text:
Is ARM EABI v7a System Image and Mips System Image important?
I noticed that what makes installing SDK packages so slow is because these two packages take too long to be downloaded and sometimes it hangs on these two. Do you really need to download these two packages on every API version in the SDK Manager.

These system images just enable you to run Android emulator with processor of some architecture (depending on system image version; for example, Android 4.0 supports x86) and Android SDK doesn't require these images at all. If you use your phone (or some real device) for android development and don't use emulator at all than you don't need to install them at all.


text:
Why are some apps hidden and how to unhide them
For example, on my Galaxy Tab 7.7 Plus (SC-01E) running Android ICS, the Phone app APK is installed but does not show up in my app drawer.
It will actually show up if it is called by a widget, but there is no launched icon for it anywhere. In the system settings it shows as running.
This tablet is not rooted but I did buy it off from Yahoo! auction.

It will most likely show up as soon as you plug in a dongle holding a SIM. Some apps are hidden based on provider settings: if a supporting provider is detected, the app is shown. No SIM, no provider, not shown.

It's unfortunate because the android phone app has some sip features that are useful whether you have voice service or not.

Android has many apps that run either in background (such as Accuweather daemon) or only appear as widgets (for example TypoClock). Since these two apps don't need the user to open them from the launcher, they don't add an icon to it.
The same happens with Live Wallpapers. If you use a root explorer or another root app that will let you see all the installed apps, you will see that the list is higher than the apps that appear in the launcher.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Unix domain sockets between host and emulator
I am trying get Android and my Linux host talk to each other on Unix domain sockets.
I have my server on the host while the client is part of a library that emulator's software stack will make use of. The Android stack is not able to find the socket stream file that I have specified which happens to be on the host's filesystem.
Now, before you say "port forward", I have tried that and this is what I have tried based on my understanding of the abd forward command. I have not had success in this. Could you guys please point out the mistake and help me?
adb forward localfilesystem:/tmp/android_socket localfilesystem:android_socket

The path used in the host is /tmp/android_socket and that in the Android emulator is "android_socket"

development question?

Not necessarily. IPC (inter-process communication) is useful in development, sure -- but there are certainly some "civil use-cases" as well. The question does not directly target at development, so I'd say it's valid here.

@Izzy That's what I thought!! :)

Highly doubt the emulator has the capability to do just that! The Android stack is not able to find the socket stream file that I have specified which happens to be on the host's filesystem. Why not use plain old fashioned TCPIP ports instead of Unix Domain... think that's outside the scope of the emulator!

Unix domain sockets are meant to be used for interprocess communication on one host, not for inter host communication.
Sockets that are located on the filesystem like you describe are not unix sockets, but named pipes, and are also limited for use on the same host.
For inter-host communication, you need to use network sockets of some kind.

+1 from me, correct, as I have commented previously above! You've confirmed it :)

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


text:
folder not visible
I have a Samsung Galaxy S2, running Android 2.3.
I have folder named usbStorage. After the firmware to latest version (via Kies), I can't see the usbStorage folder. When I mount the storage via USB mass storage mode, I can see that folder with all my content. I tried to copy some files in that folder, but no luck. When I connect the phone to MTP mode, I can see the folder but it's empty.
Is there a way to get back that folder? I can move all my content to another folder, but then I need to rewrite my applications that depend on that.

here are my two cents, the file browser samsung bundles with their firmware doesn't always show you all the files tree. you might want to try moving the content of the folder to another location visible to the file browser, or, if you're feeling adventurous, root your device and install a better app like root browser.

then why they showed that folder in 2.3.3 version? Also i deleted that folder and after remount memory to pc, the folder was created again. And also my own application can't see that folder. looks like it is locked by OS. I moved all content to new folder.


text:
Nexus 7 Incredibly Slow
Over the past few weeks, my Nexus 7 running 4.2 Jelly Bean has gotten incredibly slow at times. Sometimes I can count off a full five (or more) seconds for an app to open or even for something as simple as scrolling from one home screen to another. I've had the device for three or four months and it just recently started giving me problems. I hadn't installed anything new prior to noticing the problem and everything that I have installed came from the Play store, so it should all be safe. Rebooting the device does not seem to help.
What can I do to diagnose and hopefully fix this problem? This is my first Android device so I don't even really know where to start.

Maybe you take a look at My device is getting slow, apps start misbehaving/crashing. What can I do?, which has a few things to consider and might give you some ideas.

I have noticed the same issue on my Nexus 7 running stock Jelly Bean 4.2. I also noticed reboots. Do you happen to have HD Widgets installed? That seemed to be the cause of many of my slow downs, but unfortunately not all. Apps that use location services seem to be the issue with my slowdowns. Are you noticing the same thing?
This article goes into some of the issues seen on 4.2 that I experienced.

To troubleshoot, reboot to safe mode by long pressing the Power Off on the power-off menu.
Screenshot from my N4:

Ugh. Please don't use URL shorteners.

How do I determine which app is causing the problem once I'm in safe mode?

It looks like some of your app is eating your CPU :

One (extrem) solution would be to do a complete factory reset, and then reinstall the app you need.
You could check your CPU usage (there are many apps for that : Android System Info, CPU Usage...), who, how long... and find who is too greedy

If your available space gets too low, the Nexus 7 will become laggy.
Go to Settings->Storage and check the number next to Available.  If it's under 3gb, try moving some data off the device (movies, music, etc.) via USB to get the available space to 3gb or more.
If this corrects the performance problem, then you can restore data a bit at a time to fine tune the threshold where performance drops off.
I don't know of a hard and fast rule for how much free space should be available.
FWIW: My Nexus 7 became very laggy (long pauses for the keyboard to pop up after entering a text field, switching tabs in Chrome was very slow) and I tried uninstalling apps, disabling apps that ran as services to no avail.  I checked my free space and it was 750mb.  I deleted a movie I had copied to the device and freed up an additional 2gb.  As soon as I did that, the lag vanished.

Unfortunately, Nexus 7 2013 has a hardware problem in bad SSD that is dying quite fast. Newest Android helped with this as it was writing to disc more data, so Nexus 7 devices started dying faster. I don't know if this is problem of all 2013 Nexus 7 devices or just the first batch, but mine is unusable now and I just trashed it today.
There are some "workarounds" floating around to enforce TRIM, but this does not really help much (for some time yes, there are technical reasons for that).
More info: http://www.geek.com/android/the-nexus-7-lag-dilemma-and-why-theres-no-real-fix-1560784/

The issue is better explained here, it seems to happen when your device is almost full. If you are rooted then you can check the lagfix app, it did make a difference on my Nexus.

We want answers on Stack Exchange to be self-contained. There is no useful information here; it's all behind that link. Worse, when that link stops functioning, this answer is absolutely worthless.


text:
Which CM9 ROM for sony ericsson x10i?
I was about to download a CM ROM file for my phone, here
Now when I use that (first) uploaded link, it showed me a folder, in which there are a bunch of different versions, such as

anzu
aoba
mango
etc

and many more.
How do I determine which would be the correct version for me?
My Phone is a Sony Ericsson Xperia x10i, if that is of interest.
I hope this was not asked before, I was searching around for a while.
Thanks for any help!

Not sure why the vote(s) to Close. "How do I determine which would be the correct version" is a valid question.

I do not think there's any support for the x10 from CM for the v9 release.
For reference:

Xperia Arc => anzu
Xperia Neo => hallon
Xperia Pro => iyokan
Xperia Mini Pro => mango
Xperia Ray => urushi
Xperia Mini => smultron
Xperia Arc S => ayame
Xperia Neo V => haida
Xperia Active => satsuma
Live with Walkman => coconut
Xperia Neo L => phoenix

Edit:
CyanogenMod is a ROM that targets a lot of handsets. A souped up/bloated version of the Stock Vanilla AOSP Android (the ones found on the Nexus series handsets)
The FreeXperia project was founded by jerpelea who (unofficially works for Sony, gets freebies and contributes to porting CM for that handset etc). Also, FreeXperia project is officially merged into the CyanogenMod tree. Not all legacy devices are supported using the CM ROM, especially for the newer v9 and v10 (ICS and JB respectively.
If visiting this Get CM you will actually find that CM is not supporting the legacy devices!
Have not tried FreeXperia, but have heard it is not 100% stable, as some things are broken on it (If anyone wants to correct me, feel free to say so in the comments) :)

thanks for your answer... on this page https://sites.google.com/site/projectfreexperia/home/device-details/x10-i-a---es209ra it says something about CyanogenMod9 though... do you have any idea what that means? thanks again!

@Chips_100 see my edit :)

thanks for your effort, very informative answer! you definitely helped me out here!

@t0mm13b you really don't like CM huh? It's not a bad thing that the individual maintainers for CM get free devices from the manufacturers. If they didn't the community would probably have a lot smaller range of custom ROMs for these devices.

@RyanConrad Its not a bad thing to get freebies alright and I agree yes, but now, the CM founder works for samsung, and there is samsung "orientated-ness" for want of better word for it... samsung devices gets the cm updates quicker than other devices... just saying... it is over-bloated the ROM itself, stock vanilla AOSP <3 ... :D (see that heart symbol there :P) LOL!

@t0mm13b Samsung, right now, just makes some of the best devices, and the highest selling devices. It's smart to target the "top" devices first. But I don't want to get an off-topic discussion going in the comments, i was just curious. :)

@RyanConrad no worries at all there mate :)

i am running CM10 now on my xperia x10i for about a month now, and i am totally happy with it.
the only thing I noticed (and it is stated on the homepage of cm), is that the hotspot function is not working anymore.
but besides that, its a huge improvement to the official android fw of the x10i!

This is not version of CM - it's CM code name of device. Depending on your device you should download needed release.

Not a CM code name really, it originates from Sony who labels the kernels for each SEMC chipset! :)

thanks, nice list! that helped me to get to this site...  http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=es209ra&type= though the downloads are both 404s. was my phone 'dropped' by the developers??

