text:
How can I search for different types of items on my phone?
I recently got a Samsung i5800. I was hoping that the search widget would search everything on my phone - contacts calendar, memo - but it seems all it does it to search contacts.
Can anyone recommend a better search app that will do what I've listed above? To be specific, I'm looking for an app such that if I have a memo, calendar entry, or contact with the word Jugular and I type Jugular in the edit field of the app, it will display the memo, calendar entry and contact.
Thanks in advance.

App recommendations are off-topic here, you may want to edit your post before a mod closes your question.

Go to SETTINGS > SEARCH > SEARCHABLE ITEMS
Then tick mark all the things you want to be able to search for from the Search Box. Applications like Evernote, Dropbox, Catch, Meridian, ColorDict and many others which are compatible and you have installed should be listed. You can pick and choose whichever options suit you.

Hi, thanks for the info. I saw this option on my phone, but I didn't see Calendar or Memo listed. Maybe I should get a memo/calendar app that do allow searching?

I don't think the calendar is searchable because its the TouchWiz calendar. Samsung did not add the searchable functionality to their calendar, or Memo.

A syncable note taking app like Catch has support for search - try that.

The "Google Search Widget", which is different then the "Search Widget" will search contacts, apps, web and I think other things if the app "plugs in" to the search framework. I am not sure if it does calendar events though. But according to the screenshot in the market, it will.

Thanks, but reading the reviews, I'm not too encouraged to get this...


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Is there "select all" functionality in the GMail app?
I've previously used the default Email app on my CyanogenMod 7 EVO because I had an Exchange account at work. However, I switched jobs recently and my new place just uses GMail corporate accounts (which I enjoy). Since I don't have the Exchange account anymore, I'd like to move over to the GMail app because I prefer the UI and whatnot, but I can't for the life of me find any kind of "Select All" functionality in it.
The Email app allows me to do this from the options menu (Menu->Select All selects everything in the current folder). In GMail I noticed that if I select one or more items, then "Deselect All" becomes available in the options menu, but not "Select All". I've also tried various forms of long-pressing on messages, accounts, and folders to no avail.
Is there any way to do this in the GMail app, or am I just stuck without it? I searched the issue tracker and didn't find anything relevant, which surprised me a bit, to be honest. Obviously I can do this from a computer if I need to empty a folder/label, but I'd kind of like to retain the functionality on my phone, too. Am I missing some non-obvious (or perhaps even obvious) menu item somewhere?

One thing to remember is Google's attitude to deleting mails. For a long time after GMail launched there was no way to delete, all you could do was "archive" mails. They believed that with huge, ever-expanding mailbox storage you'd never need to delete. After much shouting from users they did finally give us a permanent delete option, but they still don't really believe in it. On a side-note your spam and trash folders do automatically empty of old mails, and won't cause you problems with your size limit. You can just forget they exist and not worry about manually emmptying them.

@eldarerathis Could you please make your question body clearer, more focused and more general? There are now much content for the small thing.

I'm not sure exactly how you use the select all feature, but I think an effective way to mitigate your need for this is to go crazy with filters, labels, and the priority inbox.
Having your Gmail account sort your E-mail into highly specific labels for you and carefully tagging everything as either "important" or "not important" will keep the number of E-mails you see at any one time to a reasonable amount most of the time.
There are a ton of great tips in this article from LifeHacker that I've used both on the web interface and on my Gmail app.
Oh, and submit a feature request to Google. ;-)

I probably should be a little more diligent with my filtering and labeling. To be honest, though, one of the things I've had a tendency to do from my phone in the past  is simply deleting/trashing everything in my Spam folder (which Select All->Delete could accomplish). I can't figure out a way to do that via the GMail app, though :(

Incidentally, it doesn't appear to be possible to empty your Trash folder from the GMail app either. I don't recall if I could do that from the Email app, though...

@eldarerathis - Yeah, I can see how clearing your whole Spam folder would be handy with this functionality.  If you don't have a space issue in your Gmail account though it will automatically delete anything that's over a month old, so it's not like you have to worry about it getting ridiculously out of hand.  I can understand the compulsion to keep that folder clear, though... :)

@eldarerathis - Man, these are really amateur mistakes by Google.  I understand that they want to encourage people to archive everything so it can be searched later if necessary, but batch operations are such an entry-level feature that I'm honestly shocked that they were completely left out.

Nope, not as of v2.3.4.1 anyways.  I've been through all the settings / actions pretty thoroughly, in various contexts, with no luck.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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AdSupported Angry Birds versions keep crashing on Android 2.2.1 Tablet PC
After RTFM, I decided to ask the question here.
Device is a generic android tablet device (http://www.reeder.com.tr/reedpad.asp),
idenfied as: "sec_smdkv210"
here is the build fingerprint:
"sec_smdkv210/smdkv210/smdkv210:2.2.1/FRF91/eng.root.20110224.011402:eng/release"
Android Version: 2.2.1
Problem occurs after I launch Angry Birds Rio, and try to play the first level, at the very beginning, it just quits from the game.
System Log:
http://pastebin.com/aBmfvXtF
Game is an adsupported version 1.0.0 downloaded from market.
No ad blocker installed, no add-ons. Device is rooted by z4root, but before or after rooting, behaviour is same. Also, same crash behaviour is observed with Angry Birds Seasons, but slighly different, it crashes if you  try to pause and reload the level during the game, resulting a similiar crash log which I didn't bother to paste here once again.
Same string appears in the crash log before the crash:
JNI WARNING: received null jstring (Check_GetStringUTFChars)
W/dalvikvm(25888): JNI WARNING: received null jstring (Check_GetStringUTFChars)
I/dalvikvm(25888): "GLThread 9" prio=5 tid=8 NATIVE
I/dalvikvm(25888):   | group="main" sCount=0 dsCount=0 s=N obj=0x46f97d70 self=0x225c10
I/dalvikvm(25888):   | sysTid=25895 nice=0 sched=0/0 cgrp=default handle=2251432
I/dalvikvm(25888):   | schedstat=( 7639180271 5104522289 130271 )
I/dalvikvm(25888):   at com.rovio.ka3d.WebViewWrapper.urlLoadedCallback(Native Method)
I/dalvikvm(25888):   at com.rovio.ka3d.WebViewWrapper.access$500(WebViewWrapper.java:42)
I/dalvikvm(25888):   at com.rovio.ka3d.WebViewWrapper$8.run(WebViewWrapper.java:216)
I/dalvikvm(25888):   at com.rovio.ka3d.MyRenderer.handleEvents(MyRenderer.java:118)
I/dalvikvm(25888):   at com.rovio.ka3d.MyRenderer.onDrawFrame(MyRenderer.java:77)
I/dalvikvm(25888):   at com.rovio.ka3d.GLSurfaceView$GLThread.guardedRun(GLSurfaceView.java:1346)
I/dalvikvm(25888):   at com.rovio.ka3d.GLSurfaceView$GLThread.run(GLSurfaceView.java:1121)
Trying to move from SD card to device did not help.
Trying to change the device locale from Turkish to English did not help.
Trying to update the device from manufacturer's site, did not help (it did not updated the android version, only manufacturer's build number changed)
Trying to root the device, did not help.
Anybody could suggest what could be going on here?
Best Regards,
q.m.

Whether anyone here can help you or not I highly suggest you submit this to the developer as well.

It looks like it's basically a null pointer error when Angry birds tries to create a surface, which probably means that your device is simply incapable of doing the video rendering needed.  I don't believe Angry Birds Rio has a Light version, unlike the regular game, so you're probably out of luck unless they release a version for less-capable devices.
From http://www.rovio.com/index.php?page=angry-birds---frequently-asked-questions-faq:

Q: I have a problem with the Angry Birds. What should I do?
A: Check Rovio’s web-pages and browse this FAQ section for a solution. If you cannot find solutions for your problem or questions, please contact Rovio’s customer support by email and provide as much information about your problem as possible: phone/device model and/or version, phone/device operating system version, Angry Bird game’s name and its version, a detailed problem description.

Thank you for your help. I'll try to contact the game developer's support. I'll also update this post if any solution is found.

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


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How do I get the "Navigate to..." voice command on my droid x?
I have a droid x and have used both navigation and the voice commands.   Reading online, I see lots of people make reference to using voice commands to say "Navigate to 123 Main Street" or similar.
My droid x does not have "Navigate to..." as an option for voice commands.
What do I need to do to enable "Navigate to..." as an option for voice commands?

Which version of Android?

@aleverett Android. 2.2.1

Are you using Google Navigation?

Search by voice
Speak your destination instead of typing (English only): "Navigate to the de Young Museum in San Francisco".

I am using Google navigation on my fairly stock droid x. I have voice commands to make calls, play music, but not navigation.

OK.  Do you have the latest Voice Search?


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How can I modify files on a remote computer over wifi/3g from my Android phone/tablet?
I have a scenario where I watch a fair amount of video content from a DLNA device that doesn't support deleting (GoogleTV, via Logitech Revue). I would like to be able to delete files after I'm done watching them, without using my laptop to RDS/FTP/etc to the file server.
In a perfect world I would be able to do it from the DLNA player (which I realize would be a question for another StackExchange site, but I've done a fair amount of research on this and I'm pretty sure it's just not possible yet...), but I would accept an Android-friendly solution -- since I have an Android phone -- that I could use to connect to the file server and delete the files as an acceptable alternative.
Before getting the Revue I accomplished this using my XBox360 as a Windows Media Center Extender, which in addition to allowing me to watch my content, was capable of deleting.
The file server is running Windows 7. I want a point & click, turnkey solution, so I'm not interested in an SSH-like or RDP-like solution, because I don't want to type out directory navigation commands or do lots of pinch-to-zoom + drag + click on my phone. I could more quickly and easily just walk into the other room and delete the files. Some sort of native file browser would be best, I think.

