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asus transformer tf300tg - will this 3g work in uk/usa?
I'm looking to buy the 3G version of the transformer TF300, but due to its availability I'm buying it from Taiwan. I currently live in the UK but next year I move to the USA so I'm trying to figure out if the 3G on it will work in both the UK and USA. The relevant specs are:

"HSPA+ UL:5.76 Mbps/DL:21 Mbps |
  3G :
  WCDMA :
  850/900/2100 |
  2G :
  GSM : 850/900/1800/1900"

I'm having trouble figuring out if this would work in other countries. Can anyone help me out? I found a wiki page titled 'UMTS frequency bands' which looks like what I need but I still can't figure it out, haha. My UK sim card is with Orange at the minute but I'll obviously be changing it when I go to the USA. Thank you!

Just look at which US carriers support 850/900/2100 3G.


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Can I reset the contacts app in ICS?
For some reason, whenever I try to edit a detail of any contact, after selecting the detail to type, my cursor gets jumped to the "First Name".
Is there a way I can reset all the settings for the contacts app and start fresh?
My OS is the stock ICS that comes with Sony Xperia S.

If your device is rooted, you can use Titanium Backup to wipe data for the contact application. There by you will reset the contact app's settings as well as the contacts. There by you can start fresh. However, if you had synced the contacts before this step, you can again sync to get back your contacts.

Ohk, my phone is not rooted so I can't really test it!

I had the same issue, mine is not rooted too, this worked:
Go to settings, apps, all, and then look for contacts (not phone contacts or sim contacts, is the one that has the contacts icon), then force stop, erase data. Restart phone to restart contacts app and it will work properly ;)
Hope this helps!

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Thermal receipt printer for Android

I'm Thinking about a Queue management system built with Android tablets. I figured out that the cheapest way to give each customer a number is a thermal receipt printer. I'm looking for any solution that:

Can print text and basic graphics (e.g. QR codes)
Can connect to my Android directly via BT or USB, without Cloud printing or internet connection
Is generally reliable, and can handle a few hundreds of prints every day

Is thermal printing a good idea? Are there any thermal printers that play nicely with Android?

"What printer should I get?" doesn't really seem like a good fit for this site. In general, shopping recommendations don't work well on Stack Exchange sites (see Q&A is Hard, Let’s Go Shopping! for some explanation why).

@eldarerathis Thanks for your comment, I've updated my question accordingly. I'm not just looking for a specific model recommendation, but an answer about the Android thermal printer connectivity issue.

There's no print facility embedded within the Android stack. But having said that, a lot of those kind of receipt printers are controlled by the Epson Esc codes, it would be best to have this plugged into a computer, and make a client server architecture out of it.

If you can't find a printer that connects locally, you might want to take a look at Little Printer app. *8')

What did you find? Did you find a solution?

The project is actually frozen for the time being. I will update when development continues.

What you are looking for is usually known as a 'receipt printer'. A quick Google for 'bluetooth receipt printer' turns up a number of models from a variety of manufacturers (quite a few of them are actually battery powered and portable - like you see at car rental places).
The big problem here is that Android doesn't really have any concept of local printing, so I think you're going to have to implement it yourself.
Android DOES have bluetooth communications APIs (docs), and I'd be surprised if the printer manufacturers haven't heard all this before, and have at least clues how to proceed (after all, they like to sell printers!). If you'll be buying a significant number of printers, I bet they'll happily help you talk to their devices.
If that's too expensive for you (and those printers look a bit pricey), then you could try USB. Again, you can find USB receipt printers, which again you'll have to learn to talk to. Android does have a set of USB APIs (docs). On the plus side, my quick Google for 'USB receipt printer' turned up some sub-$75 choices right away, so this might be a good approach if you are price sensitive. I'd also be willing to bet that at least some of the USB printers are actually serial devices with something like an FTDI chip bolted up to them. That means that talking to them is probably not very difficult.
Alternately, if you can find a cheap receipt printer that's serial or something, you could look at the IOIO boards and software stack as a way to interface your android tablet to some funky printer. These are boards that adhere to the relevant Android APIs + software that makes them easy to talk to. The boards are available commercially, and the schematics are available, if you want to build your own, and they are designed to make hardware interfacing easy.

The problem with a USB printer is that most Android devices don't support USB host mode.

@AlEverett - according to the docs at USB Host, it's supported in Android 3.1 and up (so, from a software perspective, almost every tablet). Now that doesn't mean all hardware supports it, but since the OP seems to be in the early stages of the project, it would be simple to choose tablets that do have USB support, either with full sized USB connectors, or USB-on-the-go adapters.

Also, I Googled around a bit and noted that some folks have even been able to use standard serial adapters with a serial terminal program - no rooting required! That could be very useful, because I'd bet that not a few USB receipt printers actually have something like the FTDI serial USB chips embedded in them, rather than anything custom.

Can you include the source in relation to standard serial adapters? I do know that some kernels have that built in for debugging via JTAG and serial/usb chip to enable the reading of kernel logs on boot. But from what I can gather, Android has no clue about serial!

@t0mm13b - This SO question goes into it a bit.

@MichaelKohne that is dependent on if the kernel does indeed have that in place... not all of them do, custom kernels most likely...

There are number of thermal printer available in market with their own SDK. Here is the ans of your queries:
Can print text and basic graphics (e.g. QR codes)
Yes we can print the basic graphics from the thermal printers. You can check the EPSON, Casio or any other Chinese printer in market.
Can connect to my Android directly via BT or USB, without Cloud printing or internet connection
Yes, you can connect with those printer via Bluetooth, WiFi or USB. Also one more thing is you can install your printer drivers on Server and directly send the printing request to the server. This feature allow you to print form anywhere no issue or slow connection like we face in BT and WiFi.
Is generally reliable, and can handle a few hundreds of prints every day
Yes, Thermal printers are reliable and work very well. You can print any number of prints from thermal printers.
Is thermal printing a good idea? Are there any thermal printers that play nicely with Android?
Thermal printer is a very good idea because it's available in very small amount. That is small in size so no need to make an extra place for the printer.
For the Developers here is one sample how to deal with thermal printer
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15701465/how-to-print-from-the-thermal-printer-in-android

I work for a thermal printer manufacturer based in India (Mumbai). We have the perfect solution for your requirements: our 2" Bluetooth printer.
We can also provide a sample APK file, and the source code to integrate the printer with your application. If you want more information, please contact us.

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


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Transfer everything to new phone?
I am changing from one Galaxy S3 to another S3. How can I transfer ALL my stuff? (I am not rooted.)

Your apps will be synchronized with your Google account. You can see what apps are synchronized by going to the web-based Google play/android market site and going into account settings.
Your contacts as well are synchronized by default but to make sure, go to account settings on your phone.
Your pictures, downloads, and any other files you may want to transfer can be uploaded to your computer temporarily and then from your computer to your new phone.
Alternatively, you could do this last bit a number of ways:

Bluetooth: Bluetooth File Transfer
FTP: FTP Server, FTP Client
SAMBA: SAMBA Server, SAMBA Client

You get the idea: File Transfer Apps
You would need to root your phone to be able to access or copy the application data to your new phone.

what about the data for he apps, logins, etc?

How an application stores its settings data is different so the task would not be simple to do manually. I believe Titanium Backup will do this, but you need to be rooted: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5rZXJhbWlkYXMuVGl0YW5pdW1CYWNrdXAiXQ..

There's really no better way than uploading everything and downloading it again?

In terms of media or other files, the below answer suggest DroidCopy as a way to easily do so over bluetooth. There are tons of direct phone-to-phone transfer applications that would make it simpler. I'll update the answer

I'm not concerned about the data such as pictures, voice files, etc. I can copy to SD Card, DropBox, etc. WHAT I am concerned about are all my apps and their specific data. When you say that google keeps a copy on Google Play - does this contain the data as well? (I know that not all apps have data but those that do.) And also I see all my apps on Google Play web site but how do I restore them to new phone? (BTW, both phones are Galaxy S3.)

Google does not store your application data, rather just that you have the application installed on your phone and synced with your gmail account. You would need to root your phone to be able to access or copy the application data to your new phone. After you synchronize your new phone to that same gmail account, the applications will be downloaded automatically. You can in fact synchronize your gmail account right now on your new phone if you currently have both phones in your possession and wait while it starts to grab the applications.

About Root -

do both phones need to be rooted or only the one from where I'm copying?
I have a Galaxy S3 T999 - can someone point me to instructions on how to Root or are there free apps that will do it

Yes I believe both need to be rooted, but if you can do one, you can do two. Your much more likely to get results by googling around rather than posing the question in comments.

To add to Enigma's post - you would need to make sure that you have set up the google backup option - from home screen: menu - settings - Back up and reset. Make sure Back up my data and automatic restore is ticked.

There's an app that can do this, un-rooted, called DroidCopy
It transfers everything across via Bluetooth.
Disclosure: I am associated with the app.

That seems like a great app. Does it also transfer application settings data. ie. Angry Birds completion status or login information?

no, those settings for applications require root, and have strived to keep it "free of any root mechanisms", it will of course transfer the APKs no problem, but settings etc will not be copied over for that reason :)

Where did that app go? The link seems gone. Or are there any "location based locks" in place? "Sorry! This content is not available in your country yet." (Playstore) versus "This app is currently not active on Google Play" (AppBrain).

Helium - App Sync and Backup (previously Carbon) will sync all your app data, such as settings and so on:

Helium lets you backup your apps and data to your SD card or cloud
  storage. With Helium, you can sync app data from your other Android
  devices-- even if they are not on the same network [...] Helium does
  NOT require root. All Android users can use Helium to backup and sync
  Android applications.

Used it today to transfer game saves from an LG L7 to a Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini, by way of the "PC Download" feature. Worked perfectly, great app.


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Can I use my device on a different carrier?
Sometimes it's desirable to use a device on a carrier that does not officially sell it. Often this is due to regional differences and travel (for example, using a US phone in Europe) but also because some carriers simply do not offer phones that other carriers do.
How can I determine if it's possible to use my phone on a different carrier, and which carriers it is compatible with?

