to factory settings.  I read this previous question and it tells me how to do it and I will follow these instructions, however....
I am giving the device to a non-family member and need absolute assurance that all apps I purchased (free or otherwise) and that all log-files and personal information will be removed.  Will the reset instructions in the previous question achieve this and is there any thing else I need to do from a privacy perspective other than the described factory reset?

Provided you haven't rooted the device, a factory reset will reset the phone to the state it was in. Note that sometimes, some extra content that was added by the manufacturer (like some bundled music/images) later may be wiped.
Obviously, if you're bundling along the same SD card that you were using earlier, format it and also run it through shredder programs.
Ideally, don't part with the same SD card - either give the next owner a new card or avoid it altogether.

What shredder program is advisable for an SD Card ?


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How to push and install APK files from a PC over Internet?
I want to push AND INSTALL apk files from PC like Play Store does (when I send install signal from web interface). How to do this?
Note: The PC and Android device may not be in same Wi-Fi network. So, I am asking for solution over Internet.
I am rooted..

Technically this ends up in a clone of Google Play: Set-up a server that provides one or more APKs. On client side install an APK manually that connects to the server and downloads and installs new APKs automatically. Everything is possible but I don't know an ready-to-use solution.

@Robert If an app can make use of a Dropbox folder to install all APKs in it automatically, there's no need to setup own server for this.

You are right, that is the reason I wrote "the server" and not "own server".

@Robert You said, "set-up a server". Are you thinking about setup a server for another one?

Setup a VPN! Having your phone rooted will let you install OpenVPN . You should setup a server (and connect it too to the VPN) and your phone will be your client.
Then you'll have a server and a client in the same network so you can use adb commands! Push, pull, install...


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How to add root permission to some app by myself?
Is there any way that I intentionally grant root permission to some app? Not automatically via SuperSU when a specific app asks for root permission, but in a way to pick an app via some tool and grant it root permissions.
For example, I add my favourite text app to the approved list and then I can open root files via that app.

No. You should request the app developer to do so.
On UNIX like systems, permissions are managed with something called UIDs.
Every process has one and it dictates what they can access. Moreover, there are also groups that have permission that their members can use. When an app has permissions like Write to SD card they're put into a group that has this permission.
The root permissions are an exception since they are not declared in the app's manifest, but rather in its code. Root is also not a group but a separate UID (as it is a separate user) so it's not that easy for an app to use it.
Apps that have root rights need to be explicitly written to do so.
The way this works is every time an app wants to do something as root, it has to request the su binary to do it instead. su will then ask the app that manages these permissions (e.g., SuperSU) whether the app is allowed to gain root access. If it isn't, it'll prompt you to allow or deny it. Then the action is carried out as root, not as the app user. These actions are not an integral part of the app but rather an external executable.
While theoretically it is possible to add this to an app, this would be a non-trivial process requiring knowledge of writing smali code, which is the internal format of the Dalvik virtual machine (the part of the system that runs the apk file) called smali. And even then, there'd be a huge security risk if the app allows other apps to access it: it wouldn't know how to keep the privileged root access separate from its normal access. So in reality this isn't really feasible.

For those who don't know what smali is: It's the assembly dialect for Android's dalvik virtual machine code and used often in reverse engineering dex files. What might be a little unclear: The app has to itself take care of becoming root programmatically. That's why the developer has to include it. Adding it to SuperSU doesn't help as long as the app does not exercise its root rights.

So I cannot open some root text file via my favourite text editor if the programmers did not code the app to accept opening of root files?

Absolutely correct. To give an example: if the app will not be started with root, and tries to open some "root file", it would simply get a "permission denied" -- as accessing the file will still be done with the apps UID (it will not ask for superuser permissions to open it). On the other hand, if the app is started using the root UID (i.e. su <app>), it will access that root file as root, and thus get permission.

That's why I was unable to use some other text editors to read root files :).

@Izzy AFAIK you can not execute an regular Android app with root UID, or change the UID of an running app. The only thing you can do is execute command line programs with su and therefore execute commands with admin permissions.

@Robert my description was intentionally using simple words to make it understood easily. Sure it's not 100% precise, but rawly explains the "why can't I..." of the questioner. To explain the entire principle would not fit in a simple comment :)

Thanks guys, I updated my answer. I can see that this isn't the easiest topic to digest.

I will assume setting the setuid bit is not possible. Android isn't all that much like Linux. :)

@Broam well I don't have a setuid binary on my phone so I guess. But Android only uses the Linux kernel it's not Linux and I'm pretty sure it's not POSIX compliant.

I have found a way that may help you. I used this to grant root access to Tasker.
If you use the terminal emulator to grant read but not write access to a folder using

su
chmod 775 /location/of/folder/

then your text editor will be able to read that directory and so if you can then try to save a file in the folder then it will try to request root permission.
It may also just give a write error.

All directories in /location/of/folder/ from root to top must be readable/traversable. Also SELinux may deny access. So this approach is rarely practical.


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Back button does not light-up when I press home button
I bought a Samsung Galaxy Y phone yesterday. I was wondering why the Back button does not light up when I press Home button on the device.
On my Samsung Galaxy Ace the Back button and Menu button light up immediately whenever I press home button.
Is there a setting associated with this that I need to change?

The Galaxy Y GT-S5360 simply does not have backlighting for its capacitive buttons (source 1, source 2) whereas the Ace does - there is nothing you can do.


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Is there any way to change the size of the text box in Messaging?
I find it hard to edit text messages in the tiny Messaging box. Is there any way to increase the size of it? I'm using CM10 (JB), but the app looks the same as the CM9 (ICS) version.

You can use an alternative like Handcent SMS - it has a button to allow full screen editing. Also, you can customize the font size / style to something more suitable from within Handcent.

Thanks, but I would rather not start downloading separate apps unless there is no other way.

Try turning your phone sideways (to Landscape format); then you have a larger window. Works for me (Android 6 Moto phone)

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


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Are SMS messages queued or discarded when there's no signal?
I'm thinking of getting an Android phone (a Samsung Galaxy S2) but I need to know whether it queues SMS messages (when there's no carrier) and then sends them when it's in signal again, or whether you have to re-send as on the iPhone. As I don't get a very good mobile signal at home this feature is very important for me.

Are you talking about text (SMS) messages?

Must be SMS (as the iPhone has no G-Voice nor Talk)

This is a general Android question that applies to all devices.
Messages (SMS) are queued if there's no signal. See screenshot (device is in airplane mode).

For what it's worth, Google Voice (which I use exclusively for SMS) added this feature recently.


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Method to change browser User Agent based on site
Dolphin Browser can be configured to act as one of a range of User Agents (Android, (full) Desktop, other phones...). But this is for every site visited until you want to change the settings to some other agent (browser type).
Some sites have better mobile versions than others.
I wondered if there is a feature/plugin on this or another Android browser to set the Agent individually for a range certain sites, e.g.:

facebook.com (full Desktop - because mobile edition is limited)
nationalrail.co.uk (Android, quicker than Desktop and easier to manage)
etc.

This would then 'trick' the website to load the site in a version as specified.

Have you installed and used the Dolphin Desktop Toggle add-on? Is it not what you were looking for?
Although, not an automatic method, it does make switching user agents much less painful.
Else, you might also try accessing the mobile version of sites that render better by using their URL e.g. http://m.twitter.com or http://m.gmail.com or mobile.website.com etc.


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Android Tablet - Download PDF and open it on browser
Device - Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 / Android 4.0.3
I have tested Samgsung Galaxy Tab for document download such as PDF from web site with many browsers. Most of them just download it to somewhere in the device and I have to go to notification window(Right and bottom) and click it again to open it. Some browsers ask me to save and ask me again to open it.
Is there browser or a way that opens it when I download it? iPad works that way. iPad opens the file right away when I download a document.

I would say, for security reasons, NO. To have a browser just open a file that you downloaded, without asking you first, is a security risk. if you download an android app, it would open the "app installer" right away for the app. Or what if some other exploit was found that a file you download takes advantage of. If it opens it right away, you have no way to stop it.

All those documents are located in our server and they are all verified by us. We create only PDF and upload them on the server. So we do not need to worry about any security risk. Is there any way that we could try?

If your problem is specifically about having the android browser auto-open PDF files, I suggest changing the title of your question and adding tags about the browser and pdf.  Its not really specific to the Galaxy Tab, though it is probably worth mentioning the Android version you're using.

Have you tried pdf.js extension for Firefox mobile ?
It's a bit slow and unstable for now, but it should work as expected.

That works beautifully. Thanks. That was what I was looking for.

