text:
Watch my local tv on my Android device
I have a somewhat fancy tv that supports an external wi-fi module. If you connect that to the tv, you'll be able to stream media from a pc or other compatible device. At which point I thought, is there a way to consume that stream with an Android device?
I have searched google play, there's a fair amount of tv apps that are just shortcuts to some online tv websites. I don't want that, the idea is to watch exactly what I have on my tv, turning my phone into a portable tv.
What I imagine is a server box connected to the tv cable that streams it over WiFi, and then there's an app on my phone that consumes the stream.
I understand that may involve a combination of software and hardware that would need to be purchased. Happy with that, just can't figure what it would be. Have done my Google homework to no avail.
Please advice if there's a solution for that, or whether it's feasible at all.

It sounds as though you are using your TV as a media renderer for a media server (hosted on your PC or other computer device).
If that is the case, then yes, it is possible to use your android device as a media renderer for a media server. Download MediaHouse UPnP / DLNA Browser and a video player with a codec that supports your video file-types (VPlayer Video Player is the best that I've found).
If you instead meant that you wanted to stream the content provided to you from your TV service provider, then that is a bit more complicated. Generally, they do not allow this since they want you to pay some odd sum of money for an additional renderer that they own.
The process would go soemthing like this (if not otherwise allowed):

Use some kind of capturing device to record (temporarily or permenently) the video content transmitted through an appropriate cable (HDMI for example). You would theoretically need to split the signal or re-route it.
Then configure a media server on your PC to stream the recorded content.

This would not provide a stream however which would have to be in a protocol like MJPEG to work as an actual "stream". You would need something akin to an ethernet based capture card that provided a video stream over IP.

odd sum of money for an additional renderer that they own - nope, not the case here. We here pay fixed monthly fee for the fact that a cable enters the house. Nobody cares what happens within the house to the cable. In such case, what would be the most feasible way of presenting the TV signal as if it was coming from a UPnP server? (Happy to accept your answer otherwise.)

Lucky you. What do you have in terms of display connections coming off of your renderer (the cable that would otherwise go to your TV)?

Not sure if I understand. Coaxial cable enters the house and gets into a splitter (tiny non-powered box) that makes four cables out of one. Three of them go into tvs, one is currently vacant. Some tvs have a DVB-C decoder built in, they render digital signal. Some don't, they render analog signal (both kinds of signals are present in the cable). Am I to have a server that would accept the now-vacant cable into its tv-tuner card, and share that, somehow, over the network in a UPnP format?

Yes something like that. You'll need either a tuner card that takes coaxial input and plugs into a computer with software to stream the source over IP, or you'll need a standalone coaxial input tuner that has built in streaming software and wifi/ethernet connectivity. Something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815345007

This one if you care about the additional features: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815645001

I knew something like that should have been invented :) Thanks, much appreciated!

NP, good luck with it. Beats the hell out of a restrictive DVR with horrible format support.


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Nexus 7 as a remote home controller
I have a Nexus 7 and I find it really useful for everyday use. I would like to improve it as a remote controller for my apartment, like:

play music (the mp3 files are stored on the computer, N7 is only a remote controller that shows the playlist and has the controls)
play videos (I have seen that this seems to be possible using vlc),
check the door (It would be great to have a webcam pointing out on my front door that I can check with my N7 and push a button on the app to open the door)
dim/control lights or other devices like tv, dvd player and so on

Do any knows any projects that covers even one of my wishlist, or has tips to help me build those things by myself? I know that some of those will require the use of a microcontroller, like arduino.

There are several different VLC remote apps available which will let you control audio/video playback on your PC when you are connected to the same network. It's probably not for the un-technical, but it does feel very cool controlling your "stereo" from the other end of your apartment. You will generally need to:

Install VLC on your PC
turn on the web interface by going to (Tools>Preferences...>Show all (bottom left)>Interface>Main Interfaces>Web)
determine the IP address of your computer (Run command, Run
ipconfig)
Install a VLC remote app on your N7 (there are a multitude, try a
free one first)
Your VLC app will have somewhere to enter the IP address of the PC
    to be controlled

Note, if you can configure your router to assign a static IP to your PC you will save much re-entering of settings.
I suspect a camera streaming to a static IP you could browse to from any device on your network should be possible, but I'm afraid I'm even less sure about the other stuff. That said; I suspect you might want to look into Arduino.

Note that you can use a VPN tunnel to connect to a private network, even when you are connected remotely. That way, you are effectively on the same network even when you aren't directly connected to it.

For the lights and the cam, I use an app called NetIO, which can control any kind of hardware (microcontrollers) or pcs.. also ip cameras can be included. And the best part is, you can layout buttons and switches online. http://netio.davideickhoff.de

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Disable GO SMS Pro weekly nag messages
About once a week, GO SMS Pro "receives" (I don't know if it comes from somewhere or if it's written into the application) a nag message from "c10000@go.chat" along the lines of:

Most of users loves GO SMS Pro because of themes. Thinking of cool & stylish messaging experience? Try out another bestseller: ColorGlass Theme  (Apply it through menu->theme)

It's extremely annoying. I believe I've logged out of GO Chat (though it tends to log itself back in without asking and won't stay disconnected), and have tried going through the app's settings multiple times without finding any way to kill these notifications. They're driving me batty.

My guess is the only way to disable it is to pay for the Premium version.

Premium… version? I can't find such a thing, unless you mean the themes.

I was able to blacklist the messages by pressing and holding over the "conversation" in the list and selecting "add to blacklist."  This removed the messages and I haven't gotten any new nag messages from them since.

I'm pretty sure this will work but I can't test it fully because I never updated Go SMS to the "nagging" new version after reading all the complaints in the reviews...
You have to be rooted.  If you are, install Root Firewall Free and block internet traffic for Go SMS.  I don't get those nagging reminders but I tried it and I was still able to send and receive SMS messages but I could not use features that use the internet like the Go Chat. If you want to download a new theme or use one of the data dependent service periodically you can just toggle the block off from the firewall app and put it back on when you are done. Obviously this won't help you if you use those data dependent extra services regularly.
Alternatively, if you are not rooted you can revert back to version 4.56 of Go SMS.  You can download this version directly on the Go SMS website.  This is the version I have and I don't get any of those annoying nags.  When I started typing this answer I didn't think they'd post past version but now that I see that they do I'd say this is probably the better option.

Thanks, Matt. I already have DroidWall so it should be simple to give the firewall trick a try. Sounds like you've already gotten the result I want, so I'll try it for a while and come back in a week or so to accept your answer once I confirm that it works. :)

Good luck.  It's really a shame they mucked the whole app up with those annoying nags but I guess you get what you pay for.

Additional apps to block: AdAway (with custom lists and a 'track web activity' beforehand) and Droidwall.

@ce4 Do you think using a hostfile fix in AdAway would work? Go SMS doesn't use popups or banners, they send you fake text messages nagging you to buy their premiums service.  I don't believe they are real text messages going over the SMS service but I do think they are a sort of push notification of some kind.

You already said, blocking internet for Go SMS completly fixes it. If you know what hostnames Go SMS wants to contact: Block them. It's just a more specific way to block internet access.

AdAway isn't a bad idea; goodness knows I already use it to block tons of other things. Matt's suggestion of simply blocking GO SMS Pro from accessing the Internet at all seems to be working, though. In either case, the "cure" would most likely wind up blocking all use of the GO Chat function (not that I ever wanted it, but it should be noted for others who may read this question).

I just texted "stop" to the message and got a reply back stating "Got it, thanks".
All done.

The best way is to click on that message and then go to the top right corner and then click disable and confirm

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


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S3 headphone jack not working properly
My Galaxy S3 doesn't play music through an AUX cable, but it works with the headphones that came with it. What could be causing this, and how can I fix it?

Possibly related: What determines if a phone will accept a microphone in the audio jack - hardware or software?

What is on the other side of the aux cable?

You should try another aux cable, it's possible that the TRRS layout doesn't match the phone's jack layout.


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File Transfer on LAN using WiFi
User 'Logos' stated the following in another question's response:

If you just want to transfer files while on your LAN and you're using WiFi, Samba Filesharing works super well. You can just browse to your phone's SD card like it was a regular network samba share from your desktop.".

I'm using Ubuntu Lucid on my desktop and Cyanogen Mod 7.2 on my ZTE Blade phone. Could anyone define the steps required to do the above?

Silly me for not noticing Enable on the Menu options. I'm now getting on Samba Filesharing 'Title' screen: Enabled - Running,\192.168.1.4 (i.e. correctfixed ip address assigned by router using phone's MAC address), \ANDROID, Wakelock Active. But when trying (in Nautilus) to 'Connect to Server' (with parameters of SSH & 192.168.1.4), I get popup displaying 'Could not display "sftp://192.168.1.4/", because the host could not be found.'. Router's admin shows that phone is not attached! I can ping phone from PC. but not vice versa. Tried using Terminal Emulator to ping PC from phone: tested first by phone ping itself but don't know how to stop Terminal Emulator as no Ctrl key on soft keyboard. ATP does not kill it!

There are 2 options:

Root your phone.
Install the Samba Filesharing app, or any other Samba server for Android.
Install samba on Ubuntu, or any other Samba client (there are some on Android too). This should do: sudo apt-get install samba, or any other equivalent command on another OS. You don't need this step on a Windows machine.
Optional: Install an app on your PC to make it easier to configure samba on your PC. apt-cache search samba should give you some good results (or anything equivalent).

The point is that this Android application will let your device show in the "My Network Places" of Win XP, and the "Network" of Win Vista/7 and Ubuntu. From there you can browse to smb://ANDROID/ (or \\ANDROID for Win) in your file manager.
Make sure you set the WORKGROUP correctly on the Android app. And if you face some problems with accessing your phone, try using the IP address instead of the name (ANDROID by default).
Otherwise, if you're not rooted for example, you could install a file manager app with support for Samba shares (like ES File Explorer or File Expert for example), or any other samba client (like AndSMB). This way you could access shares on other computers on the network (but not share your own SD Card, you need a samba server on your device for this to work).