This community wiki is intended to be a canonical answer to a common question. If you feel that improvements could be made then please edit the post(s).

Whether or not you can use a phone on a specific carrier depends on a variety of factors, but it is generally possible to figure it out provided that you can find enough information on the device and carrier you are interested in. The main points to focus on will be the cellular standard the carrier uses, the frequency bands it uses, and the associated bands/tech that the phone is designed for. In order for your device to operate fully on another network, it will need to meet all of the following criteria.
Cellular Standards
There are two primary competing cellular standards used throughout the world, commonly referred to as GSM and CDMA.
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is generally the more widely deployed of the two standards, and is estimated to serve nearly 80% of the global market. Devices that support the GSM standard will use SIM cards to keep track of the identity of the subscriber. The 3G standards used by GSM devices are typically UMTS or HSPA.
CDMA (or, more specifically, CDMA2000) is also used in a variety of countries, but generally serves fewer subscribers than GSM in most countries. CDMA uses a R-UIM/CSIM card which serves similar functionality to SIM card. On some carriers, CDMA devices do not use any physical identity cards, and instead have an ESN that is stored on the device itself. Also with some carriers, devices that normally do not require SIM card to operate on CDMA 3G may require SIM cards for 4G access, since the 4G network uses a different technology than the 3G one.
In general, a device is therefore classified by which network it uses for it's 3G or voice coverage, so a phone which supports CDMA voice/3G but a GSM 4G network (for example, the Verizon Galaxy Nexus) would still typically be considered a "CDMA phone".
These two network standards are not compatible with each other in any way. A device built for GSM networks will not work on a CDMA network (and vice versa). Therefore, the first step in determining if your device will work on your desired carrier is to determine what networks it supports and what type of network the carrier uses. GSM Arena is a good source for device specifications, and Wikipedia is a good place to find information about carrier networks (as well as devices).
In addition to the inter-network compatibility issue, CDMA devices that do not have physical a identity card can only be used with the device's original carrier or on other countries through roaming. In most cases, carriers have a large database that contains all of the valid ESNs for their network, so only models which are sold by the carrier can be activated. This can occasionally be bypassed by altering the software of the phone to broadcast a different ESN, but doing so is illegal in many countries, and thus there is often no legitimate way to use a CDMA device on a different carrier. This restriction will usually (but may not always) also apply to virtual network operators (MVNOs) and their "parent" carriers.
As an example: Sprint may not allow you to activate a Boost Mobile phone on its network, even though Boost uses Sprint's towers and spectrum. Conversely, Sprint has approved some of their phone models for activation on certain MVNOs that use Sprint's spectrum (provided the phone is not under contract). Therefore, when dealing with CDMA carriers, your best choice will generally be to simply ask them if your model will be allowed on their network before you make a decision, since they have full discretion over which devices they will allow to be activated.
Frequency Bands
Each carrier operates their network on a specific set of frequency bands, which are typically managed at some level by the government of the country the carrier is operating in. Once the government allocates frequencies, they can usually be bought or sold by companies as they see fit (with some restrictions). In order for a device to work on a given network, it must therefore support not only the network standards (as noted above) but also the frequency bands being used.
As an example, AT&T's 3G network (UMTS/HSPA) operates in the 850 and 1900 MHz frequency bands (source). The myTouch 4G, sold by T-Mobile USA is a GSM phone (T-Mobile USA is a GSM network), but it is designed for the 900, 1700, and 2100 MHz frequency bands since this is what T-Mobile uses. Therefore, a myTouch 4G would not be able to use AT&T's 3G network because it does not support the proper frequencies. Further, there is no way to alter this by using software modifications - the limitation is created by the phone's antenna, which is specifically designed to pick up certain frequencies and ignore others.
Using the same example as above, however, you can see that AT&T operates its 2G network on the 850 and 1900 MHz bands and the myTouch 4G supports 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz for 2G operation. This means that a myTouch 4G would be able to use AT&T's slower 2G network (and make voice calls) even though it cannot use the 3G network.
Similarly, it may be possible for a device to operate on a carrier's 3G network but not their 4G network due to frequency differences. Check the frequency bands your device supports for each generation of network communication (2G, 3G, 4G) in order to ensure complete compatibility.
SIM Locks and SIM Cards
Another possible hurdle in running a device on a network it was not officially intended for is SIM locks and differences in SIM cards.
Firstly, many carriers will sell their devices with a SIM lock - a software restriction that prevents the device from operating with a SIM from a different carrier. In many cases this will depend on whether or not the device is purchased at a subsidized price on some kind of annual contract. Purchasing a device at full retail price will often allow it to be unlocked more easily (or it will be provided in an unlocked state). If your device has a SIM lock, it may be possible to unlock it by contacting your carrier and asking for an unlock code. There are also third-parties that offer SIM unlocking services, but they are not officially endorsed by the carrier or manufacturer of your device. Devices will only be able to operate on their originally intended network while they are SIM locked.
An additional concern is that there are several types of SIM cards, all of different shapes and sizes. Most major carriers (and, indeed, even smaller ones) will be able to provide multiple types of SIM cards, but be sure that you get one that will fit into the slot on your device. Most commonly, phones and tablets use either Mini-SIM or Micro-SIM cards.
What about rooting?
Rooting a device is not related to the act of unlocking it for a different carrier, although the phrase "unlocking" my occasionally (incorrectly) be used to refer to both processes. Obtaining root will not unlock your device, and unrooted devices are capable of being unlocked provided with the proper SIM code. Similarly, a custom ROM will not unlock your device - it has no bearing on the SIM lock.
Helpful Links
These Wikipedia links contain lists of cellular carriers broken down by country/region. Many of the entries also provide information regarding the frequencies these networks have deployed, or act as a jumping-off point for finding this information elsewhere.

List of mobile network operators of Europe
List of mobile network operators of the Americas
List of mobile network operators of the Asia Pacific region
List of mobile network operators of the Middle East and Africa

Would adding a section suggesting devices that are very portable among carriers, such as Nexus devices and Sony Xperia devices  be beneficial?

@FredThomsen, why do you think those devices are overly portable (they are not more than many others).

They have pentaband 3g support which is crucial in the US for portability between AT&T, T-Mobile, and any MVNOs that use those networks.

In the US you need bands 2, 4 and 5, named “1900”, “AWS” and “850” respectively. – Which bands do you talk about @FredThomsen?

If you get a device working on a specific carrier or not depends on the following factors:

cellular standards and frequency bands
artificial locks on the device and sometimes willingness of the carrier

First, check what your future carrier and phone have. For carrier networks and frequencies Wikipedia is the most complete source I know:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_network_operators#By_region
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deployed_UMTS_networks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CDMA2000_networks

For devices, the Wikipedia is a good start too, but doesn’t cover everything and might have errors (seen that problem).
Devices which are popular around the world almost always have different versions and model numbers (frequency bands and networks standards is exactly what they differ in most of the time). Example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Desire (look for the models A8181, A8182, A8183)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_II (look for T-Mobile version)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_series (see different phones having different frequency band coverage)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone5s (see model A1530 or the two(!) A1533)

The questions you need to answer yourself are: Does the carrier use CdmaOne/CDMA200, GSM, WCDMA and/or LTE? On which frequency bands? Can the device handle those?
Even if carrier and device share a frequency and standard, there might still be incompatibilities. Here I list all of those special cases I’m aware of:

China Mobile (in China) as well as much of the rest of the world uses UMTS as 3G standard. But unlike the rest of world, it uses TD-SCDMA as “air-interface” instead of WCDMA, which the rest of the UMTS-world uses. I only know one(!) phone model which can do both. For the other devices this usually means that 3G works for China Mobile in China or a bunch of other carriers, but not both.

CdmaOne/CDMA2000 is used with and without “SIM-cards” in Asia and America respectively. So even if the phone has the right standard and frequencies, in America it might not work, because you can’t get hold of a SIM-card to put into the phone! Or the other way around: in China you will not be able to convince the carrier to activate your phone based on it’s ESN alone, because it is legally not allowed to “hard-associate” devices with it’s network, but hand out SIM-cards instead. – As far as I know roaming on the other carrier does work! – GSM, WCDMA, LTE always use SIM-cards.

Japan and South Korea(?) use(d) a 2G standard not used anywhere else. This is of little importance these days, as their 3G and 4G networks run on “common” standards ... and who wants to use 2G in Japan? ;-)

Artificial locks and carrier’s willingness to admit devices on their network
TBD

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


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Cannot receive group messages from iPhone users
I switched from an iPhone, of which I was a fanatic, to the Samsung Galaxy S3. I can receive individual messages from iPhone users, but I cannot receive any group messages. I have downloaded many apps to try and fix the issue such as Handcent and GoSMS. I have re-enabled and disabled iMessage. Unregistered the iPhone(s) from my Apple ID and it doesn't seem to work.
AT&T has tried to help but because they don't get this too often they couldn't help me. I have called Apple but they want me to pay $29 for any type of support. How can I receive group messages on my Galaxy S3? I'd hate to have to go back over this issue.

Welcome to android.SE and Congratulations because of switching from iphone (really they asked you to pay 29$ just to support?!! what a greedy company!). BTW, it seems you should enlighten some details: How you send group message from iphone to s3? iMessage?!! s3 does support iMessage?!! what do you mean by "group messages"? some apps (like GoSMS) support group chat and group messages, do you refer to such thing? or what? please clarify, thanks.

Sorry, by Group Message I mean similar to iMessage. I did use iMessage on my iPhone 4.  Also I used those apps and they did not help at all, now I use the stock messaging app.

This person seems to be having the opposite problem

@AlEverett - I suspect OP's problem is the same. n_starnes, do you still receive their messages, but they just aren't put together into the group convo? They arrive individually from each person?

I'm not receiving them in anyway shape or form. They see that I'm not getting their group conversation messages so then they send me individual.

I believe that this is an At&t issue. I have noticed this and that Verizon doesn't seem to have this issue.