@Chips_100 read this tutorial.


text:
Is it possible to disable Google Play indefinitely?
I have an HTC Desire. This phone sadly has very limited internal memory although plenty of memory card memory. Since owning it I've become accustomed to moving any apps I download onto the SD card and using the internal memory as little as possible. Unfortunately some applications insist on being installed in the internal memory. Some of these applications (Adobe Acrobat and Google Maps for example) have become larger and larger as more updates have come from Google and I've had to uninstall all updates for them, settling for the basic versions which came with the phone and cannot be uninstalled. (In the two cases listed these versions are far leaner and better anyway).
Unfortunately Google is working against me in my crusade to continue using my phone. A year or so ago they forcibly upgraded the simple Market app (which took up very little space) with the 10Mb "Google Play Store". I had sufficient space for this until they also forcibly installed "Google Play Services" which uses a further 6Mb. This now causes my phone to be unusable every morning (low disk space) when the update happens and every morning I uninstall it again before I go to work.
Does anyone know if it's possible to disable the updates for Google's own market place? The old Market app does still work very well once you've uninstalled Google Play but I can't find a way to make that permanent.

I know that there have been several other questions here from Desire owners with the same issue(s).

use titanium backup pro or app2sd
those app will help you

With ICS and up (i.e. Android 4.0+), or if you consider rooting your device, there is something else you could do:

Freeze the MarketUpdater using Androids Manage Applications (ICS and up) -- or, before ICS, e.g. TitaniumBackup
optionally uninstall all updates to the Playstore app

Alternatively, maybe even better (depending on the version of Market/Playstore app pre-installed on your device) -- but requires root (as the Legacy Play Store needs to be installed as system app):

Freeze the MarketUpdater as above
Freeze the Playstore app along =:-0
Install Legacy Play Store instead :-)

No more updates (as that Legacy Play Store won't be updated -- it's an older version of the Playstore/Market app, patched to be used in parallel to the recent version; it has some features which were removed from the current versions), and a less-overloaded Playstore app are the results.

Hmm, I've always avoided rooting the device since I have a strangely different attitude to phones than I do to PCs.  With PCs I'll perform any amount of tinkering but with phones I've always just wanted them to just work.  Perhaps it's time I changed my attitude ;-)

It just came to my mind, my answer needs a slight adjustment: With ICS and up, the first option does not need root :) But aside from this: I already feel "naked" if my device has no root access XD

I had an HTC Desire some time ago, the solution for this kind of problem is to use any App2SD method.
The idea behind App2SD is the following:
1. Partition the SD card to add a 512Mb partition.
2. Symlink the directory /data of your phone to that partition.
With that, you will have a "virtual" /data of 512Mb (enough to install a lot of apps) and the phone won't be whining about free space. You will need to have a custom recovery in order to achieve this (root not needed). You can check some Apps2SD scripts in the XDA Forum. You will only need to follow the instructions there, but is as simple as partitioning the SD card (you can do that from the recovery) and flashing a zip file.

You can use Lucky Patcher to remove system apps (freeze package or uninstall), although, I recommend not doing so, because it can result in a soft-brick.

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


text:
Google Navigate does not announce the street name on my phone, but it does on my tablet
I have a Galaxy III running Android 4.1.1.  When I use Navigate on my phone it will announce the turns but without the street names.
I also have a Nexus 7, running Android 4.2.1 and when I use Navigate on that device, it does announce the street names (provided it has an internet connection --- which it gets from my phone ironically)
Is there anyway to get the phone to also announce the street names?


text:
connecting to a wireless network that uses WPA2 enterprise encryption
I'm trying to connect to a wireless internet I've got the user id and password for. The network uses WPA2 enterprise encryption and Cisco:Leap authentication.
How can I connect?
On my laptop I do this using a program by ThinkVantage technologies called Access Connections but on the Android built in wireless networks there aren't enough options.
Android version: 4.0.4 with JJHybrid custom rom (and rooted)

Seen this? http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/37241/how-to-connect-using-wpa2-enterprise-on-android-devices?rq=1 Particularly the last comment, what encryption, what wifi channel, is there mac filtering in place?

The problem, in my experience, is that the vanilla Android UI doesn't give enough access to all the WiFi capabilities that the device possesses.
What I've done on my devices in the past, in situations where I needed to connect to an enterprise wifi is to remote into the device and change the wpa_supplicant.conf file manually. To do this though you'll need root access on the device.
The steps are as follows:

Make sure that you have the device connected to the computer and turn development mode on, with your device driver installed. You can find some of them on Google's page.
You'll need to have android-developer-bridge at hand, which comes with the android-sdk. You can get that here.
In a terminal of your choice run the adb.exe file from the sdk with the following command: adb.exe devices. This will give you a print out of the devices that were detected. If not, check the steps above.
Now you'll need to pull the wpa_supplicant file to your computer's filesystem for modification, or you could do it through the terminal itself.
Run adb.exe pull /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf <The path you want to put the file on your computer>.
Open up the file and modify it by adding a block with the following format (//is a comment and should not be placed in the document). You'll need to get the correct information from your network administrator:
    network={
       ssid="<Your network SSID>"
       scan_ssid=1
       priority=1 //Higher priority makes this SSID take precedent over other SSID's
       mode=0
       key_mgmt= //For instance IEEE8021X
       eap=  //For instance PEAP
       identity= "<Your username>"
       password="<Your password>"
       phase2="" //For instance auth=MSCHAPV2
    }

Save the file, turn off your phone's WiFi, and run adb.exe push <Path of the file on your filesystem> /data/misc/wifi
Now run adb.exe shell, and execute chown system.wifi /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf
Turn the phone's WiFi back on, and hopefully this worked.

Another option is to try to use some of the WiFi management apps you can get on the Play market, but in my experience they haven't worked all that well.
Hope this helps you in some way.
-MrDresden


text:
How do you clear .thumbnails folder without hanging Windows Explorer?
Is there a recommended way to clear out the thumbnail data that I have in DCIM/.thumbnails folder?
It occupies about 50 MB and I want to clear it out but when I press Ctrl+A in Windows Explorer it stops responding. There are maybe 10,000 files in there.
Is that enough to cause this problem where Explorer just hangs?
I read in another post here at AE that you're supposed to go to Settings, Applications, and then pick the Gallery app and tap Clear Cache button.
I tried this and it didn't help. Also it said in the dialog that the size occupied is like 170 KB or so. So I don't think that's it.
But this is on Android 2.2, just for the record, so maybe it doesn't work that way in this version.

I realize that this might be more of a Windows problem than Android problem. But is there actually a recommended procedure of clearing out this space? What I do is I mount the Android device as a USB mass storage and then try to delete these files with Windows Explorer and it hangs it. But maybe there is another way? From within Andorid? Am I even allowed to delete these files? Also, the Gallery app is the one that uses this folder, right? I didn't find any options for clearing out this stuff in the app.

You could use any file explorer directly on your Android device to do this. A good choice is e.g. ES File Explorer File Manager, which as a side-effect also enables you to directly access your PC from the Android device (accessing your Shared Folders via WiFi), and has many other nice features:

Start the app
Go to Settings → File Settings, and enable Show Hidden Files option
Navigate to the folder
long-press the folder name, and select "delete" from the pop-up menu
Confirm the deletion of folder and contents, if asked for
for "normal operations", you might want to disable Show Hidden Files again

It is pretty safe to delete the entire folder (instead of deleting all files separately). After all, with a new phone/sd card, the folder won't exist either. The app/service using the folder will simply re-create it if it does not (longer) exist.

Is it safe to delete the whole folder? Shouldn't I just delete the files? Does it matter? I will try this.

Consider the following: Your sd card "breaks", and you have to replace it. Or your device never had an SD card, and you decide to use one. In both cases, the (new) SD card most likely is completely empty, with no directories/data on. So yes, it should be pretty safe to delete the entire folder -- moreover it saves you from marking all files manually to delete them ;) If the folder is needed, the corresponding app/service will simply re-create it. // added that to my answer.

When I go to DCIM in ES File Explorer I don't see the thumbnails folder.

Never mind, I've found it. It was hidden so I had to go to Settings, File Settings, and enable Show Hidden Files option. I managed to delete all the files in this folder using this app.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that with the "hidden" stuff. Will add it to my answer as well -- thanks for pointing it out!


text:
android 4.2.1 installation error on N7000 error

Possible Duplicate:
Flashing Cyanogenmod9 - Kernel via Odin

I have a galaxy N7000 4.1.1 and tried to upgrade it to 4.2.1 but it shows and error when installing the system a such error# 7 that has to be with Internal space I've heard.
Can anybody please tell me how to fix it.. I have the 4.2.1 system and the google apps for this. But this is not letting me upgrade my android.
Thanks.

Can you describe the method you used to upgrade? Odin, Clockwork Recovery? Can you post the exact error you see. And what ROM are you trying to flash?

Additional info would be really helpful. Else: There's also the heimdall flash software to do it http://www.glassechidna.com.au/products/heimdall/


text:
Joining Contacts has no effect (SG3 4.1.1)
I just switched from the SG2 to the SG3. They transferred all my contacts at the store.
I now have a lot of duplicate contacts, some of which are Phone contacts and some of which are Google contacts. I am working to clean this up.
On my old SG2, joining contacts did what I desired: 2 contacts would become 1 with all of the information from contact A and contact B 'joined' together.
On my new SG3, when I join contacts, I get a message saying 'Contact Joined', but there is no visible effect. No additional data is added, no additional joined contact is present, and when I browse through my contacts, both copies of the contact are still present.
What am I missing?
There are similar questions such as Merging duplicate contacts - is my phone broken?. My question seems very similar, but no one sufficiently answered the poster's original question in my view.
It might be a good idea to start over, but I would need a way of separating out the Phone and Google contacts when I export. Thoughts on that point?
Thanks.

By the way, I found and merged duplicates at contacts.google.com and I deleted duplicates using the Duplicate Contact app. I still have duplicates to deal with.

