text:
My phone has automatically called  *44* twice now, does anybody know what this means?
I heard my phone calling *44* while it was in my pocket.
Does anybody know what this code means, or do you know what process is calling this number?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S running Froyo 2.2.1 and I use a prepaid card.

Probably not relevant as I see you're in Belgium, but what stood out for me is that "44" is the UK dialling code.

@GAThrawn Yes , I know, but it really was 44 surrounded with * characters. And just only that.

It could be VAD. It stands for Voice Activated Dialing and is triggered by the service code *44*.
I'm not sure why it would do that all by its own without your interaction. An explanation could be that you are using a VAD supporting Bluetooth headset.

@Octvaian Damiean Thanks for answering - haven't activated AFAIK, nor am I using a Bluetooth headset. Can something like this be triggered by some other device. I was walking on the street and just passing a bus stop with a lot of people (just a (silly) thought ) ?

I don't think so to be honest. The Bluetooth devices would have to be paired to trigger that function I guess.

I suspect it could also be activated by the headphone button, or even a short (static discharge) in the headphone jack.  The other thing to look for is an accidental long press on the search button that may be configured for voice actions.

My Dream/Magic running CM6 don't do this with my headset (Plantronics 220) which supports voice dialing if you hold down the call button - I get the "Voice Dialer" application which tries to guess what I said.

@BMitch The phone was in my pocket, locked in the home screen and I was just walking on the street. We'll see if it happens again.


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How do you change the screen background on Nexus S?
Just bought a Samsung Nexus S. No manual came with it. Apparently the moving default screensaver eats up heaps of battery life and I am not getting much battery life out of this new phone and I am constantly recharging.
How do you change it to a non-moving image?

As the Nexus S is a "Pure Google" phone pretty much every detail of it is covered in the standard Android manual. See the Android 2.3 manual here http://www.google.com/googlephone/AndroidUsersGuide-2.3.pdf

"Screensaver"? Do you mean the Live Wallpaper?

Live wallpapers normally only consume battery when you're on the home screen, they don't play in the background.

From the home screen, press the phone's Menu button. Here, there is usually a button for Wallpaper (it will be the top right button on the menu), where you should be able to pick your wallpaper (this applies to your background and lockscreen).

+1 You can also "long-press" on an empty bit of the home screen background and select "Wallpaper" from the menu that pops up.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Alternative contacts app, faster than Google's with 2000 contacts?
Google's Contacts app is very slow to load when I want to quickly get a friend's phone number.
Is there a quicker/lighter contacts app?
I have found nothing fast enough in the Market.
My dream app:

Loads the list of ~2000 contacts in less than ~3 seconds.
No need for picture/details in the main list, just name.
Can import contacts list from vcard or similar.

Have you looked in the Market? Why isn't anything there viable?

If you're just talking about one or two people, you could always just create a shortcut to their contact information on your home screen.

@Al: Thanks for the shortcut tip! Unfortunately, I am contacting many different people, so shortcuts won't do in this case.

@Al: Yes I have looked in the Market, all of the apps I have tried are even slower than Google's, because they all show details, picture, etc in the main list, making it very slow to load.

You can turn off pictures in the contacts app settings. Also have you tried the search widget. You can use it to get a contact without having to open the app.

I will recommend Dialer One. I am 99% sure it can show contacts without pictures. It has lots of customization options, t9 search in contacts in slew of different languages. I have 900+ contacts and is really fast, I hope it works that way for 2000 contacts. Be sure to fiddle with the options after giving it a try.

Dialer One is wonderful indeed. To make it even better, it seems to be Open Source. Developer website is http://code.google.com/p/dialerone but unfortunately that project gives error 403. Anyone knows where to find the source code?

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


text:
My alarm clock program is no longer installed. Can I re-download it?
I have an HTC Incredible 2. I went to check my alarm clock before I went to sleep last night by pressing the clock on the home screen and nothing happened. It usually opens up my alarm clock.
After pressing several times and nothing happening I went into all apps and clicked the clock app. It said:

The linked program is no longer installed on your phone.

I did not uninstall it. The only unusual activity I did last night was install the 5 Guys app, Opera Mini, uninstall Opera Mini because I did not like it, install Dolphin Browser.
I went into widgets and selected the htc clock and put a different variation on my home screen, it did not work either. I tried to find it on the Android market to reinstall it and its not listed there either.
Is there anything else I can try before I go to my Carrier?