I think this is more of a Windows question than an Android question.  Either way, app recommendations are offtopic, and it's better to ask "How can I do X?" because quite often there are non-app solutions.

It may be pretty windows-centric, but I'd say it's also very Android-centric. Trying to ask the same question on a windows-specific stack exchange site would probably result in comments like "go to android.stackexchange.com" -- since I'm interested in an Android solution but not an iOS solution, for instance. I see your point about app recommendations, but perhaps this rides the fringe of on-topic? I will rephrase to not specifically request an app, but will stick to my intention of looking for a turnkey solution over building something myself.

I see your point.  Rephrasing the question should be fine :)

I just found ES File Explorer which seems to do what I need, and a little bit more. This looks pretty promising. I'll report back if I have any issues with it, but for now it seems to answer my question.

Does ES File Explorer allow you to make changes over 3g/4g?

If you can connect and have permissions, it should. It supports FTP, SSH, and all kinds of other connections; even Google Drive and Dropbox.

You can log into a Windows box using Remote Desktop, and use the Windows interface to delete files like you normally would.  The RDP app I use is called Remote RDP.
You could also do something like install IIS and create yourself a simple webpage that would list the files and allow you to click a button to delete them.

I have used RDP but it is not as quick or friendly as I would like. It's a shoehorn. I've thought about writing a quick webapp that will let me do it right from my TV with the Revue keyboard, but I'm not sure I want to go through the effort.

On my tablet I use File Manager HD.
I have shortcuts saved in its left-hand bar that take me straight to the right folders in the shares of my server with username and password saved. One click on the shortcut takes me straight to the relevant content folder, and then it's a long press on a file or folder to rename, delete or move, which are the three things I normally want to do with media files after watching them.

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


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How can I set the language in Opera Mini 6?
Opera recently upgraded itself, and for some reason the update installed the Hebrew version with Hebrew menus (that's not completely surprising, since my phone is in Hebrew, but it's partly surprising, because the previous version was in English).  The problem is that Opera did a bad job of translating their browser to Hebrew, because Hebrew is written right-to-left, but the menus are all left-to-right.
How can I change the language of the menus and settings in Opera to be in English?
For the record, if it's relevant, I have a Samsung Galaxy S with Froyo.

This is a poor workaround, but I assume you could get the English version by uninstalling the app, switching the phone to English temporarily, and reinstalling the app.

What I don't understand is how I got the English version in the first place without switching to English.

Because there where no Hebrew translation of the application in the beginning.  Then you get the default translation, which usually are English. Later update of the application added Hebrew language, and you got that translation.

Most likely, Opera added the Hebrew localisation with the update itself, so it did the "smart" thing and used the phone's language.
I would do the following:

Uninstall the app
Change the phone's language to English (Settings > Language & Keyboard)
(Optional and only if your phone is rooted) Download Market Enabler from the Market and select a US Market (to ensure you get an "English version" of the app.
Reinstall and afterwards, set your phone back to Hebrew
I'd also attempt a reboot to see if that reverts Opera's behaviour.

When you set the phone back to Hebrew, the application will switch back to use Hebrew and not English.  The program package got all translations.

Android applications are usually set up to handle many languages by store different translations of the same message in different language-files, one for each language (res/values/strings.xml for default, res/values-sv/strings.xml for swedish, res/values-fr/strings.xml for french etc.).
So when you start the program, it try to look up a translation for your phones  default language.  If there are translations of that string present for the selected language in the program, like Hebrew is now in Opera, it will use that string.  But if the language is not pressent, like it was before in Opera, it will use the default language for the program, which usually is English.
So that is why you got English before and Hebrew now when running Opera.  And that is why I don't think that uninstall and install again will change anything, as the language is selected in runtime, and not when you install the program.
Instead you should talk to Opera and give them better translations or set your phone to English as default language and not get any Hebrew translations at all, in any program.

While it certainly might be the case here, I doubt you can say with any certainty that Android apps usually select the language dynamically at runtime.

If they don't override the default behaviour of the Android system.  But why would they?
You could still programmaticly select a different language for your application.
But this is how you should do a multi language support in Android programs. And how I do support swedish in my programs.

How is "the default behaviour of the Android system" relevant to an app?  The OS can't force an app to use a particular language, or even to check what the system language or locale is.

Please look up how Android uses string lookup in resources.
You should use string resources when you build your application, to be able to easy localize the application.  If you use string constants in your program source, it will get much harder.  And as Opera is based in Norway, they know how to localize programs.

Here is how Localization is set up in an Android application:
Android developer tutorials

Here are Googles Android Developers DevGuid about Localization.  So, as we can assume that their programmers know and uses those, my post is the propper sollution to the problem.
Set your phone to English or contact Opera with sudgestions of better translations.

u can try clicking on the big "O" on the right upper part and then go to the "settings" which is the usual settings icon (a bolt?) or if u dont knownwhat the setting icon looks like to the 4th option on the list. then from there go to the 7th option...scroll upwards and u will see English (UK). I figured it out this way. Cheers!

Adding a screen shot would help


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Application for remote-wiping a lost phone without handing access to my data to a third-party?
Or having to pay a subscription?
I have an idea for a hypothetical Android app. Tell me if such a thing already exists.

You install a server in a machine you have total control of, and is (preferably, but not obligatorily) online 24/7.
You install the client app on your phone. You configure it to connect to the hostname/port the server you installed in #1 is listening to.
The client app does a connect every 5 minutes or so. (Configurable.) It backs up your data to your server machine if you configured it to do so.
Your phone is lost or stolen.
You connect to yourcomputer:yourport and feed it the Nuking Password. The server app hashes your Nuking Password and stores it at a predefined location (i.e. yourcomputer:yourport/Nuke)
Like in every watchdog connect, your phone tries to download yourcomputer:yourport/Nuke - but this time it succeeds. It then hashes its own locally stored copy of the Nuke Password and, if it's a match, it nukes all data in the phone. Before doing the pieces of nuking that will kill Internet access, it reports to the server that the nuke command went through.

Can be improved, of course. But tell me, is there a FOSS app like that somewhere? I imagine it would be especially neat for businesses that issue smartphones for a number of employees.

I don't know of an app that meets your exact requirements.  But a simpler version that's (in my opinion) equally secure is an Android app that listens for a specific SMS message, and wipes the phone.  Remote Wipe does this.  Of course, it doesn't entirely kill the phone's software (that would be very device-specific and require a modified bootloader in most cases); and it might be useful to use one of the apps that reports the phone's physical location too, if you want to recover it.

I'd concur - there's a far greater chance that a cellphone will have GSM / CDMA signal but no data in a particular location. In that scenario - an SMS based solution would be better than one based on  GPRS / 3G / 4G data networks.

This is pretty much what happens if you connect your phone to a corporate MS Exchange server.
I think it's possible with other Exchange Active Sync compatible servers that support the Exchange mobile device security policies. If any of the FOSS Exchange/messaging clones currently implement the security policies, then this would all be possible on any Android 2.x phone without needing anything other than built-in software on the client.

Try Cerberus app for Android.
This app works on both rooted and non rooted devices (giving some additional options to rooted devices)
You create account, and login, which allows you to fully control your phone, even so that no one notices that you are doing anything (even if he who stole your phone is using it at the moment).
Some of the main features are taking GPS position every few secs, and posting it to this server as soon as it gains any kind of internet connection. You can even send SMS to your phone with special codes and messages won't appear on your phone, but it will answer you with SMS with GPS coordinates and other information without the user holding your phone knowing it.
You can take front camera or back camera photos. You can record voice, etc. It has many more features. If you are interested, you should totally check this app out.

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


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Where is "Back up my data" stored? Can it be edited?
Anybody know how to get to it? It's not on the Google Dashboard, or linked to from the developer docs. I've even dug through the code, but it's confusing. Anybody know a way to download it, and better yet, upload a replacement?
For context: My phone sometimes starts acting weird (random hangs and/or reboots), and one theory is that some part of my backup is getting periodically corrupted, because even with a hard reset some problems persisted, but went away when I cleared "Back up my data" before doing another factory reset. Now that things have started to get weird again, I'm wondering if I could download that backup data and keep just certain parts of it.

There isn't any way to get to it. It is basically turning on and off a developer facing backup feature. Each app can write what it wants to into a certain amount of space, and Google takes care of sending it back to the app when it is reinstalled.
Even if you were to write an app for it, you'd only be able to access the storage linked to that developer key, not the other apps that use the service.
For more info on what that option does, see my answer here.

Yup, that's what I thought. How about any way to list the packages that are valid to 'adb shell bmgr wipe'?


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Can not flash LK2.08 for original firmwares on my spica
Can not flash LK2.08 for original firmwares. I try like this: http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/root-samsung-galaxy-spica-i5700-with-leshaks-kernel/
i am using this kernel: http://forum.samdroid.net/f55/lk2-08-original-firmwares-root-new-superuser-wifi-tether-bb-12-07-2010-a-1193/
and i copy it to my localh computer hard disk not to phone SD card.
Whn i click start i get this:
> Download Start... <0> Create File...
> <1> StartThread Detected : 1 <2>
> StartThread Detected : 0 <3>
> StartThread Detected : 0 <4>
> StartThread Detected : 0 <5>
> StartThread Detected : 0 <6>
> StartThread Detected : 0 <7>
> StartThread Detected : 0 <8>
> StartThread Detected : 0 <1> setup
> connection...

but takes 20 minutes and nothing changed. Is this normal or what i am doing wrong?

Close Odin, disconnect your phone, restart Odin, reboot your phone, put the phone into Download mode again, and then connect your phone and ensure Odin sees it.  Sometimes Odin just doesn't recognize the device and you need to try again.  Odin will show something like the yellow highlighted area below when the phone is properly connected:

thx but problem was with PDA. i need to clear it first. But thx.

