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How can I find the nearest ATM in India?
There are some applications that can find and locate ATMs but those I tried are not for India or for Indian banks.  Is there an app that supports this for India?

How about Google Maps?

i need specifically for ATM, where i can select Bank and can see list of ATMs i want if i do athis in google map it will be time consuming

Do you know of any app that will work on other Java based non-Android phones ? They're usually .jar or .jad files. You can use those in Android too - just install them via the JAVA app.
AFAIK, there are none at the moment. If it's just a list you need, I suggest you expend the time and effort and collate a list from your bank's website and save it for future use. That way you'll save time as well as data charges.

Is Google Places out for India? (I don't think so.) One of the main menu items is "ATM".

@Al: YES! Great find...this question has now made me sit up and take notice of this hidden gem. It worked quite well. And pretty accurate too. It listed all the ATMs I know of and 2 more I didn't, albeit within about 1 KM of my current location and that too without GPS being on (A-GPS / cell-tower tracking only). Recommend you reformat the PLACES suggestion as an answer.

Turned comment into answer.

If you have an ATM linked to VISA, you can find ATM all over the world . Click Here to find ATM

Is Google Places out for India?
One of the main menu items is "ATM".
If not, You're probably better off using the website for your bank. If they're good, they've already got a mobile version of the site and one of the primary functions I'd think they'd have is ATM locations.

New app just launched: ATM Hunter
Don't know how well it covers India.

To find nearest you can visit ATM LOCATOR this is for India. This will give you the list of ATM around your location and distance of all atm. with map view.

So, you're the developer of the site? Please mention that in the question; nothing's wrong about that..


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Keep the screen from activating when the phone is in my pocket
I usually use my phone without a lock screen, so I can start using it by just pressing a button. Problem is, the camera and volume buttons on my Motorola Milestone are really light, and are easy to press accidentally in my pocket.
Since it already has a proximity sensor, is there a way I can tell it to completely ignore key presses when the proximity sensor detects something? My intention is to keep it from activating the touch screen if I accidentally press one of the physical buttons while it's in my pocket.
EDIT To be clear:
I want the safety of not activating my phone when it's in my pocket, and I want the convenience of not having to go through an unlock-the-screen step when it's not in my pocket.
It might be asking too much, but I thought I'd give it a try. I've read that Tasker might be able to achieve that, but I don't really know how it works and have no idea if it supports that functionality.

Well, that is the purpose of a lock-screen, isn't it? You don't want to use the lock-screen, but you want some functionality that mimics a lock-screen?

I want the best of both. :-) I want the safety of not activating my phone when it's in my pocket, and I want the convenience of not having to go through an unlock-the-screen step when it's not in my pocket.

I'd say use a really simple lock screen, like the "Puzzle" one ... 0.1 seconds and you're in.

Tasker can switch on/off the lock screen and can trigger events based on the orientation of your phone.
So you could set up an event in Tasker that enabled the lock screen when your phone is oriented vertically but upside down, then always place your phone in your pocket that way up.

Ok that's helpful. So tasker really can't check for the proximity sensor? =/

I tested it out and it can use the proximity sensor, but it's very shaky, so I decided to go with your idea.

Cool, hope it worked out OK! :)

Proximity Autolock is an app that uses the proximity sensor to lock the phone when it is in your pocket, and you can disable the lock screen via the settings.

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How to flash a ROM to the Android emulator
Any idea about flash a ROM to the Android emulator?
I found this post:
http://android.modaco.com/content/general-discussion/289928/testing-getting-an-emulator-up-and-running-a-full-rom-with-the-market-etc/
But it just with platform 1.5 and update-cm-3.6.5-signed.system.img.zip,but I want to try the
CyanogenMod 6.1.1,I can not found the related system.img.zip.
Any ideas?

Might be difficult.  I would assume CyanogenMod doesn't necessarily cater to the "hardware" of the emulator.

related: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25985384/run-custom-rom-on-android-emulator

In theory you could used yaffs2 image of the system and use that following the steps on the link you posted, but you will probably run in to driver issues with the "hardware"

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paste text to bluetooth?
I'm using the PasswordSafe app and am looking for an easy way to send passwords from my phone to other computers. I can copy the password to the clipboard but what then? Is there an app that will have the phone claim to be a Bluetooth keyboard and 'type' whatever is on the clipboard?

I don't know of anything like this but you could opt to use a cloud based password program like lastpass that would keep you passwords synced with a lot less work.

@Matt: That would solve one problem, but it's not this one.

It uses WiFi, rather than Bluetooth, but other than that it sounds like you could use an app like ShareText?
From ShareText's description:

Share text with wifi on pc or other
device using your Browser.
Copy/paste between phone and pc. You can copy the
text from pc to phone, from phone to pc,
from this phone to another phone, from
phone to any browser.


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What running applications and services are safe to turn off?

Possible Duplicate:
Knowing which applications to stop

I just got a used Nexus One and I see a lot of running services and applications.  I'm wondering what negative impact there would be if I just started switching them off?
For example, obviously, I don't want to mess with "Calendar," but what about "Calendar Storage?" If I install Handcent SMS, do I still need the Messaging-related services/applications?  Same for Media: if I install Winamp, do I still need those?

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/q/30332/1465

Calendar depends on Calendar Storage; Handcent still relies on the device's services for receiving messages; and I would guess that even if Winamp doesn't rely on Media, your wallpaper or notification sounds or something else does.
I would mostly leave these "System" services alone.  If you have battery trouble, it's likely due to user-installed apps.

Pretty sure that Winamp (and most other players) still use the device's Media database to save having to rescan everything themselves.


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Are Android chargers universal in terms of power (Voltage, amperage)?
I would like to buy a car charger, wall charger and USB cables for my Samsung Intercept. However, $20 for a charger seems expensive and I want to avoid getting ripped off. The Samsung Intercept Manual doesn't show the specs for the charging port on the phone itself.
Can I use any Android charger with any Android phone? Does Google require Android manufacturers to follow a standard for charging the devices? Or do most Android devices follow their own proprietary standards. The form factors (Micro-USB, Mini-USB) and voltages (~5V) seem universal, but I'm more concerned about amperage. It's not unheard of for some chargers to ignore the USB 2.0 standard. Do some chargers try to force 3000 mA down the wire to supercharge their devices? If so, that could destroy a device which is intended to receive only 500 mA.
I can charge the my Android phone using a powered USB port on any computer. How many milliamps does this provide? I read that USB 2.0 will provide a standard 100 mA or 500 mA. Are there another standard amperes which are used for charging?
I found what appears to be a generic wall charger for any Micro-USB device. The product description doesn't say how many mA this provides, but from the comments it appears that this charger provides 950mA. Which this overcharge my phone?

"Do some chargers try to force 3000 mA down the wire to supercharge their devices?" No, that's not possible.  The charger determines the voltage (always 5 V for USB), and the phone determines the amount of current drawn.

Some devices use USBMicro, others use USB Mini. Like any device, it depends on the voltage that the device can take. But for the most part, AFAIK, as long as the charger is the same plug type (micro, mini, etc.) then yes it can work.
A lot of the chargers that use USB plugs output the voltage that a standard USB port would (between 4.75 and 5.25 volts). If this is the case, you will have no problems. The only issue, when you use USB to charge, it is usually a slower charge then using a wall charger.

The form factors (Micro-USB, Mini-USB) and voltages (~5V) seem universal, but I'm more concerned about amperage. Do some chargers try to for 3000 mA down the wire to supercharge their devices? If so, that could destroy a device which is intended to receive only 500 mA. Or am I wrong?

The charger can't provide more amperage than the phone draws. As long as the voltage is OK (for instance, 5V for a USB-based charger) the phone will draw as much as it needs or as much as the charger can provide, whatever limit it reaches first.

@Saiboogu +1.  This is apparent even if you don't know the theory, when you think about plugging it into a computer -- USB ports can provide power for tons of devices with varying current draws.  That said, I once bought a generic USB charger and it fried my BlackBerry battery, so I'm not sure what to say.

@Saiboogu : That makes me feel better. This area of electronics is a still a little mysterious. But I guess that makes sense when I think of a lightbulb socket. If I have a 120V socket, I can plug in a 7-Watt bulb or a 100W bulb. Watts = voltage x amps, and the voltage is constant, therefore this means that the different lightbulbs draw different amperage at the same voltage.

@Stefan - Bingo, you've got it.

@Matthew - I've heard of that happening, though I've been lucky so far. I have a hunch that some of the cheaper ones are very poorly designed / built and either provide voltage way out of spec or leak high voltage transients to the output.

@Saiboogu Makes sense.

@Matthew Read: another possibility is if you're plugging a charger designed for 110v wall socket while your house have a 220v wall sockets (or vice versa).

I've used multiple different wall-wart-to-USB chargers. I haven't had any issues charging any of my devices on any of the chargers.

I know this is an old topic but I want to share some proper information.
First: yes, the cheap ones are often poorly designed -- either using fake complacency labels  or just barley making it to the standard. That being said, try to avoid using them and if it feels cheap as hell don't use it.
As for the USB standard: it is 5V (this can vary within .25V due to component values not being exact). Most computer motherboards supply a maximum of 500mA to USB ports -- it doesn't mean it will always supply that. The device(s) attached to it determines the current draw, the same is true for wall adapters. They will be rated for 500mA 750 mA 1A or 1.5A etc.
The important number is the voltage you want to be as close to 5V as you can. All devices have some form of voltage regulation to protect agents slightly high voltage, (if they dont it's simply bad design). The excess energy gets dissipated as heat. Android devices are normally ok with power consumption on stand by, but when you start doing a lot of CPU heavy tasks and have all the bells and whistles going (GPS, back light, WiFi, LTE, cell modem, etc) it starts drawing a lot of current (and making the phone hot). I have seen phones draw more than 1A with everything running (the battery still draining while plugged into a 1A rated power adapter).