You cannot do it without "replacing" parts of android. The file is not actually downloaded by the browser, it is downloaded by the Download Manager. You would have to set a "default" for PDF files (pdf reader) and then replace the Download Manager. Replacing download manager could be done, without a custom ROM, since it has "public" intent actions available that it fires when a download is completed.
If that is a viable option, there is a question on StackOverflow that could be a starting point for replacing Download Manager with a custom one.
The iPad opens the file right away because there is nothing else you can do with it. There is no "available file system" on iOS. Where on android, you can save files, and even install a file manager to browse to them.

Thanks for pointing out the difference between iPad and Android. I did not know the fact. I am not an Android developer, so I was looking for a way from changing Setting rather than programming. I hope there is a way to do it from setting.


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Global Address Lookups on Samsung Email app
I have set up my Exchange Mail using the default Samsung Email app. Mail and calendars work great, but I am not able to do Global Address lookups.
Is this possible? How can do this?

So what I've discovered so far,
Android doesn't have this functionality yet and you'll need to install a 3rd-party app to get this. An app that I found works is 'Swift Contacts'.
What's nice is I am able to type the name of the person right in the 'To:' field and it does a lookup and completes the email address. The only problem is I think this app will stop working after a period of time if you don't pay for it. I haven't found a free alternative for it.

It'd be better if you could provide the link of the app on Play Store. Just now, I couldn't find the app you mentioned.

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


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Samsung Galaxy Tab mass deployment
Device - Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 / Android 4.0.3
We are about to deploy 70 Samsung Galaxy Tabs for users who will be allowed only to use web browser to access document library. We created a Joomla site for document library.
How do I remove all the unnecessary apps from the screen except the
browser? Should I remove them one by one?
How to block access to other apps or setting?

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/search?q=child+lock&submit=search

Don't. It will take 30 seconds to circumvent and when someone does it will make you look like a fool.

Simply removing widgets and shortcuts from the screen will only prevent the very inexperienced (i.e. those who never used an Android device before) from accessing other apps, and not even sure for them. If your goal is to prevent most people from doing so (the very experienced will always find a way to circumvent your protection), you rather need something like a Kiosk-Mode.
Recomended readings/references on this:

Deny the installation of apps or add new accounts (kiosk mode) -- another Q&A here on our site
Child-proofing an Android phone? -- again a Q&A at Android Enthusiasts
KioWare - Kiosk System Software -- an Android Kiosk solution
Kiosk Mode on Android with SureLock -- also mentioned in the first Q&A
Kiosk mode on Android -- a blog on the topic
Google Search on the topic
German Overview on App Lockers (Google Translate version of the same page)

Btw: If you initialize all those tablets using the same Google Account, you can easily manage installations via your computers web browser (just a hint along).

I like the way that use same google account. I did not think about it. Thanks.

Glad you like that! Came to my mind at the last moment it would be nice to have a central maintenance at least for a part of the tasks :) Would also be interesting to know what "locking variant" you decided on.

You have to remove each app shortcut and/or widget from the launcher one at a time.
I would start looking into password-protecting the apps on the tablet as you would for a young child.  See these related questions: https://android.stackexchange.com/search?q=child+lock&submit=search

Thanks for the answer. It sounds like that I have to play with all 70 Tabs to remove it one by one. I don't think Android tab or Galaxy Tab is ready for business purpose.

It's perfectly fine for business. It's not ready for arbitrary and pointless restrictions on what can be done with it, especially when those restrictions would just cause the devices to end up smashed against brick walls.


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Installation in system/app without root
I know I can install my application in the /system/app folder with root access. But is there any way to do it without root access?

No.
Users are not allowed to write to the /system folder/partition. Any sort of exploit or method that would allow this partition to be writable is equivalent to root access on the device.
Some other examples besides root are: "Rooted recovery" which is a recovery partition that has more features than the standard Android recovery; an "Engineering" (HTC) or Unlocked (everyone else) bootloader; or a file-permissions exploit, which at that point you might as well put su and SuperUser.apk on the phone anyway...

Don't forget busybox.


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Does Android keep a log of when it boots?
I'm making a parental control/accountability app for Android. It consists of a monitoring service that runs in the background and starts when the phone is booted.
Unfortunately, I have found that when Android is started in "Safe Mode", services are not started automatically, and because of this, my app has a serious flaw. While in safe mode, the web and other apps can be started without my monitoring service running.
I thought that if it isn't possible to monitor app activity while in safe mode, maybe I could at least have a way to detect if the phone was previously in safe mode.
Does Android keep any log of this? Or any boot log in general? I'm very open to suggestions and alternatives.

I think you have caught yourself out, in short, nothing you can do!
Have a look at this source that explains why, specifically in this section:

System Partition and Safe Mode
The system partition contains Android's kernel as well as the operating system libraries, application runtime, application framework, and applications. This partition is set to read-only. When a user boots the device into Safe Mode, third-party applications may be launched manually by the device owner but are not launched by default.

Keywords is third-party applications [...] are not launched by default.

When Android boots up, it keeps a cache of the logcat, in a temporary buffer that is reserved found in /dev/log. That buffer gets recycled when it hits the threshold, obviously, the bigger the threshold, the slower Android gets with the continual spamming into the logcat buffer hence kept to minimum - IIRC, its around 64K:
#define DEFAULT_LOG_ROTATE_SIZE_KBYTES 16
#define DEFAULT_MAX_ROTATED_LOGS 4

Source: system/core/logcat/logcat.cpp
Do not ask how many lines that can be, as to each and to every app, it's different. Not alone that, the logcat disappears upon reboot!

The only method I'm aware of that contains a log produced by the system after a reboot is /proc/last_kmsg. Whether or not the kernel keeps this log file after a reboot depends on the settings provided during kernel compilation.
My experience has shown that some stock devices (HTC) have this logging enabled and others do not. I haven't seen a consistent pattern.

Thank you!  Where did you learn about this log?  Do you have any suggestions as to how I can learn about more of these logs? Is there a reference somewhere?

In case anyone wanders in like I did, the log is now in /sys/fs/pstore/console_ramoops.   It's not a full log like dmesg, but basically just has information about the last kernel panic and what led up to it.

adb shell cp /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops /data/media/0/console-ramoops.\date "+%Y_%m_%d_%H_%M_%S"`.log` works with TWRP on OP3 with Android 8-based LineageOS

If you're rooted, I would just open Termux and do:
sudo cat /proc/bootloader_log | less

Or you could use the app "LiveBoot" and it will show you all your boot processes every time you turn your phone on.


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Inbox messages auto remove once read Samsung s3
Have tried droid mail, k9 mail, as well as the local email app. My outlook is set to leave a copy of message on server. Emails that have been read, disappear when updating or polling for new messages. Verizon tells me gotta talk to google tech support. Does anyone know how to, or of a program, that will allow my messages to be saved locally and accessed even when outside of cell service range?
My droid and droid 2 both had no problems keeping inbox messages, read or otherwise, in my inbox.

cant' you use IMAP?

If you set Outlook to leave copies it doesn't affect other clients unless you have an Exchange mailbox. You should set this on the server (can maybe be found in webmail settings). Also, please mention the protocol you use, we're just assuming POP.


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How do I keep my headphone jack from disabling my bluetooth speakerphone in my car?
I just upgraded to the Samsung Galaxy S III running Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and I drive a 2009 Mazda 5 with integrated bluetooth speakerphone.
When I'm in my car, I connect the headphone jack to my car stereo Aux input so that I can play music from my phone through my car speakers.  I got a phone call today and I noticed that when I'm connected to the Aux jack, my phone wouldn't connect to the bluetooth speakerphone.  In fact, I couldn't hear the phone call at all, although the person on the other end could hear me.  When I pulled out the cable from my phone's headphone jack, the bluetooth connection to the speakerphone was restored.
I never had this problem with my Bionic.
How do I make my phone connect to the bluetooth speakerphone even when I have a cable in the headphone receptacle?
Note: my car hooks up to the bluetooth speakerphone only -- it doesn't have an option to play music through the car speakers via bluetooth.
UPDATE (JUL 19)
Having thought about the situation some more, here's what I think is happening:
When I make a phone call using my car's integrated bluetooth speakerphone, my car turns off the stereo input to my speakers and replaces it with the phone input.  At the same time, if I have a cable plugged into my headphone jack on my phone, my phone assumes that I want to hear the call through my "headphones" and not any attached bluetooth device, so my phone doesn't transmit the incoming phone audio to the bluetooth antenna -- it sends it to the audio cable plugged into the headphone jack.  Since my car stereo isn't accepting auxiliary input during a phone call, I hear nothing.
So, I really need a way to tell my phone that when I have a bluetooth speakerphone connected and "headphones" connected, I prefer to hear the call through the bluetooth connection (I don't think it's very likely that I'm going to be able to get Mazda to change their stereo firmware :-) ).
UPDATE (JUL 24)

I tried my wife's Razr (running ICS) and didn't have this problem, so it seems to be Samsung Galaxy SIII problem, not an ICS problem.
I've come up with a couple of work-arounds that I'll submit as a separate answer.