I'm already using Samba under Ubuntu (for sharing with Windows PCs). Phone already rooted. I've uninstalled (using Easy Uninstaller) Dropbear &SSHDroid which I'd previously tried. I've set workgroup, password & user in Samba Filesharing on phone. After setting these, it came up with something about stopping & restarting Samba. I didn't know if this referred to the PC or the phone. So I killed Samba Filesharing on phone (using Advanced Task Killer) and started Samba Filesharing again on phone. However, on phone, it shows 'Disabled - Not Running' on 'Title' screen and I don't know what to do.

Press the menu key then enable :)

Silly me for not noticing Enable on the Menu. Now the 'Title' screen says: Enabled - Running,\192.168.1.4 (fixed ip address assigned by router using phone's MAC), \ANDROID, Wakelock Active. When trying in Nautilus to 'Connect to Server' (params of SSH & 192.168.1.4), It says 'Could not display sftp://192.168.1.4/ because the host could not be found.'. Router shows the phone is not attached! I can ping phone from PC but not vice versa. Used Terminal Emulator to ping PC from phone: tested first by phone ping itself but don't know how to stop Terminal Emulator as no Ctrl key on soft keyboard.

Sorry for late reply :) sftp://192.168.1.4/ suggests it is trying to connect via Secure FTP (or SSH). You should type in the location bar smb://192.168.1.4/ (Ctrl+L to show it in Nautilus I think). Then it will connect to that IP via Samba Protocol and not SFTP. (For the terminal emulator, my terminal emulator, that comes with CM7, can emulate Ctrl key by volume down, try VolDown+c for example. it might be some other key depending on app and settings). Hope it helps.

This answer is to the same effect: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/29671/19168

Your pictures, downloads, and any other files you may want to transfer
  can be uploaded to your computer temporarily and then from your
  computer to your new phone.
Alternatively, you could do this last bit a number of ways:

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

You get the idea: File Transfer Apps

Also, Airdroid as mentioned in this answer: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/29584/19168

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


text:
How can I see the status of the latest CyanogenGen builds?
I see that CM10 nightlies for galaxysmtd have not been built for a while.  Is the status of the latest builds available anywhere, so that I can see why they haven't been built?

The buildbot's status used to be availabe here but it was removed for some reason I can't recall. Probably had to do something with annoying users demanding ETAs.

Rule of CM - never ask for ETA's, changelogs!
Only recourse is to look up the review site instead and filter it out for the appropriate device instead to see what code changes were checked in/rejected, in this case, use this as a search query on the top right hand corner of the page.
status:open project:CyanogenMod/android_device_samsung_galaxysmtd

Then can drill down the review, depending on what type of CyanogenMod ROM, be it GB, ICS or JB.
Usually, there is a reason as to why there's no build, check with their forum or IRC channel. :)

I've looked at the changelogs.  There are many accepted changes that haven't been released in a nightly yet.  I'm not asking for an ETA for a feature, nor am I asking when the next nightly will happen (note: I see that one was finally released a few hours ago), but rather I'm asking how I can see why the builds are being delayed.

@NathanFellman To be honest - this site is not Cyanogenmod, you need to direct this across over to their site and ask them.

Right, this is a Q&A site about Android stuff in general, including (among others) Cyanogenmod.  That's why there are currently 330 questions tagged "cyanogenmod".  If you don't have an answer, it's fair to leave the question unanswered.

Remember this much, we are not associated nor affiliated with CM developers. That's the point am making and its not fair to post CM specific questions indicating changelogs or why is there no build available. Other questions relating to CM is fine, its just dev stuff - we cannot answer :)

I didn't ask why the build wasn't available.  I asked where I can find the answer to that.  I'm well aware of the fact that CM is not affiliated with SE.  However, this is a general question related to usage of CM (in this case, how to update).  I wasn't expecting an answer such as, "the current build failed because there was no disk space."  That would be a prime candidate for closing as "too localized" and inappropriate for SE.  However, an answer with a pointer to the build logs would have been more than appropriate.

If you read the [FAQ], SE is about dealing with "real-life-problems concerning the user and his Android device", not about where/why the build logs is not available... just saying... the question is bordering on off-topic

@NathanFellman This is quite "borderline". If you check the [FAQ], you see we are devoted to deal with questions in the context what problem (with your Android device) are you trying to solve? Your question does not indicate any problem, but rather -- forgive me the term -- looks like a "version junkie on a turkey" problem, which we cannot handle here. No offense meant -- forgive a non-native English speaker his rude words ;)


text:
Pinch-to-zoom in HTML emails
In the standard browser you can zoom in/out (by pinching or with the buttons.)
But in the standard Mail app (at least in Android 2.3.7) it does not work when viewing an HTML email message.
Is there a way to enable this?  (Or is there a 3rd-party mail app that does?)


text:
Microphone "speaker mode" sensitivity with headphones plugged in?
In my car I have the headphone socket of my Galaxy S2 plugged into my car's auxiliary socket so that I can listen to music/podcasts whilst driving.
This would also be useful for handsfree calls - except that when someone rings, I can hear their voice through the car speakers, but they can barely hear me. If I press the "speaker" button, then they can now hear me perfectly, but I can't hear them.
Is there any way to have the microphone sensitivity of "speaker mode", but with incoming audio still going through the headphone socket?
If not, does anyone know of any hands free alternatives without spending a fortune on a bluetooth hands free kit?

You could get a mic/speaker splitter cable, which separates the input and output of the phone's jack into separate jacks for mic and speakers. Then use the mic port to run a separate microphone to your dash or steering wheel column.


text:
Chrome reopens previous tabs even after shutdown
On my Nexus 7 when starting Chrome it reopens the previous tabs.  I can understand doing this as I switch from Chrome to another running app and then back to Chrome, but not if I've shut the app down, and certainly not if I've rebooted the device. Yet for some reason Chrome assumes that I must want to look again at the last thing I was looking at. Rather presumptuous.
I would have thought there would be an option to turn that "feature" on or off, but I've not been able to find it.
Is it possible to disable the opening of previously viewed tabs?

I think this is probably necessary to work with the recent tab-sync feature. If you want to open a tab you had open on your device on your desktop browser later, for instance. That said, that's the default behavior and I haven't seen a way to change it. Every once in a while I'll go in and close (almost) all my old tabs. Fortunately, once you've opened up the tab accordion it's easy to just tap-tap-tap to close them.

It's an intended feature and can't be turned off. Why do you don't want to restore your previous opened tabs? I couldn't live without this feature.

I guess what's really missing on Android's Chrome is a Close all tabs and/or Close tabs to the right feature.

I too want my Chrome browser to open without the previous tabs. There should be an option to turn this feature off, or a prompt on startup asking whether to open previous tabs as it does on the desktop. When I'm done with browsing, I just swipe the browser off. I don't want to have to close each tab separately before exiting to stop those tabs from reopening when I open the browser again.

You are describing the expected behavior while launching the Chrome browser with theSign in feature enabled.
Here's how to sign out from within the Chrome browser:

Touch Menu > Settings > your email address > Disconnect Google Account.
In the confirmation dialog that appears, touch Disconnect.

Note that if you had your device configured to synchronize in the background at regular intervals, it is still configurued to sync and update your emails with your google account. This procedure just prevents the Chrome browser from loading a previous session state at browser launch because the browser is signed in.

Sounds credible, however disconnecting my browser from my account did nothing for the behaviour of re-opening the previously open tab.

Not sure what you should do. Maybe clear the browser cache/cookies? Also, maybe you have some Chrome addon extension that includes being a session state manager among whatever else you might be using it for.

Leandros is right that it is an intended feature, and there is no way to turn off. There is a report on the Chromium project to allow close all tabs on tablets: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=268157
I urge everyone interested to voice their opinions on the bug thread.


text:
Turn off phone by holding the power button?
I've been having a small case of my screen not turning on at times. It happens on a 1 out of 100 basis. Anyway, I can confirm that the phone did not shut down because I can take screenshots (via power button + volume down key) and hear the screenshot sound. However, the display remains turned off. What I found to be the fix is to remove the battery to force shutdown the phone and re-insert it and open again.
That would have been an OK solution but my phone has 2 layers of battery cover so it's kinda tedious to do when the random screen problem occurs (especially if I'm outside or on the road). What I want to happen is that if I hold down the power button for some time (5 seconds maybe?), it will power off the device thus, saving me the trouble of having to remove and re-insert the battery.
How do I make holding down the power button for some time turn off the phone?
Phone is Sony Xperia Active ST17i, running MiniCMSandwich Lite rom with RaGe kernel.

On some phones (e.g. Samsung Galaxy series) holding the power button for 10-15 seconds (can't remember exactly) triggers a reboot. Have you tried holding the power button for this long?

Yep, already tried that. I was hoping there would be a software solution for this?

Some phones also have a key combination to force a hard reboot.  On my HTC Incredible it's Power + Vol Down + Optical Joystick Button.  Others may vary.  Please edit your question with your phone's make and model and someone might be able to give you a more specific answer.

Added the phone model

There were those Secret Codes...

*#*#7594#*#*: This code can be used to change the "End Call / Power" button action in your phone. Be default, if you long press the button, it shows a screen asking you to select any option from Silent mode, Airplane mode and Power off. You can change this action using this code. You can enable direct power off on this button so you don't need to waste your time in selecting the option.

Hm, guess that's what you were lokking for, right? Wanna more? OK, Here's the source, Luke: Secret Codes of Android Phones. Not sure if it works on all phones, though...

Doesn't seem to work on my rom. It disappears from the dialer but nothing happens.

Sorry to read that! Maybe check Google with  "secret codes" whether there's an alternative (though in all lists I've found so far, this was the only number given for that). Or simply try the app Android Secret Codes, the screenshots look like they have some provider-specific stuff included.