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Can I use ext4 on my SD card in a non-rooted phone?
I know that on a rooted phone, it's reasonably normal to create a small ext4 partition for App2SD to use, but I'm not asking about that case:  I have a non-rooted HTC Desire running Froyo, and I'd like to format the whole of my SD card as ext4 instead of FAT.  I'm aware that this will mean that Windows PCs won't be able to use the card, but all my PCs run Linux so they should be fine.  Will the phone be able to access and use the card in this case?

I don't think you can. especially since froyo uses FAT for its apps2sd implementation.

I think you'd have to change the mounting options for the SD card, which would require root.

ext4 should be supported if you have an upgrade to 2.3 or 3.0 Android (I see that your post is from just before the 2.3 & 3.0 releases...).
...and when btrFS is added to Android, it has a nice mount-option ",ssd" with wear-levelling etc that ext4 doesn't have... and more speed than ext4 now, esp if you use ",compress=lzo" OR ",space_cache" in fstab (but don't use compression WITH the space_cache option, only use 1 or the other or else it slows to a crawl in some benchmarks) -- and that speed comes despite btrFS checksumming of all data (not only of the journals, as ext4 does). :-)

Just an update from 2017: I think this is really only valid if you have a rooted device, unfortunately.

Just an update from 2021, still not working on Android 10. I also tried an XFS formatted thumbdrive, still nothing.

I actually had my sdcard on ext4 and got it mounted permanent at boot time (I have root on my phone).
The biggest problem was that the apps don’t expect permission checking on /sdcard, but extX enforces this (no mount option around this). So if one app stores e.g. some audio there and calls another subcomponent to play it, it fails.
The same is true for photos (camera shots them, some previewer might want to access them).
You can manually fix this, but you have to run after every new file created... There would be an nice real solution to this, but it requires system modification: let the apps run with umask(002) instead of 022. Android is UPG (User Private Groups), so there is no big harm in doing so. – Now the apps could choose if they want to expose files to others by setting the group to “sdcard“, or not. This would also add to an enforced separation where the apps want it.

Get fixed permissions using FUSE or sdcardfs: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/217936/218526. But this answer isn't for non-rooted phone.

It appears that the answer is "no" :(.  I was asking because I have a new card to go in the phone, so I thought I'd just try it -- it didn't work.  When I ask the phone to mount its card, it goes straight to saying "SD card safe to remove."
Oh well.

Please, support your answer somehow or delete it.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2424900 explains that vold is something of an obstacle

@JasonPlutext now there's patched vold available.

Short answer: no.
Although on Android 5 cat /proc/filesystems shows that ext4 is supported it seems that only FAT32 and exFAT (FAT64) are supported on non-rooted devices. I've tried mounting 64GB micro SD card as exFAT without any success.
Using fdisk you can format your card to FAT32 (files over 4GB are not supported):
$ fdisk -H 224 -S 56 /dev/mmcblk0

d delete previous partition
n new partition, then select primary one p and default sector start e.g to 2048
t set c for FAT32
(here you can save few sectors by going to expert mode x and moving begin of partition b)
w write changes

Then format to FAT32, using your number of reserved sectors (2048)
$ mkfs.vfat -F 32 -s 32 -R 2048 -v /dev/mmcblk0p1

-F 32 for FAT32
-s 32 cluster size expressed as sectors, so 32 x 512 bytes = 16KB clusters
-R 2048 number of reserved sectors

This way 64GB card can be mounted using FAT32, I didn't mange to find any working formatting for exFAT or ext4.

Please, support your answer somehow or delete it.

@Masi could you be more specific? I've tried formatting SD card to ext2, ext3, ext4, fat32 and exfat. Tested on Android 5.0 and only fat32 was working. Android has very limited options of logging on non-rooted devices. What would you want me to do?

I just did a complete system installation of a new Rom on ext4. The phone used the recovery mode (TWRP 2.8.x). No OS at all in phone.  Your recovery image must support ext4. Please, let us know yours and try to update it. I recommend TWRP 3.0.2.

@Masi The question is about default non-rooted Android. I guess you're using rooted OS.

No, I am using non-rooted Android.

@Masi Ok, I'm not sure what you're trying to prove. You've managed to install OS on ext4, but the question is about mounting an SD card. So, what's your point?

Yes, you can use ext4 in SD card.

@Masi well, could then you support that claim with something more specific?

I tried LineageOS 14.1(android 7.1.2), it support sdcard(tf-card) formatted in ext4.
Though it format sdcard to vfat defaultly, if you don't make any patch.
The easiest way is to format the sdcard with ext4 using a external usb-sdcard-adapter, then insert the sdcard into phone with LineageOS installed.

That's due to patched vold. Won't work on stock ROMs.

@IrfanLatif Why android insist on using FAT on external cards? FAT is so fragile that all major phone makers are getting rid of the sd card slot simply to not have to bother with it.

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Good SMS reader app for Android?
I'm looking for a good Android application for reading SMS messages.  My requirements are:

Mark all as read option
Displaying the number of unread messages on the icon
Some anti-spam filter (option to block messages from specific phone numbers)
No ads

Is there such an app?

As things stand Handcent would fulfill all your criteria save the last one. In any case, ads are shown only in the options screen - never in the message list or conversation view.
If you're rooted, you can use AdFree to try to eliminate them.

I have yet to find an SMS app as complete or that I liked anywhere near as much as Handcent.

The only niggle is its increasing bloat and "premium" online options, IMHO.

You can get an advert free version of Handcent, you just have to pay for it.

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


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How can I fix the Wi-Fi button or prevent Wi-Fi errors when turning it off and back on?
Sometimes after I shut off Wi-Fi using the button inside the notification bar drop-down, I can't turn it back on with that button.  Hitting the button does nothing, it's not even highlighted.  When I go into Settings -> Wireless and network -> Wi-Fi settings the status under "Wi-Fi" shows Error.  If I click "Wi-Fi" to turn it on from here, it usually turns on without any problems.  Occassionally I have to reboot to fix it.
Is there a fix I can use to make the TouchWiz Wi-Fi button work the same as enabling/disabling the Wi-Fi in Settings?  Or, ideally, is there some way I can prevent the Wi-Fi from getting into an error state when I turn it off and back on?
I have a Galaxy S Vibrant running 2.2, but this has been reported on other Samsung phones as well (example).

Never had any problem with turning Wifi on and off using that button, I use it at least twice a day most days. I am running the official Samsung OS release of 2.2 rather than a ROM.

This is also happening to me but: first once I get the error I can't turn on wifi until reboot, never. And second: I'd tried turning on wifi ONLY from settings, not from widget or notifications bar and it also breaks!

@Matthew -- I have same symptoms as you do, same phone, too; I don't recall ever being forced to reboot, though.  Going into Settings almost always works for me on the first shot (90% of the time).  If it doesn't work the first time, a second shot in the Settings seems to always work.

I've had the same thing happen to me on my LG G2X running CyanogenMod. So I don't think it's related to your specific device or software. Moderate success has been reported using the "FXR WiFi Fix And Rescue" app, and it's been tested on the Vibrant. You can also try WiFi Fixer.

I've had this happen to me 1 time. I don't think there's anything you can do about it except use the settings. Once you change it in settings, does it work again for you? I did the same in settings, but don't know if I rebooted after the fact.
This could also be something in Nero v3 that is causing it.

It does work again afterward, until it occurs again.  It does seem to be unrelated to my particular ROM though, although it occurs less often on Bionix.

I had all sorts of weird problems like this when using TouchWiz on my Droid Charge.  No problems after installing LauncherPro.  Perhaps its an odd bug in the TouchWiz code.

Hmm. It seems unlikely that this would fix the case where it can't even be changed in Settings and I need to reboot, but I suppose I should try it!

I have had the same annoying problem.  I've found that the following sequence consistently restores my wifi to a working state:
From the problematic "Turning on...." message in Settings -> Wifi:
1. Press-and-hold the Home button, to activate the Task Manager.
2. End any/all apps that are listed (often, these are recently opened, but not currently active, apps)
3. Press the "Back" button.  This should return you to the Settings -> Wifi screen.  The wifi state should have changed and should now read "Error".
4. Click the check box to turn on the wifi.  If successful, the device should connect almost immediately to any known access points.
Not a true fix, but definitely quicker than power-cycling the device.
Hope this helps someone.

I finally found an easy workaround that does NOT require me to restart my phone.
(After one year of getting annoyed with this Wi-Fi "error" message on a crappy Samsung GT-I5500, running android 2.2)

In the Wi-Fi settings screen (where you toggle Wi-Fi on/off), tap your phone's Menu button to open a context menu at the bottom of the screen.
Click 'Advanced'
Switch the Wi-Fi sleep policy from 'When screen turns off' to 'Never'. (I think switching it from any setting to any other will actually work)

I've been trying this out for a couple of weeks, and turning on the Wi-Fi after doing the above has so far always worked. I've also changed to setting back to 'When screen turns off'. Perhaps leaving it a 'never' will prevent the error from turning up, but I'd like the sleep policy to save some battery.

Unfortunately I always had it set to Never!

@Matthew: Good to know. However, I am thinking that just switching the setting might solve fix the issue without requireing a restart. Don't know if you can still test this (more than 2 years after your original post)

My belief is that this is a bug in google backing up remembered access points and unnecessarily restoring them. Try long clicking each remembered access point and select forget, next setup each access point password as you reconnect to each (or manually if you remember the ssid).

By "Google" do you mean their online data backup feature?  I have that disabled.


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Where are the .apk files of currently installed apps stored on my Android device?

Possible Duplicate:
Where in the file system are applications installed?

How can I view the .apk files of currenly installed apps on my android phone?

Use a file manager to look in the following locations:

/data/app
/data/app-private
/system/app/
/sdcard/.android_secure (shows .asec files, not .apks)
On Samsung phones: /sdcard/external_sd/.android_secure

You need to be rooted to view the first three.
Use command pm list package -f (via adb shell if you want to use ADB) to list packages with their respective locations. You can then read the files. This can be done without superuser permissions.