I have the same problem, but for simple message from iPhone users, I receive 8/10 of them.

This is the most fascinating issue that I've seen in a long while.  And it's clear that Samsung is turning a blind eye (I've read that there are some whose phones work fine with the stock ICS messaging app).  This problem is posted all over every forum that I've searched.  And the only answer is GoSMS, or Handcent, or blah, blah, blah.  I count myself among the many that would like the group messaging to work in both directions.  One would think that one of the most basic functions of a smart phone would not have such an elementary problem.  After searching high and low, I'm of the belief that the stock messaging app can't do bidirectional group texts and that a third party app is the only possible solution.
Like many other iPhone converts, it's a shame that I have to admit that my awesome S3 has such a fundamental shortcoming.

Group texts may not be as simple as you think... What may Android users don't realize is, many of the "interface" features are not part of the stock OS but is part of the Skin that the handset manufacturer or the wireless provider put on it.  I have been told that the newer versions of Android (Jellybean for instance) has more functionality so these "skins" aren't as heavy duty.  Also many manufacturers take insult to the term "skin" because of the amount of development and changes they make to the functionality of the Android OS.  This is not a good or bad thing, this is just the nature of Android.
That being said, let's talk about iMessage vs SMS.  iMessage is a service that Apple created to allow iPhones, other apple devices and Macs to talk to each other.  When an iPhone user is sending an iMessage, their "send" button is in blue.  If an iPhone user is sending to a non-apple supported device, it automatically uses SMS and the "send" button turns green.  When sending a group message, if any one recipient in the list is a non-apple device, the whole message is sent using SMS (green button).
I have found that some Android phones receive these messages find and some don't (again because of the effort made by the manufacturer).  But before you blame Apple or AT&T, I have seen them have the same issue regardless of carrier or device.  I have friends with iPhones on multiple carriers and I have friends with Android phones and Blackberries and other types of devices.  It's only certain manufacturers of some Android phones that seem to not support this group messaging.
The reason why I am on this site, is because I was hoping to find a solution for one of my friends who can't participate in the group texting... it sounds like there may be a few 3rd party apps that she can try out.  Since my other Android friends don't have this issue, we know it's just a limitation of her handset.

I was having the same problem. I downloaded the stock Verizon messaging app and then Handcent worked fine both ways, I hope this helps.

I just switched from a sprint gs3 to a Verizon RAZR HD and I can group message with iPhones fine now.

You can send in Handcent but can't receive. Because of this, I'm switching back. No 3rd-party works to receive group iMessages.

You have to have your iphone friends delete your information from text history.  they need to start a text, type your name into the recipient field and click on the "i".  This will allow them to delete you from the text history...Then they start a new thread and this will allow you to receive group text.

The problem, as you have mentioned, is because you had iMessage active on your iPhone. This means that your phone number is still registered with Apple to use the iMessage service. When other people with iPhone sends a message, their phone will try to send it through the iMessage service instead of through the SMS/MMS protocol.
The sollution is to de-register your number from the iMessage service. This can be done here:
https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage
I see you said that you have tried to disable iMessage on the iPhone. Did you do this with your sim card in the phone? This is important so that the iMessage is disabled for the right phone number.

If you switched from iPhone either go to App-Store or take SIM-Card out and put into any iPhone and turn your iMessage off by going to Message Settings then turn off iMessages and finally put the SIM Card back in your phone.
Hope this helps.

Below is a summary of what I done:

Check Signal - Done
Reset Network Settings - Done
Check Carrier - Done (Am Able to send Text via old Iphone 4)
Verify that every phone number in your contacts list includes an area code. (Done)
When sending to existing contacts, ensure that your contacts include the full phone number, and not just the information needed to dial locally.(Done)
If you have recently ported your number from another carrier, please contact your current carrier to verify that the porting process has completed successfully. (Done: This is an old carrier, it's not an issue as I am able to use the same sim card to send text via my old iphone 4)
Perform a full restore back to factory original setting (Done)

The question asks very speficifically about a group message problem. You don't address that at all... Why should a full wipe fix the problem?

authors: Анна  Беляева


text:
Google Now gives absurd times for arriving on time
Google Now gives me absurd times in its notifications when it think I should leave the house. Just now, at 9:05 pm, it told me that I have to leave at 6:20 am for an event at 10 pm. 9:20 pm would actually be realistic. What may be causing this?
I have enabled Automatic Date & Time as well as Automatic Time Zone. I'm in Central European Summer Time; the clock works perfectly fine.

Have you enabled Location Services? Google Now determines the time you may take to get to your appointments from your synced calendars and your current location. I am sure you have synced calendars because Google Now reports an appointment. Location Services maybe an issue. If you are using the stock ROM for your device, enable Location Services and sign into Latitude to set your current location. Setting your location manually may also solve your problem. If you are on a custom ROM, you can set the device up to use only the Internal GPS to report your current location to Google Now. Hope this helps. If you give this a shot, report back with results for others to help you or be helped.
P.S.: This may be useful.


text:
Samsung Galaxy S3 Aux Cord
I drive a 2007 Saab 93 without any bluetooth capabilities. I tried to play music with an aux cord and the car senses that my phone is connected but when I try to play any music my phone plays it through the built in speaker and not through the car stereo. I'm just wondering if there is a setting or anything that I need to do in order to play music?
Thanks.

The car senses the phone, but does the phone sense that there's something in the headphone jack?

Do normal headphones work? Is the "aux cord" a standard 3,5mm stereo plug or does it have a mic connector too?

I have found that the auxiliary jack on my S3 is pretty tight and even when the phone senses I've plugged something into it, I have to press it just a little harder, until I hear a "click" and the plug is flush to the phone (you should not be able to see any metal from the plug showing).  Once I do that, the sound stops playing through the phone's speaker.


text:
What's the exact geographical dimension range which can be taken offline in Google Maps?
Today, I tried to take my whole country (India) offline, but Google Maps ignored it saying its very large, zoom in. It has also ignored my street saying its too small, zoom out.
I want to know the limits to which Make Map Offline is restricted.
Version of Google Maps: 6.12.0

The limit is actually placed on virtual size of the downloaded area. The upper limit is approximately 80MB of data, and the lower limit is smaller than maps displays, somewhere below 100KB, equivalent to around .6 square miles.
Here is one place that mentions the 80MB limit. In my own testing, I was able to download up to 87MB of data, which is approximately 5625 square miles.
This may have been coincidence, but in my testing, the allowable size ranged from a square .75 miles on a side to a square 75 miles on a side.

Do you think, my street can consume more storage than my city?

Also, update your app... Limit of six has been removed.

Oh, I see your point. Let me check for the lower limit. And that's good to know, I'm just going by something I read a while back.

Found an approximate lower limit.

Can you please add citation?

I also came across 80MB thing, but it was few months prior to the question. Your link also cites 3 month old article.

Also, what about citation for lower limit?

I arrived at the lower limit by testing it myself on my tablet. I have not found any place that mentions it.


text:
Facebook Messenger incompatibility with Nexus 7
Is it possible to install Facebook Messenger on a Nexus 7?
I just tried but it says that the device isn't compatible without explaining to me why. It is hard for me to think of any hardware limitation that would prevent me from using that application.

I don't know how, but after having updated the operating system and some other applications I was able to install the Facebook Messenger version present on the Play Store

It seems the incompatibility came only on the current version. You may install and use an older version or wait till it becomes available to your device.
In this thread there is a link to an older apk version that should work.


text:
How to have multiple input languages?
I just unboxed a nexus 7 and coming from an iPhone I am missing the possibility to set multiple input languages for the on screen keyboard.
I need to type text in English and in Italian but I can't find a way to select the Italian keyboard. I am using a device bought in the US, but I don't think that would matter too much.

Assuming that it hasn't changed since ICS, you can go to:
Settings → Language & Input → Android Keyboard settings

You can enable another languages over there and then you can quickly switch by long pressing on the space bar or by tapping on "Select input method" entry on the Notification Bar.

Thanks it was still there. I looked at that menu but it was missing the latest step

You have to uncheck the box that says "use system language". I had the same problem, I had not seen that!

For Android 4.4:

Go to Settings, Language & input, and scroll down to KEYBOARD & INPUT METHODS.
Click on the dial icon next to Android Keyboard (AOSP)
Click on the first entry Input languages
Untick Use system language
Tick the languages that you want

Now you can switch between keyboards by long-pressing on the spacebar.

If you want to be able to write in multiple languages without having to change the language of the keyboard all the time, you have to use a third party keyboard like SwiftKey.
With Swiftkey, for example, you can start writing in english, write some text in italian, and continue in english, without having to change anything.

On 4.4.4,Long press of the key to the left of the space bar, setup input methods then untick use system language, you can then choose your languages.

I guess the OP wants both english and italian simultaneously.


text:
How to enable a PIN but allow quick access to camera?
In Android 4.1, when you set the lock screen security to "slide", you can quickly access the camera by sliding left.
Is there a way to get a similar sliding mechanism, but at the same time require a PIN to access the rest of the phone?

@houbysoft: This applies to Android 4.0.x as well.

What device do you have? If it's a Sammy, you might want to take a look at the XPosed module Enable camera on lockscreen.

I do have a Pin on my Motorola G8 power, and I can quickly access the camera or lantern by shaking the phone with the gestures predefined for it (Motorola specific). The same gestures worked for my old G4 phone, but I've never tried for older versions...

This application lets you start the camera app even from a password locked screen. Full disclosure: I developed the app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aeropic.CameraUnlockFree


text:
How do I switch my htc merge from us cellular to t-mobile?

Possible Duplicate:
Can I use my device on a different carrier?

I have unlocked it and I am trying to s-off, I am ignorant to cell hacking/programing ad don't know if I am doing anything that will help or hinder my operation. I have just been following youtube or sites advice but so far nothing has really helped. I have the t-mobile sim card but us cellulars programing is preventing service.
Please help(and use laymans terms cause like I said I am not too savy when it comes to this).

