text:
How do I keep my lockscreen from turning off on my S3?
I want to keep my lockscreen on longer than the few seconds it does now by default.  I don't see any settings to change this in the menus.  Is there a way to keep it on for 10 minutes or even permanently?
OS: 4.1
Phone: S3

i guess what you are trying to say is that you want the screen to stay for a longer period of time after getting locked.
If that's the query then it has a very simple answer.
Simply go to settings>display. Now there you must see something like 'Screen timeout'. Just tap on that and choose the time you want to keep the screen awake.
Now it'll also keep the home screen awake for the selected time. This is because there are no settings for changing the screen timeouts differently for home and lock screens.
What you can do now is simply press the lock screen button at the top right. Once the screen gets locked press it again such that the lock screen appears. Now it'll say for the time you selected. :)
Hope it helped. A positive vote is always appreciated. :D

But how do I leave it on for more than 10min? My phone has 10min as the maximum to choose in the Display settings.

Didnt get that. Could you be more specific about what you wanna say

@Sarthak The max you can select in the options is 10 minutes. He wants more than 10 minutes (i.e. custom delay).

Ohkay, my buddy right now there is no such solution from me. Maybe updating your firmware to 4.3 or 4.4 might help. I said this because both of my Samsung Galaxy S4 and Motorola Moto G run on android 4.4.2 and both provide 30 min as maximum. Clearly i don't know about forever on but some devices also give the option to set screen timeout to 'OFF' . Brother I'll let you know the answer as soon as i discover it.

My lockscreen turns off in a few seconds even though I set it to 10 min!!! I pressed the kockscreen button then pressed again but it still shuts off.

This doesn't work. The home screen timeout is separate from the lockscreen timeout.

just maybe I've got the answer to your second problem too!
OK so here it is, head over to Google play store (link here- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chemdroid.screentimeouttoggle&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dscreen+timeout+toggle ) and download this app called Screen Timeout Toggle.
Now open the app and tick 'Always Active'. Now the screen will never time out. Now what you must do is lock the device's screen manually by pressing the lock button. Now if you slide down it must say 'screen must stay on'. If it doesn't show that then you must tap on the toggle option. This would make it start. Now lock the screen again and there you have it. It'll never time out.
There's just only one problem, and that is that the developer says that 'Now it works for 4.2 also' . So I'm just not sure that whether it'd work for you as you said that your device is running 4.1 .
If it worked then please let me know.
Positive vie is always encouraged :D

the lock button is the button on the phone top right-hand side corner right?

Yes, in Samsung devices it's the one on the top right side :)

authors: ابراهيم السنفاني


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Samsung Duos Mac address keeps changing
I have a Samsung Duos GT-I9082 (Android 4.2.2).
Every time the screen turns off or is locked, the WiFi gets turned off. Then on the MAC address changes so I cannot connect to the WiFi due to MAC filtering.
Could you please help me figure this out? Thanks.

The MAC address changes by itself? I've never seen that before - are you sure that its the MAC and not the IP, and is there anything running on wake / login to change the MAC ? I'm thinking incredibly short DHCP lease time - but that wouldnt affect the MAC, only the IP.

@FreudianSlip yes I'm sure it's the MAC address. That's why I posted this question. I'm astonished as well.

The smartphone's wifi turned out to be spoofed.

With a random MAC address? Why did you do that?

@JasonC yes almost. Only the last few numbers are changing.

Unless you specifically installed some app or mod to change the MAC address, that almost sounds more like a bug in a custom kernel mod. Did you root the device?

@JasonC no I personally did nothing. I've also been told that the device is made in Korea and that the Wi-Fi used is a cheap one that is spoofed.

source: Stack Exchange

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

authors: عبود الحيالي

sort: votes


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Does using uTorrent for Android wear out the phone's SSD?
When you use uTorrent for Android, does it trash the SSD with multiple writes? Since most phones' internal memory and SD cards are flash based, and torrents do multiple writes, are they especially harmful for the lifespan of SSDs?
If so, are there workarounds?

Accepted answer doesn't take erase block size into consideration.  Check this or this. Also is wrong on 1M write cycle count. It is just 10k. Check write endurance section in wiki

First I'll play dumb.
According to this, a torrent file should have around 1000-1500 pieces. But let's take an especially poorly made torrent; a 4GB file (FAT32's maximum allocateable file size) split into 16kB pieces; that is ~250 000 pieces, so 250 000 write cycles. Common SD cards (and phone internal memories too) endure approximately 100 000 write cycles; so if you calculate this, you'll reach the conclusion that your card will fail before half of this torrent downloads. But this reasoning is wrong.
Each cell in flash memory endures 100 000 write cycles, and different chunks get written to different cells (overwriting the previous chunk with the next would be kind of dumb) - so even by downloading this one torrent, you will only use up 1 write cycle of this 4 GB area. So what counts is not the total number of writes, but the number of times a single cell has been written.
(Also, it can be noted that on most storage devices the computer does not write/read arbitrary lengths of data; it reads/writes a single 512-byte block at a time. So even if you write this file in one single pass, it will get written to the card divided into 512-byte blocks - so that means 500 million writes, but it's spread over 500 million blocks, so the wear is still one write cycle.)
Another thing to take into consideration is that SD cards and most flash controllers often do wear leveling, which means if the controller notices one block to be worn more than another, it swaps them internally to wear them equally, without the host system noticing. Also they include spare blocks to replace worn-out blocks - so even if you single out a block and try to wear it out, you'll find it will endure a lot more write cycles than it should, because halfway into the assault the controller remaps it. The whole card fails only when it runs out of spare blocks.

What does wear out the SD card, however, is using it as swap.

My phone uses YAFFS by the way.

It doesn't really matter concerning storage wear. But torrents start faster on filesystems which support sparse files. Also f2fs should have the best performance - but I doubt you have the possibility to switch to it if you don't have a well-supported phone.

Note that torrent apps use to preallocate the required disk space so they will create files filled with zeroes and then will replace them with the actual content. This means it doubles the number of writes, if we consider that the controller will use the same cell for the zero value and the actual value of a given file.

Well then that's two writes. It's still not even making a dent in the 100 000 available write cycles. Also, NTFS and ext filesystems support sparse files for this exact reason. (Well, more for the space-saving and performance than for the wear reduction) FAT32, found on most SD cards, sadly doesn't.

This doesn't take erase block size into consideration.  Check this or this.Also is wrong on 1M write cycle count. It is just 10k. Check write endurance section in wiki

I am highly sure using torrent download on Android phone will wear out the phone's SD card, although it's not confirm-able because there is no direct evidence. Because I used to do BT downloads (about 1 years ago) using my phone, and my phone wears out two of my SD cards during that time period (even using dd_rescue can not read it's content so no evidence). After that I stop BT downloading and since then my SD card never get wear out.

Look I use utorrent and yes this may occur sometimes. So what i do is that i only download huge files from utorrent if available as it's usual work was to transfer big files. By downloading big files from utorrent , the app does not get full access because what utorrent does is that it first downloads the file and then after downloading it does the multiple writing.
So what you can do to stop this is just wait for the download to start and after 5 seconds of starting pause the download. Now to start it again choose 'force start'. Now after the download is complete, pause the download. This would not let utorrent fetch extra information for the server.
And there you have it.
Hope it works. If not then let me know what problems you encountered.
A positive vote is always appreciated :D

This didn't make a whole lot of sense. You only download huge files? What does this mean? Do you mean you avoid torrent downloads unless the files are more than 4 GBs? 10 GBs? Or what? "By downloading big files from utorrent , the app does not get full access" - what do you mean by "full access"? Full access to what? Why should "full access" be avoided? Do you have proof that this pausing scheme works? Can you point to a website or a study that has found it to help lifespan?

Brother I certainly can't point to a site or whatever, but this atleast worked for me. It clearly does not eat my device's memory anymore

Are you sure you understood my question? It wasn't about "eating" device RAM memory, it was about decreasing the phone's SSD through multiple writes. Besides, how would you know if it works or not? This thing would not show immediately, it's just that the phone's SSD might die sooner than it otherwise would have. It would be years before it happens either way.

Sorry, if my wrong under standing lead you to a wrong way. I didn't meant to do that but just my seeing i thought I'd be it

This does not help protect the memory - it doesn't matter if the writes are sequential or not, and uTorrent writes the data to the card immediately. This only forces uTorrent to download from the beginning of the file and not randomly - which impairs both the swarm's performance and your download speed. It is only useful if you want to start watching a movie from its beginning while it is still downloading.

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


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Crash while adding google account
Facing trouble while adding Google account to my android device. In logcat I got these two messages:
java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to create service com.google.android.gms.gcm.GcmService:
  java.lang.SecurityException: attempting to read gservices without permission: Neither user 10073 nor current process has com.google.android.providers.gsf.permission.READ_GSERVICES.
  java.lang.SecurityException: attempting to read gservices without permission: Neither user 10073 nor current process has com.google.android.providers.gsf.permission.READ_GSERVICES.

Screen shot of my device Samsung Galaxy S3 (4.2.2)

Screen shot of my device Samsung Galaxy S3 (4.2.2) / while restarting

Did you just install an update to your device? Or did you do a factory-reset? The second screenshot indicates the Dalvik cache being updated, which points to one of these two possibilities.

Reinstall CM with minimal gapps, your /system folder is most probably full due to gapps-kk taking up too much space.
http://goo.im/devs/BaNkS/GApps/4.4.3

what is CM and how can i   minimal gapps?

CM stands for "CyanogenMod" and is a custom ROM. So this answer is unlikely to apply to your issue if you didn't install a custom ROM.

