text:
Samsung Gio overheating and no power
I have a Gio and recently have an issue with the phone being hot and not responding.  I have to pull the battery to get the phone to work.  Any help is appreciated!

Try replacing battery. Restore phone via factory reset

If you're in a hot area (in a car, outside in Florida) this may happen simply because of the surrounding temperature. If this is happening regularly under normal conditions, you may want to contact your seller, as the problem is most likely with the hardware of the phone or battery.


text:
How can I refresh an email in the native gmail app?
I get many emails with pictures in them.  When I try viewing them in the native gmail app, it displays some of them, but not all.  The only way to view the undisplayed ones is to preview them one at a time.
Is there any way to tell the app to refresh the current email?

Go to Inbox, press MENU button and click on Refresh. Now, open the email again.
In the Gmail app, there is no way to refresh the current email, you can only refresh your Inbox.  When you refresh Inbox, emails are downloaded(in text format) to your inbox. Images from the email were downloaded on opening the email.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Connect android phones through adhoc wifi network
I want to connect my android phones (two Galaxy s2 and two nexus1 phones) in adhoc mode through wifi connection. Something like peer to peer network so that I can transfer messages with mobiles in my adhoc through wi-fi connection.
Does android support creating an adhoc connection?

See: Does any version of Android support ad-hoc connections?, How exchange messages between 2 android devices through wifi and bluetooth without internet?, Why can't my device see an ad-hoc WiFi network?

It might be possible with an app, but it's not built in. Can't you create an ad-hoc network on a computer, then connect the phones?

yeah I tried connecting to adhoc created on my laptop. I rooted my phone, and made use of wpa_supplicant file (which I found online). I am able to see the adhoc network. But it gets stuck at obtaining IP address.. IT doesnot go further.

it could be stuck at obtaining IP because you don't have DHCP enabled on the laptop. You will need to use static IP addresses on the devices if DHCP isn't available on the laptop.

thanks for pointing that out Ryan. I will try using static ip.

There is no such thing on Android's menus, but since Android is Linux based you can run a few commands on ADB in order to do that (phones must be rooted though).
if you have some knowledge with Linux command line you may know ifconfig and iwconfig:
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig mode auto;iwconfig wlan0 essid "your SSID" channel 11 mode auto
ifconfig wlan0 10.0.0.x netmask 255.255.255.0

Where your SSID should be replaced with the name of your Adhoc network, and 10.0.0.x is a different IP you give each device.

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


text:
Cannot enable GPS  on G510
I have an Android G510 running 2.3.4 but cannot access the GPS. In "Location & Security" there is no GPS item, just "Use wireless networks".
Can anyone help please
Is there any test I can do to check?

Here is a site that has the specs for the G510, and it does say that it supports GPS. Maybe there is a problem with the hardware on the device that the GPS chip doesn't work or something, and the software doesn't see the chip so it doesn't show the option.
You can try using the "Power Control" widget if you have it (i think its part of stock android). It has a toggle for GPS, and you can see if it lets you turn it on/off.


text:
App to automatically download and view a list of web pages offline
I have a very specific workflow that I can't find a simple solution for.
I want to be able to make a list of web pages to read offline. Not articles, whole web pages. And I want to keep them up-to-date.
I really want an app for Android (my phone: Galaxy S2) that does the following.

Lets me enter a list of webpages and maintain that list.
Hit a button in the app, and it'll update every page on that list and store a complete offline copy so I can pursue it while on the train.
Still maintain links, so I can click on them (so, no PDFs or whatever).
Optionally have the ability to set readable fonts.
Even better, if there was a way to export this list and modify it on my computer, share it, manipulate it etc. (or if there were a web serivce with an API).

My personal use case is very simple. I'm a Wikipedia administrator, and there are a variety of public noticeboards for discussions of interest to administrators, like the administrators' noticeboard and the usually drama-filled administrators' noticeboard for incidents. I'd say there's probably about 10-20 pages I want. I'd rather like it if I could get either my phone or iPad, wake up in the morning, push the "update" button, go brush my teeth and by the time I'm leaving for my commute, have all the pages up-to-date and readable on the train.
Answers you may suggest that are wrong up-front:

Instapaper/Readability/Read It Later: those are for saving things broadly like newspaper articles for later reading. They are optimized for extracting text. They are fantastic, but don't actually meet the use case.
Some combination of Evernote, Google Docs, AppleScript/Python/Ruby/Perl and sticky tape: I've got enough pain and broken software in my life already.
Anything involving RSS. Again, look at the links above. There are RSS feeds for individual changes to the page, but I'm interested in saving the whole page, not getting an RSS feed.

Basically what I'm looking for is an Android version of what they referred to as an "offline browser" back in the early days of the web. Is there such a thing that doesn't suck?

I originally asked this on SuperUser. Apparently, questions about Android software are out of scope on a site that allows questions on "computer hardware and software". I also am interested in iOS software that does the same thing - so I've asked on the Apple SE - http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/39381/ipad-app-to-automatically-download-and-view-a-list-of-web-pages-offline

App suggestions are generally off-topic on this site, but the general idea behind this question is quite useful - how to use offline browsing on Android.  If you can edit it to sound less like an app shopping request, it would be great.

Offline Browser app sounds exactly like what you are looking for.  You can specify a list of web pages to download for offline reading, along with a per-page configurable link depth (so that it doesn't just pull down the home page.)

Its too late, but might help somebody landing on this page. I using Android PaperSpan app for this and it downloads original whole page (no article/pdf). So can click on a link from  offline page if Internet is back. To read them on computer, I copy from phone to computer, then can read as any saved web page. Hope this helps.

How does this keep them up to date?


text:
How to check supported Bluetooth Profiles on Android device
How do I know which "Bluetooth Profiles" are available on my Android device?
Is there any terminal command to list all "Bluetooth Profiles" supported by Bluetooth Stack present in Android device?

With USB debugging enabled,
adb shell dumpsys bluetooth_manager | grep Profile`

Output on a Mi 10i is as follows:
Profile: GattService
Profile: HeadsetService
Profile: A2dpService
Profile: HidHostService
Profile: PanService
Profile: BluetoothMapService
Profile: HidDeviceService
Profile: BluetoothOppService
Profile: BluetoothPbapService
Profile: HearingAidService

Have you tried sdptool?
This link has sdptool command syntax. You can issue the command even from the ADB shell on your connected Android phone. But I guess this requires the other Bluetooth devices. But this will be good starting point for you.

sdptool is also available on linux. You could run it under linux to query the Bluetooth MAC of your Android device for available services/profiles

Enable developer options and then look under Settings > Developer Options for Bluetooth Audio Codec and tap that. That should give you the list of available codecs.
Here's mine:

Here is the official documentation for those options (check here first for the latest info).

Bluetooth Audio Codec: Adjust the sound quality (codec) of your devices by selecting one of the following codecs:

SBC: Transfers data to Bluetooth audio output devices such as
headphones and speakers.
AAC: Provides better sound quality from wired devices than MP3 at similar bit rates.
aptX: Provides a wireless sound in high-quality smartphones, speakers, soundbars, headphones, and tablets.
aptX HD: Provides high-resolution streaming to Bluetooth devices.
LDAC: Provides high-quality music listening over wireless connections.

It kinda describes each codec, but it's unfortunately not clear on what it means to select them.
I assume selecting one codec will force its use. (But what if a device doesn't support that one?) The default either always uses a static default setting (aptX on mine) (same question), or dynamically selects the best codec for the device and application.

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


text:
App installs result in "Process System Not Responding" message
After installing or updating an app in the newest version of the android market I receive the warning "Process System is not responding" with the option to either force close or wait. I choose "wait" and everything continues as normal. It's not a major issue just a mild annoyance, also it interferes with automatic updates.
I have tried fixing permissions, wiping dalvik cache, etc. but to no avail.
Has anyone else seen this issue? I have googled this problem but haven't found too many relevant threads.
I am running CM 7.1.0 android version 2.3.7 with Tiamat kernel 4.1.0.
Here is where I believe the timeout occured:
02-06 11:49:02.300 W/SharedBufferStack( 250): waitForCondition(LockCondition) timed out (identity=3, status=0). CPU may be pegged. trying again.
02-06 11:49:03.301 W/SharedBufferStack( 250): waitForCondition(LockCondition) timed out (identity=3, status=0). CPU may be pegged. trying again.
02-06 11:49:04.302 W/SharedBufferStack( 250): waitForCondition(LockCondition) timed out (identity=3, status=0). CPU may be pegged. trying again.
02-06 11:49:05.293 W/SharedBufferStack( 250): waitForCondition(LockCondition) timed out (identity=3, status=0). CPU may be pegged. trying again.
02-06 11:49:07.955 W/ActivityManager( 171): Timeout of broadcast BroadcastRecord{40b706d8 android.intent.action.PACKAGE_ADDED} - receiver=android.app.ActivityThread$ApplicationThr ead@40717ca0, started 10002ms ago
02-06 11:49:07.955 W/ActivityManager( 171): Receiver during timeout: ResolveInfo{40afb560 com.android.server.AppsLaunchFailureReceiver p=0 o=0 m=0x208000}
02-06 11:49:08.235 I/ActivityManager( 171): Start proc com.svox.pico for broadcast com.svox.pico/.VoiceDataInstallerReceiver: pid=2067 uid=10048 gids={}