You cannot. HTC Merge is a CDMA phone and US Cellular is a CDMA network, while T-Mobile is a GSM carrier. The two technologies are not compatible, and it's not possible to use phones between them.


text:
Make screen lock after call if it was locked before?
I think that I had this feature in my Galaxy S way back in the 2.1-2.2 era, but now I can't figure it out on my Galaxy Nexus (takju, 4.1.1).
What I'm looking for is this: if I have the phone locked in my pocket and I receive a call, after I finish it, I'd expect to be able to return the phone to my pocket with no extra hassle. However, after the call I'm thrown into the recent calls list and have to back my way out from the app and lock the screen. And despite the oh-so-buttery experience of Jelly Bean, this usually means frantic back-tapping, waiting for the phone to exit to the launcher and annoyed grunts, or - if I have an app open under the lock screen - accidentally closing said program, reopening it, browsing to the wanted section and, well, annoyed grunts.
This is by no means a difficult task, but it's annoying as I have to do it every time.
Oh yeah, another thing: if I call someone and the line is busy or he/she rejects my call, the screen locks. Doesn't matter what state the phone is, you'll be thrown into the lock screen. Why? Why can't this happen after received calls?
I apologise for the ranty (is that an adjective?) tone, TGIF.

You can use Lock Screen After The Call. For more details, visit this link.

This is almost what I wanted, except that it locks the screen even if it was not locked before the call. The ideal solution would be to lock the screen only if it was locked when the call started.

What ROM are you on, stock or custom? If custom, which one? If you can be persuaded to move to a custom ROM, try ParanoidAndroid's latest for the Galaxy S (assuming that's the device you currently have). No such problems with their ROMs. I have it on two devices.

Sorry, left it in the tag only, I'm on Galaxy Nexus (takju) 4.1.1 stock/vanilla. I prefer vanilla ROMs due to the phone being used in development.

Should have noticed the tag. OTA update or manual flash? If manual flash, try reflashing. I am no developer but every single ROM flash has taken me twice or thrice to get everything right. Maybe I am the unluckiest flasher (no pun intended) ever.

I first flashed manually to takju 4.1 from yakjuxw 4.0.4, then OTA to 4.1.1. All my flashes have worked on the first try, if buggy alpha relases aren't counted.

Let us know if you managed to get this solved.

I've got the same device (takju,  4.1.1) and I don't have the issues you mentioned. I've been using exDialer as my dialer for some time,  so it might be my default dialer,  or it might be something else. Try exDialer and see if it does the trick.
I'm not fully confident of my suggestion as I'm not sure whether the dialer can really have this effect.  But it's worth a try.


text:
how to enhance the sound quality while recording the sound?
I want to enhance the sound quality while recording the sound on the android device, Is there and external device which is used for this. If yes then tell me for this I'll be thankful to you.

How are you recording currently and what are the problems your're facing?

you could use a USB Audio Interface and a USB OTG cable. have a look at this post for more info.

You can use any ordinary microphone that uses unbalanced connectors with suitable adaptors like this 3,5mm one. However, the resulting quality will depend on the DACs of the device and the application used, an external mic can only do so much.

irig mic is used with iOS is it compatible for android?

Should be, but this depends on the device you're using.  See my answer here for details.


text:
What is the boot process of an Android device?
From the user's perspective when switching on the phone, I see two boot animations in my LG P500 running CM10. The first animation is from LG and the second animation is from CM10. Then it settles in with a locked screen ready for my input.
What happens behind the scene (screen) during a boot process when an Android device is switched on? It will be helpful if the answers can help a non geek to understand various process and jargon (like, fastboot, bootloader, recovery, if applicable, etc.) regarding boot sequence.

May help: Android device load process (preparing flashing) and How to boot Ubuntu persistent live USB on Android? and BOOT PROCESS: ANDROID vs. LINUX

You will find a good explanation including graphics to visualize what's going on in the article The Android boot process from power on. Basically, the steps are as follows:

Execute Boot ROM code. This is stored in a hardware-specific area and keeps information on where to find the first stage of the boot loader, which is then loaded into RAM. You can compare the Boot ROM with the BIOS in your desktop PC.
Execute first stage of the boot loader. On desktop computers, this can be compared with the boot menu, e.g. Grub/LiLo on Linux. It sets up some basic stuff, and then turns control to the...
Linux kernel, which will, together with the init process, initialize the base system, e.g. caches, file systems, etc., and then calls...
Zygote, which initializes the Dalvik VM, and then starts the...
System server. Now we are in the Android-system, and set up all Android-specific services, like e.g. telephony manager and bluetooth. Finally comes:
Boot completed -- this event will be broadcast, so apps having registered listeners on this will be started.

To help you visualize this, here's the last image from the mentioned site:

What is fastboot in this context? Also in http://www.link2sd.info/faq a term quick boot and real boot are mentioned. I assume quick boot is about restarting UI libs which is different from fastboot though it appears analogous. Can you explain this in your own (and good) style?

You are correct about quick boot: This simply kicks your system back to step 5, and re-starts the system server. The term Fastboot however is a bit misleading; simplified said, it just goes up to step 3 and then waits for commands (it's a special mode for flashing updates/new ROM images to your device).

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


text:
Galaxy S3 Tmobile - Can't boot into Clockword Recover?
I hold down power up + home + power and it brings me to a screen that says Android System Recovery - I can't get the Clockwork Recovery.
What could be the problem?

Do you have a ROM or kernel that has CWM installed?

I have d/l and installed clockworksmod recovery. nothing beyond that.

You will need to flash an other package after you install CWM. The Galaxy SIII has checks in its start up scripts that if the recovery has been modified it will replace it with the stock recovery.
You can try this Root Package and flash it after you flash CWM. Besides installing SU and superuser, this removes the scripts that does the Recovery Check.
The actual scripts that are responsible are :

/system/etc/install-recovery.sh
/system/etc/recovery-from-boot.p

The package, that I linked, will install root, busybox, and it renames these files so they don't execute.
When the device boots, these scripts run and check the recovery, if you modify it, it replaces it with stock. The only way around it is to stop these scripts from running.

Anyone out there have any suggestions??

what do you mean by suggestions?

Ryan thanks for the reply. (Ignore the online line msg I wrote it before seeing our reply and tried to erased it but I guess I didn't.)
I went to link you posted. I took the TeamEpic-Root-from-Recovery-v*.zip copied it to the phone.
But the instructions on the site is:
-Copy TeamEpic-Root-from-Recovery-v*.zip in your phone's internal storage.
-Boot into Recovery.
-Flash TeamEpic-Root-from-Recovery-v*.zip.
but I only get into Android System Recovery and there is no option there to Flash anything.
Here is where I'm stuck.

Ryan, sorry the format is all messed up, I am new to this site and don't know how to work it better.

once you flash CWM with odin, you need to boot directly in to recovery, without rebooting the phone first.

so I missed that step? then do I just do over the odin step? will that hurt anything?

yes, redo the process from the beginning. no, it will not hurt anything.


text:
How to make phonecalls on an Android AVD?
I am new to Android SDK and AVDs and I was wondering if there is anyway I can enable the cellular network on an Android AVD and make for example phone calls.

Do you use Eclipse as IDE?

No.I do not like Eclipse.I use Netbeans.

You can call between AVD's. Run 2 AVD, each will have diffrent number - it is placed on window title bar, example 5558. Call from one to other using this numbers. You can also text ;]
In your AVD you simply cannot use real celluar network because your PC/Mac do not have built-in GSM modem (even if, AVD is not supporting this kind of feature).

Thanks for your help.I tried it between 2 AVDs and it works.

Some laptops do have built in 3g modems.  If you had one of those, would it be possible to route a call over the celluar network?

It can't support this king of feature.This is what fones explains in the last sentence in the parenthesis.Unless he/she is wrong.    :)


text:
What is the screen life of an Android Tablet?
I'm unable to find technical specs on the life expectancy for the screen of a Nexus 7 (or any Android Tablet, for that matter).
Do you know how many total hours we can expect to get out of a tablet before it starts to die out?
FYI: I'm considering to use an Android tablet as the touch screen for an Industrial Controller. The Industrial Controller will be turned on 24/7 - which is obviously not the typical use case for a tablet - so I'm concerned that the tablet will burn out too soon (i.e. within a year or two).

I guess if the tablet will be turned on 24/7 the screen will be seriously damaged.
Is it always a similar / same picture? If yes, the elements will burn slowly in.

@Leandros - care to quote a source for that?  The last time I heard screenburn was an issue was 1st-gen plasma TVs, LCD shouldn't suffer at all from this issue.

AMOLed suffer from screenburn, too. But I googled the Nexus 7 and found it it's only a LCD IPS screen and not a AMOLed like i.e the Galaxy Nexus. My bad.

I'm surprised an AMOLED does as how can an LED get stuck emitting light, however it is not beyond the realms of impossibility that it something could go wrong.

Yes, the Galaxy Nexus sometimes have problems with the AMOLED screen.

Sorry, this answer is slightly off-topic but still important for your use case.
The thing you are most likely to have to worry about is heat.  Having the screen on will generate heat, and you will need to plug into an external power source which when charging the battery will also generate a lot of heat.  This could damage the internal components (including the screen) over a long period, but unfortunately I don't have any evidence to support this.


text:
Nexus S after update to JB doesn't show callers name
I've installed the update to Jelly Bean on my Nexus S and when someone calls, it shows only the phone number of the contact (the contact was saved in the contant list) and not the name of the person.
When I updated to ICS some months ago, the phone number was there for few seconds (like 5 seconds or so) before the name actually appeared.
What's causing this and what can I do about it?
Something tells me that it has to do something with performance of the phone. On Ginger Bread it was all good. On ICS it took some time to show the name and now it doesn't show at all. The phone is incredibly slow and almost out of memory the whole time.
EDIT: When the call ends I can see in the history of calls that it shows the name of the contact.

Are you syncing your contacts to your Google account?  If so, can you verify that they are synced properly?

I don't know how to check that, but looking at the google contacts web all the contacts are there and syncing is enabled in the phone.

