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Difference in GPS hardware
I'm currently coding a gps location application, and I have found out, that there is huge difference between hardware and units.
Having tried on the Wildfire S, Galaxy S2, GalaxyTab 10,1, and others, I find that the GPS position update frequency seems to vary from about half a second to half a minute (after getting the initial fix, and having free sight up). The Wildfire S performing worst, and the tablet performing best.
Does there exist a table somewhere that compares the GPS hardware/chipset and CPU, with possible times?
I would be grateful to hear about your experiences.

It is actually not the hardware at all.
There is a special file in the android system called gps.conf. This file specifies the GPS servers that the device will use. Each manufacturer wants to use their own special GPS servers instead of the main ones from Google (some have different values for different devices). This means that different devices connect to different servers for the same goal: GPS tracking.
This means 2 things for lockon time:

The speed and hardware of the GPS servers the manufacturer has specified will determine the lockon time.
The amount of traffic going to those servers will also significantly affect lockon time.

This is why many Samsung phones have notoriously slow GPS lockon times. Additionally, some manufacturers specify gps servers that arent even on the same continent (they specify one set of general servers for everybody). This means that if the servers are in europe, the lockon times will be better for people in europe due to low latency and the people in the US wont be so lucky.
The fix for this is simple (editing the file and replacing them with more region specific gps servers) but this requires root access.

Alright, interesting - absolutly not interested in telling my costumers to root their devices. I am in nothern europe, and I seem to have a better experience with the Samsung devices than the HTC devices. I am very interested in a chart/table, covering devices and the GPS services the device uses. Do you know of any?

sorry. I dont know of any such chart. You shouldn't worry too much about it though. If the problem is with GPS lock on times and not with your application, then they will see the same problem in other GPS enabled applications like Google Maps. The responsibility for correcting this is not you but the manufacturers :P


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Is there any software for Tablets to edit PDF or PS -files?
I am using Samsung galaxy tab 8.9.
Assume you read your lecture materials with your tablet.
You see a mistake. You would like to fix it.
You are using Adobe reader tablet version.
Is there any software by which you can simply add text on PDF or PS -files?

I don't think so, changing the content of a PDF is not trivial. But you can make annotations: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/14164/how-can-i-write-in-a-pdf-with-a-tablet-and-a-pen-a-k-a-is-there-a-xournal-alte

@Flow I agree with you. Therefore, I included PS -filetype in the question too. Has anyone managed to change PS -files with tablets. I have an intuition that PS -files are open source, therefore probably easier to edit and change.

You could give Qoppa PDF Notes a try:

The best app for editing, annotating, filling forms, and signing PDF documents.
qPDF Notes is a user-friendly, all-in-one PDF app to view, edit, and markup PDF documents, digitally sign and share them, and fill PDF forms. Saved documents are fully compatible with Adobe Acrobat and the PDF standard, and can be viewed in any capable PDF reader.

The link leads to the demo (which places a watermark on all your edits); a full version is available for about EUR 4.
If you just want to annotate, there are plenty of apps available capable of that.
P.S.: And it sure is "The best app for editing PDF documents" at the moment -- I could find no other, so it's also the only AFAIK :)

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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After Uninstalling Google Voice, I cannot receive phone calls, busy signal
I had Google Voice installed, but it was a very obtrusive and annoying application. For example it one day starts stealing text messages and requires me to press a 1 to receive the call, neither of these "features" can be disabled in the Google Voice settings on the phone.
Since the only feature I ever used with GV was voicemail transcription, the cons overweighed the pros, and I figured it's time to uninstall.
I uninstalled the app, went to the google voice webpage, and disabled google voice there. Now, I am unable to receive phone calls. The caller is greeted with a busy signal.
Settings > Call > Voicemail Service = My Carrier

The google voice number was set to my actual phone number.

Setting "voicemail service" to your carrier probably isn't what you need - you'd most likely want to look to see if there are any settings related to outgoing/incoming calls somewhere. Tangent: it sounds like both of the things that bothered you actually can be disabled (turn of text notifications for the first, disable call screening via google.com/voice for the second).

I was able to resolve the issue by calling Sprint and having them fix it on their end. Looks like GV doesn't properly give the phone number back when you remove the service from your phone on their website and dial *38.

To auto answer your calls:

Go to google.com/voice
then click on the settings button
then go to the tab called "Calls"
Change the call screening setting to "off"
then "save changes"

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


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Galaxy S screen glowing in locked state as if some one tried to unlock it, even with out touching it
My mobile is working fine till yesterday, but suddenly I observed that when I lock it and keep  it aside, I can see that the screen is glowing as if some one tried to unlock it. This is happening quite often. Can some one please explain me what is the problem and the solution for that pbm.

Is it glowing with the screen being black or is the screen actually on and showing the lockscreen?

This looks like it's a LCD model and the backlight stays on with the LCD showing black (or being unpowered). This is most probably a bug with the firmware, so look for an official update or install an aftermarket firmware like cyanogenmod

Go to Settings, Wireless networks, WiFi settings then uncheck NOTIFY ME FOR OPEN NETWORKS.  This solved the problem for me :)


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Apps missing after upgrading sd card
I have been searching for how to properly upgrade to new sdcard, and I did as this posts suggests. How to upgrade / swap SD card without losing data and installed apps?.
But when inserting the new sd card several apps (not all) are missing. I had about 80 apps installed, could that explain why I am having this problem, while no other seem to have it?
Could it be, that there are two partitions on the original sd card, one being used for apps when internal memory is full; and I have then only copied the part not in the 'simple' partition?
Using Gingerbread (2.3.3).

What's your device?  Which Android OS version is it running?  Are the missing apps the ones that were moved to SD Card?

Your SD card would have only one partition unless you or someone else rooted your phone, installed simple2ext or similar, and partitioned your card.  It might be secured apps (encrypted while on the SD card) that are missing; I'm not sure if they can be migrated.

I found out that all the apps missing have an .asec file in the .android_secure folder on the sd card, however the .android_secure folder itself is there.
On Linux I wrote:
cp sdbackup/* /media/disk -r

It copies all folders, and their content, recursively. Except for the hidden folders in sdbackup, e.g.:
sdbackup/.android_secure
sdbackup/.doubleTwist

Hidden folders in the hierarchy are copied however.
So now I managed by subsequently copying each hidden folder:
cp sdbackup/* /media/disk -r
cp sdbackup/.android_secure* /media/disk -r
cp sdbackup/.astro* /media/disk -r
etc

And now everything is fine.

That's because you are using linux wrongly. First, * gets expanded by the shell, but since * does not include hidden files or directories (dot files), the .android_secure is not included. And since you use cp on /path/to/, ie, every non-star file the shell finds inside "/path/to/", the folder is not included. The correct command is cp -r sdbackup /media/disk. This makes cp copy recursively, from the starting point of "/path/to". Notice the lack of a trailing forward slash. sdbackup/ is the inside of sdbackup. sdbackup/ is not everything in sdbackup.

My solution, using Windows, was to format the new card with the same file system (FAT32) and allocation unit size (in this case, 4k).
To determine allocation unit size on Windows, go to the command prompt, go to the drive letter that the new meida card is on, and type CHKDSK. Allocation unit size will be displayed near the bottom of the results.
To format, in Windows Explorer right click on the drive letter of the new card and then click on Format. It should be obvious from there. The quick format option worked for me.
As for copying files, I had no problem with hidden files. Straight copy worked for me.


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How to merge multiple contacts of same person?
An Android newbie here --- I've recently got my first Android phone (HTC Desire S) and I'm trying to clean up a mess of my contacts from a SIM card (three of them, in fact). For example, a certain Edward Bloggs might have several entries:

Edward Bloggs @london, mob

Eddie B @london, home [it's his nickname, we all call him Eddie B]

Eddie @hawaii [he's got a vacation home in there, and... er... who likes paying roaming charges anyway]

All these are in the 'first name' field or split randomly by the phone into the first, middle, and last names.

There are, of course, Google entries from me sending emails to both his work and personal emails.

Now, the question is --- is there a way to merge these contacts? Preferably something where one could select which ones to merge. Anything short of exporting all contacts onto a PC and manually editing the VCF files would be great.

One thing you can do is open the Contacts application, press the menu button, and go to "Import/Export". From there, you import from your SIM card and import them to your Google account. Once you have imported all the contacts, open the Google Contacts manager and click on "More", then select "Find & Merge Duplicates".

You may have to go through and edit some manually if they have really different names. But then you can merge again if needed.

Thanks! Nevertheless, is there a standalone tool? A separate question is if there is any sort of heuristics: the HTC Contacts application does not seem to recognize E.S.Bloggs@domain.com and e.s.bloggs@domain.com to be a prime candidate for merging.

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


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Stylish for Android?
I've occasionally used Stylish to improve usability of websites on the PC. Is there an equivalent for Android - either plugin to FireFox, the default browser (mine is a Galaxy Note), or other. Basically, there are some sites that don't have mobile-specific stylesheets that I'd love to improve with a bit of CSS...

Stylish 1.3b1 adds support for Firefox Mobile.

According to Mobyware there's a Stylish-Custom Addon available for the mobile Firefox. The page also mentions you need the Stylish Addon itself to make it work -- however, I could not find that. The compatibility list starts with Android 2.0 and goes up through the version to 4.0 (ICS), a list of compatible devices is available as well.
Moreover, some discussions on userstyles.org seem to mention some availability for Android, you might want to check them out.
Not sure if it works, I didn't try myself as I do not use the mobile Firefox -- but you might give it a try.

Thanks for the pointer. It gets a rating of 1.5 stars out of 5 - wonder what it did to deserve that?

No idea. As I wrote, I do not use the mobile FF - but I make extensive use of Stylish on my desktop. I just thought the little information I found could prove more useful to you than no answer at all -- especially as there was none for months...