Here is a longer log:
02-06 11:48:57.235 D/installd( 123): DexInv: --- END '/data/app/com.vevo-1.apk' (success) ---
02-06 11:48:57.245 D/PackageManager( 171): Registered content provider: com.vevo.SearchSuggestionsProvider, className = com.vevo.SearchSuggestionsProvider, isSyncable = false
02-06 11:48:57.245 D/PackageManager( 171): Providers: com.vevo.SearchSuggestionsProvider
02-06 11:48:57.245 D/PackageManager( 171): Services: com.vevo.services.VevoService
02-06 11:48:57.245 D/PackageManager( 171): Activities: com.vevo.Startup com.vevo.Home com.vevo.activities.VideosActivity com.vevo.MusicMapActivity com.vevo.QRCodeResultActivity com.vevo.ShareResult com.vevo.activities.RegistrationActivity com.vevo.PreferencesActivity com.vevo.activities.AboutActivity com.vevo.activities.ArtistsActivity com.vevo.activities.ViewArtistActivity com.vevo.PlaylistsActivity com.vevo.activities.MyPlaylistsActivity com.vevo.activities.ViewPlaylistActivity com.vevo.activities.WatchCompletionActivity com.vevo.activities.VevoWatchActivity com.vevo.FlashWatchActivity com.vevo.BrowserActivity com.vevo.activities.SearchResults
02-06 11:48:57.245 I/ActivityManager( 171): Force stopping package com.vevo uid=10144
02-06 11:48:57.435 I/installd( 123): move /data/dalvik-cache/data@app@com.vevo-1.apk@classes.dex -> /data/dalvik-cache/data@app@com.vevo-1.apk@classes.dex
02-06 11:48:57.445 D/PackageManager( 171): New package installed in /data/app/com.vevo-1.apk
02-06 11:48:57.965 D/szipinf ( 171): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:48:57.975 D/HomeLoaders( 273): application intent received: android.intent.action.PACKAGE_ADDED, replacing=false
02-06 11:48:57.975 D/HomeLoaders( 273): --> package:com.vevo
02-06 11:48:57.975 D/HomeLoaders( 273): --> add package
02-06 11:48:58.106 D/dalvikvm( 171): JIT code cache reset in 3 ms (1048556 bytes 1/0)
02-06 11:48:58.116 D/dalvikvm( 171): GC_EXPLICIT freed 1458K, 34% free 8594K/12935K, external 1828K/2161K, paused 98ms
02-06 11:48:58.126 D/Finsky ( 1999): [9] 1.packageInstalled: Package install status for "com.vevo" is 1
02-06 11:48:58.276 D/szipinf ( 171): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:48:59.247 D/szipinf ( 171): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:48:59.657 D/szipinf ( 317): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:48:59.657 D/szipinf ( 171): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:48:59.687 D/szipinf ( 171): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:48:59.707 D/szipinf ( 317): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:48:59.757 D/szipinf ( 171): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:48:59.777 D/szipinf ( 317): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:48:59.817 D/szipinf ( 171): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:48:59.917 D/szipinf ( 317): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:48:59.927 D/szipinf ( 317): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:49:00.067 D/szipinf ( 317): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:49:00.088 D/szipinf ( 317): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:49:00.148 D/szipinf ( 317): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:49:00.248 D/szipinf ( 317): Initializing inflate state
02-06 11:49:02.300 W/SharedBufferStack( 250): waitForCondition(LockCondition) timed out (identity=3, status=0). CPU may be pegged. trying again.
02-06 11:49:03.301 W/SharedBufferStack( 250): waitForCondition(LockCondition) timed out (identity=3, status=0). CPU may be pegged. trying again.
02-06 11:49:04.302 W/SharedBufferStack( 250): waitForCondition(LockCondition) timed out (identity=3, status=0). CPU may be pegged. trying again.
02-06 11:49:05.293 W/SharedBufferStack( 250): waitForCondition(LockCondition) timed out (identity=3, status=0). CPU may be pegged. trying again.
02-06 11:49:07.955 W/ActivityManager( 171): Timeout of broadcast BroadcastRecord{40b706d8 android.intent.action.PACKAGE_ADDED} - receiver=android.app.ActivityThread$ApplicationThr ead@40717ca0, started 10002ms ago
02-06 11:49:07.955 W/ActivityManager( 171): Receiver during timeout: ResolveInfo{40afb560 com.android.server.AppsLaunchFailureReceiver p=0 o=0 m=0x208000}
02-06 11:49:08.235 I/ActivityManager( 171): Start proc com.svox.pico for broadcast com.svox.pico/.VoiceDataInstallerReceiver: pid=2067 uid=10048 gids={}
02-06 11:49:08.265 I/Process ( 171): Sending signal. PID: 171 SIG: 3
02-06 11:49:08.265 I/dalvikvm( 171): threadid=4: reacting to signal 3
02-06 11:49:08.286 I/ActivityThread( 2067): Pub com.svox.pico.providers.SettingsProvider: com.svox.pico.providers.SettingsProvider
02-06 11:49:08.366 I/ActivityManager( 171): No longer want com.google.android.maps.mytracks (pid 1520): hidden #16
02-06 11:49:08.386 D/GTalkService( 292): handlePackageInstalled: re-initialize providers
02-06 11:49:08.386 D/GTalkService( 292): [RawStanzaProvidersMgr] ##### searchProvidersFromIntent
02-06 11:49:08.386 D/GTalkService( 292): [RawStanzaProvidersMgr] no intent receivers found
02-06 11:49:08.396 I/dalvikvm( 171): Wrote stack traces to '/data/anr/traces.txt'
02-06 11:49:08.396 I/Process ( 171): Sending signal. PID: 265 SIG: 3
02-06 11:49:08.396 I/dalvikvm( 265): threadid=4: reacting to signal 3
02-06 11:49:08.396 I/ActivityManager( 171): Start proc com.google.android.partnersetup for broadcast com.google.android.partnersetup/.AppInstalledReceiver: pid=2075 uid=10015 gids={}

If you can consistently reproduce this problem, I suggest retrieving the system log and cut/pasting the areas around the time you get an "Application Not Responding" error here to help us troubleshoot this for you.  You will need Android SDK with USB drivers installed on your PC, or a stand-alone app like aLogCat from the Market: https://market.android.com/details?id=org.jtb.alogcat

Yes I can consistently reproduce it. I added the logs above. Thanks! :)

You mention clearing all the big caches, but have you also tried clearing the Market/Play app's cache? I recently had a similar problem, cleared the app cache and then everything came back to normal.

@Vapen Did the last hint solve your problem? Would be nice to know if this question found a solution (it's currently still tagged as "unsolved").

As there's no response to all the hints from the OP (or other people having the problem), I'd recommend to close this question as "too localized".


text:
Home screens maxed out (oops)... now I can't edit?
Someone was playing with my coworker's Samsung Galaxy Gio (Froyo), and added an eighth home screen. Now hitting Settings->Edit makes the phone crash, as does minimizing (pinching) on any home screen - in other words, there is no way to jump between home screens or delete the four or five screens she has no use for.
I'm thinking a home screen launcher app would be a workaround, but is there any way to actually recover her original home screen setup?

Adding additional home screens is not a stock Android feature so I can't comment specifically, but clearing data for the launcher application should work.
Settings → Applications → Manage applications → Launcher (might be named differently) → Clear data
You will lose your current home screen configuration, of course, but this should take care of the crashes and allow rebuilding it.
Any method for fixing the actual problem without losing the data will necessarily be specific to that particular launcher application, and it sounds like you've tried to find that sort of thing already.

It'll almost certainly be called "TwLauncher" on a Samsung (short for TouchWiz their customized launcher that allows you to change the number of home screens).


text:
How to clear all applications data in android?
Hi I want to clear all applications data(preferences and sqlite) from my phone in one tap.
How can i do this? is there any app which can do this WITHOUT ROOT PERMISSION?

You can do factory reset under such case.
Go to Settings -> SD & Phone storage -> Factory data reset.
I don't think an app without root can do it as apps are limited in their own sandbox.

If you mean clearing all app and user data on the phone, you can do a factory reset via Settings -> Privacy -> Factory data reset. Note that this erases all data on the phone, not just app data.

If you need a fresh phone, reboot in recovery mode and select wipe data. It will format your /cache and /data partitions. Then no data will be there other than your SD card.

You can try 1Tap cleaner : https://market.android.com/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.acc.free&hl=en . It works on non rooted devices.
EDIT:
Try Clean Master . It scans the memory card for large cache file that you can delete altogether.

unluckily this only clear the cache files.I am looking for erasing data files.

No you cant.
But if you decided to root
These are the steps

Root your device
Install xposed framework app
Install gravitybox module app
Reboot device .

Get all these downloads by google.
Just type app name and your android version.

Could you link the apps?


text:
Swype delete key problem
I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 with the latest firmware an a preinstalled Swype on it.
The problem I have, is in the standard email application when using swype keyboard and trying to delete a character, it will append the word again and so it's impossible to delete a word. For example: I type Test, then hit the backspace button and it results in TesTest.
My question is now, can I solve this problem without having to root the phone in order to reinstall swype?

Addition: My android version is 2.3.5, my firware version I9100BOKJ1.

Do you have an ICS rom installed? I have that same issue with T9 keyboard on the Galaxy Nexus. I reported the issue to Nuance but they claimed the T9 doesn't support ICS.
You can fix it by holding down the backspace key until the whole field is cleared, then switch to a non-sliding keyboard to enter the info in the To: field.

This is good information, but I would guess that the OP doesn't have ICS installed since the question does ask: can I solve this problem without having to root the phone (implying a currently unrooted phone).

@eldarerathis: That's right. I have added some info above.

@gadzooks64: See info above. You are right, I can delete the whole word by holding backspace long enough (which is very long).


text:
ClockworkMod Recovery pops up during phone turn on
When I turn on my Galaxy S2 phone, ClockworkMod Recovery v4.0.0.2 pops up with the list of options,
1- reboot system now
2- apply update from sdcard
3- wipe  data/factory reset
4- wipe cache partition
5- install zip from sdcard
6- backup and restore
7- mounts and storage
8- advanced
9- power off

I am unable to figure out a way to turn on my phone. I am new to this so can you help in suggesting a way to access my phone? Every time I reboot the same ClockworkMod screen pops up.

Fixed it by rooting the phone with a different kernel version. Installing in appropriate kernel was the reason for this problem.

can you elaborate?


text:
How can I make silent mode affect media volume too?
Silent mode is simple to toggle quickly and easily, but it only effects ringtone volume. I want it to work for media volume too, so I can use it to quickly toggle off game audio in public places. Is this possible? Or is there another simple solution? I have a Google Experience phone, so manufacturer-custom UI elements are no help.

Related Is there a one-click widget to make my phone completely silent?

RealSilent may do the trick for you:
Battery-friendly background service that will automatically mute
the media volume on your phone when you change the ringer to silent.