This is really a silly problem that should get improved by manufacturers. +1

What I particularly like about this issue is that it didn't exist in earlier versions of the operating system -- it's newly-added "value."

At the very least, it should work like the selection of a computer's boot order, where the user is able to select the desired order.. first this, second that, third that... etc. Using this approach, would a matter of saying to the system: first Bluetooth, second AUX.. :)

From the Samsung tech support, they say that:

when the AUX cable is plugged in, Blue-tooth audio is dead.

However, from the ICS Options during a call:

During a call, you can also use buttons near the bottom of the screen to:

Switch to the dialer, for example to enter a code.
Controls the audio output as follows:

If a Bluetooth headset is not connected: Turns the speakerphone on or off.
If a Bluetooth headset is connected: Functions as a 3-way switch between the built-in earpiece, the speakerphone, and the headset. The icon changes to indicate the current output. Touch & hold to see a 3-way menu.
If a wired headset is plugged into the phone, it replaces the phone's built-in earpiece.

Note:
The Google Support link refers to the Android 4.0 for Galaxy Nexus (Released 2011, November), but the one you have is newer (Released 2012, May). Since the OS is the same, there's no reason as to not have those options available.

You can try and check if the mentioned option at point 2.2. works, but besides from that, I believe that you're out of luck on this subject.

Thank you for tracking down appropriate discussion on the web.
If I recall correctly, when I had this issue yesterday, I tried to push the bluetooth button. It was "greyed out" and, when I pushed it anyway, nothing happened. I'll double-check on my way home tonight.

There is also the Dock Audio Redirector: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.muteheadlight.dockredir but I'm not sure if that only works for docks.

Confirmed: when I plug in my headphones, it disables the bluetooth phone connection.

@Gdalya From the hours that I've invested reading about this before placing the answer, doesn't appear to exist a solution for this (yet). I've came across some supposed solutions with APPs, but were either for a phone dock or music related. If I get to find anything that may help you, I'll update this answer.

Regarding TREE's comment: For the app that you suggested to work, there would need to be an S3 car dock that triggered the car dock event in the OS.  I'm not certain that there is that kind of dock for the S3 -- the description of the offical dock doesn't clearly state that (http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones-accessories/ECS-K200BEGSTA).  My current universal dock certainly doesn't trigger this.  Further, 1) reading the description of the App, I don't think that it will accomplish what I want and 2) I don't think I want to invest in the $50 Samsung dock in order to find out.

I accepted this answer rather than my own, because Zuul did a lot of good research that lends insight into the underlying S3 design decisions that lead to my issue.  If you're looking for work-arounds, see my answer.

I've developed 2 work-arounds:

Turn off bluetooth.
When I do this, I hear the call through my car speakers (using cable from headphone jack to AUX input) and use my phone's microphone rather than the car's microphone.
Drawbacks:
A. I need to make sure that my car stereo is set to AUX input during phone calls.
B. I can't use my car's voice dialer, which has a convenient activation button on the steering wheel.
Get a second bluetooth receiver and connect it to the AUX input in my car.  This has the added benefits of not triggering the S3's "you plugged in headphones" notification (which I find annoying and haven't been able to find a way to switch off) and also doesn't halve the volume automatically, like plugging in a cable to the headphone jack does.
Drawbacks:
A. You have to spend an extra $20 - $30.
I bought the GOgroove BlueGate from Newegg ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875991070 ) although have since found a cheaper receiver ( http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10827&cs_id=1082704&p_id=7364&seq=1&format=2 ) that seems like it would also work.
B. It takes a little bit of playing around to get it to work.  So far, I seem to need to turn on the extra receiver and then manually connect the bluetooth to both the car and the spare transceiver -- it seems like I can't just get in my car and have everything automatically work, but I only started using this setup yesterday so maybe I'll be able to work out some of these kinks.

I tried #2 for a few days.  I had a lot of trouble with getting both Bluetooth hook-ups to work at once.  A lot of the time, the audio would say it was connected, but I wouldn't hear any music through my speakers.  So I'm going with workaround #1 for now.


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Phone number shown as unknown. Always says sender is invalid
I have a Samsung Galaxy S SHW-M1105 and it displays my phone number as unknown. Is there a way to change it? And one more when I try to reply a message it says the sender is invalid. Someone please help

You can enable your caller ID from Settings -> Call settings -> All calls -> Show my number -> Show. As for the SMS reply problem, please check the settings in your Messaging app, make sure that the SMSC (Short Message Service Center) number is correct foryour network and SMS Reply Path is off. Otherwise, just double-check the number and try with and without the international format.


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Disable system "tick" sound
I have a Sidekick 4g. This device has a system wide "tick" like sound that plays every time I do various things (click links, click items in list of RSS app, click threads in messaging app etc...) I would really prefer it if my device did not make this sound but the only way I've found to get it to stop is turn the volume all the way down, but then I can no longer hear my ringers.
Does anyone know of a way to eliminate this sound without the need to put my device in silent mode?

On a Galaxy S2 running ICS 4.0.3, such options are available in the SOUND category in the main Android options. uncheck TOUCH SOUNDS

While typing this question this was one of the links that the site provided me with:
How do I disable the 'click' sound on the camera app?
Turns out a similar method can be used to disable the system "tick" sound in question as can the camera shutter sound.
I deleted(moved) this file:
/system/media/audio/ui/TW_Touch.ogg

and then rebooted my device, now I am free to navigate my phone in peace and quiet! and I won't miss txt's or calls because of my device being in silent.
EDIT: upon doing a better job of looking in the settings I found that this option is actually present in Settings->Sound->Audible selection Disabling it there is the preferred solution since it requires no root. (don't know how I managed to miss this the 2 times I've looked)

Thank you for answering back. Just curious, wasn't there any option in settings?

@roxan Now I feel silly. I've definitely looked in the settings before and come up empty, but just now I checked again, and indeed it is there. Is labled Audible selection on my device. And it does do away with this sound.

Haha! happens. I think you should also update your answer to reflect this fact so some other people also doesn't have to go though the trouble you did.


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Google Play does not work on Samsung S3 (GT-I9300) purchased in China Unicom

Possible Duplicate:
Does China Mobile Galaxy S3 model GT I-9308 have Google Play Store?

Just want to check

Whether Google Play support Samsung S3 (GT-i9300)?
I have downloaded the Google Play to S3 but it won't work?

Is there any way to use Google Play on a Samsung Galaxy S 3? (I have a Google account and it worked fine on another Smart Phone.)
Actually same issue for other Google applications like Google+, Gmail, etc.

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/24768/does-china-mobile-galaxy-s3-model-19308-have-google-play-store

Do you have the GT-I9300 or GT-I9308?

Also: what errors are you seeing? "won't work" is not very specific.


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Proxy/tunneling options for the Android platform
As the possibility of connecting to a public Wifi is increasing in our cities, the opportunity of proxying/tunneling the traffic is gaining importance.
I strongly believe it would be interesting to come up with a list of applications/procedures that can setup or manage different kind of proxies/tunnels like:

http/https
socks v* (also on top of SSH)
openvpn
pptp
...

My hope is to gather all the knowledge w.r.t. the topic building a community wiki page.

Its QnA site, man. Voting to close!

I just want to start a community wiki on proxying methods.

Community Wiki lists are no longer considered "good form". I suppose that creating something to be used as a canonical answer would be okay, but I don't see a lot of questions that are variations of this theme. Perhaps you should discuss this on [meta].

Check out this list: Proxy, Tunnel & Co. Though it is in German, you already find the relevant apps grouped by their purpose. For VPN, try VPN (also in German).
The German language should be no problem concerning mapping apps to the requested topics (VPN, tunnel, ...), as that part is language-neutral. Descriptions can mostly be replaced by those from the Play Store -- or taken from the linked (English) reviews. So basically, all information is there.

Should this question stay afloat: I recently created a VPN tunnel from my Android devices to my home Win7 PC and it was much easier than I thought. I'm running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), but this setup also worked with 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and should work with other versions too.
First, I had to find a way to create a VPN server. OpenVPN looked awesome but several previous questions made it look like it might be more hassle than I was interested in (respect for those who get it working!). I stumbled across two different solutions that would fit my needs and ability:
Setup DD-WRT to run a VPN server straight from a hacked router
This How-To Geek article provides a drop-dead simple explanation of setting up the DD-WRT VPN service. This, I think, is ideal because my router just sits at home all day and is always on. Alas, after checking if my older router was compatable, it turned out that the specific build of DD-WRT I'm running ("micro" in my case) doesn't include the VPN server functionality. If yours does, I'd say go to town. I'm planning on upgrading my router to someday obtain this very function.
Configure a Windows 7 PC to accept incoming VPN connections
Alternatively, I found a blog post describing how to set up Windows to accept an incoming connection. There's honestly not much to say, this was just a few clicks and now it's up and ready - any time the PC is powered on I can log into the VPN created by it with my Windows login credentials. I use the WOL function built into DD-WRT, combined with web-access to my router, to remotely wake my PC whenever I need to use the VPN. Be sure to forward port 1723 to the PC that will be negotiating these incoming requests.
Second, I just had to connect. In ICS/JB, go to System settings > Wireless and Networks > VPN > Add VPN network and enter your info. I use DDNS to work around having to keep up with my ISP's dynamically-assigned IP address.
With a little reading and a little network know-how, this was up and working in a few minutes and was much easier than I thought it was going to be!