There is Stylish add-on for the Dolphin Browser.


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Is there any way to edit ODT documents on Android?
I need to edit my OpenOffice documents.
Is there any version of LibreOffice for Android?
Or
Is there any ODT texteditor app for Android?

You may wish to check Is there any highlighting or annotating software for ODT -format: LibreOffice or OpenOffice? for reference. Short answer: No, currently there's not -- but yes, something is coming (hopefully soon).

There is AndrOpen Office

AndrOpen Office is the world's first port of OpenOffice for Android.
You can view, edit, export office documents using full features of the OpenOffice.
AndrOpen Office has 6 components:

Writer (a word processor)
Calc (spreadsheet)
Impress (presentation graphics)
Draw (drawing)
Math (equation editor)
Base (database)

* AndrOpen Office is forked project from the Apache OpenOffice project.
AndrOpen Office is not affiliated with the Apache OpenOffice project.

I didn't vote down but consider this solution as a very both inconvenient and user unfriendly one.

It is, initially, a very poor UX, as it's a desktop application with a desktop interface on a mobile device. As OO is heavily customizable, however, you can make it into something that isn't much different than most mobile office applications. These are a few things I've done to make it a better experience on a phone: Choose big icons, and only the ones you frequently use, switch to "web" instead of page display.

Strictly speaking, not really an ODT editor, but Google Docs accepts ODT and you can edit Google Docs on Android. The file would have to be converted to Google Docs internal format then exported back to ODT though.

Currently there is not a single solution on Android for editing ODF files. But keep your heads up: The LibreOffice team is working hard on an Android version of the entire office suite!

Though this is already "old news", and has been heard about for at least half a year, the screenshots look very promising -- at least with a tablet in mind.
Which leaves us with the question: When Libre Office will be available for Android Smartphones? If you read the information on the linked page (which hopefully will be updated with more details when available), it very much looks like the standard Debian answer: It's ready when it's ready.

Zoho Writer seems to support viewing & editing ODT files (only tested with a very simple document):

...

Supports saving of documents in different formats like doc,docx,rtf,odt,txt,html and PDF

Though it seems to work awkwardly:

Can't directly open a file from disk, first step is importing the file.

Can't directly save file, must find a hidden "Export" button first.

Google Play reviewers have many strange bugs to report. After trying it for a few seconds I have noticed some strange redrawing issues.

According to LibreOffice's website, Collabora Office is considered the defacto product for iOS and Android:

While The Document Foundation doesn’t currently offer an Android or iOS version of LibreOffice, there is a LibreOffice-based product in app stores from Collabora, one of our certified developers and ecosystem members

Find out more on the Collabora Office for Android & iOS page. A few highlights:

Google Play, App Store, and F-Droid listings
Based on FOSS principles
Private by default
Interoperable with Microsoft Office and Open Document standards

OpenDocument Reader is worth checking out. It will be really good but the save function doesn't work yet. They are still working on it so when that gets updated it will be far better than AndrOpen as the interface isn't cluttered so you can actually type on it easily! You will be able to then save to dropbox, Google Drive, your email or where ever...
update: not sure the programmers are ever going to fix it. They seem a bit odd.

An editing app that doesn't save isn't really useful, is it?

On their site they said they were about to update it. If they had done, it would have been the most useful of the bunch.

Collabora Office, a LibreOffice derivative, works well on my tablet.

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.

A quick note, the default app on an Android phone such as "QuickOffice" should work. Try opening the doc as 'open As' and then select QuickOffice if available on your device.

Have you tried this, ODT isn't just a text file, and isn't just an Office .doc? QuickOffice Pro's Market listing only mentions that it can open and edit these files, none of which are Open Document compatible: .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt .pptx & .pdf

Good point, I haven't tried it personally.

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


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How can I increase the maximum speaker volume?
Is there a way, maybe even with root, to increase the maximum speaker volume?
I own a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet, which are known for their crappy and quiet speaker. There are ways to replace the speaker with another one. But I'd like to know a generic, not device related, software based method to increase the maximum volume on Android (if there is one).

There is an app which can do it for you...
Try the free one first, and if it works, then buy the full version :)
Free: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.FREE.android.lvh&feature=search_result
Payed: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.TEST.android.lvh&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5URVNULmFuZHJvaWQubHZoIl0.
Have a great day :)

Was it the right solution for you? Like to know, and if isn't the right answer i like to search some more for you :)

Well, Volume+ seems to need either a Cyanogen Mod or a MIUI ROM. That is both not available on my TPT. But I am aware that this may be only achieved on custom ROMs/Kernels and/or with root. I hadn't the time yet to test it.

It works well on my stock Galaxy Nexus... Sure you have read it correct?

But i think you need root, but i'm not sure, since i always have root :)

Try the 'DSP manager' application from cyanogen community.
Download application heredsp manager for stock ROM's


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How to uninstall preinstalled apps on Gingerbread?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I uninstall applications that are locked by phone vendor?

I have Samsung Galaxy Note running Android Gingerbread. I have several apps like Crayon Physics that don't show up in the list of installed apps in the market.
How to get rid of them?

See the accepted answer to this previous question, the Manage Applications section: How do I uninstall an application

Yes, Crayon Physics was pre-installed.

Also should have mentioned, this is Gingerbread.

If Crayon Physics was a pre-installed bloatware application then you must root to delete it. Ice Cream Sandwich lets you "freeze" the app though that may not be what you are looking for.
If you side-loaded the application then I have seen times when an application won't show under the Market application because it doesn't have a signature the Market recognizes; that is, you didn't get it from the Market.
If you installed the application go to Settings->Applications->Manage Applications. Under the 'Downloaded' tab you should be able to find it. Again, if it was pre-installed then you didn't 'download' it so it won't show up here but you should see it here even if you side-loaded it.
Good luck (:

Thanks - that's helpful although it doesn't help with this particular app. I did have a strange situation with another app that I downloaded ("animating touch" or something), where it didn't show up in the list of installed apps in the market app. In that case, I was able to search for it, install an update, then uninstall it.

Anyway, yes, it looks like I need to root - and that sounds riskier than I want just to get rid of a silly app. I guess I'll just bury it in a folder somewhere.

"Risk" is an assessment that should be based on your needs. I'm not going to go into a diatribe on why you should root to gain control of the hardware you own. I would only say, "POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!"

Well, it's like this. Potential gain: "crayon physics doesn't appear in my apps list". Potential loss: unusable phone which I just spent my life savings on. (Might I add that I'm extremely grateful for people who are willing to take such risks and keep vendors honest.)

@andrew-t what was the point of that edit? This answer was correct at the time of publishing. What benefit did your edit add other than to boost your own numbers?


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Wrong label color in gmail 2.3.3
I recently created a label on gmail via web, and assigned it a color. On the app on my Nexus S it shows as the default color instead, while all the other labels have the correct color.
I've tried to wait a day, or to reboot the phone; I've also tried to either rename it, or delete it and create it again.
OS is stock Android 2.3.3.
Any idea?

Have you tried clearing the data for Gmail and re-syncing?

@MatthewRead: tried, didn't work surprisingly.

@MatthewRead: also tried creating another new flag, first it had an arbitrary color, then reverted to the default "gray/no color"

This issue is fixed as of Gmail 2.3.5.2.


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Mobile network not available
I have serious problem with my Galaxy S2.
Some guy stole my phone. With help from Samsung Dive, I gained his phone number because he put his Sim card in my phone. Then, with help from police, I got my phone back. Just today, I went to shop for a new Sim card because my old one was lost (thanks to that guy!). First, I did factory reset without any Sim card inserted. Then I put in my new Sim card in it. Here comes the problem - it doesn't recognize my Sim card! First I thought that I did put it in somehow wrong, but after few tries - I think that it isn't the case. I remembered that it asked me something about missing Sim card when i booted up phone after factory reset so I did factory reset again with Sim card in it. Still, problem remains. When I try to call someone it says Mobile network not available. When I try to select my network operator under settings, it says Unable to connect. Try later.
What could be the problem? Is it possible that my phone is blocked? If so, where can I unblock it?
Thanks for any advice!
P.S. Are there any steps to find why I cannot connect to mobile network?
Edit:
When turning the phone on, it shows yellow warning icon.
When phone is on, near clock in top bar there is like phone icon.
If that anyhow helps, guys!

You got a new SIM, so it shouldn't be blocked (unless maybe it's the same phone number?).  Did you get the phone from the SIM provider originally?  I would work with them to try to fix it, it sounds like their issue.

No, I bought phone from internet shop. Of course, SIM card is new and with new number in it. I though that I could try to put SIM card in other phone to check it. It worked! After putting it back in my Galaxy S2, problem still remains... :(

Perhaps the provider blocked the IMEI if you told them it was stolen?

Provider did block the IMEI of the phone. Now it's unblocked and all works fine!
Thanks to Matthew Read for clue... :)


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Can Android save state on powerloss?
Does Android support hibernation?
I'm interested specifically in two scenarios:

Resuming after a "nice" powerdown - ie, the phone runs out of power during normal use (say, in the middle of writing or reading email)
Resuming after a "catastrophic" powerdown - ie, say the battery accidentally is removed in the middle of some sort of activity.

I would think that would more be a function of the individual applications, not the phone/os. A program can do running backups to restore state, for example. I don't know about your first scenario for restarting apps. But I'm pretty sure nothing can help with #2

Without using flash storage (or something else that preserves state without power) as RAM you can't have #2, and that's slow and expensive (you'd burn out and need to replace it quickly).  Listing phones would count as a shopping rec, I think, so I'm going to tweak this if that's OK.

If the battery is removed then it can't "resume" because it has nothing to resume from. Hibernation still uses some energy.

