text:
Nexus One crashes with 32GB SD card
I just got a Nexus One (Gingerbread), and when I put in my 32GB Micro SDHC it will crash when it tries to read it (copying apps, opening storage settings, etc) and after you have locked the screen it will not come back on (the menu buttons light up, but not the screen)
I re-formatted it on my computer, but when I used it in my phone it would fail again.
The card however works on my old Huawei Ideos u8150 (Froyo) with no problems.
The Nexus one reads the 8GB card that came with it fine.
I would like to know why the Nexus would do this, given that they are spec'd to read a 32GB card. And how to fix it, obviously.
I have now tried formatting it with another phone (along with formatting it with GParted) and it works until you plug it into the computer and copy files onto it. It will then either not mount it or act the same as above.

Thank you for letting us know -- but could you also make clear what your question is? a) what cards are compatible b) what size is supported c) what phones are compatible to the card d) how to make your Nexus work with that specific card e) ... ?

32 Gb cards work just perfectly on my Nexus One. I have original ROM which was updated once OTA. The phone reports OS version as 2.3.6. I use SD card preformatted as FAT 32. You can try to format your card using phone itself, go in storage settings and erase the card. It should work after.

I have actually since sold my Nexus (Partly because of this issue). I did try formatting the card with the phone, but this ended up with the phone crashing/ not responding. The card was formatted to FAT 32 by my computer originally. It was running Gingerbread 2.3.6 if I remember correctly. I've used (and am using) this same card with my Galaxy Tab 2 and my Galaxy S without any problems.

It may just be a software bug.
Have you tried formatting it with the phone itself yet?
Else: The Nexus One is now unsupported by Google, so if this is the case you can only fix it by installing some aftermarket firmware like CyanogenMod and see if this solves your problem.
CyanogenMod has a device page for the N1 and a full update guide. If you want to try even more, there are also unsupported beta firmwares for Ice-Cream-Sandwich and Jelly-Bean available on XDA's Nexus One development forum from other developers.

I don't recommend Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean on a working device.
It's working, but in my opinion kinda slow. I suggest to flash the latest CM7.


text:
What happens to the battery during bootloader/recovery?
I want to know what happens to the battery (does it charge/discharge/stay constant?) when the device is in bootloader or recovery mode. In both of these modes, a USB may or may not be connected.
If the battery does charge, could that possibly be a feature that could be a result of the installed recovery/bootloader, or could the charging feature be hardware dependant?

Charging control is done via hardware to prevent ruining the battery in case of software errors. That is why (most?) devices charge even when powered off. The status display that is then shown is just a "minimal OS" that queries the current status from the battery charger hardware.

Great and simple answer.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
After removing old system app and installing the new version, it forces close
I'm using a custom ROM of CyanogenMod 7 (Android 2.3.5) on ZTE Racer. The ROM came with some default system apps like Gmail, Google Translate, Youtube and Adobe Reader. The old version of these apps are kept in internal storage even if you update them, so to save space I uninstalled the updates and them removed them using Root Manager.
The problem is that when I installed the updated versions from Market, they force close during opening (I found out later that Google Translate force close only when trying to translate something).
I had backed up everything before uninstall, and I noticed that if I install the backed up version manually and then update it through Google Play, they work fine. Checking the storage space left, I can say that the old versions were this way deleted, so I suppose the result should be the same.
Since I did not notice that Google Translate wasn't working, I deleted the backed up apk file, so I can't put it to work again.
My question is: anyone knows why does this happen? And if so, how could I make the updated version of Google Translate to work now that I do not have the old default apk anymore?
Edit: I tried installed again to trace the exact error message and it is now working, though I have done anything explicitly.

Which device? Which system apps did you remove? I would recommend to delete parts of the gapps package, cause it could lead to the kind of problems.

First step would be to look at the Android log after a fc has happened.

Thanks for the link, I'll consider using that next time something crashes, though I remember seeing the details of the "report" and it was a NullPointerException. I have tried one last time to install it directly from Google Play and it's now working, I'm not sure why (I had already rebooted after uninstall it).

I cannot say for all apps you listed -- but for some, the following applies:
Some system apps (as e.g. the market/playstore app) have to be present in /system in order to work. For the Playstore app, the reason is: The permission to install other "packages" is only granted if one of the following two conditions is met:

it is signed with the same certificate as the system (ROM) itself -- which does NOT apply in your case, due to the custom ROM used
it is installed as "system app" (i.e. below /system) -- which did no longer apply in your case, since you uninstalled the app from there

Expecting the pre-conditions given, developers might have forgotten to include a check and implement appropriate exception handling -- which then may lead to the described force-close.
Similar constellations might apply to other apps/packages as well -- though I'm not sure what should make the Google Translate app so special (maybe it has some special hooks I missed).
You could try to find out by following Roxan's advice, to integrate the app as "system app" again using e.g. Titanium backup, and see if it still force-closes.

Instead of doing this manually, use Titanium Backup Pro.
It allows you to integrate updates to ROM for all system apps.
So after installing this, long press your desired app and choose the option integrate update.

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


text:
Android running tweetdeck notifications when not running
I downloaded Tweetdeck for my new Galaxy S 3 and when it is not running in the task list or in the app manager | running apps it still notifies me of new tweets. How can I see this task running and how to disable it? I don't see it in services or in the Tweetdeck options to disable background services.

Did you check the running services (a separate item in setup -> applications on most Android systems)? The app might have registered a background service, which has no "front end" (visible part), and thus is not listed with the "running apps".

In Tweetdeck, each column has separate notification and update settings.    Tap the menu key, then Column Settings.     Switch notify off, and set your desired update interval, or move the slider all the way to the right to select "Manual".

Thanks. Guess when that is checked it just Runs in the background unless all are disabled.


text:
How to change the frequency of Google Play update checks?
Every day I get a notification on my Inc2 that there are app updates available in the market.  Is there a way to change the frequency of these update checks?  I see no reason to be prompted to update my apps on a daily basis and this is a little annoying.  I would like to be able to only have it check for updates weekly.

You can turn off automatic update checking by pressing menu and than settings in the play store. You can then manually go to my apps to update them. This will not greatly increase the work you have to do, because even if there is a notification once a week it would still require you to confirm the updates. There is no option however to change the frequency of the automatic updates.

If you go into Settings and check "Auto-update apps" it will download and install the updates without prompting you. If you're worried about data usage, also check "Update over Wi-FI only". I've had my phone set this way for a while now, as I too got tired of constantly having updates to accept.
As Dylan Yaga pointed out, if an apps update changes its permissions, you will still be prompted to update it manually, although this doesn't occur very often.

Side Note: Apps that change permissions must still be manually reviewed before updating using this method.

I like being in control of when my apps update.  Daily is far to often to review a list of updates.  I assume that if I auto-update I will still be notified of all of the updates that have occurred.  I have also found that quite a few of my apps update permissions frequently.

I finally gave in and went this route.  I still don't like apps autoupdating without telling me, but at least my monthly update all doesn't freeze up the device for an hour anymore.


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Changing language from hardware keyboard in ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF300T
Today I have updated my Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF300T to Android 4.1 and was very disappointed. On Android 4.0 I used Ctrl+Space in Russian ASUS Keyboard to switch input language between English and Russian, and now it's not working! Just pop up notice that language was changed but language stays Russian. I've tried to use other languages, but all of them do the same. Restarting device does not help.

Ctrl + Shift does the job. A window appears where you can change the language. Worse than in Windows, but still...

Might help to include screenshot of this?


text:
How can you stop your phone from saving contacts to your sim?
I Have a T-Mobile Sidekick 4G. It runs on Gingerbread. I just got my phone and when I first tried to enter a contact I accidentally pressed "Save to Sim" and "Remember This Choice". I really want to save contacts to my phone but it won't let me. How do I un-do this? This is really annoying!

You can undo this from Settings of Contacts app..

Open Contacts then press the menu button go to More>Settings in that the first option is where you want to save your contacts .

The answer above does not work .... I don't see a More>Settings option....


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Samsung Galaxy S stuck in boot loop when 100% charged
Before we start I should mention that I have not messed with the firmware in any way. But it seems that whenever I put it on charge and it reaches 100% capacity I turn it on and it gets stuck in a boot loop. I have turned it off and on while it hasn't been on charge and it worked fine.
This happened once and I wiped all user data from the phone and it fixed it. But it's doing it again and I have tried looking around on Google but I cannot find a solution at all.


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How to toggle wi-fi, gps etc quickly in HTC Sense?

Possible Duplicate:
Can anyone recognize this app (toggles WiFi, GPS, Sync, BT, etc.) in the notification bar?

I am used to from cyanogen mod to be able to toggle on/off wi-fi, gps, data, plane mode etc Also I was able to configure what is going to be available to toggle.
Now in HTC Sense version 4.0 that runs on Android 4.0.3 I cannot find anything like that.
Do I have to install (and probably pay) for a widget or I missed this a must feature in the Sense?
Could you recommend a widget that would allow me to do so?

There are a lot of toggle switches available. Some even come pre-installed -- just check it out:

go to your homescreen
long-press on an empty space
select to add a widget
scroll through the list of available widgets
select the one you want to use

Usually, there are a lot of separate widgets to toggle either Wifi, GPS, ... -- but also a "power-widget" (or "energy-widget") should be available, which is a combination of several widgets.
If you are still not satisfied with what you find there, the playstore is full of alternatives:

Elixir 2 with its Elixir 2 - Widgets being the most famous and high-rated1, and can even be integrated into the notification area
Power Toggles being another alternative2 -- also can be integrated with the notification area

Just to give you two examples -- as said, the playstore has many more. Below you find a screenshot from Elixir1 and Power Toggles2, to give you an idea of what they can do.

Any idea if or how I can customize HTC widgets? They do what I want but I need to used like 3 of them. One doesn't airplane, the other one gps ....