Matthew, you can consider an update to the answer. Android need not  be  rooted to access /system/app/ now.

System apps are found in /system/app/.
The other apps you've installed are found in the /mnt/asec/ directory. See my answer to this question for details.


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How can I fix Droid2 "Link Contacts" so it chooses the right primary name?
I'm having a problem with my Motorola Droid2 (Android Version 2.2) (System Version 2.3.20.A955) when it comes to linking contacts.
When I link any Google Contact and/or phone contact with a Twitter contact, the meta-contact's primary display name always changes to the Twitter handle. If I click "Edit Contact", it very clearly lists all of the correct information, including all components of the correct Google Contact name, but as soon as I leave the "Edit Contact" menu and return to viewing the contact, the name returns to being the Twitter handle.
This, apparently, used to be a problem with Android itself, but has since been bugfixed. Apparently this latest incarnation of the same issue is specific to at least Droid, if not specifically just the Droid2. It is apparently a very common complaint from Droid2 users, and it seems to common solution is to log on the Motorola forums to rant and rage.
I am looking for a more proactive solution to the problem. I am not against rooting my phone to install a different version of Android if it fixes this issue, especially if it means I get to lose all the Motorola bloatware and unremovable apps.
Is there any way to solve this issue within the current OS on my phone? If not, is there another ROM without this issue that will behave properly with my Droid2?

I would rather not root and rage my phone if possible but I'd also like a fix to this problem. It wouldn't be so bad except that it seems to pick names at random-- I only link phone and facebook contacts and while sometimes "John" becomes "John Smith" other times "John Smith" becomes "John". For example, my grandma's facebook overwrote "G-ma" with her full name, but my dad's facebook didn't overwrite "Dad".

The Droid2 has a protected bootloader, meaning custom ROMs can't be loaded unless it is cracked.  (It hasn't been cracked yet).
That said, you can root the phone and you might be able to replace the Contacts app with another one.  The problem is that the Contacts.apk file is more than just Contacts -- it's also the Dialer.  Kind of an important file.  Replacing should be OK though as long as you back up the original and can restore it, but don't expect the replacement to work.
Googling "2.2 contacts.apk" should give you a few different versions of the app that you can download and test out.  Note you probably need to deodex your phone before you can replace a system app.  To actually replace it, use an app like Root Explorer to browse to /system/app, mount that folder as R/W, rename Contacts.apk to Contacts.backup or something, and copy in the new Contacts.apk.

The Droid2 has a protected bootloader, meaning custom ROMs can't be loaded unless it is cracked. (It hasn't been cracked yet).

This is only partially true.  The Droid 2 does have a locked bootloader but that does not stop you from loading a custom ROM.  Look here for several custom ROMs available for the Droid 2. The Fission ROM is vanilla Android and they also have a Fusion ROM that adds back some of the Motorola apps.


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Activating and upgrading HTC G1 w/o a data plan or a sim?
So I got myself a used G1 from a local guy. The main reason for purchasing this phone was that I needed a quad-band GSM phone for my visits abroad. Then, I thought why not put a few more $$ and get a smartphone that I can use as a PDA when in the US (as I don't have/want a cell phone nor an active voice or data plans).
The 1st problem I encountered was that in order to turn on the phone, I had to activate it by registering my Gmail account. But, in order to get to that point, I had to overcome the "No SIM card" screen, and to activate the WiFi connection. I was able to use my foreign Sim to pass the first screen, and found instructions on the web for activating WiFi before registering Gmail. The problem is (or at least was at the time - a couple of months ago) that this method required the installation of the RC29 system version.
So, my question is - is there a readable walk through or tutorial that explains, step-by-step, what is required in order to upgrade my system to something more modern - without a local voice or data plans?

Is the screen asking you to register a google account not closeable?  Did you try hitting the Back or Home buttons?  On my phone, the register screen asks me to connect to WiFi when I don't have a SIM card.  Did you try to register at least and see whether you were prompted for WiFi?

@Matthew Read - to be honest, I am not sure I remember the initiation sequence in 100% accuracy. I have been through this a long time ago, and now the phone is operable. However, I would like to update the system, and for this I will run into the problem again, hence the question. But I am pretty sure, however, that b/c of the Gmail registratio, which I could not normally bypass, I couldn't get to the wireless network settings.

I see.  Do you know for sure that the update will erase your data?  Most don't.  The update might also eliminate this problem.

@Matthew Read - I don't care about erasing data, as I hardly have any on the phone. My concern is that the walkthrough that I found online for how to activate WiFi w/o a data plan (which is normally required for registering the Google account) says that the 1st step is to downgrade the firmware to RC29. Any later firmware will not work for this bypass. So it is kind of a loophole...

By data I meant the WiFi network data.  If that isn't erased, then your phone should connect to WiFi after the upgrade.

@Matthew Read - A ha... I was not aware of that. I wonder how is this possible? Is the WLAN SSID/password kept in some kind of flash memory other than where the firmware goes?

The kernel and /system partition can usually be updated without the filesystem needing to be wiped, so your data folders aren't damaged.  I can't find any info on what happens when upgrading to RC33, for example, but official updates usually don't wipe data.

@Matthew Read - OK, thanks. I might give it a try then. I assume just confirming the "Updates Available" notification will be sufficient (meaning I am downloading the official Google updates)? Only thing holding me is that I don't feel like running through the tedious bypass process again (let alone trying to find the instructions...).

Should be yes.  I hope everything works smoothly.

@Matthew Read - Thanks. If you make this an answer, I'll rep you ;-)

Most updates won't erase your data. The kernel and /system partition can usually be updated without the filesystem needing to be wiped, so your data folders aren't damaged.  If the WiFi network data isn't erased, then your phone should connect to WiFi after the upgrade, and you're good to go. I can't find any info on what happens when upgrading to RC33, for example, but official updates usually don't wipe data. The update might also eliminate the No-SIM-so-you-can't-do-anything problem.

Thanks to @Matthew Read, the phone was updated. So, it happens that updating the firmware through the automatic updates popup does not erase the user data, which means that my WiFi definitions remained in the phones memory, and it connected to the network automatically, as well as maintained the Google registration information, once the update took place.


text:
Calendar app on Desire - Can I get Stock Android Calendar?
So i'm pretty sick of the calendar app on my HTC Desire... it's good, and does most things well, but something it does badly which is just really a stupid oversight by htc is this:  The date picker does not show the day of the picked date.  Even when you have selected the date, the event you're creating doesn't tell you the day.  WTF??
I guess i should ask if this is the same onthe stock android calendar app?  If not, how can i get that one on my desire?
I'm very tempted to ditch the HTC ROM and install a Gingerbread ROM... the running out of space issue is beyond a joke too.  ugh!
thanks heaps
greg

You probably have the HTC Sense calendar, which is different from the regular calendar.  To replace it:

Root your phone.
Use a file manager like Root Explorer to back up any files you replace and to copy in new ones.  You'll need to browse to /system/app and mount it as R/W.
Use an AOSP (android-open-source-project) calendar like this one from XDA (has instructions).  It's for 2.1, it might work for 2.2 but if not just search XDA for another.

Thanks for the info... i will root my phone soon, but figure i'll just put a gingerbread rom on there.. i think i want to get rid of all the sense gunk.

i'm also very tempted to buy a nexus s... not because its an amazing phone (its not - why no SD card???), but because it's the only option with a pure google android experience... i'm getting the feeling the manufacturers introduce more issues than  its worth by modding their android versions. :|

By the way i found Calengoo app, which is excellent.  I think i'll just use this from now on, until i get to rooting my phone and getting rid of sense ui. :)


text:
How to set up Hotmail as exchange ActiveSync on HTC Droid Incredible?
On my Motorola Droid, I was able to set up Hotmail as an Exchange Active Sync account. I followed the settings in http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2010/08/30/hotmail-now-supports-push-email-calendar-and-contacts-with-exchange-activesync.aspx and everything worked fine. However, on my wife's HTC droid incredible I can't get it to work. It seems like I cannot leave the Domain field blank on the HTC Sense acitvesync Account setup.
I tried various tricks like using "." or "\" for the domain field, but no luck.
Other users have apparently faced the same issue - http://community.htc.com/na/htc-forums/android/f/91/t/5031.aspx, http://androidforums.com/desire-support-troubleshooting/180574-exchange-activesync-hotmail-failed-create-account.html, http://androidforums.com/incredible-support-troubleshooting/162643-anyone-have-hotmail-exchange-activesync-working.html,
Any suggestions?

I spent ages trying to solve this for my wife on her Desire (also with Sense). In the end I gave up and had her Gmail pull her Hotmail through POP and now she does everything through her Gmail client. (I know this doesn't answer your question but consider if it's an option for you. We've found the Android Gmail app far superior in any case so it's really worked out better for her this way)

Since I originally posted this, I also realized that HTC Sense default email client cannot support more than one exchange account at a time. That is another related disappointment. I did think about buying this app, but at $9.99 it doesn't seem worth it because we are OK for now with POP3 access - http://www.androidcentral.com/android-quick-app-enhanced-email

I'd recommend rooting the phone and installing a custom ROM without Sense.

Instead of using windows live mail setup, use exchange active sync setup when setting up a new email. IT will give you option to sync both calendar and contacts. It just worked for me.

Microsoft has a workaround for Nokia phones related to the domain issue -- I haven't tried it yet, but it might be worth a shot --
Nokia
Set-Up
• Some Nokia devices cannot accept an empty Domain field during set-up. During set-up, enter at least a space and then after saving the profile, return to the "Credentials" section under "Options" to clear the "Domain" field for the set-up to succeed.


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Is it possible to disable roaming entirely, not just networking during roaming?
When trying to google the solution to this I mostly just find instructions on how to disable data connections during roaming.
To clarify why I'm asking, I have a contract with a small local phone company and they have a roaming contract with a large local provider. When roaming on the large providers network I get calls at the same rate, but no 3G network. My phone seems to quite frequently choose to go roaming even in areas where the home network gets full strength signal.
Is it possible to stop an android phone from connecting to roaming networks?