P.S.: Just took a closer look at the mentioned app. Looks like to better not install it -- permissions read a bit strange (wants to change browser favorites), plus someone remarks it feeds data to some lottery site :(

The forced reboot which happens by pressing the power button for 5-10 seconds is only applies for the models which doesn't have removable battery. But for the models having the removable battery, holding down the power button does not trigger the forced reboot option.


text:
android.process.acore has stopped
I backed up one galaxy S3 and did a restore on another. Then I try to boot the new one and I get a message "Unfortunately the process android.process.acore has stopped". After hitting OK a few times I get Unfortunately TouchWiz has stopped. Then back to the first message. I can't get past this msg.
I thought that maybe I should do another Restore but I can't get to anything cause this happens as soon as I boot.

Did both devices run the same Android version? If not, did you use the Migrate option in TB on restore? And did you restore system stuff -- or only your apps+settings? Restoring system stuff to a different device often is a bit tricky...

the Android on both are 4.0.4. No I did't check the Migrate option. But the build of the number of the Baseband are different. Could this be a problem? I selected Apps+settings I don't remember seeing an option for restoring system stuff.

In short, never ever back up system apps and settings from one handset and restore to another, that is exactly what happens! :)
Mismatches with system app's key signature conflicts with another's ROM's key signature, and variants of settings as well may not exist on the other, all of those can lead to breakages such as what the OP is experiencing.
The only way to get that back, is to perform a factory reset to restore everything back to its original state.

How can I do a factory reset?

Go into Settings > Backup & reset > Factory data reset, that's in ICS fwiw :)

but the whole point is that I can't get to Settings! I can't get past this message.

Oo damn, my bad... hummm... get the original firmware for your handset and manually flash it with odin.

How would I know what that is? Did clockworkmod reocvery make a copy of it when it was flashed?

@Alex Failing to answer to your last comment - is both handsets rooted, does both have clockworkmod recovery? That should be part of your question above. I do not know if your CWM make a copy, when did you last use it?

@Alex You can do a factory reset without going via settings. Steps are described here: Galaxy S3 - Factory Reset.

Thanks. Yes, this is what I did, and all back to good, now! thanks

Phew! Glad it all worked out @Alex :) \o/

I have this problem when restoring the backup from 6.0.1 build MMB29K to 6.0.1 build MOB30D.  After failing once, I reset and during next restore, I was careful enough to avoid any system app. But still the process crashed.:(


text:
How can I mount or unmount the SD Card using ADB?
The sdcard can be umounted by using the umount command.
unmount /mtn/sdcard/.android_secure

how can it be remounted again . I tried using the mount command
mount /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure

Connect your device and at the command prompt:
Type adb devices & press enter (Your device should now be listed)...
Type adb shell & press enter (Wait for the "#" to appear)....
Type mount sdcard next to the "#" sign & press enter...
You will need to know the mount point also if you intend to mount the external card.
As an example:

su
  mount -o bind /mnt/emmc /sdcard/external_sd

I face sh: unmount: not found , I have transformer tf 101

Bit of a delayed comment, but in unix environments it's "umount" not "unmount". How did they not see this would confuse so many people I do not know.

@forsubhi, as Gessh_SO said, "umount", not "unmount".

can sombody help me out? I'm encountering the similar case but have no luck @Sparx
http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/164843/sd-memory-and-internal-memory-get-unmounted-automatically


text:
Slide unlock till pattern lock gets activated after interval
Using Jelly Bean, 4.1.1, on a Galaxy Nexus, I want this: You lock the phone. For the first 5 minutes, if you try to unlock, you can just slide and unlock it; after that, you have to enter a pattern.
I don't know how to get the slide to unlock to be activated for the 5 minutes in the middle. I have it set up right now so that it unlocks right away in the first 5 minutes, and asks for the pattern after that. Is this even possible?

Thanks for this question. I originally worked on it because I didn't believe the other answer (that it was impossible) was correct. I ended up with a useful setup for myself.

I'm surprised this is not possible :( This behaviour worked on my Galaxy S3 and iPhone 3GS. In fact it works on all Apple products. I'm here because it doesn't work on my HTC One M9... Its a shame because if you want non-auto lock for a few minutes you risk pocket dialing. Especially when an SMS turns on your screen to show the notification but its unlocked and opens the last app.

I was able to set up what you want with one caveat: You have to use a PIN or a password, not a pattern. My solution depends on the apps Tasker (trial version here) and Secure Settings. Secure Settings requires root for some of its features. I don't know if this is one of them. If you aren't rooted, you can try it and see if it works.
Posting a complete how-to on Tasker is beyond the scope of my answer. Instead, here's the official documentation and links to user-created guides. My solution involves setting up two Tasker profiles. The first one sets the PIN or password after a timeout. The second one clears the PIN/password once the screen is unlocked.
Here are my profiles:
Profile: Screen Locked (98)
    Event: Display Off
Enter: Anon (106)
    A1: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:0 Minutes:5 Hours:0 Days:0 ]
    A2: If [ %SCREEN ~ off ]
    A3: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Set Pin Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure Settings ]
    A4: End If

Profile: Screen Unlocked (107)
    Event: Display Unlocked
Enter: Anon (108)
    A1: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Clear Password Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure Settings ]

Once you've got Tasker configured, go to your phone settings and set slide unlock (and set he timeout to be whatever you find to be an appropriate amount of time for the slide lock to come up) . Note that when the password/PIN is enabled, you'll first have to slide unlock, and then enter your PIN/password.

It worked without needing to root my phone. Thanks!

There was one problem with this that I'd like to point out for others. If you lock the phone, unlock it right away, use it for a bit, and lock it again, your phone will ask for a PIN / password sooner than the timeout because the first lock's "wait" ended after you'd locked it for a second time. This can be fixed by adding a variable for the time the phone was locked and setting the pin only if the time passed from the variable is long enough.

This isn't possible. The best you can do is:

Go to Security
Uncheck the Power button instantly locks option
Above that, set the timeout for Automatically lock to 5 minutes

Now whenever you lock the phone by using the power button, it will not ask you for a passcode unless you let it be with no activity. The screen will turn off, but if you press the power button again it will come on and not ask you for a password unless 5 minutes have elapsed.
NOTE: With this setting, any button can unlock the device for the set timeout, including the volume button.

Yeah, that's how I have it set up now. Thanks, anyway.

Actually, it's mostly possible, as long as you're willing to accept a PIN or password lock instead of a pattern.

Adding to Scott's answer, this should even be possible without the addition of Secure Settings, just with Tasker alone:

Event

Screen off

Task

Keyguard Off
Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:0 Minutes:5 Hours:0 Days:0 ]
Keyguard On

Collision: Stop running task

So what does this do? Whenever the screen is switched off, Keyguard will be turned off (that's the one locking the screen). Then it will wait for 5 min, and turn Keyguard on again (re-activate locking). If the task is already running (i.e. you switched the screen off for the 2nd time within the 5 min window), the running (waiting) task is aborted (collision), and the "counter" starts over again.
And what is the catch here? This profile looks simpler, there must be one. And there is: This probably disables the "slide to unlock" as well -- so as soon as the screen is switched on, there's no protection against unwanted input. So what do we do? Adding a second condition:

State: Sensor -> Orientation -> Face Up

Fine. You probably never put it into your pocket face-up unless you're lying on your back :) So if you only put it on the table and switch off the screen (I often do while reading my news feeds at breakfast), it's fine and simple.

This was also the direction I was going at first, until I realized that it was effectively the same as what the OP was doing in the question: setting a screen lock timeout.

Admitted, it's quite similar -- only that with this Tasker profile the additional condition kicks in: Screen lock won't be activated if you e.g. hold the device facing you, switch it of, and tuck it into your pocket. With the usual screen lock timeout, you'd still have the danger of accidentally switching on the screen and unwantingly trigger some activity. So my solution adds some protection, however minor.

just commenting cause I found this by googling for an answer, and actually I achieved exactly what the OP wants, with Tasker and Secure settings. No caveats here, working fine. Using it both on a Nexus 4 and N7 on CM 10.1.
First of all, have the slide to unlock enabled, then enable your pattern. When Secure Settings disables pattern unlock, it goes back to what the phone was set to before.

Profile: display off (7)
Event: Display Off
Enter: Slide/pattern (12)
Abort Existing Task
A1: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Pattern Lock Disabled/Wait For Unlock Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure Settings Continue Task After Error:On ]
A2: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:0 Minutes:5 Hours:0 Days:0 ]
A3: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Pattern Lock Enabled Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure Settings Continue Task After Error:On ] If [ %SCREEN ~ off ]
A4: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:1 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ]
A5: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Pattern Lock Disabled/Wait For Unlock Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure Settings Continue Task After Error:On ] If [ %SCREEN ~ off ]
The "continue task after error" setting is probably not required, I was just testing and left it there. Two key settings are on Tasker, disable beginner mode on settings so you get the task properties icon, then there, change collision handling to "abort existing task". In Secure Settings you need to install and enable the helper or the pattern unlock will work but may be unstable (it was on my N4).
Note that in A3 and A5 I enable pattern and disable it again. This is done because if you just enable it, it will ask you for pattern twice in a row, cause you set in Secure Settings' pattern unlock to ask you for pattern the first time. If you don't set it to ask you for it, then the pattern can be bypassed by simply turning off the screen twice.


text:
Changing 3D Gallery with virtual device 2D Gallery
I have a ZTE Blade which reboots everytime I open the 3D Gallery.
I am using the official stock ROM (Froyo) rooted.
I realized that the android emulator which SDK brings has a lighter 2D version of the gallery, so I extracted Gallery.apk from /system/app through ADB.
I put it into my Blade /system/app, I changed permissions, restarted the phone and nothing. There is no new gallery inside the app drawer.
What am I doing wrong? The emulator is running Froyo.
I've tried different galleries from Google play but none suits me, specially due to Picasa integration.
I've tried different Gallery.apk from other forums with the same luck. I even tried to install them but it end with an "App is not installed" message.
Thanks.


text:
ICS ROM with no Slovenian language
I bought HTC desire S in Slovenia and it has installed karnel ROM:
    RUU_SAGA_ICS_35_S_HTC_EU_14.01.401.2_20.76.30.0835_3831.19.00.110_275068

This ROM do not offer Slovenian language. So i need help what to do to have Slovenian android version. It is not metter even if it is 2.3 version. Only that it has official android with Slovenian language.
Any idea how to use my device with Slovenian language?