Edited Q - it shows the contact's name when I look into the history of calls after the call.


text:
Drawer - arrangement of icons
Why does the arrangement of app icons change (to alphabetical order), and why do folders get deleted, on every update of the Android version?
Follow up Qs:
1. How can I prevent this from happening?
2. Is there a way to restore the previous arrangement, after the update (if I did not follow your answer to Question 1) or does it have to be done manually?

Are you talking about the app drawer or the home screen? They're different, you know. The app drawer is just a list of your apps. The home screen allows you to arrange icons (including putting them in folders) and widgets.

I was talking about the drawer. We can customize the arrangements on both the app drawer and the home screen.

Not my phone. What device/carrier?

Samsung Galaxy Note. Vodafone. Maybe its the IceCreamS Launcher's feature or the Samsung Touchwiz Launcher's feature. Am unsure.

Only 1 Launcher can be active on a phone right? How do you know which Launcher is currently active? The android one or the carrier one?

It must be TouchWiz. In the default Android app drawer you can't arrange the icons.

If I change my arrangement on the home screen/drawer, where does the launcher store that setting? in the Launcher's app cache right? But Touchwiz's cache shows 0 bytes.


text:
How to Power On and Shutdown a Remote host with Android?
The title can't be more specific. I'd like you to suggest the best way to send the poweroff instruction, to windows or Linux.

What kind of remote host and using wake on lan?

Power ON

WOL enabled BIOS: In order to power up the remote host, you first have to enable WOL in his bios. The way you have to do this will vary from motherboard to motherboard, sou you'll have to figure it out by your self, or ask Google for some help.
Remote Host cable connected to router
Application capable of Sending Magic Packets to Remote.host's
MacAdress

At the moment I'm using WOLdroid WOL Wake On Lan
On remote.host execute:
ifconfig

Detect your remote.host's ehternet board usualy eth0 and save the HW Adress value XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
Enter that number when WOLdroid asks you for a mac adress. And your done.
Now you're able to powerup remotely
Power OFF
1. Prepare the Remote Host:
Remote host with Ubuntu 12.04
Create your private and public key files
To follow these steps you'll have to access your remote host, physically, or using another computer. I'll describe this as if you have physical access to the remote.host
Open a command window and install the ssh protocol:
sudo apt-get install ssh

Create public and private keys using ssh-key-gen
ssh-keygen

You should save the generated key in:
/home/yourusername/.ssh/id_rsa

Press enter twice to leave the passphrase empty.
Your identification has been saved in /home/yourusername/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/yourusername/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
XX:XX:XX:xX:XX:xX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX yourusername@remote-host

Now copy the id_rsa.pub to your ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file with this command:
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub remote.host

Now you have to be able to execute the sudo shutdown -P 0 with no password.
Modify /etc/sudoers on remote.host with visudo
That way user "yourusername" can execute the shutdown command with no password asked.
Run:
sudo visudo

By running visudo, it leads to edit /etc/sudoers.
Add the line below to that file.
yourusername ALL = NOPASSWD: /sbin/shutdown

Now we are able to access remotely, and shutdown without passwords asked.
2. Prepare your Android

Connect your android to the remote host and with your file explorer copy the id_rsa file located in ~/.ssh/ folder to the Android's SD card.
Disconnect your android from the remote host
Install a ssh client program. (ex. ConnectBot)
Open Connect Bot and go to Manage Pubkeys > Import and select the key you copied later.
Go back to Connect Bot's Main Scren and select the ssh protocol from the list and enter loginname@remote.host. Notice that it creates a line in the main screen with the data you input.
Push it for a couple of seconds and select edit host.
Select Use pubkey authentication and select id_rsa
On Post-login automation write sudo shutdown -P 0
Go back to you the Main Screen of Connect Bot and we're done!

Now you can Turn on and Shutdown a remote.host :)

That's not the right answer - as I've noticed - you've edited the question and dropped the reference to Windows PC.... why include linux?

I edited it again asking for a windows or linux solution, leaving the application preferences out of the question.

Power On
You can simply enable Wake-on-LAN on your computer through BIOS setup, then use any of the several WOL apps to send the power-on command over the network. Some apps like SyncMe also include WOL functionality, so a separate WOL app may not be needed.
Shutdown on Windows
In general it will involve some server utility installed on the computer, and the client-side Android app communicating with it, for example oneID. These apps usually include other features, which may be overkill. You could use SSH and call the shutdown.exe utility, but it may be overkill too. Besides, these solutions may not shut down Windows "properly". For example, neither oneID nor shutdown.exe were able to trigger my "backup on logoff" routine.
WebShutdown
For these reasons I end up writing my own small solution. WebShutdown is a small web server which is going to shut down the computer when a specific HTTP GET request is received. That means you can turn off your computer from Android device by simply tapping a Tasker or web shortcut on home screen. Windows is going to shut down "properly", meaning your logoff scripts configured in Group Policy will get executed normally.
You can run the server on computer startup like this for example: webshutdown.exe 80 valid_password.txt. Then, on Android device you access the web address http://COMPUTER/shutdown?auth=<password> to start system shutdown.

If your host supports wakeup on lan you can use some of these apps.

If your network card can use Wake-On-LAN and/or is supported, and is remotely accessible, then yes, it is quite possible to achieve it (wake-on-lan apps are in abundance on the play store), taking into account of security considerations which is outside of the scope of this site, double check and make sure no other service is on that public facing PC otherwise bad guys will get in and wreak havoc.


text:
Can I silence only certain notifications during the night?
I would like to be able to set up a silent period (at night for sleeping) where email alerts - but ONLY email alerts - will be silenced.
I still would like to have text messages and phone rings be normal.
Is there any way to do this automatically, without needing to go into the email app every night and turn off notifications and then remember to turn them back on in the morning?

If you do not depend on a data connection, there may be some solutions around: The Google Playstore has a lot of automation apps to offer, which you can use to set up more than this. In your case, this would be a time-based scenario:
From 11pm to 7am, disable WiFi and mobile data
No data connection => no new mail => no new mail notifications. Apps capable of things like that include e.g. Timeriffic (free, and one of the top-apps in this section), Llama (also capable of location-based and other rules), and -- my favorite -- Tasker. Though the latter is not the cheapest one, it is the most flexible, and you can get a 7-day-trial at their homepage.
For examples what else you can achieve with Tasker, you might also want to take a look at What is Cell standby and how can I keep it from eating my battery?, and the examples at the mentioned homepage. Also, a Google search on Tasker profiles will list you a lot of goodies.
To accomplish your goal using Tasker, simply create the following profile:
Context:

Time (fill in your "from" and "to" to define the time frame)

Task:

Net->Mobile Data: Set Off
Net->WiFi: Set Off

That's all. Say you defined it as described above (11pm to 7am), Tasker would switch off WiFi and Mobile Data at 11pm, and return to the previous state at 7am.
More solutions can probably be found here: Is it possible to only silence certain notifications?

This is a good solution if one accepts "silent e-mail" to be replaced by "silence everything that requires a data connection", leaving only SMS and phone calls. It's seems like an OK tradeoff.

Or one could use an alternate email client like K9 which has quiet hours feature built-in.

From Lollipop on, there is more granularity in Do not disturb mode:

Android Lollipop introduced the concept of “priority notifications”: These notifications rise to the top of the notifications screen, and you can choose to continue receiving auditory or vibration alerts for these notifications even when you have all other notifications muted.
To choose which notifications you’d like to treat as priority notifications, head on over to your phone’s Settings app, then tap Sound & notification—a one-stop shop of sorts for all things related to notifications and alert sounds. Next, tap Do not disturb, then tap Priority only allows. From this screen, you can choose to limit the sorts of notifications you’ll be alerted to.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170329075434/https://www.greenbot.com/article/2995581/android/take-control-of-notifications-with-android-marshmallows-do-not-disturb-feature.amp.html

Moreover, recent Android versions support scheduling Do Not Disturb automatically, e.g. by time range.

You could also find the file being used as the tone for email (assuming it's unique to email) and rename it to [email_tone_name].bak for certain hours. Then when your time period has elapsed, rename [email_tone_name].bak to [email_tone_name].
You may actually need to have a silent tone file and rename [silent_file_name] to [email_tone_name]. It may be that it will pick some default if it can't find the one it's set to use.

Perhaps with automation, this solution might be feasible. Otherwise, this might be too troublesome if needed often.


text:
TTS Accessibility for Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) Messages
This applies to Android users in the USA.
Has anyone received a CMAS message (used for tornado warnings, etc.) with a TTS accessibility solution (i.e. Google Talkback, etc) enabled?

Any recommendations based on positive, real-world experience, for a setup that would read the message at the time it is received? (Android Version, Phone, TTS Solution, etc.)

Rather than wait around till the next flash flood warning to test what works, I figured I'd check in here. If you can think of a better way to test this I'd be interested in that too. Thanks.

I've received a total of one CMAS message from my new phone.  That was enough for me to "Force stop" the app for good, having reviewed the level of rights given to it and combined with the idea that this is controlled by FEMA.  It was a bad idea, to be honest.


text:
Automatically notify people when I leave/reach a location
Does anyone know of a way to automatically send a notification when I arrive or leave a location?
For example, I'd like to send a notification to my wife whenever I leave the office.
Does anyone know of a service that would do this? I'd prefer something stock/Google over some home-brew app, but I'm interested in hearing what's out there. I'm not really interested in a foursquare type of thing where I earn badges, it's more for communicating my location with one or two people.

Tasker can have approaching/leaving a location as a trigger, and sending a text message as an action. I've read before of people setting it up to do exactly what you're asking for.

Excellent, thanks. I own Tasker but found it a bit daunting and never really set much up. I'll give it a shot and post results.

"Daunting", indeed. Handy, though.

Yeah, it does take a bit of getting used to. The internet is your friend.

"Tasker can do that" is like "Use jQuery" over on [so]. The go-to answer.

@AlEverett - Well, if it works, and is the best option, is there anything wrong with that?

@Saint: No, as long as "Use Tasker" isn't the entirety of the answer.