What happens if you go into Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks -> System select and choose "Home only"?

Can you tell us your motivation in doing this?

"System select" is not an option under Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks on my phone. The options are "Data enabled", "Data roaming", "Access point names", "Use only 2G networks" and "Network operators". Under "Network operators" there are options to choose a specific network, but the phone eventually goes roaming even if I've chosen the home network there.

Just go to flight mode or remove the SIM card when you are on roaming.

Note that some phones won't let you boot without a SIM card.

Another solution: Shut the phone off :P

@Bruce: yeah true. maybe just use  the flight mode

I expect an app like Tasker or Locale could do this.
There look to be some apps that can do this for you. A quick perusal of the AppBrain market found this:

HTC 911 Roaming Assistant


text:
How to add contact from email?
Someone sends me an email with a phone number, address, etc.  I want to add it to my contacts.  I'd think it would be somewhat simple, but it is quite difficult.
I can click on the phone number, call it, hang up before it rings (ick!), go to call history, long click on the number , then add to contacts.
Of course then I still have to manually type in the address, etc. Going back to the email and cutting and pasting as multiple operations isn't so nice either.
Is there an easy and efficient way to do this?  Some app maybe?  Or am I just doing it wrong?
If relevant, my device is a T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide with Android 2.1

which version of android do you have?

2.1, on the mytouch slide from t-mobile.

Easy as pie to do it in Gmail webapp.

If you long-press the phone number, you'll get prompted to add a contact. Unfortunately you still need to manually enter a lot of information.

Tried that first, didn't do it.

Well, if it doesn't look like a phone number, Android probably can't parse it.

it parses it as a phone number, so i can call it.  Have to hang up before it rings, then add to contact.  That works (although ugly), but still left with the problem of how to add the rest of the info easily.

Mine doesn't do it that way; I get options when I long-press a phone number. But even then it's not all that helpful.

Try this app "Contact adder". First you copy the signature and then open this app. It allows you to Simply map these fields with contact book. It also auto detects email address if it is in the signature.
Contact adder, Trial version and Contact adder, Pro version

Its majorly dependent on your launcher, you could replace your default dialer with GO! dialer or something of that sort. Most stock launchers have this functionality, once you click on the number in the email, it would open it in the dialer there press the option button and you would have add contact. If not, try alternative dialers as mentioned.


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How can I remove Sense UI from the HTC Desire?
So I'm pretty much sick of HTC Sense (and therefore my Desire in general) for the following reasons:

THE BIG ONE:  Lack of space on the phone partition
The Sense UI calendar is rubbish.  No view of the day of the week you're picking when creating a new event ... WTF?
Contacts sync with Google Contacts: I have absolutely no way to sync selected groups.  I've spent hours going through forum posts ... seems to be a very common problem, and for the desire I see no solution to this one.  When my contacts are taking up 15 MB of precious space, I have 2 options: delete a stack of them from my Google account, or find another option on the phone (this is the option I'm leaning towards).
Speed. I played with my friend's Nexus One with Gingerbread, and the speed is incredible.  My Desire's speed is lacking.
Battery life.  I'm pretty sure Sense and all its background processes are sucking a lot of battery power unnecessarily.  I cannot get through a day without charging.  If I go to work and forget to charge it during the day, it'll be dead before I get home.  And I hardly use my phone at work.

So, assuming Sense is the cause of all or most of the above issues, I figure my Desire and I would be much better friends if I could rid it of all that Sense gunk.
Has anybody done this? Got any links to tutorials I can follow (since I haven't even rooted my phone yet).

and your question is? Stack Exchange websites are for questions and answers, not discussions. If you want to discuss how to speed up your Desire, there are more appropriate forums, e.g. xda-developers, cyanogen, etc.

Options? To remove Sense you'll need to Root. See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/3728/how-to-root-htc-desire-froyo-2-2-without-putting-a-custom-rom-flashing http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/3911/upgrade-rooted-htc-desire-with-unrevoked3-clockworkmod-to-froyo-2-2 http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2694/htc-desire-why-not-to-root-and-install-froyo-no-porting

Lie, I was not aware of the fact that StackExchange is only for questions and answers... i've used StackOverflow for ages and have had many interesting and engaging discussions on there.  Same goes for Photo.StackExchange... so what makes Android.StackExchange so special?

The entire idea of Stack Overflow and, then, Stack Exchange is for places to ask questions and receive, hopefully, one good, correct, answer. It is not a discussion forum; open-ended questions are, for the most part, discouraged. Android isn't "special".

bah.. its a very fine line you're talking about there, and i'm not sure who's responsibility it is to 'police' those that step over that fine line... personally i dont think my question was that open ended, it had a definite end purpose in mind (solving the issues i have).  I'll answer my own question, to demonstrate..

Okay so i've solved all of my issues.  It was quite simple really, and involved the following:

Root the phone.  Easy done - here's a tutorial:
http://theunlockr.com/2010/09/20/how-to-root-the-htc-desire-unrevoked-method/
Backup the current phone setup just in case i want to rollback... tutorial:
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-perform-and-restore-a-nandroid-backup/
Download a new custom ROM to install.  I went for the Oxygen V2 RC6 Gingerbread ROM for HTC Desire.  Its excellent... fast, stable, resolves the space issues by enabling user to force apps to install to SD card, calendar shows the day when picking dates and even in agenda view, selective contacts sync is supported, and battery life seems better.  It also makes it super easy to switch between 2G and 3G modes which saves heaps of battery (in 2G mode that is).  The ROM is here:
http://android-roms.net/desire/2011/01/06/oxygen-v2-0-rc6/
Tutorial on loading custom rom here:
http://theunlockr.com/2010/06/07/how-to-load-a-custom-rom-on-the-htc-desire/

Reboot and enjoy the wonders of a pure Android experience... no HTC gunk, no Telstra rubbishware, just pure unadulterated Android excellence.
Note: I do have an issue with this setup... the network seems to drop out occasionally (Telstra).  Monitor this thread for a solution:
  How to fix Telstra network dropouts on Gingerbread Oxygen ROM?


text:
Can Tasker/Locale tell me what BT device is connected?
I want to change the phone's state dependent on which specific bluetooth device is connected -- can Tasker or Locale do that?  Thanks!

Yes. Tasker will do this. When you're setting up the state, choose "bluetooth connected", then click the magnifying glass next to the "name" field. It will search for paired bluetooth devices. Choose the one you want and configure states/actions. Then do it again for the other BT device.

It should be noted that it's not "bluetooth connected" but rather "BT Connect".  I couldn't find it initially :-)

I am the developer of Locale.
Locale has a plug-in architecture, and there is a free plug-in available on the Android Market called "Locale Bluetooth Plug-in" which provides this functionality.

I have just released a new Bluetooth plugin for Locale - which looks for BT devices by Profile (A2DP (audio devices) or Headset/Hands-Free) - optionally you can select a specific device to look for as well.
Check it out @ Google Play: Locale Bluetooth Audio Plugin


text:
How do I root Cruz Tablet?
I am relatively new to the Android scene, and have recently bought my first official android-powered device. The cruz tablet was just $199 at Best Buy so I figured I culd give it a try. Unfortunately, it's very limited. I can live with the hardware shortcomings (no camera, no Bluetooth), but I want access to the full Android Market.
I believe a rooting is in order. Can someone please point me in the direction of rooting instructions for this device? Is rooting the same for each Android device? I haven't found much info on the net about this particular tablet. Anything I can learn from here would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Thomas

There are currently no methods to root this tablet. However, you do have root access when using adb.

I have a rooted Velocity Micro Cruz T301 (now running on Android 2.2 Froyo).
You can find instructions for any Cruz tablet on Slatedroid forums.
So far this forum is the best source of info on this tablets.


text:
Can I emulate a Bluetooth keyboard with my Android device?
I'd like to use an Android phone for controlling presentations. I know there are some WiFi approaches, but often times the computer running the slideshow isn't owned by me and is not comfortable installing and running other software, especially stuff designed for remote control.
So I'm specifically looking for some way to do this using the Bluetooth HID profile, as it requires very little set-up on the PC side. Basically, I'm looking for the Android equivalent to BlueMaemo.
Is there a way to do this?

Just saw this: AndroidSpin: Turn your Android Into a Keyboard and Mouse for Your Playstation 3 or PC

Another reason we all love technology, thanks to some clever development by XDA member berserker_devel, you can now use your rooted Android device as a keyboard or mouse on your Playstation 3. The app, BlueputDroid, has been released in beta form and allows your phone’s screen to be used as a cursor and virtual or physical keyboard to input text. This app could also be used for your PC, for those that really want the most from there device(s). Either way it could save you quite a bit of money on buying wireless input devices for your toys (provided they have bluetooth and are supported).

A limited number of devices are supported at present, but it's being actively developed, so something to keep an eye on even if it doesn't cover your device right now.

Promising, but the reviews are not looking good. https://market.android.com/details?id=berserker.android.apps.blueputdroid

A good comment on there today ;) Current lack of Windows support will be a problem for most, but this is the one to watch.

There's an app project on Google code that does this: AndroHID.
It doesn't offer you a full keyboard, it's meant more as a remote for wireless presenting or audio/video controls, etc. (much like older SonyEricsson feature phones, e.g. the K- or W-series did). You need root.
It seems inactive at the moment (last release from 2010) and it is not in the Play Store.

You could download TeamViewer for Android and then download TeamViewer Portable (scroll down some).  This way, you could run TeamViewer from your USB drive without having to install it and then connect with TeamViewer for Android.  I have used it to connect to my home computer and download some files - it works great on my EVO.
I couldn't wait to try it so I gave it a shot.  It works pretty well but you can only access the main display (can't point things out with the mouse on a secondary display).  Also, I needed to enable the "Presenter View" so that I could click the "Next" arrow since the presentation was on the secondary display. The computer I tried it on was on WiFi and my EVO was on 3G.