@Demizide no it doesn't. Hibernation is when you save your ram to permanent memory and then restore it on bootup. 'Sleep' means shutting down everything except ram. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibernation_(computing)#Comparison_to_sleep_mode

Yeah, I was really tired when I wrote that

I've heard newer HTC phones support this feature, then again it's something they've added on.

The Android system does not natively support any kind of resume after a full shutdown. Individual apps can save their state at any time and restore that state when the app is loaded, but the Android system cannot store its state or the state of all of the apps for a shutdown. Theoretically speaking, the kernel could probably be modified to support some form of hibernation but the stock Android system does not.


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Remotely brick a stolen phone
If my phone is lost or stolen, can I remotely and permanently brick my phone. This way, not only is my data secure, but the resale value of the phone plummets to zero.
Tangential question: can apps like Lookout or Prey be disabled by phone thieves?

On your tangential question, Lookout and Prey rely on the phone having either a data connection, or a phone network connection on it's current number. For a GSM phone the easiest way for a thief to get round these apps is to pull out/swap the SIM card and do a factory reset (to get rid of the app) before you send the "wipe" command.

It's certainly possible to remote-brick a phone.  In fact, you might be able to use Tasker in conjunction with Mobile Odin or similar to remotely softbrick a Samsung device by flashing bad firmware after a text message, or something.  Of course these devices are also easy to unbrick; to brick them more permanently you'd need to flash a bad bootloader.  Chainfire has said that Mobile Odin can but won't flash bootloaders, so perhaps it could just be modified.
Bad bootloaders can be fixed sometimes if you have the appropriate hardware, but I doubt any petty thief would have it.  Most won't be able to fix a softbrick either.
Any app can be disabled, pretty easily too if you know what you're doing.
Importantly, though, I wouldn't do this.  All it does is guarantee that you can't get the phone back (you can't track it anymore) or that if you get it back, it won't work.  You should just install tracking software instead.  Remote bricking won't deter a thief who doesn't know about it, and while I see the revenge aspect it's not as good as catching them!

"easy to unbrick"...for an average user or someone who has experience flashing/tweaking phones?

@Chance An average user should have no problem with a softbrick if they're pointed to Odin, we've had a couple successes here, but it's probably fair to say that the average user wouldn't know about Odin or solicit the right advice.

Starting today you can access this functionality through stock android and Google apps at https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager. Once you set it up, you will be able to remotely delete all your data from the device, and locate it on Google maps. Remote locking and changing the lock-screen are also listed as functionalities available (soon).
Note that if you have not set this up before losing your phone you will not have access to wipe it remotely. You could see it on Google maps if you have given Google Apps permission to access location information on your phone (GPS and WiFi location information).

I believe both Lookout and Prey have a password option that will make it difficult for a thief to disable the app.
Both of those will be able to wipe the device but not disable it completely. IF you are on Verizon the phone cannot be activated on another line without it being released from your account. I'm pretty sure that is not the case with GSM phones - they just need to stick a new sim in the phone.
However, both Lookout and Prey will be able to tell you the location of your phone. I believe Prey will also be able to tell you additional information that might help you determine the identity of the thief which you can then pass on to the authorities. They aren't always inclined to act on the information but every little bit helps.

if you are using HTC you could wipe the data from HTC sense account. But to Brick the device,depends on how to the flashing. as Koush maker of CWM has discussed of rooting/flashing ROM from with in the application without any PC.
Not sure about which version of CWM supports this features.

On samsung devices overwrite to the EFS partition or write on byte to the nv_data files it contains. Bam imei gone. You may also change device Bluetooth Mac bam second radio unusable wifi ... Not so sure, though. On the plus side only you have the chance to restore the original imei if your device should return. That is if you have a backup. It's extremely unlikely that the thief can create a new imei for the device. Also such procedure is highly illegal and disclosure of the meanings to do so is frowned upon on the public forums.

The question was how to "remotely" brick one's lost phone.


text:
Use Galaxy Note as digitiser tablet for PC
So the Samsung Galaxy Note has a stylus and the screen is supposedly a Wacom digitising tablet with 128 levels of pressure sensitivity. Has anyone tried to make it work as a Wacom tablet for a desktop? I'd even be interested in kludge solutions (eg, you draw a shape, it transfers it over wifi, and an app on your PC stores it in the clipboard, so you can just paste it somewhere).

Unified Remote could satisfy your desire in another way. It can make your Note run as a touch pad and as soon as you have a stylus pen you can open Photoshop on your PC and start painting in it with your stylus.
Unified remote has a free and a full version.

Interesting. I'd like to try it but it requires .NET 4.0, so I'll think about it for a bit. Something that works with OSX would actually be really useful. (I have an XP desktop, and a Mackbook Pro. Also an XP netbook so maybe I'll try it on that...).

Use Galaxy Note as digitizer or graphics tablet for PC (small project of mine) - maybe this could be relevant, but not exactly what you are looking for. But I found this post based on my search query, so maybe it could be interesting to someone else.

Answers that consist solely of links are really not answers. What's at the other end of that link? What happens if it goes dead? Please summarize the content here (and provide a link to the source) so that the answer can stand alone.

Basically this is link to my project that could be relevant to the question, link contains solution (demo video and download), should I better copy paste entire content of that page? :) (But ok fare enough, i made some edits)

Interesting - I can't try it yet as I don't have ICS. How come you need to "emulate" pressure? Is there no way to access that information directly?

You might want to look into the S-Tablet app.

And where might one get this app? How is it used?

Thanks - pity the English is so poor. Also seems to only apply to Photoshop?


text:
How to schedule shutdown of a phone?
I want to use my phone as a wireless router. Since I am on a time-based data plan, I want the phone to automatically shutdown after a specified amount of time (or at least close the data connection after a specified amount of time).
Basically, I want to prevent to exceed the data limit, and the shutdown is a plus. The phone is running gingerbread but I will probably install cyanogenmod 7.2.

There are many 3rd-party apps available on the Market that allow you to set up actions (toggle cell data on/off, for example) at specified triggers (e.g. on a timer.)  Tasker and AutomateIt are great examples.
If you have a specific data limit on your plan (e.g. 3GB per billing cycle), a more advanced app like 3G Watchdog would be a better choice.  It allows you to set and monitor limits on cell data usage, and disable it when the usage gets to the threshold.

I'll try AutomateIt; however 3g watchdog is not useful for time-based plans.


text:
Why Automatic App Updates In Market Don't Work?
Every time i see a few of apps trying to auto-update themselves but just stalling when it says "Downloading". In other words, automatic update for apps does not work and I am only left with cancelling download/update and doing this manually.
Is there a reason why automatic updates do not work?
Additionally it would be good to know if there was a way to schedule updating of apps or somehow to update a few at one time because updating many/most apps after accessing internet after a long period of time just bogs down system.

Also experience this on the HTC Sensation with Android 2.3.4 and have done since the phone came out.  I've seen it work on other Androids with a different version of the market to what we have.

Maybe it has something to do with permissions?

Fro the scheduling aspect of your question, see this other question Can I set the schedule for automatic Market updates, e.g. every night?

It is CyanogenMod and i don't have that. Since i bought smartphone, i never rooted or changed to other mods and to this day i still use Android 2.3.3 that came with it.

This can happen if the download cache is full or nearly full, and the download would fill your internal storage.  Try cleaning out your caches to free up some space (SD Maid is a good free app for this) and seeing if the downloads will complete then.

I have seen problems when I don't have WiFi on for a while.  Some updates are marked as WiFi-only due to the large size, even if you have turned off "Update over Wi-Fi only" in the Market settings (which I assume you have unchecked).
I think there may be other quirks with the Market app.  For example, if you are in airplane mode but have WiFi on, the Market may think you're offline and refuse to work.
It may (or may not) help to switch between having auto-update on globally (in Market settings) vs. having it off but enabling auto-update for individual apps.
BTW I just enable auto-update for apps that I trust and know I won't read the update log for before accepting the update.

I don't have such setting in my Market v2.3.4

You mean that your phone is Android 2.3.4, right?  You'll find these settings while in the market app by pressing menu, then settings.  You'll also see the version of the market app on the settings screen, called the "build version", which will be in the neighborhood of 3.4.4.

No my phone has Android 2.3.3 But i will try upgrading to Police Market. By the way can i reverse to previous version in case something is wrong?

I don't think you'll be able to downgrade, unless you have a saved copy of the market app.  That is likely more effort than you're interested in.

How do i backup Android Market app? All i have found in system/app folder is MarketUpdater.apk

Look into Astro File manager or Titanium Backup.

@ProjectJourneyman The OP and I seemed to be on an older version of market (the mainly green one), mine has updated itself in the past few days, with no warning or confirmation I might add!  Hoping the OP is as lucky and will get the update soon.

@RichardBenson Your updated itself recently? To which version? Mine did not update itself for a long time if not since smartphone's purchase.

@Boris_yo updated itself again to "Play Shop" yesterday, version 3.4.6

@RichardBenson What is "Play Shop"?

@Boris_yo is Google's fancy new marketing term for the market! market.android.com now redirects to play.google.com


text:
Kindle fire CM7 barebones: how can I get the home screen into portrait mode?
I recently installed the latest (2/9/2012) build of cyanogen mod 7 for my kindle fire. I can't figure out how to get the home screen into a portrait orientation. It defaults to landscape and doesn't respond to the device rotating, although other applications do. I'd appreciate any help.
Unrelated: this rom is awesome!

Check your settings in Settings->CyanogenMod Settings->Display and see if it has the 0 degree and 180 degree orientations enabled? Could be that the ROM author has them turned off by default, perhaps.

180 was disabled. I enabled it but the problem persists.

Hm, only other thing I can think to check off the top of my head would be the launcher settings. I'm assuming it's ADW, so there might be something that controls the layout in Settings->ADW Settings (or from a home screen (Menu Button)->More->ADW Settings). If there's nothing there then I'm not sure what it could be.