After much searching for an answer, I found this in another forum.
I use Companionlink to sync my old Palm Desktop database to my S3. The contact records come into the device showing as a phone record, but most times don't auto join to Facebook and LinkedIn records...even if the names match exactly. I tried in vain on many records to join contacts by clicking on a contact then selecting the paperclip icon to join contacts. I would go through the motions and join the contacts, and get a confirmation that contacts were joined, even though it never actually happened. This solution below works! It appears that the 'main' way of getting this done (at least with Jelly Bean) has a programming flaw. Hopefully it will be fixed when Key Lime Pie comes out. In the interim, use this solution below.
Do this:

Open the settings for one of the contacts (click on the "pencil" while viewing the contact)
Put the cursor at the end of the contacts last name, like you're changing their name, and type a space (hit space bar) then it will bring up other similar contacts below. Choose the account you want join by touching it and the phone will prompt you to join contacts.

This method has not failed!

Wow, that does work, crazy.

One of the simple way is
1.synchronize your phone contacts with Google.
2. merge contacts in your Google account.
3.Delete all your contact in mobile.
4.Synchronize again with your Google contacts.
I just merged most of my duplicate contacts using this way.

Question: is there a way to force a contact that is only on my phone to sync with Google? I have examples that are not synced (and the global setting is set to sync with Google).


text:
How to have my phone guide me through a specific route
Every weekend I go out and ride my bike through the exact same boring old route.
Now I've decided I want to start exploring new parts of the city, but I need my
phone to help me that.
Today, using google maps, I decided on a new route I want to follow next weekend
(and I'll probably have a new one each week). The problem is that I've never
been to these streets, so I need my phone to guide me through it.
Specifically, I need something very similar to android's GPS navigation. I'll
define where I want to go, place the phone in my pockets (with earphones), and
just listen to the turn-by-turn "driving" instructions and follow them.
The reason I don't just use android navigation is that the route isn't a simple
Go from A to B, it's more like Go from A to B, then to C, ..., then back to A.
That means I would have to re-type these destinations one by one in the phone, which is far from ideal.
Ideally, I need a system that allows me to do something like:

plan a complex route on the computer,
send it to my phone,
have it guide me with turn-by-turn voice instructions.

Is there an app for that? Or is there a way to do that with standard GPS navigation?

The solution I use for similar situation is Trekbuddy.  I am sure you will discard the idea of using this app if you didn't understand it well. Hence, read through its description in its Play site and their forums. It requires little homework before any such serious use. But once you know your way (pun intended  ) through the application, it will be a breeze.
With this app, you can plan your route on computer export it as GPX and together with few MP3 files you can create a turn-by-turn pre-planned navigation.  Be aware that if you miss your turn this will not reroute you back. You have to see the map that and continue either on the new route or try to join the pre planned route.
To know about its other uses, take a look at my answer for the question "How to import GPS coordinates track for using offline"
You may also try OSMAND. You can create a pre planned route and export as GPX file. OSMAnd can be configured to use this pre defined route. I could not get my head through the options and configurations to make this work. But from reading its help, I understand that this can do the above and even reroute in case if you miss your turn.
Personally, I like Trekbuddy for its simplicity and its many features as I described in my answer to the other question.
If you happen to succeed with OSMAnd, please share your procedure with us.

Update:
After reading through the forum pages of Trekbuddy,  I finally figured out how to use a pre planned turn by turn navigation feature and I tried today to ensure it is working.
The steps involved are (from scratch):

Install Trekbuddy either from PlayStore or from their download link.
Run the app with GPS switched on. Press Menu and press Start and wait for GPS fix. If GPS fix is a success you will see the cross hair at your location in the World map.
To display a map, you have to download raster map tiles from the service provider.  These tiles are to be placed in a particular format and an application called Mobac comes for rescue. This app creates such map tiles, indexes and even compress. Various map sources like OpenStreetMap, OpenCycleMap, Google Maps*, Google Terrain*, Google Earth Satellite*, Yahoo Maps etc can be used. Explaining how to create a map will be bit out of scope here, and I will leave it to a rare tutorial available here in German.
Assuming you had successfully created a TARred atlas (collection of map tiles as said above), you have to place the .TAR file and its subfolder inside \mnt\sdcard\Trekbuddy\maps folder. To load the map, press Menu button and touch Maps option and select the *.Tar file. Depending on how you had layered the atlas, layers might appear in the next screen and if so, select a layer. Trekbuddy might prompt you to mark this as default atlas. If acceptable click Yes and you will save all this step doing again.
One map is loaded, you can ensure it by tapping any where in the screen, which will show the cross hair on your location in the map as identified by the GPS.
In your computer plan a route and mark turning points as waypoints. As an example, in this following image
 six waypoints are marked as WPT1..WPT6.
In computer, using a text editor, create a GPX file with following template.

Place the GPX file created as above in \mnt\sdcard\Trekbuddy\wpts folder.
Place sound files in AMR format (MP3 not tested) in \mnt\sdcard\Trekbuddy\sounds folder. The file name of these files should be as mentioned in the GPX file.
And finally, in Trekbuddy app, press Menu, Navigation, Waypoints and choose the above GPX file. Then choose the final waypoint, in this case WPT6 and press menu again and choose NavigateTo.

When you start moving approach WPT1, the sound assigned to WPT1 will be played. The setting Settings->Navigation->Wpt Proximity determines the proximity radius. The value is in meters and when the current GPS position is within this imaginary circle, the sound will be played.

I believe it has been discontinued since Mobac version 1.9 onward due to legal pressure. Old versions are not officially available but are still at large.

Looks nice. Could you let me know what software you use for exporting the GPX? And would the creating of mp3 files have to be done manually on my part?

I use Google maps to plan my route. I drag the route around the road through which I would like to go. I then use Google maps to GPX using Elsewhere. It works great with IE and I am not sure about others. Regarding MP3 we need very few files like "Turn Left" etc. The way TrekBuddy works is that when you reach a waypoint, it plays a MP3 file with the name of the waypoint. For the first few attempts this sounds pain, but soon you will discover or manage with fewer MP3 files.

..and I missed to mention that when using ElseWhere, you will see Route, Track, Points and Full kind of options. I choose Full. Then I copy the content from the window and paste in a text file, renaming it as a GPX.

Locus's community forum has a question that should be of interest to you. You could also see that author (@Marc) of the post has answered exactly what you want, but with Internet connectivity on.

Ok, I'm accepting this answer for OsmAnd. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the voice part of TreckBuddy to work, and Locus only does voice navigation in the pro version. Still, even with OsmAnd the experience hasn't been perfect. I found that (for some very wide streets) it would sometimes not realise that I had already passed the checkpoint, and it would then just keep telling me to go back.

(and answering your question) You have to paste the gpx file inside the
OsmAnd/tracks/ folder. Then launch OsmAnd -> Map -> Navigation, and there's an
option to follow a track instead of a destination.

You could also give Locus Map Free a try. This app can import GPX fine as well, and you can use the track as "route" to be navigated on. From the app's description:

Voice navigation & guiding

full support for Online voice navigation
voice & notification guiding on single waypoint (by compass or on the map) and along path

Side-effect of Locus: You can also import complete KMZ files (zipped KML), including images and descriptions. I use that for creating my own travel guide when going on vacation, with my personal POIs and stuff researched on the web.
Another plus: It can work completely offline. Map material can be downloaded right from within the app using different sources. As for navigation, you need to calculate the route in advance (but importing tracks does the same ;). From there on, no network connection is required anymore. Tested this multiple times, works great.

I tired Locus Map Free and observed that I could not follow the track without Internet connection. Just trying to keep you informed and at the same time giving myself a chance to correct if I am wrong.

I tried that a while ago, and it worked. But I didn't use "voice navigation" back then: so you might be correct if you address that, as I didn't test this part. Guess I will need to repeat my test -- sorry for that...

Maybe I got this wrong, but I think you need the paid version to have voice navigation.

Cuesheet paired with http://ridewithgps.com works well. On the website, you can easily plan/modify a travelling route that will then be imported in CueSheet.
The route can be very complicated with many twists and turns. English turn by turn instructions are created at the same time. Also, you can insert your own instructions in the list if you want. After saving the route on the website, you run the cuesheet on your phone/tablet. After you sign into your ridewithgps account using the app, you will see a list of routes you have planned on the website. Pick one and it will download to your android device with its turn by turn instructions. In the app you are also given the option to download the map so there is no need of internet connection to use the guiding.
It is not perfect since it can give many false off course warnings, but it is by far the best combination of flexible route planning and voice guiding I have found. It costs 4 USD for the version with voice guiding.

I have found a very promising app to solve this problem. OsmAnd. I have been looking for a wa to import a gpx of a  trail system to know where I am while dirtbiking. So far I have been able to import a gpx showing a pre-recorded map of the trail. I was also able to download the entire state road/trail map easily from the app for offline use. OsmAnd has many other features I haven't explored yet.

And that works without looking at the screen, only going by audio – as the OP asked for? As you don't say so in your answer explicitly, it might be you overlooked that part of the question – so I just want to verify :)


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How to customize font size and color in Jelly Bean?
The combination of small font size, low contrast color schemes (gray on gray), and the erratic operation of the auto-intensity makes the screen difficult to read in many circumstances.
I like auto-dimming, but I think it follows the wrong curve and is often too dim for the ambient conditions. The only alternative is to disable the automatic function entirely, which still results in often having the wrong brightness.
Can anyone recommend the simplest approach to customizing the font sizes and colors for the JB user interface? I liked Gingerbread's UI, but would prefer stick with the JB OS if the UI could be made more like GB.
(Phone is Nexus S 9020, Jelly Bean 4.1.2)

power control widget lets you quickly switch between three brightness levels.

When dealing with an automatic feature that is IMHO very useful, and that "almost works", I'm the type of person who wants to find a way to fix it, rather than give it up entirely and use a manual method.   I'm hoping somebody will say "oh, the auto brigheness curve is in file abc.xyz, just edit the table there"

Also worth a look: Spare Parts Plus. Amongst others, it lets you adjust the font size.