Features:
- Ability to mute on silent mode, as well as vibrate.
- Ability to restore media volume to what it was before going to silent/vibrate.

There's a bug report for this issue, but it hasn't been acknowledged by Google.

Pulled from the app store although it still works on the latest Android version.  Here is a github backup link

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

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


text:
How to stream audio from PC to Android Device over Bluetooth
I have a rooted Android Device running Android 2.3 Gingerbread and a PC(with Bluetooth dongle) running windows 7.
My mobile has Bluetooth with A2DP support. I want to output the audio(not just music) of my PC to my Android Device over Bluetooth. i.e. I want my android device to work as an Audio Output Device(like headset) for my PC.
How to do it?

Did I understand correctly, you want music from the PC to be played on Android?

@Secko: Right. Its audio, not just music

Possible duplicate of: Can an Android phone be used as a Bluetooth headset/speakers?

Dev0 and hello are correct - no you cannot connect using your Android device as a A2DP sink given the standard Android bluetooth stack. Stack Overflow user Dennis Mathews explains why:

You may not be able to [create an A2DP connection] manually between 2 phones also because to stream one device needs to be A2DP sink and other A2DP source; phones are typically only source devices (source of the stream that can stream to sink devices), sinks are headsets or Bluetooth speakers.

He and the OP briefly discuss options for replacing the stack but their conversation dies without a concrete answer...as it seems several other similar questions around the web do. XDA user zelendel, in general, isn't very hopeful about the matter - when asked if it was possible to replace the bluetooth stack he responded:

Simple answer is no. You can try a CM based rom that gives you those options but the stacks can't be swapped due to driver problems. It is a give and take. The Default has better strength and range but is missing a few unneeded option (PO), while CM uses Bluz stack which gives you the option but you lose some BT signal strength and range.

Sorry, it seems to me you're out of luck.

It is not possible via Bluetooth on Android, only from phone to PC, not from PC to phone.
But here are some solutions you may be able to use:

The easiest way to do it is using SoundWire.

Another way to do it is to use Splashtop remote, which uses your WiFi or 3G to remote control your PC and sends high-quality audio and video to your phone, but if you are on 3G it can use a lot of data, so it can get expensive.

The next thing is to use the AirBubble app and Airfoil to stream audio from PC to Android device.

Great! SoundWire is really useful for Linux laptop. Go to http://georgielabs.net/

I found this developer's technique https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15557933/receive-audio-via-bluetooth-in-android to accomplish this, although he says it can't be done with an app.  I am not a developer, but if this works maybe someone can find a workaround that could allow an app to accomplish the required changes at least on a rooted phone.
I think it is pretty clear why this feature is not available, it is just another way of stopping us copying copyrighted material, although there are still plenty of ways to do it which are actually more convenient than streaming would be.

SoundIt does just that, but over wifi.
It lets you stream the sound output of your PC to any web browser so you can stream to any phone or even another PC.
You can stream to multiple devices at the same time and control each device's volume output remotely.

There is also effort to create Android audio receptor for VBAN protocol from VB-Audio company. Once it is out it should be best thing you can get hands on latency-wise.

2017-03:
The VBAN receptor for Android has been released. However it is utilizing UDP, not Bluetooth.

You can attach a Bluetooth receiver device to your phone, available on Amazon thus your phone will receive Bluetooth audio.
Now, if you want to attach both headphones and this device, attach a splitter to the audio jack. This is my suggestion.

On win10/11, enable bluetooth.
In Network & internet settings:

Airplane mode - Wireless devices - enable bluetooth
Mobile hotspot - enable Share my Internet connection with other devices.
pair your phone with PC
In phones bluetooth settings you should see on your PC device option to enable internet access, so enable it.
Use any app(AudioRelay, SoundWire, Wireless speaker for android, ... ) which can stream audio using wifi...the point is, you will be using wifi/wifi direct IP adress over your bluetooth internet connection you enabled on step 4. On both PC and phone you can have wifi turned OFF and it will work :).


text:
Apply manual update on Xoom without an OTG cable
So the ICS update came out for Xoom and applying it is straight forward enough - pretty much like in any other case. Except, it seems to require the OTG cable.
Would anybody know a way to do that without using such cable? I mean, applying the patch either from the internal memory or from the sd mount?

From what I have read, the Xoom will not update from a update.zip file from an SD card/internal storage. Without the cable you will have to wait for an OTA update.

In case it's a matter of not having a cable, you can buy one on ebay for less than US $1 (with shipping)

If you live in non-US country, then you can follow a guide for installing the US-based ICS on you Xoom that I've written up on my blog. The basic procedure is:

Install Android SDK and Motorola USB drivers on your PC
Download US honeycomb stock ROM from here
Extract all files from this ZIP file into platform-tools folder under Android SDK
Boot the device into fastboot mode.
Then from command prompt (with current directory ‘sdk/platform-tools’) run following commands-

fastboot oem unlock  (this is red pill, at this point your device warranty voids! welcome to matrix!!)
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
fastboot erase cache

now reboot the device
go to settings -> about -> update, this will download subsequent ROM update and will install it, and then reboot
repeat step-7 until all updates are done (will normally need 4-5 update cycles)

Note that it will void your device warranty

I've edited your post to indicate that the website you linked to is your own blog. Please note the FAQ section on self-promotion in the future. Also note that I've summarized the basic premise of your blog post here. Answers with unexplained links are considered less useful due to linkrot and the like, so providing a summary rather than simply a link is preferred.

For anyone following this, note that the first step in step 5 (unlocking the bootloader) will likely wipe your device, make sure that you back up any data you care about on your device first.

Which version of the Xoom do you have? Motorola have so far only released an ICS update for the US Wifi version of the Xoom (the 3G version and the International version use different firmware and haven't had the update yet, applying this update to those models may harm them).
If you do have a US Wifi Xoom then Motorola are already actively pushing this update out and have been doing this in batches since 24th Jan. If your device is regularly connected to the internet and hasn't automatically picked up the update yet, then you can force it to go and check by going into Settings -> About tablet and selecting System updates it should then go and check for you.
In the future, if you want to have a chance of getting Xoom updates early, you can join the official Motorola Feedback Network, members of that group did reportedly get the ICS update a few weeks earlier than everyone else. Join it by signing up at the Motorola Forums and selecting the "Motorola Feedback Network" option.
If you do want to do this manual update, then you can pick up a USB OTG (aka Host Mode USB cable) very cheaply on eBay, I got one for connecting my camera to the Xoom for a couple of pounds, including postage from Hong Kong!

I do have a Wifi Xoom, though is the UK version (MZ604). Since you used "pounds" to get your OTG cable, I'd assume you are the same. Did you try the update? (Seen in a page from motorola, but can't find it now, anyway they didn't show any plan to update us to ICS OTA)

@flpgdt the non-US version is different, has slightly different software loaded and uses different drivers. The US version is a "Google Experience Device" the International ones aren't, this is why we've got some Motorola and other software pre-loaded (MotoPrint, Citrix Receiver, etc) and also why write access to our SD card was fixed before it was on the US version. I haven't tried the update on mine, as I've seen such mixed success from people trying US updates on their non-US Xooms with previous updates, as well as losing functionality (like the SD Card) when they put the US image on.

Hm.. I see. found this article might be of use. Although it requires to install US version, later you'd get ICS, which I reckon would make it up. http://futureproof10.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/motorola-xoom-wi-fi-mz604-ice-cream-sandwich-4-0-3-ota-update-in-non-us-countries/


text:
Stolen phone: is changing your GMail password enough?
My Galaxy phone got stolen today. Of course I blocked my SIM card and changed my password for GMail (and went to the police) but is this enough?  Could the person that stole my phone still log in to my market and download stuff?  Not sure what the deal is for that and I'm really freaking out about how much this person could possibly do with my phone.
Also about the payment: I never bought any apps (I only downloaded free ones).  How does this payment work? Is that also blocked if your SIM card is blocked?
And is there a way to delete "My Market" account?

possible duplicate of Is there a way to block access to or wipe my Google data for a lost/stolen phone

You should also look into setting up 2-factor authentication. With this you control what accesses your Google accounts (computers, devices, websites) and can revoke access with a click of a link. http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=guide.cs&guide=1056283

You should check out Lookout's Plan B app. It lets you find your phone after it is lost.
I would recommend using Seekdroid or Where's my Droid in the future.

In addition to changing the password, you should go to the market on the web and "deactivate the device."

There has never been any way to do this on the Market's website. You can hide devices from the menus but you cannot remove them from your account unless this has changed very recently.


text:
Improving Galaxy Nexus's audio quality
I found out about this website through androidguys.com and I'm giving it a first shot. :)
I remember when I had my Fascinate which is Samsung Galaxy S, I had Voodoo Sound Control app which helped to improve the sound quality tremendously. So you can imagine my surprise that when I got my Galaxy Nexus(Verizon), the app wasn't supporting it.
My question is, will we ever get Voodoo Control support? It's been awhile since the phone came out but the app didn't get updated yet. This led me to assume that it's either impossible or the developer dropped its support. If it will not get Voodoo Control, what other choices are there?
I'm currently using Volume+ and have tried PowerAMP, Neutron, and PlayerPro. All these do are some EQ and volume increase. They have nothing to do with hardware level sound modification.

It seems that Voodoo Sound Control on your Fascinate/SGS worked because of three different pieces - the preinstalled Voodoo Control app, a specific digital to audio controller, and a kernel that can allow the two to communicate. As best I can tell the Galaxy Nexus doesn't have the correct DAC nor a kernal that would allow the controller app to work. Sorry, it seems you're stuck with EQ apps for sound quality.
My suggestion at this point, if you're needing more volume from your phone, would be to look into external powered amps.


text:
If I install a leaked ROM on my device will I be able to receive OTA updates?
Specifically, I'm interested in flashing a leaked build of Ice Cream Sandwich on my Nexus S 4G. I'd like to get in on the action early, but this is something I'd like to know.

If you are installing a custom ROM that is not a "carrier leak" then you probably will no longer receive OTA notifications/updates.
In the custom ROMs they remove the OTA settings that the carriers use. I don't know exactly what is changed/removed, but I can't even tell you the last time I have had an OTA notification.
But if you use tools like ClockWorkMod Rom Manager you can get notifications for updates to the ROM you install if it is added to Rom Manager by the developers. This is how I get my update notifications for CyanogenMod.


text:
Check what storage an app uses?
Is there a way to check what storage a third party application is using? i.e  which of these it uses?