Works very well, and has impressive support for Linux (Fedora 19 + Android 4) - it was used to type  this comment :-) - including this link to the best Android on-screen jeybaord, which was also used for this. i now just need to work out how to scroll...

Native support for BT HID is going to appear in Android P.

Android P adds support for the Bluetooth HID device profile, which allows Android smartphones to be used as a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse for connected devices.

The Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse app emulates a real Bluetooth keyboard that you can connect with every device that accepts Bluetooth keyboard.
This is possible because, since Android 9, Bluetooth HID became available to apps.

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

authors: p̻̻̥r̥̻̥o̻j̤͛ec͔t̞dp


text:
Questions About Android Privacy
The permissions warning in the Android Market is very vague. As well, I can't see the app permissions in a collective area of all the apps I have previously installed. So, I have no clue whether an app is accessing my contacts, my email address, my name, phone number, camera, microphone, image gallery, and other private information.
Is there a way, or an app I can install, which will indicate some risks to me about my apps and my privacy?

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/3308/audit-app-permissions-easily-in-one-place

http://bit.ly/2OprA7s

You can see the permissions of installed apps.  Go to
Market -> Menu button, My apps -> select an app -> Menu button, Security

There are also apps called Permissions Watchdog, and Permissions, as per Al's comment.

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/3308/audit-app-permissions-easily-in-one-place

(This may be OS version dependant)
If you go into Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications, you should be able to click on any app whether you installed it via the Market or "side-loaded" it, and there's a Permissions section if you scroll down that lists them all.


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Why does the screen come on when my phone is plugged in but idle?
Sometimes when my Nexus One is plugged in with the screen switched off, the screen turns itself on (showing the lock screen) seemingly randomly, and I have the "Stay awake" Development option turned on, so it stays switched on until I manually switch it off again.
I suspect that some app is inappropriately obtaining an ACQUIRE_CAUSES_WAKEUP WakeLock. Is there a way to get a log of WakeLock activity or some other way of debugging this?

I'm suspecting a bad charger; most home screen I've used turns itself on when you just plugged the device in or plugged the device out, if a bad charger somehow causes the device to think that it had just been plugged off and/or plugged on, it could cause the symptoms you're having. Have you tried with a different charger and different wall socket?

Hmm, that sounds quite possible. I normally have it plugged in to a powered USB hub that isn't 100% reliable, so I'll try it with the charger and see if the same thing happens. Thank you!

I eventually tracked this down using the app "Task Identifier". It's a bit awkward to use and has an odd interface, but it also has the useful feature of showing an alert if apps activate when the phone is sleeping.
It turned out that the problem was the sync service from the doubleTwist app, and it appears that it was indeed caused by an inappropriately-used ACQUIRE_CAUSES_WAKEUP WakeLock. I've e-mailed them a bug report.

The same happens occasionally on my Galaxy S, usually about 5-10 minutes after plugging in. If you can handle the dev tools, you could try charging the phone from an USB port while running logcat and checking what goes on around the time the phone activates, or if the screen turns on only when charging from a wall socket you could run aLogcat on the phone while charging and then try to see the reason, but it can be a bit tricky on the phone.

Thanks for the idea. I'll try logcat next time I notice it.

I had this problem when I had SipDroid installed -- every time its connection dropped and came back up, it would turn on the screen.  You could use an app like Titanium Backup (requires root) to "freeze" an app, and see if the problem stops.  If it does you know what app is the problem.  Then uninstall it, or turn off background sync for it or something if that might be the problem.  TB can uninstall system apps, but be careful which ones.


text:
Can I connect an Android phone to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse?
Is it possible to somehow connect a monitor, keyboard and mouse to an Android phone and then use it as a lightweight computer (netbook-like)? If it is, what Android version / phone type support it, and how can it be done?
I know that 2 years ago, the guys behind REDFLY presented a proof of concept working with their terminal; but I've heard nothing else about it and a lot has changed with Android over the past 2 years.

Samsung have a dock for the Galaxy Tab which connects it to a pretty much full-size keyboard, and props the screen in a position where it's like a laptop's screen. There are also a number of Android devices that have a video or HDMI out capability to output their screen onto a TV, often needing a special converter cable.
Bluetooth is an option for connecting keyboards, KeyPro (AppBrain Link) (Official Website) andTeksoft Blueinput (AppBrain Link) (Official Website) load drivers onto your phone to let you use Bluetooth HID to connect up many Bluetooth keyboards  (trial versions are free to test your device's compatibility, but it looks like if you want to carry on using it you'll have to pay to register to make it work fully). There are other options for loading Bluetooth HID (keyboard) drivers onto your phone if you root it.
Also, see these previous questions regarding connecting peripherals, such as keyboards and mice, to Android devices using Bluetooth.

Bluetooth keyboard with Android?
What else can Bluetooth do?
External Hardware Keyboards

From Android Honeycomb (Android 3.1) upwards certain devices, that have USB Host support built into their hardware, can attach and use normal USB keyboards and mice (with the appropriate USB host micro-USB to USB converter cable). I have occasionally plugged in used a keyboard this way on my Motorola Xoom.

Motorola have just been showing off their 'Atrix' phone which does pretty much what you're after.  It's apparently due 'later this year' (source).
Here's a video of the docking features.

Very impressive, though I hope this can be achieved with other phone types as well.

Yes, I sure hope so.. PLEASE. I'm buying a LG Optimus speed btw.

As a (former) Atrix 4G owner, I can comment that this is an awesome idea, but executed very poorly by Motorola. First, at launch the dock used to cost as much as the phone (~$500). The price came down significantly since then though ($50 online from AT&T). The biggest drawback is the outdated and very restrictive Linux build Motorola used for the Dock functionality. Long story short - a laptop replacement it isn't. Maybe a netbook.

Samsung Galaxy S can output to TV using a special Micro USB to HDMI cable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQBAx_BDfk

I'm typing this response using a bluetooth keyboard, bluetooth mouse, and external monitor hooked up to my Samsung Galaxy Nexus. It works great and was very simple to set up. No special drivers or apps needed. I'm using a Dell S2409Wb monitor, an old RocketFish Keyboard and an old RocketFish Mouse.

That sounds great! Did you have to do anything special, or just you just pair the devices from the Bluetooth menu and that's it?

Nothing special. Just pair through the bluetooth menu. I used an mhl adapter for the display.

The Asus EEE Pad Transformer is close to what you are after and available now. I like the way it also extendes the battery life. I would wait for something with a bit more power for this purpose though. I have a feeling that using a single core arm processor with 512Mb ram in my case would feel pretty slow as a desktop experience.
Another thing to note is that Android won't support all the keyboard shortcuts that you are used to on a desktop. I hope this changes because for me it is an obvious evolution. Indeed the concept of a personal computing unit like this is something I have been waiting for for 15 years!

typing this comment on Asus Transformer Prime - it has even a touchpad (however not everything on the web hears mouseover events when its' cursor hovers over it, especially it's true for autohiding menus in flash videoplayers)

even better now , the padphone! tegra 3 everything device. Hope it turns out well!

Google for ubuntu for android, the video demonstrates how your android phone can be connected to an external monitor and used as fully functional desktop, while still being used as android phone. Great stuff, mind blowing!!

Ubuntu for Android indeed sounds great.  However, Canonical said that they will initially work with manufacturers and carriers to build this functionality into new devices going forward.  Even if/when they release it to the masses, with the hardware requirements being pretty high-end http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android/features-and-specs (dual-core CPU 1+GHz, accelerated graphics, HDMI out, USB host) it would not work on a lot of older handsets.  Other than that it's an awesome development.


text:
How can I check which applications have been granted root access?
I have an SGS i9000 with Android 2.1 and I installed a lot of applications before I fully understood what "root" was.  Now I naturally want to review which applications I gave root access.  How can I do this?

If you root your device using one of the more modern methods, then you should have a SuperUser.apk installed that will prompt you before any apps are given root access. The SuperUser application also keeps track of the applications that have been given root access.
If you don't know about rooting, there is no way you have an apps that uses root except if your phone is a second hand, and the previous owner did not wipe and reinstall a stock firmware.


text:
Battery Life on Desire HD
Why does the battery for android phones perform much better after 2 or 3 weeks of usage? Is there any logical reason?

Is your question about the battery in the Desire or in Android devices in general?

I didn't notice a significant difference in battery life after a little usage, except insofar as after two or three weeks I wasn't playing with my new "toy" as much and just using it.

My question is about Android phones in general and DHD specifically, I heard that Android manages the phone usage after a while and saves more battery power. I don't have a logical reason till now.

I've had the Desire HD for 2 weeks with the following settings

auto contrast
GPS + wifi + bluetooth off
background data on, with services retrieving data once a day

i get around 5 hours of usage out of the stock 1250mAh battery.
I need to charge 2 full batteries to go thru my day, with short charging at work when the first battery dies out.

I'll agree with Al Everett and say that the amount of playing with the new toy is certainly a factor early on.
I also did not notice any intrinsic changes in the systems battery management over time.  I did however notice a massive increase in battery life by turning off auto-sync, and even mobile on occasion.  With those two on, I'd see a significant drop in battery when I slept overnight, but it doesn't budge with those two off.
I use two power control widgets, the HTC data dashboard and the Android power control widget. Between the two, it's a piece of cake to tweak power settings to make sure I get the most out of the battery.

It does not.  If you don't change any settings, Android will always do power management the same way.  Installing and removing apps can affect battery life since running processes may eat battery while your acreen is locked, and the like.

Actually battery life can change and according to this post from HTC it can even be improved by the steps outlined in the post.

authors: Иван Бишевац


text:
What is the unlock code for Motorola Droid Pro?
I brought my Motorola Droid Pro back from the USA to Switzerland. It has never been actively on any network, as i bought it through Amazon as a "spare phone" on a Verizon network. I never activated the verizon chip. I am now back in Switzerland and when I try and put in my Swiss SIM card and access the network, it asks me for "SIM network unlock PIN".
Does anyone know how to unlock it?
thanks.