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


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How to have phone prioritize encrypted Wi-Fi hotspots?
I have a Wi-Fi solution similar to FON which has an encrypted private home Wi-Fi hotspot and a guest network which is unencrypted and requires one to log in once a day. My problem (or rather, annoyance) is that the phone seems to prefer the unencrypted guest network. I have it enabled because I can use other people's guest networks when I'm roaming about in the city. It would make sense that between an encrypted and unencrypted hotspot, it would be wise to prefer the encrypted one, regardless of signal strength. Is there any way to resolve this?

You could change the guest network to be low priority by editing the supplicant .conf file (probably requires root, or adb use).  You can find out what file this is by looking at /etc/wifi/wifi.conf; the file you need is set as the SUPP_CONFIG_FILE property's value. Normally it's /data/wifi/bcm_supp.conf or /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf.  You'll see entries like the following in that file:
network={
    ssid="network name"
    someotherproperty="some other value"
    priority=0
}

You want to have priority=0 for the networks you least want to connect to, and a higher priority for networks you do want to connect to.  If you just have "don't want" and "want", use 0 and 1.  If you have "don't want", "not preferred", "preferred", and "super-preferred", use values 0, 1, 2, and 3 respectively.  You get the idea.

I'm using a Note 3 with Android 4.3. The wpa_supplicant.conf is only filled with general information of Samsung. Did Android/Samsung change the path?

Is your device rooted? If so, you can access the /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf file and set/edit the priority field for each network. I looked around on the market, and I haven't been able to find any apps that will allow you to edit this field in a GUI, or any other way to do it without root. I haven't personally experimented with it either, so I'm not 100% sure how it will work, but it's the only option I've found that looks like it might help you control which network your phone connects to when there are multiple configured networks within range.


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Where are attachments stored when sending text messages
Where are the attached images to text messages stored on Froyo 2.2.1 ( Samsung Galaxy S , if that should make a difference ) ?
I am asking following problems I have now when sending texts with images attached : I can't send a picture attachment together with a text message.
--- UPDATE ---
I have found the solution to the problem mentioned. Please look at the answer of my other question if you have the same problem.

I'm not sure what you're asking.  Your attachments are stored in the location where they existed before you attached them.  It's possible they might be copied somewhere, but how do you know they are? And how is it relevant?

@Matthew Read: Are you sure ? When a picture is taken to be attached to a message, it reports that the attachment is too large and that the picture is to be resized. I can imagine that at that time the attachment is created/copied into another location than the original message. I might be wrong, of course.

Well it might be stored in memory temporarily, but you're right that it might be cached. I'm still just wondering how the cache location is relevant to your problem?

@Matthew Read: the picture taken is a .jpg file. But, as explained in my other question, when I view the attached image, it behaves as a movie of 5 seconds. I was just wondering whether some sort of transformation had taken place, and therefore I could view the attached file in another folder (maybe seeing that it now as a .mov file or something). I really am looking for a solution, here,it's annoying not being able to send a picture message.

That, i believe, is the media viewer for the Galaxy S. It treats every image sent in an MMS as a "video" for some reason. Another reason why I dislike touchwiz...

Seems that no special folder is used to store attachments - strange since I am definitely saw the message 'picture too large - compressing' when trying to send an image via MMS.
I would have expected this to be saved somewhere.
I will accept my own answer here, unless someone else can give some valuable information.


text:
How do I detect if I have a Super AMOLED or LCD Screen on my Nexus S?
Many sources are citing that the Nexus S is shipping with 2 different types of screen due to Super AMOLED shortages. As I am in the UK it is likely I will have the Super LCD, which I read somewhere is inferior compared to the Super AMOLED.
How can I tell which one I have? What are the main differences?
Update:
Found the answer here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1022216
Looking in 'Baseband version' under 'About Phone' reveals that a baseband beginning wth I9020 is the Super AMOLED or I9023 for Super LCD.

See also: Difference between Super LCD screen of Nexus S and Super AMOLED screen of Samsung Galaxy S.

Just out of curiosity, which display did you end up having? I'm worried after seeing the things on the internet comparing them both, so I really don't know whether to risk it or not. If you do have one with SLCD, is it as bad as you maybe thought?

Got AMOLED, happy with it

Look at something black (e.g. an image of only black) on your phone, and shut off the lights.  If you've got an AMOLED screen, it should be pure black (virtually no light emanating).  With an LCD it will be significantly brighter/greyish.

I will try tonight!

This proved to be correct and confirmed with baseband version.

regarding if the Super AMOLED is inferior:
Android update 2.3.3 introduced a color temperature correction, which many users complain turned their screen color "ugly and yellowish" http://www.androidcentral.com/nexus-s-233-update-bringing-unwanted-screen-issues.
The color change appears to still be present in the newer 2.3.4 update, and some have begun to suspect that the fact that not everyone is seeing this color change, may be related to which screen the phone has; with the SuperAMOLED being associated with the yellowish color and the LCD not having the yellowish color.

How does this answer the question?

@Al Theoretically, if you have the update you could tell what screen you have by having or not having the yellow colour ...


text:
How can I change the language on my phone?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I set the locale and language?

Is there some way I can change the language of my phone's operating system? I mean status bar, options, everything -- I want it to be in Spanish.

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/q/5303/1465

On the Nexus S go to Menu -> Settings -> Language & Keyboard -> Select Language.


text:
Gallery Sort Order

Possible Duplicate:
gallery sort order

Photos taken by the camera app are sorted newest to oldest by the default gallery app. All the other folders are sorted from oldest to newest.
Is there a way to adjust the sort order?
I am on CM702 on a TMO G2 (HTC Vision)


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Pressing volume up and down at the same time on the Desire HD
Does anyone know what holding the volume button on both up an down does on the Desire HD?
I occasionally do it by accident and the phone vibrates, then about 10 seconds later vibrates again. During that 10 sec the phone is noticeably slower... But what, if anything, else does it do?
I'm running CyanogenMod 7 RC4

Since the volume buttons are actually one button in a kind of rocker configuration, I don't think pressing both at once is supposed to do anything.  I.e. if the button was built properly you wouldn't be able to press both at once, but it's not built properly and you can indeed press both sides at once, at which point the phone seems to go "Eh?".
I get various results, including one of the buttons being ignored, both being ignored, and some weird vibration effects (one long vibration or a couple of pulses).
It doesn't feel right to me, so I try not to do it...

That seems fair enough. I will try to refrain from doing it!

Just as an update to this, even though I tried not to manhandle the volume buttons on my phone, they have indeed now stopped working entirely.  Back to Vodafone for this phone...


text:
Android Voicemail Settings
Voicemail on my T-Mobile Galaxy Portal/Spica/i5700 doesn't work.  I've set it up via the Tmobile voicemail setup, but if I call my mobile it just rings and rings until I get a message saying 'This number is currently unavailable.'
Is there anything in Android itself that might have borked it?  I'm running an ahem not official Samsung version of Froyo.  In Settings -> Call Settings I can see Voicemail service, from which my only option is My Carrier, and Voicemail Settings, and all that lets me do is pick the voicemail number to call.
Or is it more likely just some error at T-mobile's end?  Thought I'd check before giving them a call.

@ngm Was it working before you loaded a custom ROM on your device? Personally I use Google Voice for my voicemail - works great

@Daniel I'm sure it does, if you're in the US. Google Voice isn't available to us Europeans on the other side of the pond.

@Daniel As far as I recall, it has never worked.  I've certainly never received a voicemail on it, and I had it for about 6 months before I put the custom ROM on.

@GAThrawn Dude thats lame.  I had no idea.

@ngm I would check with T-mobile then.  Unless another person here can say that voicemail on T-mobile doesn't work well with Android my guess is that there is something wrong on their part

I agree with @Daniel, call tmobile and make sure voice mail is set up on the line. When I added my sons line, it didnt have voice mail set up, i had to call and they said it want "activated" on their end.

You have to actually setup your voicemail with TMobile as well as on your phone.
You simply ring 222 from the phone.
Here is a detailed description:
http://forums.t-mobile.co.uk/help-and-support/index?page=home&cat=VOICEMAIL


text:
How do I enable Mobile Data only for select apps on a rooted phone?
Unfortunately my carrier charges €0.10 per MB of data -- and I've found out the hard way that Android is a data hog.
As a result I keep my mobile data almost exclusively off.
Is there a way, perhaps through an app, to only allow some apps to use mobile data? For example I'd like to be able to use Whatsapp and Opera Mini, but disable every other service.
I've found that without wanting to, apps like eBuddy and (especially) Google Talk always want to re-connect, even when they haven't been directly run.
I am aware that as from 2.2, Google tightened security on app capabilities (especially task managers and home screen selectors). For what it's worth, my device is rooted and running CyanogenMod7 RC4 (based on Gingerbread) so this might break compatibility with pre-2.2 apps.

As you are rooted, you can use DroidWall to control network access on a per app basis.
From the Market page:

Front-end application for the iptables Linux firewall.
  Allows you to restrict which apps can access the network.
  This is the perfect solution if you don't have an unlimited data plan, or just wants to see your battery lasting longer.

Apologies for the delay in setting your answer as the accepted one. I read from the reviews that DroidWall doesn't always work flawlessly, so I tried it out over a few days on my device (ZTE Blade) and I'm glad to report it does.