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What does "Quick Upload" do?
Using Motorola Atrix with Android 2.3.
When long-clicking an image in the Gallery (Galerie in German), among others there’s an option to “Quick Upload” (“Schnelles Hochladen” in German). What does this option do? It seems to do something for a while, but then it doesn’t tell me anything.
The first time I used it it asked for an e-mail address. I specified my Gmail address, assuming that it would upload the images to the relevant Google account. But I can’t find them anywhere.
It’s the fourth option in this screenshot:

I think the translation is Instant upload, and it means that it uploads the photo to your Google+ account's Instant Uploads album in the background. Check your g+ profile for this folder.

Well, but it doesn’t. I’ve checked all over Google+, especially the albums. There’s nothing there. (There’s also no indication of uploading in the background.)


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No screen lightup on email/notification/reminder
When I get a txt message on my phone, the screen lights up and it plays a sound if I have the volume turned up.
However, if I receive an email, or some other notification, the screen does not light up and it does play a sound if the volume is turned up.  At work, I need to have my phone on silent, so when I receive a txt message, it's not a problem, as I have the phone angled to face me, so I notice instantly when the screen lights up.
This does not happen with emails and or notifications.
So my question is, how do I set my phone up so the screen lights up when i receive an email and/or notification/reminder etc?
I am using Android 2.2.

What kind of phone do you have?

At the moment, there's no central spot on your phone to control which notifications show up on your phone and how they behave across APPs.
For this end, you'll need to open up each application and tweak how and when it notifies you about new messages or other events.
Generally speking,
Every APP has some settings (or Preferences) that are accessible by the More button.
Hit the button and a sub-menu of options will pop up, with Settings often among them.

In most Android APPs settings, you'll find a category for "Notification," "Alerts," or something akin.

For the Email APP that I use for my company emails, it's labelled "Notification Settings".
Find yours and click it!

From the presented screen, you can usually change when and how an app notifies you of whatever it monitors. Taking the example of the Email APP that I'm using, I can:

un-check the "Inbox notifications" entirely to disallow notifications on the status bar.
Select a ringtone for my incoming email messages.
Set the phone to vibrate when a new email arrives.

With this options you can adjust your APP to react the way you intend.

Note:
Some system global settings may overwrite your definitions for specific behaviours setup on each APP. Also some power saving APPs like the one I use: Easy Battery Saver have global settings to save battery, included preventing the phone from highlighting or vibrating.

I've performed some successful tests using the Vodafone HUAWEI U8510 running Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread).
As far as my knowledge goes, the Android 2.2.x Froyo has pretty much the same notification behaviour.

Why not install NoLED. Your screen will light up with dots or icons depending the setup.

Good tip. Answer would be even better if you link to the app in Google Play store.


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Determining support for Bluetooth Low Energy
I'm doing a feasibility study into Android tablets for commercial applications. I have a product that requires a Bluetooth Low Energy connection.
I have a Nexus 7 tablet which is supposed to support BLE but I haven't found much information about it. Is there a way to check whether the tablet has BLE and if it's enabled or not?

According to teardown reports and wikipedia Nexus 7 has a Broadcom chip (Broadcom BCM4330 paired with AzureWave AW-NH665)* which is BTLE capable. But I don't know is all needed SW layers there. Broadcom has also published a BT API as open source, but I don't know is that package included to Nexus. It's a bit of long shot, but could someone having the Nexus 7 check is the com.broadcom.bt.le.api -package included? I would be also very interested to hear....

I bought a Google Nexus 7 last week with the hopes that the com.broadcom.bt.le shared library would be on it but was disappointed to find that the sample applications do not work on the Nexus 7 since it is missing the shared library. I have emailed the owner of the SDK and ASUS with no response. Then I emailed the support on google play and all he could tell me was information I already knew, that the Nexus 7 has a Broadcom BCM4330 chipset which on paper is Bluetooth 4.0 and is the same chipset used in the iPhone 4s and the new iPad and that it is Bluetooth 4.0 compatible. I didn't response si

As of now, the checking for BLE support has to be done manually by studying specifications and searching on Google (as far as I know).
See this question on Stackoverflow: Bluetooth Smart (4.0) / GATT support in Android 4.0?
It states that Android does not support Bluetooth 4.0 (LE) out of the box up to Android-4.0 (maybe with Jelly Bean 4.1 onwards, the Nexus 7 tab suggests that). Manufacturers have to add their own API to allow access to BT LE (e.g. this app is limited to Motorola). That's why your mileage may vary with different phones up to 4.0. Casio's Bluetooth LE enabled watch is also an example of limited (official) compatibility (not even the iPhone 4S is mentioned, by the way).
My best guess is that with more devices having 4.1 the issue will solve by itself and you can find apps showing it.
Here are lists by manufacturers:

Motorola
HTC: good listing not found yet
Google: Galaxy Nexus (not with 4.0), Nexus 7 Tab

Thanks for the info, this should get me started on my research.

FYI The Nexus 7 has Broadcom's BCM4330 (same chipset as in iPhone 5), but the sample apps from Broadcom's BLE SDK won't install because the native library is not present.

Android 4.2 has some news: Android 4.2 introduces a new Bluetooth stack optimized for use with Android devices. The new Bluetooth stack developed in collaboration between Google and Broadcom replaces the stack based on BlueZ and provides improved compatibility and reliability. Source

I have tried the broadcom sdk on my S3 mini (4.1.2) and the app is crashing on a "no method found": bluetoothDevice.getDeviceType...

There is no Bluetooth LE support in all current Android APIs (at the time of writing that is API level 16, up to Android 4.1). Phone manufactures have to use the stacks of the Bluetooth chip manufactures. The only phone that has a build-in LE chip and actually makes use of it is the Motorola Razor. There have been reports that after the ICS update, Bluetooth LE pairing wont work any more.
So, no convenient way to query a device for LE support and make use of it, until there is Bluetooth LE support in the official Android API.
IIRC the Linux kernel has no (stable) Bluetooth LE API yet, too.

This answer is now out of date.

Finally with Android 4.3 there is BTLE support in the OS.  For individual devices you need to wait for a 4.3 update to see if the support has been added.  For now a Nexus 4 looks like the one device that should be good.  (I have just ordered one to do BTLE development on.)  Some devices that were sold as BTLE ready and are believed to have the necessary hardware don't look like they will really work.  e.g. the original Nexus looks not to be getting the update according to Google.

Now that Android 4.3 (API Level 18) exposes an API for accessing BLE, it's possible for third-party apps to perform a check for this system feature. One app that can check this for you is Bluetooth LE Scanner. The top of the main activity has an indicator that will display "Supported" if your device has BLE capabilities.
The app is open-source, so you can take a look at the implementation details on GitHub. I have checked the code used to determine if BLE is supported (here, for the curious), and it looks correct based on the official Android guidelines, so I have no reason to suspect that the app will misreport BLE support unless you have attempted to modify your device to try to "fake" it. In any case, it is correct on my Nexus 5. Apps that attempt to perform this check will, of course, only be useful on Android 4.3 or later.


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Preventing syncing of Google+ contacts to Galaxy S3
Have done my bit of research but couldn't find a good solution. When I sync the contacts with my primary Gmail account, the Contacts get filled with all of my Google Contacts including those from Google+ (1000s of them) which I obviously do not want to be in my phone.
How do I prevent this from happening ?

I do not want to create a new Google account just as a workaround
Have tried to locate the possibility of syncing just with a specific group. But can't find it in S3
I do not prefer 3rd party contact managers

Open the Google+ app. Click the MENU button and choose SETTINGS.
Uncheck ADD CONTACTS FROM GOOGLE+

This option was not on my Google+ App (Build 3.0.1.31545355) on my Droid 3 running Android 2.3.4

@DylanYaga It's only on ICS and newer. Before that you just hide the group that you don't want to see.

Is it possible that unchecking this will not remove the already synced contacts with? How can I remove those as well?

Ok it just took several minutes to make the change.

Settings > Accounts > Google > Google+ > UNCHECK "Keep Contacts up to date"

I didn't want all of my Google Contacts to display because that is not where I store phone #'s.  I was able to get the GS3 to only show contacts that have a phone # by going to:
Contacts > click on Settings button, scroll to bottom and click on Settings again and then choose "Only contacts with phones".  This way, I have my Google Contacts on there, but not the ones that I use only for emailing.