I would recommend installing a custom ROM with support for the language you need. I think CyanogenMod might be a good try since it's usually very stable and close to "stock" ROMs of Android. You can find the stable CyanogenMod version for HTC Desire S here.
Rooting and flashing ROMs on your device might require some work on your device if it's not rooted, or if it's rooted it might be quite simple. Since you don't offer any information on whether you are rooted or not, here's some resources for you to look up:

Installing a custom ROM on the HTC Desire S [HD] Step-by-step tutorial
How to S-Off and Root the HTC Desire S, Sensation, Wildfire, Evo, Flyer HD - A step-by-step tutorial

All of this is of course assuming that your current Android version does not support changing the language. You might want to look in your menus just to make sure. If it's not there, you need to get another ROM.
If you have any questions, please comment on this answer and I'll try to expand on it accordingly.

Phone is S-On and not-routed. i have prevoius build number 2.10.401.8 CL156318 RELEASE KEYS if this gives any information. Otherwise rooting seems to complicated routing for me while I am not such phone expert and i do not want something goes wrong. This ROM do not offer Slovenian language. Is there any possibility to find official previous ROM??? and how can i install official ROM?
Thank you for your help in advance

You can always look at HTC's website or contact them to get some kind of update software.

Hi back,
I just found ROM that was previously installed on my HTC desires s and there is new question: How can i install now RUU_Saga_S_HTC_Europe_2.10.401.8_Radio_20.4801.30.0822U_3822.10.08.04_M_release_225161_signed so this ROM which has slovenian language will overwrite ROM that i have now? I hoe there is some easy way- and it is not need to root phone?

You probably need to root your phone and install a custom bootloader (CWM Recovery for example)

I found a solution for all languages issue: on google play is  app: MoreLocale2 which offer many languages. This app change language of your UI on Android phone.


text:
SD-EXT file system damaged in a few days
I'm running an cooked Android on my HD2 with the sd-ext partition trick to increase storage space.
I noticed that with more than just one ROM that file system gets corrupted in a very short time. In a few days of running the FS gets so corrupted that Android itself can't boot. I have to fsck from my Linux machine and get lots of lost files before turning the phone on again (and every time I lose something).
While the obvious answer (I actually haven't asked anything yet) may seem to "try another ROM", my question is: what could be causing this corruption of the file system as soon as I always turn off my phone the clean way?
Could it be some program running on top of Android? Unbelievable, Linux kernel handles file system internally. AFAIK, virtually no app can damage a file system if only operating with file read and write
Could it be the Android kernel?
Could it be the specific data2sd script that I install from recovery? I don't think so because what it does is to merely install an init script that runs once per boot and mounts the card.
I'm asking if anyone here had the same problem, and if and how he/she managed to fix it.

I forgot to mention: this happens cyclically. Every time I fix the file system, in a few days the same occurs again

No "outages" / sudden restarts or the like? I cannot think of anything else which could cause this. Maybe a faulty driver, not sure.

Although there shouldn't be a difference in theory, as long as you do always shut down your phone cleanly: Are you using a journaled file system, i.e. Ext3 or Ext4? Switching to one might help.

Another thing: Have you checked that the SD card is properly inserted?

@Erik interesting point. I insert the SD gently until it locks by itself. I think there is no better way to insert an SD. About outages, I'm currently formatting my ROM and I'll make sure that in case of a sudden reboot I'll check the FS


text:
What does zipalign mean and how does it fit into how we use our Android devices?
What does "zipalign" mean and what is its significance?
When a ROM claims to be "zipaligned" what does that mean and what the difference from a ROM that is not "zipaligned"?

This mechanism is described at the Android developers site as follows:

zipalign is an archive alignment tool that provides important optimization to Android application (.apk) files. The purpose is to ensure that all uncompressed data starts with a particular alignment relative to the start of the file. Specifically, it causes all uncompressed data within the .apk, such as images or raw files, to be aligned on 4-byte boundaries. This allows all portions to be accessed directly with mmap() even if they contain binary data with alignment restrictions. The benefit is a reduction in the amount of RAM consumed when running the application.

In short: .apk content can be easier/faster/more optimal accessed due to the order of data inside the packed file.
For deeper information, there's a "complete guide" available at AddictiveTips: What Is Zipalign In Android And How To Make Apps Zipaligned, which answers the second part of your question:

Quite understandably, situation would be reserved for unaligned application packages. Resource reading would be slow and memory usage would be on the higher end of the spectrum. It would also depend on how many unaligned applications are present. For example, if less number of applications with an unaligned home application, you’d see slower application launch times. This is the best case scenario. For a worst case scenario, having a number of unaligned applications will result in the system repeatedly starting and killing processes, struggling with lags and huge battery drain.

For programmers it's more or less similar to struct alignment in C.  Don't do struct x { uint16_t id; uint32_t data[100]; }; if you want it to be 32-bit aligned; use struct x { uint16_t id; uint16_t padding; uint32_t data[100]; };

There appears to be no downside do why aren't all apps zip aligned? Also is this really even a concern for end users or is it only relevant to developers?

It's an additional step for the dev I'd say. And of course the performance is a concern for end users ;)

To add to above how exactly zipalign works -

In an Android operating environment, data files stored in each application package are accessed by multiple processes, for example, the installer will read the data manifest to determine the associated permissions; the system server can read these resources for multiple reasons, like displaying notifications; the Home application, for example, will read resources to get the application’s name and icon. Since Android is based on a a true multi-tasking operating infrastructure, these files are continually and repeatedly accessed. Finally, but not least, the application itself reads the manifest data.
As Android is Linux-based, memory-mapping plays a key role in efficient handling of processes. Essentially, the optimal alignment for the Android OS’ resource-handling code is 4-byte boundaries. What this means is that, if APKs are memory-mapped to 4-byte boundaries, and aligned accordingly, the OS will not need to ‘read through’ the whole application package to get to the desired data manifest. Every system process will know in advance where to look for it’s desired resources, and hence will execute much smoother and faster.
Summing it up, zipaligning an APK results in all uncompressed data within the package to be aligned on 4-byte boundaries, allowing all portions to be accessed directly with the memory-map. RAM consumption is lowered while execution because the querying code doesn’t have to read through the entire application package.

Source

Why doesn't it read through the entire application package? Are manifests guaranteed to be at a specific offset?


text:
Share App list with friends?

Possible Duplicate:
Service for sharing list of installed apps

Is there an app that would allow one to see my installed apps and if they like any to click on it and have it install on their computer?


text:
deactivate PIN-request after airplane mode
When switching on the phone, one is by default asked to enter the SIM-PIN -- which is a good security measure, to prevent "strangers" from causing you costs. Now the same applies when returning from airplane mode: one has to enter the SIM-PIN again. Which renders certain energy-savers useless: if an app e.g. enters airplane mode on signal loss (see: What is Cell standby and how can I keep it from eating my battery?), it would be unable to return to normal operation without user interaction.
I'm looking for a way to selectively disable this: Have the PIN request active when powering up the device -- but not being asked for the SIM-PIN when returning from airplane mode.
Please do not confuse this with "keyguard": I'm not asking about the screen lock (PIN/pattern/password). Here I know my way around, as there is an API for apps to use (so I can e.g. temporarily turn this off with Tasker).
I know this works with Samsung devices -- but I preferably want a device independent solution which works for all manufacturers.

Really! Let me quote from above question: I'm looking for a way to selectively disable this -- not to completely disable the check. I know it can be completely disabled (which is what I currently use) -- but I want to disable it only for switching back from Airplane mode, not for device startup.

DISCLAIMER

This needs root. No way around that one.
Your device must be running Android 4.1+
This workaround may be too advanced for some users. Only try to apply it when you know what you're doing.
I'm not to be held responsible if something goes awry or Ragnarök starts during the process. You're doing this on your own risk. Proceed with caution.
I'm not the author of or otherwise affiliated with any of the mods mentioned. I merely found this and I'm sharing it for your benefit.

WORKAROUND
I found a workaround for the problem that's working beautifully on a Samsung Galaxy S2 with Cyanogenmod 10.2 and Dorimanx Kernel 9.41 installed.
The necessary steps are as follows:

Make sure your device is rooted.
Download and install Xposed Framework Installer.
When Xposed asks for root anywhere in the near future, grant it.
Open the app and click on Framework -Tab.
Click Install/Update.
Reboot.
Download and install Jelly Bean 4.x Airplane Mode Helper.
Open Xposed Framework Installer-App again and select Modules.
Tick (set active) Jelly Bean 4.x Airplane Mode Helper.
Reboot.
Open Jelly Bean 4.x Airplane Mode Helper.
Tick (set active) Enabled.
Reboot.

That's it! Airplane Mode should work again as in previous Android versions and does not ask for SIM-PIN any longer when being turned off. It still does at startup, though, thus keeping your SIM-Card somewhat safe. I set up an automated battery saving procedure with Llama Location Profiles similar to the one described here (Thx a bunch, Izzy) and it's working flawlessly.
Good luck, folks!

Thanks a lot for your answer! I've just edited it to improve formatting (lists) and added the fact it requires JB+. As my devices are not yet running JB, I cannot test it – but I suspect you might have missed the most important part of the question (at least you do not mention it): Does it ask for the SIM-PIN when returning from Airplane mode – or can that be skipped this way?

Rest assured, I completely got your problem and my answer is exactly what you've been looking for ;) - it does not ask for the SIM-PIN when returning from Airplane Mode, but it still does at boot. Thus, your security is being kept but your battery saving script is working again. Thanks for the formatting upgrade!