You can go to Settings > Display > Font size, to change the size. I'm not sure how to change the color though.

To change font size you can navigate to Settings - > Display - > Font Size.


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Backup and Restore using adb

Possible Duplicate:
New phone: How to transfer game progress?

I recently got a Samsung Galaxy S3 and I am wanting to transfer my Jetpack Joyride game progress from my old HTC Legend. There are 2 things I am unsure of when it comes to using adb. Is there a way to us it to get the data from my HTC or will I need to root it. I read in a few places that it doesn't work on Android 2.2. Also, what commands would I use to restore the data to the Samsung?

adb backup –apk –shared –all –f /backup/mybackup.ab - backs up your all apps and data.
adb restore /backup/mybackup.ab - restores it back.


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Change existing contacts from 'phone' to 'gmail'
When the contact items (or several) are set to 'phone', how can they be changed to 'gmail' in order to sync?
In the post Contacts Sync problems: phone contacts not syncing to Google,
it says that contacts set to 'phone' will not sync. So, how can they be changed?

You need to export your phone contacts in to vcf format and then again import it into Google contacts.
Steps in Android 4.2:

contacts -> settings > Import/Export -> Export to storage.
contacts -> settings > Import/Export -> Import from storage. - This will ask you to select your Google account to save.

Edit/Delete or remove duplicates in http://contacts.google.com. Thats easy.


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Mount a folder from external sd as /data
How do I mount /mnt/sdcard/data as /data. Right now the /data has its own partition but it's too small (~500mb) and I would much rather give it more space than move apps and other things to my SD card.
My device is Micromax Canvas 2 A110.
It has a ~2GB internal sd card mounted at /mnt/sdcard2
and an external one at /mnt/sdcard and /sdcard
(I'm on some custom rom that switches internal and external default mount points like that)
I don't know what filesystem those are in.

What's the filesystem on your external sd? Also, tell more about your device..

@SachinShekhar added details in the edit.

This is the way to have /data on the SD Card directory:

Copy all /data to the SD card directory: /mnt/sdcard/data
Delete /data
Create a symlink that points to the SD: ln -s /mnt/sdcard/data /data

The main problem is that /data could be EXT2/3/4 partition, while the SD Card is FAT32. The best thing to achieve what you want is to create an extra partition on the SD Card as EXT2/3/4 filesystem. Then you can link the directory /data with the partition.
When the phone restarts, it will mount the data partition more or less like this:
mount <args> /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data

Since /data is pointing now to /mnt/sdcard/data, the above command is equivalent to this one:
mount <args> /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /mnt/sdcard/data

So in the end, we would have our data partition mounted in the SD card. Again, it should be in a separate partition, so we have the SD card as FAT and the extra partition as EXT2/3/4 so it won't fail when it mounts due to the filesystem.
If you want a more elegant solution, you can try any of the XDA Developers App2SD scripts, they let you achieve the same but without symlinking (it will mount it and bind it to /data). You will only need a Custom Recovery to be able to flash them. You can check them here.

What does a reboot mean in your example? The init-scripts probably want to mount the original /data partition then. Won't that be a problem?

When rebooting the phone, it will mount the data partition in /data. Since it now points to the SD card, it will mount it there and it shouldn't be a problem since we're using the same filesystem.

@Peter On Android 5.0+, any symlink at root level like /data here removed during reboot ? No ? So what is the actual solution?

i had the same problem and my external sd card was in extsd, /mnt/extsd, and the one inside the tablet was in /mnt/sdcard.
I spend 3 hours to figure this out.
Hope this helps someone.
Thanks

Sorry, but this doesn't really answer the question. The asker wasn't asking where his SD card data resides, he was asking how he could use a portion of the SD card to   provide more space for apps and data. See the answer above.


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map physical button to auto-rotate switch in android?
I would like to map the auto-rotate lock toggle/switch/setting to a physical button in a device. how do I do that?
On the linux side of android, in linux/input.h, there are different KEY events, SW(switch) events and a lot more. fortunately, the rotation lock is there(SW_ROTATION_LOCK), however it is a switch event type, not a key event type...
Looking in my key layout file (.kl file), all items that are listed there are key events...
On the other hand, the assigned events to these keys are constants in the android framework. looking at http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/KeyEvent.html where valid key maps are listed, I assume.
What I have done:
Registered the physical button to recieve the rotation lock as a switch event on the board configuration settings... (imx6 board) all that's left is on the android side I believe..
so, anyone knows how to map the button to auto-rotation lock/switch?

You might want to have a look at some of the answers to this previous question: How can I customize the actions associated with my Moto Droid's hardware buttons?

Use AutoInput or Xposed Additions (latter needs Xposed Framework) combined with Tasker to do the job. Use Tasker to create task where the action would be auto-rotate. Attach that task in AutoInput or Xposed Additions.


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Is There a Computer Application To Manage SMS Messages The Same as Nokia PC Suite Can?
In Nokia PC Suite we can backup mobile data (contacts, message etc) on a computer. We can also send, receive sms or manage sms by computer using Nokia PC Suite when a Nokia mobile is connected with a computer by Bluetooth or by data cable.
Is there any software or application by which I can use my HTC Desire SV mobile phone the same way as above?
I want to send or receive SMS by my laptop which is connected to my HTC Desire SV because this saves my time.
Is this possible?

Try MyPhoneExplorer to control (almost) any Android device. You can easily send and receive sms on your PC when this software is connected to your phone.
or HTC Sync Manager for synchronizing.

the software which you mention above only sync the data. You can not send SMS or receive SMS on computer while phone is connected by computer.

In MyExplorer every thing is there what I want ... Thanx dear

For a system independent solution, you might want to take a look at e.g. AirDroid:

AirDroid runs as an app on your Android device. When you start this app, it offers you to start its service. Having done so, it displays an URL to connect to with a web browser, plus a password to authenticate. Doing so on your PC, you can manage your Android device from within the PC's web browser: edit your contacts, send SMS, play your media, change the background image, and much more. Even the clipboard can be shared.
Preferably this is done while both devices (the Android device and your PC) are connected to the same network, of course -- but you don't need a cable, as the name AIRdroid correctly indicates the "over-the-air" use of WiFi :)
Other than with the Nokia PC suite, AirDroid doesn't save a copy of the Android device's data on your PC. This is, however, AFAIK done by MyPhoneExplorer Client -- which was already mentioned in MattLin's answer; but this is only available to Windows users.

thank you for your time and useful response. As you mention here this will work only when both device and phone use same network. Means phone is connected with WiFi which have same network to the computer. Suppose I don't have WiFi connection then this how this will work?

Via a proxy: Just visit the app's Playstore page, and take a look at the first screenshot. Alternatively to a local IP address, it mentions you can connect via http://web.airdroid.com/; all data will then be routed openly via the Internet (so I'd suggest to at least enable HTTPS in this case). Furthermore, your mobile provider has to support this (not all do, some block "incoming" traffic to your device) -- you may need to check this. But as the app is free, there's nothing to lose, right?

MightyText - send and receive SMS from your computer. It will automatically get synced in your phone.

this is good application but it use mobile and computer Internet connection. I simply want to connect my mobile with computer using Bluetooth or data cable and start sending or receiving SMS. Exactly same as Nokia PC Suite.

I think Mighty Text is the best app to send SMS from a computer to a phone. It makes the device suitable to send the SMS. Hope you will love this.


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What part of android is responsible for alerts?
Some time ago I customized my Android phone by removing all the bloatware and by setting the permissions for a lot of system apps with lbe security center to a more privacy-friendly state. This included disabling access to my phone number, IMEI, SIM number, Internet access for apps that shouldn't have it, and other things. I only removed which I considered bloatware, such as several Samsung apps, Google junk I didn't need such as search, widget, sync adapters,... And I customized the permissions of for example Google services framework (no SIM number access, and other set to on demand), Android market (no phone number and location), maps (location on demand, no phone number/IMEI)...
After that I ran into a problem, namely my calendar alerts don't function properly  and I noticed that my alarms don't activate the second time (using galaxy s3 app). The calendar alerts sometimes function correctly but sometimes either not on time or not at all, and I found on the Internet that some people are experiencing the same problems with the calendar and exactly the same way as for when the alerts do work and when they don't. Some apps that seem to rely on the Android system for alerts (such as wordfeud, buienalarm), don't work correctly either. I noticed, but cannot say this for certain, that the alerts do work once or several times after I enable WiFi for the first time (or was it mobile Internet?)
I have to mention that apps that have  their own alert/notification system do work correctly, such as chaton (using Samsung push app), whatsapp and Trillian.
Now I'd like to know if anyone can tell me which app or feature is responsible for these alerts and notifications and/or how to fix this properly. I installed a custom version of the Galaxy S3 Android 4.1.2 ROM of wanamlite using the mobile Odin app but my problems aren't solved.
specs :
Android 4.1.2 wanamlite
Galaxy S3 international I9300

K-mail is also one of the apps that function correctly

You should revert the permissions of the Google Services Framework app. This is the app that controls the connection to the Google Servers, and without it Sync and other things will not work.
You should also revert the permissions for all adapters, and non-bloatware system apps. There is a reason the apps need this data.

Alarms are (or at least should be) something completely local. Imagine you're cut off from all network (sitting in a bunker for a week, to give an extreme example). Alarms should still work -- and they could not work when they need to be triggered externally. So I doubt your suggestion will improve the situation much.