An option I went with was that in my g-mail account, I deleted all my contacts. I then synced my s3 with my google account so that it updated with the 0 contact list. Once I cleared my contact list from my phone, I unchecked the syncing option so that I wouldn't have this problem again. Back on my gmail account, I undid deleting the contacts so that I could retain my contact list in my email (revert it back to before this process), but still have 0 of those contacts on my S3.
Hope that helps (even though it's 2 months late).

It sounds like this does only delete the Google contacts and not the Google+ contacts. Plus your device won't be able to sync the Google contacts in the future. Sorry, but I would not recommend this option.

If Sparx's answer is not an option, the I suggest to simply hide the Google+ contacts  in the app. This does not prevent syncing but it's a sufficient  solution. For ICS open the contacts app, select the list view and press the context menu button, which should present a menu with the "Contacts to display" option.


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Jelly Bean offline voice recognition
So, Jelly Bean is supposed to have offline voice recognition, right? I've encountered several situations where the voice-keyboard has said that Google is not available. Has anyone else seen this behavior? If so, how do we fix it?
I've noticed the problem in areas where I have questionable mobile data or wifi access. If I have a good wifi / mobile data signal OR if I enable airplane mode (disabling data completely), then it all seems to work ok.
I'm using a GSM Samsung Galaxy Nexus, FYI.

comment from new user: "Data point regarding Now > Settings > Voice > Download: My Nexus 7 delivered with JB already has English installed. Nonetheless I have seen "Can't reach Google" while using speech recognition, when I was on a known strong wi-fi broadband connection. My device is 4G and 2 weeks old, so I haven't had much occasion to test speech without an internet connection."

Have you downloaded the files for you language, that supports offline voice recognition? Under Google Now, hit the menu button at the bottom, select Settings, select Voice, then the option to Download offline speech recognition.
Also, it could depend on what rom of JellyBean you are running. Some things work better than others in certain roms...

I'm using the official 4.1.1 Google ROM for the Galaxy Nexus. The dictation works when completely offline, so the language pack must be installed locally.

Ah, fortunate enough to have a GSM phone! Lucky :)
I've noticed a similar issue on various roms I've tried on my CDMA Nexus. I assume it's a loading issue: Google Now is trying to spin up, but it is unable to do so before it hits a timeout.

I have noticed that it only worked when I have English US selected in the (Choose input method), all others didn't work for me, I live in Canada. English in Canada didn't work also having it set on automatic didn't work either. thanks


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Google+ instant upload screenshots
I just switched to using Cyanogenmod 9 on my HTC EVO 4G (and it works very well!). In CM7 and with other (stock included) ROMs, when I took a screenshot, it was automatically added to the Instant Upload reel in the Google+ app.
I liked this.
After switching, the screenshots no longer upload, even on forced "Upload All". I suspect it is because they are being saved to a location which is not scanned by the G+ app for instant upload. So does anyone know how to force a folder to be included? Or to change the default screenshots folder?
EDIT: Note, my screenshots are being saved to Pictures/Screenshots/, which, to my knowledge based on Zuul's post, is included in the MediaScanner. Still no screenshots uploading.
UPDATE: Found this talking about a .nomedia file, and tried to scan the Screenshots folder, but there is no such file to be found.

Make sure media scanner is scanning the screenshot folder..

how would I go about making sure of that?

The default Android external SD file structure
You should have a default structure used by Media Scanner to collect data present on your system, that gets stored on a database, allowing it to keep track of all the media content present on the device:

Music/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as user music.
Podcasts/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a podcast.
Ringtones/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a ringtone.
Alarms/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as an alarm sound.
Notifications/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a notification sound.
Pictures/ - All photos (excluding those taken with the camera).
Movies/ - All movies (excluding those taken with the camcorder).
Download/ - Miscellaneous downloads

Adittionaly, when taking screenshots, by default the folder used is:

Pictures/Screenshots/

The media scanner service
When your device boot's up, the media scanner service is launched and runs through the entire external storage to find if there is any new media content.
If new media is found:

It adds an entry of that media content into the content database
Each entry in the content database contains the media meta-data (name, date, file size, etc...)
When changes are made to a media content, the database needs to be updated, otherwise, third party applications will not be able to access that particular media content.

Applications make use of the public class MediaScannerConnection, as to "force" Media Scanner to perform an instant scan. That's with applications like Instant Upload are able to work properly.

MediaScannerConnection provides a way for applications to pass a newly created or downloaded media file to the media scanner service. The media scanner service will read metadata from the file and add the file to the media content provider. The MediaScannerConnectionClient provides an interface for the media scanner service to return the Uri for a newly scanned file to the client of the MediaScannerConnection class.

Google+ Instant Upload

With Instant Upload enabled, photos and videos taken with your phone are automatically uploaded to a private album on Google+.

For this APP to work, make sure Sync Instant Upload is enabled on your phone:

Go to your phone's Settings > Accounts & sync.
Touch the account you'd like to enable sync on.

Learn more about how to Configure account sync options, where you can:

Configure general sync settings
Sync information manually
Change an account’s sync settings

Possible Solutions
After the above introduction on how things work, in order to try and solve this issue, one can:

Check for the Pictures/Screenshots/ folder presence.
e.g., using a file manager.
Check if Instant Upload is Enabled and set to sync with your account.

If all checks out but still no avail, try rebooting the device to see if Media Scanner will properly recognize and add the missing media content to the database.
Not likely, but a recent update or crash may have disrupted the Media Scanner service.

The screenshots are being recorded under Pictures/Screenshots/. Instant upload is enabled, and Upload all skips around, shows 19, 30, 32, 99, out of ~280, then says Upload complete.

On my Nexus S with CM9 the "normal" pictures are stored in /sdcard/DCIM/Camera and the screenshots are in /sdcard/Pictures/Screenshots and they are not uploaded by instant upload too.

Use this app my friend.
PhotoSync (Sync to Picasa) automatically syncs local folder to Picasaweb instant upload album. You can set your local folder and Picasa folder and sync them on eg. hourly basis.

I had the same problem. It turns out that, by default, Google+ is seeing the screenshots, but it has instant upload disabled for screenshots.
You need to:

Go to the app Google "Photos" (separate from Google+)
Click the three lines in the top left corner
Click on "device" (just above "Bin" at the bottom)
Click the greyed out cloud so it turns blue (like the for the "Camera" folder)


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Connectify not working properly?
I use connectify to create a wifi hotspot which I use in my Android device. But a problem occurs that the internet access stops after a minute or so in my Android device. I have to restart connectify so that it works fine again, but again I face the same problem in a minute or so.
Its not a problem with my device as it runs properly on other wifi networks.
Any solution to this??

Sounds more like superuser would be a better fit for this question.

yep, I was in a dilemma where to post, so posted in both ;)

Please do not cross-post

Use a portable small utility mHotspot instead of Connectify. Connectify does have such type of issues. So, mHotspot is my all time favorite when it comes to creating virtual hotspot.
If you're unable to connect for the first time (which shouldn't be case as you were able to connect with AP of Connectify), reload the Wi-Fi driver by dialing *#*#526#*#* or install the "wifi-fixer" app from Play Store.

I shows that it requires .NET framework to be installed for it to run!

@gopi I wonder that .NET framework isn't already installed in your PC. Install it..

yep, had it, but uninstalled it since I dont develop in .NET PHP suits me. Any other alternatives?

You don't need to develop .NET to have the framework installed. It's part of the underpinnings of some rather good apps, like Paint.NET.

Why not use the alternative framework Mono?

.NET framework is a virtual machine just like JVM. You should keep it. Many apps may require it. I don't know any other alternative.

there's no pleasing some people eh?! ;)

ohk.. fine.. I see this is going in a different direction. Fine I installed .NET @t0mm13b thanks for Mono, would be of help in my ubuntu OS.

@SachinShekhar Had to upvote your answer because something caught my eye mHotspot's faq - See that bit about "My Android device won't connect to the hotspot" - TIL that you can actually reload the wifi from the phone dialler!!!!

@RichardBorcsik ? didn't get you.

@gopi1410 sorry, just ranting about PHP. It's awful and I hate to see people stuck with it.