Have you turned the device on and off? Can you see the app in the applications manager? If so, can you clear the data and/or cache?

@AlEverett I have tried turning it off and on. The icon is still there but says the program is no longer installed when you click it. How do you clear the cache?

Settings | Applications | Manage applications | All |

My alarm clock just started working again today, they must have pushed a new update.

I asked Verizon and they said it is because of an update. There are lots of complaints about the same issue and until another update is released there is nothing you can do, not even a factory restore.

Was this caused by a Verizon update, or android update? Any word on when the fix will be available?

@Tester101 From what I was told it is becuase I updated to Android 2.3.3 and I was told htc is working on a fix.

I have the same issue but it just hit me last night for some reason. Is there any word on when the next update will be released?

There is an over-the-air downloaded today to get alarms back. YEA!
Go to settings > Download updates > Check new

+1 That worked. Wow, I thought I would never get the default alarm back. However, I have been using the app I downloaded for so long now, I think Ill just stick with it. Thanks :)

Can you get to it from the all apps button in the lower left corner? I've had to remove an app from the home screen and re-add it, although for me it's only been after upgrading it. But if you can get to it from the all apps drawer, then you should be good.

When I go to it from the all apps drawer it says: The linked program is no longer installed on your phone. but the icon is still there.

I have found the same problem, and just figured it out. I luckily have the digital clock on my wallpaper. I tap it and my clock and alarm come up. I can then adjust whatever changes I need.


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bash - How can I check if a computer exists on my network WITHOUT IP (i.e. by device name only)?
I would like my phone to execute certain shell scripts via Tasker if my phone is on the same wifi network as my laptop. My initial idea is to edit the /etc/hosts file, but this wouldn't work since neither device is constrained to be on only one wifi network.
A much more costly idea would be to just ping every possible address on the network from my phone, then attempt to send a command via ssh (say, echo $ANDROID) and listen for the response.
The best way to do this is to just be able to see if a device named "myLaptop" exists on the network.. (or, actually, I could use MAC address too.) but I have no idea if this is possible in bash. Is it?
(I'm also open to implementations in Perl, since I can use SL4A to implement Perl scripts.)

Is doing the host lookup on the console required?

not sure what you mean there. if by console you mean terminal, then yes - the idea is on my phone, Tasker can run a shell (or Perl, or Python, or some other language supported by SL4A) script that queries if my laptop is on the same network; if it is, execute particular tasks within the Tasker environment.

Do you want this to work across multiple networks? That is, not just on your home network, but also if both laptop & phone are connected to any random network?

Yes. It's a pretty simple matter if it was on one network, I think..?

Dynamic DNS service would work. Get your laptop to update your dynamic domain with it's local ip, and then whenever your phone connects to a new wifi network, resolve that domain, if you get a hit, you're either good or happened to find someone with the same local ip!
Similar to that, you could get your laptop to post it's ip to a server somewhere (web, email, w/e) that you can retrieve from a script on your phone.
Short of setting up a DNS server, I'm not sure there is any means for resolving host names that aren't named in your local configs.

I like the idea of posting to a server, and in fact I have a server machine at home I could use for this purpose. It seems a little bit inelegant, but it might be the best option.

if you don't own a server, you can use dropbox.

If you've got ssh running, it should be easy to find a hook for wifi connecting, grep your ip and ssh echo or scp the ip back home. Then all your phone has to do is scp it back.

I'll accept for now - I'll toy with all the other ideas though!

If you don't want a server-based solution, your laptop could listen to the network for a specific broadcast packet. A broadcast packet will be rerouted to every device in the same network, but devices that aren't listening to it should ignore it.

This sounds like an ideal option! Not sure how to accomplish this in  bash, if you could provide an example that would be very helpful; especially the listener side.

I'm not sure if you can do this from bash, but it's not difficult from either C or Java.

It's a pretty simple thing in C and/or Java, I agree. But it has to be a shell script. I can only run shell or interpretable scripts (running the script from Tasker on my phone.)

If you write it in C, and compile to an executable (like the other shell execs (chmod, chown, etc.)), it can be invoked by a shell script if you drop the exec into a dir in your 1PATH, namely /system/bin`.