If you are rooted, this is quite easy to find out.
First you need to find the app's package name, e.g. com.swype.android.inputmethod for Swype, or com.google.android.apps.maps for Google Maps, for example.  You can usually search for the app in Android Market, and the link will contain its package name, e.g. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.maps would be the link to Google Maps.  Usually the package names are descriptive enough that you can simply guess which app they represent just by looking at it.
You can do a few simple ls commands in Terminal Emulator or ADB shell to find out the app's name, and where it's stored.  However, you will need to have root access to the device since app and data storage is protected.
Pre-installed apps are generally located in /system/app directory.  Use the command ls -l /system/app/ to find how much space a particular system app is taking up:
ls -l /system/app/Browser.*
-rw-r--r-- root     root               418098 2011-06-26 01:05 Browser.apk
-rw-r--r-- root     root               472760 2011-06-26 01:05 Browser.odex

On most Stock ROMs you will see an .odex file along with a .apk file for each app - those are pre-compiled binaries optimized for your given device.  You cannot remove them.
3rd-party apps are installed to /data/app or /data/app-private directories.  Command ls -l /data/app/[package_name_here]* should return the amount of space taken up by this app on internal memory.  For example, here's the output of looking at Google Maps apk:
# ls -l /data/app/com.google.android.apps.maps*
ls -l /data/app/com.google.android.apps.maps*
-rw-r--r-- system   system            6330104 2012-02-04 09:01 com.google.android.apps.maps-2.apk

The app data and settings are located on /data/data/ partition.  There you will find a directory for each installed app, e.g. /data/data/com.google.android.apps.maps/ for preferences and settings related to the Google Maps app.  Again, ls -l /data/data/com.google.android.apps.maps/* will return a listing of all files with their sizes:
# ls -l /data/data/com.google.android.apps.maps/*
ls -l /data/data/com.google.android.apps.maps/*
-rw------- app_189  app_189              3783 2012-02-07 11:29 mobilemaps.clients.google.com.443
-rw------- app_189  app_189                37 2012-02-01 16:14 nlp_GlsPlatformKey
-rw------- app_189  app_189               208 2012-02-07 11:21 macs
drwxrwx--x app_189  app_189                     2012-02-01 16:14 webviewCache
-rw------- app_189  app_189              2450 2012-02-07 11:21 nlp_state
drwx------ app_189  app_189                     2012-02-01 16:14 selectors
-rw------- app_189  app_189               290 2012-02-07 11:21 nlp_devices
drwx------ app_189  app_189                     2012-02-01 16:14 models
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             18432 2012-02-03 13:29 google_analytics.db
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              5120 2012-02-07 10:38 google_latitude.db
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              6144 2012-02-01 16:14 webviewCache.db
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              5120 2012-02-05 17:27 local_active_places.db
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              4096 2012-02-05 17:27 da_destination_history
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              5120 2012-02-05 17:49 LayerInfo
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              5120 2012-02-05 17:26 search_history.db
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              6144 2012-02-03 13:29 userfeedback.db
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             14336 2012-02-01 16:14 webview.db
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                38 2012-02-07 11:13 DATA_SYNC_DATA_LOCAL
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_145479516184369608
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_4406538396446325405
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              1813 2012-02-05 13:48 DATA_PROTO_CLIENT_SAVED_PHOTO_CACHE
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189               338 2012-02-06 23:41 DATA_TILE_HISTORY
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                12 2012-02-05 17:49 DATA_SAVED_REMOTE_ICONS_DATA_BLOCK
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             36580 2012-02-01 16:14 DATA_RemoteStringsBlock_en
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_240647554975296207
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_443613581827136957
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              5620 2012-02-05 17:49 DATA_SAVED_BGFS_3
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                57 2012-02-05 17:49 DATA_STARRING
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189               573 2012-02-05 10:04 NavZoomTables.data
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_-7991748045000310303
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189               217 2012-02-05 15:29 DATA_LAYER_4
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:14 DATA_PHOTO_-4352347968798340772
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_-1960244636679913737
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_7546641620697631512
-rw------- app_189  app_189                34 2012-02-07 11:21 nlp_clts
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              2492 2012-02-07 11:30 DATA_location_history
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                11 2012-02-01 16:14 DATA_LAYER_0
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              1186 2012-02-01 16:14 ZoomTables.data
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                11 2012-02-05 17:49 DATA_SAVED_BGFS_EXTRA_3
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             18994 2012-02-05 17:49 DATA_PROTO_SAVED_CATEGORY_TREE_DB
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189               247 2012-02-05 17:49 event_store_v2_driveabout
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              5294 2012-02-05 10:05 DA_LayerInfo
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189               380 2012-02-05 16:23 DATA_LAYER_5
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             11387 2012-02-05 17:49 DATA_SYNC_DATA
-rw------- app_189  app_189                35 2012-02-07 11:21 cp_state
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_-6319433669272599441
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                76 2012-02-01 16:14 DATA_ServerControlledParametersManager.data
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_-4787236618283354619
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                57 2012-02-01 16:14 DATA_star_details_index
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_-7325828578927889496
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                76 2012-02-05 17:27 DATA_ServerControlledParametersManager_DA.data
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_-5041077772587057686
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                42 2012-02-05 17:26 DATA_PROTO_SAVED_RECENT_LAYERS
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                21 2012-02-05 10:04 DATA_SAVED_BGSF_
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189               263 2012-02-05 11:30 DATA_LAYER_2
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                26 2012-02-01 16:14 NavigationParameters.data
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189               330 2012-02-05 17:27 DA_DirOpt_en_US
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_-4817178430903221341
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_8476874153932292760
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189            141298 2012-02-05 17:27 DATA_Restrictions
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                29 2012-02-05 17:49 DATA_PROTO_SAVED_LAYER_STATE
-rw------- app_189  app_189                61 2012-02-01 16:14 nlp_params
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                 0 2012-02-05 17:27 DATA_Restrictions_lock
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             26756 2012-02-01 16:31 DATA_PHOTO_8041021750103678571
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189             10237 2012-02-03 13:28 DATA_star_details_0
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                 6 2012-02-05 17:49 DATA_RECENT
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              5048 2012-02-06 23:41 DATA_Preferences
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                65 2012-02-01 16:14 network_initiated_prefs.xml
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                65 2012-02-01 16:14 friends_app_widget_preferences.xml
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189              1269 2012-02-01 16:14 ids.xml
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189               250 2012-02-03 13:27 settings_preference.xml
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189                65 2012-02-01 16:14 cache_settings_preference.xml
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189               358 2012-02-07 11:28 checkin_notification_preferences.xml
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189               119 2012-02-01 16:14 com.google.android.apps.maps_preferences.xml
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189               345 2012-02-05 17:49 DriveAbout.xml
-rw-rw---- app_189  app_189               317 2012-02-07 10:38 LOCATION_REPORTING.xml

Android 2.2 (Froyo) introduced the ability to move apps to SD card (or "external storage" on some devices).  This introduces a level of complexity since portions of the app get moved around.  For every app that you move to SD Card/media area, the system creates a virtual mount point named /dev/block/dm-X, where "X" is a sequential number.  It them moves the app's APK (Android package) file and some preferences there.  You can view this by issuing a mount command in shell/terminal emulator.  Along with other usual mounts, it should show which apps were moved to SD Card like in an example below:
/dev/block/dm-0 /mnt/asec/com.metago.astro-1 vfat ro,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,fmask=0222,dmask=0222,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/block/dm-1 /mnt/asec/com.a0soft.gphone.aTrackDog-1 vfat ro,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,fmask=0222,dmask=0222,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0

Here I moved Astro file manager and aTrackDog apps to the SD Card on my phone.  Use ls /mnt/asec/ to view the directories created for the moved apps.  Issuing command ls -l /mnt/asec/* will list the file sizes within those folders:
# ls -l -a /mnt/asec/*
ls -l -a /mnt/asec/*
-r-xr-xr-x system   root               332826 2012-02-07 11:21 pkg.apk
dr-xr-xr-x system   root                        2012-02-07 11:21 lib
-r-xr-xr-x system   root              2363522 2012-02-07 11:18 pkg.apk
dr-xr-xr-x system   root                        2012-02-07 11:18 lib

The wrapper for the virtual partition gets stored inside a hidden ".android_secure" folder of the SD Card:
# ls -a -l /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure
ls -a -l /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure
----rwxr-x system   sdcard_rw          4290560 2012-02-07 11:18 com.metago.astro-1.asec
----rwxr-x system   sdcard_rw          2161664 2012-02-07 11:21 com.a0soft.gphone.aTrackDog-1.asec

Once moved the app's APK will no longer be under /data/app/ or /data/app-private/ folders.
Another area of interest is Dalvik Cache - an area that contains cached data for each installed app.  Upon first boot-up or new app installation the system generates a .dex file for each app that it uses for quicker start-up.  These files are stored on /data/dalvik-cache/ partition.  Command ls -l /data/dalvik-cache/*[package_name_here]* will return the space taken up by the app's Dalvik cache.  For example, here's how much space is taken up by Google Maps app:
# ls -l /data/dalvik-cache/*com.google.android.apps.maps*
ls -l /data/dalvik-cache/*com.google.android.apps.maps*
-rw-r--r-- system   app_189           4406016 2012-02-04 09:01 data@app@com.google.android.apps.maps-2.apk@classes.dex

Next, the /cache partition of the internal memory may be used by apps.  The command ls -l /cache/ will show you all files stored there, along with sizes and owner information.  For example, on my phone here's the output:
# ls -l /cache/
ls -l /cache/
-rw-r--r-- app_13   app_13            3640954 2012-02-07 09:16 downloadfile-1.apk
drwxrwx--- system   cache                       2011-12-31 21:03 recovery
drwxrwx--- root     root                        2011-12-31 21:00 lost+found

Besides the standard directories, there is a file named downloadfile-1.apk that belongs to something named "app_13".  I can cross-reference this "app_13" name to the listing of ls -l /data/data/ to see that this file belongs to Android's built-in downloader:
# ls -l /data/data/
ls -l /data/data/
......
drwxr-x--x app_13   app_13                      2011-12-31 21:02 com.android.providers.downloads.ui
......