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Android and Windows 7 Homegroup
I have an Android tablet and my PC running Windows 7 Pro. I am using ES File Explorer on Android to see shared folders.
I added some folders to the Music/Picture/Video libraries and shared them in a homegroup. I tried to make the homegroup not need a password and it'll let me access my PC from my tablet and view the root folders but as soon as I tried to access a folder (Music) it'll say permissions aren't available. It will work if I set a password and login with my account.
The second issue is that I'm seeing folders that I don't want to see. I can see a ADMIN$ folder (which is C:\WINDOWS), C$, D$, E$ (the HDDs), IPC$, print$, User. As well as Music, Pictures, Videos from the library. The folders in bold aren't shared so I don't know why I'm seeing them.
The last issue is that a folder (a whole drive actually) isn't being shared. I included the whole E: Drive in the Videos folder but it won't show up in the Video folder from the tablet. However if I include a folder from within the E: Drive then it will show up. Can I not include the root of a drive in a library? I mean it works on the PC.


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CM 7.2 Default Calendar View & Back Button Behavior
I have two Incredibles, both with CM7.2.
On one, with the calendar open and in Agenda view, if I press the back button, the calendar exits.  If I re-enter the calendar, it correctly goes back to Agenda view.
On the other, with the calendar open and in Agenda view, if I press the back button, the calendar goes to monthly view, and I have to press back again to exit.  If I re-enter the calendar, it incorrectly opens in month view.

How can I set default calendar view to be Agenda?
How can I get the back button to exit the calendar instead of changing the view?


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How can I check if installed apps are latest versions?
I used to have an app on my Desire HD that I think was called Something Dog. When launched, it would list all the installed apps and whether they were the latest versions.
My Desire HD crashed a while ago, and all my data was lost. I've since bought a One X and I'd like to have this app again.
Does anyone know what it's called?

The "dog" you are talking about is aTrackdog. :)
It queries your installed apps and compares them to the latest known versions.

You are welcome, you can still upvote :)

At the time I couldn't (not enough rep), done now though ;)

Is there an alternate link for aTrackdog, as the one above is unavailable on google play.


text:
What is the most effective way to disable ads in an Android app?

Possible Duplicate:
Is it possible to block ads in Android applications?

I've read ways but they don't block/disable ads.

Buy the full version without ads, or write your own program. You can checkout easily how the existing app works (unless it was built with the NDK).

Free applications usually come with ads, since they are used by the developer to monetize its work:

Advertising is one of the means to monetize (make money with) mobile applications.

Two methods to disable ads:

Unrooted device:
Buy the donate version
It's getting common among developers to have two versions of their application, one free filled with ads, and one "donate" version where you pay a extra-small-amount and get rid of the ads while helping the developer.
Additionally, there are other forms of donate to help the developer and get rid of the ads, since they vary alot, best is to read the application summary.
Rooted phones:
There are several applications available from Google Play Store with the sole purpose of blocking ads from the device and applications.
Essentially, they nullifying requests to known host names in the system hosts file.
AdFree Android by BigTinCan.com is amazing for this end.

Personally I don't like the idea of blocking ads since we are essentially preventing developers from earning their day-to-day bread.

You must be rooted for this. If you are rooted, use either of ways:

Point ad servers to localhost using Host file manually. Sniffing ad servers & adding them to Host file is tedious task.
Use Ad Blocker apps. There are many Ad Blocker apps available in Play Store viz. AdFree Android, AdAway etc. Its easiest, fastest and most effective way.

Google is starting to remove ad blocker apps. http://www.droid-life.com/2013/03/13/google-begins-removing-ad-blocker-apps-from-google-play/

@AlEverett Sideloading from other sources is always an option...


text:
Charging paused. Battery temperature too high or too low
I have a Samsung Galaxy player that has been giving me the message "Charging paused. Battery temperature too high or too low". I left it unplugged and powered down all night, and it still gave me the message as soon as I turned it on. The battery should be at room temperature. I've turned it off and on several times. I've tried removing the battery and putting it back. I have no idea what's wrong. It's been working fine for the past 9 months. Can anyone help?

Have you checked “Charging paused. Battery temperature too high” while connected to car charger if it might apply? Though this is probably another cause, as you explicitly state it happens also just after power-up.

Did you turned ON Wi-Fi Hotspot / MobileAP?

Probably your battery is dead, get a cheap replacement on ebay which will cost you some 6-15EUR. @SachinShekhar: the Galaxy Player has no GSM, it's only for surfing, music and such.

@ce4 Alright. Didn't know about that.. thanks. :)

@Patrick : did you find out what happened ? I'm stuck with the exactly same problem. I am about to do a reset factory and if fails I'll try to replace USB charge connector. Before that, I would like to know what about your phone..

@Delphine what exactly happened to your phone before it started displaying this message? Did it fall/ come into contact with water/ was it opened?

@user145490 : Nothing at all ! I loved my phone, never crashed, never fallen into water.. Maybe it was because I played with my phone during charging.. Or I charged it every night.. :/ I give up and I bought a new one. Only thing which solved this issue for 2month and half was : charging my battery in an external charger. After that, everything went back to normal. Issue reappeared after 2 month and a half but with the fact that EVERY application were closed automatically due to "hot" battery.. :/

@Delphine haha. Well I had the same problem except mine was with my S5. It fell one time then all hell came loose. It wouldn't open apps 'battery too hot' it also wouldn't charge 'battery too cold'. However holding the battery in hand, it wasn't ever too hot or too cold. I took it to Samsung repair centre and the technician assigned to me was actually very helpful. Apparently the fall had damaged the motherboard and the charging port. I'm not sure the exact term he used for the specific part, but in summary the phone has 2 sensors one to monitor internal components temperature...

@Delphine cont and another to monitor battery temperature so that charge can be disconnected when the bat gets too hot. Basically they were both damaged and are permanently fixed to the motherboard. Meaning for repair to happen, they'd have to change the motherboard

@user145490 Mine was a S5 too ;p ! Glad to hear an official explanation. I though about changing "USB connector" (50€ in France) but as I was not sure about the reason and because warranty was over I bought a new one. Maybe my phone felt once but issue did not appeared just after the fall.. Too bad. My new one is a S7 but my S5 still stays on my bedside table.. !

AFAIK the temperature sensor that measures the battery is built-in (in the battery). In your case either the battery is defective, because it get's to hot immediately when charging or the sensor is defective. Either way, I think you have to replace the battery with a new one.
Before you replace the battery you should rule out a software error by doing a factory reset to see if the problem persists.

It's been fine for months, and I don't think it ever overheated. Why wshould it be having issues like that now?

Things tend to break from one moment to another.

Nope. Just bought a brand new battery and having the same problem. Any other ideas?

I know this is an old post but, I just had this problem and found a good solution so thought I'd post the answer here in case someone else is looking for the same help.
Power down the phone.
Take the battery out for 20+ seconds.
Plug in the charger.
Put the battery back in.
Turn the phone back on.

Same problem (battery temperature too low), but neither trying with other batteries nor trying to remove the battery for a few minutes changed anything

I left my phone in the car on a cold night, and it said it couldn't charge because the temperature was too high or too low. All I did was let it warm up in my house for 15 minutes. Then, I plugged it in, and everything was fine.

For those who have tried multiple batteries,
I have multiple Samsung phones, I use the wall charger to avoid charging my phone. It was $15 on ebay, and it may be a viable workaround and/or solution outside of replacing the motherboard.
These wall chargers will charge your battery no matter what, you can confirm this by looking at the pins on the image below. If the third pin not present, the charger does not check battery stats before charging.

(I consider this a solution, because it takes advantage of the removable battery feature, and the chargers come in packs of three batteries so you'll never be stuck to an outlet again.)
Hope this helps.


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Unregister device in Google Play

Possible Duplicate:
How to remove device(s) from My Market Account?

I've two devices showing in my Google Play Account, probably because of some old ROM. I want to remove the old entry. I can't install apps to my phone through the website anymore...

I can't see any Option in the Google Play Settings.

Unfortunately, you can't do this.


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Obtaining root by modifying default.prop(ro.secure)?
To get a privileged shell you need to modify the following lines to the given values in the default.prop file
ro.secure=0
ro.debuggable=1
persist.service.adb.enable=1
I have the extracted the recovery image of my phone model :
So is it possible to modify the following values in the default.prop file, repack the image and flash it using fastboot(bootloader is unlocked) to get a privileged shell, and then copy the su binary after remounting system as read/write?
Do I need to change any other values in any of the files? And will it work, theoretically at least?

Before you reinvent the wheel, did you check xda-developers for an official root method for your device?

Yes I have, there are no "official" methods and I wanted to do it by myself for once, its a re-branded Chinese device, so not much support there,

Which device do you want to root?

@Flow Karbonn A9/K-Touch W680. Update: The above approach did not work, either because the image wasn't stock recovery in the first place or it isn't that easy. Phone is rooted now.

default.prop is located in ramdisk, which is "reset" every boot

Can you link to or explain how to extract the recovery.img or boot.img from the phone (without already having root)? Thanks!

@user29020 This was quite some time ago, I can't remember.