I agree with Izzy, I re-enabled the permissions for the services framework app before and it didn't fix it. I did notice that cutting it off from the Internet makes the Google play app nonfunctional after a while because it can't connect to the Google account.while I noticed that the framework periodically connects to the Internet to keep the account logged in or so

And out of my own experience, I haven't removed any important apps. Removing Google apps doesn't necessarily mean it will break compatibility. I just removed features I didn't need and that in one way or another posed a privacy issue

To add to my first comment: I have one device I kept offline for days (up to a week or more). Alerts still worked perfectly. Of course, new calendar events added from another device wouldn't turn up on the offline-device ;)

Some devices do have problems with at least the calendar alerts. Or at least partial ones: What does a single chime help if I'm just "out of reach", as the device is on my desk while I'm being for the "private place". Alarms thus should repeat until explicitly dismissed, at least for a given time frame (30min minimum).
To work around this problem, the playstore offers several apps like e.g. Calendar Event Reminder (CER) or CalendarAlarmHelper, which might be worth a look for you. I'm using the former, and it never missed to alert me. HandyPhone might also be worth a look in this context (at least if you're running ICS or above).
side-note: Yeah, I'm also using LBE in a similar manner as you do, so it works even then ;)

But how come that's the case when everything functioned correctly in the beginning, even after rooting my device. But then one day, after the cleanup, I noticed that I wasn't getting calendar notifications. And recently I noticed that the alarm app doesn't do the second alarm anymore, just the first soft alarm works.

As I wrote above: Some devices have this problem generally. In your case, it might be something more specific: I guess something's silently "crashing" in the background while trying to "make a call home" before triggering the alert notification. You might need to investigate with logcat (e.g. setting an alert to fire in 2 minutes, and then watch logcat until the alert should trigger; this way you should be able to catch the error behind it).


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Can I change the handset software operator?
I have an HTC One X on the Orange network here in the UK.
I sent my phone off for repair due to a bad screen. When it has come back 3 weeks later it seems to have been reloaded with T-Mobile software! My old Sim card will not work as it says it is network locked, and is asking for an 8 character unlock code.
Orange say I need to send it away for repair again to get this fixed, but I wondered if I could somehow change the software back to the standard UK Orange version suitable for this phone.
I don't want to jailbreak it or anything like that, just get the Orange software on it instead of the T-Mobile software.
Is this something I can easily do, or should I just bite the bullet and send it away for another 3 weeks?

It will be much faster to send it in again. Re-Branding will most likely cause you some trouble, as it involves "root-stuff" (most "branding-files" are located in partitions which a "normal user" only has read access to, such as e.g. /system). I'd blame the repair shop and have them sending a replacement in advance/parallel to shorten the wait time -- after all, it's their fault.


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Flashing Galaxy Nexus with radio band
I'm trying the steps in this question
to flash a factory image on my Galaxy nexus. Once I install Android SDK for Windows, I then:

Open the SDK Android manager .exe
Install SDK platform-tools since Google USB Driver doesn't appear

After that

C:\Users\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools

When I get there I can only see C:\Users\AppData\Local\; there is no Android folder.
Also can I use any other radio.img in the process?

I downloaded the image from google page, filename called yakju-jop40d-factory-279cdc5d.tgz (for GSM radio)
I am located in Central America having network signal issues.
And finally, I am running a custom ROM with ClockworkMod recovery.

I'm stuck and I'm not sure how to proceed.

Read... C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools where <Username> is your Windows user id.. did you check in there... I think you've mis-read that bit

Is it really necessary to flash a radio baseband despite "having network signal issues"? That could be provider problem, please clarify exactly what is wrong there. You may not need to do that at all...

Hi! Tom yes I did that app data folder in windows is hidden so I make sure is my Windows Profile  no luck my cell phone is not plug in

Ok this is what happen I have  some signal on several areas so while searching found several basaband radio you can test with them to get better signal

Sometimes I get no mobile network available and no signal bar I have 3 different sim card with different providers and is the same some of them vary with the signal of course that's why I'm trying to follow this steps to do a full and clean up installation with Android SDK for windows I'm using windows 7 64 bits enterprise.


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What's the best method for rooting HTC Desire?

Possible Duplicate:
How to root a HTC Desire running official Android 2.3?

What's the best method for rooting HTC Desire?
Do I need both S-OFF and root? How are these two things related?
I essentially want to root because I am often short on space so I want to be able to store apps and associated data on the SD memory card instead of the internal phone memory. For this I will need root, right?

AFAIK, S-OFF is security off, which is a pre-requisite for flashing custom roms..read, installing a custom recovery/kernel/ROM...

S-Off is a hardware based write protect scheme for the storage area, i.e. the flash region where the system data resides gets set read-only during boot. There's a hacked bootloader available at http://alpharev.nl that doesn't write-protect that region when booting and leaves it writable the normal way. S-Off is thus a prerequisite for modding/rooting.

I just added the rooting tag to your question. Please hover your mouse over it for more information, and follow the hints there. We have a central index to find the rooting questions for special devices, and yours is already listed there (How to root a HTC Desire running official Android 2.3?) The answers there should provide you some help ;) Good luck!

I didn't find the central index you talk about. I did go to the root tag. Where do I find that? Are you talking about the root tag page?... or some kind of Wiki or FAQ for rooting? This phone came with Android 2.2 or maybe 2.1 stock and was probably upgraded OTA to 2.2 (I don't really remember).

What's the method where you reboot the phone and enter HBoot and then you connect it to USB and use ADB to send some commands and stuff?... where you need to install some driver and HTC Sync? Is that Unrevoked or is that just the way every rooting process starts?...

One of the best methods to root the HTC Desire is to use Unrevoked. It will install root and a custom recovery. You can check the guide in XDA Forums
S-ON (default phone state) will read-lock your /system and /recovery partitions, so despite being root, you won't be able to modify them. With S-OFF you remove that lock and can make use of root in all the phone. To achieve S-OFF you can use Revolutionary.
I suppose what you want is to use any App2SD script. For that you will need to be root and depending on the script you want to use, you might also need S-OFF to be able to write in init.d

So the system will be stored on the internal phone memory and apps and app data will be stored on SD?

I was under the impression that Revolutionary can do both, both root and do S-OFF. But if I understand you correctly I need Revolutionary to do S-OFF and Unrevoked for root? I will need both?


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Can I prevent home screen shortcuts from getting deleted or moved around?
I had recently gifted my Mom a Nexus 7, with a hope that she will like to read books. She is old with poor eye sight and can't read English that great. I find her eager to learn and she had made a good progress in reading few books. Since she is not used to these gadgets, I am trying to keep settings in  her tablet constant. Recently I observed that the shortcut in home screen for PDF reader disappeared and resulting in discontinued  reading till my arrival. The frequency of this sort of interruption has increased now a days. Rather than finding how the shortcut is being deleted, I think preventing changes to home screen is sensible.
Hence, I would like to know about any means to keep the icons or shortcuts in  home screen  and in launcher  constant, immune to long press and drag and drop operations.
Device info: Nexus 7, running stock 4.2.1, unrooted, but willing to root if required.

My Mom also has a Nexus 7, and also was puzzled by the home screen suddenly changing.  Here's what happened: she acidentally installed some non-standard home screen, and started using it and customizing it.  Then one day she accidentally rebooted the tablet into "safe mode", which caused the stock home screen to appear.  She didn't realize she was using a different home screen, and wondered where all her cusomizations had gone.

There's no built-in functionality for this, but there are a handful of third-party launchers that support locking the desktop. Off the top of my head, I know that both Apex Launcher and ADW.Launcher do.
For Apex, simply double tap on an empty space on the home screen and then select "Lock Desktop" to prevent icons from being added or removed.

On ADW.Launcher you should be find a "Lock Desktop" option in the settings, which you can access from the overflow menu in the top right of the app drawer (Apex also has a settings menu there).
Other launchers that have the “Lock Desktop” option:

Holo Launcher and Holo Launcher HD
Lightning Launcher

To prevent deleting or moving your home screen Icons accidentally
On your Android  version 7 or up.
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch and hold delay.
Now Select Short, Medium, or Long or custom delay
It worked for me.

This is a good, "lateral thinking" suggestion. Your answer could be better if you explain how changing the touch and hold delay relates to home screen icons.

This is a great solution that is not hard to implement. I was looking for something just like this, which I can use on my grandma's phone. She keeps accidentally moving and deleting her apps, so this would help without needing to install more apps that will confuse her.

This is not an add-on app to a preexisting launcher but, there's a very thoughtfully designed, lightweight launcher called Smart Launcher that has an important feature called "Prevent Modifications," which solves the problem of accidental moving/deletion of app icons.
My relative who's not good with tech finds it easy to use (this was after she complained about Samsung's Touchwiz interface).
Other unique benefits/features of this launcher:

Conserves screen real estate by allowing two actions per icon/app--secondary action done by double-pressing an icon/app; allowed actions include app, folder, widget, shortcut, etc.
Arranges home screen apps into a circular (other choices as well) pattern, making it easy for user to remember where things are, so access is faster.
Instead of showing apps collection page by page, it groups apps by their categories, modifiable by user. It's like the Linux Mint Operating System's start or app menu.
Rarely used apps can be hidden by user.
Since it's among the most lightweight of all launchers, it conserves battery and valuable resources which could be used for something else, which is crucial for slower, older phones.
Advertised to work with "OK Google" voice command, though I've never tried it because I don't need it. Uses a Contacts-searchable bar on the homescreen.
Doesn't require rooting.
I've been happily using the Free version which meets my needs, but if you find you like the additional features then they're in the Pro version.

I workaround the issue by using a blank page as "home", so that way, that page is the one showing most of the time; drastically reducing the chance of accidental icon or folder displacement.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Could you elaborate what/how you used a blank page as "home"? I never heard of having a blank web page as home screen if that is what you mean.

Not a blank web page: a page of the home screen with no icons or widgets.

Try checking your touch & hold delay. I had the same problem and found tjis setting on SHORT. I changed it to LONG and my icons stay put much better.

Where is this option? You're most likely running a 3rd-party launcher, but OP doesn't necessarily have this.

There is no way on the S5 software to keep this from happening. You have to install an app called a launcher. (ie Nova) that installs other desktop options. Blame Samsung.

Your answer is about the Galaxy S5, but the question is about the Nexus 7. Samsung has nothing to do with this at all.