If you're not running CM/CyanogenMod/Custom rom, do please "root" your phone, and check if there's enough space on the /system partition. If that's not the cause - i'd suggest cleaning up app data for google play services & later doing a factory reset if cleaning up the app data didn't help (but fist back up your data).


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How to root my android device without losing data?
I want to root my android device but I have a lot of personal data stored in it. It also doesn't have a micro sd card slot. So I was wondering if there is any way to root my device without losing any data and without using a PC?

Can you connect your phone to PC and backup the personal datas

Sameer brother i don't have my PC. I've mentioned it now

You can! You just need to backup your data! Which phone are using? Brand? Sony devices have a app called "backup and restore", by backing up your data you can get back your data in case if you lose it! I think there is a way not losing data while rooting your phone.

I have Motorola Moto G

@Sarthak go to settings -> backup and restore then backup your data..

that's alright but i have big files also which takes too much time to download and my data/progress is saved in them. Will these files and the data/progress saved in these files will also be backed up?

@Sarthak it will show you which data you want to backup,  if you want back up internal storage or all the app data + contacts everything..

It's just showing 3 things namely backup my data, backup account and automatically restore

@Sarthak backup your data

Already done that, but beneath that option it's written 'backup app data, Wi-Fi password and Google server settings'

@Sarthak  yeah!!  It means your backup data has been done and Wi-Fi password and settings are also backed!!

Last query, the files I was talking about are PSP Games that I play on my device. Now I'm not sure will the data of the PSP games will also be backed up?

@Sarthak ya! It will backup your whole internal storage, btw which emulator are you using?  PPSSPP??  I'm using PPSSPP!

,Yeah me too!PPSSPP it's the best

@Sarthak yeah !!!

Thanks brother, you saved me. BTW when I was rooting my Samsung Galaxy S4 then I used Odin through which also no data loss was there. Isn't there any way to use Odin on Moto G

@Sarthak sorry brother no idea

@syed_sami the way you describe does not cover everything, but only backup parts. I know of no manufacturer including a backup app really doing a full backup (which can only be done by root-apps, or via ADB). See our backup tag-wiki for details, and follow its links for more details.

@Izzy i was just trying to keep it simple

I understand. But this way it doesn't fully comply with "without losing data": things are not covered by a backup cannot be restored after a wipe, and hence are lost. Will mostly affect app data, game levels, and the like (which would e.g. be covered by Helium Backup or adb backup, see Full Backup of non-rooted devices. Unfortunately, without root bein already in place, both require a PC, which Sarthak doesn't have at disposal currently.


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Home, Menu, Back Buttons are not clickable in android emulator
I have noticed that in some of emulators mainnavigation buttons (Home, Back, Menu) buttons are not clickable. If the emulator's device is something which has a higher resolution this is mostly happening if I have observed it correctly. Does anyone know why is this and any solution for this?
Thanks,
Madhura

You'll need to modify the Device Definitions. To do this, find the "Device Definitions" tab in the Android Virtual Device Manager and double click on the device you're using.
Make sure the Buttons are set to Hardware.

Don't forget to update your device settings:

Source: Stackoverflow


text:
Can't create files on Galaxy SIII via USB
I just got a Samsung Galaxy SIII and connected it to a Windows 7 PC. I installed the Samsung Andorid (sic) USB drivers for Windows too.
When I connect the phone, I get the typical popup asking me whether I want to view the files. I do, and Windows Explorer lets me view the contents of the (emulated) SD card.
I can create folders there, but I can't create any files. What gives? How can I create files on the phone then?

Via adb I can see that there are no write permissions for other users:
ls -la
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-06-10 09:47 .downloadTemp
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-14 16:32 .face
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-06-05 15:53 .thumbnails
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:12 Alarms
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:12 Android
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:13 Application
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-14 16:30 DCIM
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:12 Documents
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-06-10 09:47 Download
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:12 Movies
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:12 Music
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:38 Nearby
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:12 Notifications
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:12 Pictures
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:33 Playlists
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:12 Podcasts
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:13 Ringtones
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-03-09 23:10 Samsung

I've also tried to restart Windows, install the drivers from here, and still no dice.

Have you tried transferring via Kies?

We'd prefer not to have to install third party software to make a simple file transfer possible, especially of the Kies sort. Maybe if there was something more lightweight, but I'm wondering why that wouldn't be possible out of the box? I remember my old Android phones with an SD card allowed me to just write files on it.

Kies is Samsung's own software, so it isn't 3rd party (from the point of view of the phone, but I know what you mean). You SHOULD be able to copy as per normal, I see no reason that you couldn't, but Kies might be a work around or at least narrow the issue down.

authors: สุชาติ พรหมจารี


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Lost access to internal and external sd card because modified vold.fstab
I just bought a copy of Samsung Galaxy S4, rooted it using framaroot, installed busybox. Then i modified the vold.fstab because the internal sd card size only 1.8gb and i want my 16gb external card become the internal sd card, after i reboot my device some of my downloaded apps was lost and i can't open play store then i open file manager its empty. So i go to recovery mode and factory reset and nothing happening, i still cant access my sd cards. The two sd card are accessable in recovery mode so i moved  my external sd card to my another samsung device and downloaded cynanogen custom rom and gapps then i moved the external sd card back, i go to recovery mode and tried to install the custom rom but it failed. I have also tried using android commander in my windows pc but it didn't  work either because it says i have no root acces. Now i have no idea what to do, can someone please help me solve my problem if anyone can i appriciated it. Thank you....

What about restoring the original vold.fstab from the backup you've made before editing that system file? As that's stored in internal storage (so neither internal nor external SD), you should still have access to it.


text:
Charging New Phone
I bought a new phone today. Motorola
How long am I supposed to put my new phone for charging (Li ion battery)???
 Should I keep it plugged even after it shows 100%??
Please help me clearing this doubt.

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts! I've just added the charging tag to your question. Please follow up to its tag-wiki for detailed information on this topic.

This Battery University Article has a summary that states the following
•A portable device should be turned off while charging. This allows the battery to reach the threshold voltage unhindered and reflects the correct saturation current responsible to terminate the charge. A parasitic load confuses the charger.
•Charge at a moderate temperature. Do not charge below freezing.
•Lithium-ion does not need to be fully charged; a partial charge is better.
•Chargers use different methods for “ready” indication. The light signal may not always indicate a full charge.
•Discontinue using charger and/or battery if the battery gets excessively warm.
•Before prolonged storage, apply some charge to bring the pack to about half charge.
•Over-discharged batteries can be “boosted” to life again. Discard pack if the voltage does not rise to a normal level within a minute while on boost.
I would also add that heat is the single worst enemy of any battery. Keeping it cooler is always better. Not cold, just cooler. Any usage will cause heat, and don't worry about that, leaving it plugged in can generate a lot of heat at times.


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How do I get Korean keyboard on Huawei Ascend G6
How do I install a Korean keyboard on the Huawei Ascend G6?

Which Android OS version does this device run? Have you tried seeing if Korean language is an option in built-in keyboard? Have you tried looking in Google Play Store for 3rd-party keyboards with Korean support?

@Chahk As the tag suggests it runs 4.3 jelly bean. In the end I installed "Google Korean keyboard", but I preferred to have the language within the original Google Keyboard as the other languages, especially because it looks like the Kor keyboard is more cpu intensive.

Same way as on any other Android device:

go to the Android App Store of your choice (Google Play, AppBrain, whatever) and search for "korean keyboard" (currently, 376 results)
install the one you find suiting your needs

There are several keyboards shipping with Korean language packs, so you might as well decide picking one of those. This might possibly even come with more functionality or better usability.
Not explicitly asked for, but it will probably be your next question: You might have to "activate" that "input method" for the keyboard to show up, or even make it the default one. This can be done in Settings → Languages & Input (by "Settings" I mean the Android settings).


text:
Log or find what and which text a SMS app sent?
I did accidentially press YES to "[appname] wants to send a message to [premium-rate-number]. Do you want to allow this? [Coin Icon] This will incur additional fees. [Checkbox] Remember my selection. [Button: Cancel] [Button: Send]"
Now it has sent a unknown message to a premium rate number, subscribing me to a expensive service.
The app did send a "START [servicename]" to this premium rate number.
Now its pulling Money from the bill every week. Uninstalling the app dont help.
To stop, I need to send "STOP [servicename]" to the premium rate number.
The problem? I dont know what the [servicename] is. Sending "STOP" is not enough, then it ask that I need to enter a correct service shortword. My operator wont help either, they say "If its hidden from view, you have to Contact the app maker. We wont reveal what shouldn't be for your Eyes". And app maker says I did agree to a lifetime contract with weekly fee, so no recourse there.
Is it any way to log or detect messages sent from a specific app? I did try to install different "SMS Text Tracker app" primarly used for secret spying, but those do only reveal what I send myself through the standard SMS interface.
In other Words, I want to install some logger app or log outgoing messages (even messaging attempts, since sending a additional "START [servicename]" is going to fail). Then I reinstall the culprit app, and then I can find out what it send as [servicename], so I can send "STOP [servicename]" to the number and stop the automatic billing.
Any ideas how to log "hidden" outgoing SMSes sent by app?
And Before anyone mentions it: Decompiling the app wont help. Its obfuscated AND the app does Contact a https server somewhere to get the "servicename".

How could the app maker say that you agreed to a "lifetime contract"? There has to be a law against that. I'm pretty sure you can report them to Google (or even government agencies) if they don't allow you to unsubscribe.