This approach will work (provided there are no proprietary funny locks in place anywhere), but the recovery partition is no party to it from the very beginning. The default.prop is overwritten on bootup, copied from the boot partition, which is not a directly accessible file system. You need an image of the boot partition, which you will then unpack, make the change, and repack.
Assuming you know how to go about doing all that (since you say you tried it with the recovery), I must warn ahead that often times it is necessary to include the base address when making the image with mkbootimg. There is no way to know when it is required, so it is safe to always include a base address. You can follow a tutorial here:
www.freeyourandroid.com/guide/extract-edit-repack-boot-img-windows
The script includes the od command with which you can get the base address, in case you want to make your own script. For more on the manual steps (for reproducing on GNU/Linux):
android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack%2C_Edit%2C_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images
I do not recommend use of the unpack/repack scripts, as they have hardcoded lines not portable across cases. Use split_bootimg.pl, then gunzip and cpio extract it, after which you will again use cpio and gzip it, followed by the mkbootimg command. The only exception is for MTK65xx devices, where you will need the relevant unpack/repack tools (because they have very different offsets; you will also skip the mkbootimg as the repack script does it for you):
github.com/bgcngm/mtk-tools
And here is an on-going example of a Chinese rebranded phone going through the same thing to finally get root:
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1818146&page=5
I'm sorry I have to strip off proper links, but I am apparently considered potential spam. Also, I've not been rather thorough because I'm not really sure you'd want more verbosity.

Can you link to or explain how to extract the recovery.img or boot.img from the phone (without already having root)? Thanks!

The above approach did not seem to work.
Either because the stock recovery put up wasn't meant for the device or the method isn't this easy and may involve making other changes. The phone wouldn't go into recovery mode, which is the only mode in which you would get a privileged shell to perform the necessary operations to obtain permanent root.
Another method would be to modify the build.prop in the boot image itself, repack and then flash it and adb to get a privileged shell in normal operating mode.
Better to follow someone else's procedure when you're not too sure about your own.

This is not working because the shipped ADB version is not supporting root. (I looked up the make file and the ADB source, I know what I am talking about)

@Orri Though this may be years later, I'm pretty sure Chainfire's insecure ADBD app was around when the answer was posted.


text:
How to copy wireless networks list from one android device to another?
I got a very long list of free hotspots and friends/family networks on my phone.
Recently I bought a tablet and I'm trying to find a way to copy the wireless manager list to this new device. Any idea how to do that? Both devices are rooted and running ICS.

I thought this happened automatically, at least if you've enabled the "back up my data" option.

As you are rooted: Wireless network data are stored in data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf -- so you could basically copy all its network entries from one device and insert them on the other. The entries look like
network={
    ssid="Telekom"
    key_mgmt=NONE
    priority=42
}

An easier way would be using the App Wlan Backup & Recovery (root): Backup all entries on one device, and restore them on the other. As you can see in below screenshot, the tool can even send the backup by mail -- so transfer to the other device should be easy:

But reading the comments on this app suggests it does not always work as expected: Users even recommend to use the manual way I described above.
Another option is using Titanium Backup, and restore the Wifi data on the other device. I did that successfully a couple of times, also cross-device and cross-ROM.
Third option is offered by the app Wifi Passwords (about USD 1), which allows you to share networks.

TitaniumBackup (TiB) also allows to back this up on one and restore it on another device. TiB also offers an alternate XML based backup scheme for that (in case the old phone's wpa_supplicant.conf contains device specific stuff that doesn't work on the new device. At least that's what TiB shows as a hint if you choose between pure file based or XML based backup schemes).

There is one wi-fi connection where it was open but you had to enter a password in the browser, but you only had to do this the first time (so it's saved in some sense). Do you know if this method would copy it?

@Celeritas I doubt that. I don't know where that password is stored, but most likely on the "captive portal" (after verification, the device's MAC address probably is stored as "verified" there).

You can do this without root permissions as its built into Android ICS. Just go to:
Settings -> Backup & Reset

Then when you setup the tablet you can restore all the Wi-Fi data from your phone when you sync from the same Google account.

This is only an option if you're fine with all your date being stored on Google's servers, though.

Is there any way to validate that this data has been backed up once you turn on the checkmark?

There is no reliable way to ensure that WiFi's are backed up on Google servers. Moreover, there is high chance that restore will not work. For me it does not work very often.


text:
Using Apple Lossless with Google Play Music
I have a lot of music encoded in Apple Lossless (ALAC), but Google Play Music doesn’t seem to support it.  Instead Google Play Music supports FLAC, but iTunes doesn’t support it.
I don’t care how encoded my music are, but want to encode these without any loss.  How do you guys manage your lossless music using iTunes + Google Play Music?  I believe it’s not only my problem.
Edit: Okay, I finally gave up, and encoded my all files encoded in ALAC/FLAC to normal AAC.  There seems no way to use both at a time as of now.

From a business perspective it seems like it's not really in Google's (or Apple's) best interest to support this kind of interoperability. They both want you using their respective music stores. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if there is no easy way to do this.

Are you married to iTunes? you may want to consider some alternatives and liberate your existing music... these guys are shilling their product, but this is a good article: http://www.wondershare.com/apple-software/free-alternatives-to-itunes.html If you are a Windows user of iTunes, it's pretty clunky and there are better alternatives...

@Kendor I currently am a Mac user, and there are some reasons why I cannot switched from iTunes to other alternatives.  (I tried Banshee, etc before).

The short answer: Apple hates you.  You might also take a look at this question.

ALAC is now open-sourced, so it may be a matter of time till Android support it: http://alac.macosforge.org/trac/browser

Use Format Factory to convert ALAC in FLAC or 360kbps MP3..

https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1100462 shows that it supports that file type now, but I still can't get local .m4a files to play on Google Play Music.

First are you talking about storing the music on your Android device or on the Google servers?
If you are planning on streaming music to your device from the Google Music Play servers then you can't store your music in a lossless format see this page about formats on Google Play Music, and notice this line:

FLAC, ogg, and aac files are transcoded to 320kbps mp3

However, if you want to store the music locally on your device then your question makes more sense.
There are a few ways to put ALAC music on your Android device in FLAC

Keep your library in ALAC and convert songs to FLAC as you want them. Then move the new FLAC files to your device.  A program like Max should be able to handle the conversion for you.
Convert all of your ALAC files to FLAC in place and then use fluke to enable FLAC playback support in itunes.

What option you select depends on how much you like to keep your OS free of plugins like fluke and how ofter you are moving music to and from your device.

Google Play Music site says it supports .m4a.  I'm having trouble playing my ALAC files that are locally on my Nexus 5.  https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1100462  so I'm assuming it supports .m4a only if you've uploaded them to Google's servers which then convert them to mp3?  I'm not really sure but I can't seem to get them to play locally.  I don't want to upload my music to Google's servers..just play them locally when I'm in my car.  Any advice?

As has been established in other answers, Google's Play Music program does not support files in ALAC.  However, the M4A extension is used by several supported formats so Play Music will attempt to add these files to its library.  Unfortunately, when Play Music actually tries to play these files, it causes errors.  One solution (mentioned above) is to re-encode the files into a supported format.
If you want to keep ALAC files on your device for use by other players, you will need to prevent Google Play from seeing your ALAC/M4A files.  After considerable research (and a fruitless exchange with Google Support), I discovered that Play Music will respect ".nomedia" files.  When a .nomedia file is placed in a folder, the media scanner will ignore (recursively) that folder.  While there are several techniques for putting .nomedia files in place (e.g. this list), StudioKUMA's .nomedia Manager is by far the easiest.
WARNING:  While this approach is able to hide the ALAC files from Play Music, it may hide your ALAC files from the player you want to use.  In my case, Rocket Music Player provides the option (1) to limit the library to specific music folders and (2) to ignore .nomedia files in those folders.  This combination (for me at least) allowed me to keep and use my ALAC files without breaking Play Music (which I use to access older MP3s synced to the cloud).

The behaviour with .nomedia files may have changed in one of the later Android versions. Which version are your findongs based upon?

I'm uncertain what version I was using when I first answered the question, but it seems to remain true for Android 4.3 and Google Music v5.4.1413 on my Galaxy S4.

Where do you got your music files? If you rip them from a CD you can rip again to WAV. I think both iTunes and Android Player support it
and WAV is better than FLAC or ALAC, though is bigger size.
If you insist keeping your current format, you can always try another player
like FLAC Player or Golden Ears for iPod/iPhone/iPad, or Poweramp for Android.
I personally use FLAC Player in my iPod and Poweramp in a Sony NWZ-Z1060 (Android walkman).
My current format for portable is FLAC and for Desktop is WAV. I'm an audiophile, so I'm very sensitive about file format. I still prefer FLAC for portable because the size difference between FLAC/ALAC and WAV is very huge.

I did not downvote, but I understand why this was downvoted.  "WAV is better than FLAC or ALAC, though is bigger size" - This is not accurate information.  FLAC and ALAC will produce the exact same audio quality as WAV.  That is why they are called "lossless".  The only ways WAV files can be considered "better" is if the computer playing them can't decode the audio stream fast enough for the losslessly compressed audio files (yet can somehow deal with the difference in file size), or if you are running into compatibility/file type support issues.

And... I very much doubt you can tell the difference between a a piece of music in lossless format and a reasonably encoded mp3 version of the same track. Arguably 256kbit MP3s are 'better' than FLAC or WAV as you won't be able to hear a difference between them and they take up much less space ;¬)


text:
How can I enable auto-rotate for the home screen?
I have a "handset" with Android 2.3.4, and the "flip" feature works for every app and screen, except the desktop. That is, if I flip my phone any screen or app will flip too, yet the desktop remains fixed. There was an exception when I was playing a game and I pressed the home button: there the desktop was flipped, but it seems it was "forced" to flip by the game. How can I make it flip like any other app or screen?

If it doesn't work out of the box, which is the case with many Android phones, then you have a  few different options:

A launcher replacement which adds this feature (may not work with all ROMs)
A custom ROM like cyanogen mod, which has this feature built in. You can read more about custom ROMs here
Wait for an official update which adds this feature. (may never happen)

Old question, but this answer is relevant for other Android versions.