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Wii remote -> InputDevice?
Does anyone know of a Wii remote enabler that maps the remote onto an Android InputDevice, the same way that gamepads etc work?
I've found lots of Wii remote apps on the market, but they all map the remote to the Android keyboard, which isn't what I want --- we have an application with support for multiple gamepads via the InputDevice API, and we'd like to use a Wii remote with it.
I'm willing to use an app that needs root.


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How do I mount a Kindle Fire 10.2.6 on my Linux computer?
I just acquired a newish Kindle Fire, software version 10.2.6. Normally when I plug a Kindle or any USB device into my laptop (running Ubuntu 12.04) I get a popup screen asking me what I'd like to do and the device mounts. It has worked this way with 2 previous Kindles but they were software version 6.x.x.
So my question is, how do I mount this device so that I can move my books and files onto it from my computer?
I have ADB enabled and allow installation of applications from unknown sources. I don't have ADB installed on my computer because until now it wasn't necessary to move files back and forth in a Linux computer.
On the notification screen the Kindle says "connected as media device." I should also note that despite using Ubuntu I'm relatively unskilled when it comes to the terminal.

It's likely using MTP, not mass storage. You can probably use the answer in Connecting Google Nexus 7 to Linux to try to get it working

As eldarerathis wrote: "connected as a media device" suggests it's using MTP, which would require special software to be installed (there are MTP packages available for different Linux flavours). But you might also want to check your "notification area" when the device is connected: I don't know the Kindle Fire, but it might offer to switch to UMS (USB mass storage) mode. If you don't find anything corresponding in the notifications, also take a look through the settings. Just a possibility, nothing granted.

Thanks elda!  That link did the trick!  You should change that comment to an answer because I couldn't find a better one anywhere!

Is this a first generation (custom Android 2.3 / 'Gingerbread') or second generation (custom Android 4.0.x / 'Ice Cream Sandwich') Kindle Fire device?

This blog article shows how to do it with Kindle Fire HD. Perhaps it can help you.

David, I'm not sure. I just acquired it used. If you let me know how to check I'll get that info for you.

@hortstu You'll find that information in Settings->About (usually the last item in the settings list).

Summing up from the comments above...
As eldarerathis wrote: "connected as a media device" suggests it's using MTP, which would require special software to be installed (there are MTP packages available for different Linux flavours).
Try getting UMS working
You might also want to check your "notification area" when the device is connected: I don't know the Kindle Fire, but it might offer to switch to UMS (USB mass storage) mode. If you don't find anything corresponding in the notifications, also take a look through the settings. Just a possibility, nothing granted.
Try it with MPT utilizing the MTP file system
If you cannot get UMS working, there's a helpful link pointed out by eldarerathis is Connecting Google Nexus 7 to Linux on how to make mtpfs working on Linux. Basically, this can be done by issuing 4 commands in a terminal:
sudo apt-get install mtpfs
mkdir ~/NexusDrive
mtpfs ~/NexusDrive
nautilus ~/NexusDrive

Short explanation on what it does:

install the mtpfs package, which provides the MTP file system
creating a directory where to mount your Kindle to
actually mounting your device
opening nautilus to show the files contained

Of course, the last step can be replaced by opening any file explorer you like :) And as the "missing sudo" on lines 2-4 indicates, mtpfs is running in userspace.
Graphical MTP frontend
There's also a graphical MTP frontent available in the Ubuntu repositories: gMTP. It's mainly intended to be a MP3 player, but you also can manage your files with it:
sudo apt-get install gmtp

(it's in the universe branch, so you might have to enable universe first in your package manager)

(screenshots taken from LinuxAndLife)
So you could use this instead of Nautilus -- or next to Nautilus, depending on what you want to do. With gMTP installed, simply connect your Kindle via its USB cable, then launch gMTP. Click the Connect button then will mount the device, and the Connect button gets re-labeled to "Disconnect", as shown in above screenshots.

I've been using MTP since it was first suggested.  Seems a little slower but works better than nothing.  Thanks for the help.

Try using Airdroid. It's available in the Amazon appstore.

As of 2021 ... app needs a login.  (no thanks)  Standard FTP server works.


text:
Reversing translation of (error) messages?
A device presents me with an error message, and I want to google the problem.
The error message is displayed translated, making it harder than necessary to find others with the same issue and/or a solution.
Is there a way I can search the translation dataset and find the original string in english?

What android ROM are you referring to? What version? What error message? What device? a lot of things missing from this question... please elaborate and clarify? Thanks :)

You might be able to (temporarily) switch the system language in the settings, provike the error message, write it down, and switch back. While the system language is switched, all apps will use this (if not explicitly told otherwise).

@t0mm13b I deliberately tried to make the question as generic as I could, assuming that the android SDK provided a standardized way of handling translatable strings. Are you saying that's not the case?

by deliberately leaving things out and making it generic falls under the "broad-scope" which in some cases can be off-topic. Please leave as much information in it - we're not psychics... :)

One thing you could try is to google for the translation, which might turn up the translation XML file holding both, original string and translation. Worked for me a couple of times :)

After some digging around, it turns out that there is indeed a way to handle localization in the SDK that could help answer this question, but from the Localization documentation, I don't get the impression an end-user can easily find these files and read them.
Izzy's two suggestions from the comments are really the best available solutions here.

Switch the system language in the settings, provoke the error message, write it down, and switch back. While the system language is switched, all apps will use this if not explicitly told otherwise.
You could try is to google for the translation, which might turn up the translation XML file holding both, original string and translation.


text:
Why are Dialer, Cell standby, and Phone idle killing my battery?
HTC G2 with Cyanogenmod 7.2.0, T-Mobile.  It used to last all day, I'd always plug the phone in before bed and it would rarely run out of energy before then.  Lately it runs out mid-day.

Today I disabled Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, Mobile Data, etc, and it still emptied the battery in 5 hours, with Dialer, Cell standby, and Phone idle as the highest battery users.
It may be due to upgrading from CM 7.1 to CM 7.2?  I upgraded sometime after 2012-11-13 and noticed this around 2012-12-31.  Worked fine for more than a year before that.
Reception is 4 out of 4 bars, so it's not due to hunting for cell towers.
Phone is noticeably warm when it happens, so it's due to something using energy, and the problem appeared suddenly, so it's not due to a failing battery.

Update:
Today it was bad for an hour or two and then became normal (normal is a few percent an hour).  You can see the abrupt change in the image below.  I don't know why.  The battery usage list looks identical to yesterday, so if it's due to an app, it's not a visible app.  I realized I could click the graph and see a more detailed one, and it shows "Awake" during the part where the battery is being eaten while the display is off:

Is this a "wakelock"?
I did change the GSM preferences to "Auto mode" instead of "WCDMA preferred", but that was last night and it was still eating the battery quickly this morning for a while.

Have you tried a reboot? Sometimes some process is hung. Other places to look for: What is Cell standby and how can I keep it from eating my battery? and How to deal with (orphaned) WakeLocks? -- Wakelocks are a very likely source if you say it cannot be "bad reception".

You may need to wipe and reinstall the ROM.
Also, I believe in CM, there is a setting to use 2g when the screen is off. That might help.
Also, fyi, CM 10 runs great on the G2.
In fact, CM10 runs better on the G2 than on the Sensation, imho.

@rm-vanda: I already have it set to "Use 2G networks" all the time because I don't have a data plan.  How do I get CM10 on a G2?  I thought it wasn't supported because it would run too slowly.

@Izzy: This is something that's been happening for weeks, despite lots of reboots.  Wakelocks look promising, though.  I installed BetterBatteryStats so maybe I can find out from that.

Good hunting -- and keep us updated then :)

Batteries degrade over time. My last phone (Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant) would only charge to 93%. It would never charge higher than that. Near the end of my use of the phone the battery would only last about 5 - 7 hours. This is with disabling GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth.
Also, Something has to be the "highest" user of the battery. Since you disabled the stuff that is usually the big users of battery, something else is taking that spot.
I would say try replacing the battery, you can get a new battery for the G2 for about $22.
See WikiPedia info on Lithium-Ion Batteries:

Charging forms deposits inside the electrolyte that inhibit ion transport. Over time, the cell's capacity diminishes. The increase in internal resistance reduces the cell's ability to deliver current. This problem is more pronounced in high-current applications. The decrease means that older batteries do not charge as much as new ones (charging time required decreases proportionally).
High charge levels and elevated temperatures (whether from charging or ambient air) hasten capacity loss. Charging heat is caused by the carbon anode (typically replaced with lithium titanate which drastically reduces damage from charging, including expansion and other factors).
A Standard (Cobalt) Li-ion cell that is full most of the time at 25 °C (77 °F) irreversibly loses approximately 20% capacity per year. Poor ventilation may increase temperatures, further shortening battery life. Loss rates vary by temperature: 6% loss at 0 °C (32 °F), 20% at 25 °C (77 °F), and 35% at 40 °C (104 °F). When stored at 40%–60% charge level, the capacity loss is reduced to 2%, 4%, and 15%, respectively.[citation needed] In contrast, the calendar life of LiFePO4 cells is not affected by being kept at a high state of charge

Emphasis mine. But note that it does "not charge as much". Android will still report that the battery is at 100% because it is. It is charged to the full capacity that the battery can handle. This is why it doesn't seem to hold a charge for as long as it used to.
Your battery is over 2 years old. Read this post from XDA about Li-Ion batteries that it quotes this site as the source.

Your lithium-ion battery starts dying the moment it leaves the factory
The fact is, your lithium-ion battery starts dying the moment it leaves the factory! Of course, the actual life-span of an unused lithium-ion battery can vary by a fair amount based on its internal charge as well as the external temperature. But suffice to say that you can expect to irreversibly lose 20% of a lithium-ion battery’s charge every year from its original date of manufacture.

Other things can even make these numbers worse. Like frequent discharges, keeping the battery in non-optimal temperatures and leaving the battery "sitting" idle for periods of time.