Since the current answer is a few years old and the app it recommends is no longer being updated, AFWall+ is another firewall app (actually a fork of DroidWall).
Its features are:

Features

Easy to install & simple to use
Free and open source
No advertisements
Choose your preferred language
Search for installed applications
Get a notification about new installed application
Blocked packets notification and filter
Device Admin Support (Protect AFWall+ from uninstall)
Easy to manage your rules with a custom script
For any (stock) variant of Android version 2.2 - 4.4.4 (ICS, JellyBean, KitKat)
Ipv4/Ipv6 support
LAN-, VPN-, Tether-, Roaming-Control support
Tasker and Locale support
Firewall Logs service
Multi-User (multiple-profiles) support
Build-In Iptables/Busybox
Export and Import rules (Import All Rules needs donate version)
Option to prevent data leaks during boot (REQUIRES init.d support or S-OFF)
Supports MIPS/x86/ARM

https://github.com/ukanth/afwall/

There is also NetGuard, which unlike AFWall+, doesn't require root.
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.faircode.netguard
Website: https://netguard.me/
Source code: https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard

You can buy a Huawei smartphone.
In the settings go to "Data tarffic management" then you see this:

Click on "Networked apps" and you see this:

You can determine which app can use mobile data or wifi.
The actual place of this setting might depend on the model of your Huawei smartphone.

MOON I did the same thing. restricted all apps except whatsapp but still it is not working.


text:
Nexus One's 3.5mm headphone jack accepts standard 3.5mm plug?
As you know, the Nexus One comes with a 4-segment 3.5mm headphone jack, whereas the standard 3.5mm plug has 3 segments.
I visually compared a standard 3-segment 3.5mm plug with the 4-segment 3.5mm plug that comes with the original Nexus One headset and they seem identical in length.
My only concern is that plugging in a standard 3-segment into this 4-segment jack will damage the Nexus One.
Better safe than sorry... so instead of empirically plugging in the standard 3-segment plug in the the N1 just to see whether it causes a fatal short or not, I prefer to ask those who are already knowledgeable with this: Is it safe to use a standard 3-segment with the N1 headphone jack?

Your phone should be fine.
Android won't route phone calls through headphones though, iPhone can be set to do so and uses the phone's microphone.
An option I use to attach standard headphone to my Galaxy S is a simple Bluetooth headphone adapter (£10 from Amazon), that way I get to use MY headphones and make calls via them, plus you can keep your phone in your pocket when skating into town!

@Adrian Thanks. What do you mean by "won't route phone calls through headphones"? When I use the original headset that came with the Nexus One, I can hear the audio in the earpieces. Can you explain?  Also, if you can provide a link (or just a brand/model#) to the Bluetooth headphone adapter you mentioned, this would be much appreciated.

Headphones don't have a mic, so Android cant use it as a Headset, even though the phone has a mic on it...I have this one from Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nexxus-Bluemusic-Stereo-Bluetooth-headset/dp/B0036TGIOO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1302091828&sr=8-2  I use it all the time, especially as I use Music Link headphones that work with my hearing aids - but it works with ANY 3.5mm stereo jack headphones

@Adrian: what exactly do you mean by "can't use it as a headset"? I have a 4-segment audio plug that comes with my Samsung Spica, and I can use its mic just fine.

headSETs have 4 segment plugs, ground,left,right and mic  - they WORK. headPHONES dont have a mic and only have 3 segment jacks ground, left, right, and cannot be used for PHONE CALLS, at least on my Galaxy S - so I have to use the BT adapter to use my headPHONES for music and CALLs

@Adrian I have been able to use 3-segment headphones for phone calls (hearing the call through the phones) since the day I got my Galaxy S.

@Matthew Do you have a newer model? an i900x? Can you plug headphones in and make a call, I cannot, and nor can many others on the internet...What make/model headphones are you using?

@Adrian I have an older T959. The headphones are Sennheiser HD205's.

From what I gather the T959 is a later model, for the US market, in the SGS line. Perhaps Samsung picked up on the Headphone issue - I have a recollection that US accessibly laws requiring headphones to use the mobile phone's mic, for hearing impaired users...I've looked into this previously looking for mobile phones compatible with hearing aids...


text:
Receiving calls over Wi-Fi first
I just got an android 2.2 prepaid phone (no data plan, so I'm planning to have 3G off). I would like to find some service/android app combination that would let me receive calls over Wi-Fi on Skype or Skype-like app if I'm connected; and then redirect to the phone itself if I'm not. I looked into Google Voice, but it doesn't appear that there is a way to set up an order preference...
Ideally, I'd like to be able to port my old phone number (from my service that I'm about to disconnect) to this service.
Does anything like this exist?

afaik you cannot recieve calls on your phone using the Google Voice app at all.

@briankb: What are you talking about? I use Google Voice all the time. All of my calls come through GV because that's the only number I give out.

@Al Right, but the question is regarding "wifi" calls. The app doesn't handle calls directly at all. It does not do voip. The gVoice service will route calls to your cellular number. Big difference.

You might want to take a look at Asterisk, an open source PBX.  You can create a dialplan that will ring your Skype or sip address first, and then switch to your prepaid phone number. With version 1.8, Asterisk supports Google Voice in addition to Skype. Dialplans are completely configurable, however this does entail setting up a server to run Asterisk. The good news is that the minimum hardware requirements are very low; you can even run it on a consumer router running custom firmware such as DD-WRT, OpenWRT, and Tomato.
A couple places to get you started:

Asterisk: The Definitive Guide - a free book Oreilly book, written for an older version, but still a great primer
Asterisk 1.8 documentation

It's probably a bit of an overkill solution for just one person. But this would definitely put the control of your phone routing in your hands. Asterisk dialplans are very flexible, and powerful. I'm working on setting one up myself atm.

Android 2.3 natively supports SIP, which means that it's compatible with most VoIP providers. It's as simple as configuring the account at Settings > Call Settings > Internet Accounts. If you cannot upgrade to 2.3, consider trying different SIP clients from the Market (unfortunately I don't have a good recommendation).


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Is there any limit on number of devices you can install Apps on from Amazon App Store?
I recently started using the Amazon App store, and noticed that it copies the apps I already purchased or downloaded to other Android devices if I sign in using the same account. Is there any specified limit on the number of devices that this is supported on? If I have 10 Android devices can I buy an app once and install it on all of them?

I'm having the same issue. Doubt I have 25 devices though. Anyone have the direct URL to list if devices? Mark

Yes, you can install all the apps you buy from the Amazon appstore on any device which is linked to that Amazon account.  It operates just like paid apps in the Android Market which are available to all the devices associated with that particular Google Account.
I have 3 Android devices and all they are all linked to the same Amazon account and the same Google account and when I purchase an app through the Market or the Appstore I have it on all three devices.

The max is 25. It'll tell you that your username or password is wrong if you try to auth any more. Though it's pretty easy de-authing them from the amazon website
Found a source:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-1315474.html

Sounds plausible, but can you point to any documentation that states this?

Nope, just personal experience. I often wipe my devices and accumulated 25 authorized devices whether they were still in use or not. I kept getting an err that my username and pwd were incorrect. That's when I began investigating and found this post. I never found anything to actually help me, I just logged into Amazon from the website, counted up my auth'd devices, and there was 25. Deleted the oldest, and sure enough, my latest device snyc'd up just fine.

I can second the device limit of 25 (personal experience). After many custom rom installs, I reached this limit and had to clear out a bunch of old devices.

Applications purchased are tied to your Amazon account.  You can also tie multiple devices to your Amazon account.  However, every device must have the Amazon Appstore app installed on it and must be logged in to access the apps installed via the Amazon Appstore, which would give anyone with any of these devices the ability to purchase additional apps using your Amazon account and it's payment information.  So, as the Amazon help describes it, it does look like it's possible.  However, it also looks like a really bad idea unless you absolutely trust everyone who has each of these 10 devices.


text:
How to install android market app manually?
I have device with android 2.1 and I want to install android market app manually. Can I do that?
I have download android_app.apk file into my device but while installing getting following error.
Package com.android.market_app requires unavailable shared library com.google.android.datamessaging; failing!
I tried to search datamessaging.jar file but I can not able to find.
Does I need to do something else.

Which device is this for?

is market app is device specific or android version specific or both?

If you have wi-fi or 3G you can install it through AppBrain Andoid market App
In case if you dont have any network connection you have to find the .pkg (compiled android package) for Android market application, then you need to install it via ADB

I have install android_app.apk file into my device but I was getting error. Package com.android.market_app requires unavailable shared library com.google.android.datamessaging; failing!

How did you install it, with adb or some other way???

using adb install command


text:
SatNav app with Audio Book app
I'm trying to find a satellite navigation app that works with an audiobook app such that I can listen to the audio book while navigating. When I get a navigation instruction I want the audio book to pause, then resume where it left off.
Google navigation just mutes every audio book player I've found (doesn't pause/resume), NDrive (preferred) just plays over the top of the audio book.
I've tried AudioBook player 2 (free) and MortPlayer (Audio Book).
Ideally I'd like to continue to use NDrive and find an audiobook player that works with it, but if that's not possible any combination of navigation / audiobook player would do.
In case it matters I'm in the UK and am using an HTC Wildfire (i.e. small screen resolution).

Have noticed a similar problem listening to podcasts. I'm sure the developers here could weigh in, but it seems to me that there should be some sort of "alert happening" intent that satnav directions and other immediate notifiers should broadcast when they speak, and player apps should be listening for it and pausing while the alert is happening.

@GAThrawn theoretically, that sounds correct, but I do not know (without looking up the api) if there is a broadcast that says "hey, I'm going to interrupt your audio, you should temporarily pause yours."  It may not exist. I'll take a look and see if I see anything...

Some standard broadcasts can be found here: http://developer.android.com/intl/de/reference/android/content/Intent.html I'm not seeing anything that sticks out to me to interrupt audio (other than perhaps for calls)

Thanks for doing the research, i wasn't sure where to look. I had feared there would be a reason why apps didn't pause. Looks like this is it! You'd think something like this would be in the API though!


text:
Does Samsung Galaxy support MMS?
Does Samsung Galaxy support MMS? I have got Galaxy 1.8 version mobile. MMS is not sending in it.

have you tried on any other phone? are you trying with your code, or just the MMS stock app? which country, service provider, etc.?

Which flavor of Galaxy? There are quite a few devices under that monicker.