@AlEverett - Ah, well of course.

Install IFTTT app into your phone. Create a IFTTT recipe (www.ifttt.com) that runs IF "Android Location" (you enter/leave an area on map) THEN "Android SMS" to a phone number. Theoretically it sounds easy. I am just about to test it how it works in practice :-)
Here is a ready IFTTT recipe as an example.
Message your partner when you leave work
https://ifttt.com/recipes/158448-message-your-partner-when-you-leave-work

IFTTT is probably not a good alternative. I tried it, creating recipes to do just ask you ask -- send an sms to spouse when leaving work. The recipe would trigger, but it would trigger anywhere from 1 to 4 hours after I left the geographic location. Apparently their polling is not spectacular (or they have too many users/recipes for their current servers to handle). I'll be deleting the app and giving tasker a try. It might be more difficult, but it doesn't rely on a web server polling your phone when it has a few free CPU cycles.

It looks like there are several apps that purport to do this. Two that I found are:

AreYouThereYet
IHaveArrived

Life360 will notify you when anyone leaves or arrives from locations you set. You can create two locations for free.

You can try the GPS share app. It is simple to use and does exactly what its name says.

You can try IFTTT (IF This Then That)

Please read How do I write a good answer? Answers here are supposed to be detailed and I don't see any detail here. Consider an [edit] and mention the usage of this app to achieve the goal in question.

I know the question is old, but Google now let's you share your location directly from Google Maps.
In Google Maps go to Account -> Location Sharing. You can share the location for a set amount of time or until you revoke the permission.
For the notifications you can use IFTTT recipes (you don't need to have the app on the phone).


text:
What does it mean to "brick" your phone?
I'm considering unlocking the bootloader on my Verizon Galaxy S3 (SCH-I535).  However, a guide I was reading made this statement:

Once you have unlocked your phone’s bootloader using this app, you must not receive any over-the-air (OTA) updates or via Samsung Kies. Doing so will result in bricking your phone.

I understand that bricking a phone means rendering it unusable, but does this also mean unrecoverable?  When a phone is "bricked", does that mean it is virtually impossible to restore it to a working state?
I'm a little concerned about the risk if that is the case.

Related: Bootloader/BIOS, flashing ROM and correlated risks. Why Android devices are more brickable than PCs?

The term "brick" usually refers to the stone, which means: "device can only be used as paper-weight". Taken literally, there's no way to "unbrick".

However, you also find terms like "hard-brick" and "soft-brick" used, which makes the term "brick" less absolute: A soft-brick is something you easily can recover from (count it as a "temporary paper-weight"), mostly by software-based solutions (e.g. re-flash your phone) -- while a "hard-brick" is rather meant in the way the original term points to.
Still, technically spoken, even a "hard-bricked" device could be "unbricked" -- but mostly this is more expensive then getting a new device.
As for the warranty declaration you quoted: For a normal user, it's almost impossible to (hard-) brick his device. Even when flashing a custom ROM, this can rarely happen, as there are many security-layers involved. Almost always you can boot your device into some fall-back mode where it is at least recognized by some "flashing software", so you could simply flash another/the original firmware back. Which means, the risk you are taking is to "soft-brick" your device1. A "hard-brick" is quite unlikely with "normal operations" like rooting or flashing custom ROMs.
See also:

Wikipedia: Brick
RootzWiki: Brick

1 I just learned: "Unless you've got a Samsung device and used the software recommended by Samsung". So better don't use Kies etc., but rather Odin, just to give an example.

Upvoted for the info. Wished I could upvote another time for the pic of the brick. :-D

Great answer.  @Sparx I upvoted for you on the brick.

Ultimate answer.. Ha..Ha..

My xperia c is not giving any response on pressing any combinations of keys. I  installed Z2 rom in it. After successful installation, it hasn't reboot. It is showing a response only when connected to charger or PC via usb cable and that is the display of a RED LIGHT and nothing else. Does it means it is hard bricked? Suggest me what to do..

@choxx if it were "hard bricked", it would show no response at all usually. For deeper insight and solving your issue, I however recommend asking a separate issue – and give a few more details (what you did that might have led to the issue). If it is detected by your PC, you could e.g. flash a different ROM (the ROM might be unfit for your device). You could also check whether it's possible to boot into recovery/bootloader/safe-mode (include results with your question then). // Ah, I see you've already done that :)

Brick is a much-hyped word that gets bandied about without understanding what it is.
There's two types of brick, hard and soft. Let's go through this to make the distinction clearer.

Hard - this is where the handset will absolutely refuse to boot at the press of the power button.
Diagnostics: Dead screen, no power. That is the symptom of a hard brick.
Reason: This can happen by inadvertently pulling the cable when flashing a ROM or even an update via the handset's supporting software such as Samsung Kies, Sony's PC Companion Suite etc. That is the worst case, that is why in this scenario, always, make, sure that no cable gets pulled unless told so by the supporting software in question. The other way is this, flashing in that manner when the battery power is low. Hence for that reason, it is recommended to have at least 75% of battery power in place prior to doing the update in that fashion. It's known as hard-brick, and requires specialist cables and stripping the device down to the circuitry board to revive it via JTAG cables.
Soft - this can happen through a bad flashing of the ROM in which yields the following.
Diagnostics: it has power when the power button is pressed, and/or, the screen comes on.
Reason: It can be a user error on this part. For example, failing to clear/wipe the data/cache, can cause Android to go into a bootloop because of the mismatches with the Android's virtual machine and the apps installed, or more than likely, a corrupted dalvik cache. The other, is flashing a ROM that is not designated for the handset which can cause the kernel to go into a bootloop. This is generally easier to fix, but hangs, that is known as a soft-brick.

With those two separate forms of brick, it is generally speaking, a scaremongering tactic.
The one pure simple reason why carriers do not recommend unlocking the boot-loader, is not just for the warranty. It's more down to the fact, if the handset ever gets stolen, then unlocking the bootloader will wipe everything, and reinitialize the handset to factory state, thereby all your contacts, call logs, messages and apps gets wiped cleanly. Also, this is to reduce the amount of support in the carriers, with people calling in or ringing up the technical support, "What happened with my handset - I did something and lost my contacts?"
Just to finish off this answer, you can revert it back, by relocking the bootloader at a later stage if you wish, that is in the event the hardware got damaged and hand it back in for repairs.

Great information, and I'm glad to hear that I can relock my bootloader if need be.

That said, you also can un-root (even easier as relock I'd say). But I doubt you'll ever feel like it -- unless in a case of warranty, of course :)

My xperia c is not giving any response on pressing any combinations of keys. I  installed Z2 rom in it. After successful installation, it hasn't reboot. It is showing a response only when connected to charger or PC via usb cable and that is the display of a RED LIGHT and nothing else. Does it means it is hard bricked?

@choxx oh dear, you flashed a Z2 rom ( for Sony Xperia Z2 ) on a Xperia C, that rom is not compatible right? You have checked and confirmed this? In any case, sounds like a soft brick, try reverting back, but this time, USE a specific rom designated for Xperia C in your case.


text:
Is there a service/application that will allow a "friend" to retrieve my location from my phone without my involvement?
I'd like to allow my wife to query my location whenever she's curious. There are no trust issues here, so I don't care about acknowledging/approving her "ping" request, whenever she wants to know she can just request my location details.
Is there an app or service that does this? Most of them (understandably) require that the handset owner allow/permit the request, but I'd like this to happen without my involvement (say I'm busy at the office, driving, or getting groceries).

It sounds like Google Latitude does what you want. Once you opt-in you can then share your location data with your wife, and she should be able to check your location anytime. As far as I know, once you choose share your location data with someone they can retrieve it anytime without having to explicitly request your permission.
Latitude is built into the Google Maps application for Android. You can enable it by going into the application's settings and checking "Enable location sharing", then use the setting right below it ("Manage your friends") to choose who can see your location data.

Latitude was my first choice/thought but this requires that the ping recipient allow/acknowledge the ping. It is not automatic or seamless.

@JPAnderson: Have you tried it? I thought you only had to do the approval once, then it would automatically plot your friends on the map for you from then on (I admittedly do not use this myself, so I'm basing this mostly on Google's documentation).

I use Latitude and I confirm that it allows continuous location visibility.

Been using Latitude for me and my girlfriend. No problems here.

You could also combine this with some anti-theft solution. E.g. Wheres My Droid reacts on "attention words" you set up, and e.g. sends the current location (also by SMS), or turns on the alarm on another "attention word". With your wife knowing (some of) those "attention words", she can get to know where you are (or rather where your device is) -- while at the same time you have some added value. Look for "anti-theft" on the playstore to find more like this, if it sounds useful to you.


text:
Prevent activating silent mode when screen is locked
Is there a way to prevent turning the sound (silencing the phone) off from the lock screen? This is a Motorola Droid 4.
I notice I've missed calls and check only to find that the sound has been turned off. I always make sure to turn the screen off thus activating the screen lock when I put the phone in my pocket. However, I see that the touchscreen still allows the speaker to turn off. Is there a way to deactivate this? I tried using the Droid inPocket app and it didn't solve the problem. In fact, I'm not sure what it did do.

http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-replace-and-customize-android-lock-screen-guide/

 - http://www.vikitech.com/6075/best-android-lock-screen-apps
Essentially, if there is not an option in your security settings, you'll need to replace your lock screen.


text:
Want my Bluetooth keyboard on Galaxy Tab10.1 to default to English Android Keyboard (Not to Samsung Japanese Keypad)
I am using a Galaxy Tab 10.1 and when I connect my iBuffalo Bluetooth Keyboard BSKBB06 it always defaults to the Samsung Japanese Keypad and I have to keep manually changing it to the English Android Keyboard and then to the Null Keyboard.
Is there a way I can get it to default to the English Keyboard and then straight to the Null?  I disconnect and connect multiple times in a day and so always having to change the default keyboard is getting quite inconvenient.