You can use avahi (wiki) (or a similar piece of Zeroconf software) to discover computers on the network and publish the list for your phone to retreive.
See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1233204/are-there-any-other-java-libraries-for-bonjour-zeroconf-apart-from-jmdns for Java Zeroconf implementations.

There's an application called Network Discovery (available on F-Droid, may also be on the Android Market) that attempts to identify devices on the network your phone is connected to.
As it's Free Software, you could try to see if you can modify it or use portions of it for your purposes.
Not a "here's an APK" answer, but if you have to write something, it's a good start.
Edit: App is here: http://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=network%20discovery&fdid=info.lamatricexiste.network&fdpage=1

It's helpful generally speaking, but it won't suit my needs if I can't get this information into Tasker. That's why I wanted to go the shell script route - Tasker can execute shell scripts and interpreted scripts. I would upvote if I could, but this question got migrated from Stack Overflow and I don't have any rep here yet :/


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How can I free up storage on my SGS II?
I got a notification on my SGS2 today that said the phone memory is nearly full.
So my question is: How can I move apps to the internal USB storage? I don't have a micro SD card in my phone.

I'd probably start by going into manage applications and sort by size, then clear the data on some of the larger ones.

I believe you can move apps to the "internal SD card" by going to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications, selecting individual apps, and choosing "Move to SD" if it's supported. Though honestly I keep all my apps off the SD, so I don't know whether it tries to move them to external or internal SD.

hi i follow your steps but when i try "Move to SD Card" buttom i get Failed to move application: not enough memory, and yes i have 4gb free space
so can you tell where is the problem?

@Hussainoo Settings -> SD card and phone storage should list a couple storage areas with their names, size, and free and used space.  Could you post those numbers or a screenshot?

Device memory 1.8GB used / 280Mb Free ---- SD Card 7.5gb used / 4.0GB FREE

@Hussainoo Hmm, that's quite strange.  The good news is, 280 MB should last you a while.  Hopefully someone else with an SGSII has encountered this and can help.

Check the space used up by your text messages, which is stored in internal storage. Whenever I receive the "memory full" notification, I delete all text message threads, and that always fixes the problem, especially if it's been months and I've received pictures, etc. I also use SMS Backup + to backup all of my text messages in my Gmail before deleting all of my text messages.

I don't think the actual internal storage is full on the SGS II. It's probably the data or cache partitions that are full.
You can go in to the settings -> applications -> manage applications and clear the cache/data for the "high use" apps.
I have a lot of apps installed but still have tons of "internal storage" space left, but I only have 11% (19.3M) left in my /datadata partition. it was at about 2MB the other day, but I removed a lot of apps that I don't really ever use anymore.
My /data partition, where the applications are installed, has a max size of 1.8GB, but my cache partition, where temporary data is stored, only has 80MB. The cache could fill up quickly if you use apps that cache a lot of data.

There is no solution to this problem. On the SGS2, the Move to SD button actually moves the apps to the external SD (/mnt/sdcard/external_sd) and NOT the interal USB (/mnt/sdcard). This means that the application's data is still on internal USB, but the application itself gets moved to external SD.
The only solution to install large applications on the internal storage is to repartition the 16GB so that you have a much bigger phone partition and smaller internal USB partition (they are both partitions of the same physical disk).

How can I repartition ?

Use fdisk or parted from the recovery terminal. If done incorrectly your phone can be permanently bricked. You can increase the size of the /data partition to 13.5GiB and reduce the /sdcard partition to around 512MB and delete the /preload partition.

I was also facing the same issue and the below link helped :)
http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii/272384-galaxy-s2-cannot-download-updates-new-apps.html
This works!!

What works? The link? Good. Because as soon as it dies, your answer stops working ;) Which is why we prefer to have at least an abstract included of what the page behind the link describes, so the idea would survice. Do you mind to [edit] your answer and include that abstract? Thanks a lot!

The thread in linked page has 112 replied (at the moment). Please copy the reply(ies) that helped you here. Until then this answers is very low quality.

Try one of the following:
1) Dial *#9900# and tap the second instruction (Delete dumpstate/logcat). This procedure freed about 400MB of my (internal) phone storage.
2) Or check out this link for lasting solution: http://techotv.com/samsung-galaxy-s2-internal-storage-apps-space-tutorial/
I hope you will find these very helpful.


text:
Extra cables for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
I just got this new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from USA and I love it. However, I'm not the most organized person, and sometime I lose my cables. The GT has a special cable, which is not using the common connector. Is there a model-specific cable I have to order, or does any cable for similar Samsung Tab device will just work ? I saw third-party companies selling such cables. I don't mind paying some money for this, but this is basically essential for my tablet to recharge and exchange any large quantity of information.