I added the most important information as you were right - I totally forgot to mention the fact that this does in fact remove the need to unlock your SIM again after airplane mode.

In this case, it is exactly what I was after: Automated jobs do work without manual intervention, but the device is still protected when it comes to "initialization" (i.e. following a boot). Excellent! I upvote it for now. As I cannot test t0mm13b's solution either, I have to trust you concerning my "accept": this looks like the most promising (and free!) solution so far, though being limited to JB+.

You know, it's funny how I got there in the first place. I found your question & answer to the cell standby problem and soon ended up with the airplane mode-SIM-PIN-problem. Since I've been using Xposed Framework for some time now, I had the idea to look for a xposed module that would deal with the issue. :)

The answer lies in the source... it seems to be that the property to request pin-lock is built into build.prop or default.prop.
Have a look at the reference found in the TelephonyManager source, between lines 735 and 755. For brevity,
public int getSimState() {
        String prop = SystemProperties.get(TelephonyProperties.PROPERTY_SIM_STATE);
        if ("ABSENT".equals(prop)) {
            return SIM_STATE_ABSENT;
        }
        else if ("PIN_REQUIRED".equals(prop)) {
            return SIM_STATE_PIN_REQUIRED;
        }
        else if ("PUK_REQUIRED".equals(prop)) {
            return SIM_STATE_PUK_REQUIRED;
        }
        else if ("NETWORK_LOCKED".equals(prop)) {
            return SIM_STATE_NETWORK_LOCKED;
        }
        else if ("READY".equals(prop)) {
            return SIM_STATE_READY;
        }
        else {
            return SIM_STATE_UNKNOWN;
        }
    }

The key is TelephonyProperties.PROPERTY_SIM_STATE which is referred elsewhere, between lines 94 and 98.
//****** SIM Card
/**
 * One of "UNKNOWN" "ABSENT" "PIN_REQUIRED"
 * "PUK_REQUIRED" "NETWORK_LOCKED" or "READY"
 */
static String PROPERTY_SIM_STATE = "gsm.sim.state";

After searching through the source code here on my machine, I'll give you the idea of how often this method getSimState is called, notice the names of the java source to clue in on how its integrated within Android, not just in the Telephony layer but elsewhere.
services/java/com/android/server/am/BatteryStatsService.java 219:      int simState = TelephonyManager.getDefault().getSimState();

telephony/java/android/telephony/TelephonyManager.java 523:    public int getSimState() { 551:     * @see #getSimState 562:     * @see getSimState

policy/src/com/android/internal/policy/impl/KeyguardUpdateMonitor.java 478:    public IccCard.State getSimState() {

policy/src/com/android/internal/policy/impl/KeyguardViewMediator.java 545:            final IccCard.State state = mUpdateMonitor.getSimState();

policy/src/com/android/internal/policy/impl/LockPatternKeyguardViewProperties.java 57:        final IccCard.State simState = mUpdateMonitor.getSimState();

policy/src/com/android/internal/policy/impl/LockScreen.java 273:       mStatus = getCurrentStatus(updateMonitor.getSimState());

policy/src/com/android/internal/policy/impl/LockPatternKeyguardView.java 173:                && (mUpdateMonitor.getSimState() == IccCard.State.ABSENT); 217:                final IccCard.State simState = mUpdateMonitor.getSimState(); 469:                && (mUpdateMonitor.getSimState() != IccCard.State.PUK_REQUIRED)) { 512:   secure = mUpdateMonitor.getSimState() == IccCard.State.PIN_REQUIRED 513:                            || mUpdateMonitor.getSimState() == IccCard.State.PUK_REQUIRED; 643:        final IccCard.State simState = mUpdateMonitor.getSimState(); 662:        final IccCard.State simState
= mUpdateMonitor.getSimState();

policy/tests/src/com/android/internal/policy/impl/LockPatternKeyguardViewTest.java 49:        public IccCard.State getSimState() {

Do those file names give a clue, yup, in the lock screen...
Theory
This requires root at this point, by invoking the adb shell and calling getprop and setprop to do this, the only part is this, by invoking
adb shell getprop will get back the pertinent information as shown below
sh-4.1# getprop
[gsm.sim.state]: [READY]

This subtle property seems to be dynamically persisted into a backing property store, from the moment of powering up and is adjusted accordingly, based on number of things, service, and not to mention accidentally dropping the handset which may knock the sim-card out of its reader which would change the state of the card to "not-ready" or "unknown". (ref: system/core/include/cutils/properties.h and system/core/toolbox/   [ getprop | setprop ].c)
Now at this point, theoretically, by invoking setprop prior to locking the screen, it could be circumvented temporarily, but then again, that could get resetted by the telephony layer! Have not tried that! Which is leading to this...
Conclusion
The only way this can be switched off, is to effectively disable the pin-lock request on the actual sim-card. That is where the "magic" bit-flag is stored on that, in which the telephony's RIL layer reads it in via the proprietary htc/samsung/qualcomm's library, and that would prevent propragation of the persisting of the property "PIN_REQUIRED" up through the layers of Android.
A possible work-around, for Android Developers only :)
This would require hacking and recompiling the source.
For the airplane mode, when entering that mode and leaving airplane mode, the property could be split up, into two, gsm.sim.state can be left as is, but devise another property, something like this, gsm.sim.state.airplane.mode and assign a value along the lines of SIM_STATE_PIN_NOT_REQUIRED, and modify the airplane mode check, to read that property and if set to that, do not show the pin dialog box, otherwise as usually does, prompt it.

Thank you for the detailed explanation, t0mm13b! So we must assume that Samsung and LG have changed the code in all the places you mentioned -- if the reports I got about Samsung and LG devices (where people said they could disable the SIM PIN check separately, as described in my question) are correct?

Thanks again! If you could tell were to find that setting in CM, and since when it is in there, this would already be a big help -- as CM is available for many devices :) My devices are all running CM 7.x, so I could verify -- though I did not encounter such a setting yet (which is why I'm asking for the place where to look ;)

Try Settings > Location & Security Settings, Sim Card lock?

I had to delete the comment that was an answer to your question in there within same, its present in AOSP sources, (first time have seen it as my sim card is already unlocked and free of pin request lock anyway)

Confirmed in ICS, Settings > Security. Confirmed in Eclair 2.1-update and in Gingerbread (Settings > Location & Security Settings, Sim Card Lock)

Not confirmed for Gingerbread (CM7.2 on my Motorola Droid²/Milestone²). True, SIM PIN can be configured at the described place -- but only on/off, not selective for "only at power-on". Sorry.

I am not sure that you need to do what you are trying to do.
You might, instead:

Set up two Tasker tasks to switch on/off everything that enabling/disabling Airplane mode does.
Don't ever use actually your Airplane mode. Use your Tasker tasks.

You may have to see if any apps are enabled to automatically turn on a hardware radio. Watch to see if an app tries to background sync or whatever, they might try to toggle disabled radios on. If so, disable that app's ability to automatically turn on your e.g. WiFi. I say this because Airplane mode certainly stopped the unexpected WiFi connections before but not anymore, if you try this answer.
You could also set up Tasker to always go into Airplane mode at shutdown. That way you would see the PIN Lock at boot time.

Thank you, zero2cx -- but I'm not asking for me alone, and not especially for Tasker (I'm aware of the fact that I could disable things separately here; but disabling cell radio separately does not work with my Milestone²). In the linked questions answer, I also mention two other apps. They reportedly require the PIN either to be entered or disabled, as they use airplane mode. So please understand I do not want a specific Tasker solution (as many find Tasker too complex), but rather a generic solution to do what I asked for: disable the PIN request on return from airplane mode only.

Okay. I'm stumped, then. There's got to be a way to toggle it with software, but in in a more nuanced way. How does Samsung let you do it?

I cannot tell (don't have a Samsung device). But I've got reports that it is doable on many (all?) Samsung devices as well as with LG. On my Milestone² I didn't explicitly check, as my current SIM was in my HTC Buzz/Wildfire before, were I had to completely disable the SIM-PIN for this purpose.


text:
Configuring identical home screens on multiple devices
I need to modify the home screen icons' disposition and add new shortcuts, but I need to do it programmatically from a flashable ZIP through recovery.
I need this because I will have to do it on hundreds of devices (tablets).
Can anyone point me in the right direction where to look at? (which apk or xml file?)

Since you're looking to write a program to do what you want, this is very close to being off-topic here; Android programming questions should be asked on [so]. (Please read the [FAQ].) However, being able to deploy multiple devices with the same homescreen layout is certainly of interest to other Enterprise users. So I think this question is okay here. I am concerned, though, that you've already pre-selected your solution.

Is using a 3rd-party home screen replacement/launcher app an acceptable solution?

Thanks Al, that sounded to me the quickest option, since i've already found how to modify the wallpaper through framework-res.apk...but i'm open to different ways to achieve this!

Chahk, if with trebuchet what i want to do is not possible, then yes, it might be a solution.

It must be possible, as most ROMs I see start out with a few icons on the home screen. Unfortunately, I don't know how to do it.

That's exactly what i thought SaintWacko, hope someone with more knowledge will show up

I think i found a way to do that:
decompressing Launcher2.apk (trebuchet Launcher app) i found an interesting file named
default_workspace.xml under /res/xml folder of the app.
<appwidget launcher:className="com.estrongs.android.taskmanager.widget.TmWidgetProvider" launcher:packageName="com.estrongs.android.taskmanager" launcher:screen="2" launcher:x="5" launcher:y="0" launcher:spanX="1" launcher:spanY="1" />
<favorite launcher:className="com.android.music.activitymanagement.TopLevelActivity" launcher:packageName="com.google.android.music" launcher:screen="2" launcher:x="5" launcher:y="2" />

with all the necessary to place widgets and icons on different workspaces and XY position.
Hope it helps

If you get Nova Launcher (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher&hl=en) you can backup and restore from the settings menu.  Use this with Dropbox and you've got an easy end to end solution


text:
Why doesnt my Phone vibrate for messages
Currently, when I put my phone into vibrate mode, it only vibrates for calls. It does nothing for texts or emails, however, so I don't know when I've received one. Does anyone know a way to enable vibrating when a text or an email is received? My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9003 superclear LCS.