I suffer from the similar problem in my Android 4.2.1 where all apps would follow auto-rotation except the home screen (default Launcher app). I found a solution mentioned here and here.
The device needs to be rooted and Xposed Framework installed. App Settings is the app that did the job in my device.
Instructions

Install, activate and launch App Settings.
Locate and select your default launcher app → slide to ON.
Change Orientation  to Normal rotation if you want orientation to be synced with auto-rotation, or choose other ones based on your needs.
Tap "save" icon next to ON to save settings.
Go back to Launcher, and as per your settings you will notice the orientation in it.
Default Launcher in landscape mode with auto-rotation

App drawer in landscape mode with auto-rotation

We're good to go!


text:
How to make camera start faster
Everyone knows that start Android camera sometimes is a pain, specially if you wish to take a picture of something that lasts only some seconds. What I want to know is: is there a way or an app that makes the camera start faster?
Note that I'm not asking about picture shot, though this is important too. I think that as soon as the camera is started, this is not a big deal.

Try InstaCamera Pro from Google Play Store. It starts very fast and has preferences to start camera and takes photo just by a single touch from home screen of your phone:

InstaCamera is the quickest way to take a photo with your phone.
There's no long process: just press the widget and it takes a photo, then closes just as quickly.

The paid PRO version is supposed to be faster than the free version.

Can't find this exact app, can you provide the link so I can be sure which app you mean?

If any app takes significant time to open, it means that app is heavy on resources and/or there's high load on system. Before bringing any app in memory, Android first makes room for it in memory (technically, it happens based on minfree value even if there's room for that app).
So, to solve the issue, do these things:

Reduce load from system. Less running apps in memory means less probability of minfree based ju-ju.
Use a lightweight camera app. Lightweight apps are loaded in memory faster and again there's less probability of minfree based ju-ju.
There are many lightweight camera apps in Play Store. Just, search "Fast Camera".

I have done a serious research on this topic and i found that all device has an opening lag and it is independent of your camera applications i.e, it is hardware dependent. It(the lag) will be keep varying depending on the memory and processor state. Some smartphones are successful in covering it with their high end hardware resources.
Consider a scenario : if we have a bundle of apps opened in memory and you opened camera with any of your camera application then you feel lagging more than before. Now you can understand easily that this lagging time is a varying factor.
i have even created an application for this called "camera opening lag checker" it calculates your camera lag time and allows you to compare it with  world's top devices real time.
Meizu PRO 5's camera opened in .17ms where Samsung s6,s7 are also performing great with .25ms, .26 respectively
Thank You

Jayakrishnan, do you still have that camera opening lag checker app that you could share? Perhaps a GitHub link?

@Scampbell now the app is not available in Google Play Store.


text:
Rooting Stock Firmware - GSII with NFC
I have a Galaxy S2 with NFC (GT-I9100P) and I wish to have root access to properly administrate my phone.
I've been looking at various forum posts on different sites and I've just been getting more and more confused as to what I need to do.
From what I understand, I need to flash an unsecure kernel to the phone (with ODIN) to get root access, then I can flash the stock firmware back onto the phone and retain root access. Is this correct?
Further information:
My baseband version is I9100PBVLP7
kernel version: 3.0.15-I9100PBVLPA-CL364024dpi@DELL169 #3
and my operator is Orange UK.
I've managed to obtain the firmware version that is on my phone already through sammobile.com, I just have no idea what I need to do next.
Reward
If anyone can help me to get root access on my stock firmware I will give them as much bounty as I can when the question is eligible for it.

If all you need is root access, try flashing the Siyah kernel via ODIN. Ensure you get the S2 version, as the dev has one for the S3 as well. Also, you will need the TAR version as you will flash it via ODIN (at least for the first time). Later instances, you can get the ZIP format and flash it via CWM (ClockworkMod recovery, which is built into the kernel). Apart from features like more processor steps, you can also overclock/underclock, adjust various parameters and have features like Backlight Notifications.
Since you will flash this kernel, you DO NOT need to flash the firmware. You can keep the stock firmware and your data intact. This kernel automatically installs root access so your primary requirement is also fulfilled.
As with all operations, ensure you have an off-site backup of all your data.
As an aside, once you install the kernel, get the ExTweaks app from the market which is designed especially for this kernel and offers a GUI/frontend to access many under-the-hood features.
Assuming you have all the drivers installed, here's how you go about it:

Download the TAR file of the Siyah kernel. Note that the latest series is for ICS, in case you're running Gingerbread, search for and download the appropriate older version of the kernel.
Start ODIN and connect your phone via the USB cable AFTER you enter DOWNLOAD MODE (Press Vol down + HOME + POWER button simultaneously for a few seconds after completely shutting down phone. At the warning screen hit Vol UP to confirm entry to download mode).
Once connected, you should see a COM port number with a yellow background.
In the ODIN program, press the PDA button and point to the TAR file.
make sure ONLY Auto-reboot is ticked and then click START.

If all goes well, you should see a green box with PASS! shown after which your phone will boot up. It may take a minute or two, so don't panic.
Refer to the FAQ and the respective threads on XDA-Forums for more info.

Thanks for your answer, and the extra details. Would you mind giving me a quick explanation on how to install the Siyah kernel with ODIN please? I just want to be certain I'm doing things correctly.

Well that was easy, thank you very much. It wasn't very exciting but I'm not sure what I was expecting haha. I'll have to look around and see what else I can do with my root privileges. The bounty will be yours tomorrow.

If you are interested, use the CWM app to make FULL backups (nandroid). A lifesaver. Also, you can use this CWM app to boot into RECOVERY or DOWNLOAD mode with a tap - no need for a combination of keys.


text:
How to install ClockworkMOD Recovery on Sony Xperia Neo V (MT11a)?
I have rooted my MT11a with UnlockRoot v2.4.2 and the "superuser" app has appeared. The tutorial said my phone should be requesting to upgrade 4.0.2.A.0.42 to another number ending in .62, but the Update Center says the phone is completely up to date. I should be getting the BusyBox after this update, but the update is not happening. Have I missed a step? The phone is working just fine. I downloaded the ROM Manager, and it is requesting to get "ClockworkMOD Recovery" in order to operate. All this I'm doing to get the cyanogen mod.

Which tutorial? Please provide a link.

Flow, the Neo V is "just" the Neo with a 5MP camera, I guess. I don't know if they differ much internally. I think I've successfully installed the CMOD Recovery, I'm trying to work things out now.

Oh, and I suggest you extend the scope of your question by asking "How can I install cyanogen mod on the Sony Xperia Neo V?"

I am aware that the V is just a striped down version. But when it comes to installing custom mods small (hardware) differences matter. But it seems that the V has a stable cyanogen mod release, so you should be fine. Feel free to answer your own question if you have successfully installed CM. It seems that the CM wiki has no page about installing CM on the Neo V, I am sure you would get some rep this way :). You can always join the chat and idle around looking for help.

Unfortunately Sony does not have a recovery partition as expected! Its a boot+recovery combined hence no real CWM per se and if it goes wrong that's the entire handset in unusable state, which generally makes things trickier to flash custom roms etc. The only work-around is to unlock the boot loader, root the handset, and then install a CWM apk which gets installed into /system directory and acts a pseudo recovery.

@t0mm13b Could you drop by the chat?

@PeterTamaroff as you finally managed to install CWM: Could you answer your own question, add your solution, and then accept the answer? Thanks!

I managed to install CWM, but not Cyanogen. I really don't have the time now.

Unlocking the bootloader is not required for CWM on the Neo V, you just need root.

Probably the easiest way is to use x-Parts (formerly known as CWM Installer).

Thanks for that! Is there any way to uninstall a recovery before installing another?

Break your phone and have it repaired, in general the technicians will thoroughly flash your phone :) So there must be one but I wasn't able to find it when I needed to.

Hehe, it seems however that the version X-parts installed was the same version I had. Now I'm backing up my device with CWR to see if I can install Cyanogen 9.0. Any things I should be careful with?

I think you are confusing your ROM version (4.0.2.A.0.42) with CWM's version. Doesn't matter if you want to replace your ROM by Cyanogenmod anyway :) Remember to put the zip on your SD card before flashing the Cyanogenmod kernel as it doesn't work with the stock ROM or vice versa. Also, Cyanogenmod 9.1 is already out.

How do I flash the "kernel"?

You will find a guide to the complete procedure here

Erik, one last thing. I accidentally made an extra backup which didn't even complete because my SD is full, how do I delete that backup, or any other previously done backup using CWR?

"Now reboot your phone and your phone should have updated to CyanogenMod 9.0 which runs over Ice Cream Sandwich!" I don't have Ice Cream Sandwich. What can I do?

let us continue this discussion in chat


text:
Android tethering via bluetooth keeps disconnecting
I'm currently using a Google Nexus tablet tethered via Bluetooth to a Samsung S3 for internet.
Two things are annoying me.
First, if I take the phone away from the tablet (go out for lunch), the tablet disconnects and has to be manually reconnected. Is there a way to have that happen automatically?
Second, Bluetooth tethering, i.e. the internet sharing part needs to be switched on each time the bluetooth is switched on (or perhaps just after power cycling) on the S3. Is there no way to have that default to on?
Thanks

I'm doing the exact same thing, except with my Captivate, and I ran into the same problems. To solve them, I use three apps across the two devices. On my N7, I use Tasker to detect when I lose wifi connection and use Bluetooth Auto Connect as a Tasker plugin to automatically connect to my phone. On my phone, I use Bluetooth Auto Tethering, which automatically turns on Bluetooth tethering when you start your phone.
As a bonus here is a link to my Tasker profile/tasks which does all this stuff. I think you can just import it into your Tasker.

Importing the Tasker stuff worked for you?

going to work on it this evening and will let you know.


text:
How can I get Android 4.0.4 on my XPERIA Neo V?
I asked some questions about rooting before but I didn't realize it all was supposed to be done on an MT11a with Android 4.0.4. I have 2.3.4, so I just rolled everything back. Where and how can I install this version? I am seeing videos (YouTube, for example) where people have this OS installed in this very same device.