Samsung sells replacement data cable.

Yeah. That's an easy reply. But Samsung doe snot sell directly to consumers. At lest not in Canada. I got cables from some other resellers. I found that Belkin has some cable too, coupled with a car power supply that provides power for recharge.


text:
Only use pattern lock instead of swipe screen and pattern lock
On my first Android phone, the Droid (running stock Android OS), when the pattern lock was enabled, that would be the only lock screen I was presented with when turning on the screen.
Now I'm using a Droid 3 and it has a "2-stage" lock screen when the pattern lock is enabled. So when I turn on the screen, I have to first swipe to unlock and then enter the pattern after that. Is there any way to go back to the original Droid experience of a single lock screen, even with the pattern lock enabled?

possible duplicate: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/6193/avoid-both-screen-lock-and-pattern-lock.  Does that help?

That questions deals more with timing of the pattern lock screen after the swipe screen. I want to disable to swipe screen so only the pattern lock screen is necessary.

My bad, I pasted that without fully re-reading it.  I though there was another question the same as yours but I can't find it.  Anyways, hopefully someone knows how to do this.

That sounds like some bug to me in motoBLUR (or what ever they call it now). I am running android 2.3.5 and when I enable pattern lock, it is the only screen that I see when turning the device back on.

Ryan, I agree it is something that is part of Motorola's skin, because as I mentioned, it was not an issue when I was running stock Android. Hoping a Motorola Android expert could help.

This is, unfortunately, a common gripe in several of the  custom manufacturer UIs. HTC Sense also makes you perform two unlock actions, and since the UI's lockscreen is so entwined with the framework it is apparently very difficult to remove (I don't know of any way to do it on either Motoblur or Sense).

Without rooting, etc there is no way on the Droid 3 to go back to the Droid 1 lockscreen experience. Motorola and their forum users recommend using a lock timer so you don't have to use the pattern every time.
Motorola Forum Post


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Does the Eee Pad Transformer TF101 support the APT-X audio codec?
I am considering buying a Bluetooth speaker for use with my Asus Transformer (amongst other devices) but I am unable to find out whether the Transformer supports the APT-X codec, or find any information as to whether this question is actually appropriate as I may be mixing my terms/getting confused.
I am considering a device such as this:
Creative ZiiSound D5
What I am wondering is whether the Transformer will be outputting the sound using the APT-X codec or not? Is there any way to determine this?
From the specifications of the Transformer here the Bluetooth is Bluetooth V2.1+EDR.

I doubt it, since it's proprietary; Android by default only supports these codecs.  It's not required for the speakers to work though, as far as I can tell.

The speakers will fall back to SBC if the proprietary codec is not available.

Thanks, my main concern was whether it would be worth justifying the expense of a 'better' set of speakers if the device couldn't actually transmit the music in good enough quality and I think that this answers the question!


text:
Service for sharing list of installed apps
I'm thinking of web app for sharing lists of installed / recommended apps with people.
Optional comment for each app on how/when/why it's useful. Something a bit similar to usesthis.com, but for sharing Android apps and open to everyone. Is there such a service?

AppBrain.
Generically, a user's app list will be at http://www.appbrain.com/user/{username}/apps-on-the-phone.
You can also create other lists to share with the world.

Thanks, perfect! Here's my list by the way: http://www.appbrain.com/user/cuu508/cepes-apps

Although it's not a webapp ShareMyApps is quite useful. It is tiny in size and can share application list via email where you can edit your application list freely.


text:
Is there an Android known issues database?
Does anyone know if there is a Known Issues Database for Android,
or some tool that one could search for known issues based on the version of some parts of the code such as the kernel.

The official issue database for bugs/features/etc. of the Android OS can be found here.
Copied from Bryan Denny's answer to another question.

Thanks for your answer, this link will help me. Any idea on how to find out the known issues for the components in android?
Such as the kernel or the dalvik vm.

@Luander I would have assumed they were in the same spot.  Kernels are often heavily modified by the manufacturer, though, so if you encounter an issue it might not be Google's fault.