I am using Samsung Galaxy Ace. And since I purchased, I cant send any MMS. I have to check with provider about its settings. It's surely setting issue.

I am using Samsung Galaxy 3 with Android 2.1 update
MMS works in this.

Thanks..Almost all samsung supports Android OS..In my case Use package data is not given at first..

If you are having problems sending MMS, perhaps its not the OS or the hardware, but a setting or you provider?  I was having issues sending texts on my Captivate (Galaxy S), turned out AT&T had not turned messaging on for my plan, and I had to enter a Message Center number (Messaging app -> Menu -> Settings -> Message center) to get it to work.

All models of the Samsung Galaxy support MMS messaging.  This includes the original "Galaxy" to the very latest models.
When having such an issue, it's almost always a configuration issue, either in the phone itself or with the service provider.


text:
Is there a minimum app price at app stores?
Is there a limit on minimum app price? I ask as I never saw any app less than .99 in any app store (apart from free apps). Can an app be like .49 for example in Google or Amazon app store?

Again, developer/development question.  Off-topic for this site.

@JonnyP That's probably the motivation, but the question and answers would be the same if I were to ask this as a user/customer.

@Matthew Read - Fair enough.

Yes, for non-free apps there is a minimum price for each supported currency.
As I noticed this morning when adjusting the price of one of my apps, these minimum prices are not exactly equivalent across currencies (and even if they were, they would drift over time due to exchange rate fluctuations).
For example, I set the new price of my app at $0.99 for the US and the roughly equivalent price of £0.59 for the UK.  However, I could not set such low prices for Scandinavian countries or Japan because the minimums were higher (the Japanese minimum is 99 yen, which is roughly £0.71 / US$1.16 at today's rates).
Here is the full list of minimum and maximum prices per country.
At current rates it seems that the cheapest possible non-free app would cost €0.50 (approximately US$0.72).

I think the list has moved. It's here now: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/table/3541286

Expanding on Bryan's previous answer, yes, there is a minimum limit on an app price: $0 (free) :-)
Kidding aside, for non-free apps, there is a minimum limit for paid apps on the Android Market, and that minimum is based on the currency and location where the app is offered.  For instance, a paid app offered in Denmark must currently be listed for no less than 6 krone.  These minimums may adjust over time to reflect fluctuations in currency value.
The Android Market is not the only source for paid apps, however, and each app vendor may utilize unique policies for app pricing.  In general, however, you will find that each vendor has some minimum limit set that will cover the costs of transaction fees.

In the Android market, the minimum price is $0.99. If I try to set my app any lower, it says I must set it to at least $0.99.

The minimum price right now is 0.99 USD or 0.50 EUR/GBP. However Google itself seems to be able to lower that price via disccounts, look at this game prices during Christmas 2014:

Yup, I can confirm it also. Currently, Play Store shows "Big discounts from $0.25" for me. I don't know if developer has control of this or not though (the discount price).

I don't think so, I'm thinking it's probably an agreement between Google and some mayor game distributors.


text:
How third party cookies are handled in Android browsers?
Is the default browser able to write third party cookies (on Safari/iPhone, only able to read, but not to write)?
What about other Android browsers (Firefox...)?

Found the answer via this site: http://www.grc.com/cookies/forensics.htm
Third-party cookies are accepted by the standard browser and also by Firefox.


text:
How can I tell my device to ignore a public Wi-Fi network?
The city I live in has city-wide Wi-Fi available for a subscription, but the Wi-Fi access point is public.
This means that everywhere I go in the city I get a notice that there is public Wi-Fi available even though I can't use it because I don't have an account with the city-wide Wi-Fi service.
How can I tell my phone (Droid X, Android 2.2.1, not rooted) to ignore Wi-Fi named "CityWifi"?
I'd like to get notification for other Wi-Fi networks, just not "CityWifi"

You can shut off all open network notifications by going to Settings -> Wireless and network -> Wi-Fi settings and unchecking Network notification.  Since the notification is system-level, there's no way to leave it enabled and not receive notifications for the one network.  But you could probably do something with Tasker to clear the notification automatically, similar to this answer.

It appears, then, that the answer is "no".
Maybe someone on the Google Android team will see this post (or someone could raise it on the appropriate Google Groups page), and they can include this as an option in a future android release.  Would be easy enough for them to keep a list of SSID and MAC Addresses of APs you want to ignore.

Networks that look open but which actually require a subscription are everywhere. You can just turn off notification of public networks altogether -- that's in your Wi-Fi settings.
Otherwise, you may need an app to manage this (I'm on OS 1.6, so I can't speak to what might be built in in later OSs). The market shows a few contenders:
WifiManager, WifiPicker, WiFiFoFum are all good starting points.
The best advice I can offer at this stage is that reading through the market is waaay easier on your desktop, since a search for "Wi-Fi" turns up tons of stuff that isn't what you're looking for.

I'd like to get notification for other wifi networks, just not "CityWifi".

Amanda mentioned some good WiFi managers.  I just tried all three and unfortunately none of them have the features the OP is looking for. Check out WiFi Ruler - it potentially has the logic you need to block certain APs


text:
If an app is downloaded and never opened, is it considered Active?
What makes an app 'Active' in the Android marketplace reporting?
Is it when it is simply downloaded and on a device, or is it when it is downloaded, installed and opened?

Opened and....?

According to this Market support page, Active installs are installs that haven't been uninstalled.  It doesn't mention anything about the app having to be opened.


text:
How can I browse my Mac's hard drives with my Android phone?
Is there any Android software that can understand afp or browse OS X filesystems some other way
?

Astro File Manager has an SMB module that appears to work for browsing the filesystem via Samba.  I haven't found any AFP or Bluetooth modules (yet); for the latter, Android likes Bluetooth OBEX-FTP but the only server implementation I could find for OSX is ancient and bitrotted.  Android doesn't appear to have any way to do the kind of OBEX stuff OSX wants — although I'd love to be proven wrong about that.


text:
How can I change root grants for app
I'v just temporary root my phone.
And here is the question: how can I change app grants for root access, if I already press allow, with "remember" checked?
And also I want to know is this screen(that appears when some app what access to root user) build-in android OS or this is third part app?

The prompt that appears is from the Superuser app, which regulates root access for other apps on your device. It is a third party app, and is not part of the Android system itself.
To modify the apps that are approved for root access, simply open Superuser from your app drawer. There is a tab which lists the currently approved apps, and tapping on an app will allow you to change its approval status or "forget" the status altogether (which will bring up the prompt the next time you run it).
There's also a setting that changes the behavior when you tap on an app in the list. You can set it to give you a prompt where you can select the approval status you want for the app (as above), you can set it to "forget" an app when you tap on it (with no prompt) or you can set it to toggle between approval states when you tap (again with no prompt).


text:
Improve Android Emulator Performance on Windows 7 x64
I'm running Eclipse Helios on Windows 7 x64. I have a Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz with 4.0 GB which I think should be enough, since I've never have any performance problems with other developing tools.
When I run my first app on the Android Emulator (both 2.3.3 and 3.0) it took at least 5 minutes to load the OS and at first it didn't even run the HelloAndroid app. Even when I managed to run the application, the performance was unbearable.
I've tried various things to improve the performance, but no major improvement is shown. I think I'm missing something.
Things I have tried:
On AVD Manager

Device RAM size to 512.
Resolution to 640 x 480.
Snapshot enabled.

On Project preferences\Android

\Launch\ -cpu-delay 0 -no-boot-anim -cache ./cache -avd Android3

Things I can't tried:
- Deploying on a device (don't have any).
By the way, I've had the same problem on a MAC Mini 2.66 GHz 2 GB but these settings made the difference.
Anyone can give any tips to improve this lame performance?.

Get a quad-core with hyperthreading @ 2.8 GHz and an insane video card.  Heh.  But seriously, the emulator is slow.  Generally speaking, emulation is always slow unless your hardware is an order of magnitude more powerful.  I don't think you're going to get it working much better than you already have.

Actually, the emulator doesn't support multiple cores (yet). So clockspeed really matters. Even on my new dev machine, I have performance problems, especially with honeycomb. I'm talking about the latest i7 quad core, 8 gb memory and a solid state hard drive.

Ha, so my old 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 should run it better (with nothing else major in the background)?  Crazy.

@Bryan Denny Even though the emulator doesn't multithread, giving it multiple cores helps shift the workload to less used cores, but this decreases stability, resulting in periodic crashes. So it's a speed/stability tradeoff, but I prefer to use all cores for speed.

The emulator is slow because it's an qemu that emulates a whole different CPU architecture as it's used by consumer PCs: ARM (vs. x86(_64) on your PC)
This means that every CPU instruction on the emulator's ARM CPU has to be emulated, which is per se slow. Also the emulator is AFAIK single-threaded. This means that speed-up can only be achieved by fast CPUs cores - multi-cores won't help here - and a reasonable amount of RAM.

Emulating a CPU tends to be slow, but the phone emulator is also emulating ARM and it's much faster. It's more than just the instruction sets. Honeycomb seems to be much more complex (and probably requires a more powerful ARM processor). GoogleTV is x86, so I wonder what its emulator performance will be like... (Whether they emulate x86 or run it as a native process.)

You could try to use a third party emulator which by my experience, works very well.
I'm not going to tell you that it won't lag from time to time, but take the trial and you will see how much better this emulator runs.
It's not a free application, but it's not expensive either.
You can find it at YouWave Android Emulator.
Give the trial a try and get back to us ;)

Honeycomb (3.0) is notoriously slow in the emulator. You could try to get most of your functionality working for the phone first, to minimize using Honeycomb.
There are some BIOS settings to enable virtualization support in your CPU. I think turning these on may speed up the emulator, but I'm not sure. (The exact names for your system I don't know, but they'll have "virtualization" or "vt-x" or something in the name.
You could also try dedicating a processor to the emulator. You can change the "processor affinity" for processes in Windows using task manager. If you change it so that your emulator prefers one processor and your other main tasks (like eclipse) avoid that processor, you may see some gains. If your processor is hyperthreaded, make sure that you treat the two virtual cores as one core and assign the emulator to prefer both virtual cores.
(Finding the processes may be easier with ProcessExplorer because you can click the target button and then click a window and it shows you the process for that window.)