Did you have tried Sony Update Service? download this software and follow instructions to update your phone easily to an original stock ICS ROM.

possible duplicate of When will my device get the Android 4.0 update (Ice Cream Sandwich)?

Not really a dupe, @Chahk (Peter and some of us had that yesterday on chat), as ICS is already released. So the question is not when -- but rather how.

You might want to visit the Update page for Neo V for closer information on how to update. It not only tells you what has changed, but also provides you with the required downloads.
The link is to the UK version. I could not find any link for Argentina, and the Brazil page does not even list the Neo V. So you might want to check around for yourself -- at least that's somewhere to start with.


text:
How to assign my home button function to a custom launcher?
I installed Apex Launcher on my S3. It takes some configuring before it is useful, so I didn't assign it to the default action of my home key. I then did accidently set the default action to use the standard launcher.
I can't find any way to now set the Apex shell/launcher/what ever it is to be the default when you press home.
Any ideas how to change my home button function?

You can also run Apex Launcher from the app drawer of your default "stock" launcher. Navigate to Apex settings > ADVANCED > SET DEFAULT LAUNCHER which will do the same thing - clear the default action and display the popup menu allowing you to choose from the launcher apps currently installed on your device.

Thank you :) I'm sure the above solution from Conn would work too, but embarassingly I could not remember what the other Launcher was called and thus couldn't find it in the list :/

The default Samsung launcher is called TwLauncher (TouchWiz).

Go to Settings > Apps > Click on the "All" tab then find your current launcher (the one that is default now) in the list. In the App Info page you should have the option to "clear defaults". Click this and the next time you hit the home button you will have the option to select a different launcher.


text:
What is the fastest way to transfer huge files beween two android powered devices?
What is the fastest way to transfer huge files (e.g. 500MB) between two android powered devices? Bluetooth? WiFi direct? Beam? or maybe USB on-the-go?

There are many variables that affect the performance of each method you've mentioned.
Additionally there's also the necessary configuration and requirements that each device must have in order to have solutions like this working.
As requested, lets summarize and compare possible performances between USB; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth:

USB:
USB performance can be extremely low or very high, depending on the available USB version, which in turn, combined with the SDcard reading/writing speed on each device allows us to accurately measure and ascertain the transfer speed.
There's also the physical limitation of the USB cable length that for some scenarios becomes a limitation.

USB 1.0: 1.5 Mbit/s (Low-Bandwidth) and 12 Mbit/s (Full-Bandwidth)
USB 2.0: 480 Mbit/s (effective throughput up to 35 MB/s)
USB 3.0: 5 Gbit/s (625 MB/s) which is more than 10 times as fast as USB 2

Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi loses limitations like cable length, but then again we need to account for the 802.11 protocol being used, the signal strength and range to accurately measure results:
┌────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│  Protocol  │  Data rate per stream (Mbit/s)  │  Approximate range (m)   │
│            |                                 ├────────────┬─────────────┤
│            |  Bandwidth of 20 MHz            |   indoor   |   outdoor   │
├────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┤
│  802.11a   │  6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54   │     35     │     120     │
├────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┤
│  802.11b   │  1, 2, 5.5, 11                  │     35     │     140     │
├────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┤
│  802.11g   │  6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54   │     38     │     140     │
├────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┤
│  802.11n   │  7.2, 14.4, 21.7, 28.9, 43.3,   │     70     │     250     │
│            │  57.8, 65, 72.2,                │            │             │
│            │                                 │            │             │
│            │  With Bandwidth of 40 MHz:      │            │             │
│            │  15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120,       │            │             │
│            │  135, 150                       │            │             │
└────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┴────────────┴─────────────┘

More about Wi-Fi protocols from Wikipedia.

Wi-Fi Direct
Wi-Fi Direct, initially called Wi-Fi P2P, is a Wi-Fi standard that enables devices to connect easily with each other without requiring a wireless access point.
Here the communication is performed at typical Wi-Fi speeds for everything from file transfer to Internet connectivity. Essentially, Wi-Fi Direct falls under the same values presented at the Wi-Fi table (yet again keeping in mind that signal strength and range are the key factors for a good performance).
More about Wi-Fi Direct from Wikipedia.

Bluetooth
While we need to ascertain several influencing factors to determine if Wi-Fi is faster than USB, Bluetooth is with no doubt in last place when we speak about transfer speed. Designed as a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances, the maximum speeds are below the two concurrent options:
┌─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│   Version   │  Data rate  │  Maximum application throughput         │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  1.2        │  1 Mbit/s   │      0.7 Mbit/s                         │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  2.0 + EDR  │  3 Mbit/s   │      2.1 Mbit/s                         │
├─────────────┼─────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  3.0 + HS   │                                                       │
├─────────────┤  theoretical data transfer speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s  │
│  4.0        │                                                       │
└─────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

More about Bluetooth from Wikipedia.

Android Beam
Being a fairly recent technology, Android Beam allows users to transfer data between devices with Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities.
NFC is even slower than Bluetooth (both short-range communication technologies) and is limited to about 20cm of range getting up to 424 kbit/s.
On a positive note, NFC sets up more quickly than standard Bluetooth and the connection between two NFC devices is automatically established:
Technical comparison:
┌──────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
│    Aspect    │  NFC           │   Bluetooth    │ Bluetooth Low Energy │
├──────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ Network Type │ Point-to-point │ WPAN           │ WPAN                 |
├──────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ Range        │ < 0.2 m        │ ~100m (class1) │ ~50 m                │
├──────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ Bit rate     │ 424 kbit/s     │ 2.1 Mbit/s     │ ~1.0 Mbit/s          │
├──────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ Set-up time  │ < 0.1 s        │ < 6 s          │ < 0.006 s            │
└──────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┴──────────────────────┘

Only relevant aspects to this answer, for full table see Wikipedia.

Summary
Based on the specifications for each method and their respective version, my classification ordered by fastest-to-lowest would be:

USB assuming version 2.0, since 1.0 is way slow and outdated
Wi-Fi / Wi-Fi Direct
Bluetooth
Android Beam

Another alternative, right up there with USB, is to put the file on a microSD card on one device, transfer the card to the other device, and pull the file off again. Of course, this won't work on every device, but the vast majority do have microSD slots.

If your android devices have removable SD card slot, the fastest way to transfer big files is to physically move the SD card from one device to another.

After some experiences, it appears the Samsung Galaxy S4 software must recognize the file format first, before and during transfer from pc to the smartphone main memory. When moving the file to the SD Card memory, again the software needs to recognize the file, so this is done from either the (a) Move File option in the folder or, (b) Application option to Move to SD Card Memory.
{ for those smartphone users who need to save main memory space on their Samsung S4 }

For this Task I use an app called shoutr. As I could see it is using the built in WiFi and so you get the full WiFi speed.
I like the interface; it's very easy to share music, videos and photos with friends on the way.

The method I've used with great success is WiFi, using ES File Explorer on both devices ( sender and receiver).  I simply turn on the WiFi, on both units, to access my home WAN, start ES File Explorer on both devices, select the files/folders I want to send, choose the 'Send' option, and on the receiving device - accept, select save location, press 'OK' to start receiving.  I sent a 200 MB file from my 4 year old Huawei Ascend to my Samsung Galaxy S4, in about 6 minutes @ ~540 KB/s, this way.

I'm using hike messenger this messenger come with hike direct feature this feature allow share huge files. I'm sharing 1.2GB file within 4 minutes but this feature only available for Android device coming soon for windows phone and ios

What is your affiliation with the app?

I use cross-platform Liwi App on my Mac and Android phone. It also works on Windows. It connects devices over WiFi automatically without any create and join process.

Depending on your circumstances, the quickest way is either over Bluetooth file transfer, or directly through a cable. Bluetooth is nice because it is wireless and relatively quick for word documents and smaller files. Through the cable is better for large files such as video. However you have to carry a cable.
Really depends on circumstances.

I use android app called Superbeam which enables wifi direct and enables you to get full wifi speed.

If you don't have micro SD slot in both device, the alternate solution is to use any free cloud services. You can try Google drive or Dropbox to install in both devices under same user name and try to sync/transfer files in between.

Swift File Transfer is 10x faster than Bluetooth, free and no hassle set up! From the app's description:

Swift File Transfer is World’s fastest app to share installed apps, photos, files, folders and videos at with high speed of upto 8mbps with your friends and family without using intenet, data cable, mobile data, Wi-Fi, nfc etc. Now transfer GB's of data in the blink of an eye.

Both, sender and receiver, need to have the app installed. Transfer then is easy:

Sender: Launch SFT app › Tap on “Send Button” › Select data to share › Tap on send
Receiver: Launch SFT app › Tap on “Receive Button” › Tap on “Senders” image/name

Checking the playstore ratings, it seems to do well with bigger files (one user reports having transferred an entire video collection), but there seem to be issues with Marshmallow (most likely with the new permission system; two user report issues accessing the SD card, which might be worked around by manually granting the permission).


text:
Install CA without having to activate screen lock
I have a Nexus 7 (Android 4.1.1) and I want to add a CA (Certificate Authority) to my device to use it for the ssl-connection to my mail server. The CA is self-signed. The Certificate does only contain the public key of the CA (of course!).
I also want to keep my screenlock disabled because on a tablet not leaving my house it does not make sense to have a screen lock.
Now the problem arises: Whenever I want to import the CA, Android wants me to change my screenlock to digits/password which I want to avoid.
Can this behaviour somehow be prevented? There is nothing security critical at a public key of a CA.
I know that when the phone is rooted one can add a CA, but I want to avoid rooting my phone.