Its still a app I want to use. Just that I want to get rid of the subscription. Its a third party app, not google app, so contacting google wont help. Its a separate APK and you have to allow foregin apps to be able to install it. The app makers explanation is: "This subscription gives me free perks at a website. I do not earn any Money. Thus the app cannot check if the subscription is Active or not, since the website I get free perks at, does not belong to me, and thus I had to block unsubscription because else everyone would just unsubscribe and use the app for free." So no recourse that way

First, I'd report that app as fraud to Google: such behavior IMHO contradicts with their rules (you can also give the appmaker the option to either have you removed from that subscription, or you would report – with the latter resulting in his app being removed from Play).
Second, if you don't need premium SMS services in general, check with your provider to have them removed altogether. If you can convince them you cannot unsubscribe due to fraudulent behavior of an app having you subscribed to and not letting you unsubscribe, it's their duty to take care for it (to do so, they don't need to reveal that "servicename" to you, as long as they stop charging you). Otherwise you could report them to the corresponding regulation office.
Having premium services disabled altogether should stop them from charging you. After that, if you don't want to read messages coming from that dubious service, you can simply put their number on your blacklist.

As I said, the app is not on Play. Its only a APK file on a website. So Google service agreement do not apply. And the operator said that "if you agreed to a contract, we are not goig to help you get rid of the contract. Pacta sunt servanda." they said. So I can nothing do. About blocking premium service, the operator specifically told me its not going to stop already subscribed services, that will only block NEW subscriptions from be made, and also one-time premium SMS. So please help me. I see that the app attempts to send the SMS each startup, so if I could just log whatever is sent as msg?

Is your device rooted? Then you can withdraw the app the permission to send SMS. As you've got the number, you could also ask your provider to block that number: there's no contract forcing you to call that number repeatedly. Unfortunately, it seems not possible to block outgoing SMS on the Android device itself without root. // Might not be the nice way: but how would the dev react when threatened with a blog revealing this praxis? This kind of "lifetime contract" will clearly be seen as malicious behavior. // Last chance: drop your contract, get a new one, factory-reset your phone :(

No. It wont help to revoke the apps permission. As I said, sending "START [servicename]" triggers a periodic billing WITHOUT any outgoing SMSes being sent periodically. Its like recurring payment on a credit card. Thus, I need to find out the [servicename] Word so I can send "STOP [servicename]" to stop the periodic billing. Blocking the number will not stop the billing. And my operator said that if I Close my contract, I will get direct-billed for the recurring subscription UNTIL I "STOP" the recurring billing. And stopping the billing can ONLY be done by knowing the [servicename].


text:
How do I get rid of synced contacts?
I want to get rid of the contacts that were synced through my Skype, Facebook, and Gmail accounts. How do I do this? I don't want to factory reset my phone, but if I have to....

Facebook
Go to settings>Sync Contacts>Remove Facebook data
Skype
Settings>Sync contacts>Don't sync
Gmail
Not all devices allow to delete gmail contacts from phone, but you can always hide them doing like this.
Open Contacts>Right tap>More options>Display settings>Google>uncheck all groups.

I had to do this with contacts from a secondary Google account. I just removed the account and re-added it with contact sync turned off.

Go to gmail on desktop
select contact from the drop down menu by clicking on Gmail on the left top of the screen.
Select all contacts and delete them


text:
Confirming the nature of a Samsung update, and declining it
I find it a little bit offensive to receive a "Software Update" message on my Galaxy Note 2 that does not disclose the nature of the update (an OS update? an app update?).

software update message (click image for larger variant)
Judging by the timing, the chatter, and especially the size, I am guessing Samsung is pushing a 4.4 (KitKat) update, but given the lousy experience of reduced battery performance after upgrading from 4.1 to 4.3 (including giving a chance for recalibration with many full discharge/recharge cycles), I'd rather avoid 4.4 for now.
My question is in two parts:

How do I confirm that this is indeed KitKat being pushed?
How do I decline the update, or at least delay it by longer than three hours?

3 hour max delay (click image for larger variant)

Go to SamMobile and navigate to the check your firmware and you can see what your carrier is pushing.

I am happy to report that upgrading from 4.3 to 4.4.2 made the battery last three days instead of one.

For the first part- Samsung has notes on the system updates on their site. I'm not sure what provider you're using, but you should be able to get to what you're looking for if you start at: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/
Use the "Start by Entering..." search bar in the middle of the screen to pull up your specific Note II phone and scroll down to the "Support Overview" section.
For the model I looked up, the "Which version of the Android™ platform does my Samsung Note II use?" question is already in the Frequently Asked Questions list, but if not, use the search bar just about that.
I didn't check every device, but it certainly looks like it's the Kit Kat update that's been downloaded.
For the second part- I'm working off the assumption that your Note is NOT rooted. Upfront note (haha): I don't have a Note II here with me, so I'm going off reference materials and memory on the exact option names in the menus. These steps should let you disable the notification until you re-enable automatic updates.

Go to 'Settings'
Click 'More'
Click 'About device'
Click 'Software update'
Uncheck the 'Auto update – Check for updates automatically' option

When the update prompt is in your notifications, pull down the notification list and do the following:

Press and hold down on the update until you get a 'App Info' option
Click 'App Info'
Click 'Clear cache'
Click 'Clear data'


text:
nexus 7 volume keeps muting
At completely random times the on screen volume slider appears and mutes the sound. Also the slider just stays on screen over anything I'm doing (as it is now) and will not disappear. Sometimes touching the volume rocker switch will work, often it doesn't. So even if I don't need any sound the slider is on screen interfering with whatever I'm trying to look at.
Rebooting doesn't help. This occurs whether any apps are running or none and there is no way of telling when this will happen.
Also if I do want to listen to something the slider will just appear and return to mute, so if I try to turn the volume up with the rocker switch it just immediately slides back to mute.
It's happening more frequently, pretty much all the time now. I had hoped the recent KitKat upgrade would resolve it, but no luck. I have taken it out of its case so there is nothing pressing on the buttons. This is the old style nexus with one camera.
What could cause this, and how can it be solved?

Sounds like the button is broken....

As said in the comments it looks like your volume button could be broken. A good way to check if this is the case is to disable it. There are some great threads on how to do this so I will list a few here that you can check out. If the case is that the button is broken, let me know in a comment (on this answer) and I will help you out.
Threads:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/lg-optimus-g-pro/284907-how-disable-side-volume-buttons.html
http://androidforums.com/droid-support-troubleshooting/33602-disabling-volume-button.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2125810

Thanks for this, I tried Volume Control +, which will set the volume for media and works initially to play something, but as soon as I try to do anything else the slider appears and mutes the Nexus.  I'm not quite sure how I'd disable the volume button with with this app or what that would achieve - when I drag the slider it just slides straight back to mute.  Can't find the RingGuard app mentioned.

You should look into disabling the key via changing a text file, i think its mentioned in a couple of the threads. If you cant figure it out i will give you step by step instructions. Just let me know if thats the case

OK I'm struggling now. tried to change the text file but couldn't save it.  Assumed I'd have to root it and tried going down that route with my PC but once I installed the drivers the PC stopped recognising the Nexus - I'd been able to view files before that. So now I'm stuck, PC won't recognise Nexus and I don't know where to go from here...

which drivers did you install?

The ones for the nexus from the Asus website. I was just following thr online Rooting instructions which say you have to do this and the rooting program didn't appear to recognise the nexus before this and the pcdidnt afterwards. As it's just shown as a USB device with an error (code 43) I can't even uninstall the drivers as thy aren't recognised.

I'm not sure if there is a difference, but you did install the drivers for the 2012 nexus 7, not the 2013 correct?


text:
How do I remove the pattern lock?
I have my brothers old HTC & was playing with the Location & Security settings. I added the pattern lock to my phone, but it's now just an extra thing to get through before being able to use my phone. How can I remove this? I'm rather clueless with the terminology too & don't grasp the concept of APN's & VPN's or know what a corporate administrator is.

When the "none" option in key lock settings is greyed out: Fail the pattern on purpose multiple times, wait out the time-lock, use your PIN to log in and the pattern lock will have been removed automatically.

In your phone go to the settings options and check for Security settings and find key lock settings.

You will have Some options like PIN, Pattern, None.
Pin is for the phone will ask you for a 4-digit number to unlock
your phone.
Pattern is for the phone will ask you to draw the pattern for the
phone to unlock the phone. The  pattern should be the same as the pattern you
had set.
Choose none for the phone will not ask for any pattern or pin to
unlock your phone.In this way you will be free of any hassles to unlock your phone.

@bouncy72 did the above work for you

Every Phone Have option to remove the pattern lock.
Go to the

1.Setting
2.Security
3.Screen lock
4.click
5.Option Coming(none, Pattern, PIN, Password).
6.Choose NONE option.

Then you have remove the pattern lock.
In android every phone have same process.
Above answer is also correct. I have updated only how to remove pattern lock specifically.

authors: กิตติยา รอดมี


text:
Tasker best profiles to trigger two states
I use some confuse profiles to trigger a task when I come to office and when I'm back  in home, based in time of the day and week(this is the problem to have many profiles). But I have two access points (wifi), in my house and in my office. So I would like to make only one or two, or even 3 profiles to this, based in the two wifi acess points, and not 6 I have right now.
Any suggestions would by welcome.
Thanks!!

You'll want to use the Wifi's SSID & MAC address as a trigger.
When you create your profile you'll go to state and select Wifi Connected.Then you'll see a magnifying glass next to SSID & MAC. Touching the magnifying glass will allow you to see the wifi networks currently in your area. You can add multiple SSID for a single task but then I'm not sure how the MAC addresses with interact with that. You might be able to see the wifi network it remembers but I'm not 100% sure on that. After selecting the correct SSID and its corresponding MAC Address tasker now knows to trigger. By selecting the SSID and MAC Address is prevents tasker from triggering if you connect to another wifi address with the same SSID. I hope this help. Since I'm new and trying to build up rep please don't forget to select this as your answer if it works for you and to upvote it. Thanks. If you have any issues please come back and ask more question but provide more info about the phone, Android version and tasker version along with any other plugin you might have.


text:
How to re-download a video in Whatsapp?
I downloaded a video shared in Whatsapp. After playing, I deleted it using MX Player Pro.
Now, when I tap that video in Whatsapp, it says "Sorry, this media file doesn't exist on SD card." I was expecting that Whatsapp would try to re-download that video.
How to force Whatsapp to re-download that video? Or, does Whatsapp delete media files from server after being downloaded?