Update: See the Using Hardware Acceleration section on the Android docs to see how to use your GPU and virtualization support in your CPU to speed up the emulator.

Enhanced CPU instruction sets won't help speed up the emulator, because it's basically qemu which emulates an ARM CPU.

Unless they help qemu process the ARM instructions at a faster rate. (So it can match the rate of the ARM.) Keep in mind that Honeycomb runs slower on the emulator than on a real device. Say ARM had SIMD instructions, but x86 didn't and instead it emulated them as serial operations. Enabling a SIMD CPU extension on x86 would solve that problem. That said, I don't know what the virtualization support does, except that it is intended to improve performance when simulating CPUs.

Virtualization and emulation are not the same.

@Lie: True, but that's beside the point: Intel/AMD's virtualization support (theoretically) makes the Android emulator faster. Someone is probably imprecise with their naming. (I'd guess the CPU support works for both virtualiztion and CPU emulation, so the CPU vendors aren't actually off the mark.) Heck, just because they're not the same doesn't mean they can't be combined in one system: "QEMU is a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer".


text:
Can I use the Google Market without syncing other Google data?
I have HTC Wildfire phone. I want to access Google Market, but I don't want to import any data from my Google Account.
I don't want contacts or any other data from my Google Account on my phone. Is this possible?

Shut off sync (Settings -> Accounts and sync -> Auto-sync).  You should also click on the actual account (in the same settings menu) and uncheck the various things that can be synced.  Alternatively, you could create a second Google account and keep it free of an extraneous information.

will that work, or do I need to check / uncheck other settings too

Yep, if it never syncs the data then the data won't be on your phone.  If it syncs something before you shut it off, just clear the data for the relevant app (Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications). And obviously don't open the GMail app or whatever, at least not with the account in question.


text:
Is it possible to have Android only alert me when specific email accounts have new mail?
I have Froyo 2.2 on my HT-03A "Magic" phone.
Currently, I am in the process of consolidating all my email accounts into my Gmail account, so that I can access them anywhere. I want to be able to not only access them on my phone, but also through the Gmail interface at any computer I use.
However, one or two of my accounts are attached to some mailing lists. If I have my Gmail account connect to their POP server, my phone is going to be ringing like Quasimodo with OCD. In other words, constantly.
Is there a way I can get my Android phone to sound the email alert notification based on which account is getting the email?

As of recently, this is now possible with the normal Gmail app.  Check this out:  http://www.howtogeek.com/171178/how-to-get-notifications-for-only-the-emails-you-care-about-with-gmail-on-android/

I would suggest trying Priority Inbox, which can notify, vibrate, or ring on just your new important mail. Switch to using the Gmail app, instead of the standard Email app. Then go to Menu > Settings > Priority Inbox.
Additionally, mail filtering is a more "hands on" solution for this problem that both complements Priority Mail, and helps resolve the issue when using other email applications. For instance, in my Gmail settings I created a filter for incoming mail addressed to one of my aliases. I set that mail to Never mark as important, Skip Inbox and apply a label. When email addressed to that alias arrives, I am not notified. But I can use that label to go back and read that mail at my leisure. The same can be done for your mailing list accounts, using the list: search parameter. Gmail provides a few other useful search parameters such as has:circle and has:attachment.

+1 I use the same technique for a number of mailing lists which get dumped straight into my main Gmail account.  Since Gmail is making them skip the inbox, the Android app doesn't notify me, but I can go and read the labelled messages at my leisure.

Priority Inbox was implemented for Android at the end of last year http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/gmail-for-android-better-priority-inbox.html as long as you have Froyo or above.

@GAThrawn awesome, answer updated. :)

I do this with multiple gmail accounts.
Load the email account that you want to skip notifications.   Click menu, then find settings.   Uncheck the box labeled "Email notifications".
That account will no longer sound a notification, nor show up in the notification bar.  You can still browse and read all email just like you would expect.

I would simply turn off email sync for those accounts specifically.  You can do that by going to Settings -> Accounts and sync, selecting the account, and unchecking Sync Gmail.  You can still check mail manually through the GMail app, of course.
Edit: The newest version (2.3.5) of GMail now supports turning off alerts for particular GMail accounts.

By consolidating, I'm going to assume that you're having GMail do a POP download of those other email accounts and bring them into your GMail Inbox. If that's what you're doing, then I think the easiest way to have those accounts not notify you is to have them skip your inbox entirely and have a separate label applied to them.
In your GMail settings, under "Accounts and Import" --> Check mail using POP3, you'll have your accounts that you are downloading. For each account you don't want to be notified, use the "edit info" button, and set the account to be labeled, and to "Archive incoming messages (Skip the Inbox)".

I think you should try Mail Alert in the market !
It s a pager, where you can choose the ringtone / vibration / visual notification according to various filters such as from / subject / cc fields etc.
For IMAP account, you can choose the folder to be checked, which seems to be your need if you created a folder by account.

eNotify from Verietas provides this exact capability. It lets you create alerts that match various rules. One of the available rules is the account. So you can play sound X if from your gmail account. Play sound Y if from your yahoo account.
But it lets you do so much more than that...You can play different sounds based on the sender and subject and all sorts...There a free lite version too if you want to check it out. Cheers.

How about a link?


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How to change the default contact saving location for HTC Desire HD 2.2.1?
How to set HTC Desire HD Android 2.2.1 to save new contacts to Exchange? With Samsung Galaxy S 2.2.1 it's super easy: Contacts > Menu > More > Settings > Save new contacts to...
But with HTC Desire HD 2.2.1?

According to the manual of your phone, you can't set a default save location, but on page 49, it's mentioned that if you use "People", you are prompted to select the desired location for the new contact:

From the Home screen, tap "menu" > "People".

On the "All" tab, tap "Add contact".

Select the "Contact type", for example Google or Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.
This determines which account the contact will sync with. For more information,
see “Ways of getting contacts into your phone” in this chapter.

In the Name field, enter the first and last name of the contact, then tap OK.

Enter the contact information in the fields provided.
Press "BACK" if you want to close the onscreen keyboard first and easily scroll
through the other fields.

Tap "Save".

You might be able to use an automating app like IFTTT or automateit, etc to tell your phone to take any contact you save to the phone and copy it to Exchange. I haven't found IFTTT to be that good for anything other than automatic social sharing but I haven't checked for what you want to do, and there are many others automating apps.


text:
Whatever happened to VISIONary?
A number of people on here have recommended I give VISIONary a try out on my HTC Desire HD. But I can't find it anywhere - has it been decommissioned?

Please don't use device tags like htc-desire-hd unless your question is absolutely specific to the device (in this case it's really about the app).  Thanks!

ok. I wasn't sure if I needed a specific flavour of it to match my handset.

It hasn't been updated since November, and was removed from the official Market, but as far as I know it's still around.  You can get it from http://android.modaco.com/content/software/320350/19-nov-r14-visionary-one-click-root/

Thanks much. I have it but I'm not sure its working - it doesnt seem to give me a success message when I try Temprooting.


text:
Original OS For Samsung Galaxy S I9000

Possible Duplicate:
Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

I put a ROM on my Samsung Galaxy S I9000 and now it doesn't fully work.  I was wondering if there was a way to get the original ROM, that came with my device, from an official site somewhere.  I was told that apparently you can do it on the Android site, but I can't see any place to do that.

We need more information, including the ROM that you put on your phone and the method that you used to do so.

Ideally, you would make a nandroid backup before you flashed a new rom.  Did you do this?

Go to this XDA thread and download the newest firmware for your region.  Download Odin for Windows (search for "Heimdall" if you are on Linux).  Then do the following:

Put your phone into Download mode

Remove the battery
Hold VolumeDown plus the Home key

Reinsert the battery.
Let go of the power button only about 1 second after the white device logo appears (if it does)
After a few seconds a yellow triangle with an android in it should appear, you can let go of the keys since this is download mode.

Start up Odin.
Attach the phone to USB so that Odin recognizes it.  If it doesn't, reboot your phone, exit Odin, and go back to step (1).
Load the .zip file you downloaded (the custom ROM) into the PDA field of Odin.
Load the 512 .pit file into the PIT field of Odin.
Check "Re-partition".
Hit Start.  Odin will tell you when it's done; if it fails, reboot your phone and try again.  (This happens occasionally).

Note that if you need to back anything up, you should do that beforehand and save the backup to your PC, since everything (except probably the external SD card) will be wiped on the phone.  Also note that you do this at your own risk; Odin is very powerful and misusing it can damage your phone.  Re-partition in particular can be troublesome if you select the wrong PIT file.  I've used Odin dozens of times myself safely, though.

The Samsung Galaxy S shipped with OS 2.1 / Eclair so that's probably what you want to restore it to.
Without knowing how you installed the new OS (i.e. what steps did you follow?) and what isn't working now, it's hard to troubleshoot, but you ought to be able to get the original OS from Samsung support. I don't see the S i9000 on the US site, but you're perhaps not in the US?

There are three ways to get Android OS:

You can download a leaked ROM, e.g. for SGS i9000.
You can download from the source code from official repository, search/write drivers, and compile yourself.
Modded ROMs. There are many custom ROMs for Android, the most popular includes CyanogenMod, MIUI, etc.

I'd suggest #1 or #3, they're usually much less work since the drivers are already there and manufacturer's/custom ROM can often better utilize the phone's unique capability than the generic ROM you compile from source code (unless your device is of the Nexus-series).