Aha! As edlarerathis commented, you can change this in AWD settings.
settings -> ADW settings -> system preferences -> Home orientation

change from landscape to auto/sensor.


text:
Upgrading from Android 1.6 to 2.2

Possible Duplicate:
When will my phone get the Android 2.2 update (FroYo)?

I'm having issues to upgrade my tablet to the 2.2 system. It's a generic tablet, from Kaser, I'm using it to develop a specific application. Now the specs changed, and I need it to run on 2.2. I had a look at their website and there is no info about the upgrading. Is it possible?
Thier page

Honestly, this seems like a pretty obscure device. You might have better luck just contacting the manufacturer.

Yeh I did this and I was able to get the instructions and the drivers to upgrade my android. Thank you very much =]

If you have complete kernel sources for your device from the manufacturer, then compile your own kernel and AOSP and flash the device.. I guess this is the only approach if you don't have any alternate solutions

Thank you for your helpful answer. I managed to get the instructions and the drivers to upgrade my android.


text:
How to have one-button access (on HTC incredible) to do voice dialing or voice commands?
My wife finds her HTC Incredible incredibly difficult to make a quick call without having to look at the screen.  She'd like to have a one-button activation of the voice dialing or voice commands "call <   >" or ""
I thought one option might be to reprogram the optical trackball button.
This is rooted with CyanogenMod.

I'm not sure about the optical mouse specifically, but CyanogenMod does give you the option to alter the behavior of the various capacitive/hard buttons on the phone to some extent. In Settings->CyanogenMod Settings->Input you can set the long-press behavior of the home and menu buttons, and completely change the behavior of the search button.
What I've typically done is set the search key (or long-pressing the search key) to open up the voice search app. You could substitute the voice dialer or anything else you wanted if you set it up this way, with the trade-off being that you lose the default search functionality (in my case it's okay because I never use the search button).

One solution i found is:  if you long-press the search button this brings up the voice command (for me it gave an option of Messaging or vLingo)


text:
How can I sync an Exchange 2003 inbox to an Android 4.x device?
I have ICS 4.x and I'm trying to get the default email client to connect to a MS Small Business Server 2003.
The client will sync all folders but Inbox. I get the error message "Couldn't Open connection to Server". I'm able to send emails, any clues?

I am not sure why it is failing for you, but I can confirm that it is not a problem with Exchange 2003 specifically; we use that where I work, and I have had no users call with sync issues on ICS... I'm only aware of 2 though, so it's not a large number of data points.

I was just suffering from the same issue with an Exchange 2010 server. The problem was server-side not client-side.
Upon investigating the event log for the Exchange role, I noticed the following error entry:

Exchange ActiveSync verfügt nicht über ausreichende Berechtigungen zum Erstellen des Containers "CN=Oliver Salzburg,OU=..." unter dem Active Directory-Benutzer "Active Directory operation failed on server.something.de. This error is not retriable. Additional information: Zugriff verweigert.
Active directory response: 00000005: SecErr: DSID-031521D0, problem 4003 (INSUFF_ACCESS_RIGHTS), data 0
".
Stellen Sie sicher, dass der Benutzer über geerbte Berechtigungen verfügt, die 'domain\Exchange Servers' erteilt wurden, um für Objekte vom Typ "msExchangeActiveSyncDevices" die Befehle 'Inhalte auflisten', 'Untergeordnetes Objekt erstellen' und 'Untergeordnetes Objekt löschen' auszuführen, und dass der Benutzer über keine verweigerten Berechtigungen verfügt, die diese Vorgänge blockieren.
Details:%3

English Version

Exchange ActiveSync doesn't have sufficient permissions to create the "CN=,OU=,DC=thenet,DC=gen,DC=nz" container under Active Directory user "Active Directory operation failed on .thenet.gen.nz. This error is not retriable. Additional information: Access is denied.
Active directory response: 00000005: SecErr: DSID-031521D0, problem 4003 (INSUFF_ACCESS_RIGHTS), data 0
".
Make sure the user has inherited permission granted to domain\Exchange Servers to allow List, Create child, Delete child of object type "msExchangeActiveSyncDevices" and doesn't have any deny permissions that block such operations.

It boils down to a permissions issue for the Exchange server. It isn't allowed to change the ActiveSync settings in the Active Directory.
To resolve this, follow these steps:

Open Active Directory Users and Computers.
Click View and then check Advanced Features.
Navigate to the user that is causing the issue (the location is noted in the event log entry) and open the Properties for the user.
Go to the Security tab and click Advanced.
Check the checkbox Include inheritable permissions and click OK.


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How to put a lock screen with security code on a Arnova 10 G 2?
I have a Arnova 10 G 2 with Android 2.3 which works very well, but it has no unlock screen and no security options. Does anyone know of a way to put some kind of security code on the device, either swipe pattern or password or pin-code? I guess there must be some kind of simple app for this ...

So the device's "Settings" menu doesn't have the "Location and Security" list item?

@eldarerathis Yes, but it has "Use Wireless Networks", "Set up SIM Card lock" (no idea why as it has no SIM slot), "Visible Passwords", "Select Device Administrators" and a section on "Credential Storage". Lock options are gone.

You could try installing some custom device lock app, like e.g. Simply Lockscreen (just to check whether this works -- if it does, you can browse the playstore for any app that may fit better :)

@Izzy Have you actually tried that lock screen app or did you just Google it? A bit unwilling to try one without knowing it's good first as if it breaks it's impossible to remove!

@James I didn't try it (mine works, and I don't want to replace it). Was just giving an example (the major point was a direction to a possible solution, not an app-recommendation). Of course it may be better to check reviews etc -- but a question like "what lock-screen to recommend" is OT here :) and I couldn't answer it...


text:
WIFI gets disconnected once the device sleeps

Possible Duplicate:
How do I keep my wi-fi on in sleep mode

i have samsung galaxy ace, i have created an adhoc network on my laptop and connected through WI-FI on my samsung phone, now the problem is, if the device is kept ideal for 15-20 minutes, the WI-Fi gets disconnected and also does not gets connected, even if i restart wifi, i need to stop the adhoc network and start the network again to start the wifi on my samsung, can anyone tell me what could be causing this issue, is this the default behaviour of samsung mobile or something has went wrong on my device.

if you go in to Settings -> Wireless & network Settings -> Wi-Fi Settins then press Menu -> Advanced you will see Wi-Fi Sleep Policy. Change that to Never and wi-fi will stay connected when the device goes to sleep.


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Why does my phone vibrate when service is lost?
My phone (Huawei x1) has started vibrating whenever I lose service and is really annoying. Does anyone know of anyway to fix this? Or maybe there is a setting I accidentally changed to allow this

My Droid Bionic (running Android 2.3.4) has a "network lost tone" setting under Settings/Sounds.   If you the phone is in silent mode with vibrate enabled, this setting might cause a vibrate, although I have not experienced that particular scenario.   Your phone probably has a similar setting.


text:
How to unroot my TF101
The backlight on my Asus Transformer broke and i need to send it in for repair. I bought the tablet used already rooted. I have no idea which root it is, and I can't see anything on the screen. I tried unrooting using the method provided here, but it didn't detect my device. Also it won't go into APX mode and I can't see anything that's happening on the screen. I was thinking I could connect the tablet to a TV, but I don't want to purchase an HDMI cable before I have a sure method that will unroot my tablet. The serial starts with B6O, and since it's the backlight that's broken I can still see very limited parts of the screen.

Did the warranty transfer from whoever you bought it from?  Otherwise root shouldn't matter.

The waranty did transfer, i already called asus and got all the information to send it in. Although i still need to unroot it. Please help


text:
Determine if my Galaxy is 8 GB or 16 GB
I just got my Galaxy from eBay.
The auction said it's 16GB, but I am afraid I was a fraud victim; I'm checking at Settings->SD card and device storage->USB storage, and Total memory says 5.01GB.
Am I missing something?

My Galaxy S Vibrant has 16 GB internal SD storage, and Settings -> SD card and phone storage reports 12.78 GB.  I would assume the ~3 GB difference is due to the reported size being actually in GiB, not GB, and partitioning (the internal data partition is 1.84 GiB as reported by Titanium Backup) and formatting.  The numbers work out, anyways.
Given that 8 - 5.01 is also ~3, I would say that you have an 8 GB model on your hands.  Checking with Titanium (requires root) or something else might be a good idea.

@Shimmy It's certainly hard to say.  One way that makes some sense is to scale it by the difference in price of the models as sold new, $239 vs $199.  183.50 - ((183.50 / 239) * 199) = $30.71.  That amount might be an appropriate refund.  Of course you might not want the 8 GB model at all ... I really think the seller should have to pay for return shipping in these cases, but I don't make the laws :P


text:
How to prevent Samsung Tab 10.1 from turning display on by itself?
I just bought this Galaxy Tab 10.1 with Android 3.2 and while I love it, one thing drives me nuts - every time I turn the screen off using power button, the screen comes back on in a minute or so. I went through all display settings and haven't found anything relevant.
Any ideas how to stop that madness?

If the screen automatically switches on without the user having intiated this, it looks to me like some app requested a specific WakeLock (SCREEN_DIM_WAKE_LOCK, SCREEN_BRIGHT_WAKE_LOCK, or FULL_WAKE_LOCK, see PowerManager API). Please check if How to deal with (orphaned) WakeLocks? might help you.

It looks like ambient display is the cause of this have you checked related settings


text:
How can I get ADB to recognize my Spice MI 350?
I want to use my Spice MI 350 for testing an application I'm developing. I have tried following this link, but so far I cannot get it working.
When I run adb devices I get ???????? as device name. The Device Chooser which appears just before running the application also displays ???????.
How do I get my adb to recognize my Spice MI 350 (Android 2.3.3) so I can test my application?
EDIT
        I work on Ubuntu 11.10 and Eclipse 3.7.