I think this was closed because a complete answer to the other question would include a non-root method if one was possible.  In the hopes of getting such an answer we don't want to divide attention between that one and this one.  In this case though I don't think it will hurt to reopen this, consider linking to the other and explaining the difference though :)

Not sure if this has anything to do with screen lock, which I didn't need on my Android 4.3.1. To create & install a certificate, maybe my answer to this question might be helpful.

I've written an article on creating & installing CAcert certificates as Android System Certificates (Android >=4.2), thus allowing you to use your device without lockscreen:
http://wiki.pcprobleemloos.nl/android/cacert
Main part of my article:
cat root.crt > 5ed36f99.0
openssl x509 -inform PEM -text -in root.crt -out /dev/null >> 5ed36f99.0
cat class3.crt > e5662767.0
openssl x509 -inform PEM -text -in class3.crt -out /dev/null >> e5662767.0

Copy the files 5ed36f99.0 and e5662767.0 to /system/etc/security/cacerts/ (and chmod 644 them), reboot and it should work. Check Settings -> Security -> Certificates, it should list both "CAcert Inc." and "Root CA". Note that some browsers might use their own certificate store instead of the Android one.
The Android security model explicitly forces you to have a lockscreen whenever a non-system (user) certificate is installed. There is no configuration option around this.
You can either replace your stock Android version with one which has removed this requirement (I do not think that any exist, but you could theoretically create your own).
The other option is using (temporary) root access for installing this certificate, and then 'unrooting' it, although that sounds a bit silly.

Sorry, root access is require AFAIK. For everybody who has root access and Android 4+, here a detailed description how to add it to Android's system certificate folder:
Assuming your certificate file - let's call it root.cer - looks like this:
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIDgzCCAmugAw[...]
[...]
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Obtain the name Android needs for it (".0" is appended) and store in variable $name:
name=$(openssl x509 -inform PEM -subject_hash_old -in root.cer | head -1).0

Sample output for: echo $name
00673baa.0

Create the certificate file for Android:
cat root.cer > $name
openssl x509 -inform PEM -text -in root.cer -out /dev/null >> $name

Copy certificate file to SD card:
adb push $name /sdcard

Open Android shell:
adb shell

Become root and copy certificate to Android's system certificate folder:
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cp /sdcard/00673baa.0 /system/etc/security/cacerts/

Note: For the last command you need to replace the certificate file name!
Now reboot. Make sure that the certificate was correctly installed:
 Goto Settings -> Security -> Show trusted certificates. Here in the system list you should find the name of the issuer of your self-signed certificate (which is equal to the subject). You can print it using:
openssl x509 -inform PEM -issuer -in root.cer -out /dev/null

Now you can delete all certificates (system certificates are not touched) and remove the lock screen.

There is no way I know of which will achieve this.  I've been looking for a way of doing the same thing for a while now, as my work requires me to use a CA, but have found nothing after a lot of looking.  If you were rooted then it might be possible, but without root I'm afraid you're going to have to just deal with it.
Sorry!

In case you decide to root the phone (you can only root it temporarily to install the certificates, it doesn't need to remain rooted), you can upload the certificates into a directory and the next reboot they will be validated:
adb shell mount -o remount,rw /system
adb push 1dbdda5d.0 /system/etc/security/cacerts/

where 1dbdda5d.0 is your certificate to be trusted.

The author stated that he doesn't want to root his phone. Besides this, I'm pretty sure, that adding just the single file to this directory won't work. The certificate must be included into the /system/etc/security/cacerts.bks key store to be visible for Android. See CACert's howto if you want to know the steps needed.

I found a way to solve the problem, but it requires root and may only work with root, self-signed, or intermediate CAs.
If you have a certificate that is not trusted by Android, when you add it, it goes in the personal cert store. When you add a cert in this personal cert store, the system requires a higher security level to unlock the device. But if you manage to add your cert to the system store then you don't have this requirement. Obviously, root is required to add a certificate to the system store, but it is quiet easy.
Here is how to do it :
1 - Add your cert normally. For example, my cert was called some.crt. It will be stored in your personal store and android will ask you a pin/password... Proceed.
2 - With a file manager with root capabilities, browse files in /data/misc/keychain/cacerts-added or /data/misc/keystore. You should see a file here called 1000_USRCERT_some it's the certificate you have added in step 1.
3 - Move this file to system/etc/security/cacerts (you will need to mount
the system partition r/w)
4 - Reboot the phone
5 - You are now able to clear the pin/password you have set to unlock the
device.
Worked for me with a self-signed cert on Android 4.4.2. Hope it helps!

Interesting, that you didn't mention the original source, neither appropriately credited the author. Follow How to reference material written by others.

There is a way. Just install your certificate the usual way and set "Patterns" as lock screen to do so. Lock the screen. Fail on the patterns 5 times, then click on "forgot pattern" in the lower right corner, login with your Google account and voilà ... the lock screen is reset to "none" and certificates are still there.
Just tested it on Galaxy Note N7000 with 4.1.2

Could you explain further? How does this help me with installing a CA? Do I have to do this everytime the keylock is visible?

There is no "forgot pattern" after failing 5 times on Nexus running stock Android though.


text:
Is it possible to run a Firmware Over The Air update server?
Is it possible to run a Firmware Over The Air update server?
and is it possible to configure stock devices to point at it?

I think you're going to need to tell us a little more about what you're trying to do here. OTA servers are possible, Google, some manufacturers, and some phone networks all run their own, I believe there's even some custom ROMs (CM?) that can do OTA now. Nothing particularly complicated about the server end (an HTTP interface that can version check and serve large binaries is pretty much all it actually does), there is no built-in way to get a device to check and trust a 3rd party server for updates, this would need to be baked in to the ROM. Then there's actually updating the device...

that's unfortunate.  my s60's have let me configure update servers, so i was hoping to be able to do the same with android.

Did you find another way?

I ended up switching to CM and using CyanDelta.  (This was before CM Updater was revived.)

Related: Setting up a Android OTA server for ROM distribution

There is no need to run your own OTA Server. You can use the infrastructure from https://www.otaupdatecenter.pro

that looks like what i'll end up with.  do i have to flash with a custom rom first?  is there no way to install a custom rom over the air from a stock rom?


text:
How to display several RTSP streams at once?
I want to be able to show several RTSP live streams simultaneously. Like, the phone screen divided in, say, 4 parts and in each part a separate stream from a separate IP camera displayed.
How can I do that?

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts, your question as is, is considered off-topic by our FAQ, as it falls under "Can you suggest an app that does X?". Consider rephrasing it to prevent it to get closed.

I have edited the question to ask for a solution rather than an app recommendation.

@Al Everett Thank you very much, this is exactly what I wanted to ask. I'm sorry, not being a native English speaker, couldn't rephrase myself better

Hm, 4 parts from different cameras -- looks like IP Cam Viewer is capable of that:

Not that hard to find: Just entered "ipcam" in the search box at the playstore site, and clicked on the first result. You might want to try the others, maybe you find something even better suited for your requirements. Or use this one to better restrict it (ipcam + rtsp).

I've tried that but can't get it working with my Axis rtsp camera... I have P5512 Axis camera

I don't have any IP camera, so I cannot test. Did you follow the other links, and check some of the other offered solutions? The latter search had only a one-page result set, so it shouldn't take that long. You could also check this overview (German -- but just Ctrl-F and check for "dvr", from there you can use the app links. And there's always Google Translate).

Looks, that program doesn't support RTSP

@Alex Sure? App description in playstore says: RTSP, h.264, MPEG4 support


text:
Configure power control in notification pane
I just bought an Alcatel One Touch 995 with Gingerbread 2.3, when I display the notification the notification pane I have some icons I can click to activate GPS, wifi, bluetooth, rotation...
I know there are some power control tools but I'd like to know if there is a way to cutomize the icons already displayed in my notification pane?

Not by default. Certain ROMs like CyanogenMod do allow you to customise the toggles and the order in which they're displayed.
A possible workaround could be this app - Notification Toggle

Stock ROMs often don't allow to customize notification toggles. Either you'll have to flash a custom ROM (e.g. CyanogenMod) or install a third-party app (e.g. Widgetsoid).

Not on a stock rom, sorry.
On certain custom/aftermarket ROM's, such as CyanogenMod, have the ability to customize these icons, by letting you add, remove and reorder the icons.


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Hack ICS browser to restore "menu button exposes URL field"
I just got a Galaxy S3, and I'm finally being forced to confront an aspect of ICS that I've hated from the moment it showed up on my Xoom: the fact that pressing the 'menu' button no longer drops down the URL field, and instead you're forced to scroll all the way back up to the top and pull it down to get at it.
Is there any known way to re-enable the original behavior (press the menu button at any time, see the "url" field drop down in editable form regardless of whether or not the page was scrolled all the way up to the top)?
Yes, I know about the "Labs" shortcut of swiping from the side. I find it extremely awkward and frustrating to use. Like many things in ICS, it uses gestures that lag in their initial visual presentation, then exhibit hair-trigger sensitivity for their selection and confirmation behavior. Half the time, I'll begin the swipe to bring it out, then give up 150ms later when it doesn't appear (only to have it show up after I've already let go), and about 25% of the time, my thumb ends up triggering the wrong target after bringing it out.
Update: pressing and holding the 'menu' button semi-works, but not quite. Sometimes, it makes the URL bar visible and selects the URL, but fails to bring up the actual soft input area (Graffiti). Sometimes, it makes the URL bar appear, makes the soft input area appear, then hides the URL bar the moment I let go of the menu button. For the moment, the problem is somewhat moot... I installed Chrome, and quit using the stock browser altogether due to the remote-wipe vulnerability (in the semi-naive hope that Chrome's alleged non-permission to make phone calls might prevent it from triggering).

Can you please make your question less "rant-y"?