Whatsapp will backup data every 24 hrs.Did u try reinstalling? then it will restore the backed up data.

Does backup include big video files?

I never tried it. But it will work I guess

You need to download the video again from the chat

But, how? That's what I am asking.

Once deleted you will get media file doesn't exist on SD card error. When you restore you just go back to chat and you will see download arrow on the video and you can download again

I can't see download arrow. That's the problem.

Once a media file is downloaded from the WhatsApp server it is indeed deleted the from the server. See this article: http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/general/28030002
The daily backups that other users are referring to only restore text and metadata content of messages. The media content (eg: images and videos) are stored on your device in a folder on the sdcard (typically in a location such as: /sdcard/WhatsApp/Media/) and is not part of the daily backup and so must be retained in order for WhatsApp to be able to find it.
There are methods to restore files from flash media once deleted but this requires you to act quickly. I will not talk about this here since this is not your question.

One more reason to hate Whatsapp...

Oh well I guess now that you know that you will be careful next time before deleting a media file. But at least it appears there are not hoarding our data! :) . Regarding the backups you can make backups of the /sdcard/WhatsApp/Media/ folder yourself. That along with WhatsApps own backup constitute a complete backup and would allow for a complete restore on a say a new phone.

This is a simple and pretty straightforward way to restore deleted WhatsApp stuff. All you need to do is uninstall the app and install it back. This would actually use all the backup files, and restore whatever it can. It works with videos also


text:
My smartphone battery was damaged
Can I change battery for my Motor G (Motorola)? My smartphone's battery was damaged. What can I do with it? It say that I shouldn't remove the battery

You could look up how to do it yourself, or if you are not comfortable doing it (and voiding your warranty) take it to a repair centre, or the vendor you purchased it from.

To expand on @RossC's comment, doing this yourself is quite easy if you are confident and comfortable with device disassembly, and have the correct tools. There are tutorials on how to safely and correctly replace this:

iFixIt: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Motorola+Moto+X+Battery+Replacement/16974
ETradeSupply video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd3AZSXhOf8

From experience, I strongly suggest you watch the entire video and/or read the whole article before ever even starting. That way no surprises creep up on you, and you already have an idea as to everything you'll need to do.
Tools can be found widely online and may be worth the investment ($2 kit on Amazon, $1.35 kit on eBay).
Note that this might void any warranty you have from Motorola or your device's distributor. You could check with them first and see if the repairs might be covered for free or a fee. Motorola can always help but may cost you more money (if you are at fault for the damage) or can take a while to complete due to shipping, service backlog, etc.


text:
K-9 Mail: Search in Message
I use K-9 Mail for Android. Recently I tried to search for text in a (rather long) email, but could not find any possibility to do so. Long-pressing the menu button results in a search field, which returns a list of messages containing the search phrase.
I would like to search for text inside of one particular message. Any suggestions on how to do that with K-9 Mail?

After an Update of K-9 Mail I tried again to find it and succeeded (don't know whether this worked in a version prior to the new one).
This is how you search in K-9 Mail inside a message: In the respective message

select any text;
in the upcoming menu (copy, past, select all), select the document with a magnifying glass on it;
now the text you selected is used for an in-message search;
edit the search box and enter your search string.


text:
Recovering deleted pictures
I recently deleted all of my pictures by mistake from my samsung galaxy s4.
I went into my files and documents and deleted not realising it would delete all my pics!
Is there a way for me to recover them?
My phone is not rooted. I have not taken any pictures since but have received pictures through whatsapp?

possible duplicate of How can I recover a deleted file on Android? Also take a look at our data-recovery tag-wiki for further hints.

Were the photos on a removable card?

Important: You know that writing new photos to the memory with the deleted photos is very dangerous; But it's as dangerous to writa any other data to the same area of memory. That area will be either a memory card, or a part (partition) of some internal flash memory. If you use a separate sd card to save photos, and nothing else is saved there: all good. But if it is on a shared partition or card, like a completely different directory (folder) on some common memory - writing anything there will still overwrite photo data.

Especially for recovering JPEG files, I would strongly propose to try the recovery software PhotoRec. It was originally developed to do exactly that, recover not files, but JPEG photos, on the disk - not even looking at the file system. As long as nothing got overwritten, it should recover a large part I expect.
I did not need it myself yet, but the way it works makes very much sense.
Runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, licensed under GPL v2+
PhotoRec comes in one package with the related software TestDisc - the package file named testdisk-* should contain both programms: TestDisk & PhotoRec Download
Note on recovering other files than photos:
PhotoRec should work well for many other file types, the programm PhotoRec was developed to be good at recovering photos, but was soon extended to work with other file formats with some kind of predictable structure too.

Interestingly, the open source license has a real practical relevance in this case: If the card is not removable, and you can not get an image from it to be used in a PC - you could, theoretically, compile/port it for your phone, to run it there in text mode per ssh connection from a PC.

Try Dumpster - Recycle Bin
it might help you to recovery all your Data (Restore deleted pictures, music files, videos and much more)

Seems like it could be helpful, yes - but... Wow! I took a look at the programm, and stopped reading the description at the fifth line: "No need to backup your data." That's really the most brilliant advice one can give to someone who just lost data...

@VolkerSiegel Well this app helped me many times. so, i recommend this to everyone. If i helped you you can vote my answer up to help others.

Oh, I was just about to edit the comment to say that I did see it may be useful here indeed! ( The cynical part was just more urgent, somehow :) ) Edited the above, only missing some more bold... :)

I started to read a little more on Dumpster; It needs that it was running already when the files were deleted. So it will not help the to solve the problem here, as it was not installed then.

Try it by yourself by deleting some file which you dont want on your phone then try that app.


text:
Galaxy s4 remove icon doesn't work
i have problem with my galaxy s4 i9500 (android version 4.3)
Shortly - when i drop my app icon on trash nothing happens.
More info - I can't to remove apps with desktop remove trash, tap and move app icon on the trash icon from desktop and apps is not remove, just icon, why? with my another galaxy s4 i can to remove like that.
i can to remove just from settings (app manager).
p.s. sorry for my english

I'm not clear on what you are asking: Do you want to uninstall the app or just remove the shortcut? The trash can should remove the shortcut from a home screen. You need to open the app drawer and drag it to Uninstall to uninstall.

i want to uninstall app(from homescreen trash), but i can uninstall just shortcut.

Yes, that's what the transcan does for a home screen. You need to open the app drawer and drag it to uninstall it.

i dragged app on trash of homescreen, but nothing happen. when i drag system app(msgs, contacts and ...) trash icon also showed(on my another device it doesn't show, because system app can't delete)

So the shortcut stays on the home screen? It isn't meant to uninstall from there.

when i try to remove shortcuts - all working nice, but when i try to remove app like that(drag app on trash of homescreen) nothing happen, but my another device too samsung s4, when i drop app on trash icon of homescreen, device prompt DELETE APP OR NOT.

Different devices do it differently. With the S4: Drag from HOMESCREEN: Remove shortcut. THAT'S IT! Drag from App Drawer: Uninstall.

i know it :) but drag from app drawer doesn't work, after drop app on trash icon(with "remove" text) nothing happen. i need to go to settings, and in apps manager to do it(uninstall).
but on my another s4 device all it's working nice(drag from app drawer for uninstall and remove shortcuts too)

@IceJOKER What's different between the two devices?

@DanHulme android version . I'll try to upgrade to kitkat

After upgrade os all is working nice ))


text:
How WhatsApp send audio files or video clips instantly?
When I try to forward any video clips that I downloaded to my phone from any other contact it sends immediately (ie without any uploading) . Also attaching some mp3 files are also sent instantly without showing any delay in uploading? How is this possible? I think they are storing all media files on their server.

So whats the question?

@sameer The question is clear

@sameer How whatsapp avoid uploading?

This question appears to be off-topic because it is about inner-workings of a 3rd-party app. It is best to forward such questions to the app's developers.

@Chahk That's not one of the reasons listed in [help/off-topic]. It's possible that the answer is explained somewhere online (say, in a development blog, or an interview with one of the developers) so it could be answered here. Even if the answer isn't currently known, if Mr Jacob does what you suggest, he can always come back and answer the question himself.

@DanHulme That is not listed as a reason directly, but the fact is that the question is Android-independent. The same behaviour occurs in all platforms of Whatsapp. Therefore in my opinion it's as much off-topic as are (for example) questions about Whatsapp group admins (which we've seen plenty) or games on Android (specifically gameplay-related questions).

I guess that's because whatsapp stores attachments on their database with its own checksum (every file can be represented by an alphanumeric sequence of characters called like this).
When you try to upload a file whose checksum is already on their database, they just use the uploaded copy of the file.
This leads to several advantages. Indeed, preventing double uploads:

Avoids server overloads
Makes you save mobile data
Make whatsapp save space on their database

Sometimes, If I share some mp3 files or any music files from my phone, it will be sent immediately even if I didn't receive that file through whatsapp. Same checksum is used, rite?

Yes, this system works if any whatsapp user ever shared this file

Dropbox does the same thing.