What operating system is your computer running?

I work on the Linux 11.10, I solved the problem by researching on various blogs. I particularly found this link very helpful.
Actually the vendor ID in "/etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules" was wrong. As I couldn't find the Spice in the Android's developer site.
Executing command lsusb gave me the correct vendor id....
$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:c31d Logitech, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 046d:c05a Logitech, Inc. Optical Mouse M90
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 2006:0c03 (-->2006 is the vendor id for Spice MI 350)

Now My /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules file looks like:-
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="2006", MODE="0666" GROUP="plugdev"
Now after restarting adb services... i.e.
su
$ adb kill-server
$ adb start-server
$ adb devices

The output is :-
List of devices attached
0123456789ABCDEF    device

Now when I launch application from eclipse ide it automatically identifies the device....

in the future, in your question, specify that you are using Ubuntu 11.10 (or what ever OS you are actually using at the time).

I will remember that.. @RyanConrad,

If you are using a Windows machine, then it sounds like maybe the drivers you are using are not the correct drivers.
Download the drivers from here (at the bottom) and install those drivers on the system.
To install the drivers:

connect your phone to your pc with USB debugging mode enabled.
Windows will not be able to install drivers on its own. So, go to 'Device Manager'. Under 'Other Devices', you will have your phone's name, Spice Mi-350n/Fly IQ260.
Right click and select 'Update Driver Software...' and select 'Browse my computer for driver software' and browse to the location where you extracted the drivers and click 'Next'.


text:
My Samsung Galaxy Ace disconnects from Wi-Fi when sleeping even after setting the Wi-Fi sleep policy
I asked this question and found that normally setting the Wi-Fi sleep policy to Never would prevent my device from disconnecting from Wi-Fi when the screen is off, but it's not working.  Even after setting this it still ends up disconnected.  How can I get it to work properly?

I found this somewhere -- and it works for me.
Here is the solution that worked perfectly with me:
the problem lies in the DHCP settings of the ADSL router.
FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM.......

Login to your router and go to DHCP settings (for belkin its 192.168.2.1) and find the item called leasing time. The default values of the leasing time is usually Forever -- and there is a bug with Android
All you have to do is to change the value of the Leasing time from forever to any other long value (depends on the routers options). Here I changed the value from forever to 2 weeks -- and since then I didn't have a single WIFI disconnect.

I want to thank you for your answer. I also have a belkin router. I followed your directions and it worked perfectly. Once again thank you.

Checkout the Wi-Fi sleep policy under
Settings->wireless and network->wi-fi settings now press menu-> Advanced

The user mentioned they'd already done this, I edited the question to make it more apparent.

As a workaround, try installing Wi-Fi Keep Alive. It can do things like keeping a Wi-Fi lock, pinging the router every ten seconds or just keeping the device awake.
Remember that some of the options of the app can be detrimental to battery life. (But if you want Wi-Fi to be always on, I doubt you care much about battery life.)

Go to the main screen-->Tap on applications symbol-->Go to Settings-->Then Wireless & Networks.
Then now go to the WiFi and then move on advanced settings (shown as a symbol below the screen not on the screen but to will popup AFTER PRESSING THE LEFT Button)).you will find easily how to control it during sleep


text:
Do custom ROMs like CyanogenMod modify your bootloader?
Does a custom ROM like CyanogenMod come with their own bootloader or does it just overwrite the /boot  kernel and /system? Does the bootloader take responsibility to lock your SIM card on a carrier?
Basically, I'm interested in SIM unlocking my Huawei U8180, and would like to know if CyanogenMod will unlock the device.

CyanogenMod - in a vanilla or official build - will not typically contain a bootloader. On many devices there is really no good way to even overwrite the bootloader because it is on protected memory (the bootloader is "locked") and cannot be overwritten. It installs a boot image and a system image (i.e. writes to the /boot and /system partitions). I've heard that some builds will also come with a recovery image, but I have never seen one that did this.
Unlocking your SIM is unrelated to your firmware, and CM will not perform a SIM unlock for you. CyanogenMod's wiki itself states:

CyanogenMod, however, does not "unlock" the device. Most carriers
  "lock" their handsets to prevent customers from buying a handset and
  moving to a different carrier. Carriers depend on these "exclusivity"
  agreements to bolster revenue. For example: if you buy an iPhone in
  the US, you are stuck with AT&T or Verizon, whichever you bought from.
  To use the handset on another carrier's network it would be necessary
  to "unlock" the handset. This is done with a code based on the IMEI of
  the handset that can be provided by your carrier or firms on the
  internet that are slightly more reliable than a Nigerian Prince.
Unlocking cannot be done by installing CyanogenMod, or any other
  firmware for that matter.

I would further assume that the bootloader on your device does not have any kind of bearing on the SIM lock. HTC allows bootloaders to be unlocked on certain devices, and their website specifically states:

Please note that unlocking your bootloader does not mean that you will
  be able to unlock the SIM lock. Unlocking your SIM lock is at the
  discretion of your operator/carrier and is not part of the bootloader
  unlocking scope.

I would guess this is likely similar on other devices, though I'm not specifically familiar with Huawei's hardware or software.

Usually the easiest way is to call the carrier and ask for the Unlock Code. If you are a customer for a length of time (say 6 months+ or so) and tell them that you need it unlocked (maybe to travel outside the country) they will usually give it to you.

i'm pretty much interested to know what's bearing the SIM lock ?!... if it's not the bootloader so what would it be ?!    .. i've already unlocked the bootloader  of the phone, downloaded CM 7.2 but that didn't work out, i have no direction to go unless i specifically know how the phone is locked to a certain carrier !!!

@MuhammadGhandour: As Ryan noted, the easiest thing to do is probably to contact your carrier. I don't know exactly how SIM lock works on a technical level, but my understanding is that's it's built into the modem or SIM reader's firmware at some level, which is not modified by custom ROMs.

No, CyanogenMOD and other custom ROMs rely on your device's bootloader.  In general you don't want to mess with the bootloader since doing so is an easy way to brick your device.
The bootloader doesn't really have anything to do with the SIM lock usually.  I don't know of an Android-specific way to unlock this phone, which means you'll probably need to use a paid service, which are generally pretty sketchy.  A quick Google shows that some people have had success with this tool.

The answer could stand true in the past but certain ROMs like CM 12  overwrites the bootloader with their own, thereby, making it difficult for Android 4.x ROMs to work with it. However, I must add (for the reader) that an unclocked bootloader is always required to perform any such action.

@Firelord That must be only for a very limited set of devices, though.


text:
Can I load a ROM from a 7" Galaxy Tab onto a 10" Galaxy Tab?
I have a handful of Galaxy Tab 10.1 (P7510) running Honeycomb, and a customer commercial application which runs beautifully on Froyo and Gingerbread, but has bugs on both Honeycomb and ICS.
Before I chuck thousands of pounds worth of hardware away and settle for running my app on smaller tablets, is there a sane downgrade path to 2.2/2.3 for the P7510? I have some 7" Galaxy Tabs if these would be a useful source of ROM images, for instance.

I would doubt it, but I'm not sure that you'll find a definitive answer without trying it yourself (and possibly bricking your device). I've never heard of anyone trying this.

No, the key parts of the ROM would be the kernel and all the drivers for the hardware. The boot image is likely different too. These devices are not the same so you would end up, at the very least, "soft bricking" your device. Even when a device is basically the same, take all of the Galaxy S devices (vibrant, captivate, facinate, epic, i9000), all are basically the same device, but you cannot "cross flash" the ROMs between them. This is because the smallest change in hardware or boot image prevents this.


text:
Get charge state remotely
I want my desktop to check state of the phone and warn me at appropriate time (calculated on my presence at the desktop, phone charge, time of day and other criteria).
Is there a way to get my phone charge state remotely? What software/services should I use?
As programmer, I'd prefer a solution that would allow to script criteria and logic myself. All I need are means to access charge state remotely say through Google API's or web-published information.
I'm asking this question here as I believe there should be a ton of monitoring Android applications publishing state by various means.

There's an app here that allows you to do that according to the description (along with many more things): https://market.android.com/details?id=com.androidlost&hl=en
If you want to code your own application then you'll want to check out this Intent and the two Intents below it (ACTION_BATTERY_LOW, ACTION_BATTERY_OKAY):
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#ACTION_BATTERY_CHANGED
And this class which has what the Intent contains:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/BatteryManager.html
You could have your application pick up the ACTION_BATTERY_LOW Intent and then send a message to you warning you about the status.
I'm assuming you've done some Android development before, if not then get the basics down before coming back and trying to code your battery app.

Is this still possible?  This page says the Web API is obsolete.  Or, is there an alternative web-based API for checking Android battery status?

The APIs I mention are native Android APIs not web APIs, you'd be better off asking on SO about that but off the top of my head I think they took away the battery APIs because of privacy concerns and doubt they'll be coming back, how many websites really need to see how much battery you've got..?

Very true - although there's many more ways GPS location could be abused by others than battery level... but people (myself included) don't want to give up the advantages of sharing location with websites (which was a tough decision for me!)


text:
Is there an XMPP (Jabber) client for Android that supports video calling?
I have searched quite a bit but still javen't manged to find a general Jabber client that supports video calling. There are a few that support sending video files though.

Conversations supports Videocalls via XMPP in the year 2023.

No there is no federated XMPP Client for Android that supports video calling. Federated because there many proprietary XMPP Clients that do so, but they work only within their own network.
The reason because there is no such XMPP client is pretty simple: Jingle (the XEP which is used for XMPP video calling), is pretty new and most XMPP libraries don't support it yet. This is especially true for the most relevant XMPP library Smack (relevant because it's a Java library). Smack has some Jingle components, but the development on them stopped years ago and they don't seem up to date.
Update: Jingle development in Smack gained some traction in the last months.