Finally, apps can use the SD Card for their own purposes, and there is really no way to track this, unless the app names its folders something recognizable.

You can also use the find command to locate various pieces of the app on your device: find / -name *[package_name_here*, for example find / -name *com.metago.astro* to find all portions of Astro app, and then do the ls -l on each located piece.

This is a fantastic write up. Thanks for including so many examples!

The du utility is also handy for this purpose.  For example du -skd 1 /data/data | sort -nr will list off all the apps' data folders (but not the individual files) neatly sorted from largest to smallest.

Chahk's answer really deserves more attention, great answer.
I would however recommend the app DiskUsage, which gives a better visualization of used space. For the best features, root is recommended, but not strictly needed.

DiskUsage doesn't require root. I use it myself, and my devices are most definitely not rooted.

@Al Everett You are correct, I have edited to better reflect that. You can use DiskUsage for /sdcard/ and /storage/extSdCard without root, but if you want to poke around in the OS folders, then root is needed. Most importantly, /data/ (which houses /sdcard). See This answer


text:
Google Voice missing from app drawer after upgrading to ICS
I upgraded from 2.3 a few months ago, but didn't notice that Google Voice was missing from the  app drawer. The market lists the application as installed, but does not give me an option to open the app.

How do I get it back?

If you to Settings --> Apps --> All, is it in the list of applications?  If so, click on it, click Uninstall, and then try to reinstall it from the market.
It's also possible that the market is incorrectly showing it as installed.  If this is the case, try going to Settings --> Apps --> All --> Market, click Force Stop, then Clear data.  The open the market again and see if Google Voice is still listed as installed, and if not, install it.

I looked up the Market and found that there was no data to clear. But I was able to uninstall an update to the market, which I did. Restarted the Market and found GV pending an update. All was well after the update to GV. Thanks for your tip.

Check the app drawer again -- it's listed (alphabetically) under "Voice", not "Google Voice".


text:
Is it possible to permanently supress app updates?

Possible Duplicate:
How to hide updates from market?

I've been using a certain app for some time now, but according to the many 1-star reviews the latest "update" has got, it breaks compatibility with Tasker, which is not something I want.
Is there a way to at least temporarily remove the regular update notifications I receive, or stop the app appearing at the top of my update list every time?
Using Nexus S with official 4.0.3.

You can use Titanium backup for this purpose.
However you'll need root access for this to work.
From this Titanium backup wiki:

Can I tell the Market that I do not want to update a specific app?
Yes. Just long-click on an app in the Titanium Backup list and hit
"Detach from Market".

Unfortunately I'm not rooted, but this may be a good reason to make the jump!

One of the good reasons :)


text:
Android audio input
I know that on the iPhone you can plug in your guitar and other audio devices but can you do this on Android? Can any recording application do this?

This question should not be tagged with "input-method", as it's about audio input and not text input.

The headphone jack of many android devices will accept audio input.  A few caveats:

Audio input using this method is mono only.
This will vary by device as some may not accept audio input, and others simply don't have headphone jacks.  If a particular device came with a headset with a built-in mic, odds are it will accept audio input.
This method does not support the use of an external mic while recording video.
You'll need to use a special adapter that will split the input/output of the jack.  Something like this or the adapter mentioned here would probably work.

It seems like audio input through USB would be possible, but this feature request suggests it isn't yet implemented.


text:
Why WEP wifi network is not found by SK17i?
I cannot to connect to a school wifi network. When I go to wi-fi settings the phone shows all the unencrypted networks and the WPA encrypted networks. But this network is encrypted with WEP.
Any clue where's the problem?
All the issues I googled are that the network is visible, but the connection fails. In my case the network is NOT visible.
From my PC the connection to that network works fine.
I can NOT access the configuration of the router. (E.g.: Change the encryption to WPA.)
My phone is Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro (SK17i). Android version 2.3.4.

Is the wifi network running in a frequency band that the phone doesn't support, perhaps (like a 5GHz band)?

Or maybe in different channel like 14?

Right now I checked: Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)

Any progress made? It's more than a year ago meanwhile, and no updates on this issue...

Not really. I just got Internet from another source.


text:
Answering Machine on Android
Playing audio to telephony uplink is possible, but the microphone input data is also transmitted.

How to switch off microphone on Android devices?
Is there a possibility to play audio to telephony uplink while call on mute?

possible duplicate of How can I play an audio recording over an open phone conversation?

@GATHrawn,
NO,the suggested solution is related to recording which in fact quite opposite to Answering machine feature.

The question is about playing back a piece of pre-recorded audio over the phone conversation, which is exactly point 2 of your question. Currently the only answer (which hasn't been accepted) is giving a workaround of playing pre-recorded audio whilst letting the inbuilt microphone pick it up during a call. It's not a good solution, but it is a solution. Things may have changed since that answer was posted June, if so anyone is welcome to post another answer which the OP could accept. Disregarding any answers that question is still very, very similar to this one.

well more precise, point 2: is all about playing an audio to uplink while MIC on Mute.. Recording is w.r.t to Downlink/MIC which is not the case here. please note that Playing and recording are two different issues here while point 2 just playing.And Recording(MIC/Downlik only) which is indeed achievable via android API on some hardware.

The other question isn't about recording, it's about playing "a recording", i.e., an audio file.  You're right that the other question doesn't mention anything about muting the mic, though, so I think they are fine to stay separate.  I'd encourage you to answer the other question, since it sounds like you've discovered how to play audio over the call without using the mic.

Thx Mr.Read, I have updated the other question with answer hope thats help. although its 8 months old post hope someone finds useful.

if you mean via code, you can mute the microphone with AudioManager setMicrophoneMute(boolean on) but this is not a development site and I don't know if you can still stream (like you posted in the linked question) when the mic is muted or not. if you do mean via code, then this question should be moved to stack overflow.

Not via code. any 3rd party app or any settings on device,

I have been developing my own answer machine application and hit two major stumbling blocks. One is that setMicrophoneMute(boolean on) simply doesn't work. And the other issue is playing an audio greeting down the phone line.
This isn't possible due to hardware restrictions and it doesn't even work if the microphone is switched on and the audio is played through the speakers.

Have you found the solution ?

@mark Have you found the solution?

@Jack - it's possible, but both cases require rooted ROMs to work, thus one of them (ALSA-based) depends on Qualcomm chipsets.

@Hunt, wondering what you have found in that time

Are there any news?


text:
Android Market is not opening on Samsung galaxy GT-P7500
When I try to open the Market on my Samsung Galaxy GT-P7500 it shows the following dialog:

Your client is out of date.  It will be automatically updated shortly.

Does anyone know the solution to this problem?

I got that one day last week. Closing the market and waiting a few minutes seemed to cure it at that time. Have you actually closed the Market (come out of it using the Back button) rather than switching away from it with the Home or Applications buttons?


text:
Galaxy Nexus restarts non-stop before completely booting
I'm aware of the suddenly restarts of the Galaxy Nexus, but in my case it restarts before managing to boot completely and it does that in a non-stop loop. It happened while my phone was on a stand by mode and now I can't do much, so it is basically useless.
Is there anything I can do about it. Is it possible to reset it somehow? I tried to remove the battery, charge it and all that kind of stuff that I could do, but no luck so far.
I bought it through Amazon.com and the model is Samsung I9250 Galaxy Nexus 16GB (Unlocked), but I'm in Europe so warranty is something that would take sometime I guess.
Update: I also tried to follow these instructions but my computer cannot find the device. I'm stack in the ODIN MODE, Do Not Turn Off Target if I do the trick with the volume down button, otherwise it just restarts without completing the initial colorful effect. Any ideas?

I would unlock the bootloader, and flash a new image...
You can find all the information you need on this page:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1392310
Hope you found my answer helpful :)

I would like to have the original Google's ROM.. I haven't go through the article yet.. but is it going to work without me being able to start the phone?

You should be able to push the new image to the phone through fastboot mode.. If you can come in fastboot mode, its is almost always possible to save it...

And google image is possible to find here:
http://code.google.com/android/nexus/images.html
It is google which have uploaded them :)

Are you Danish? If so i can probably better help you on Androidforum DK, where i'm a mod. I have also translated the Toolkit into danish if you need it, right here:

Sorry, here is the link :)
http://androidforum.dk/showthread.php?8690-Opdateret-Samsung-Galaxy-Nexus-Toolkit-1-klik-s-unlock-root-og-recovery-metode&p=49162#post49162

And i have a wuistion on my own, if someone maybe could answer it for me? http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/19368/how-do-i-use-a-external-microphone-on-my-galaxy-nexus-to-video-recording

Thanks dev0 for all the info.. I'll deal with that soon most likely following that post, but not over the weekend :) I'm in denmark but I don't speak danish and we'll find a solution it would be nice to have here a canonical answer as well!

Okay great :)
I wil try and look in this thread every day, so if you need anymore help, i will properly be here :)
Have a nice weekend

It looks like I'm on brick mode.. :( I also tried to do that (https://plus.google.com/107538503004482952974/posts/K8wozE8zhzq).. but my computer refuses to recognize the device.. I'm stack on the odin mode. do not turn off target If I'm going to do the trick with the volume down key, otherwise it just restarts before completing the colorful effect during boot :(

Have you installed the drivers on your pc? The tool need the drivers, before it can recognize your device...

No luck.. I tried to follow the stuff with the ToolKit but didn't manage to restart/unlock or root or whatever... somehow windows recognized the device but I couldn't do much regarding that.. the ToolKit wouldn't find it.. :( I'll give you the bounty.. but I still have a brick :) Any idea if I could just go to my company's retail shop and ask them if they could do something about it even though I didn't buy it from denmark?

You can get it fixed in denmark, by Telecare, but it will cost money...
Are you sure you have installed the USB driver correctly on the computer? Via PDANet the¨ software

Via the PDANet software?