Does this mean that whatsapp can decrypt and see the images being shared?

authors: Евгений Ануфриев


text:
Should I switch to ART?
ART has better performance and better battery life on paper at least.  Should I consider switching to it on my moto g? What are the results I can expect? What precautions should I take? Is it easy to turn back to dalvik?

It's about the same. Optimised Dalvik and ART are pretty much identical except some apps don't have ART support yet. Any differences I saw were completely placebo. Why not just try it sure and see... This is probably off topic as being opinion based.

@RossC What device you have?

S4 Google Edition, Nexus 4, 5 and 7 (2012 one) in terms of ART compatible devices. And a GTi9505 Galaxy S4 I sometimes run AOSP ROMs on.

Just try it by yourself. I've felt no real difference. Maybe it is something that is device specific or there is just a very small difference.
But it can change with Android 5.0 'L' because ART on Android 4.4 is some sort of beta version.
Switching to ART is as easy as switching back to Dalvik.
Settings > Developer Options > Select Runtime.

There you can choose ART.
You have to reboot your phone to apply the changes.
If you want to go back to Dalvik, redo the steps and select Dalvik.

It's worth noting that currently not all apps support ART, seeing how it's still in beta.

@Chahk As it's ART that's still in beta, it would be fairer to say that it doesn't support all apps.

BTW how many apps we're talking about here? 1%?

It's worth noting that rebooting after switching runtimes may take several hours - at least this has been my experience. This is because the ART recompiles all your applications.  It may even do it more than once if the process is interupted (e.g. due to battery drain)  - i.e it start over again at the top.
I'm hoping that switching back will be quicker since hopefully the compile step (unecessary for the Dalvik JIT) is what has slowed it down. I have not yet switched a device back to Dalvik so I'm not sure if this is correct or not.

Thanks for the heads up! Did you notice by how much your apps expanded in size after switching? Also, what about performance and battery life?

I did not see a noticeable size difference - mind you for the most part I am using things like Gmail, Youtube, and Chrome so they may be better suited for ART.


text:
Can I install CyanoGenMod's or AOSP Messaging app on top of existing Messaging app by my vendor
I want to install default Android SMS/Messaging app by Google, or even the one that comes with CyanoGenMod Custom ROMs.
They feel more native and plain, which is awesome.
Can I have 2 Messaging apps on my Galaxy S4 (I9500) without problems, or disable Samsung's messaging app and install AOSP/CM's Messaging app?

Starting with Kitkat, you can make one app the default SMS app. By default, on a device with Google apps, that is Hangouts, but you can install as many SMS apps as you like. If they have been developed/updated for Kitkat, they should be fitted to be used as "default SMS app".
Of course, if you don't need one of the pre-installed apps, or don't want to use it at all, you can go to Settings→Apps and see whether it can be disabled (some pre-installed bloatware is protected against this).

You can find Google's SMS/MMS app here.
It basically is AOSP messaging, it also has updates too!

Well, now. But this was not true when I posted the question!

That is a 50+MB app though - to send SMS.. seriously, Google? If it was AOSP, then it has evolved/bloated beyond all recognition.


text:
File transfer with multiple users
On a rooted Nexus 7 (2013), I have set up a second user.
When I plug the usb cable to my mac, I can see all the files for the main user (using the Android File Transfer app from Google).
However, when I switch to the second user I can only see two folders:
.estrongs  and backups/apps
How can I access the rest of the files for that second user ?


text:
Inspect Android Browser elements like Desktop Chrome Inspector
I'm a web developer (don't know any native Android Development) and would like to inspect any web page in Android's browser without using an emulator.   Is there something available like how you can plug an iPhone into a Mac and use Safari to inspect the page just as if it were a webpage being loaded in the desktop Safari browser?
If this is not available, what is the next best thing?

You can't do this with the old "Android browser", but you can in Chrome, which is downloadable from Google Play and comes installed on all recent Android devices. The feature you're looking for is called Chrome Remote Debugging, and it relies on having Chrome on your desktop and ADB enabled and connected.

Good to know.  Unfortunately I need to have some live debugging on a Android stock browser only.  It's not horizontally scrolling something that works fine on all other mobile browsers I can test on. What's the next best thing?

authors: จิราวัลย์ กุ้งมะเริง


text:
Galaxy S2 Lite restarts when using 3G network
I am using Samsung Galaxy S2 Lite running on Android 4.1.2. Using WiFi is fine, but if I use 3G, in some minutes the phone just restarts from nothing. It happens always near my house. In other places it can happens.
I think it is problem with my operator. I use the same chip in another phone (same model) and the same happens.
Is there any log (in /var/log or /var/messages) with some possible causes of this problem? Or maybe is it possible debug using the USB and some tool to identify why it is happens? Or maybe using DDMS?
Alternatively, how to fix it?
It is very strange, but I don't believe it is a problem of the device, but I can't prove that.

Have you tried using a different SIM card? It's possible the one you are using now is damaged and is causing issues with the radio that the phone doesn't know how to handle other than reboot itself. Especially since this happens on other phones with the same SIM.


text:
Interpretting the output of dumpsys telephony.registry
So when I run the command
dumpsys telephony.registry | grep -i signalstrength

I get the following output:
mSignalStrength=SignalStrength: 99 0 -120 -160 -120 -1 -1 25 -93 -12 300 2147483647 gsm|lte

I'm assuming the -93 is the dB value but I'm not sure. And for the other values I have no idea. I tried searching for a table to map each value but I couldn't find anything. I would really appreciate it if someone can let me know what each value means.

From the sources, it looks like it's printing out the contents of the SignalStrength object:

private SignalStrength mSignalStrength = new SignalStrength();

...

        pw.println("last known state:");
        ...
        pw.println("  mSignalStrength=" + mSignalStrength);
        ...

This object is described in detail on the Android Developers reference here.  The string representation of the SignalStrength class is defined here (search for "toString" function):

public String toString() {
    return ("SignalStrength:"
            + " " + mGsmSignalStrength
            + " " + mGsmBitErrorRate
            + " " + mCdmaDbm
            + " " + mCdmaEcio
            + " " + mEvdoDbm
            + " " + mEvdoEcio
            + " " + mEvdoSnr
            + " " + mLteSignalStrength
            + " " + mLteRsrp
            + " " + mLteRsrq
            + " " + mLteRssnr
            + " " + mLteCqi
            + " " + (isGsm ? "gsm|lte" : "cdma"));
}

This basically tells you the columns in the dumpsys output.

You can find the code that produces this output in SignalStrength.java in the Android framework. Even if you don't know Java, it's pretty easy to see which raw value is which.
If there are any values you don't understand (the names are pretty concise and only make sense if you're familiar with phone standards), you can read the inline documentation elsewhere in the same file.


text:
Xperia Sola keeps rebooting after reset
I have a Sony Xperia Sola phone that keeps rebooting after having done a factory reset. It's been like that for hours now. I have never flashed anything custom on the phone but did an official update (with Sony update companion) once to ICS which has been working fine for months. The problem appeared after doing the factory reset. The phone is no longer under warranty and was bought without a carrier contract. So I suspect that the bootloader is not locked..
How could I fix this? I've been reading and trying for hours now and I was thinking of flashing a stock rom on the phone but not sure how to do this. And even if it has a chance of working. Sony provides a tool called Emma but it does not recognize the phone. I held the volume down button pressed and then connected usb but it does not work. I noticed that holding down volume up and power button turns the phone off but when I restart, it keeps rebooting as before.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated on how to fix or flash to something working.

I tried a lot of things. I think switching usb cables made a difference. After I switched and tried the vol down button holding while inserting the usb cable, the phone was recognized in Emma but it was locked.
But I was able to make flash mode work. So I retried PC Companion, the update option which mentions resetting the phone/having trouble which opens a new menu. There I had to download the latest firmware first and then I had to do the vol down thing again after which it started installing the firmware on the phone.
Emma and PC Companion are Sony software.

Does the phone fully boot or does it reboot almost immediately?  I have had similar experiences with phones (from other vendors) not being recognized until some time after they have booted (mostly likely services need to start etc. etc.). I love (not) how this happens just at the time when you need to repair your phone!
Have you tried removing SIM cards, extra storage etc.  Sometimes if you can get the device to boot differently it will get far enough along to be "recognized".


text:
Saving pix from Google camera to SD card
I have tried all the suggestions in the forum, but to no avail...
What I have:
Galaxy S4, 8GB internal, 64GB SD card, Omega ROM with Android 4.3 (TouchWiz); has Samsung camera AND Google camera (with Photosphere) which I prefer much more than the Samsung camera.
Samsung camera makes it easy to store pix on ext. SD card. Cannot find any setting or way to do the same with Google camera. Even tried deleting DCIM on internal SD card, hoping I would be asked where I wanted to store pix. But DCIM and subfolders were just recreated on the internal SD card.
With only 8GB internal, I need to clear more space out. That's why this is so important. Any help?

it seems i cant answer due to less than 10 reputation. if you are rooted you could try the app FolderMount.

Unfortunately the Google Camera app does not natively support saving pictures/videos/panoramas to SD Card.  I am guessing that this goes with Google's general stance against SD cards in general.  If your device is not rooted, you are stuck with having to manually move the images/videos.
For rooted devices, there is a work-around to this limitation.  Xposed framework allows various modules to override many stock firmware options without using 3rd-party ROMs.  It should also work on custom ROMs, but that isn't "officially" supported by the framework's developer.  You will need the Pictures2SD module, which makes all media from various camera apps (including Google Camera) to be automatically saved to the DCIM folder of the SD Card.
Xposed Installer app is not directly available via the Google Play Store, so after rooting your S4 (looks like you are already rooted, since you're running a custom ROM), you will need to allow side-loading of applications via Settings -> Security -> Unknown sources, download and install the APK from here, and activate it according to these instructions:

Installation of the framework:

Download the Xposed Installer APK and install it
Launch the Xposed Installer, go to the "Framework" section and click on "Install/Update"
Reboot
Done!