We all wait for the Android Version of Jitsi which is probably out by next year. It's announced for some time though.

A bit late to answer this question but of late, a few FOSS XMPP apps have emerged for Android that have video chat feature:

Jitsi - Already covered in another answer, but app is still in aplha.
Cisco Jabber for Android - Never tried this, but appears to support XMPP, though its not FOSS. Also not sure whether it supports federation or is just a walled garden like a zillion other messengers.
imo instant messenger (Android & iOS).
Conversations, an open source XMPP (formerly known as Jabber) client for Android 4.0+ smart phones.

Sources:
https://www.jabber.de/clients/android-ios/
https://jitsi.org/Main/Download#latestnightly
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cisco.im&hl=en

Conversations does not support video.

Jitsi exists as Jitsi Meet and your xmpp account won't work with it. Cisco Jabber also doesn't work with your xmpp account. Imo asks for your phone number so I haven't tried if it a xmpp account works on it and conversations doesn't support video/audio chat. So none will work. By xmpp account I mean a xmpp account that you can register on a public (most are free) server

Videomeet app is Excellent implementation of Jitsi for Android and IoS with full support of audio and video conference calls.

official android jitsi repository  is on hold.
and the github repository does not allow to publish issues
i found this github fork where android jitsi testers can publish issues
https://github.com/xavierle/jitsi-android


text:
App to download rss enclosures (just like a podcatcher)
Is there an Android app that is able to download rss enclosures? I want to setup calibre on a server to download articles from some newspaper-sites and converts them to .epub.
Then I want to have an RSS-feed of those epub-files.
Finally I want my Sony PRS-T1 to download all (new) epub-files that are linked in this rss feed.
How would you do that?


text:
What happens when you kill the Samsung Kies Wifi Agent?
My Macbook Pro was running hot, the fans running constantly. This is not usual behavior. When I looked at the running processes, I saw that the Kies Wifi Agent was gobbling up a lot of RAM. I tried killing the process, and the temperature dropped by sixty-eight degrees.
I assume the agent will start up again the next time I reboot. My question: Aside from not being able to use wifi from the Mac to the tablet, what will this do? Can I permanently kill the agent, or is there some way to set it to only run when I need it?
I'm running Mac OSX 10.6.8, and using a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus wifi.

It's quite simple to turn this off. I'm using OSX 10.7.4 and I did this:
I went to "System Preferences", then in the line "System" I went to "Users and Groups". At the top, there is "Password" and something like "Login Items". I went to this "Login Items" and just clicked one time in "KiesViaWifiAgent" and then in the " - " button under it.
Now, I can reboot the MacBook Pro and it will not start up by itself.

Thanks, and your English is fine. I've since figured this out on my own, but this answer prompted me to take a look, and there's also a startup item named fuspreddownloader, which also seems to be a Samsung component. Have just unchecked that as well. But this doesn't answer an important aspect of the question: Is there any other effect on the Mac to turning these off? (I did it a few months ago and haven't noticed any problems.)


text:
Enabling both normal wifi and wifi hotspot to get RSSI values of wi-fi hotspots
I want an android phone to have both 'normal wi-fi' and 'portable hotspot' turned on at the same time, so that I will be able to get the RSSI values of wireless networks as well as involve in an hotspot connection.
Scenario:
4 rooted android phones in CyanogenMod (2-Nexus One, 2-Galaxy S2; consider A,B,C,D).
Kernel version 2.3.3 in all the phones
Portable wi-fi hot spot enabled in all the phones.

I wrote an application to find the RSSI values of available wireless signals. But as the phones(A,B,C,D) are using wi-fi hot spot, the normal wifi does not turn on. Either wi-fi hot spot can be on, or normal wi-fi can be on.
i.e. If each phone(A,B, C and D) have a wifi hotspot created(AH, BH, CH, DH), then I am not able to use my application, as normal wifi  connection needs to be turned on to find the wireless networks.
So I want the phones to scan available wireless networks with portable wi-fi hot spot enabled. Is there a way to do this.?

What you probably want is your phone work as adhoc and as an AP at the same time I guess it's called bridging
http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/wirelessproducts/f/apbridgingmode.htm
I don't think that at first android phones support the adhoc mode at all yet.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1932150/can-android-do-peer-to-peer-ad-hoc-networking
The bridging is only possible for normal wifi routers not for android phones. Routers also support WDS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_distribution_system
There's no such thing as WDS for android phones yet AFAK.

hope it clarifies the matter abit. thanks.

yeah. this clarifies a lot. thanks for the links:)

Related: Can we use an Android phone as a Wi-Fi repeater?
The answer is basically no.  It's theoretically possible, at least with some Wi-Fi chips, but the software needed is fairly involved.  Some Android phones do support ad-hoc mode, but bridging is the problem as Sergey indicates.  I don't know of anything that's been ported to / written for Android to do this, since it would probably involve altering proprietary drivers (pretty hard without the source code).

Few Android phones support WiFi<->WiFi tethering (bridging). Samsung Galaxy S7 [Edge] is one such phone. The feature may be intentionally crippled on the models distributed through carriers, but the unlocked version works like charm.


text:
Xperia Arc shows 3G signal but not connecting to Internet
I have an Xperia Arc L15i about 5 months old, suddenly I have started experiencing problems with my 3G/2G service.
I have the Access Points properly set up (confirmed the same also with my service provider) and when I start the Data Service it shows up the 3G signal (full strength) but cannot connect to Internet.
Tried with the inbuilt browser, Opera mini and neither is the market accessible.
Network mode is WCDMA/GSM and even if try with Only GSM still its the same issue with 2G.
Is there anything else I need to look into or could it be a handset issue (not sure since I can see the H symbol). Any idea ?
EDIT
It seems i can access the net via WiFi, now i am puzzled (in case some wonder my data plan is valid)

I don't know what was the issue behind it, but i upgraded my Arc to 2.3.4 and surprisingly this made it work.
Just added it as an answer in case someone does come across any such thing.


text:
Screen size and density of Samsung Galaxy Y
I want to know about the screen size and density of the Samsung Galaxy Y. Which category of screen size (small, normal, large,x-large) or density (ldpi, mdpi, hdpi, x-hdpi) is its screen? Any references would be helpful.

Using the following diagram from developer.android.com you can see where it falls in the specs:

It's 3 inches diagonally - it falls in the "small" category.
It's 133ppi - which is definitely ldpi.

can you tell me by looking at the following link, in which category does it falls?
http://www.samsung.com/in/consumer/mobile-phone/mobile-phone/smartphone/GT-S5360MAAINU

That's exactly what I did, it says 3 inch, 320x240, which is 133ppi == ldpi on a small screen

Yeah, didn't noticed it earlier. Thanks for the help


text:
How to protect my Google Account?
I am very concerned with security of my Google account in case I lose the phone (as in: lose it, have it stolen/robbed, etc.). Right now it seems that whoever grabs my phone will also have full access to mail, calendar etc.
I would be perfectly happy to sync manually and/or have a password prompt every time I try to sync, but I don't see this option.
How can I protect my account? Is screen lock any good? How hard is it to bypass it?
The phone is HTC Desire should it matter.

Instead of entering a password every time you sync or access your mails - which will also be more insecure, because you enter the password often and in public - think about a good screen lock (PIN or Password) and a remote wipe solution.
Changing your Google account password is always a good idea in case of a stolen Android device. According to Oleg Ostroumov comment, the device will stay logged in for ~hour and then request a password.

Of course I would change the password as soon as I could... but if the phone was stolen there would still be a time where the thief would have the phone and I would have no means to change it or even call someone to do it for me. Is the built-in screen lock good enough protection for it, or is it easily bypassed?

There are various types of screen locks on Android. IMHO a password is the safest and it can not easily be bypassed. If your phone is stolen when it's locked you are pretty safe. I would not call someone to change your Google password.

Also, with enough patience and a flashlight (provided the user is greasy and doesn't change his unlock pattern very often) it's quite possible to deduce their pattern from the smudges on the screen. A PIN code is immune to this, and it's quicker to enter too :)

@KonradGarus No, if you try and guess a certain number of times (around 20 afaik) incorrectly it freezes up and asks for your google account password.

Update: phone stays logged in for ~hour, and then it requests password. So changing password is indeed a solution. It's good news that one doesn't need to factory reset the phone to log out :) I'm deleting my previous confusing comment.

Edited the information in my answer. Thank you :)

In addition to what Flow says, and I think this is a superior solution:
Use application-specific passwords
The idea here is that you can create an application-specific password for any non web-based application that needs your Google credentials (think Android phones, mail clients, IM clients, etc.) You create a credential for each purpose and use this instead of your Google password -- this doesn't require special cooperation by third-party application developers. You can keep track of all issued application-specific passwords, and revoke them on a case-by-case basis if necessary. So if your phone is stolen, you can easily revoke access to your Google account and the attacker will no longer be able to log in as you. Please note that some applications might leave behind contact lists and offline email which will still be on the device even if it's not associated with a valid Google account. You'll need a remote wipe application for this purpose.
You can find this on your Google Account settings page. Look for authorizing applications and sites, and take it from there. See also this video from Google about 2-step authorization and application-specific passwords.
While at it, enable 2-step authorization using your Android device for an extra layer of security when you log in from an unknown computer/device.

+1 I really think that 2-step authorization is the way to go as it will force you to use application-specific passwords


text:
Is there any highlighting or annotating software for ODT -format: LibreOffice or OpenOffice?
I read my LibreOffice/OpenOffice documents with tablets and smartphones.
Is there any software for the ODT -format which allows me to edit such files.
I often find things which I should fix and would like to note that to the file.