You don't need to scroll all the way to the top to see the URL field in the standard browser.
At any point in the page just pull the screen down very slightly and it pulls the URL bar at the top down with it, it should then stay visible for about 2 seconds unless you tap in the bar. This is also the easiest way to access any other tabs that you've got open.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work (AT&T Galaxy S3, ICS 4.0.4). I tried it with Quick Controls both enabled and disabled, without success. If it matters, Labs/Full_Screen was un-checked.

My Galaxy Nexus had ICS on it when I got it, and that did work, and it's still working now I'm running JellyBean. I've got both Labs Quick Controls and Full Screen disabled. Sounds like Samsung may have removed that way of accessing the URL bar as part of their TouchWiz customizations.

Sigh. Does Android's license require Samsung to release buildable source to their stock browser, Touchwiz-customizations and all, or merely that they furnish the AOSP source from Google with the equivalent of a note saying "we made some changes to the binary shipped with phones"?  I posted a question about obtaining the browser source at XDA so I could try grafting 'menu button to trigger URL field emergence' back into it myself, and it landed on the ground with a dull, squishy thud... rarely a good sign.

One more place you could check would be in the browser's debug settings menu, see http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/5999/android-browsers-aboutdebug-what-do-those-settings-do

Hmmm... I've been over those settings quite a few times, and don't recall seeing any that affected the way the URL field gets summoned into view. Is there any particular one I might have overlooked, or maybe one that ended up getting compiled out by Samsung? Before you mentioned Touchwiz, it hadn't even occurred to me that the stock browser might have been heavily-modified by Samsung.


text:
Find lost acer android tablet without a tracker installed

Possible Duplicate:
How can I find a lost phone or help people return it?
My phone was just stolen an hour or so ago. Are there any options for tracking?

How do you find your lost Acer Android Tablet a500 Iconia Tab without a tracker installed?

I lost my Acer Android Tablet a500 Iconia Tab outside and there is no GPS TRACKER OR ANY SORT OF TRACKER THAT I KNOW OF I THINK and I need all the help I can get to get my device back, It means alot to me. So please feel free to give some advice or a solution to deal with this messed up plot. Thank you. All your effort will be HIGHLY APPRECIATED!     ndndjfnsjdnfjsdnf

Possible dupes: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2492/how-can-i-find-a-lost-phone-or-help-people-return-it http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/26372/find-lost-device-without-gmail-account-configured-and-without-sim-card http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/25418/i-lost-my-phone-but-need-to-find-its-imei-what-places-can-i-look http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/28581/find-my-android-from-an-app

BTW: the a500 has built-in GPS, so Plan B will work if it's connected to the internet still. If not and the battery is empty, you're out of luck and have to search it the usual way.

If you have a Google Account configured at your tablet try Plan B. You can install it throug Google Play store.

thanks for your help, but the thing is I already lost it, so there is point of installing it now cause i dont have it with me. Its already stolen and I need away to track it and get it back!                                                                      ---Thnx any further help would be highly appreciated.---

You can install it throug Google Play. Access the page and click install. The app will be installed remotely on your tablet.

well I'm not an expert on this, So can you explain how (instructions)! I dont have the tablet with me. So how could I go to google play? Thnxs

@nashita Access this direct link to the PLAN B application from Google Play Store. Press the install button and if your tablet is connected to the network, the application should install by itself. After the install, you'll get a map with GPS coordinates on your Gmail account.

@Zuul thank you sooo much. OK now i have a question does it have to battery and wifi connection cause my Acer  Android Tablet a500 Iconia Tab if fully out of charge and it defiantly not lost in my house so I dont think it has wifi connection. So will it still WORK?              Thank you

@nashita If there's no power, nothing can work! The only issue with this type of situations is that users have a small window of opportunity the locate the device. After the battery drain completely, there's only the old fashioned search method...

@Zuul ohhh OK.... Well um I think that the person who stole it bought a charge and charged it because I installed plan B but when I checked a day after it wasn't installed anymore, So I think that the person who has taken it keeps deleting the plan B. Although I may have installed it when it was dead! But I have a  question: Even if I get the location of it how could I get it? the reason for this is this person is a stranger and I totally don't know them.... I lost it Niagara Falls at a Pizza Hut. Please help and I heard that it has a GPS installed! PLEASE HELP, PLEASE AND THANK YOU SO MUCH!

@Zuul And also what is the old fashioned way? It probably is the worst way right? thanks for your help. ALSO READ THE COMMENT I POSTED BEFORE TO YOU! THANK YOU SOO MUCH!

@nashita When you "install" Plan B, do you get an email on your Google account with a map and GPS coordinates?

@Zuul well actually I didnt but maybe cause the battery is dead or maybe the person who stole it keeps deleting the plan B app if it is even possible! is it?.... I really need HELP! And also when i get a maps and GPS coordinated what do I do next, because the person who has is a total stranger and what if he/she doesn't give it do I contact Android Acer? PLEASE HELP THANKS SOOO MUCH! :)

@Zuul can you help me with the previous comment.


text:
Tagging photos when importing them from my Galaxy Note
I tried to import the photos I have in my Galaxy Note. While importing them the computer asked if I would add a tag to them -- and I did.
The strange thing is that when the computer finished importing the pictures, I found pictures of strange people in the same folder and with the same tag!
Does this mean that my photos will appear to whoever chooses the same tag?

Do you have those strange pics on you phone as well? If you happened to import them via USB they must have come from your SD card. To answer your question: No, other people of course cannot access your pics if they use the same tag.


text:
Problem opening VCF files on tf300
I am trying to help my Father debug an issue he has on the TF300 since it upgraded to Jelly Bean.  We are both unable to open a vCard file from email or from Astro file explorer. It appears to the user that nothing happens when he hits view in Gmail. He receives vCard emails all of the time from his work.  I can save it, open "people" and then import it, but I cannot import it from Gmail view it.  We can open it from Gmail on Jelly Bean on both my Galaxy Nexus and my Nexus 7.
This sounds like a file association issue, but there are no defaults under Contacts.  Does anyone have any ideas on how to debug this?  Is there an easy  way without USB debugging to determine what program gets called?
Edit:
   What is the easiest way to log every process opened after a file is clicked on?  I am happy to use USB debugging at this point.

Not sure if that works in your case, but it's worth a try: VCard Manager claims to be able to open all types of VCards. Also, there's Contacts VCF which says to open any .vcf file.

Thanks for your feedback, and glad the issue solved for you! I summed things up in an answer (including your final solution) for other possibly affected people which might not be that lucky with an OS upgrade.

In this case an OS upgrade solved the issue.
For someone in a similar situation without an OS upgrade (or other fix) in sight, it might be worth taking a look at VCard Manager (which claims to be able to open all types of VCards) or Contacts VCF, which says to open any .vcf file:

VCard Manager and Contacts VCF (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)


text:
Galaxy Nexus bluetooth keyboard connectbot
I have recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Nexus on which I use ConnectBot to connect to servers over ssh.
I have also bought a Apple bluetooth keyboard that I am currently using with the phone - and everything seems to be working properly.
However I encounter some problems when it comes to some of the 'special' keys on the keyboard like Tab and Esc.
Esc seems to be mapped to the 'back' key in Android. And Tab just doesn't seem to do what I want.
It's especially a problem when I'm editing files in vim and I try to exit insert mode... Then I am actually telling android to leave ConnectBot...
Any help is very much appreciated!

If you're willing to use an onscreen keyboard, I've had a lot of luck with the Hacker's Keyboard. It has the layout of a computer keyboard, including Esc, Tab, Alt, Ctrl, and various other keys which are usually missing from mobile keyboards.


text:
Will I have to reset my Nexus 7?
I have a Nexus 7 running Jelly Bean. I was downloading a file and somehow I managed to remove a tick mark some were. Now I can not download anything from the net without Chrome stops working. Then I tried to download a backup program from Play Store, that mad Play store stop.
How and where do I add the tickmark again? Will I have to reset my Nexus 7? If so are all the app I bought then lost?

No, bought apps are tied to your google account

If youre talking about applications (.apk) downloaded from google chrome and not the play store then you need to go into Settings > Security > Unknown Sources

I am talking about Play store. During download I removed a tick mark and now I can not open play store

I did not find a solution, so I ended up reseting the nexus

You must've disabled Background Data

Q: How and where do I add the tickmark again?
A: Who could possibly know what you need more than yourself?
Q: Will I have to reset my Nexus 7?
A: Follow below steps, you'll be fine.
Q: If so are all the app I bought then lost?
A: As Flow said, you can recover them from Google Play store later on. If you feel not safe, use AppSaver to back them up.
Resetting your android phone
Before resetting your phone, you have to save your data (pics, music, movies, contacts...).

If you have a google email account, saving your contacts is not
needed, you can just sync it to the cloud.
Concerning your apps, as Flow said, you can recover them from Google Play store later on.
Backing up pics, movies and music is necessary. I recommend you to back up your entire data storage, it contains apps private files, office documents, few stuff that you could easily forget to back up otherwise...