Original ROMs are hosted on http://samfirmware.com
This isn't an official repository - rather, it's a community supported repository of official ROMs


text:
Why has speech-to-text stopped working on my phone?
I have an HTC Desire Z with Android 2.2. For some reason my speech to text convertor has stopped working. Everytime the soft keyboard opens up and I press on the small mike button, it says audio problem and closes. Up until yesterday, the phone was fine. What could be the problem?

I would try clearing the data for it.  Do so via Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications and finding Voice Search (or the relevant app if you're using another) under the All tab.

tried this but not working, it is still saying "there is a problem with the audio"

Hmm.  Have you tried rebooting the phone?

yup tried it,some application had locked the microphone. anyways, how do i change the microphone settings without rebooting the phone. i searched in the settings but i could not find microphone in there.

I had the same problem, but i fixed it by uninstalling the updates for google keyboard and somehow everything was fixed

Google Keyboard wasn't a standalone app 4 years ago when this question was posted. That couldn't possibly be the solution to this user's problem. But presumably they've replaced their phone at least once since then, making this irrelevant.

I'd say this is quite useful to people finding this questions now who are having the problem in the title, without the same now-ancient device and software.


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Is there a way to have my device say the callers name when the call is coming in?
I have a HTC Desire Z with Froyo . I am trying to find a way to have my device speak the caller name. I have tried SayMyName but it only works if you are connected to the internet. I want a similar solution that works even if the device is not connected to the internet.
Thank you in advance.

Do you want it to read the name from your contacts, or the caller ID?

"Is there an app for X" is generally off-topic here. It's better to ask "is there a way to do X".

Sanity is another neat app for this.
Alternatively, it is straight forward to configure a Tasker profile to 'say' an alert including the caller's name.

yes, this would be better, but could you explain in detail how to do the latter....

I would still recommend sanity. It works like a charm and does a host of other functions too.

You could set each one of your contacts individual ringtones to be a sound file that is just someone saying their name.  It would be pretty tedious, and it wouldn't work for numbers that aren't in your contacts, but at least it's something.
See this thread on how to set custom .mp3 files as ringtones.


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Unknown not removable apps
I have two apps: informacje and Czasoumilacz which I cant remove through Settings > Applications > Manage Applications. What's that and how do I handle the problem?

Is there an English translation for that second app name?  I presume the first has something to do with "information".

@JonnyP I think it's a music store app.

Yeah, looks like, but they are factory apps. xD

If you're sure you can remove the apps, you need to be rooted (see How do I root my Android device?) to do so.  I recommend using Titanium backup to uninstall them, you just load Titanium and then click on the app name to bring up a menu where you can uninstall it.


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Spoof user-agent in Firefox 4 for android
Question: Is there a way to spoof your user-agent header in Firefox for Android?
Explanation: The thing that's kept me using Dolphin for Android for the longest time is the fact that it can spoof your user-agent header to quickly and easily avoid the mobile atrocities some people develop for their sites, still giving me the option to navigate there manually if I prefer it. I don't see this option for the latest release of Firefox for Android.
It seems to load much faster and I prefer the interface to all other browsers I've tried on Android, but that feature is the only thing making me keep dolphin on my phone. Am I missing it, is there an extension that allows it, maybe an option in the phone system, or is this just not in the cards for FF on Android? If not, I'll redirect this to the Mozilla devs as a feature request, but I figured I'd come here first to see if I'm just missing an option to do it.

To save space, you could just use Firefox+Stock instead of Firefox+Stock+Dolphin.  To change the user agent for the stock browser: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/6233/how-can-i-change-the-user-agent-for-the-stock-browser

I'd forgotten to check back with the stock browser in awhile, I think I'll do that. Thanks for the heads up Matthew!

There is indeed an extension which does this. It's called Phony and you should be able to find it if you use the addons search from within Firefox Mobile. After it's installed, you'll get a new drop-down entry in your preferences menu where you can choose your user agent (the most recent version actually has more choices than the picture below):

thank you so much! I kept searching for it but could never find the right search terms.

Mobile Firefox (and Chrome) now have a "Request desktop site" setting in their menus.


text:
How to create a custom boot animation?
How to create a custom boot animation for my Android device?
My device is an HTC HD2 with Cyanogen Mod 7 installed.

The process for this is very device-specific.  Please add what device you have to the question.

@Matthew Sorry, I thought it was more or less standard. I updated my question.

A boot animation is a series of images (frames) in a folders (parts). There is a text file (desc.txt) that defines the parts, the frame rate, and how many times it loops.
A desc.txt looks like this:
480 427 30
p 1 0 part0
p 0 10 part1

The first like is the height and width, then the number of frames per second
the next 2 lines define the parts that will "play".
the "p" indicates the line is a "part"
the next digit is the number of times to repeat, 0 = infinite
next is the pause, this is the delay before it starts the next "part" (or frame if looping) after the last frame in the part completes.
finally, is the name of the part (the folder name where the frames are)
inside each part your png images will "play" in order, so what ever you name them, just make sure they are ordered how you want them to "play". For example, frame001.png, frame002.png. I added the extra 0's because if i have more then 10 frames, the order may be mixed up.
The boot animation is then put in a zip archive with "store" compression, with desc.txt at the root of the archive.
The file is named bootanimation.zip, and placed in /system/media/ (you need to remount as rw) or you can place it in /data/local on some devices (should work on CM7).
When the boot animation is in /data/local, it will take precedence over /system/media, this way the "default" can stay on the device unharmed.

You're not the first to tell it should be PNG images, but when I look at my bootanimation.zip file on CM9, it contains JPG images. This is way sub-optimal, as compression alters quality image drastically, but anyway, at least it is good to know that JPG is an option...


text:
Use Only Mic in Bluetooth Headset, While Outputing Audio to 3.5mm Jack?
Is it possible to use only the microphone in a Bluetooth headset, while letting my Android phone sound through amplified speakers connected via the 3.5mm jack?
More specifically, I am looking to use my Nexus One that way. I have already solved the speakers via 3.5mm jack problem (thanks to @Adrian). I am now trying to see whether I can connect a standard Bluetooth headset and use its microphone.
It's OK if the same audio comes through the earpiece in the Bluetooth headset (i.e. it doesn't have to be disabled). I just want to make sure that if I buy & connect a Bluetooth headset, it will not disable the 3.5mm jack.
Is this doable? Do I need to change something in the setting? (I do have CyanogenMod installed, if this helps).

The term "Bluetooth headset" is very broad. Different headsets support different Bluetooth profiles.
The most common profile is HSP (used mainly for phone calls), which seems to be independent of the headphones jack you are referring to. So pairing your Android device with a cheap headset that supports HSP only (e.g. Plantronics 242) won't affect audio routing to the headphones jack at all. Your Bluetooth headset and your Android device will continue to operate in parallel, but each handling a different audio stream (channel).
If you are looking to disable the microphone only in your Android phone, it seems that only a headset with an A2DP profile could be a possible solution. You may want to read at the following thread: How do I send Bluetooth audio from the Stereo (A2DP) to Headset (HSP) profile?


text:
Nexus S screen question

Possible Duplicate:
Difference between Super LCD screen of Nexus S and Super AMOLED screen of Samsung Galaxy S

On the US site of Nexus S they say it have Super AMOLED screen. In my country, Serbia, cell network is selling this phone but states that Nexus S have Super LCD screen. Do diferent Nexus S devices have different screens? Is Super LCD to bad comparing to Super AMOLED?

Related: How do I detect if I have a Super AMOLED or LCD Screen on my Nexus S? Also related: Difference between Super LCD screen of Nexus S and Super AMOLED screen of Samsung Galaxy S

I think this is sufficiently similar to the second question linked to be eldarerathis to close as a duplicate.  Yes, the Nexus S has been produced with different versions/screens; the other questions have any other details you should need :)


text:
Market / catalog for free non-ad apps?
Is there a market or catalog dedicated to apps (open source or not) that are free and don't contain ads? I find them hard to search for on the standard markets.
Please note: I'm not looking for a way to block ads in apps, or some other way to circumvent ads that the app developer wants to show. I'm looking for free apps that don't have ads by design.

F-droid is an open source (and free) market of Android apps. As far as I remember, they are ad free (or there is at least an in app option to filter the apps).


text:
Unlocking an Xperia X10
I have bought a used Xperia X10 for development. It is locked to a network provider, and I need to unlock it. It does not show an option for a passcode or unlock code.
Is there any other way to unlock the phone?

It doesn't look like there's any reliable way to unlock it without the unlock code.  You should call the carrier and ask them to help you unlock it.  Most will give you the code if you are persistent enough, and apparently you can enter it by typing *#06# on the dialer.


text:
Is there any Android phone that can wake up for alarms even when the battery has died?
My old Nokia N95 used to wake up for alarms even when the battery had died.
Is there any current Android smartphone that can do this?

You mean when it had shut down due to low battery level? Unless it had a little button battery or something for that purpose.  Either way, I don't know of any Android phones that wake up when they're off, nevermind dead.

Yes, shut down due to low battery level.

Possible duplicate: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/4739/whats-the-reason-that-the-alarm-clock-isnt-working-when-the-phone-is-turned-off

I don't think it's a duplicate question, but it is closely related. There does not appear to be any Android phones out there that have reserve power for things like alarms. When your phone is off, it is off. This is probably why they offer desk docks where the phone goes into "clock" mode when docked. (I have one for my Droid and I love it. It's my secondary alarm clock.)

Looks like it's a NO.
Star this issue if you're interested in Google adding the necessary framework for a hardware alarm: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1942


text:
I want Android to remember my currently playing song and playlist
I am currently using the stock Music Player for my phone.  Whenever I pause a song, leave the app, and go back to the app, it sometimes goes back to my "All" songs view, not remembering what I was currently playing.  It appears that this behavior depends on whether or not the App was closed.  For instance, if the app closes by my actions via the Task Manager, or it closes on its own based on memory/CPU management, it loses track of what it is doing.
Is there a setting, or another music app, that allows me to play songs and have that song and playlist remembered even if the app is closed?
I'm running FroYo (2.2) on a Samsung Captivate (Galaxy S series).