Currently there is no such software. However, the LibreOffice team is working on an app. A prototype was reviewed e.g. here, if you want to take a look. No release date so far, but it will hopefully hit the market soon -- it is really strongly needed, as there is not a single Office app capable of working with OpenDocument formats (aside from AndrOffice, which is a spreadsheet-only app and obviously discontinued, as it is no longer listed on the playstore).
Until then: There's a Viewer app available at least, OpenOffice Document Reader...

UPDATE: Meanwhile, things have changed, and you have the choice between AndrOpen Office and TextMaker Mobile for read/write access, as well as Coffice and the already mentioned OpenDocument Reader for read-only access.

TextMaker Mobile is the only word processor that lets you open / save .odt - plus plenty of other formats, and you may convert one into another.
This app is full of features, e.g., including a very good on-the-fly spell checker, footnotes, endnotes, comments, track changes, embedding of any font, access to several file hosting services etc., all TrueType and openType fonts can be embedded, it has a broad range of formatting and layout options, access and so much more.

Not the only one, see AndrOpen Office. But you're correct, my answer is no longer up-to-date :)


text:
Problem with unlocking the HTC Wildfire bootloader with HTC unlocker
I tried to unlock HTC bootloader by the official tool but I get to the stage when I issue the command:
fastboot oem get_identifier_token

Unfortunatly I get error
...
(bootloader) [ERR] Command error !!!
OKAY [  0.007s]
finished. total time: 0.007s

Version of firmware matches the one listed for H3G UK. The HBoot is 1.01.0002.

I think your HBoot needs to be upgraded, and it sounds like perhaps you didn't run the RUU to do so. The HTCdev site notes that phones with an asterisk (*) next to them in the list must run an RUU before unlocking because the bootloader on the device did not originally ship with unlocking capabilities. So first you need to make sure your firmware is up to date (which it sounds like it is), and then you also need to download and run the RUU:

BEFORE beginning the Unlock Bootloader process your product requires
  that you update the ROM to the version listed in the table below
  first, then download the RUU next to it to enable the unlocking
  capability.

The RUU's filename itself also seems to confirm this. It is listed as PC4910000_Buzz_Froyo_hboot_1.02.0000_R3.exe, indicating (to me, anyway) that you need HBoot v1.02.0000 in order to perform the unlock.

Would running RUU may result in any data loss?

@MaciejPiechotka: It will wipe all of your data, basically performing a factory reset.


text:
How can I disable auto-dimming of the screen?
What I'd like to see:

When idling, the screen turns off after the configured amount of time.

What I see:

When I don't do anything, the screen dims a bit after ~23 seconds, then at 30 seconds it turns off as expected.

I have no idea why this dimming short before the screen timeout happens and where to disable it.
My settings:

Automatic Brightness disabled, brightness set to the lowest level.
Screen time-out at 30 seconds.
Auto adjust screen power disabled.
Timeout for lock screen is zero (Immediately).
Use Power saving mode is enabled (it sets the screen brightness to 10% at less than 20% battery power left). Disabling it had no effect.

This happens with Android 2.3.6 (no idea if it worked before the update).

It's to alert you that the screen's about to turn off.  It's more useful when your timeout is longer than 30 seconds, certainly.  I would assume you'd need a custom kernel or at least to root and edit some config files in order to prevent this, I don't believe there's anything in Settings for it.

I suggest the Screen On app. I use it when I don't want the screen to dim or turn off, because I want to be able to instantly pause the playback on my audiobook without having to first hit the power button,then swiping the screen.
When you want it to  revert to a more power-saving mode, you can turn the app off again from the notification bar. It isn't customizable to allow it to dim after a specified time, but it will keep it from dimming at all. Better than nothing!

You should read again the question.


text:
How can I get Google Voice to forward texts only when I'm not using Google Voice?
Google Voice app has the option "Receive text messages" with two choices:

Also via the messaging app
Only via the Google Voice app

If I choose the first option, I will still get the text messages even if I'm not on Wi-Fi.  It will also send them as regular text messages if I am on Wi-Fi, wasting money.
If I choose the second option, I won't get the messages if I'm not on Wi-Fi.
Is there a way to get the messages forwarded to regular text only if the Google Voice app doesn't get them?

I think you might be misunderstanding how GV handles messages.
Receiving Messages:
When someone sends an SMS to your GV number it is received by Google and placed in your GV inbox - the setting you mention doesn't change that functionality, so either way you choose to have the app configured your GV SMS messages will still be available in the GV app (and, of course, your GV inbox in the cloud).
If you don't have a data connection then you'll get GV SMS messages delivered to your phone as soon as you have a data/wifi connection and your inbox is synced. Even if you set the GV app to Receive text messages > Also via the messaging app you'll still only receive the messages when your GV inbox is synced - you'll just also get the messages duplicated in your default SMS app.
Confusingly, you can also have your GV inbox setup to send SMS copy of the messages your GV number receives to your mobile's number using your carrier's SMS system. This isn't necessary if you have the GV app on your Android phone and want to use data/wifi to receive messages. I advise turning this setting off in your GV inbox web interface: Settings > Phones > [Mobile Phone] then uncheck Receive text messages on this phone. You will still receive texts sent to your GV number on your phone, just via the GV app using data/wifi and not your default SMS app using your carrier's SMS.
Sending Messages:
First, the easier stuff:

To send a text message from your GV number using data/wifi make
sure to use the GV app on your phone to compose and send messages.
To send a text message from your mobile number using your carrier's
SMS make sure to use the default SMS app on your phone.

Now, the harder stuff:
If you have Receive text messages > Also via the messaging app set in the GV app, you'll see the same text messages in both your GV app and your default SMS app. Please note that this is a slightly different condition than having Receive text messages on this phone set for your mobile phone in your GV inbox, even though the end result looks the same. Given this condition:

If you reply using the GV app you will reply from your GV number over data/wifi.
If you reply using the default SMS app you will reply from your GV number over your carrier's SMS (this is just as if GV sent your mobile an SMS copy and you replied to it on a non-smart phone).

I suspect some combination of the above settings and usage scenarios is causing your problem, and that by simply changing some settings or your habits (or both) will result in the behavior you're looking for.
EDIT: To help with confusion I've drawn a quick flowchart:

Ah.  What I want is for GV to send the text to the phone app over the web, but if the phone app doesn't receive it (no data connection), then it should forward to SMS over the cell carrier.

AFAICT that kind of fail-over setting isn't available; it seems forwarding to SMS is either on or off.

Just a note - I recently noticed that the GV app setting Receive text messages → Via the message app no longer duplicates the message locally on your phone as described in the original answer.  Instead, it simply toggles the GV Inbox setting Receive text messages on this phone.  I verified this by:

enabling the feature via the web (GV Inbox)
noting that it was enabled in the GV App settings
selecting "Via the Google Voice App" from the GV App settings
refreshing the GV Inbox webpage and noting the forwarding feature was now unselected.


text:
On Android can I write scripts (similar to Win .bat files) to combine several command line commands?
On Windows, I can run two commands using a .bat file.
How can I achieve the same thing on Android
For example:

update my podcasts by calling pcastclient /updateALL
force sync of my pictures sugarsync /forceupdate

Android's shell will support a limited amount of Unix-style shell scripting. It specifically should have a shell at /system/bin/sh that you can use, however:

The shell provided with Android has a severely restricted set of commands available to it. If you want to do anything even remotely complex you'll need a busybox install (or another shell).
It's generally pretty rare for Android apps to provide any kind of command line interface or binaries. I very much doubt that Sugarsync, for example, allows you to perform a sync from the command line.

If you want a bit of a GUI you may want to look at something like GScript.

There are a few Android apps that are able to control other Android apps, and can chain several commands together using their GUI in a similar way to a script, they both have plugins to extend their support to many popular Android apps and functions.
Tasker and Locale are probably the most famous of these (see here for some comparison) but there are also other similar (free) apps that you could look at.


text:
How can I root my Nexus One?
I want to give root permission to my Android Nexus One phone. I tried several links to give root access, but could not find any single working solution. Most links suggest to download a copy of a superboot image matching my kernel version. I could not find one that matches the kernel version with steps to give root permission. Any help?

have you looked here? http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1184/how-do-i-root-my-device

@Bryan Just as a heads up, we're moving away from that centralized post (see here) so this question is fine to stay.  Thanks for linking it though, I think the method that post links to might still work.

So maybe Root N1 and keep the official ROM is the better address?


text:
Will a Custom Recovery work with an encrypted device?
I wanted to know whether using Android's built-in encryption (introduced in 3.0) would affect my ability to use a custom recovery (Clockwork Mod in my case).
More specifically if I will still be able to perform Nandroid backups/restores and flash new files and updates?

ce4's answer did not work for me on my Galaxy Nexus GSM (Maguro) using CWM 6.0.1.1. I kept getting errors from CWM telling me it couldn't mount /sdcard even after I mounted a tmpfs there and used adb to push the update.zip there.
After reading a thread at XDA I found out that unlike CWM, TWRP is capable of mounting an encrypted sdcard partition. So I downloaded TWRP for the GNex and flashed it using fastboot. When I booted in to recovery it asked me for the password for the encrypted sdcard partition and I was able to flash the update normally.
Links:
TWRP
XDA Thread

Make a synthesis of the steps in the thread who helped you, don't just give a link.

If the link dies, this answer will be less than helpful.

Please let me know if the above edited answer is more helpful.

Reason: You have to adapt some minor things to the GNexus as it has a different location (/data/media) for the (with JB introduced) virtual sdcard. Solution: create the tmpfs mountpoint at /data and 'mkdir /data/media'. I'll include this into my answer too. Also see the update in my answer (on adb sideload).

Yes, custom recovery works with encrypted honeycomb device. The built-in encryption doesn't touch ROM & firmware at all. It just encrypts accounts, settings, downloaded apps & their data etc. which can be located on phone memory, internal SD or external SD. That's why encryption is no longer present after factory reset because there's no encrypted data available.