After that, the installation of modules is pretty straight-forward:

Installation of any modules:

Download .apk (e.g. via the
  builtin repository browser) and install it
Launch the Xposed Installer
  and go to the "Modules" section (you will also get there if you click
  on the notification warning you that the module is not enabled yet)
Enable the module by checking the checkbox
Reboot
Done!

Install a file manager like ES File Explorer and manually move the captured images to a directory on your SD card. Only way around this ridiculous restriction I believe. You would have to do this each time you use the camera obviously.

Here is my workaround (I'm not sure if it works on Samsung devices).
On my Moto G with Kitkit 4.4.4, I go to Settings > Storage > Move Media > Pictures.
...and voila. Google's Camera takes better pictures so I don't mind moving them every once in a while over to my SD.

Saving pictures to any 3rd party app is forbidden. It leads to a CTS fail even if a ROM builder provides an app with it. Therefore, I don't think Google Camera app has that function. You should change /system/etc/permissions/platform.xml by adding:
group gid="media_rw"

under
permission name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"

After that, find an app with the function of saving to the external SD card.


text:
Where is user/group id info stored on Android and how do I interpret it?
I have been wondering for quite some time now; where does Android store it's user and group id information?
For instance, on standard Linux, user and group information is stored in /etc/passwd and /etc/group, respectively. When you add a user to a group, his or her username/uid gets added to the list of users in that group, for instance the my audio group entry in /etc/group looks like this:
audio:x:29:pulse,edge-case

Where pulse gets mapped to the uid of the pulseaudio daemon and edge-case gets mapped to my uid (1000), on my Linux box.
As I understand it, each app that gets installed on Android gets it's own uid and gid and this is the bases of the "sandboxing" of apps that occurs on Android as they all run in their own process and can't access data of another process or files owned by another app unless there are declaration in a Manifest file created by app programmers which dictates what info is to be shared to other apps and what not. This is also how apps gain or rather request access to networking services during installation by requesting to be added to the INTERNET group or something like that, don't quote me on the name of the NET net group, it might be more like INET or INET6, either way I know there are several levels of network access that can be granted to an application through this mechanism on Android.
My question is, where is this information stored in Android?
Further more, is it possible to modify?
I would like to integrate a glibc stack with it and the data within it in my /etc/{passwd,group} files, trust me, they exist on my phone, I even have apt installed with a lot of other goodies.
Update:
Have been doing more searches and
This might be what I am looking for.
I will need to dig a bit deeper and make sure it is everything I am looking for.
Update: (5:40 June 27 2014)
Since someone thinks I don't know what I am doing or talking about, let me clarify;
User UIDs on Android are offset with 100000 and App UIDs are offset with 10000 when mapped to the user number _ app number, hence when a ps shows something like u0_a10 which means that User with UID 100000 is running app with UID 10010,
I have pulled UID and user/daemon names from system/core/include/private/android_filesystem_config.h and used those to update my /etc/passwd and /etc/group files (On my Android box), for example my /etc/passwd file (on my Android box) looks like this :
....
brainard:x:100002:100002:Professor Brainard,0420,,:/home/brainard
:/bin/bash
radio:x:1001:1001::/data/radio:/bin/false
bluetooth:x:1002:1002::/data/bluetooth:/bin/false
graphics:x:1003:1003::/home/graphics:/bin/false
input:x:1004:1004::/home/input:/bin/false
camera:x:1006:1006::/home/camera:/bin/false
log:x:1007:1007::/home/log:/bin/false
compass:x:1008:1008::/home/compass:/bin/false
mount:x:1009:1009::/home/mount:/bin/false
wifi:x:1010:1010::/home/wifi:/bin/false
adb:x:1011:1011::/home/adb:/bin/false
install:x:1012:1012::/home/install:/bin/false
media:x:1013:1013::/home/media:/bin/false
dhcp:x:1014:1014::/home/dhcp:/bin/false
....

I have set up configuration in /etc/adduser.conf to create new users like so ( On my Android box) :
# FIRST_[GU]ID to LAST_[GU]ID inclusive is the range of UIDs of dynamically
# allocated user accounts/groups.
FIRST_UID=100001
LAST_UID=199999

FIRST_GID=100001
LAST_GID=199999

This is in accordance with Android's policy, I let "glibc based" system users still be created from range 100-999 I believe and I modified the audio user on my /etc/passwd and /etc/group files to be of 1005, like it is on Android.
I need to update Android and synchronize it with info regarding my User UIDs as well as with my Daemon or system user UIDs from the glibc stack.
You can read more about this in the book "Embedded Android" by Karim Yaghmour
Sold here
My goal is to get programs like nvlc to work but I need to get UIDs and GIDs synchronized so that Android is aware of my users and the groups they belong to so that for instance, my brainard user with have access to the audio devices.
Also I need to inform Android about Postres and it's membership in the network group so that it can open sockets and allow access to databases. I have disabled PARANOID_NETWORKING in the kernel for the time being, but this hack only serves to make Android as Secure as vanilla Linux, no less. It would be nice to keep the paranoid setting and apply the group permissions to what daemons/users I see fit.
This would make Android a great operating system for public facing servers with such paranoid and fine tuned controls. Imagine having access to Kerberos, LDAP, PAM, or When using you phone as WAP having Radius configured, all of which are available from Debian and other distribution repos free of charge.
I have got this all figured out, I just need to know how to update Android's UID/GID database, which does get updated every time you install an app, so I know it is possible.
Update : (7:08pm June 30, 2014)
After going over the data in the following files ...
/data/system/packages.list
/data/system/packages.xml
/data/system/user/userlist.xml
/data/system/user/0.xml

... I have updated my question to include "how do I interpret it?"

I think I am going to need to create a custom PAM module and blend Bionic and Glibc into a single C library, they need to compatible with applications on both sides, no exceptions, expect C++ exceptions that is ;p--- I have written a couple rules of thumb-2 :) for myself to follow. I might also need to write a wrapper to popular package management systems like rpm and apt that fakes an apk installation and gives each new deb|rpm package a UID and maybe just sym-link everything into the FHS. That might be the most ideal solution I could go for, though the most work, as each would need a set of permissions in their "manifest", maybe a menu during install an the user can give and take as needs be.
Does anyone have a good reference that explains the syntax of these files? I am not very well versed with XML, not to mention it's use usually depends on the application that interprets it.
I do understand the packages.list file with the exception of the null entry in the last column, can anyone explain that?

Possible duplicate of Where are UID for each application stored?

Here my thoughts on how Android implements UID/GID lookup. I hope it will be helpful to anyone who is having the questions.
grp_pwd.cpp describes how Android translate a UID/username to a passwd structure. From the getpwuid function we can see that

The UID is first compared to the predefined AIDs from generated_android_ids.h under $(AOSP_ROOT)/out/soong/.intermediates/bionic/libc/generated_android_ids/gen which is generated from android_filesystem_config.h according to bionic/libc/Android.bp and bionic/Android.bp. The AIDs are stored in a username to UID map in struct android_id_info android_ids[] and when looked up, they are converted to the passwd structure with uid and gid set to AID, home directory set to / and shell set to /system/bin/sh (code).
If no user is found in the previous step, the function will look for OEM defined users. The UIDs of these users range from AID_OEM_RESERVED_START to AID_OEM_RESERVED_END and AID_OEM_RESERVED_2_START to AID_OEM_RESERVED_2_END. The vendor-defined users are stored in /vendor/etc/passwd. User names are set to oem_${uid} and the other attributes are set in the same fashion as the AID users.
Finally, it will check all app users in app_id_to_passwd() and the process is very similar.

If you wish to get all passwd entries, please take a look at getpwent() in the same file and also the manpage of getpwent(3)

Seen the GET_ACCOUNTS permission? (Ed. Note: That particular feature might not be every useful for this question, either, as it is apparently a feature developed moreso for web authentication.)
Personally, I'm reading about the topic as with regards to UID/GID values computed at time of APK install – presently, as research for a simple 'blog article -- but I would like to study this topic a little further, too. Referring to the reference documentation about these multiply-linked OS features, in Android, it seems there is an Account Service in the Android OS. (Ed. Note It may seem, furthermore, that the Account Service in Android may be more a service developed for application about an Android user's web accounts)
Though personally I'm preoccupied about writing another article, immediately, but certainly the Account Service may bear some further study. Perhaps it may be relevant, orthogonally, as with regards to applying Kerberos on Android appliances. There is some of an existing work, with regards to implementing Kerberos services on the Android platform. For web apps, of course there's OAuth/OAuth2.
Evidently, Android does not use conventional UNIX passwd/shadow files(Anderson2013). My best estimate, presently, is that the Android OS Account Service may be a topic to a manner of a further study ... at least, so far as to discover that the Android Account Service may be rather a web authentication utility(API: AccountManager).
I'm sure there's something more about Android's alternative to /etc/passwd, somewhere in the Android source code. Hopefully, it's close to however the same thing might be approached in CyanogenMod.

First of all as you are aware of that the every Application has its own unique PID(Process ID) this PID is assigned to the application by the kernel of the Operating System.

In Android ADT you can off course view the PID in the logcat .
If you want to view the PID in your device then you need to install
an Application from the play store(can't give any guarantee whether
the PID displayed by the app is genuine or not)
Coming to the modification part is a big  No.
No you cannot modify the PID as your wish as it will lead to
security concerns as well as ambiguity between the apps for another
app may have the same PID thereby resulting to Conflict.