Check your system settings under Language and input methods and check what keyboard is currently selected. It might be the reason why you're getting a different input method by default.


text:
Google Talk alert sound
Is it possible to change the alert sound when a new message arrives for Google Talk? My colleague and I both have Galaxy Nexus' running Jelly Bean and when either of us get a Google Talk message its very confusing! :)
I can't see a setting for it in Google Talk and it doesn't seem to use the "Default notification" sound that is set under Settings -> Sound -> System.
Thanks!

In the Google Talk app when I go into Overflow menu | settings | {username}@gmail.com I see a setting for "Notification ringtone" under "Chat Notifications". That's what you want, no?
(I'm still on Ice Cream Sandwich so it's conceivable that things are a little different.)


text:
Why can I not assign exec permissions to a file on the SD card?
shell@android:/sdcard/SW # ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw      128 2012-09-22 11:42 usb0config.sh
shell@android:/sdcard/SW # chmod 777 usb0config.sh
shell@android:/sdcard/SW # ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw      128 2012-09-22 11:42 usb0config.sh
shell@android:/sdcard/SW #

Why can I not assign exec permissions to a file on the SD card?
$ adb shell su -c mount |grep -si sdcard
/dev/block/vold/179:97 /mnt/ext_sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/ext_sdcard/.android_secure tmpfs ro,relatime,size=0k,mode=000 0 0
/dev/fuse /mnt/sdcard fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0

$ adb shell su -c "mount -t vfat -o umask=0000 /dev/fuse /mnt/sdcard"
mount: Block device required

Now it seems remount successfully.
$ adb shell su -c "mount -t vfat -o remount,umask=0000 /dev/fuse /mnt/sdcard"

but the file yet cannot be assigned 777 mode.
shell@android:/sdcard/Sw # ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw      128 2012-09-22 11:42 usb0config.sh
shell@android:/sdcard/Sw # chmod 777 usb0config.sh
shell@android:/sdcard/Sw # ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw      128 2012-09-22 11:42 usb0config.sh

The mount info doesn't change comparing to before remount's.
$ adb shell su -c mount |grep -si sdcard
/dev/block/vold/179:97 /mnt/ext_sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/ext_sdcard/.android_secure tmpfs ro,relatime,size=0k,mode=000 0 0
/dev/fuse /mnt/sdcard fuse rw,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0

Unless you've done something unusual with your device, the SD card will be formatted as a FAT file system, which does not support *nix file permissions. This Linux FAQ entry from one of MIT's professors explains it a bit, and also explains how you can potentially use mount options to change the permission mode of the device (this would require root, though, and affect all files/folders on the device). Also, the SD card in Android is mounted by default with the -noexec flag.
For the exec bit you'd probably want to remount with a umask of 0000, since the umask is essentially a binary NOT of the permissions you want (so umask 0000 says don't mask out any permissions, allow them all). Untested, but doing it temporarily would be something along the lines of:
mount -t vfat -o umask=0000 /dev/your/sdcard/device /mnt/sdcard

The mount point may need to be changed from /mnt/sdcard to something slightly different depending on your device. Again, though, I believe mount requires that you have root permissions for this.

I try remount using your gave command, but failed, please see supplement of my question.

please see my question's update.

@VictorS: It looks like you have both an internal and an external SD card. The internal one is not treated the same way, and I don't know if there's a way to get it re-mounted with the permissions you want. Alternatively, though, you could execute your script by invoking sh: sh usb0config.sh.


text:
How do I connect Android devices to a WiFi AP and mobile data network simultaneously?
When I turn WiFi on, my 3G connection shuts down, which is fine in most cases. However, I need to connect to a LAN at work that is not connected to the internet and I'd prefer not to lose my data connection when I connect to the work intranet.
How can I keep both connections active?
Ideally, I could limit this desired behavior to this one SSID because I want it to continue to operate with the default behavior for all other WiFi connections.  If that can't be done, prefer a solution that is easy to toggle on and off.
I'm using a Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Verizon Wireless) on CyanogenMod 9.

See this answer In short you cannot have both on as they are mutually exclusive.

@t0mm13b, is this an Android limitation, then?  My understanding is that with iOS, APNS is always enabled, and is always using the data connection.  It would seem that with Android, you then simply go offline with some apps as the switch between the connections is performed?

For example, I need to be able to be always available on SIP, it would seem like having WiFi enabled then precludes such requirement; on the other hand, when you don't have WiFi enabled, then the GPS doesn't work.  WTF?

@cnst its an Android limitation, mainly how the RIL driver is programmed in conjunction with Android's Ts TelephonyManager (PhoneManager). To be capable of using both WiFi and 3G would require modifications of the RIL driver and TelephonyManager/PhoneManager located in the bowels of the lower layer of the telephony mechanism handling on the java side. You mentioned about iOS's APNs which is definitely applicable for data transmission over the telephony 3G layer.

Also for GPS, it does not need WiFi, in fact, it can work over 3G if so required but Google Maps recommend WiFi usage in conjunction with GPS so not to drain your 3G data plan. If you are unlimited data plan by all means, great. But having said what I said, there is no known modification of RIL on the net to enable/bypass the mutually exclusive flip-flop mechanism either. Am 100% sure the same applies to iOS - switch on WiFi, 3G gets disabled. No wtf's there from what I can see.

@t0mm13b, I don't have a reference to back it up right now, but it's my understanding that on data-enabled iOS devices, APNS always works over the data connections, which enables the high level of reliability of getting your notifications on time, as well as preserving the battery life by turning off WiFi when in sleep mode.  (If you have a reference to confirm either way, I'd like to see it, please.)

This would seem to suggest that APNs indeed always uses the cellular connection for APNs, even when WiFi is available: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4264

Despite the wide-spread information of its impossibility, an app named Super Download claims to be capable of this, as you can read in the article Combine 3G 4G Mobile Data + Wifi together to Boost Download Speeds at Geeknizer.

As expected, this comes from one of the XDA developers (elban) -- and, also expected, it requires your device to be rooted (not an issue for you, as you're running CM9;) ).
According to the article, you should keep some things in mind additionally:

Using both connections is not supported on all devices / rom combinations.
Some web servers may provide insufficient functionalities on the requested files.
The Lite version has a filesize limit of 50 megabytes. You’ll have to buy full version to go further. But if you download it from here (using barcode below), its free, with full features, courtesy of XDA).

EDIT: t0mm13b was so shocked that he dug deeper, so I can now add the link to the FAQ of Super Download...

Am shocked to see this - how the hell does it multiplex tcpip through both wifi and [3|4]g .... looks interesting, would expect that requires a custom kernel with a particular wifi chipset no?

@t0mm13b As I already wrote in my answer: Using both connections is not supported on all devices / rom combinations. That's all I know about it...

I'm curious how well it works -- didn't try it myself, as I had no need yet. But just in case... Please, let us know then ;)

It didn't work. I ran the app and I had both the 3g and the wifi icons in my notification bar but I couldn't get on the internet. I checked my connection status in elixer and it showed that despite the icon my cellular data was disconnected. Thanks anyway.

So you probably was affected by the not supported on all devices / rom combinations. Sorry to read that. But it was worth a try.

There is Notification Toggle, which can display buttons on the notification bar to quickly toggle Wifi and many other stuffs. Didn't CM have this built in though?

The toggles don't seem to override the either or restriction.

@Matt: you're correct, it's an answer to this part of the question If that can't be done is like a solution that is easy to toggle on and off. I don't think there's a practical implementation of SuperDownload-like dual network is available for arbitrary connections yet, and so thusly.

That is very strange. There are some apps, like Livestream, that will allow you to connect over WiFi to a GoPro or other action camera and stream it using the cell phone's 4G connection.
I have a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime and I can stream from a WiFi FPV camera. I did have to root the device though.
I do know for a fact that the Livestream app works for streaming WiFi video over 4G on both the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Grand Prime.


text:
Will using a vpn also encrypt my 3G traffic?
Just wondering, because I've just set my phone up to forward wifi traffic through my DD-WRT router. But I've no way to verify if my 3G traffic is also going through my router.
Does anyone know if 3G traffic also goes through the vpn by default (if vpn is properly configured on the phone of course).

Yes, 3G traffic will go through your VPN if it's set up correctly.  Whether or not your service provider supports that is another matter; some block VPN traffic (such as Verizon - see this thread).


text:
Do the ROM files contain some information about themselves?
I have downloaded so many custom ROMs to try, but I did not organize them. One of the zip files is called "ODEXED.zip".
Is there any way to determine what it's name is just by inspecting the files in the zip file? Or maybe some other information about it?
This is just curiosity, I know I can just flash it and see its info in "Settings>About Phone".

Ok. I have found the answer, at least for that ROM:
In the /system/build.prop file in the zip file, the first "section" has build properties, which details all the information that is visible in the "About Phone" part.
This is an example of it here:
# begin build properties
# autogenerated by buildinfo.sh
ro.build.id=GINGERBREAD
ro.build.display.id=Hyper_Droid
ro.build.version.incremental=DDKT3
ro.build.version.sdk=10
ro.build.version.codename=REL
ro.build.version.release=2.3.6
ro.build.date=Wed Feb  1 15:11:04 KST 2012
ro.build.date.utc=1328076664
[...]
ro.product.brand=samsung
ro.product.model=GT-S5670
ro.product.name=GT-S5670
ro.product.device=GT-S5670
ro.product.board=GT-S5670
ro.modversion= v2.0
ro.author.name= Wilfred
[...]
# end build properties
#
# system.prop for GT-S5670
#

That's exactly where you need to go, for every ROM.

@HamedMomeni Ok, thanks. I asked the question too soon, but now at least it will benefit others :)

@jadkik94 Feel free to "Accept" your own answer, so that others searching the site can see that it's been resolved.