If you're going to down vote me, how about a reason? My answer is 100% valid. If you look at the percentages of everything that is "using" your battery, they total ~100% (99%, but they don't show partial percentages). The second image totals 102%, again because they round and don't show partials. Something has to use the battery, if you don't want anything to use the battery then you have to turn off the device completely.

Valid answer! Whoever downvoted is defying the spirit of SE sites... moaning mickeys...

@RyanConrad: The battery usage screen always adds up to 100%.  It's telling you the relative proportion of energy used by each app, not the total amount of energy being used.

@RyanConrad: and it's not due to a failing battery, as I said in the question.  Some app or background process is using much more energy than it did in the past.

Then that app would show up in the battery usage. The battery is over 2 years old, how do you know the battery isn't degrading. I didn't say failing. All li-ion batteries degrade over time. I had one that would actually discharge faster then it charged (i could only charge it when the device was off)

Not necessarily. The usage graph clearly indicates Wakelocks as the source. An app could cause them indirectly by using system services, so those services would turn up in the stats (one common example for this is LocationService, if an app requests a location update too frequently). I don't know what exactly it could be in this example, but from the graphs I'd say something is driving the dialer nuts.


text:
How do I set a default application that gets used without enquiry?
Say I've got that app that allows me to make phone calls over my private WiFi network (FRITZ!App Fon if that matters).
Every time I'm going to make a call, Android asks me which application to use: the (system) phone app or the FRITZ! app. Usually, it's no problem to pick one of the two, but it is problematic when driving: with my Bluetooth equipment, I'm able to start a call without taking the hands off the steering wheel. Better: I would be able. Because every time I'm going to start a call, I have to select which app to use.
So I have to pick my phone, unlock it (while driving) and select the app to use.
Is there any way to set the default application for a task so that I don't have to pick one every time I want to do something (i. e. always use the system phone app when making calls).
Extra bonus: a rule-based setting would be great (only provide the option to choose that WiFi phone app when I'm actually connected to my home WiFi or when BT is off).

Sounds like that would be something a Tasker recipe could handle. I'm not a Tasker expert, though.

@user1: I also got the feeling that it could be done with Tasker but want to know in detail.

As nice as this sounds: I'm afraid Tasker cannot set "default apps" (see below)...

While it cannot switch the default app for something, Tasker can still do this.
Llama may be able to do it also, but you'll have to set it up like this:
Set the Stock Dialer as default.
Make a tasker profile that enables when you are connected to WiFi and triggers when you open the dialer-- the triggered action could then be to open your WiFi calling app.
I hope that works--

I'm afraid Tasker cannot set "default apps". At least the User Manual doesn't list an appropriate action. If you really managed that: Could you please give some more details? The "trigger" is not the issue. But what to specify in the Task to make some app "default" for a given action/intent/broadcast?

@Izzy I don't think you understood rm-vanda's answer. The task isn't to set the default, it's to launch the Wi-Fi app.

@DanHulme ah, thanks -- now I see. Something like "condition: wifi connected + app launched (dialer)" with the task "start app X". OK, that sounds like a work-around; though the default dialer would still be launched (guess it's running in background anyway, so one could live with that).


text:
Nexus 7 and Samsung Ace S5830i does not connect properlly to Wifi
I have three devices:

Tablet running on Android 4.0 (Nexus 7)
Smartphone running on 2.0 (Samsung Ace S5830i)
HP Compaq laptop

Wireless router does have WPA/WPA2 PSK security. And the Wifi works perfectly fine on the laptop.
Now both the tablet and the phone does connect to the Wifi but at times does not allow me to browse or do anything. i.e cannot download anything.
My tablet keeps getting disconnected and then it re-connects back automatically, this happens randomly and erratically. Same experience with the Android phone.
I called the telecoms engineer and he resetted the router etc., and said there has to be something wrong with my tablet!!! But I am sure there is not.
I have browsed through some posts which suggests me to change MAC settings and to change the encryption settings, but I have no idea what that is, nor where to find it.
Would love if this could be sorted as its really frustrating.
Meanwhile I understand Nexus 7 runs on 2.4Ghz Wifi band frequency, where as most of the modern routers comes with 5.0Ghz Wifi band frequency, but then, again my smartphone runs on the 5.0Ghz Wifi band frequency, and still doesn't function!!
So help guys!!

Some Android devices have problems when set to WPA/WPA2 PSK. Chosing one of both (i.e. fix the device to one of both) is reported to help.

The 5Ghz frequency, that's the newer Wifi draft right, a/b/g/n, its n is the latest... perhaps the wifi chipset on the Nexus does not incorporate the 802.11n...?


text:
Make Automate Task to manually sync Google Voice
Some network I connect to during my daily life, do not allow for push notifications. So I want to make a task that syncs all my accounts. This was easily done with Llama for Gmail. I just told it when I'm connected to those networks that don't allow push, to sync every 5 minutes. The strange thing is that Google voice is not show up under my google account in settings as a syncing app. You have to actually open the app and click the refresh button.
Does any one know a way to make a manual sync with Google voice in the background? Can I run some intent?


text:
What do I type in PATH variable for ADB server to start from CMD?
I am following a Wiki on how to install and set up Android SDK and I am stuck at a step where I am supposed to test if the ADB server works by using the command adb start-server. Is this command correct?
The Wiki can be found here:
http://wiki.rootzwiki.com/Android_SDK
I have done what it says in step 5. But it doesn't seem to work. I get the standard message in CMD that the command is not an internal, external command or a program.

Add the following to the end of the Variable value field:
Windows XP: ;C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\tools\;C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\
Windows Vista and later:
  Replace YOURUSERNAME in the following lines with your Windows username
32-Bit: ;C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\tools\;C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\
64-Bit: ;C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\tools\;C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\
Click OK, OK, and OK to close the Advanced settings.

So what gives? The CMD prompt is at C:\Users\myusername when I run the command. Maybe I need to CD to the android-sdk folder first before running the command? But then what use is it to add the path in the PATH variable?...

After you add variables to the system you need to close the command window and open a new one. if that still doesnt seem to allow you to do adb commands, make sure the path you are adding is the path that you actually installed the SDK to.

The reason to add the path into the $PATH variable, which btw, is system-wide, so no matter where you are in the command line i.e. CMD, adb will work regardless as windows knows where the actual adb binary resides in.

Yes, but I don't get this part where you're supposed to replace YOURUSERNAME with the actual user name of the account. I used default installation location on C drive and I installed it on a 64-bit system.

I have solved my own problem. Those search paths are all messed up!
I checked the installation path and it's installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Android even though I do have a 64-bit version of Windows. But nevertheless, this is the default installation location.
So I updated the PATH variable with following line.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\tools\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\
And now I can start ADB server from CMD regardless of where the prompt is at.

I have no clue why they are referring to AppData\Local\ folder in the guide for the 64-bit systems. That makes no sense at all. If anywhere, the installation location should be in "Program Files" folder for a 64-bit system. They actually put this in for the 32-bit systems... like I said, it's all messed up.
I should point out that adb.exe has been moved from C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\tools\ to the new location C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\. This has been done in later versions of Android SDK.
So if you are reading this in year 2013 then you can probably just get the latest SDK and use only this last search path. You don't need them both. At least not for ADB and Fastboot. If you're a developer then you maybe need to access tools from both directories, although if you're a dev then you probably won't need to read this at all.
How to edit a system variable
Here's a short how-to for the newbies. What you need is the Environment Variables dialog.

Click Start (Orb) menu button.
Right click on Computer icon.
Click on Properties. This will bring up System window in Control Panel.
Click on Advanced System Settings on the left. This will bring up the System Properties window with Advanced tab selected.
Click on Environment Variables button on the bottom of the dialog. This brings up the Environment Variables dialog.
In the System Variables section, scroll down till you see Path.
Click on Path to select it, then the Edit button. This will bring up the Edit System Variable dialog.
While the Variable value field is selected, press the End key on your keyboard to go to the right end of the line, or use the arrow keys to move the marker to the end.
Type in ;C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\tools\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\ and click OK.
Click OK again, then OK once more to save and exit out of the dialogs.

That's it! You can now start any Android SDK tool, e.g. ADB or Fastboot, regardless of what your current directory is in CMD. For good measure here's what the dialog looks like. This is where you edit the Path variable.

The location where binaries on Windows are stored is determined by the type of the binary and not by the running Windows version. That is, a 32-bit binary will be installed in Program Files (x86) and a 64-bit binary will go to Program Files. Therefore the SDK installer uses the correct location.

Good point! In other words the Android SDK is 32-bit so it installs to the 32-bit (x86) program folder. Which is why that part of the root guide that gives instructions for 64-bit systems makes even less sense then.

just note that step 8 is different in windows 10. thanks for your help!

Hopefully, people looking to edit the PATH variable will know how to navigate dialog boxes and manipulate text strings.

I had platform-tools installed right from Android studio and that is where they were placed:
C:\Users\{USERNAME}\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools
Then this is the directory needed for the PATH variable. AppData is usually a hidden folder and you will not see it in your directory unless you enable showing hidden directories.

Thanks Joshua – I've [edit]ed your answer accordingly to include those details (feel free to [edit] your posts anytime if you want to correct/improve), and removed the (now obsolete) comments.

instead of looking for a default location simply look for platform-tools\ and android-sdk
or just sdk
those are the paths you need to add to the variable list

Yes, and where do I look for platform-tools and android-sdk? On my desktop?...

My point is that you have to look for them some place. Right? And what's a better place to start with than the default installation location? And just to be clear, we're not looking for any SDK folder that pops out! We're looking for the one used by the Android SDK. So I'm not gonna use file search to find any random folder called 'SDK' to put in my Path variable. Remember, you have Java SDK installed too if you have Android SDK (and probably others too if you're a developer). You don't want that SDK folder.