Go to "Messages", click on the menu button, choose "Settings". Then you can choose whether to vibrate or not in the "Notifications".


text:
Unable to upgrade firmware from Samsung GT-I9000
When I try to upgrade the firmware of a Samsung Galaxy S using Samsung Kies, it tells me "initialization not supported". Therefore I'm stuck with the original firmware.
Here's the details:
phone: Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9000
android version: v2.2
No SD card installed
Samsung Kies: v2.3
Anyone can give a clue on how to solve this?
Many thanks beforehand.

Have you looked into upgrading the firmware using Odin?  A factory reset might help your Kies problem as well.  Both options would wipe your data so backup if necessary.

I can only recommend cyanogen-mod stable on the Galaxy S. It's unlikely that Samsung will release any other update then Android 2.3 and CM runs very stable on my SGS plus all the Samsung bloatware is removed.

Thanks. I did think about using a 3rd party firmware, but the phone is not mine and I'd rather not go that way. In any case, what I find strange is the error message, doesn't necessarily mean that there are no firmware updates available and offers no clues about to solve it :(


text:
How can I turn off the "low battery" noise?
I've started getting a loud beep notification when my battery hits 15%.  Possibly this happened after an Audio Manager update but I don't see any settings in the app to change it.  Previously the notification was silent, I didn't even know it could have a sound!  There doesn't seem to be a relevant setting under Settings -> Sound.
How can I disable this notification sound?
I'm rooted, running 2.2 (TeamWhiskey's NextGen v1).

If you go into /system/media/audio/ui, you can delete/rename LowBattery.ogg to remove the low battery sound. This will work as long as it is using the system low battery sound as an alert. I don't know anything about Audio Manager, or whether this is even possible, but it may be using its own sound, in which case this would not work.
This requires:

A rooted device
A SuperUser enabled file browser/terminal emulator
/system to be mounted in read/write mode

For the rest of us reading this, this requires root.


text:
How to compose plain text email

Possible Duplicate:
Disable HTML Emails in composer

I'm baffled - my Samsung Galaxy Note running Android Ice Cream Sandwich ICS 4.0.4 has a default email client - which is rather neat.
One thing that baffles me - how to make it send email in plain text form only - HTML email is evil and it seems to be composing HTML by default.
I tried googling, but with so many generic terms - it's hard to find proper keywords.

If it's not available in the app settings, the functionality most likely simply isn't there. There are other clients you can use if it's important to you. If you want some tips for alternative apps, I suggest you look at The Best Alternative Android Apps to Manage All Your Email, or Google for a similar article.


text:
How to disable lock screen in ICS when VPN is set?

Possible Duplicate:
Connecting to VPN forces having secure screen lock

I have Sony Xperia S with ICS 4.0.4 stock rom (rooted), I need to have a VPN account set in my phone, but when I add a VPN account, the phone asks me to set either a pattern or password for lock screen, which I don't want.
Is there an app or hack to disable lock screen or at least, have just simple "slide to unclock" instead of pattern or password?

You are probably looking for Slide unlock till pattern lock gets activated after interval -- see my answer there to completely disable the lock (temporarily, of course).

@AlEverett thanks, that possible duplicate question didn't show up when I searched, and is for a different device than mine, BTW it helped me and I succeeded to disable lock screen completely.

Part of the problem here is that people use device-specific tags inappropriately. That makes things harder to find.


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Unrooting Galaxy Nexus - dies when plugged in
I rooted my Galaxy Nexus (Verizon) in order to get Jelly Bean. I got more than I wanted. The issues that have come from this are horrible. Whenever I plug my phone into a computer - it dies. It won't boot until I unplug it. I installed what I thought was a stock ROM of Jelly Bean (it was AOKP which has no way of installing apps), and now I'm completely stuck. I can't boot into recovery mode. I can't flash any ROMs to it and I can't plug it into a computer to run the Nexus Toolkit.
I just want to get back the official Jelly Bean OS. Please help.

You'll need to have the Android SDK installed, particularly the fastboot tool.  (You probably have this already if you've rooted your phone.)
Go to Google's factory images page, find the section called "mysid" near the bottom, and download the 4.0.4 file.
Turn your phone off, then hold both the Volume Up and Down buttons, and press and hold the Power button.  You should see the phone's bootloader screen, which looks like a green droid with its front panel open, and an arrow at the top that says Start.  Don't press any buttons here, but plug in your USB cable.
Extract the factory image file that you downloaded.  Inside, you should find a file called image-mysid-imm76k.zip.  Open a command prompt, cd to the folder with that file, and run fastboot -w update image-mysid-imm76k.zip.  That'll reflash the phone's factory software image, which should put it back to normal.  (You'll be running ICS at this point, but you can do the Jelly Bean OTA upgrade afterward if it's available to you.)
This may wipe all your phone's data — including the "SD card" internal memory — so make a backup of anything important first.

If your AOKP "has no way of installing apps", it sounds like when you installed it, you forgot to install the "gapps" add-on, which includes the Play app as well as other Google apps like Gmail.  But the other problems you described shouldn't happen — I've put AOKP on my Galaxy Nexus and it works fine.  If you still have problems after flashing the factory image, you'll need to provide more detailed information about what's happening.

You can use an alternative market (say, F-Droid) without Google Play installed. OP will just have to allow unknown sources.

I can't plug the phone in. It will kill it instantly and then it won't boot until I unplug it. I was able to get back to the Jelly Bean ROM by downloading Clockworkmod from the web browser. I just need a way to put it back to stock WITHOUT it being connected to a computer (I have move files over wirelessly).

You say it "won't boot", but have you tried what I described?  Stopping at the bootloader is different from trying to boot the Android OS.  If even that doesn't work, it sounds like a hardware problem, because flashing AOKP doesn't change the bootloader.  Anyway, if you can get to CWM, did you make a nandroid backup of your original ROM?  If so, just restore that.

I cannot get it to that boot screen in any situation, whether it's plugged in or not. I did not make a nandroid backup of my original ROM. I didn't realize it would be so important. I don't know where to find an original ROM.

Well, I provided a link to Google's page with the original ROM (and now the 4.1 one is available there too).  You don't need a nandroid backup; that's just an alternative that would've let you avoid wiping your data too.  You may find these directions more helpful than mine, but if you truly can't get into bootloader mode, then a) something is seriously wrong with your phone, and b) you're probably hosed.

Oh, one other thing to try:  on your phone's shutdown menu (the one you get when you hold the power button), is there a "reboot" option?  CyanogenMod has one that lets you reboot directly into bootloader mode, and I think AOKP does too, though I'm not sure.  That might work if the volume+power button combination doesn't.


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Link2SD not working completely
My Link2SD doesn't seem to be fully working. I noticed this when updating the Facebook application. Google Play prompted me of insufficient storage. I first uninstalled some apps but I got curious so I checked Link2SD's storage info, I got this:

(Click image to enlarge)
As you can see, the internal storage only has mere 70mb left. What's peculiar is, these are the only apps I have NOT linked:

(Click image to enlarge)
I tried moving one linked app (Amazing Alex) to the sd card (normal Android way) and sure enough, the free space on my internal storage got bigger by about an additional 20mb-ish.
Why is this happening? Why isn't Link2SD moving the data to my sdext2? How do I solve it?

Did you check with the Link2SD FAQ? It describes some similar issues, though not exactly what you wrote. But maybe while reading all the questions there, you encounter something deeper which could explain your issue -- as you know best what steps you took, it might be more obvious to you than to others.

I have encountered this problem with link2sd multiple times already. You can try to recreate your mount script via link2sd, reboot and then relink all your application files, lib files, and dalvik-cache.. hope this solves your problem.

Unfortunately, it doesn't solve it.

then my last resort to that problem was to reflash your rom.. sorry dude.. i know it hurts.. but have a backup just in case..

Many people have that kind of problem and I have the same one. moving apps to SD card just delays a bit the problem because something else fills up the internal storage. I finally figured out and it works great. I have a Galaxy Tab 7 but many android devices will experience that. There are 2 important folders. The one called /data is actually not really just data but it is where Android install the application apk and some of the data related to it. If you force the apk to install on SD card, it will still use some of the /data space (small amount) for some data.
the problem I discovered is in /data/tombstone, you will find 10 files named tombstone_0#. These are debugging info collected by android. These files build up over time. You don't need that for a normal user. Delete all of them. These 4 files were using 1.4GB of my 1.89GB internal tablet storage.
To do so, you will need to root your device. Yes, you must. And it won't explode don't worry, I've done it and many others too! Then get a program like "Root Explorer" to browse and delete the junk. It will request and be granted root privilege if you rooted your device before and you will be able to do whatever you want.
To root your device, just google "root android my device model" and you should find quickly how to root your device.
This problem is a design flaw. When there is a low internal storage, Android should start a background task to clean up that junk.

Often the system recreates some of the files that were previously linked to sdext2.  This often happens with libraries, but can affect other components (apk, dex) as well.
For libraries, Link2SD has a “Relink all library files” command in its menu.  There's also an option to do this each time the system boots.
You can also look at your linked apps and see which components are still linked (symbolized with a little arrow -> in the app list) and manually relink components if necessary.


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Media scanner running constantly
I recently bought one new Samsung Galaxy S 2. (Ice Cream Sandwich)
I am getting "media scanner running" message each time I try to open the camera.
How can I get rid of this issue? Do I need to replace the phone?

Does the message interrupt opening the camera or is it just a notification in the status bar?