I have also got a new Verizon Motorola Droid Pro from Amazon Wireless as a replacement phone. It was never activated in the USA. I am trying to get it unlocked remotely (using IMEI) from India. Unfortunately Verizon is not giving the code as I am not a Verizon Customer ( They need you to be a customer atleast for 90 days). I tried couple of Unlocking Services and both of them gave the same unlock code. It didn't work. They are saying that Verizon might have changed the Unlock Code and only Verizon can unlock it. I am stranded. Any solutions please?

See this thread on XDA-Developers Unlock Motorola Droid Pro:

You simply call Verizon and tell them
  you're going to spend some extended
  time in Europe and you want the
  ability to unlock the phone and change
  out the SIM card so you can use the
  phone as a local phone without all the
  charges, etc. They'll then tell you
  that you won't have the Verizon
  guarantee of service, etc., if you
  remove the SIM card while overseas.
... They gave me
  a code to use when and if I ever
  insert a foreign SIM card in the
  phone. At that time, it will prompt me
  for the unlock code.

i tried that, but they said seing as it had never been activated on the verizon network they don't bave the code - but surely the code is tied into the IMEI and not the service contract?

Probably they just don't want to give it to you because they never got to make money off you having a plan for that phone.

If they're going to be difficult like that, then probably your only option is to pay one of the phone unlocking services on the net, who should be able to give you an unlock code for a small fee (and if they try to charge you a lot, shop around for someone else).


text:
Encrypt the phone's internal storage
Is there a way to encrypt my phone's internal memory, in the same way you would encrypt a computer's partition?
Ideally, the phone would always ask for the password when booting, and even if someone had physical access to the phone and plugged it into a computer, this person could never see what's inside the phone unless he/she knew the encryption password.
I'm looking for a way to encrypt the internal storage only (that's where the sensitive data is kept). Encrypting the SD card is nice but not necessary.
Running eclair on a motorola milestone, and I'm willing to root it if necessary.
Note: I know that there are security related apps that offer to remotely nuke the phone. I also know that this might seem exaggerated and tin-foil-hatish to some people, I'm just a bit of a security freak. :-)

I'd actually like to be able to do this as well.

@Matthew: Indeed. I felt a lot safer about my passwords once I encrypted my laptop. Now that I have a smartphone, I've started worrying about them again.

This is a substantial issue for health professionals in the era of HIPAA [http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/]; to illustrate the attention this has received, here are some pubs from NIST that refer specifically to HIPAA: Storage encryption guide [http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-111/SP800-111.pdf] and HIPAA implementation guide [http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-66-Rev1/SP-800-66-Revision1.pdf].

possible duplicate of Secure/encrypt SD card data transparent to apps

@GAThrawn: that question is actually about SD encryption. I'm specifically looking for internal storage encryption. But one of the answers there does have a great link which I'll post here for the moment.

@Bruce To be honest I was proposing that as a dupe on the assumption that with things like Froyo's apps2sd functionality, encrypting the SD card presents a lot of the same problems as encrypting the internal system storage. In which case an encryption solution is quite likely to offer encrypting both internal and external storage, rather than just the external, as we can see with Motorola's offering.

I'm quite surprised we're not seeing this more widely already, it is definitely going to be holding a lot of companies back from using Android devices as their company mobile comms solution. I know that one of the reasons that Blackberrys are so widely used by businesses is that an admin can enforce every Blackberry attached to the network to use DoD approved encryption levels on all storage. The enforced encryption is why we're still using them at my company, anything carried out of the office with our data on by law must be encrypted, this includes laptops, phones and even USB sticks.

Android 3 (Honeycomb) offers full system encryption natively.  However, as it's only for tablets at this point I will post some other avenues.
There was some work done on this for the G1 using LUKS and Cryptsetup.  I think I've seen this on a moto droid rom too, but you'll definitely need root.  It is not trivial to do, and there isn't too much interest so popular roms like Cyanogenmod don't provide for this natively.
There are some apps in the market that support encrypted file stores (check out Lock Files). I have no idea how transparent that is on the system however.
To your italicized point on remote wipe.  There are MANY solutions for this.  If you're using Exchange you can push this with ActiveSync, if not apps like Lookout, and more provide remote wipe and other functions.  There are even manual ways w/ dyndns and a listening SSH server.
Hope I was some help.

Have you got any link to any info on the full system encryption included in Honeycomb? I can't find any mention of it in places like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history#3.0_.28Honeycomb.29 or http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-3.0-highlights.html or any info on how you'd enable this or switch it on yourself?

I have a xoom, which I assumed was stock Honeycomb.  Perhaps it's something motorola added if it's not called out in the release notes?  I did see the SDK for 3.0 has an encryption API now.  Here is a motorola link on how to enable it (which I have done on my xoom).  https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/62464/~/motorola-xoom---data-encryption

Looks like a 'Google rep' told Engadget it was a feature of Honeycomb and not something Motorola added; http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/android-3-0-honeycomb-can-encrypt-all-your-data-needs-a-full/

Ahh just found it, 2nd to last paragraph of the platform highlights page, encrypted storage isn't actually called out as a new feature, but the fact that admins can now enforce policies for encrypted storage is mentioned in passing: In Android 3.0, developers of device administration applications can support new types of policies, including policies for encrypted storage...

Inside this question linked by GAThrawn, there is a link found by noname:
ANDROID - Encryption
Motorola claims it will offer "file system level encryption for both internal device memory as well as SD card", in early 2011. This encryption seems to be exactly what I was asking for (more details in the link).
All that's left is to hope that Motorola lives up to its promise.

I won't accept this answer until this feature actually comes out. So if someone has a different method, please post it.

Motorola's page now says "Permission denied".

I saw @DanDascalescu comment is from 2014.  I just wanted to point out that full device encryption is now widely available in Android tablets and phones as of Android 4.x and onward.  Here's a link with details; http://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-encrypt-android-device-326700/

This is a very old question with no up-to-date answer. As of 2014, Android 4.x and later offer native full-disk encryption.
Here's how to encrypt your phone along with pros and cons, and here's a discussion on the benefits of doing so against various types of attackers.
Android N offers file-level encryption.

This is correct, however I will be a little pedantic and point out that native encryption was actually offered as of Android 3.x not 4.x.


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Market Downloads, GTalk and GMail notifications fail when on company VPN
I've noticed that when I login over WIFI to my company VPN the following problems occur:

GTalk does not login.
No GMail notifications received.
I can access the Android Market but when I attempt to download an application it fails.

All these work ok on my home WIFI and 3G connections.
Does anyone have any idea what would cause this?
What protocols/ports do these services use and is it possible to edit them?

Ask your company's administrator? They surely should know better than some strangers in the internet if your company blocks some services.

I agree, it's like some ports being blocked.

Happy to ask them but wasn't sure what to ask. IE: what protocols/ports do these services use? Is it possible to change them? I've updated the question to make this clearer.

I think GTalk uses port 5228, and the notifications and Market downloads both use the GTalk protocol internally.

Found this on the google help. Seems like it is ports 5222 and 443.
http://www.google.com/support/talk/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=27930


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How practical it is to use an Android phone, bypassing Google completely?
One of the first things that I noticed on my Nexus One as I turned it on the first time, was GMail, Talk, Voice, Maps, Google Calendar and many other Google based services.
I know that even on a Windows or Linux PC it's very hard to avoid using Google... but it is possible, as there are alternatives to every service that Google offers.
On the Android, however, things seem to be very tight. You may recall the time in which Internet Explorer owned over 95% of the market share, simply because it was tightly integrated with Windows. Back then, Netscape was available but even if it performed as fast as Internet Explorer, starting it would take considerably longer.
So, my questions are:
(1) What are the non-Google alternatives to GMail, Talk, Voice, Maps, Google Calendar on the Nexus One?
(2) Do they really perform as fast as the "native" Google apps/services?

One thing you won't be able to replace is the search engine.

I recommend changing the title from Nexus One, to Android. This isn't specifically tied to that phone.

@Earlz I've changed it.

I am living (almost) without Google on my phone. I have setup a junk account just for downloading apps from market and use Google Maps. Nothing more.

@Al Everett Really? Search application (widget and the one which reacts to hardware button) is just an application. One can write a replacement for that.

See also this post, discussing some pros and cons.

(1) What are the non-Google alternatives to GMail, Talk, Voice, Maps, Google Calendar on the Nexus One?
Can't say specifically about Nexus One, but the stock Android platform does not come with Google-branded apps; so, yes, it is possible for the phone to live without Google. However, IMO if you're using Android and avoiding Google's services, you're missing a lot.
The stock Email application can sync to Gmail or other mail services through IMAP and POP. However, just like syncing Gmail from desktop through Thunderbird/Outlook, you won't be able to use the unique Gmail features, like Priority Inbox, Archival, Labeling, etc.
Applications that uses Cloud to Device Messaging (a.k.a. Push-to-Device) requires a Google account. Without C2DM, applications would have to poll their servers periodically, therefore draining the battery. There are alternative implementations C2DM that does not connect to Google's servers, however most programs are not designed for those alternative implementations and may have problems.
Google's Android Market is the largest Android market place. Needless to say, you won't be able to download as much apps as easily if you avoid Google's Android Market.
Google Maps and Navigations can be replaced by, e.g. Waze, Navdroyd, NDrive, RMaps, etc. I don't think there's a good replacement for StreetView, however.
There are certainly replacements for Google Calendar, however, I've not used any of them, so I cannot comment on how good they are.
(2) Do they really perform as fast as the "native" Google apps/services?
Yes, if we're to believe Google's words, none of the Google's apps use any "hidden" Android APIs that could magically cause their software to outperform other applications. However, because Google is Google, Google's own apps typically have the best integration to the Android platform and 3rd party programs typically would prefer to integrate their own apps with Google's applications.
Also, since Nexus One is a "Pure Google Experience" phone, this means rooting and installing custom ROMs on a Nexus One is among the easiest from all Android devices.