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Android boot-up messages for debugging?
I am trying to figure out if Android (i.e. Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, and/or Motorola Xoom) come with some sort of capability to produce a "boot-up" log.  (kind of like Linux boot-up screen)  It would be immensely helpful in figuring out how far one's phone gets in the boot stages before it crashes (such as first-stage bootloader, main bootloader, then kernel loading, etc.).  Does anyone know how to enable the phone to spit out this log file or enable a "verbose" boot-up mode (and print actual messages to the terminal of the Linux computer you have the phone connected to)?
My phone gets stuck in a "boot-loop" with my current modified build and I would like to debug it if possible.
Alternatively, anyone know of any useful resources or tutorials that explain how to easily "hack" the phone to do this (no messing with the hardware)?  Or of any forums where my question may have been asked but in a more obscure form?
This has been a frustrating problem of recent, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

i know it starts writing to the logcat very early on, but that is cleared once it reboots. it should start writing as soon as it shows the "boot animation" (or maybe even a little sooner).

how would you access logcat without "adb"?  Adb only works when the phone is in a stable state, which contradicts the whole point I guess as to why logcat exists (who cares if the phone successfully boots, not much need for the tool).

adb is one of the first services that start. if you see the boot animation, adb is already running. adb is even available when you are in recovery mode.

Well, I'm not sure I'm seeing the boot animation you're talking about.  After the battery "charge" symbol, the phone hangs at the splashscreen with "Google" in white on it before it crashes.  No "Android" splashscreen after that, or any boot animation.  So I don't think ADB works yet...

There's a couple of ways to do this:

cat /proc/last_kmsg > /sdcard/last_kernel_message_log.txt
dmesg > /sdcard/kernel_boot_log.txt
plug in the usb cable with the smart-phone switched off. Then issue the command adb logcat from your Windows cmd or Linux terminal, it will hang waiting for the device to come on-line, now power up the smart-phone. The logcat should start scrolling off then.

Since you expressed interest in figuring out how far one's phone gets in the boot stages before it crashes, those methods should help. The thing is you need to be pretty quick to grab the kernel's log (the first two methods shown above).
What I would do is this, on my Arch Linux box, two terminal windows, one for the adb logcat, the other, to grab the log the minute logcat starts scrolling off!
Edit:
BE aware, there are differences with using adb and fastboot!
fastboot works differently, it is only used for flashing images into specified partitions, and is more tied in with the boot-loader process, i.e, it can understand the boot-loader mechanism. It also requires that:

under Windows, 'Administrator' privilege to execute it
under Linux, 'root' privilege

The reason it requires it is because it bypasses certain input/output of the hardware, and thus, does not "talk" in adb protocol, rather, it is to "talk" directly to the boot-loader. Something that cannot be done as a normal user. Here is the help for the usage of fastboot.
$ sudo fastboot
usage: fastboot [ <option> ] <command>

commands:
  update <filename>                        reflash device from update.zip
  flashall                                 flash boot + recovery + system
  flash <partition> [ <filename> ]         write a file to a flash partition
  erase <partition>                        erase a flash partition
  getvar <variable>                        display a bootloader variable
  boot <kernel> [ <ramdisk> ]              download and boot kernel
  flash:raw boot <kernel> [ <ramdisk> ]    create bootimage and flash it
  devices                                  list all connected devices
  continue                                 continue with autoboot
  reboot                                   reboot device normally
  reboot-bootloader                        reboot device into bootloader
  help                                     show this help message

options:
  -w                                       erase userdata and cache
  -s <serial number>                       specify device serial number
  -p <product>                             specify product name
  -c <cmdline>                             override kernel commandline
  -i <vendor id>                           specify a custom USB vendor id
  -b <base_addr>                           specify a custom kernel base address
  -n <page size>                           specify the nand page size. default: 2048

A well known-usage of fastboot is for flashing for example, to flash a recovery image: sudo fastboot flash recovery recovery.img, another is to directly flash a raw image, sudo fastboot flash system system.img. For more of for the case of kernel development, using this fastboot boot new_kernel, this temporarily downloads a new kernel and boot using that without touching the boot-loader's own boot.
There is also a limitation on the size of a raw image that requires to be flashed, when I say raw image, I am referring to a file that has a .img extension, the image must not exceed 128Mb. (I found out this when developing ics4blade, after the build completed, the system.img was 162Mb, and I tried to flash it but fastboot refused! To circumvent the limitation, had to create a CWM flashable zip file to do that and get around it!)
Practice caution and ensure the partition is correct and double-check and double-check again, if necessary, walk away from the computer, take a break, come back again, and double-check again, this is where it can go horribly wrong, flash the wrong file into the wrong partition... well shrugs

This is a great idea, but one problem....adb only works if the adb daemon can detect the device.  If the phone hasn't booted up successfully, adb doesn't work.  So a "boot-loop", when you would need logcat the most wouldn't work, and it isn't at the moment as I try it.  The only thing you have access to command-wise that doesn't care if the phone has booted successfully is "fastboot".  What's an alternative in this case then?

@9exceptionThrower9 have edited my answer to include the concept of fastboot and to answer in your comment, fastboot won't work :)

The only alternative that I can think of is, to fastboot erase the cache and data partition - I am not responsible for anything untoward if you proceed! And try flashing the ROM again through CWM. Even better, forget about fastboot and use CWM to wipe both cache and data, it sounds like the bootloop is due to a borked cache or data...

As matter of interest, what exactly did you do to get it to bootloop - that is a crucial question and would like to know what steps you took?

I modified the Android kernel (maguro) for Galaxy Nexus, particularly the "socket.h" file to override INET registration with my team's research project FINS (which pulls out internet protocols into userspace for network researchers).  After modifying this file (only few lines), I recompiled the kernel successfully, inserted this kernel into the Android maguro build tree, rebuilt the Android system image, and then flashed the new recovery, boot, system, and userdata.img files into the phone...

...Phone gets stuck after showing the battery symbol and hangs a while at the splashscreen with the "Google" text in white on it, then crashes.  Any suggestions based on this unique situation?

for what its worth, by experience when building from source and it hangs on the splash, its usually that it cannot mount some partitions. I would compare both stock and modded fstab to see if anything was changed. you can probably enable adb in the init.rc and catch the log before the crash. but it  could be many other things.

fastboot doesn't always require root access, at least not on some Linux distributions. You could just instruct people to use sudo or administrator if they get permission denied.

You can use LiveBoot. It's in the Google Play Store. It will do just what you are asking.

What if I got bootloop? Is there a way to do that with a USB cable?

don't know if that earns the logging tag but it's a nice gimmick :) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.liveboot

You can go into recovery on that screen it allows you to access a few log files which you cant access once the phone boots. What your trying to troubleshoot will be in these pre boot logs.


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Questions about phone migration using rsync
I'm planning to get a new android phone and I'm wondering what's considered best practice to move all data and settings. I know that lots of stuff goes to google, but I'd like to migrate app data as well. I know that I can do an rsync of the SD card and move things like pictures, but which directories should I move? Could anything bad happen from me just doing an rsync of the entire old card to the new one?
My old phone isn't rooted (yet) so I can't access /data, but if I did root it to grab that stuff, I'm not sure how I would feel about rooting the new phone - is there somewhere I could drop the files grabbed from /data on the  old phone to somewhere on the new one to get things to "just work"?
I'm migrating from Moto Droid 1 to 4

I'm looking at using rsync and my linux desktop because I want to avoid large data transfers over the network

You probably don't have ICS on your phone, but this might help others: Full phone backup without unlock or root. Uses adb backup which requires 4.0+.

A new phone could mean a new/differently configured Android version, so you would need to be extremely careful restoring your rsync'd data on the new device. While it certainly cannot hurt to have that backup, I'd not recommend restoring it to a different device.
A much safer way would be using Titanium Backup instead (pro-version strongly recommended for batch processing -- but you of course can check with the free version before). This nice app not only creates full backups (apps+data+system data), but also offers a migration mode for restoring a backup to a different device/ROM: Instead of simply replacing files on the new system (which can e.g. break some databases due to changed/different structures when it comes to system data like e.g. SMS, in which case you will experience some nice force-closes of the corresponding apps/frameworks), it tries just to fit the data into the existing databases, and does some other "tricks".
Also the app is well supported and worth every cent/Frank (dev lives in Switzerland). Scheduled backups, freezing/uninstalling system apps, converting downloaded apps to system apps (and vice versa), plus so many other nice features make this app a MUST-HAVE on any rooted Android device (and who knows me also knows I rarely speak of any "must-have app").

Using rsync to migrate your SD data would be fine...there shouldn't be any harm to copying the entire contents of /sdcard, but now would be a good time to clean it up. You can use rsync or just plain copy/paste, and migrate everything piecemeal either to your computer or directly to the new phone (just plug both in via USB to your computer at the same time).
The main concern is any pictures, music, etc. that you have on there. Beyond that, check for any app data you'd want. Some apps store their data in /sdcard/appname/, but most use /sdcard/Android/data/full.app.name instead (this is a little harder to decipher, as the names don't always match what the app displays as...Amazon's App Store is com.amazon.venezia, for example). Games may have saved games or high scores, games or other apps may have large data packs saved, and most apps back up their settings somewhere on /sdcard when you hit "back up settings" or "export settings" in a menu.
If you're wanting anything else, check out a similar question. The short answer is you probably need root to back up actual app data that isn't on the SD card, and an app that will do it for you (Titanium Backup is pretty much the de facto standard).