Yes when i open the camera it shows message and camera shuts down itself

The message means that your internal and/or external SD card are being scanned for media files. If you have recently added a lot of files, this can take some time.
If this is not the case, the indexing might be broken. I'd suggest backing up your data from the phone's internal storage and your SD card, formatting both and trying again. If the problem persists, do a full factory reset. Otherwise, try adding the data from the backups to the phone and see if the camera still works.
If i remember correctly, you can find the setting to format the internal memory in Settings -> Storage -> Internal memory -> Format and the full factory reset in Settings -> Security -> Factory reset, but these depend on your Android version and might be relocated somewhere else.

Go to the Settings app, select the "All" tab, find Media Storage or Media and force stop it. Then reboot and the problem should be fixed.

Called "Stockage de médias" if some french people are looking for it.

I've had same problem. I wrote about it and it's solution in this document which I shared here.
All you need to reset is that media scanner: Settings > Applications > Manage applications > All > Media Storage: Force stop & Clear data. Then, reboot.

Hmmm... Does this apply to ICS as per the OP's question?

Go to Settings > Applications, Manage application, All, Media storage > Clear data. Most of the times, it helps solve the problem.

Initially i cannot even open camera application on my LG G2 . it keep saying "try again after scanning media files"
Use Media Library Repair Scanner
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.azend.refreshmusic
You do not need to root phone just click on refresh button and let media scanner start scanning and finished.

Was having same problem and read somewhere that problem was solved by deleting corrupt picture file. I deleted a few recent pics and still had problem. Remembered that I recently backed up phone for 1st time and had that file stored on external SD card. Deleted file, no more constant media scanning. Apologies if similar posted.

I had a continuing issue with my SD Card, wherein I would open up my SD files for access to the Audio/Video files that I had saved, only to be told "Scanning Files, try again later." So frustrating... but I soon realized that the data files that I was trying to open were not recognized or supported by my device!!?! Well, after a few choice words and some deep thought, I realized that the files were not supported without accessing them through the associated apps that downloaded the files. Even my Google Play Music files, which are straight-up MP-3 files, could not be opened without directing the data through the installed app,  i.e. Exo. Files for YouTube Files.
Hope this is relative and helpful.

I had the same problem and none of these fixes worked. It turns it that my Spotify was the problem. It had crashed and could not find the media files i had downloaded. I uninstalled Spotify and that solved the problem.

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


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Pushing files to my tablet from PC
I have a Sony Tablet S.
When I'm browsing the Google Play webpage on my PC, I can install applications by just pushing the Install button and choosing my device - all done on my PC. Then a moment later, automagically, the application is installing on my tablet.
Is there some similar functionality to send pdf/mp3/mp4 files to my tablet from my PC?

Apart from mails with attachments, I only know about some solutions involving a server software app on the device :)

Awesome Drop does exactly what you are looking for.
Drag and drop into a page on your pc's browser and the are automatically downloaded to your device.
Edit:
Here are a couple other options:

Wifi Syncr: If you are connected to the same wifi network this will do exactly what you want.  You basically setup a shared folder in Windows and anything you put in that folder is pushed to the designated folder on your device.  It's a one way sync: PC => Device.  You may be able to set this up to work remotely over the internet if you use a Dynamic DNS service but I don't really know.
You can use a cloud service like Flow mentioned in his answer and couple that with an app that will automatically keep the local folders on your device synced so you won't have to manually download each file.  I personally use DropSync with my Dropbox account. I've also used FolderSync with Google Drive (FolderSync actually syncs with tons of cloud services).  Both are paid apps but have lite versions that limit you to one folder which would work.  The drawback to this method is that there is a way to set it up to detect changes on your local device and sync immediately, however it can't detect changes to the cloud directory so files would only be downloaded to your device on the sync schedule you setup.

This one is the closest to what I want. The best would be something like this but using my google account and Google Drive so that I would be able to drop the file at work and later when someone turns my tablet on at home it will be automatically downloaded.

@SeeR I updated my answer with a couple other options that might be closer to what you are looking for.

I think most similar way to do this like what Google Play does, is:
If your files are saved on PC, and your device is connected to the same network as your PC (including local networks without internet connection), then you can use remote android controllers, like free and powerful AirDroid to upload files from PC to the device (batch files and folder transfers are supported).

Instead of explicitly pushing a file to your Android device, have a look at cloud storage providers. For example Dropbox or Google Drive. IMHO that is a superior approach, but it comes with two drawbacks:

privacy/security concerns
(Sometimes) the file will have to be uploaded first before you can retrieve it on your device. There is no direct file transfer from your PC to the device which is desirable when dealing with large files.


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How to move contacts from SIM to phone?
I have all my contacts saved on my SIM-card but I want to move them to the phone which is Galaxy note so that when I change the SIM-card my contacts are still saved and I don't need to save them all again. Is there any way to do this?

Yes, just go to:  Contacts -> Menu -> Import/Export -> From SIM to Phone
Or you can view this more detailed article to help you:
http://androidadvices.com/import-sim-contacts-android-phone/

On my version of Android, this only lets you copy contacts rather than move them.

At least on non-TouchWiz devices the contacts can be transferred from Contacts ->menu->Import/Export -> From SIM to Phone (or Import from SIM Card in later versions).

When you are in contacts you have to edit your contact list by importing or exporting contacts.  There's nothing on the screen to indicate how to do this but pull up the menu by pressing the icon on the very bottom left of the phone (on the note3 this is not on the screen but on the frame around the screen) and then you can click on import/export and move contacts to either device or sim. Card by Just going down the list and clicking on all the contacts you want to import or export.


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How do I start a new SMS conversation?
All the messages I ever exchange with one number are listed as one conversation. How do I start a new conversation with someone on the same number?
If this is an organisational thing, then I'd like to be able to use it as one and genuinely treat new subjects as new conversations. Or not to be told that every message I ever send someone is part of one long conversation when it isn't.

I don't particularly want to have to delete my entire message conversation with that person just to get rid of an error message; if anyone knows another way to get rid of the 'failed' I'd appreciate that too.

You don't, you just have to delete the message that is failing. Long press it, choose "Delete".

How do I start a new conversation with someone on the same number?

How do you expect your phone to understand what messages belong in which category? The only way I see this working is if there's a function to put "all messages from now on" in a separate conversation, but that's not a feature that exists in the standard SMS application, and not in any app that I know of.
Dividing your past messages with a contact in two parts makes no sense, it would be even harder to find a message then if you can't remember what "conversation" you've put it in. Not only would you have to scroll back to see it, you would also have to pick the right category. Surely it's easier to sort the messages on a by-contact basis and just scroll.

Thanks for the pointer on the failed message; I just worked out how to do this at the same time.

And putting all messages from a certain point in a new conversation is exactly what I want. It makes perfect sense to me - when you're emailing back and forth with someone, do you just hit reply every time? Or when you're starting a new subject, do you start a new conversation? When I'm reading through old messages and the conversation goes from being about something serious to being about sausages... that's the point where I'd like to declare that to be the next conversation. And when it returns to something serious, the one after that.

The problem is that the division you are used to works with e-mails, because e-mails have subjects. With SMS, there's no way of knowing what "conversation" a message would belong to. Ofcourse you could categorize it subjectively on your phone in the actual app, but I'm not sure if that's a very sought after feature. You could look around the custom SMS apps available, there's a bunch.

But the current situation is just a chronological listing of all the texts I've exchanged with one person. Many of these things already don't belong together as a conversation, so why are they being listed as one? I'm happy to have 'list all texts from one person' as an option, but if someone's going to call it a 'conversation' I'd like to be able to treat it as one, and end it like the end of a phone call - purely on the basis of chronology.

If you don't require posterity (to take the phone call analogy) you can always delete your discussion history every time you see the discussion as ended ;)

grins Yeah... Not quite what I'm looking for either. I'll stick with being annoyed by the name, then, and look around for alternatives. Ta!

Just call it a 'history' instead of a 'conversation'.


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Google Services hogging data - how to stop it?
Note: there is a related question to this, however it has no definitive answer.  Asking  in case anyone has discovered any solutions in the intervening period.
Onavo count continually reports that Google Services is hogging my data.  This seems a recent phenomenon - last few months or so.  I've switched off background sync and tried to restrict to wifi only.  All unsuccessful.  It continues to use
Phone is HTC desire Z running standard Android 2.3.3 (HTC Sense 2.1).
Phone was bought outright (i.e. not included as part of contract), running on SIM-only contract from O2 in UK.
Any suggestions for what's causing this?  And more pertinently, how to stop it?
Thanks.

What do you mean by "Google Services"? Please include more information.

@bigbadonk420: Onavo simply reports it as "Google Services".  It's listed under Settings->Applications->Running Services under the same name: contains 1 Service ("Google Messaging Service" and one process (com.google.process.gapps).

I guess OP means things like the GTalk service, which simply ignore sync/bgdata settings (and even "no network", as I saw in my logs just yesterday: GTalk reported an HTTP error when I was in Airplane mode for at least half an hour already, with even sync and data explicitly disabled).

Rather than creating a duplicate question, you should post a bounty on the original so that it gets more attention.

Related: Why does "Google Services" take up increasing RAM and spawn new services over time?

Related (on a different site): App Override Gives You Personalized Settings for Individual Apps. According to the description, you should be able to force apps to "wifi only", while others are still permitted to use mobile data. Amongst others, that is...

Go To Settings> Accounts > Google > Click on Your Email/google account > Untick to disable any syncs that you don't need (eg: i dont need google play movies or bookmarks) > Turn off your device > take battery out > leave for 10 minutes > reconnect battery & turn on Your device > should be refreshed and ready to go with google services using less battery usage

I havent tried your answer. But as far i understand electronics, trying to turn on the phone without battery, would clear any energy left on it, not requiring waiting 10minutes.