Excellent answers by both  Matthew Read and Lie Ryan. I wish I could accept both but SE only allows accepting one. :)

Actually they use hidden API. On devices with stock Google applications there is a special .jar that implements underlying functionality which is stored in /system partition where non-root users have no access. That is why it is hard to install Android Market as a standalone .apk

Android comes with an Email app that lets you use any POP3, IMAP, or Exchange account.
Talk can be replaced by Meebo, eBuddy Messenger, and many others.
Voice is a fairly unique service but some features can be sort of replaced -- you can use a SIP phone number and an app like Sipdroid for calls, or something like Kik Messenger for text-like instant messages (think BlackBerry Messenger).
Searching "Maps" in the Market shows several results that look promising, same with Calendar.

The Email app is very, very buggy and low on features.  I'm confident there are other mail apps that are better though.  On the other hand, Talk is also pretty buggy; I find eBuddy to be much better.  And many people have problems with Calendar.
When it really comes down to it, a quality app is a quality app, whether Google wrote it or not.  Android doesn't seem to be as biased toward Google's apps as Windows was towards Microsoft's apps.  My hodgepodge of Google and non-Google apps works well for me and I'm sure you can get a set of apps that will work at least as well overall as Google's apps do.

And there are, of course, alternative app markets.

What about contact list coupled with gmail account?

Good question.  On some devices you can bypass setting up a Google account, so presumably you could use Contacts without it.  Otherwise you still wouldn't really "use" the Google account unless you wanted to -- you'd need to have one, but if you had no Google contacts then nothing would be different than a standalone contacts app.


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Show the time an SMS was sent, not received
Scenario is as follows-

Switch flight mode on. Go into meeting/go to sleep.
Switch flight mode off. Receive a message.
Timestamp on the message is the time received.

With my old Nokia, under details it would show the time the message was actually sent. Is it possible to show this on Android?

It might depend on your messaging app -- HTC phones with Sense don't have the standard android mesages app, for example.  What phone do you have?

Ah, I hoped there wouldn't be a handset dependency. It's a Galaxy S.

There is an app called SMS Timestamper that appends the received time to incoming text messages. Worth mentioning for those not comfortable with fiddling with the OS's internals, or those unsure if it would work on their version of the firmware. I'm on JPO so I didn't want to chance it.

It's a stupid setting of galaxy s sms' app. To resolve this you have to replace the mms.apk into /system/app with that attached in this thread of xda forum
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=891667&highlight=mod+sms
If you look all the thread, you can also find the complete installation guide!


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How can I get word completion with physical keyboard?
Is there any app or method that provides word completion when using a physical keyboard?

No one's come up with an answer, but I think your question may be a better worded version of this one: "Spell Check app or setting while using drop down keyboard"  http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2254/spell-check-app-or-setting-while-using-drop-down-keyboard

I believe Better Keyboard and Smart Keyboard Pro offer suggestions even with the use of the hardware keyboard. This is a user configurable feature available in the app settings.


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Set default mail application on Samsung Continuum?
I recently picked up the Samsung Continuum (love the phone!). The ticker is awesome except that it launches the default mail application when I click the mail icon. I don't mind the mail application but I much prefer the Gmail application.
I've noticed that it will launch whatever default application is set. The problem is I can't seem to change the default mail application. The Mail app is not listed in the Applications list, so I can't use it to "Clear Defaults". I've also tried the DefaultApp application and that doesn't list the application either.
Any ideas? Many thanks in advance!

Is this the same question: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/31/how-do-i-change-the-home-screens-email-icon-to-go-to-gmail-instead-of-the-defaul

No. The Continuum has the special dedicated "Ticker" screen that gives you notifications. When you click the notification for new email it only ever launches the default email application. I'd like for it to launch the gmail application.

If it doesn't allow you to clear defaults, you may be out of luck as that more than likely means Samsung hardcoded what is used to open the message.


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Accidentally turn on silent mode
On my LG-ally, I keep accidentally turning on silent mode.  What exactly am I doing to cause this, and is there any way to disabled whatever the action is?

If you're downvoting please explain why.  Presumably there are only a few ways to turn on silent mode, and even fewer ways to do it unintentionally on a frequent basis.. So i don't see how this question is vague or off topic

I have not voted, but your question is poorly-formed ("What exactly am I doing to cause this" - one can only guess without observing your use, and you don't even describe whether this happens in holster, pocket, or purse), and very device-dependent and therefore of limited interest.

I have a similar problem.  Whenever I mae a call on my LG Ally it automatically sets the phone in silent mode.  GAAHH!  This means that after I call one person if anyone ese cals me I won't hear the ringer.  It just started when Verizon upgraded LG Ally to 2.2

Are you perhaps using the volume control and going all the way to the "bottom"? That turns on silent mode in my Droid.
Are you hitting the wrong option on the menu when you hit the power button?
I'm not familiar with the LG Ally, so I don't know if they might have added an extra feature to make it easy to get into silent mode. Did you check the manual?

My apologies if this is too much of a me-too, but I'll second Al Everetts comments on the volume control.
I have this problem in 2 situations:
1. In the bracket I use in the car, one of the foam blocks rests a little on the down volume button.  I've since cut the foam to reduce this issue.
2. When I'm holding it in landscape mode, I often bump the volume buttons.
There are on-screen indicators though, so I usually don't do it without noticing.

I had a similar problem on my MotoDroid, and downloaded RingGuard from the Market.  It's a simple app that detects whenever the ring volume changes and pops up an on-screen dialog to confirm.  If you don't confirm the change within a couple of seconds, it cancels it.

I had this problem with my new HTC touch.  I kept accidentally pressing the 'volume down' button whilst holding the phone.  After putting a gel case on the phone, this is not longer a problem, as the case covers the buttons so they're not so sensitive.


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Is there anyway to speed up or replace the Sense UI dialer?
I have a droid eris running android 2.1...the dialer for it is awful.  I dont know why they chose to put the end call button and send call button in the exact same area.  It is also very laggy.  Sometimes I will try to call someone and the send button gets hit twice which will initiate the call and then end it immediately.  Is there anyway to speed up or replace the Sense UI dialer?
Note:  I do not wish to completely remove my sense ui...only the dialer.

There are quite a few replacement dialer apps in the market - just search for 'Dialer'.
There are quite a few, both paid and free.  I've only tried one (Dialer One) just to confirm that it can indeed replace the default dialer, but I don't think it's sensible to go into any particular dialer's merits here.


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What does the new button on the power control widget do?
There are 6 buttons on my power control widget:

WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, ???, Data sync, Screen brightness.
What does the 4th one do?
P.S. I'm using an Orange San Francisco (ZTE Blade) with the 'Japanese Jellyfish RLS6' custom FroYo ROM, but I've seen this power widget in other ROMS.

Which phone and which custom ROM?

Dunno. Don't have it on my Droid.

Dunno. Don't have it on my Incredible.

Are you using an app like "Extended Power Controls" which modifies the widget?

It's either a mobile network data enabled switch or a 2G/3G switch, try it and check your data connection.
Edit: got confirmation, see comments.

Looks like it could possibly be for mounting/unmounting the SDcard also.

I doubt that because the rom release notes say that apndroid was removed due to this widget's new features, and apndroid controls the data connection.

Aha! Yep, it's the 'Mobile networks > Data enabled' switch (doesn't affect the 2G/3G setting). Do you want to amend your answer and I'll accept it.


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How to remove home-screens on a Vodafone 845?
Good day,
after playing around with the Vodafone 845 (Android 2.1) icons positions I ended up with additional empty home-screens (or are they desktops, not sure for the term). What is the proper way to remove those empty screens?

You can't with the default launcher. However, with a lot of home screen replacements you can define how many home screens to have. (Zeam, Go Launcher, and Launcher Pro do, for sure.)

Loks like this phone comes with a funny custom homescreen app: "Android 2.1 comes with five home screens that you can flick through from side to side. With the 845, if you drag an icon to the border of the existing home screens, a new home screen is created. In effect, you can create an unlimited number of rows and columns to fit all the icons and widgets you want." - http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/smartphones/279154/vodafone-845

yes, it seems there's no obvious way to remove newly created screens with the default launcher.

Nicked from here:

Menu -> Edit. Click the red (-) button in the upper-right corner of the screens you want to delete. Use the [+] button at the bottom to add a new screen.

Perhaps with the Captivate, but the stock Android launcher doesn't have any such options.

@Al correct, but the article I linked to in the comment on your answer says this phone has a custom home screen, so I don't think it is the stock home screen we're talking about here

@Foley: I wish these carriers would stop overcustomizing this stuff.

@Foley: whether we call it custom or default(stock) launcher - I didn't find the way to remove those screens. I gave LauncherPro a try but first impression was not so good (the touchpad didn't work for screen scrolling). Perhaps I will stick with the default launcher meanwhile.

@dindras Odd, the stock launcher also doesn't automatically create new home screens...

I found this option in both Eclair (2.1. 2.1-update1) as well as Froyo (2.2) - on Samsung Galaxy S. In fact in froyo, the red X button has been dumped for drag-and-drop (to trash) style removal of home screens.


text:
Screen timeout when reading
I have my screen timeout set to 30 seconds, which is a good interval normally.
However, when i am in a browser reading or Adobe Reader or ThinkFree or whichever other reader, I would like the timeout to be larger or never.
Is there anyway of doing this in Froyo without manually setting it to 30 mins and after I'm done reading all I wanted to read, set it back to 30 seconds?
Thank you.

I use Screebl for this. It uses the phones orientation sensors to keep the screen on permanently if it's held at an angle. You can then set the timeout to something very low such as 15 seconds which kicks in when the phone is laid flat.

Hadn't heard of that one.  That's the good thing about Android.  If there's a need, someone has tried to fill it.

I use Tasker for this. You can have separate screen timeouts (and other settings) for individual apps. I bump up the timeout for my ebook readers.