Something might have overwritten some files needed during boot.
Go into recovery and do a factory reset. Yes this is the same thing as factory reset in the Settings but the difference is that you dont need to boot the OS to do it.
There is usually a button combination you press to get into recovery. Google it for your device. Once you factory reset, try again.
WARNING: Factory Reset will wipe all user data on your device. Sorry.
If you reboot and everything is working, then it was your user data.
If you reboot and the same thing happens, then that means your actual system is corrupted. This means like dev0 said, you have to flash a new image or send it in for warranty.
Just because you flash a new image, doesnt mean you cant get a stock rom image. Chances are, someone on XDA has a stock ROM image that is exactly the same system as when you first got it. People have these images in the event someone wants to go from a custom ROM or version of Android to stock.
So yeah, follow dev0's links and advice. Rooting and unlocking the bootloader might void your warranty so find out before you do it though!

Can't do much.. the phone is not recognized by the computer :( read my last comment from dev0's answer

Hmm I just googled this. It doesn't help but helps me :) Now I wont do a default factory setting on my Galaxy Nexus. Clicky.
You can try this page if it has the same functionality as Samsung Galaxy S

Nope.. no help ;)

Do you use Cyanogen ROM? If so, try other roms such as MIUI.
I had this problem exactly as you on my Nexus S with Cyanogen and after migrating to MIUI all the reboots, booting animation loops, shuting downs on standby and etc. gone.

I have a similar issue with my Galaxy Note after installing a lot of apps and filling up the 32GB SD card. I haven't managed to figure out what exactly the problem is, maybe it is totally different (since there are different Android versions).
Anyway, I'd start by removing the SD card, but Nexus doesn't have a removable card slot...
If you're using stock ROM, check out if there's an updated version of your ROM available. Search xda-developers forum, it may have a thread that lists all stock ROMs available for your device.
Some of the stock ROMs are "wipe" and others are "non-wipe". You can try flashing non-wipe stock ROMs on your device and see if it fixes the issue. (you don't need root or custom recovery for this, if Nexus works the same way as my Note). But anyway, I'd recommend making a nandroid backup before doing so.
If you have USB debugging enabled already, you might be able to get the system logs from a PC, if the phone gets to the point during the boot that can connect to adb. But if you don't have the USB debugging enabled, since you can't boot and go to settings, this won't work. If you could get logs of the system, it may give you a clue of what is causing the phone to restart.
If it didn't fix the issue, I think your only option is to boot into recovery (hold power + home + volume for 10 seconds or so) and do a factory reset.

I have exactly the same problem with my GN and followed the instructions in http://support.sprint.com/support/tutorial/Perform_a_hardware_factory_reset_Galaxy_Nexus/37165-396
Please note that all of your data will be deleted.

You've followed those instructions and still have the problem? Or did those instructions solve it? In the latter case: it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. Otherwise, your answer becomes useless in case the link dies.


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Are there good resources for comparing performance of Stock Motorola ROMs vs. CM7.1?
I'm looking for a good resource for which shows performance comparison - for Droid X - of Froyo 2.2 (stock ROM), Gingerbread 2.3 (Stock Verizon ROM) and any sort of Cyanogen ROM running on Droid X (presumably 2.3 based - 7.1?)
I'm NOT looking for first-person subjective accounts like these.
I'm looking for benchmarks - either as a direct single benchmark using identical set of installed apps; or better yet a set of collated averaged statistics.
I'm mainly interested in "normal business use" performance, not intensive graphics games one - I don't play anything heavier than Angry Birds. So if there is data from different benchmarks, whichever one approximates everyday business use would be preferred.
I would ideally like something which covers all 3 ROMs listed above (stock 2.2, stock 2.3 and CM7) but will be happy with any answers that only show pairwise comparisons of any 2.
NOTE: While the question is specifically about Droid X, I will accept an answer which shows a very good comparison of performance that illustrates a clear difference between ROMs across ALL comparable hardware (e.g. 1Ghz single-core, 512Mb memory, PowerVR SGX530 or comparable GPU) and makes a case that the difference should be easily carried over to DX.

Background: I am considering upgrading my Droid X from Froyo 2.2 (stock, rooted) to Gingerbread. I need to choose to either spend the time figuring out how to load the not-officially-supported CM7 from nightlies, or simply loading Verizon's stock Gingerbread ROM.
The 3 main things I'm concerned about as far as choosing ROM are (1) Stability, (2) Memory footprint, (3) Performance. This question only covers #3.

@Chance - 1. Quadrant is a standard Android benchmarking application; 2. While I appreciate the spirit, comments to the tune "I don't know about this" are not very helpful and shouldn't be added.

honestly, All I have seen are first person accounts. I mean that is pretty much what a review is.

One baseline for measuring phone performance is the Quadrant Score.
Here is the quadrant score for Droid X with FroYo and Gingerbread.
This site shows various quadrant scores for the Droid X with CM7, as well as unofficial versions of Gingerbread and FroYo.
There are some debates about the usefulness of the Quadrant Score - hopefully since these are comparisons with the same model of phone, they would be useful.

The second link would be great if only there was at least ONE score for CM7 with zero overclocking :(   Not your fault, +1 for great answer


text:
How to change my device's country?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I circumvent regional restrictions in the Android Market?

Google just released Chrome for Android and I want to use it. But, for some (pretty irrational) reason, it is only available to certain countries. I therefore need to change mine. How do I do that?
Thanks

Sounds like you may want How can I circumvent regional restrictions in the Android Market?

To change your Play Store country, you might want to refer to this thread or this page for the solution you are looking for.

Factory reset. However if you set up your phone to avoid roaming. Then it wouldn't matter. Had to ask this when I got my phone rushed it on the dealer and it was set on US even though I am in Canada, and I had to call customer service.

You can try this:
-Use an android cook rom (Cyanogen), try Rom Manager to simplify the process.
-Use Market enabler to fake some other providers (Verizon/ AT&T etc, but change to those two makes Google Market thinks your phone is in US).
Or you can try installing the beta version of Chrome that is already leaked on xda
Remember ICS only, lower version of Android OS will lead to apk parse error.


text:
Are there specific cases in which a task-killer or "fast reboot" program is helpful?
I know there have been previous questions regarding task killers, but I wanted to ask about two specific cases.
I've heard a debate raging here and on several forums about Android's way of managing apps and the use of task killers, (examples hereenter link description here and here and here), in which one side says that Android manages tasks just fine but the other side insists that their phone does indeed slow down and a task killer helps.
So my questions are these.
1) Could task killers or "reboot apps" conceivably help for a program that has high CPU usage and simply needs to be restarted?  I'm not necessarily talking about malicious apps, but reputable apps that tend toward higher CPU usage the longer they run?  I'm assuming that if an app always has high CPU usage a task killer will not help as it will likely restart, and should just probably be uninstalled altogether.
2)  In the case of a launcher that slows down over time, would a task killer or reboot app be helpful, simply in restarting it (similar to case 2, but I'm not sure lag in a specific app is directly correlated with its CPU usage).  I know that when I used third-party launchers, I had more lag issues as opposed to using the basic AOSP launcher (Android's own default launcher, often replaced by phone vendors own version).
Any other specific cases?

Honestly, I don't believe so. If you need to stop an app, you can always go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications, click on the app and force stop. It does the same thing and the only time I find myself clicking on it, is when an app is acting up.

Good point. I keep forgetting about the native tools to do such things.


text:
Does freezing apps in Titanium Backup Pro require a phone reboot to take effect?
When freezing apps using Titanium Backup Pro, do I have to reboot for the freeze to take effect? (e.g. not be started anymore, even if applicaple Intent is fired off?)
Does it depend on whether the app is a system one or not?
If it matters, environment is Droid X (Stock 2.2 Froyo, rooted), latest Market version of TBPro.
I tried checking on TB Wiki and found zero reference to rebooting or not as far as freezing functionality.

Here's a specific example: consider the following sequence:

"GPS location changed" intent fires off.
A mapping application "MyGMaps" which is registered for this intent is started to handle it
I kill that application's process(es) - all of them - via Advanced Task Killer
I freeze "MyGMaps" via Titanium Backup Pro
At this point, "MyGMaps" process is NOT running
"GPS location changed" intent fires off again
What happens here? Will "MyGMaps" be started again due to the intent in #6, despite the fact that it's "Frozen"?

My understanding is that, once I reboot the phone after freezing, the app will no longer start at all. But what happens in step #7, right after the freeze but without a reboot?

You shouldn't need to restart after freezing an app. Once you freeze the app, it should disappear from the apps drawer.

I'm less interested in whether it's in an apps drawer than whether it will be started (e.g. if the frozen app is registered for an intent that fires off when GPS location changes, will it STILL fire off on GPS location change until you reboot?

If the app you freeze is sending the intent, then no the intent will no longer happen. But if the app is receiving intents, then yes it should still receive them.

@hillie - meaning it will launch and run?

meaning it will preform a task given to it by another app. that's it. It will not launch and run on its own.

Please see specific example in the question

See my last comment.

Please roll up your clarifications into the answer so I can upvote and accapt

a frozen app only works when an intent is sent to it. otherwise it doesn't start or work. Even when an intent is sent to it, after its done it freeze again (and it only does the specified task). It can not send intents or do anything else. If you want to stop apps from sending intents to it, you will most likely have to uninstall it. Does that fully answer your question?

Yes. Though "Even when an intent is sent to it, after its done it freeze again (and it only does the specified task)" seems contrary to what people were selling the whole "Freeze" idea on! :(

Actually, not what I read. Why else would it be a better idea to freeze and app instead of uninstall it?

@Chillie would you please integrate your comments with your answer? They are far to useful to be kept "down here"! If you could also include a reference to a frozen app acting on intents (I fully believe this, it explains a lot! I still wish to understand the "why"), that would be great! I already upvoted in advance :)

Freezing an app is similar to uninstalling it, in that it won't be able to run (whether by the user wanting to load it or via any intents). However, since it is frozen and not actually uninstalled, it does still take up space.
If you freeze a system app, you may have to reboot your phone. This usually isn't needed, but sometimes your home screen app may have a problem with a system app missing. Whether or not you reboot, though, the system app is frozen and will not be able to run.
A user app, however, can be frozen without needing a reboot.