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How do I just charge (i.e. not mount for data transfer) a Galaxy Nexus when connected via USB to a PC?
I like to be able to charge my phone from any PC I happen to be using. With my previous HTC Android, I could default to "charge-only" and only switch it to "mount as disc drive" when I wished to, on my own machines.
Why? Being prompted for driver installs (at least on a Windows machine) is annoying;  connecting a storage device to a PC I don't own may be against policy/protocol/politeness.
It would appear that the Galaxy Nexus uses two protocols, MTP and PTP; I currently have only MTP switched on, but can't turn it off.
I could try to find a '"USB" cable that only connects pins 1 & 4 ... [to provide] ... power and no data'.. But this would mean carrying two different USB cables around.
Any other solutions?

This is a security issue also.  I want to be able to connect to untrusted computers for charging.  It seems crazy that this option available by default.

This feature is called "fast charge", and it charges your device slightly faster by disabling the USB data capability. It's not available in the stock ROM that I know of, so you need a ROM and a kernel that you know supports this. I'm using AOKP with the Franco kernel and it works great on my Galaxy Nexus, so you could try that. (There's even a quick toggle for fast charge available).
There's probably not an unrooted solution for this.

Being prompted for driver installs (at least on a Windows machine) is annoying

It might be good to know that installing the correct USB drivers for the Galaxy Nexus in Windows is not something that happens automatically. If you decide to root and flash your device, you'll encounter this; I highly recommend using Galaxy Nexus Toolkit to make the procedure as easy as possible (it's really not that hard).

I'm on CM9 with Franco and fast charge seems to work fine but I'm still promoted to install the Samsung drivers on the computers at work. Does that mean fast charge isn't working properly? It is pretty annoying to be prompted every time when in have no intention of installing the drivers on a particular computer.

I think that means it doesn't work properly, yes. The phone shouldn't make any data contact what so ever with the computer in fast charge mode.


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Samsung Galaxy III screen turning on by itself and draining battery
Even though I haven't received any notifications, the screen on my Samsung Galaxy III keeps turning on and draining my battery. What's causing this?

I'd guess some app. Anything you recently installed before this issue came up?

Izzy is right, uninstall any software which you installed after the last time your phone was OK, and check if it turns on automatically again.

Have you found a solution? I'm experiencing the same issue. I'm afraid it's a hardware issue.


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Restart in safe mode on Galaxy Nexus
I have an unrooted Verizon Galaxy Nexus, just recently upgraded to Jelly Bean.
One of the touted features of Jelly Bean was the addition of the "Restart in safe mode" option from the power menu. (Long-press power button.)
However, no such option is available. In fact, it's the exact same options I saw under Android 4.0.4 (Power off; Airplane mode; silent; vibrate-only; sound on).
Is there a setting I missed? Or is this really a hardware option for the Nexus 7?

On the Nexus 7 there's not a separate menu option for "Reboot into safe mode". You have to long press on "Power off" and then the safe mode dialog appears. I'd try that, since I imagine it would work the same way if the GNex supports it.

Oh, darn. Yeah, it sure does. (Feeling a bit sheepish.)

That screen should have a warning that it makes synced accounts and widgets disappear, tried it just to see what it's like and poof, they're gone!

@onik- Even after you reboot into normal mode?


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Reinstalling Android after mobile has been erased by DBAN?
I was curious if a Android mobile is erased using DBAN, then can the Android be reinstalled on the mobile or it becomes useless ?

Well unless there's an Android version of DBAN I can't imagine it would be able to affect the OS files. You can't readily access /system as a block device on a PC (I guess there might be some way to do it, but it's probably not easy), so there's really no way you could mount it to a computer for DBAN to access it.

well...connect android to pc using usb cable. DBAN detects two memory devices, i guess one for sd card and one for internal storage. I think it will wipe if selected. Btw, is internal memory SSD ?

The "internal storage" is still not the partition that /system lives on, though, it's a partition that is world-writable and acts as an external storage device in the absence of a physical SD card (unless it's using MTP in which case it's most likely moot still because that's not block-level access). The internal memory is flash memory, so technically yes, as SSD's are generally NAND flash.

So are you implying that even if dban is able to delete both the storages, android os will not go ?

@JohnWatson yes, Android is designed that way to protect you from accidentally deleting the OS while you're just trying to sync music. All that running a secure eraser like DBAN on your external and internal storage mounts will do is securely erase your personal files like music, pictures and app settings. You'll just be doing a more secure version of the Factory Reset option.

i just run DBAN on my micro SD card. it has become blank but not readable by mobile or laptop. Mobile says"SD card blank or has unsupported file system". formating does not help. Laptop does not open the card at all. Anyhelp ?

@JohnWatson if your card can't be read in any device, then DBAN may have wiped it a little too securely! You might have more luck asking about this problem on our sister-site http://superuser.com as your current SD card problem is more of a general computing problem, than anything Android specific

As the question already is answered with the line of comments to it, I'll take the freedom to sum up the details to make them easier to find:
What is DBAN?
My first point was that I never heard of DBAN before, so I had to look it up. Luckily, my first hit was Wikipedia (which article I linked here), and it answered this question quite compactly:

The program is designed to securely erase a hard disk until data is permanently removed and no longer recoverable, which is achieved by overwriting the data with pseudorandom numbers generated by Mersenne twister or ISAAC.

So we are not talking about some "remote attack" destroying your device, but a willful wiping of the "drives".
What could DBAN wipe on an Android device?
This question was answered by eldarerathis and GAThrawn in the comments: Unless there is an Android version of DBAN which can be executed directly on the device, DBAN is limited to the SD-Card and internal storage (the storage devices offered to the computer via UMS). It cannot access e.g. the /system partition for two reasons: 1) it is not made available via UMS, and 2) it is mounted read-only (unless the device is rooted, and you explicitely mounted it read-write -- which cannot be done without rooting). Similar reason (not made available via UMS) applies to all other partitions.
So what about restoring the Android system?
Nothing. No need for this. As described in the previous section, DBAN at maximum can access two of the data partitions. But it cannot access /system (where the Android system resides), /boot (where Android is bootet from), or even /data (where your apps and their data reside). Since nothing is lost from the Android System itself -- there simply is nothing to restore, it's all still there.

You will need to install a custom recovery software TWRP or CWM onto the android device to wipe /System /Data /Boot and other partitions.


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How to prepare touchscreen-based Android device for [emergency] calling using only hardware buttons?
If my touchscreen Android phone gets smashed I expect that it can happen that only touchscreen is broken (as it seems to be the most fragile part) while the device itself able to function somehow; and I maybe need to call somewhere using only hardware buttons (without screen at all).
Are there any programs to place and/or answer [emergency] calls by entering some pattern of hardware buttons without using screen as input or output? This can also be helpful when you are using the device in frost, in gloves, etc. so using touchscreen becomes problematic.
Having wet/cold/cracked_screen phone and not being able to call for help just because of touchscreen is not working can be unpleasant. With hardware buttons you can type the "sos code" sometimes even if both your and your phone's HP is low...
My device is SE Xperia X10, but I expect the thing to work one way or another with all devices with at least 1 hardware button.

Maybe try to implement the application for rooted devices that will monitor /dev/input/... ? Is it easy to call 112 (directly, not showing any 'press here to call') from API?

I started implementing my own solution for my device.
Here (source) is a program that (started as root) will allow you to start shell scripts using series of button presses. Currently having started this monitor ( andrhard 66 /h/andrhard < /dev/input/event2&) I can easily toggle the flashlight without unlocking the phone (using /sys/class/leds/lv5219lg:fled/brightness)
Now the problems is how to call/answer from shell scripts...

This blog has a simple way of initiating a call via the command line. service call phone 2 s16 "+18001231234". Combine that with Vi0's answer, and you could have a script to dial a phone number by pressing the button. I haven't tested this to see if dialing 911 would work, but I don't see why not (unless Android specifically disallows that).

I'll try (with neutral number).
How to really test an emergency 112 call without actual emergency? Is aborting a 112 call immediately when you see it is not rejected by Android (before the beeps even started) OK?

How do you think: will an normal installable "apk" program that sets up this scheme (my "andrhard" program + this method) be useful for other users?

I would say it is useful. Even if someone doesn't want to use it for 911, they could use it for something else. If you had a simple program that lets the user define button presses, then define a command to run, it would be very useful.

Currently I just create scripts with special names, like "73" (volume up) - turn on LED; "72" (volume down) - turn off LED; "9ee59ee5" (back, menu, back, menu) - do something more tricky, like calling somewhere. Numbers are hex codes from /dev/input/ file. File not found => no action assigned. If it'll be an android application, it will be more user-friendly, of course.

In phones with cyanogenmod ROM you have voice dialer facility. Launching it will vibrate the phone with a beep informing you that it is ready to receive your voice input. Speaking to it like "Call John" or "Call 911" etc will make the device to call.
To enable this to work without the touchscreen you may have to configure the hardware keys. To do so, go to Settings->System->Hardware keys.  Enable the custom actions and you can configure the search key's long press event for launching voice dialer.

Both not convenient and not reliable in case of emergency. (BTW will this work with locked screen?). Also can't start a call preserving silence... I think the Plain Old Hardware Button is the best and most reliable way sometimes.

Nope, sorry this will not work with screen locked - didn't realize it :(


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Screen issue on Asus Transformer Prime TF201?
Sometimes when using the Asus Transformer Prime TF201, I see some artifacts or static occuring along the left side of the screen as pictured below. It kind of looks like a white barcode. It is running the latest version of Android 4.0.3 the "Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201 Firmware: V9.4.2.28" this tablet has not been unlocked, yet...

Asus Transformer Prime TF201 screen distortion (click image to enlarge)
Happens most often when viewing web pages in Chrome, etc. It does not happen all the time. Any ideas what might be causing this? Software, hardware, anyone else ever seen anything like this?
Is this a hardware aka warranty issue?

I've seen  this on occasion on mine.  It seems to be a software issue, triggered by certain usage patterns.   This post on XDA-developers has some info on how you may be able to trigger it.   That community seems to be hoping that the 4.1 Jelly Bean update will include a cure.

Have not been able to reproduce the effect since posting the question, even after following the steps noted.

This does kind of lean towards the side that its just a software issue, Phew!!!