Please let us know which device you have - since different phones may have different music players.

Try holding the Home key, switching to another app from the list of apps that pops up and doing whatever, and then going back.  Does it keep its state in that case?

@Matthew, I'll add an additional detail I found out.

@Matthew, but to answer your question, yes, it does keep its state.

The Android version of Winamp seems to do a fairly decent job of this.  I barely use it (this particular aspect isn't that important to me), but I've just fired it up after about a week, and it picked up exactly where it left off.

I downloaded this a few days ago.  It brings flashbacks of 1998.

One thing you can try is to increase how long apps stay in memory.  It's pretty simple to do this on a Galaxy S -- install One Click Lag Fix from the Market, open it, go to Alter minfree and change it to Moderate (check Set On Boot too).  I use this setting and apps usually only get killed if I play Angry Birds for a while and the phone needs to kill them to free up memory.

Matthew, I'm interested in this app, but the link seems to be expired and a search didn't bring it up in the market. Does it have a new name?

@Chance Looks like they changed the package name from com.rc.QuickFixLagFixR2 to com.rc.QuickFixLagFixR2D, I've updated the link.


text:
gallery sort order
I have HTC Wildfire.
I used default gallery app, that ships with the phone to view photos.
What is the default sort order of the gallery app?
Sometimes, photos are in a particular order, after a month of so, they are in different order.
I don't know what is happening.

See also http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/7970/gallery-sort-order

@GAThrawn: Sorry, but answer is not available at the link that you mentioned

m-jm Yes, I know that there are no answers there yet. I was just pointing that question out as one to keep an eye on, as they're very similar questions and a future answer on there might help you out.

@GAThrawn: thank you for pointing out, I'll keep track on it

I've had experience before on the Nexus One, this sort order is the last modified.
If you access your SD card from your PC this can sometimes scan your images folder and 'touch' the images with the last modified date then being updated.
That's how I've had random sort orders in the past!

@I-M-JM Could you mark as answered. It's a green tick on the left of the answer.


text:
Configuring my office e mail in samsung galaxy 3
Does samsung galaxy 3 have support for microsoft exchange servers . I am trying to configure my office e mail (which uses exchange server) but my phone keeps giving IOException. Any solutions ?

I don't know whether Samsung includes an own solution -- but there are several Apps available on the playstore which can work with Exchange:

K-9 Mail probably is the most popular mail app. It supports Exchange via WebDAV.
TouchDown for Smartphones is said to work very well with EAS, and syncs emails, contacts, calendar and tasks with your Android device
Moxier Mail (Exchange) also claims to do

There are several more apps available -- but these three should get you started (well, I guess you got started meanwhile)...

Touchdown works very well (and I use it with the office's Exchange server), but it is worth noting that the app in the Play Store is a 30-day free trial that you need to buy a license for to carry on using.


text:
How can I graph or chart date related values ( each date having one value )
NEW QUESTION

I wish to enter dates with corresponding values, and have these values charted in a line or block graph. If the chart and values could be exported, that would be nice.

UPDATE
Since the original title containing the words graph and commodities did not seem to produce any results, I have now changed the question to a more general question. Original question was: I am looking for a way to edit and graph my own commodities off line ?
USE ( to clarify the question )

I could use this to create a graph from manually entered stock exchange values, but also to follow up my weight, or hart beat values, or whatever chart whose values change daily.
I know that you can use a spreadsheet to do this, but I am looking for a more specialised program.
I am running Froyo 2.2.1 on a Samsung Galaxy S and Archos 101 pad ( if this should make a difference ).

UPDATE AFTER INITIAL COMMENTS
Left the original question here, so that any read could understand the initial comments.
I am looking for a stocks program where I can add and edit my own daily/weekly stock figures.
I want some graph too.
I don't want nor seek a program which offers real time or on line updated stock quotes.
I have looked in the marked, but there are tens or hundreds of stocks programs, and I really don't want to try them all ( especially because most if not all of them emphasise how easy it is to have real time updated values ).


text:
High definition video and native video calling in Nexus S
I try to compare Samsung Galaxy S with Nexus S.

May I know why video calling is not supported in Nexus S? Is it due to limitation in software or hardware?
May I know why high definition video is not supported in Nexus S? Is it due to limitation in software or hardware?

Where are you hearing this?  The Nexus S can absolutely support video chat, it has a front-facing camera.  Whether a video chat app supports the Nexus S is a different question.  Google Talk is supposed to support video chat in Honeycomb, hopefully it will be released for Gingerbread and support the Nexus S as well.
The Nexus S can't take HD video due to software restrictions, from everything I've read (example).  I think it just wasn't prioritized since the Nexus S is a "developer phone".  (If you meant to ask if it can play HD video the answer is yes, depending on the format and such).


text:
How can I check the OS version of an Android device?
I just bought an Xperia x10. How can I check what version of Android it has?

This is broadly applicable so I edited it, hope you don't mind.

Look at Settings -> About phone -> Firmware version (or similar).

Other users: Feel free to edit in any other places it shows up, since I know there are a few devices that have changed it for no good reason :P

On the HTC Desire (and probably most HTC devices) Settings -> About phone -> Software information

must be an HTC thing, my Evo does that too

Look at settings about device or phone or tablet, press android version again and again.  If it's Jelly Bean a jelly bean face will be shown, if it's KitKat a K will be shown.


text:
How do I stop apps from getting killed while sleeping?
I have a Droid 2.  I have a long, resource-intensive game (spectral souls) that I would like to leave running while I'm not using my phone.  If I hit the Android "Home" button to get back to the home screen and then immediately re-launch the game, it will be right where I left off.  Same if I hit the power button to sleep, and then immediately turn on the phone, unlock, and re-launch the game.
If I leave it for some amount of time (a few hours), then when I come back and launch the game, it starts fresh as if it were never running.  The phone hasn't been used for anything in the meantime, although syncing is on.
My question is twofold: how can I get more information about what apps are killed when & why, and how can I set it up to allow this app to continue running?  I don't need it to DO anything in the background, I just want it to still be there when I come back.
I'm familiar with the concept of Android clearing memory as it's needed and not needing a task killer, but I want it to not kill THIS task unless I really exit it.

I assume you don't have access to the actual code?

Correct, these are closed-source apps purchased off the app store.

I am pretty sure that isnt an option in the default design of android. I have never personally seen an app for such things because most people desire the programs to shut down to keep the speed of the phone up. It is the android system that is shutting unused programs down. The creator of the app would have to design a service to keep it running in the background or possible like an always on calculation or audio so the system would think the program was doing something. That would eat up your battery.

While your first and third sentence are absolutely correct, the others are not.

Suggestion: Use Tasker to disable screen timeout for your app. This may prevent it from going to the background.

I'll take a look and try it out, thanks!  I'll make note of any succeess or failure.

I can confirm that changing the screen timeout in Tasker will NOT prevent the app from getting killed.  Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Wait, won't this prevent the screen from turning off?  Thus wasting battery?

To the first part of your question;

how can I get more information about what apps are killed when & why?

The Android SDK has a quick summation on the Android Memory http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html

By default, every application runs in its own Linux process. Android starts the process when any of the application's components need to be executed, then shuts down the process when it's no longer needed or when the system must recover memory for other applications.

So effectively Android can be summarized as killing programs when it determines you're not using it (I clicked quit in the app), or when it runs out of resources.  For example, If you have 512 MB of ram, and 10 free and you launch an app that needs 12 it will try to determine the least used app it can grab 12 from.
It tends to do this pretty well (at least in my experience).  You might be able to go home from your game, and do a couple things, but on the third thing it will evict the game.  Keep in mind how resource intensive games in particular are, so it's likely it will kill that app sooner rather then later.
Now the reason it disappears after time, is that you likely have sync processes trying to start and compete for resources.  The apps memory pages have been hit very infrequently at this point, so it's fair game to any memory reclamation the OS feels is necessary.
To your second question;

how can I set it up to allow this app to continue running?

I don't use a task killer, but I'm pretty sure the good ones (seems like ATK is the leader https://market.android.com/details?id=com.rechild.advancedtaskkiller&feature=search_result ) have an exception list.  It might be possible to whitelist the game you want, and blacklist the other processes.
I'm also not familiar with this game, so I'm not sure what auto-save abilities and such this has.  Hope I was some help.

How to get more information what apps are killed and why?
You can connect your phone to adb; and then turn on logcat ; saving output to file.
In log file you will have ton's of info; by searching for you app name; you can find out when it gets killed.
What can you do to prevent it from getting stopped by android system?
I don't know; hopefully rAndy answer will work.
However; I would contact the developer and tell him the problem, because he/she should have the easiest time to fix it

I was about to mention the logcat solution. Just want to add that you have too look for the ActivityManager (it's androids internal "task killer").You can not prevent android from killings app. The Android idea is that if an app process gets completely killed, the app should be able to restore it's previous state. So the app developers have to make sure that you don't start the game from the beginning.


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What's the difference between the Xperia X10 and the Xperia X10a?
What's the difference between the Xperia X10 and the Xperia X10a?

The X10 is distributed in two varieties for different regions of the world, and they're internally referred to as the X10a and the X10i by Sony Ericsson. Strictly speaking, X10 is just a general term for the hardware of either of the X10 phones, so there's no "difference" since an X10a is an X10.
As for the difference between the X10a and the X10i, you can find a good explanation on the Wikipedia page. Essentially, the X10a is sold in South America and the X10i is sold in Asia and Europe. Both phones are sold in the US and Australia, but on different carriers. For instance, in the US, AT&T carries the X10a and T-Mobile carries the X10i. Because they are targeted at different regions/carriers, they support slightly different frequency bands. The rest of the hardware is the same.