This has nothing to do with PID, which is variable with the exception of init which is always PID 1 because it is the first process to be created, this has more to do with making Android aware of UID's from my glibc stack (and vice versa), such as the Postgres daemon, and no, it's not a security concern, making the Bionic stack aware of these extra UIDs and GIDs I have on my system would increase security. How could making Android Kerberos, LDAP, and PAM aware be a security flaw?! It would be awsome!

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


text:
How to enable the Native Library in OsmAnd?
In a 2012 thread about a case of OsmAnd being slow at rendering, one person advises this:

verify that you use Native Library (which definitely speed up rendering process)

And the replies seems to imply it works:

I selected the Native Library and deleted Ind.cache file. It has nearly doubled the rendering speed of my map.

I have the same problem of slow rendering, but I can't find the Native Library setting.
QUESTION: How to enable the Native Library in recent OsmAnd?
I am using OsmAnd~ 1.8.3 from F-Droid:

To activate native rendering go into Settings/OsmAnd development/Use native rendering (Use C++ rendering instead of Java)
Edit: I've added a screenshot from OsmAnd+ 1.9.2g

I don't seem to have this option, see screenshot.

Which version of OsmAnd are you using?

OsmAnd~ 1.8.3 from F-Droid

Installing 1.9.2g revealed that option.

OsmAnd 2.4.7 doesn't have "OsmAnd development" under Settings, but Settings / General / Safe mode (Java rather than native code) is off by default.  Rendering is still slower than other OSM-based apps though.
Edit: the OpenGL flag on this version is under Plugins / OsmAnd Development / Settings / Use OpenGL Rendering.  Still doesn't seem to help much though (on Sony Xperia Z Ultra running Android 4.4)

authors: แรมม'โบ้ พิ'ฆาตต ชายฝั่่ง


text:
My Android JellyBean Lenovo A600e stuck repeatedly reboots when on
My phone misbehaved last evening and went on to show that my internal sd card is faulty. It gave me the option to format, which I did.
After that I realised that some apps are in my internal sd card. Now I believe that some of those apps getting removed due to formatting is the reason why the phone is crippled. Now I can't see which apps/components are missing, for, by the time I open any app, the phone reboots. However the reason can be anything, I am not sure. I even tried removing and re-inserting the sd card. Please help.
P.S.: I have now switched my phone off so that the battery doesn't get drained and I can debug the phone.

If an app misses parts that were on SDCard before, this might cause the app to crash – but shouldn't cause the device to reboot. Things you could try: Boot into safe-mode. Here no user apps should be executed. In there, go to Settings→Apps, chose the "Downloaded" tab, and walk through the list to see what was moved to SDCard. Re-Install those apps. When in doubt, re-install them all. Boot to recovery, and chose to "wipe cache". Report back whether this helped.

Well, it leaves hardly 10-15 seconds between successive reboots, which doesn't even allow me to try what you said :-(

It does so even in safe mode, and even after you wiped cache? That probably leaves you with a factory-reset as the only option.


text:
Transfer WhatsApp chat history to new device
I've got a new phone (Samsung) and want to transfer my WhatsApp chat history from my old device to it. Is this possible, and how to do it? I have a WhatsApp backup file for that date.

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/52684/fail-in-restoring-whatsapp-chats?rq=1 this may help

For troubleshooting: WhatsApp doesn't prompt to restore from local storage

Go to WhatsApp > Settings > Chat's and Calls > Back up chats
Connect your old phone to a computer
Go into the device's internal storage and search for the folder WhatsApp
Copy it to your computer and plug in your new phone.
Open internal storage and copy the folder WhatsApp to your internal storage.
Install WhatsApp on your new phone (if already done, clear data of WhatsApp), set it up and you'll be asked if you wan to restore the backup.
Click yes and enjoy.

Doesn't always work: What to do if e.g. WA comes pre-installed on the new device? I've had such a case, and even after clearing data it didn't find/recognize its own backups (though it made new backups into exactly the same directory). So on that device, we proceeded up to step 5 and half of step 6 – but were only asked for the phone number to verify, and got no chance for step 7 to enjoy :(

As referred in the WhatsApp FAQ:

You can transfer chats from one Android phone to another. To do so, please follow these steps:

To start, make a backup of your most recent chats.

Go to WhatsApp → Menu Button → Settings → Chat settings → Back up chats.

Next, transfer this backup to your new Android phone.

If your phone has an external microSD card, take the microSD card out of your old phone, and pop it into your new one.
For phones that have an internal memory / internal SD card (like most Samsung devices), you will need to transfer the /sdcard/WhatsApp/ folder from your old phone to the same folder of your new phone. There are a couple of ways you can do this. You can use a file explorer or even transfer the backup files to your computer.
Please note that it is possible to be missing some files during the transfer. Please double check to make sure all the files you wish to transfer over to your new phone are included in the backup.
If you are unsure about what kind of SD card you have, we recommend checking your phone's specifications on your phone manufacturer’s website.

Once you have safely transferred your backup, you can install WhatsApp on your new Android phone.
During the installation process, WhatsApp will automatically find your backup and ask you if you would like to restore it. Once restored, your old chats will appear on your new phone.

Unfortunately this only works if you haven't already transferred service over to your new phone. If you transfer service, WhatsApp will lock itself on your old phone, and the menu will not have any options except 'Contact Support'. Are there instructions that work when the new phone has already been activated?

Go to settings, chat settings and choose backup conversations.
Now go to your phone storage (internal SD card) via file manager, go to the file named Whatsapp, go to the databases folder (i.e. /sdcard/Whatsapp/Databases). Choose the one without any date in its file name. It is the latest one. Transfer that file to the same location in your new device after installing Whatsapp. Now when you open Whatsapp for the first time in your new device, it will prompt you to restore the chats. This does not need the phone to be rooted :) Good luck :)

I've edited your post for clarification. Still: I was just brought the old and new phone of someone "on the move", did exactly that (the WA FAQ says the same) – but WA didn't find/recognize it (though it placed its new backups exactly there).

Just copy your WhatsApp folder from your device to your new device, install WhatsApp and it will automatically tell you that he found a backup as long as you use the same SIM card.
You don't even need to activate it again because the backups are registered to your inserted SIM number.
Just make sure you place it in the root folder of your new device.
For some reason other answers although correct look very complicated.

My experience was different: New phone, same SIM, same number. Had to activate it again (verifying the phone number via SMS), didn't accept the backups to import (didn't find them at all, but placed its new ones into the same location later). Lousy implementation of backup/restore.

Backup chat history via your gmail account. then restore chat history in your new device
Go to backup
WhatsApp → Menu Button
→ Settings
→ Chat settings
→ Back up chats via gmail account.
login new device
restore chat history via gmail account

WhatsApp now allows backup/restore via Google Drive. This is by far the easiest method for moving to a new phone. The WhatsApp FAQ page is pretty straightforward, but here's the bit that you'll need:
Backup on Old Phone

Open WhatsApp.
Go to Menu Button > Settings > Chats > Chat backup.
Tap Back up to Google Drive and set up the backup frequency to your
liking.
You will be prompted to select a Google account that you will back
up your chat history to. If you do not have a Google account, tap
Add account when prompted. Please remember the Google account you
are using for the backup.
Tap Back up over to choose the network you wish to use for backup.
Please note that backing up over cellular may result in additional
data charges.

Restore on New Phone

Make sure the same Google account that was used to perform the
backup has been added to your phone.
Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.
After verifying your number, you will be prompted to restore your
messages and media from Google Drive.
After the restoration process is complete, tap Next and your chats
will be displayed once initialization is complete.
After restoring your chats, WhatsApp will begin restoring your media
files.

You can try the following

FileDrop
If you're looking for an app that keeps things simple, then I tink you're going to like FileDrop. It's a free app you can install from Google Play and is very easy to use.
When you first install the app, you'll see that it's divided into two sections. The top part will ask you to sign into your Dropbox account, and the bottom part will show you all the files you have on your Android device.
Don't worry if you didn't previously create a folder since you can create one directly from the app. Just tap on the drive icon on the top left and tap on Create Directory. If you want to rename a folder that's where your WhatsApp content will go, you can do that too.
How to Backup Your WhatsApp Files to Dropbox
The option you need to tap on is ¨As Sync Directory¨. Now, tap on the folder you want the WhatsApp backup to go to. Switch to the bottom section of the app and scroll until you see the WhatsApp folder. Tap on it and then select what you want to backup. I chose Media.
Then tap on the SD card icon and select As Sync Directory. Once you've done that tap on the cloud and sun icon to the right of your display. Tap on the Turn On Sync Feature and then enable Use Sync. After that, it should automatically start backing up your WhatsApp content.
If you want the app to automatically backup your WhatsApp content, tap on the Turn On Sync > Sync Policy > Enable Auto Sync.

Source: How to Backup WhatsApp

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


text:
URL Not Found Error in SDK Manager
As of lately i have not being able to update / install SDKs from Android SDK Manager.
I get the following errors:
Preparing to install archives
Downloading Android SDK Platform-tools, revision 20
URL not found: C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-studio\sdk\temp\platform-tools_r20-windows.zip (Access is denied)
Downloading Android SDK Build-tools, revision 19.1
URL not found: C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-studio\sdk\temp\build-tools_r19.1-windows.zip (Access is denied)
Downloading Google APIs (x86 System Image), Android API 19, revision 5
URL not found: C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-studio\sdk\temp\google_apis_x86-19_r05.zip (Access is denied)
Downloading Glass Development Kit Preview, Android API 19, revision 8
URL not found: C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-studio\sdk\temp\google-gdk.zip (Access is denied)
Skipping 'Android SDK Tools, revision 23'; it depends on 'Android SDK Platform-tools, revision 20' which was not installed.
Done. Nothing was installed.