Just add this to System Variables "Path":

C:\Program Files (x86)\YOUR_ADT_FOLDER\sdk\platform-tools\

Steps to set the path to the platform tools:
Step1: Open Android Studio, go to Tools/SDK manager and get the Android SDK path which is:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Android\sdk

Step2: Go to Control Panel/System/ Security/System and click on Advanced System Settings.
Click on Environmental Variables. Click on PATH. Click Edit and append the following:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools\;C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\tools\

Click Ok, OK.
Step3: To check if the paths are available, open the Command Prompt, type adb. Press Enter.
You should see a response that the platform-tools folder is in place.


text:
How do I disable Fast boot without the Power option in Settings?
I went over some of the old forum posts about this issue and there seems to be a lot of confusion about this. I am planning to root my HTC Desire (GSM) which at the moment is running original UI/ROM and everything on Android 2.2 FroYo.
One of the root guides said that I should disable Fastboot by going to Settings and then Power. But I don't have that option. And apparently I am not the only one.
So what's this all about? And how do you disable something like that when the option is not there? Can this be done from HBoot menu?...

Note to self: Fastboot and "Fast boot" ain't the same thing. Fastboot is a protocol used by Android to diagnose and flash new firmware images, while "fast boot" is just a term used to describe a new kind of power state that enables you to faster start up the phone.

I am on Android 2.3.3 with root, S-OFF and custom ROM (SuperNova) and I can confirm now that the option to toggle between Fast boot enabled and Fast boot disabled is available. Now, to properly answer my own original question, this is how you would disable it on HTC Desire.

Press Menu button.
Tap Settings.
Tap Applications.
Remove the checkmark from the option "Fast boot" to disable it.
Press Home button.

Screenshot:

I believe the they didn't make fastboot an option until Gingerbread. It should be off by default so I wouldn't worry about that step. You can check to see if it's on by turning your phone completely off and then turning it on to see how long it takes to boot up. If it only takes 10-15 second fastboot may be enabled.
Also, here is a painless way to root your HTC Desire that doesn't require changing fastboot: How to root HTC Desire (Froyo 2.2) without putting in a custom ROM (flashing)?

Thanks! I've been looking following this guide: http://wiki.rootzwiki.com/HTC_Desire and I am currently setting up the SDK, ADB, driver, etc. But the actual installation involves Revolutionary for S-OFF and ClockworkMod for recovery. This will give me the special options in HBoot that allow me to flash another ROM, right? But so... this doesn't allow me to get root access only, without changing the ROM?

I'm not sure I fully understand your question. I believe unrevoked gives you root and s-off but it's not clear on their site. You could follow that method and if it doesn't give you s-off you could use revolutionary to get it. Eitherway you choose if you don't have the option to turn fast boot off its probably not enabled.

Fastboot is more like a hibernation power state of Android devices, right? Well it takes me 45 seconds just to get past the HTC logo screen, and 90 seconds in total to load up the system and all the apps and widgets. So it's safe to conclude then that this device is not in fastboot mode, right? So I will not need to disable fastboot anyway.

Sounds like you are correct.

Fast boot in Android 2.3.5 on HTC desire is found under

Menu
Settings
Power

Fast boot option is found in Power

You're on 2.3.5? On what ROM?


text:
Block H+ (3.5G) but not H (3G), possible?
Is there any way to block only H+ (3.5G) and still have H (3G)? I use Android 4.2.1 CM10 Galaxy Nexus.
I want to do this because 3.5G signal in buildings is poor (1 bar), but 2G (which signal is good) is too slow.

No, you cannot block that, unfortunately!
You can either switch to 2G (which saves battery) or continue with 3G. Cannot have it both ways!
The telephony signal is deep within Android itself and no way of messing with that! Not alone that, Android picks up that radio signal strength from the heart of the Silicon On Chip (S-o-C) where the base-band radio firmware resides in and is off-limits and proprietary.

I was afraid that would be like that...  Thx any way.

SoC is System on Chip, not Silicon! :=)

@Sumesh cheers mate for that :) Memo to self... "tis System, not Silicon!


text:
Can I install an app directly to my SD card?
I'm trying to install a large application (EA games' Scrabble free), but I have insufficient space on my phone, so I can't complete the installation. I have plenty of space on my SD card though, but I don't see any option to install the app directly there without passing through the phone. What can I do about this?

Check this my answer here: http://android.stackexchange.com/a/154122/168013 it may help your case

You are out of luck sorry!
The only way to do so, is to install to internal space on Phone, then:

Tap on Settings
Tap on Applications
Then tap on Manage Applications
Scroll down looking for the appropriate game, then tap on it
Finally, tap on Move to SD Card...

You will have to free up space temporarily in order to do this.

Does this also apply to rooted phones?

Yes. And to tablets, too :) Only work-around I can think of (but not sure whether it really works, as I haven't tried): If you can get hold of the .apk, you could copy that to the sd card (so the playstore doesn't need to download it and keep a copy in /data/local) and install from there. In combination, you could also set your preferred install location to the card. Having root, you could try moving /data/local to the card (replacing it by a symlink).

There is no such option that applies for all apps.You still have to go through your internal memory.
As far as I know rooted phones also don't offer this functionality.
But some apps will allow you to do that on newer phones. App developers can say in their app that it is best (preferred) to save the app on an SD card. But in the case they say that, it's in the hands of the phone if it listens to it or not. So even though some apps will allow you to install it straight on your SD, some phones will still install it on your internal memory.
Though the last part is not an answer to your question, I thought it may be interesting to know


text:
In which version of Android was encryption of /data made available?
These docs suggest that it has been available (only) since Android 3.0 Honeycomb. By contrast, conversation on discussion boards suggests it was available in 2.3.4 Gingerbread.
So, what is the answer to the titular question?
Bonus points if your answer clarifies the following. Are the official docs misleading? Or were those Gingerbread devices instead released after Honeycomb, and loaded with some kind of backported encryption feature? Or were those Gingerbread devices instead loaded with some kind of encryption feature added by the device manufacturers, that wasn't part of Android? In short, what gives?

Gingerbread 2.3.4 ROM added support for device encryption, but the feature wasn't accessible from settings until Honeycomb (tablets) and ICS (smartphones).
To enable device encryption in Gingerbread device, you need to add an Exchange account. Not sure, but it should be accessible through API too.
There are also some hacks to enable device encryption directly in Gingerbread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1405165

Encryption is certainly something that was introduced with Honeycomb on tables, and ICS on phones.
There was no encryption for Gingerbread.  At least nothing that was released.

Are you sure? This suggests otherwise: http://www.ehow.com/info_12183909_encryption-android.html


text:
Is it possible to root a Kindle Fire running software version 10.2.6?
Is it possible to root a Kindle Fire running software version 10.2.6? If so how, and if not will it ever be?
I can't stand this keyboard! I'd root just for Swype!

Did you check with our master index, and find e.g. the question for Kindle Fire there? Besides: Since when do you need to root for Swype? It installed fine on my Cat Stargate II (running 4.1.1 and not being rooted).

From this thread: > Well Everyone, seems Amazon went and did an update and just wanted to

confirm so that everyone knows the steps in Root Working 10.2.4 Kindle
Fire 2 Root made easy still do work on the updated 10.2.6 Here's tutorial about rooting kindle on 10.2.4.

Thank you but I believe on the kindle, at least on the older version I've messed with, you could move the kindle file on to the kindle but I couldn't get it to work.


text:
Is there any easy way to get GNU build tools on Android? If not... why not?
With the growing number of Android devices in all sorts of different form factors (dev boards like Raspberry Pi/ODroid, Android-on-a-stick, etc), it seems like it would be great to be able to actually do development work on Android and not just simply for Android. For example, having the standard Linux build tools available would let me easily run a server.

In case you only need a cross compiling environment with the standard Linux build tools there is an easy solution already included in the Android-NDK:
In the subdirectory build/tools of the NDK you find a scrip named make-standalone-toolchain.sh.
using the parameter --install-dir= you can specify a path where to create the standalone-toolkit - for example as shown inthis call:
build/tools/make-standalone-toolchain.sh --install-dir=/tmp/android-stanalone-toolchain

Adding the bin directory of the created toolkit allows you to use the standard build process for compiling projects. Just make sure that you call the configure script properly for cross compiling:
./configure  --target=arm-linux-androideabi  --host=arm-linux-androideabi

Afterwards you can simply call make and then pray that the application you want to compile is compatible with ARM/Android platform.

I'd suggest you take a look at Terminal IDE:

Terminal IDE is an expandable terminal application, with a full Java / HTML / Android development kit, that runs on your Android device.
It uses the command line, with many powerful and robust open-source applications, plus a custom ASCII on-screen 'soft' keyboard that works well (You must ENABLE it in your device's main Keyboard Settings).. and also has an extensive generic external 'hard' keyboard key mapper. This way CTRL / ALT / ESC etc.. should all be accessible.
javac, java, dx, proguard, aapt, apkbuilder, signer, ssh, sshd, telnetd, bash 4.2, busybox 1.19.2, vim 7.3, nano 2.2.6, midnight commander 4.8, htop 1.0, TMUX 1.5, rsync 3.0.8, git 1.7.8, BitchX 1.1 and a nice terminal emulator are all available.

Guess this should do for your purpose?

Easy way to get GNU build tools :

C4droid - C/C++ compiler & IDE
(install gcc in internal memory)
Shell and tools for C4droid

If your Android can run x86_64 applications, you can build toolchain yourself on desktop computer running Gentoo Linux, then move the compiled code onto device.
Set of .ebuild script that compiles toolchain: GitHub x86_64-pc-linux-android toolchain
Disclaimer: I am the one who created the .ebuilds

Please edit your post to mention that you're affiliated to the product and have a look at community guidelines on promotion


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How to install additional fonts?
Is it possible to install additional fonts on android for use when browsing websites?
My device is rooted ICS.

Have you tried "clicking" on your assigned fonts tag? There are several questions dealing with this issue. Maybe some of the answers given there might fit your problem?

Seems similar to How to replace system font of a galaxy tab 7. I'm pretty sure that you can't change fonts for just a single app though as referenced in the answer to Installing Custom fonts on android tablets.

@ZnewmaN I don’t want to replace the system font. I want Windows font to display properly in my browser (Opera).