If that were so, I wonder why some apps, while frozen, still show active processes -- even after a reboot. I guess the explanation is given by Chillie's comments on his answer, that a frozen app still is able to receive broadcasts.


text:
Can you install custom kernels on DroidX running CyanogenMod?
Can you install custom kernels on DroidX running CyanogenMod?
Or does the locked bootloader prevent that?

No, The DroidX can not run custom kernels.
"It is still impossible to flash custom kernels on the Droid X, but the ROM developer community has matured to a point where they’re able to make great things happen on this phone without having to rely on changes to the kernel."


text:
How does memory usage compare on Droid X Froyo vs Gingerbread stock ROMs?
If I upgrade my Droid X from Froyo 2.2 stock to Gingerbread 2.3 stock Motorola/Verizon ROM, is it known what the memory footprint impact is expected to be? (assuming I keep my installed app list and usage patterns identical)
For example, if my stock Froyo 2.2 ROM boots up with ~170MB memory free, and during my day to day use I end up with ~50-70MB memory free (this is with ALL my actively used apps loaded, and Android not killing any of them to make room for others), what would the expected memory footprint be on a stock Verizon OTA updated Gingerbread ROM?
Please note that the question is specific to MotoBlurry stock Droid X ROMs, though I would appreciate a good statistical comparisons of AOSP 2.2 vs 2.3 as well - but for the latter, I'm completely not interested in subjective one-person accounts, just large scale statistics.


text:
Is there a concern as far as memory when running ICS ROM on 512MB device (DroidX)
Based on available evidence so far, are there legitimate concerns that people with older phones that have 512MB memory (e.g. Droid X) would experience memory issues when running 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) based ROMs?
To be more specific:
If my stock Froyo 2.2 ROM boots up with ~170MB memory free, and during my day to day use I end up with ~50-70MB memory free (this is with ALL my actively used apps loaded, and Android not killing any of them to make room for others), what would the expected memory footprint be on an AOSP based ICS ROM?

If there is a ICS ROM available for the Droid X, it should run on a device with 512MB. The minimum requirements for ICS specified by CyanogenMod team is 256MB and a "decent GPU". I am not sure what kind of GPU the Droid X has, but you will probably have a better experience with Gingerbread then ICS on that device if the GPU isn't that great. My brother had that device and complained constantly about lag and lock up. If you have the "stock" MOTOBLUR, you will probably have a better experience just by installing any AOSP based ROM.
You can expect the footprint to be about the same, maybe a bit less, then what you see now. This is because the android OS will always try to use as much memory as possible in order to try and keep your experience better. If the application is in memory you can switch back to it faster then if it has to reload the entire application, plus it can "remember where you were".
As a side note, I don't currently see any CyanogenMod 9 builds available on the CM forums for the Droid X, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any, I just don't see them.

GPU: PowerVR SGX530. Is that enough for ICS?

Re: CM9 - not sure. I know CM7.1 had some nightlies for DX. One reason I'm asking is to know if I should sink the time into Gingerbread or wait till CM9 has DX support

CM9 is still in "nightlies", there is not an "official" release for any device, AFAIK. Even at that, who know how long (or ever) before the DX is supported. I think you will like AOSP android over BLUR, now its just how long you want to wait for CM9, or go with CM7. Usually the upgrade path from one CM build to another is fairly simple, so if you have CM7, going to CM9 should be easy.

There shouldn't be any problems, since my Bravo (HTC Desire) runs ICS insanely quick (also 512Mb).
After a day on AOSP ICS (everluv), without any task-killing (but with a 6 background-task limitation), I still have 176Mb free, and that's roughly what you can expect in these conditions. Without background-task limitation, there is still 90Mb free.*
btw:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=691
This is the first place to look for ICS roms.
However, don't expect to much, because drivers and hardware acceleration are not optimized for hardware like yours/mine.

checked with htop command


text:
Does Chrome Mobile on ICS support extensions?
I saw Google just released the beta for a mobile Chrome browser. They say they brought all the features over from the full browser, or at least they want to. Does anyone have an ICS device with the beta Chrome on it and can confirm if they support the extensions?

It does not, and Flash is also not supported as of now. Information Week reports (and I can personally corroborate):

Web apps and extensions, including Adobe Flash Player, are not
  supported in the initial release of Chrome for Android Beta.

Trying to visit the extensions Web Store page on my Xoom results in a page which simply says the following:

Sorry, your operating system is not supported just yet. The Chrome Web
  Store is available on Windows, Mac and Linux. Why don't you send a
  reminder to yourself to try it out later?


text:
Is there a way to lower GPU load from Ice Cream Sandwich?
I have seen some mentions (including here on Android SE) that Ice Cream Sandwich may not necessarily run optimally (e.g. will be slow/lag) on devices with slower/older GPUs.
I assume that's due to GUI elements in the 4.0 being more graphics intensive, same way Windows XP had more graphics intensive GUI as well as Vista/Windows 7 had Aero.
However, on Windows, you always had an option to explicitly downgrade the OS's graphics effects, to improve performance (especially on older hardware) - e.g. you could turn off various GUI element transitions - see screenshot below. As far as I know, you can also turn off Aero on Windows Vista/7 (though I don't use them so not certain).
QUESTION: Is it possible to similarly tune Ice Cream Sandwich to downgrade GUI graphics frills to improve performance on older GPUs?
I'm only interested in regular OS/app performance, NOT game graphics performance.

I'm not sure if it's part of a truly vanilla ICS build (though I think it may be), but the early CM9 and vanilla ICS builds I've played with all have a "Developer Options" entry in the main system settings. This contains several options which relate to overall graphics effects such as:

Window animation scale: can be set to "off" to disable window animations
Transition animation scale: can also be set to "off"
Force GPU rendering: apparently tries to force GPU rendering of 2D textures/effects. May improve performance according to some (this generally caused my EVO to overheat, though)

It also has an option named "Background process limit". Setting a lower number should help improve performance overall, in theory.


text:
rooting Samsung captivate with the new gingerbread release
I just got a message from my cell provider that the official Gingerbread release is out for the Samsung Captivate. I recently rooted my phone so I could install non market apps. Will I have to un root to upgrade, and after I have is there a tool that will let me re root? All the Google searches I did brought up old results.

To install non market apps, u dont need to root your phone . :\
I dont think u need to unroot your device for updating it through samsung kies.
But after updating to Gingerbread, your device is automatically unrooted.

On a Captivate you actually did originally need to root (or use a PC application like the Sideload Wonder Machine). AT&T prevented you from sideloading apps by default, though I think the 2.3 update lifted that restriction.


text:
No notifications during the night hours
I had juice defender installed on my phone for a few weeks but then I decided to remove it. One of the settings that I set up was to disable the vibration and sound notifications during the night (from 0:30 to 6:30 or something like that). Anyway, now that the juice defender is removed from my phone this settings still remain. I am not completely sure it's like that because of JD, but I don't see any other reason for such behavior.
I tried installing juice defender again, disabled all these options, but the settings are still there and I still don't get any sound or vibration during the night hours. Did anyone else had such a problem? How could I fix this and restore these settings to the "default behavior"?
I am using CM 7.1.0 stable (Android 2.3.7) if that helps anyhow.

What apps/methods have you tested for notifications? Is the phone in silent mode at night, or does the ringer/notification volume appear normal but non-functional?

I'd check in Settings->CyanogenMod Settings->Sound->Quiet Hours to see if that's been turned on.

@eldarerathis - thanks, that did it. would you mind putting that as an answer so I could wrap this one up?

Done. Glad it worked!

Be sure to check Settings->CyanogenMod Settings->Sound->Quiet Hours and make sure that it's disabled. That's been an unknowing culprit for me in the past.


text:
is AT&T network possible on the Droid a855?
Is it possible to use AT&Ts network on the Droid a855? At all possible? Tough to find a direct answer on the web for some reason.
Thanks!

Get your hands on a Motorola Milestone (the European versions of the Droid line). Those are all GSM phones. They are also all sold (at least internationally) unlocked, so you could take one to any US GSM carrier and use it.

No, the Droid is a CDMA phone.  In general you can assume that phones on Verizon and Sprint won't work on AT&T or T-Mobile, and vice-versa.


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Epic 4g Touch: Choose to route calls through Google Talk or Sprint
A friend of mine just got the Epic 4g Touch (a.k.a. the Sprint version of the Samsung Galaxy s2).  He has installed the Google Voice app on all of his previous Android devices and there has always been an option somewhere to choose whether outgoing calls are routed through Sprint or Google.  This also changes which of his numbers shows up.  However, on his new phone, all calls come from his Google voice number and neither of us can find where to change it.
Is this a new "feature" intended to simplify the program?  Is it some restriction that the Sprint-branded software creates?  Or are we missing something?

Did he set up Sprint's Google Voice integration?

He had other problems so he has now switched Google Voice to use his Sprint number.


text:
Defragmenting my Android Phone
I just received an email from the vendor of a well known de-fragmentation software package suggesting I can make my phone go faster by plugging it into my PC and using the packages "consolidate free space option" on the drive that shows up from the phone.
What do people feel about this? Is this a good idea or are there risks?
Edit: I see they have blogged about it now: http://blog.raxco.com/2012/02/07/fix-your-slow-android-smartphone/

I doubt the usefulness of de-frag software on Android. But could you add a link to the software's product page?

Just updated the original post with a link to their blog. The product is here: http://www.raxco.com/home/home-premium.aspx

Thanks everybody for the really informed comments below. I think one of the key points mentioned below seems to be with the advent of widespread use of MTP rather than just straight mounting the device will make it become impossible. Nevertheless the gist of the discussion has been on defragmentation in general rather than the specific "consolidate free space" option I mentioned in my question. For example - does Android use TRIM - would consolidating free space help or hinder there? What about the problems of write amplification - would consolidating free space help there?