I have given full right permissions on the directory that the SDK manager is installed as well as the temp directory

This might help, make sure that the temp folder exists in physical form. I had an issue of not able to generate temp folder.

temp folder is there.

What OS are you running? If it's Windows make sure to Run as Administrator.

To the close-voters: In my opinion this is on topic, since the emulator images are also updated via the SDK Manager, and questions about the emulator are on topic.

Once I ran as Admin it worked out. But until recently I ran this without doing run as admin. Thanks for the answer. Perhaps if you put it donw as an answer I can accept it.

While android-studio was already running I tried to run "android.bat" at below location by right clicking and choosing run as administrator which ran SDK manager and download worked for me.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-studio\sdk\tools\android.bat

Running "C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\tools\android.bat" as administrator on Win 10 worked for me. Thanks!

Just want to say that it is May 2016 now, and this worked for me! I installed Visual Studio and Xamarin, then created a Xamarin.Forms app with no issues. But when I tried to create an Xamarin.Android app in Visual Studio, it asked me to update the SDK. I also installed Android Studio and the latest Java SDK, but my project still asked for a newer SDK and the above was failing. Finally found this thread and ran the .bat file as an admin. Instant success! (Well, I had to close the Windows Explorer since it had a lock on the folder location, and was blocking one of the steps)


text:
How can I install MySQL on my Android device(s)?
There are good and bad choices available for the design of my system and MySQL seems to be the best available.  I need it to run client/server and support stored procedures & triggers and a host of other features.  But I also need a database that will run single-user on mobile devices when off-line, then synchronize with the on-line server when reconnected to the Internet.  The only database provided with Android is SQLite - which doesn't even come close to providing the features required.  Also, installing MySQL on Android devices would mean that I wouldn't have to support any incompatibilities between two different databases.  I do not need other features installed (HTML server, PHP, etc)... just MySQL.  How can I get that installed (and with my apps(s)) and have it work easily and efficiently (and not have to root or install a new ROM on the device)?

This answer should answer you: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/61056/install-mysql-or-any-other-lite-weight-database/173658#173658

A search for "mysql" on the stores can answer this: there are several packages available, usually together with a web server and PHP. Best candidates are probably AndroPHP and Palapa.
My list of web servers with scripting support also have some of them (e.g. the two I mentioned), together with links to reviews, video demos, etc – which might make your decision easier.

This is a Free and very lite Mysql Server for Android that

support all cpus (armv6, armv7, armv8/aarch64, and x86).
no root needed
support Innodb

What is your connection to this product? You seem to have responded similarly to recommend this product multiple times today.

yes, I recommended it TWO times for different questions which haven't set as duplicated. I would like to give only a link to my first answer, but it will only show as a comment that people may miss.


text:
Pendivre USB OTG on Nexus4?
Does Nexus4 supports a use a USB pendrive (up to 64Gb)?
If yes, with the USB OTG is I can navigate in the folders of the pendrive from the smartphone?
Is it possible to copy file from pendrive to N4 and from N4 to pendrive?

Nexus 4 does not officially support USB OTG. But rooting and modding the software can do the trick. Here's a handy guide I found!

The Nexus 4 doesn't officialy support USB OTG. It is possible with a custom kernel. But for this you need to unlock your bootloader.


text:
Can I use a Pebble with CyanogenMod
I can't seem to find an answer to this question using my favourite search engine.
Is it possible to use a Pebble watch with an Android phone running CyanogenMod, assuming that it is possible to install the Pebble App via an APK file?
I'm wondering whether anyone has got this working, or knows that it definitely won't work because CyanogenMod does not include 'features' which are in the normal Android operating system it's expecting to be there.
I can provide more information about which specific phone and CM version if this is necessary to answer the question.

The answer to this question will likely vary from device to device because CyanogenMod focuses their efforts on popular devices, and older phones don't get as much love and attention.
From my research, success with the Pebble also then varies per device (source 1, 2, 3). Some people have had success and never encounter a single issue. Others have connectivity issues (not connecting, connection drops, etc.) or battery draining problems.
Suggested solutions are:

Flash a different Kernel
Try any other aftermarket Android project (AOKP, PacMan, SlimRoms, Paranoid)

Conclusion: You will probably need to flash the ROM(s) and test it yourself. ALWAYS BACKUP FIRST. Copy that backup to an external device, just in case. It more than likely that it will work without any hiccups. If for whatever reason you're not satisfied, then you can always restore to your backup.
Sidenote: your statement that "CyanogenMod does not include 'features' which are in the normal Android operating system" is incorrect. From CyanogenMod's About page:

Based on the Android Open Source Project, CyanogenMod is designed to increase performance and reliability over Android-based ROMs released by vendors and carriers such as Google, T-Mobile, HTC, etc.

They use the same Android source code as any other vendor, except that they actually improve and enhance the Android user experience. They do not remove standard features and services. I think of CM as what Android should be, but thats debatable.

Late response: You won't even need the official Pebble app for that. I successfully initialized my Pebble Time Steel using the FOSS Gadgetbridge app1 (CM11 here). This way you won't even need to create an account. Only drawback of this solution: access to the Pebble app store isn't implemented in the app (at least currently not). But if you downloaded .pbw/.pbz files, you can install and manage them with this app. Even firmware updates are possible.
TL;DR: Yes, you can use a Pebble watch with CyanogenMod :)
PS: Related: Smartwatch compatibility

1: also available at F-Droid

PS: It's running fine with CM12.1 as well (same device was updated a while ago). And Gadgetbridge evolves :) More details in my article on Smartwatches and privacy – contradiction in terms?


text:
Google TV vs Android TV vs Chromecast
Can someone write or link to a clear comparison of all of Google's TV products?
I have the original Logitech Revue, I have a Chromecast dongle, and now there is Android TV.
What are the use-cases of each? Why 3?

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/389464/whats-new-in-android-tv-and-chromecast http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-chromecast-vs-android-tv-stick-which-should-you-buy/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/09/15/weekend-poll-chromecast-or-google-tv/ first 3 Google results. One is made by logitech so it's just a different product, the other 2 are explained in the links there. Can't write a proper answer, I'm on my phone.

Google TV is an old set-top box (STB) product line, conceived as a competitor with Apple TV, using Intel-based hardware and initially without access to Google Play. After a rushed launch and a series of bad product reviews, Google TV had been pretty much abandoned as a product line, and is now replaced by Android TV.
In addition, other manufacturers have brought out some Android-based STBs which are just normal Android devices in a different form factor. These support normal Android apps but have often been a bit awkward to use because each manufacturer has their own big-screen user interface, and because many apps don't work well without a touch screen.
Android TV is basically a new version of Android for STBs and smart TVs. It adds features to Android to provide more commonality between different TV products, and to make it easier for app authors to support this form factor. Like the earlier Android STBs, it's a stand-alone device (it could be the only Android device you own) providing a full Android experience controlled directly through the TV interface (e.g. with a D-pad on a remote). You can use it to read and write email on the TV screen, to play games, to watch videos from YouTube, &c.
In contrast, Chromecast is an entirely passive device. Chromecast is just a cable for plugging your Android device (or another computer with Google Chrome) into your TV's display, but as it's a wireless device there's no physical cable. Even so, it's only useful for using your TV as the display for another device. You can't control it with your TV, only with the device that's connected to the Chromecast. With Chromecast, anything you can do on your phone is visible on the TV screen, so you can use it to watch videos from YouTube or to see a game on the big screen (useful in combination with a wireless game controller), but there's no TV-based user interface.

So you would basically remove GoogleTV from the comparison. What you are saying is that AndroidTV is the successor to GoogleTV. You wrote "pretty much abandoned", I wonder what the official word is...


text:
Is it possible to share GSM or 3G or 2G connection?
As I know that Android phones can share WiFi by using tethering. So, may I know if it is possible to even share my phone GSM/3G/2G connection? (of course without applying another SIM card for another phone.)
Suppose there are two friends - Jack and Jill. Jack has an Android 4.2 phone while Jill has an Android 2.3 phone. Jack has a SIM card inserted into his Android phone, but Jill is currently thinking of signing a mobile plan and so her Android phone does not have a SIM card.
What happened was that Jill need to make a call to one of her relatives due to whatever reason. However, Jill does not have a mobile plan yet. The problem arrives when Jack also needs to make a phone call.
So, is it possible for Jack to tether his "mobile plan" to Jill, who does not have any mobile plan or SIM card? This means that both Jack and Jill can make calls using a single SIM card but with two different Android devices.

Looking at the existing answers, I think the question was misinterpreted as sharing "mobile data" instead of "mobile plan/GSM connection".

Yes, you can share your mobile data connection (3G and 2G) using your phone hotspot.
In Settings --> More --> Tethering and Portable Hotspot --> Portable Wi-Fi hotspot
You can set your SSID, Security, and Password in Set up WiFi hotspot.
Now on another Android device, you can connect to this WiFi hotspot.

Of course in Wi-Fi hotspot that's what you do. Quite obvious as the other person is already having a SIM then why would you want a new SIM to make it complicated

You are indirectly sharing your 2G/3G (should be 3G Compatible and
the service should be available in your area)/4G (In some countries)
through the Wi-Fi hotspot.
In Wi-Fi hotspot first your switch On your mobile data then your Wi-Fi
after which under your Wi-Fi settings u may have an option for Wi-Fi
Hotspot.
Using this your device will search for the available Wi-Fi networks
and will notify you for the available Wi-Fi nearby.
When you enter some code (for secure reasons you may not want to share Wi-Fi with all the people around you so the phone asks for a pass code) the other person should also enter the same code for receiving the data.

After which you and your other person can have data connection on both phones.
Note: Not all the devices support Wi-Fi hotspot. Please refer you handset manual if the option is available or not.