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Google Play Store disappeared from my phone

Possible Duplicate:
Google play disappeared from my phone

My google play store is not showing on my home page and it's not in the app drawer and it's not in All Apps under settings. My phone is not rooted, and is running the stock HTC rom. I have an EVO 4G phone.
Could anyone tell me what is happening and how I can recover it? I would download an .apk or something, but I don't have a file manager currently installed.
I would rather not reset my whole phone.

what version of android is running?  Have you gotten an OTA update lately?

As you are not replying, I assume your problem has been solved meanwhile (maybe you found the play store app again?). woukld you mind to place your solution here as an answer, so other affected people can see it as well? Thank you!


text:
Is it possible to connect a USB stick to Samsung Galaxy S2 Phone?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 phone. It comes with a micro USB port which can be used for charging or connecting to a PC.
I am just wondering if the micro USB port can also be used to connect a USB memory stick. Is there something like a USB stick with a micro SD connection?
Perhaps the easier option is to use the existing cable. Can a USB Stick be connected to the phone in the same way the phone is connected to a PC using the existing cable?

I think you mean "microUSB" - "micro SD" is a type of SD card, completely unrelated to USB: http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1214&bih=574&q=micro+sd

Yes, you can plug a USB stick to your Samsung Galaxy S2, provided that you have an Samsung Micro USB to USB Adapter.
For better results, connect your USB stick to the adapter, before connecting it to your phone.
See the official Samsung Galaxy SII accessories for further information.

Note:
Usually within the phone box, Samsung sends a micro USB to USB cable.

The Samsung Micro USB to USB Adapter can also be found at Amazon:

Different in aspect from the one on the website.

Thanks @Zuul. I don't think I got it in the phone box so off to a tech shop. Each country may be different. I am based in Australia. (We tend to get things last!)


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Stop Google Talk from signing in
I recently had to change the password of my primary account. Now Talk keeps trying to sign-in and fails. Having no way of changing the credentials used by talk without completely resetting my phone, I just want to completely disable it (I'm using a better messaging client). Do you thing I could fathom-out how to do this? Anyone know?

I believe you are still want to use the Google Play Store to grab some apps, are you?
If you disable Talk, the Play Store will not working properly (No auto updating, can't download any app...), so I recommend you use the method below:
Hit:
Setting > Application > Manage Application.
Navigate and click on Google Apps. Then click on “Clear Data” button. Press "OK" on the pop-up dialog. Then find Gmail and Talk under Manage Application, click "Clear Data" as well.
After you've done the above, please head to "Account & Sync Settings" and press your account, then press Menu > Sync Now
Then it should pop up for you to re-enter the password.

Hi. Thanks. This sounds like the solution but I have no Google Apps listed when I go Settings>Applications>ManageApplications>All. Why would that be?

Hey, don't worry, that's the common difference between versions to versions. You can just try to clear data of Gmail and Gtalk. Or try if you can find GApp (or something similar to Google Apps)

Cleared data for gmail and Talk; no game, Sign-on Fails with annoying regularity. I know this solution has worked for others maybe just not Android 2.3.5 on HTC Desire. Thanks for the help, going to bite the bullet and just reset the phone. I think Google should be ashamed of the poor quality of that release of Talk.


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Problem with Facebook sync - All instead of existing
I have a problem when time comes to sync my Facebook friends with existing contact. Even if I select "Sync with existing contact" in the app, all my Facebook friends are added to my local contact, like if I'd chosen "Sync all". But the options works 'cause as soon as I select "Do not sync", everything from Facebook disappear from my contact on my phone.Is anyone else having this problem, or a solution perhaps?
By the way, my phone is a Galaxy S2 running ICS (4.0.3) with the latest version of Facebook (1.9.7). Everything use to be all right before... I don't know which update messed up.
Thanks!

I had the same problem with this new update from Facebook. You need to go to Settings | Apps | All apps, search for Facebook, tap the entry, and then "Uninstall updates". This option is only available if your phone came with the Facebook app, not if you installed it yourself. Then try sync again. I'm skipping the latest version of Facebook; the one before worked just fine.

Damn! In my "troubleshooting process", I've uninstall then reinstall Facebook...so I don't have the previous version :( I'll wait and wish that updates will come fast!

If this is still a problem, you can download an older version of Facebook that doesn't have the quirk you are currently encountering.


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Power being eaten by screen usage
This morning, when I woke up my phone was out of battery power. So when I checked the battery usage I see the message Display had been used 90%.
This kind of situation had never happened to me before. I was surprised as I always turn off my mobile screen by clicking the power button.

Why has this happened even though I turn off my screen?
How can I avoid that kind of situation from happening?

Android Version: 4.0.3
Mobile: HTC One X

The screen is the biggest user of power. Even when you turn it off.

@RyanConrad are you implying the screen uses power when off?

no, i am saying that the screen will use more power than anything.

@Ryan But, it doesn't consume high amount of power when it is off.

@SachinShekhar What I meant by that is even if you turn the screen off, it will probably still be a bigger user of power then anything else when the screen is on. My screen turns off automatically after 10 seconds, but it is still the biggest user of battery from when it is actually on.

Keep in mind that on the Battery Usage screen even though per-app breakdown always adds up to 100%, it does not represent the full capacity of your battery, but rather only the used portion.  In other words, if your phone is reporting current battery level of 65%, the breakdown is for the other 35%.
Since nothing really happens overnight, it's not unusual for the "Screen" to be shown as taking 90% (again, that's 90% of the used up 35%).  That just means you've used the screen for a little bit, and then nothing else consumed too much battery.
It's possible that you had too little charge left over from the day before and not having the phone plugged in overnight pushed it over the edge.

You've cleared the common mis-conceptions, but still Cell Stand-by etc should beat turned off screen in power consumption...

I guess that depends on how long the screen was used after the phone was taken off the battery.

While it's hard to say why that happened last night beyond some guessing, it's possible to track down any future issues.  Install BetterBatteryStats (it's open source, and it's available for free outside of the market if you're comfortable installing APKs from "unknown sources") and let it track your usage.  It will give you more detailed information on what exactly is using your battery by way of CPU time.  My guess is you had an application that kept waking the screen.

hi could you kindly share me a link that I can download for free?

Check out the thread on XDA Developers. Note that the version currently on there is a release candidate/beta, so it may not be as reliable as the market version. That said, it's probably fine.


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How can I execute a script on the SD card and be able to pass arguments to it?
I tried executing a script on the sdcard as is because on FAT, everything is 777.
./.profile
./.profile: permission denied

I added this as the initial command for the Android shell and it executes it just fine:
eval "$(cat /sdcard/.profile)"

So what I'm wondering is: Is there a way I can execute a script on the sdcard (other than the way I found out) and be able to pass arguments to it or do I need to do it the normal BTEP way (in its data directory)?

Does sh .profile arg1 arg2 works?

You know what, that's a good idea. I have to stop over complicating things :-P

Moved from comments and expanded.
Invoking the script with the shell directly sh .profile arg1 arg2 should work. If it become cumbersome to invoke the shell and typing the arguments, you can also create an alias, most terminal emulators allows you to specify an initial command to run at the start of a session.

You will probably be unable to directly execute scripts from your sdcard. At least without root. Reason is, with most ROMs sdcards are mounted using the noexec flag -- which means, as the term suggests: "no exec from here". Of course, having root you could simply remount the sdcard while removing this option.
Why might this option be forced? I'd say for security reasons. While on internal storage, apps are quite limited regarding where they might write to, on sdcards they can write everywhere. So this could be used by some "evil guys/girls" to place their malware scripts -- but that's just a guess.

That makes sense.


text:
Is there a way to write a full vCard via NFC?
Is there a way to write a full vCard to a NFC tag?  All of the apps I've tried off Google Play seem to only write the email address or other subset.  I've tried apps such as NFC Task Launcher, NFC TagWriter by NXP and NFC Classic Tag Reader/Writer.
I'd like to write a vCard with one or two urls, a note field, phone number, email, name, and title. And yes, it's under the storage limit for the tag.

Can you just write the contents of the file as text?

I don't know, I was going to try that later.  I thought there was a mime type associated with the data so it would be interpreted as a vCard and not just a note.  But I will test it.