Defragging a normal Windows machine with a normal "spinning disk" hard disk drive rarely produces a noticeable speed improvement, certainly nothing like a lot of the 3rd party companies advertise, and even in edge cases where people are regularly creating and deleting extremely large (yet irregularly sized) files, you'll rarely notice any improvement from running it any more often than every 6 months or so. It's more of a psychological placebo benefit in most cases. SuperUser:Does Defragmenting really help?
Phones don't have spinning hard disks, they use a variety of flash memory, this has massively faster random read speeds than a disk that needs to rotate until the right piece of data is under the read head. Also the controller circuitry in flash memory arranges the data itself as the data is written, allowing it to "write-level" across all of the flash disk and avoid problem parts of memory. See these SuperUser questions on that topic for more info Do I need to run defrag on an SSD?, Is it bad to defragment a USB Flash Drive?
In addition from Honeycomb (Android 3.x) onwards, the Android OS by default doesn't give an attached PC full access to the internal file-system, instead of mounting as a USB drive it uses MTP to control how the PC can access the memory, and only the SD card is allowed to be mounted as a normal USB drive. As far as I'm aware there's no way for a PC to get enough access to the file-system to do a defrag over MTP.

Tl;dr the way that flash memory works means that a defrag actually does almost nothing, and may have a slight side-effect of slightly reducing the life-span of your phone's storage.

Thanks very much for your answer. I have made a general comment at the top as there are some points in the question that I don't feel quite have been addressed. Though your MTP point is important

in my understanding since there is no "rotating disk" but only solid memory like internal ROM and SD card, access time to every single location in the storage is the same regardless the actual position of the data you want to load so defragmentation is unnecessary.

sequential read/write speeds for flash media are (almost) always higher than random read/write speeds. While it's not a rotating disk, contiguous blocks are still faster to access. Modern Linux kernels (esp with ext3) doa very food job of allocating contiguous storage for files. So yes, "defrag" is probably useless, but not for the reasons one might think. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/06/large-usb-flash-drive-performance.html

@devnul3: Be careful, that post is about USB flash drives and not the internal flash storage found on phones.  Much of the performance hit comes from USB, and is not inherent in flash memory itself.

@MBraedley First, it's not from USB. USB is symmetric (doesn't care what direction the data is flowing). The apparent disparity in up/down speeds comes from the device's own disparity, it has nothing to do with the protocol. Second, if you look at basically all SSDs (internal SATA as well as eSATA) you see the exact same issues (those are NAND flash too). Thirdly, at least on my droid inc the internal flash storage? Attached via USB.

Thanks for your answer, I did write a comment at the top too, wondering about TRIM and write amplification. Have you any thoughts on that?


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Google Books crashes on loading - workaround? (HTC Desire Z 2.3)
Google Books Android crashes on loading.
Is there a workaround to stop this, while I wait for the developers to fix?

The application Books (process com.google.android.apps.books) has
  stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.

This happens every time (trying again won't help).
Restart of the phone and uninstall re-install of the app doesn't help either.
Apparently, there is a known issue whereby it will crash if it has no books (wouldn't that be most people to begin with!?)
But their remedy instructions are vague - just open a free ebook - but from what? A browser? Will this interact with Google Books to solve the problem? I visited the book store and downloaded an ebook but this just went to the Downloads folder so not sure how this can help.
I also tried copying an ebook from the Download folder to data\com.google.android.apps.books\files and running the Google Books app but this doesn't work - i.e. the crash still happens.

And is this still happening? If it was a known bug I suspect they've probably fixed it by now.

I've been having this problem for a few months.  Time doesn't seem to be doing the trick for me :(

The solution is time; an update to this app fixes this bug.

To get around this problem is very simple. Do these actions:

Use your web browse on the Android device and go to website "books.google.com/ebooks"
Pick and download any sample book (click on Get Sample)

Once you have saved a sample book you will be able to successfully launch the Books application without the process error.
Good luck

Yup, your answer is exactly the same as their solution which doesn't work for me at the moment, as I have explained.

I had the same problem, and fixed it by opening a preview of a different book first. After that, I could open the other books too. Make sure you open it from within the Play Store app, and not from Google Books.


text:
Swype keyboard turns into a black area
Every day or two,  my swype keyboard turns into a black area. There are no keys or anything. Just a black area, and I have to change input mode to samsung keyboard and then back to Swype to get it working again. This is really annoying . any one else had the same issue ?
I am using a Samsung Galaxy Note (Android version: 2.3.6, N7000XXLA4) that came with Swype pre-loaded.

Could be related to the Note's larger screen resolution.  How did you install Swype?  Did you side-load it manually (from your older phone perhaps) or via Swype Installer from http://beta.swype.com/android/get the normal way?  Do you have the latest version of the beta?  Have you tried completely un-installing Swype and re-installing it?

It had swype pre-installed. Earlier i was using galaxy s and it too had swype. I have never installed swype from beta.swype.com

If it came pre-loaded, you may not be able to upgrade it to latest version unless you root the Note and get rid of the (possibly old and buggy) pre-installed version.

Ok. thanks for that. I think I shall wait for the ICS update then :-)

This may be a symptom of the Swype application data becoming corrupted following a hardware upgrade.
To resolve this, go into Settings > Manage Applications > All > Swype and clear the application data. Then force the Swype service to restart.

hi lisa, thanks for your answer. Yes i did that and used it a couple of times,. havent seen the issue yet. Will see if it crops up again for a  couple of days,. if not i will accept your answer. thanks again

I am having this same problem on my HTC thunderbolt. The way to fix it is to go into settings - applications and then stop the swype application. After you can set your keyboard to swype again and it will work. There is probably a bug in the newest version.

Yes. Thats what I do as well. Its very annoying as it happens very often now. I am so waiting for the ICS update.

In Motorola Atrix 2, when swype keyboards freezes, I simply keep pressing on the keyboard area, so a popup notice tells the aplication will force closure. That is a quick way to make the keyboard restart and work.


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How can I free up RAM automatically?
I'm very tired of seeing my RAM used up by unwanted apps which I don't launch regularly, but they continue to appear in the taskbar. Every time I closed them and free the memory. After I restart my phone I have 200 mb of free RAM but after I start closing apps the free memory decreases. I used a task killer but it works the same way. Is there any way to automatically clear out my RAM periodically?

Unused RAM is wasted RAM. If you don't experience performance issues you should be happy that Android prefetches the Apps in RAM for fast re-open times. In fact Android tries to be smart about RAM management. See also http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/9/do-i-really-need-to-install-a-task-manager

@Flow when RAM gets below from 70 mb then I experience the performance issue other wise no problem.

Low ram does not cause performance issues, CPU cycles cause performance issues. see my answer here. Another key question though, do you have at least Android 2.2 (froyo)?

@RyanConrad i have 2.3 gingerbread.

Not sure why it was down-voted. It is a good question, because many users will ask themselves this at some stage. Turns out that the answer is "you don't need to worry about this, it is intended and normal", but this alone does not make it a bad question.

See also: How can I stop applications and services from running?
When you free the memory you're just killing the apps using it or that Android has stopped and put in the background.  The only real solution is to not use apps, or to accept that every time you switch apps your position in the old one will be forgotten.  You'd probably need a custom-built ROM that entirely altered the way Android does memory management in order to get around this; having something auto-clear the RAM would end up killing the app you're currently using.  Another alternative is creating a swap partition, though how to do so is a different question.


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How do some apps get past ad blocking?
I'm already using LBE Privacy Guard, AdAway and Droidwall to strictly control ads and app permissions. (All of them require root to run).
Droidwall has a whitelist where only apps that actually fetch data from the internet are allowed. (Games, system apps etc are blocked)
However I find some apps that are able to show ads even when they're not on the whitelist in Droidwall. How do they do it? Are they relying on some separate core system component to do this?
My solution is to click on the ad and instantly hit 'stop' on the browser window that pops up, then adding the ad host to my hosts file.
I'd prefer a permanent solution, so that only apps requiring the internet are able to get through.
(Given a choice, I'd prefer a time bound full version or a feature restricted demo version to any form of adware, be it on Android or the desktop).
What Android system component do I block to completely disable in app ads?

How do you know the ads aren't bundled with the app?

If the app is not allowed to connect to the net and is still displaying ads, then it must be relying on something else that's not blocked by the firewall.

One example: QR Droid. It scans QR codes, and does not need internet access to function so I've not granted it access via Droid wall. Still it managed to show ads.

That's why I'm asking how you know they're not bundled with the app.  Ads can be contained inside the app and don't need to be downloaded.  "What Android system component do I block to completely disable in app ads?" assume that there is something external, but there doesn't need to be anything external.

But it's one thing if they're static ads, they're not. Every time I open it, there's a different bunch of ads. So mustn't they be getting downloaded?

If you run a network monitor like Wireshark, you should be able to tell if the app is doing any net access.

And if the app concerned has a payed pro version, buying that would probably get you rid of those ads. Think ybout how much time you take to investigate this issue -- and if this wouldn't be worth the few bucks the pro may cost ;)

I have purchased several apps already, what about apps that have no pro version, i.e. are entirely ad supported, and there's no equivalent? For me it's not the ads alone, the fact that it consumes battery power and network bandwidth to fetch an ugly banner on an already small screen which I'm never going to click except by accident. That is why I said I prefer an unlockable time or feature restricted demo to adware.

It's been 5 10 years since I asked this, and I've finally found a solution for rooted phones.
Google Play Services is the culprit.
You need an app that can disable individual sub-components of other apps. I use DisableService (it's no longer available) App Manager, so I'll use it as an example, you'll have to follow similar steps with other such apps.

Select Google Play Services from the list of apps, set the filter to show system apps if needed.
Look for and disable the following components - AdRequestBrokerService, AdvertisingNotificationService, AdvertisingIdService, AnalyticsService and AnalyticsUploadIntentService.

That's it. Other apps send requests to these services to display ads, and turning them off has no adverse effect on them.

Had similar problem disabled network access to Google Play Services. Ads gone after that. System seems to be working fine though.

If your phone is rooted, Install "Avast mobile security" and enable firewall. you can block internet access to any installed app. Its not about blocking ads. Its about blocking internet access. And its free.

He is doing the same but with other programs.

At least read my question fully before replying!

@Rex Sir... I've just mentioned how to completely block an app from accessing internet based on my experience.. and it was also a part of your question....

My question relates to apps that get past both hosts file and firewall, since I already have a firewall! And obviously my phone is rooted if I'm using both of these!