I don't know of a quick way to change this setting while reading, except that some reader apps have a setting which you can turn on which overrides the screen timeout while reading.  I believe Aldiko has this setting, but it's been a while since I've used it.  Not sure of any other reader apps which have it, but it might be a good suggestion to send to the developers of your favorite app.

Thanks, Blake. I thought there was no real solution for this but I thought I'd ask to make sure.

Most ebook readers have a "Never Turn screen off" setting.


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Is there a Skype compatible client for voice calls over WiFi?
I understand that operators blocked any Skype over the data connections, but is there an alternative that works on the WiFi network?
Update: I am using a HTC/Tmobile G1 phone, in the US. However, I am not connected to any carrier, as I use it (here) as a PDA over WiFi and not as a phone.

I may be confused, but my skype client seems to work just fine over wifi.

You are aware that there's a native Skype app for Android? http://www.appbrain.com/app/skype/com.skype.raider

@Al Everett - No, I am actually not. When searching for Skype on the Applications store, I got no Skype client, but once I'm back at home this evening, I will look at it again. Just to clarify - I have a HTC/Tmobile G1, which I just updated with the latest available firmware. I have no mobile plan and have only WiFi access. Can this be the reason I did not get the client with the search?

Skype for Android has a couple versions.  Most are WiFi-only, so you would be able to use them no problem except that the G1 is not in Skype's list of supported devices, so you won't find it in the Market.  Looks like it's Verizon-exclusive.  The newest version won't run on your phone even if you grab it pseudo-legally; I'm not sure about older versions.
Skype's API agreement also prohibits other apps from making Skype calls, as far as I'm aware.  Fring used to support Skype, for example, but had to remove that feature due to threats from Skype.

What country are you in? Skype have only got an exclusive deal with Verizon in the US, outside the US it isn't restricted to any carrier AFAIK.
If you go to an international version of the Skype site, like http://www.skype.com/intl/en/get-skype/on-your-mobile/download/skype-for-android there's a different Skype app that will work on any Android 2.1 phone (even if you manage to download it in the US, it may do further checks to see if you're in the US or not once installed).
Also if you search in the Android Market from a non-US phone (that is running at least Android 2.1) you should be able to find this official Skype app.
See here for more on the differences between the Skype apps.

thanks. See my update to the question. I am not subscribed with any carrier. Using it on WiFi, but in the US.


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Is is possible to sync my Samsung Galaxy S with an exchange account, but only the calendar, not the emails?
I managed to sync my Galaxy Samsung S running Froyo with an exchange server.
But I am really only interested in the calender data, not the emails.
Someone knows how to do this ?

I hope someone comes up with a different solution: as far as I can tell, the solution presented in the answer by Al Everett, doesn't work.
My work around : I have created a folder called 'Inbox server' on the exchange and set up a filter to move all incoming mails from inbox to 'inbox server'.
Since the sync only syncs the inbox folder by default , effectively, no exchange emails are synced now.
But if anyone else has another solution or comments, please let them know. I will be glad to read them.

Try this: Go to the account for the Exchange server and change "Email check frequency" to "Never". Check the box to "Sync calendar".

@Al Everett: I might be mistaking but I think that no calendar information is sync'd when this option is cleared. I will try again, but I think I already tried this a couple of days ago.

If it doesn't work, then as far as I can see there is no way to sync to Exchange WITHOUT getting the e-mail.

I use this configuration every day. It works. (Epic 4G)

@TREE: AFAIK when you set the email check frequency to never, it means that this account will not be checked regularly. If you set sync on, it still sync the calendar AND the mail. At least I haven't found a way to not sync the emails.

This could be a difference in specific versions of the Samsung software. If I set email check frequency to "Never" my calendar definitely still syncs. It isn't instant like push, but IIRC the calendar is never instant. Basically, you can't control the calendar sync frequency whatsoever.


text:
Phone keeps restarting / shutting down randomly is there any logging to help debugging
Sometimes my Samsung Europa restarts itself when it's on standby.
Does Android have any logging which I can access to see what caused the restart?
I have installed a few apps from the Android app market and some games. Haven't installed anything that I've developed myself.

You can install "Log Collector" from the android market, it's free. It can email the logcat to an email address. I am not sure whether the log clears or not if there is a reboot though. You should be able to see something in there regardless.

Is it possible with Android 6 on phone without root access?


text:
I have sold my phone on eBay. What should I do before I send it off?
I have an Android phone which I just sold on eBay. What measures should I take before posting it off to its new home? Please answer thoroughly!

possible duplicate: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2722/how-do-i-prep-my-phone-for-resale

Not really a duplicate.

As said already, factory reset for a start.
If you care about the privacy about what is on the SD card you should use a secure erase utility. Even after formatting the card you can still recover the data...
If you google for secure erase you'll find a bunch of freeware tools to do the job.

Also add tracking to your postage as some buyers will say they never got the phone and then they get their money back and your out off the money.

Format (zero) your SD card.
Perform a factory reset.

Is Formatting enough by itself? How should I format it? How do I perform a factory reset?

Formatting should be enough, but if you want a secure format, you could use a tool like Eraser for Windows to wipe the SD card.  The factory reset depends on your phone, but it should be under Settings -> Security and privacy, or something similar.

if someone roots the phone will they be able to access any personal information that wouldn't be deleted by wiping in this manner?

No, rooting has nothing to do with it.

@fredley: If you are paranoid about security, keep in mind that formatting an SD card does not actually remove the stored data; formatting is just reinitializing the file database so everything is marked empty. It is possible -- using specialized softwares -- to recover deleted data from an SD card, as long as it hasn't been overwritten. If you're really paranoid, buy a new SD card and send off the phone with that instead of yours.

@Lie Ryan Buying a new card is completely overkill.  With non-magnetic media like an SD card, you can just zero everything and the old data is unrecoverable.  Hence my suggestion of Eraser (http://eraser.heidi.ie/)

Surely, for security, you need to wipe both the SD card and internal memory?

Back up
Ensure you have a backup of any information on the device that is crucial to you.
There is a wide range of ways to achieve this, from "cloud" synchronization, to apps, to command line tools. For example, at least in some cases, the Cyanogenmod project recommends using the Android Debug Bridge to back up an Android device to a PC:
adb backup -apk -all -f backup.ab

You should research the options available and apply a method for backing up that meets your needs.
Protect your privacy
Based on these articles from Greenbot, ArsTechnica, Digital Trends, LifeHacker, and (ahem) Reddit, the three persistent storage devices you should remove or securely erase if present, before relinquishing an Android device to an untrusted party, to prevent that party accessing potentially sensitive data on the device, are:

SIM card.
External storage (e.g. an actual, removable microSD card).
Internal storage (aka "Internal SD card", even though it's not really an SD card).

The SIM card and the external storage are easy to deal with: remove them from the device before handing over the device.
The internal storage is trickier. Quoting from Wyzard (CC BY-SA 3.0):

A factory reset reformats the phone's user-data partition, but it's
  not a "secure" wipe; it doesn't overwrite everything with zeroes. If
  you want to be sure everything is erased, you can encrypt the phone
  first (which overwrites all the data with encrypted versions of
  itself), then do a factory reset (which sets up a new unencrypted
  filesystem).
Note that a factory reset leaves the phone's system partition (the
  "ROM") untouched. If you've made any changes to the system partition
  (such as rooting), those will remain.

That's all very well if your Android phone supports encrypting the internal storage. If not, then you had better either gain shell access to the device and perform something like cd /data && cat /dev/urandom > 0, or just not relinquish your device to an untrusted party.

You may wish to back things up in the first instance in which case I would recommend My Back Up Pro.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rerware.android.MyBackupPro&hl=en
In order to perform a Factory Reset please read this small tutorial written by Oliver Hill on May 11th 2012 entitled "How to perform a factory reset on your Android phone" for Little Green Robot Publishing (who publish a monthly magazine called The Android Magazine in the UK)
http://www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-perform-a-factory-reset-on-your-android-phone/
People in the past have recommended to myself that when performing a Factory Reset it should be carried out twice (whether this is necessary or not i am not sure, but there is no harm in doing it.)

If you have an HTC device and you are really worried, you can fully format the SD card, run the RUU for the stock software, and then boot in to Android, format the SD card, and factory reset once and shut off (so that the person who turns on the phone is greeted by the first-time setup). That's what I would do.

Not mentioned by the other answers: remove Google accounts from the phone before factory resetting, if you factory reset from recovery. Google's factory reset protection (FRP) is an anti-theft measure that requires a previous Google account's password to use a phone. Removing Google accounts disables this security feature so the buyer can install new accounts without prior passwords.
If you don't remove accounts to disable FRP, you end up with this problem.


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How can I configure time zones on my Galaxy S?
Yesterday I got a meeting email which I read on my SGS GT-I9000, which showed the time as:

Wednesday, January 12, 2011 8:30 AM-9:00 AM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

But when I checked this on my PC in Outlook this was the time:

Wednesday, January 12, 2011 7:00 PM-7:30 PM (GMT+05:30) Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi

How can I get my device to use the same time zone as my PC?

9am - (-5) = 2pm UTC, 7:30pm - (5:30) = 2pm UTC.  So both messages show the same time, just for different time zones.

Seems to me that your PC and your Android are in different time zones. Since you've already mentioned that you're in India, I expect that your Android has the wrong setting.
Settings | Date & time
You may have to turn off "Automatic" so that you can set the time zone yourself.

thanks, i have turn off automatic setting in [setting->date time], there is no option for entering time zone on my self and there is no item in list where i find India so how to change it.

Can't help you. I have a Droid and can only share the settings that I find on it. I don't know what sort of customizations Samsung may have done.

@Jeevan My Galaxy S has "Select time zone" in Settings -> Date & time.  Automatic should work if you have a SIM card in the phone, however.

@Mathew: it is in automatic mode and i have sim on it.

@Jeevan on my Galaxy S, if I take the tick out of Automatic I am able to select a time zone, and one of the options is GMT+5:30 Kolkata which sounds like the zone you need?