Files for custom recovery environment live on ROM as firmware. That's why they survive factory reset. As Flashing files/updates has to do with ROM, you'll be allowed to do it. When it comes to Nandroid backup, you can do it too, but the chunk of encrypted data will backed up in that form which can't be restored using Titanium Backup. Yes, you could do Nandroid restore flawlessly.

I Just got around to encrypting my device. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like I'm going to be able to use Clockwork Mod with my device encrypted. When using Clockwork Mod it doesn't seem to be able to find the SD card partition. I assume this is because my device (Galaxy Nexus), doesn't support MircoSD external storage. So the /sdcard partition is encrypted with everything else.

You are still not out of luck if your device doesn't support external SD. Decrypt device & do a partition of internal SD. Mount one partition on /sdcard so that it could be used by system & leave other one (Clockwork Mod can do mounting too). Then, encrypt device again (It will not touch other partition). This will make a usable space on internal SD to work with Clockwork Mod.

On my encrypted Nexus S I use a temporary tmpfs mount on /sdcard in CWM. It has enough RAM to hold the new ROM in memory during the update:
Download your ROM to /tmp/update.zip and boot into recovery. Then log in via 'adb shell':
## on the host machine do:
me@workstation:/tmp$ adb shell
## now on the device in 'adb shell' mode...
~ # mount -t tmpfs none /sdcard/
## the following command is not needed, it only shows the newly created mount point
~ # df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
[...]
none                    172.4M         0    172.4M   0% /sdcard
~ # exit
## now back on the host machine again
me@workstation:/tmp$ adb push update.zip /sdcard/
5567 KB/s (131676307 bytes in 23.097s)

Then do the usual update steps 'install zip from sdcard'.
EDIT: Starting with ICS/Jelly Bean there's the new adb sideload <filename-of-update.zip> method
It works with CWM from version 6.0.1.5 onwards and you need the Android SDK platform-tools v16 or better. If you're in CWM you can see a new entry install zip from sideload if it's supported.
The old method still works:
If sideload doesn't work, you can still use the tmpfs method. CWM expects /data/media as the location for the update.zip now, the mountpoint has however to be /data so you have to do this now:
me@workstation$ adb shell
~ # mount -t tmpfs none /data
~ # mkdir /data/media
## Go on with 'adb push update.zip /data/media' and then like above

Reason:
Starting with ICS+ the proposed partition layout has changed. There should be no FAT formatted sdcard partition any more but the external storage now resides within /data/ (/data/media). To remain compatible, a FUSE mount emulates the old FAT properties (access rights and such). You can see this when there's a fuse mount on /storage/sdcard0, it looks similar to this:

shell@android:/ $ mount | grep fuse
  [...]
  /dev/fuse /storage/sdcard0 fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,... 0 0
  [...]

In the middle of exams so I can't try it yet. But I might see if I can use a USB OTG adapter to mount a flash drive. No idea if it would work, but might try it later.

@Richard: /system is not encrypted. That also works on a GN. Could you delete your comment?

I actually have no idea why I wrote that. Especially since I upvoted this at the same time.

This isn't working for me. df doesn't understand -h. However, I carry on anyway and when I'm done /sdcard/ contains the update.zip.
When I restart the phone into Recovery mode, however, the sdcard cannot be mounted - presumably because the  temporary filesystem is now gone.

@Gausie: You did it in the wrong order. First boot into recovery and only then do the above steps ('mount ...' and 'adb push ...').

I realised this following this post. However it still doesn't work, saying that it Failed to mount /sdcard when I ask it to update from /sdcard/update.zip. Any ideas?

Hmm, I do this with my Nexus7, no GN here.... Can you see something via log cat or dmesg, that's how I found out the right mount point


text:
 LG Optimus P690 - how to launch silently
Is there a way (without rooting) to skip the startup sound on LG Optimus P690 if sound was not disabled before turning the phone off?

Lars Aronsson over at Androinica seems to think you can using an app called Silent Boot (though others disagree). Also suggested is Android Assistant which is supposed to automatically turning down the system volume before the phone power cycles. I haven't tried any of them personally - give 'em a try, YMMV.


text:
Hebrew vowels not rendering correctly on web page.
Sample web page:  http://hebrewresources.com/html5problems/buttonText.html
The letters are okay but the vowels (niqudot) under them are not aligned properly at all.
Happens in both Firefox and the default browser on my EVO running Android 2.3.5.
Sample page looks fine on Firefox for Windows and iPhone browser.

Android doesn't fully support Hebrew, to my knowledge. Is this bug similar to what you're seeing?

Sounds about the same, thanks. I thought maybe it was a browser problem; that maybe a different browser might avoid the problem.


text:
ABNT2 keyboard for Android x86 2.2 r2 sparta "distro"
I'm using Oracle Virtual Box to emulate an Android-x86 device. I installed android-x86-2.2-r2-sparta.iso to a virtual HD. Then I changed config to put it in Portuguese (Brazil) language. It is ok until that point.
But in keyboard options there isn't ABNT2 keyboard layout, so some keys are missmatch the machine keyboard (e.g. "ç", "{", "}"...).
How can I solve that?

I would suggest looking at alternative input methods (keyboard apps) that specifically support Portuguese language.
I personally used AnySoftKeyboard, which does have a Portuguese language pack.  There are many other similar keyboard apps on the Market as well.  You might need to get them elsewhere though, since your build most likely doesn't have the Android Market access.

do u know any alternative for non-homologated devices, like chinese tablets?

As long as you can side-load APKs, you should be able to install keyboard apps on any supported Android OS version.


text:
Installing apps from Android Market or alternatives to a virtual Android x86 device
I'm using Oracle Virtual Box to emulate an Android-x86 device. I installed android-x86-2.2-r2-sparta.iso to a virtual HD.
Are there any way to install apk packages from Android Market (http://market.android.com) or do I have to download them only from "unnoficial ways"? Any suggestions for the 2nd case?
PS: Note that I'm asking for a solution for that particular case.

I am not familiar with that particular distribution.  However, in general unless the build you installed contains the "Google Experience" apps (or if there is a separate Market package for it,) you will not be able to use the official Android Market front-end to send apps to your virtual device.
There are some alternate markets, such as Amazon Appstore, GetJar, SlideMe, etc.  Most will require you to download and install their own Market app in order to get other apps.
If you already have APKs of the apps, you should be able to side-load them either via ADB shell (from Android SDK), or via the bundled package installer by executing the APK from the storage area with some sort of a file system browser (if included with the build.)

Hey, man, I'm new on Android things, so could you explain for me what is Android Maket made for? Only to download the apps and to stay updated? If I download them from anothet device that allows Android Market, can I copy that APKs to mine virtual one?

Android Market app and web site allow you to download apps from Google's official app "store", and keep them updated.  2) You can retrieve apps from another Android Market enabled device only if it's rooted, since access to internal device storage is restricted.

Hmm... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooting_%28Android_OS%29 Nice!

You can only get Google Play apps on officially supported devices, which have the Google Play infrastructure pre-loaded.
If you have an emulator, an overview of how to do this:

Install a "pirate" copy of the Google apps from goo.im
Modify your build.prop so that you have a "supported" device linked to your account (app developers will choose devices to officially support, so this may be per-app)

I do apologize if I misunderstood your question, but if you just want to be able to install apps from the play store, you could use a free online service called Evozi. It lets you download apks directly from the play store. You can install the app by opening the app package in your emulator. Keep in mind however, that you would have to update the apps manually using this method. The only way to let apps auto update is by using a market app installed on your emulator.


text:
Upgrading my phone - what happens to the apps?
I've got an HTC Incredible 1, going to be upgrading to a Rezound.  How do I get the apps (both free & purchased, some on the SD some on the phone) from my Incredible to the Rezound?  Free isn't that big a deal, I can re-download them, but I don't want to re-purchase anything.
Thanks!

possible duplicate of Move paid apps between devices?

As long as you log in to the new device with the same google account that you use on the Incredible you will have access to all the apps that you purchased / downloaded. You will not have to purchase them again. The android market is tied to your google account, not the device.

That's what I thought, just wanted to double-check.  Thanks!

Note that any free apps you downloaded through Google Market are not "tracked" in Market and will not show up in your My Apps list in Google Market, so if you wanted to keep those, you'll need to use a backup app or make a list so you can find and re-download them easier.  Only the paid apps will show up when you log in from the new phone.  There is a way to find the full list of apps you've downloaded through the Market web interface, but not in the Market app.

@BBlake My free apps get restored, without a backup program, but I also set the device to "sync" or backup with google services when I set up the device. I don't know where that setting is except during the first setup. Also you can see your entire history, paid and free, in the online market under My Library

Interesting.  My free apps never do when I do a reset.  But it is an older phone and only has Froyo.


text:
Is Google Chrome for Android Beta compatible with the 4.0.3 emulator in the Android SDK?
Is Google Chrome for Android Beta compatible with the Android SDK (Android 4.0.3 system image)?
I tried installing the Chrome .apk file and it installed fine. When running the application I can see the introductory screens, but when I try to navigate to a webpage, all I see is a blank screen. The page appears to be loading indefinitely.
I also tried the stock Android browser and it works fine, so that rules out a network connectivity issue.
The image appears to be stripped of a bunch of packages - Google Login Service/Market, etc. Could that be the cause of Chrome for Android not working correctly or am I not doing something the right way?

I don't think the emulator image implements hardware acceleration, which i think Chrome requires. Mostly an educated guess, but that seems like a likely culprit (meaning it just isn't going to work at this point).

No im sorry, but Chrome for Android needs hardware acceleration, so until Google change that (i dont think thats gonna happen sorry) you can't do that. But maybe in the future.
Sorry, i know it wasn't the answer you really wants to hear...