@Chahk Done, I had to wait 2 days before I could do it, SE policy :)


text:
Adding Contacts From Skype
Here is what I want to do:
In skype I have contacts: A,B,C
In android I use phone memory populated with google contacts: C,D,E
My goal is to display in my contact list users C,D,E with option to call in skype for contact C (as common for both list).
What I do:

After installing skype: Sync contacts
A,B,C(skype),C(google),D,E appear in phone contacts
I merge contact C
Unmark "show Skype contacts" in phone contacts settings
Everything works as I want: C(merged),D,E

BUT
When I restart skype I see the list in phone contacts like: A,B,C(merged),D,E
How can I achieve my goal even after restarting skype?


text:
How to activate Android debugging mode
I've recently upgraded my Samsung Galaxy 5 from Android 2.1 to 2.2 and I can't find Android debugging mode in the settings. I need to root my phone.

It's usually located in

Settings > Applications > Development

Of course, you could just perform a quick and easy root by installing Universal Androot as detailed here - http://androidadvices.com/root-unroot-samsung-galaxy-5-i5500-easy-tutorial/2/#.UF3Qi1H1pjc


text:
Moving app between _three_ possibilities for storage?
My son has an Android phone, and when he bought it the storage space was divided thus:
System Memory: 157MB
Internal Memory: 1024MB
When this was essentially full we put in an SD card to give him more storage. So now we also have
SD card: 1.84GB
When he fires up something called "App Manager" and clicks on "storage" he sees these three possibilities -- System memory, Internal memory and SD card.
OK now here's the problem. If he downloads an app from the app store, by default it will typically install onto the Internal memory. He wants to put it on the SD card, but the only option available when he tries to move it with his app manager is "Move to phone". If he moves an app to the phone, which presumably is the system memory, then the only option now available is "move to internal memory". Furthermore, try as we might we cannot move any app onto the SD card. Is this expected behaviour? Is there a way of installing apps on his SD card (without rooting the phone, ideally)?
The phone is an LG-E400, running Android version 2.3.6 .

It would be helpful to mention the device in question. Assuming e.g. it is a Samsung Galaxy S3, a quote from App 2 SD states why it's not supported there: Galaxy S3 configures the SD card as a secondary external storage. This is configured by Samsung. Nothing developers can do about this. In this case, probably only the availability of root could solve your issue.

OP: Was this from Tesco?

It was from Carphone Warehouse

@Izzy: I do not understand the quote from App2SD (although the gist seems to be that a related problem, possibly the same one, is unsolvable). Is it the same problem? How might I check? App2SD does not solve the problem for us -- App2SD creates a list of apps which are "installed on SD card" and in fact none of these are installed on the actual SD card, they're all installed on what the phone itself calls "internal memory".

Does "only the availability of root could solve your issue" mean "if you root the phone you can solve the problem"? I have been shying away from rooting the phone on the basis that if I brick my son's phone this will cause a lot of problems.

The problem is, as described in t0mm13b's answer, that the system will not recognize the SD card as valid target. With root available, you could probably use solutions like Link2SD to fool the system.

System memory, internal memory is a mis-leading thing, its actually referring to storage space which is a very different thing to the meaning RAM often referred as memory!
The reference to storage - system as in /system would be more accurate.
When you download an app from the Play Store, it must be installed into the /data.
From there you can actually move the app to the sd-card. On stock vanilla android, the option is there 'Move to SD card'.
Now by the sound of it, its as if it is indeed moving the app to the SDCard, but its not really a SDCard, its how an internal storage space (think of USB flash drives), is treated as an /sdcard but in reality, you have internal and external storage, the latter being the actual micro SD card slotted in place.
Its a bit confusing how it works, from a developer's perspective, when a check is carried out for an SD card, Android seemingly "tells" the developer that the internal storage is treated as an /sdcard.
Also, to compound confusion even more, there's also a symbolic link to the real sdcard, /external/sdcard as well - this bit is dependent on what device/manufacturer is in question.
Yes, this is the expected behaviour, whichever storage (from a view point of Android and the hardware device's file-system priority, is treated as "sdcard").
In short, nothing you can do, apart from using App 2 SD, but then again, that could fall into the same trap as I mentioned previously about the developer's perspective.
Edit
After the OP has edited their question to include the device, after looking at GSMArena
MEMORY      Card slot microSD, up to 32GB
Internal    1 GB storage, 384 MB RAM

Yup, it looks definitely like as if the internal storage is treated in this fashion as an "SDCard"...
The naming is misleading. What is really meant, is: internal (phone) storage 157MB, internal SD-Card (eMMC) 1024MB

@tomm13b: thanks for following this up. Is the upshot then that it might actually be impossible to install apps on the actual SD card? I am confused as to why one would even want a card slot on the phone if the card itself is inaccessible!

@KevinBuzzard the card is accessible for data, so you could keep e.g. your ebook or mp3 collection with you, or use it for backups or other documents. As to your original issue, I guess you're sitting in the same trap as the SGS3 mentioned in my previous comment.

Izzy and t0mm13b: thanks both of you for your clarifying comments. I'm slightly disappointed and surprised that I find myself in this situation; my son seems to have a "hard limit" for the number of apps he can install onto his phone, and he's hit it very quickly. I am now thinking about rooting the phone, but I guess that's another thread. Thanks both of you for the help.

@KevinBuzzard You are always welcome. Another hint is to check the playstore for App2SD related apps before rooting (if you're afraid of voiding your warranty etc.). There might be a solution not requiring root I am not aware of, as I was not aware of this special problem until today.

@KevinBuzzard I just googled a lot, and found some reports that it should work on your device with an app called "Apps2SD": New apps get installed on internal storage first, but you then can use Apps2SD to move them to SD card. Maybe you try that first?

I have the same phone (LG Optimus L3 e400), I have the same problem but I have found some solutions, like the app directory bind which puts yours apps' data to external SD card and make the phone understand it is still on internal memory (the phone executes the apps using a new link made by db).
The other way is to upgrade to Android 4.0.3 with a custom ROMavailable and use an app called "root external 2 internal sd" to do exactly what you look for, for flashing a custom ROM you have to be rooted and take some risks, don't worry if you make an android backup there won't be any problems.
I actually found another possible way which is modifying the vold.fstab (must be rooted) if you try copy the original vold.fstab to the same directory and rename it (voldfstab.backup) if there's a problem just delete the modified file and rename back your original file.
I am a web developer not an android developer so this is the result of a lot of research and experience. Hope I helped you.

What custom ROM did you use?

I am using the same model LG L3 E400.I have fixed this issue by rooting my phone and installing APP2SD and some other apps are their for moving apps from internal memort to SD memory.
I am currently using custom ROM-- Jellybreard 2 which is a stable one..KUDOSSS
Try rooting and install custom ROM... Happy Rooting... :)


text:
Downloading Kindle for Android tablet
I got Android tablet with the latest OS (4.0). I am trying to install Amazon Kindle app on it. I access the Google market via browser and select install. Then it is saying it will be downloaded shortly, but nothing happens. What is the problem? For some unknown reason I can't connect to google market via app on the Android tablet itself (failed connection). Before that I was able to download and install apps on tablet. The tablet: Zenithink ZT ICS. Any suggestions? Thanks

So can you not download any apps from the Play Store? It sounds like you have a bigger issue than just being unable to install Kindle.

I just replaced the amazon-kindle tag (as it refers to the kindle tablet, not the app) by the playstore tag. As the playstore app on your tablet cannot connect to the playstore website, I'd say all installations via the playstore will fail -- regardless of the app to be installed: No connection, no data transfer, so no install. Your real problem is getting the playstore app to work. This would solve your described issue implicitly.

You can try to install it directly from this page - http://www.1mobile.com/kindle-13239.html
However, be warned that due to certain geographical restrictions, the app may NOT work as intended if not supported.
Re: your market app not connecting - can you browse the net or connect other apps? Can you sync your Google account on your device? What tablet do you have?

I can browse the Internet. I can connect to gmail.

Before you start the Play Store app, try signing in to Google Talk. Also, make sure you're running the latest firmware from your manufacturer.

An additional note - if your app is called "Market" and not "Play Store", you need to update that app (perhaps by sideloading it). And finally, a number of ahem..."lesser known" companies have released tablets that run Android, however the official Google Play Store may not recognize the devices and as such, you may not be able to get the functionality. As an alternative, look at other Market apps like Amazon App Store and SlideME.

Yeah, for some reasons I can't connect to Google Talk. I have already posted  a new thread for that. The app is called 'Play Store'. Google Play Stores recognizes my device; you may selected it in the list of my devices.

ok, I took your advice and get the app directly via that link. It works fine now.


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Connecting to Google Talk on tablet
I am trying to connect to Google Talk on my Android tablet. The error message is saying 'the connection interrupted'. The tablet has connected to Wi-fi and I can browse the Internet. I am using version 4.0 OS.
What might be stopping it from connecting to Google Talk?

You might have a too restrictive firewall, either in your WiFi router or your tablet. Try opening up the ports that GTalk needs and check that access to GTalk servers isn't blocked.

If you are connected to Google Servers over your wifi connection the wifi bars in the status bar should be blue. If they bars are gray then you are not connected to the Google Servers.
I have run into this issue on open wi-fi and on some corporate wi-fi networks with a firewall. The only solution I've found is to use a third party app like Trillian. I can use Trillian (with my GTalk account) to GTalk when I'm not connected to the Google Servers.


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How do I manually update my Nexus S to Jelly Bean?
I bought a used Nexus S that is on version 2.3.6.
It does not seem to be reading any SIM cards and the baseband version is listed as unknown. I think it may be on a custom ROM because of this. I want to flash it back to a stock ROM but have no idea where to start. My Nexus S is I9020A so I downloaded 4.1.1 from here but have no idea where to go from here.
Are there any easy to follow guides? And am I even on the right track here?

I don't think there is such a model as "galaxy nexus S".  There's a "galaxy Nexus", and a "Nexus S".  I assume you have the latter, since the URL for its official image is almost the same as what you mentioned: https://dl.google.com/dl/android/aosp/soju-jro03e-factory-c9f5a67d.tgz

It looks like this might explain how to do it.

It sounds like your phone is missing the modem. I accidentally did the same thing once while updating a phone. You can just find the best modem for your area and flash it to fix this.

Did you notice that the link you provided points to a Nexus S 4G model, which is not the same as I9020a? The correct firmware would be sojuajro03e