I've found NFC Tools to be a good app for this.  You can write several default tag types, but they also offer a "raw" format, where you specify the mime type/header and content directly.  I was able to make a Version 3 vcard with a small PNG image included which worked well on several android devices.  Just be sure your vcard format is in spec when you do that, and be careful of space issues.  Most NFC tags can't hold more than a few hundred bytes, most on the market are under 1K.

if you have an app like NFC Tools or a manual reader/writer, you can add a custom/manual data record and use text/vcard as the content type.
For the data field, just paste your vcard data like:
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
FN:Your Name
TEL;CELL:(123) 555-1212
EMAIL;WORK:123@yahoo.com
ORG:Company Name
TITLE:Your Title
URL:google.com
URL:fb.com/username
URL:twitter.com/username
END:VCARD

That's it! then just write to your chip. you don't need http or https unless you have redirect issues with your domain. i'm able to make my links and social feeds work without it. every character adds up. you can list as many urls as you'd like. there are other fields you can add as per the vcard standards u can look up, but i believe, these are the ones android and apple understand.
I experimented with photo encoding and could not get it with NFC. 2KB! lol way too big. I was able to link to a vcard with a photo. I even tried the URL method for inserting photos and that didn't work. I hope this helped.

Thanks for the example, this worked perfectly for me, after deleting a few rows as my tag is only NTAG 213.

In NFC Tools, there is a simple contact option.

It must be user error, because NXP TagWriter and Tagstand Writer both let me select fields from a contact to include now.  I did switch to a contact in the phone as opposed to browsing for a vcf file.


text:
Samsung Galaxy S3 Latest Firmware Contacts App Lag Issue
I have upgraded my phone to the latest firmware which is MainBand : I9300XXLFB.
Before that release no problem was recognized with the contacts app. But now; I am facing with an issue that; it takes 3 to 5 secs to load the contacs list.
Is this a specific one for me or a global issue ?
Regards

I had a similar issue right after the update. My situation was far worse. If I were to receive a call from 'specific' contacts, the phone would crash (com.android.phone module) and I wouldn't be able to answer it, let alone identify who was calling.
The simple solution for this problem is to Export all your contacts onto your internal SD card. Transfer them over to your computer and Import them by Kies. (This method solved my issue. Maybe it will help you too.
Regards,
Sterex

well since I have problems with kies as well. That my phone is unable be found on Kies. I think I got real problems with this g s3

Ok. Kies via data cable also does not work? :(

Correct. Kies via cable not working. I think the old caches I moved from my old android device corrupts it. I need to go to factory settings. But it needs some times for that operation.

I am not sure if this problem still exists but I've experienced that some contact apps may cause android to crash. My phone was crashing in the contacts edit menu ( indeed, unable to go to the edit screen ) But I see that the problem was with an app that tries to handle some events.


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mediascanner scan from system directory /data
How can I make mediascanner scan phone memory, i.e. the /data directory? I want to test playing MP3s from this directory.
When I try to hack it by replacing the "pathStr" from /mnt/sdcard to /data before MediaScanner::doProcessDirectory(), it fails saying
W/MediaScanner( 1713): Error opening directory '/data/', skipping: Permission denied.

And also crashed (probably in free).
I just want to play MP3s stored in phone memory and avoid reading the SD card for some experiments.

Without root one program can't access /data of another program.

Roxan, I understand that but how can I play mp3 from /data folder?

I mean, Can I change root permission for this process somewhere?

Have you tried browsing using a root file explorer such as FX, and playing through that? Having said that, you'll probably need to run the media player as root too.

How do you use FX? I see one app called MusicFX in my /packages/apps, will this be able to do that??

EDIT: This is rendered obsolete with Jelly Bean. Android 4.1+ has a unified /data/ and /sdcard section (the sdcard partition is emulated and really resides in /data/media, it's exposed via a special fuse layer to emulate FAT32 behaviour)
My thoughts on this:

The media scanner scans everything below /mnt
/data/* is protected, only individual apps can access their folder (/data/data/[app's package name])

To get it working the way you like:

You need root (obviously)
symlink /mnt/music to /data/data/your-music-location
you can also do a bind-mount instead of a symlink:
mount --bind /data/your-music-location /mnt/sdcard/your-music-location
Lift access rights accordingly (chmod -R ugo+rw /data/data/your-music-location)

Hope this works (the scanner should scan the whole /mnt as there's also /mnt/emmc and such). If not, you can also bind-mount a /data/data/* folder to /mnt/sdcard/your-music (as done with /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure (see the answer))

I realize that /system folder has permissions and does not require root permissions.

Don't use system. It's mounted read-only and must only be used for firmware (or root-related) stuff. I'd also suggest not to use data, except for testing and learning. Does it offer so much more space than your sd card that it's worth it?

How can I list music also from /system/media/audio into music player? This will help me to play the mp3 from system memory rather than SD Card. I want to make minimal change to do this. By hacking at some place in mediaScanner I think it is possible but is there a better method where I can list music from SD Card as well as from /system/media/audio ???  Thanks in advance.

I am using only for some experimental setup. So I am fine with using /system also for mp3 playback.

Be warned, editing /system will survive a wipe (or reset), FYI. maybe do a 'ln -s /your/music/location /mnt/music' and have the rights set appropriate. You need to remount /system read-write before you can write to /music. AGAIN: I suggest you don't do this. (Asking such question here implies you should be more aware of the risks involved. At least IMHO)

Thanks, I understand. As far as it plays mp3 correctly I am fine to play from /system as this is just for some experiment in development board and not in a costly working phone. I am doing a study and for that I need to do this experiment. I want to know how can I easily list files from any system directory. I can see that some hack n mediascanner does it. Please suggest a better method. Thanks.

I cannot think of more ways than stated in my answer: 1st: Symlink from /mnt/music to /my/music/library (ln -s /real-path /mnt/my-music-library) or bind-mount /my/music/library to /mnt/sdcard/my-music-library (mount -o bind /real-path /mnt/sdcard/my-music-library)

To furnish my thoughts, hacking on just the in-built media-scanner will not just suffice, as that requires rolling your own ROM! The reason being is that media-scanner is signed with a system certificate that is shared with the ROM in question.
And thus, that requires having the signed keys from the original ROM in order to replace the in-built media-scanner.
As to attempting to put MP3s in the /system/media/audio folder - why? Are we talking about album mp3s which can creep up to between 5-8Mb in size? Or are we talking about Ogg Vorbis for ringtones/notifications?
The /system partition is limited in size depending on the manufacturer's handset setup in terms of partition layouts.
If the audio media is stored on the SDCard under the respective directory /sdcard/media/audio/Ringtones and /sdcard/media/audio/notifications, along with a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) pointing to the appropriate media declared as "external storage media" as in "MediaStore.Audio.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI" (see the Developer Documentation on this), it will get picked up by Android itself and will show under the Settings > Sounds, as 'Phone ringtone' or in 'Notification ringtone'.
Depending on the ROM in itself, there may be a Development tools called 'Dev Tools', in there, there is an activity which can trigger the invocation of the in-build Media-Scanner, this is in stock/vanilla AOSP Android.

If you have a standard Linux file system (i.e., not FAT32) on your SD card, you could create Soft Link of /data in /mnt/sdcard.


text:
Nexus 7 capacitive buttons and display
So both the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 have dynamic capacitive buttons instead of actual physical buttons.  I was actually under the impression that this black bar was a separate capacitive display from the main display.  Now that I actually see a Nexus 7 in person, this black bar appears to be just a part of the screen.
So am I actually getting 1280x800 pixels?

The 1280x800 pixels count for the whole display, including the black bar for the buttons.
Google decided to stay flexible by moving physical buttons to the touch screen permanently.
Benefits:

No capacitive buttons needed (cheaper?)
Better user experience: Rotating 90,180,270 degrees rotates also the virtual buttons
Less frame space (the button's space belongs to the screen now)
You can hide the buttons in full view (e.g., video playing)
Maybe: Avoid Apples infamous rectangle with a single button tablet design patent


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Whats ODIN mode in Galaxy Tab 2?
I just pressed the power button and the volume up button in my Tab. I went into a screen called ODIN mode... It started downloading something... What is this?

This is the download firmware mode.
It can be used to upgrade official firmware via Samsung's own Odin software (or the 3rd party heimdall (also here)). It's also used to install a custom aftermarket firmware like CyanogenMod. Actually it allows more but installing firmware is the most common use.

any guide on how to install official firmware through this?

SamFirmware has official images. I'm however not sure how to install them because I only prefer aftermarket firmwares (Cyanogenmod or pure AOSP Android) to manufacturer branded versions. See also this explanation page on XDA. Howto: S2 or S3 or see CM's wiki for more Samsung devices.

You sure SamMobile is genuine firmware?

It seems to get cited very often. It's definitely not a rogue site but also not an official Samsung site either. If you're new to flashing alternative firmwares, just stay away. Your question seemed to come from curiousity (by stumbling upon the odin mode).

I have already rooted my phone but not sure about the tablet... its new and already samsung provide updates... I have doubts whether to switch to CM :)

Yeah, difficult to answer. Info: CM9 hit RC2 yesterday and CM10 is gaining traction lately, you might enjoy Jelly Bean soon. I'm not sure about the firmware status for the GT2, though.