When those steps are done, you can safely reset your phone, it will be like a second life for it :-).


text:
Why is Caller ID not working since 4.0.4 update on Droid 4?
I have a Samsung Droid 4. I keep all information about my contacts in Google Voice. In the past, this has always worked seamlessly.
However, since my phone updated it's operating system to version 4.0.4 last week, caller ID is no longer working. When people call me now, their telephone number shows up on the phone's screen. However, it doesn't match that phone number to their name from my contact list.
Is anyone else experiencing this problem? What is the fix? Why did this happen?


text:
Can't access tethered server from Android browser. (Time out  or "URL blocked")
Synopsis: Trying to access local web development server connected by WiFi to Android tether. Everything seems to be connected and operating correctly, but phone's web browser times out when accessing local server.
Context: I've got an Android device running android-wifi-tether. It works as advertised. I connect to it from my Ubuntu 12.04 laptop running Apache 2.2.22. The laptop is manually configured to IP 192.168.2.100 in the hosts file. It can ping itself and access it's own web server through that address.
The WiFi tether hotspot gives the laptop the same 192.168.2.100 address(Laptop was configured to match the hotspot address as a troubleshooting step, and could be wrong.) Using ping I can ping the laptop from the phone using the 192.168.2.100 address. Using portscan the phone shows port 80 open on the 192.168.2.100 address.
So, everything looks like it's in place, but any attempt to browse to http://192.168.2.100 fails after a few moments with a 504(Gateway time out)
Any help would certainly be help.
Update:
I've install SSH and migrated to Nginx on the server. Portscan now shows ports 22 and 80 open. Using ConnectBot I can login and get my own shell on the server machine by IP address. This should indicate that the network is functioning properly.
I've also install the Dolphin browser on the phone to help verify that it's not an issue with the browser. Still I am curious if the browser is actually looking for the address first within the hotspot's IP space, or if it's looking to the internet, where that address will always time out.
I am very new to the Android scene. I would really appreciate some feedback as to how to get my phone browsing a tethered server. The workflow I'm looking for makes connection to a local server critical.
Thanks again.
Solution As I assumed, due to HTTP Proxy settings the web request was bypassing local addresses. I found that if I changed the tether network to 10.* IP range my provider responded with "access to this url has been blocked." That made it evident that something was blocking some requests, and more than likely also leaving the others to die out in the unroutable nether-net. Used HTTP Proxy Settings to clear out HTTP Proxy address.

Problem may be caused by HTTP Proxy server. Proxies help to manage web traffic on the providers end, but can and probably will disrupt access to local addresses. Proxy options may be available in your network settings, but on many phones these options are hidden. An app such as HTTP Proxy Settings will give access to the hidden settings. Simply clear out the hostname and port for un-proxied access. Make sure to write down original values so changes can be undone.

You need to set android-wifi-tether to give out IP addresses in a different subnet than the other networks your laptop connects to (e.g. home, work). You can do this within its Settings.
You also need to set up your web server to listen on the given address. Based on your description you are most likely using nginx; in that case add listen 192.168.2.100:80; to the appropriate server block.

That doesn't seem to be the issue. I am not connected to any other networks. I did just switch back to 192.168.0.1 on the laptop and the problem persists, as it did before I had changed to the ..2.100 address. Ping and portscan both show the laptop being addressable, yet the browser times out.

Did you configure your web server correctly? See updated answer.

I'm running Apache as originally stated. I think I'm configured correctly, set to Listen 80 and *:80 as virtual host name. As I understand it that will catch anything on port 80.

Sorry Mike, I figured things out better. You were mostly correct. I can't assign an IP to a machine, only to a network device. What I had done in the hosts file only put a name on that IP address, and as I learned better that IP is not reachable if the WiFi connection is down. I did understand that the IP couldn't be assigned to another device, I failed to understand that if the WiFi was down the IP wasn't assigned to any device. My Bad.


text:
Custom Kernels on Stock ROMs?
The General Question: Is it possible to install custom kernels on a Rooted Stock ROM?
The Example: I have a Nexus 7 which I have rooted running 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean JRO03D) would it be possible to just flash a custom kernel,
say this one http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1831780,
on my stock ROM using Clockwork Recovery?
Sorry if this is obvious, but I've only really done it on custom roms, and I couldn't find a definite answer on the interwebs

Yes, it is possible to install custom kernels on stock roms. The kernel developer will usually say which roms (or types of roms) the kernel supports. If you are not sure you can try reading the kernel thread, and there will always be poeple saying things like "working great on [firmware version here]". This way you can also make sure that it will work ok on your version of the stock rom.
As for your example, yes you can flash this on your stock rom:
xda-developers

Yes. You can flash a custom kernel on your stock ROM, but it has to be the appropriate kernel i.e. it has to be the version the kernel supports. In this case you will be limited to overclocking only. However, you can download setcpu, nofrills, voltage control, cpu contol, etc to enjoy max.

You should provide links to the apps you're talking about. Also what do you mean limited to overclocking only?


text:
Importing contacts from SIM card results in only mobile numbers, and no home numbers
I needed to reboot my phone, (Galaxy Ace, Android2.3), but wanted to save all my contacts. So I did the following:

export contacts to SIM card
reboot phone
import contacts from SIM card

The problem is that only one phone number for each contact came back in when I imported. (When you enter contacts in Android, the default 'first' number is a mobile, and the second number is labelled 'home'. Ever wonder why the phone displays "call mobile" even when the number is a landline? This is why.)  Anyway, as I was saying, only the mobile or first phone number for each contact has been brought back in.  Any suggestions?  I have checked all the display options available.

The SIM card standard is very old and so is the phone book support that comes included with the SIM. There's limited space (100-250 contacts) and it is also limited to only one Number per contact (and no fields else! like address and such).

Contacts on SIM-Card are very limited -- so they e.g. can only store one phone number. Your phones / Google contacts, however, use a much enriched format, where you can store additional information like multiple phone numbers and even pictures.
Naturally, both formats are not 100 compatible. When exporting your contacts to SIM, information must be cut down to fit that format. That was when you lost your additional information. So no way to get that back -- it was gone the moment you overwrote your data doing that import.
The only chance left is using "forensics methods" -- in the hope the "deleted" data has not yet fully been overwritten. However, that would require root access to the device: You need to locate the contacts database (it's most likely named contact2.db, and will probably be located below /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/ -- the location might be different with some devices (e.g. Motorola uses a different provider for this). You could copy the databases from this directory to your PC, and investigate deleted entries with a HEX editor -- but that's no easy job for someone not used to it...
I know it's too late now for that -- but it might help you next time: To backup/restore your contacts, the contacts app offers an export to VCard format (.vcf) which it of course also can read back. This way all information is kept.


text:
How to change file associations in Android?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I get a overview and manage the default applications for file types?

How to change file associations in Android? I have video files opening in one player but I want another.
Please don't propose
Settings => Manage Applications => The app you want to remove as default => clear default.
since I don't know the name of the player application name which is currently associated with video files.
I need file-type-centric solution.


text:
Tethering using bluetooth via Galaxy Nexus to Galaxy Tab 7(P1000) tablet
Here is the point there is a secured WiFi connection - which password I don't know - but there is an device - Galaxy Nexus smartphone which is already connected to that WiFi and my Galaxy Tab tablet.
There is any change to set GN as Bluetooth modem, to tether WiFi connection, for Galaxy Tab?

Android 4.0+ officially supports bluetooth tethering in both directions (and allows bridging to whatever the internet connection is (wifi/usb/3G)).
You need:

1x device as tether host running Android 4.0+ that has wifi/3g/usb internet
1x client device running Android 4.0+
both devices are bluetooth paired
enabled 'bluetooth tethering' setting on the host device:
settings => wireless & networks: more => tethering & portable hotspot => bluetooth tethering

You then can connect to the tethering profile:
settings => bluetooth => paired devices/GN => profiles/Internet Access
The GNexus fulfills all of that, however your P1000 cannot officially upgraded to Android 4.0 though, so you're out of luck or you have to install an aftermarket firmware (e.g. CyanogenMod9, which is based on Android 4.0.4)

Officially: yes. If you however install CM9 (I did so on a colleague's P1000) you can have this feature. As a side effect you get a brand new Galaxy Tab (the look and feel of Android 4.0 on the P1000 is far superior to the original 2.3 Gingerbread installation). It however voids your warranty (well, the warranty period has passed anyway).


text:
Do Android Default apps (phone, browser,...) support NFC?
Is there any default support on Android basic apps (phone, browser, contacts...) for NFC?
Because if I want to develop for NFC, the user will need to install my NFC app. But for simple tasks that use default apps like phone, is there any default support? For example if I want to make a NFC tag to call my phone number. Or would I need to create an app even for this?

I think it is OEM-oriented, and each phone maker has its own developed apps in phones. My Xperia S has some apps and capabilities built-in for NFC. for example I can set a NFC tag to launch my browser or call a number, which all of these are done by an app that Sony has built into its ROM.

Essentially the individual apps don't need to have any understanding of NFC at all, they just respond to one of their standard intents that's been pushed to them by Android's central NFC Service. By default, that NFC Service handles reading the NFC tag and triggering the relevant intent to pass info on to another app on the device, like the Dialler.
One very easy way to play around with triggering actions by NFC is using Microsoft's ON{X} app (yes, bizarrely this is a Microsoft app that's only available on Android). As long as you've already got the hardware support, this lets you trigger a whole lot of actions with an NFC tag, with an absolutely minimal amount of simple scripting. See their recent blog entry on NFC for some of what you can do.

Since the introduction of NFC in Android 2.3 Gingerbread  there has been some basic support for NFC included, such as opening the browser when scanning an NFC tag with an http:// URL, opening the phone app with an tel: URI, messaging with an SMS: URI, email with an mailto: URI, adding a contact with a vCard tag, etc.
Since Android 4.0 ICS, some standard apps and many Google apps have been extended with the function to share data via Android Beam, too. E.g. the current browser URL, a displayed contact, the clip URL in the Youtube app, displayed location in Maps, etc. By default also non-NFC apps share their Play Store URL via Android Beam.


text:
USB charging in host mode

Possible Duplicate:
Using an OTG cable while charging

Recent versions of Android allow USB to operate in host mode.  But is it possible for them to be powered/charged via that same USB port while operating in host mode?

This was actually discussed on the Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange site.

See also this answer here: Using an OTG cable while charging

There is only one USB port for USB OTG (which not supports USB hubs if I remember well) AND charging the phone. So you will have to make a choice. To my mind this is the main problem with USB charging. Phones are used to having a unique port and you have to choose what you want to do with this only port.