One more question: Do you know if there's a way to list all libs and components in some android compiled build? Because if I knew the version of each libs and/or component I would be able to serach for known issues specific for that libs or component

@Luander Sorry, no idea.


text:
Flashing 2.3.3 'Leaky' onto a Samsung Epic 4G
What can go wrong when flashing an unstable Android OS onto a phone? Is there an easy way to reset the phone if something goes wrong?  Has anyone out there had experience flashing Android OS?
Why would I want to flash Gingerbread 2.3.3 aka Leaky onto my Samsung Epic 4G?
One benefit that I can see is that users of the Epic will be able to test their applications on > Froyo 2.2.1, which is currently the stable release for the phone.
EDIT: Also, what happens when the device wants to update again, say 2.3.4 is flashed onto the phone, and then Sprint finally releases a stable 2.3.4 in 2013.  Assuming I still have this phone then, will it upgrade gracefully from the flashed ROM?

Questions that ask "in your opinion" are generally not the kind of questions we're looking for here. The kind of questions we like have (the potential for) a single, concrete answer.

"Is it a good idea" is still asking for opinion.

Anything can go wrong, including issues that permanently brick the device.
That said, Galaxy S devices are compatible with a tool called Odin that can fix all but the worst problems.  Example process.
I personally flash pretty much anything I feel like onto my Vibrant, and Odin has saved me many times.  I wouldn't hesitate to flash something I wanted to try out, but you may wish to be more cautious.

Can't emphasize enough that for the phone the question is about (Epic) bricking is significantly low-risk. See instructions http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1052813 on XDA for details.

Also, 2.3.3 might not add much, but the more recent 2.3.4 leaks are supposed to allow for google video chat with the front camera. That's huge.


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Is there an Android web browser which can upload files from a local file system?
I am considering buying and Android tablet and want to know if this function is possible.

I would assume all of them (or at least the major ones like stock, Firefox, Opera, and Dolphin).

The stock android browser, as long as the website uses a file upload control it can.
I just used the upload tool on twitpic, which uses flash, allows me to select audio, video or image files, and uploads them to twitpic.

imgur.com, flickr are notable examples of sites that allow access natively for Android 2.2+.

uc browser is the best for uploading files on the internet in  a file uploading website

UC Browser pays malware to advertise and install it after hacking your phone. That's how they get their ratings. Don't trust it.


text:
Is there any browser that allows to view the source?

Possible Duplicate:
How do I view source in the Android browser?

I miss this feature. How to do that? Is it possible with the default browser?


text:
Android web market always gives error
I am getting error for almost all the apps while I am trying to install from web android market (market.android.com), it gives error "This item cannot be installed in your device's country.". But same time If I tries to install same application from my mobile then it installs successfully. So does anybody have any idea why it's giving this error ? (Note : I had installed new market and then uninstalled it. This problem starts after installation of new market only).
Mobile model : Samsung Galaxy 3
Country : India

You could try Market Enabler to fake being in the US and see if that helps, though it doesn't explain why this happens.

Can you check if there are more than one device registered in your market account?

This is because the device location is detected from the SIM card in use.
I'm not sure how the web market location is detected. Perhaps look at using a proxy.
But if you wish your change your SIM location check this out:
https://market.android.com/details?id=ch.racic.android.marketenabler

Such sites have geographic filters so you may need to access those sites in mobile which passes the IP barrier.

Please don't add promotional links without disclosing your relationship to the company.

It is required per FAQ of this site that you have to disclose your affiliation with the mentioned service. Please edit your answer to fulfil this requirement.


text:
Droid X, how to get rid of Motorola Mobile Services?
So I'm used to the original Motorola Droid, I recent picked up a Droid X, and nothing seems to be the same.
To start, I cant add a second Gmail account to the Gmail app, in fact, ANY account I try to add, whether it be work email, gmail, facebook, etc, I'm always forced to use the Motorola Mobile Services feature.
I have ZERO desire to use this thing, and all it does is make my life hell. Is there a way to turn it off? The Droid was awesome but all this Motorola and Verizon bloat is killing me!

Nasty carrier! Sorry to hear that.
If you rooted it and put Cynogen Mod 7 on, that would get rid of all the Moto and Verizon bloat and you could have as many email acc's as you want :-)
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/06/15/download-cm7-released-for-the-droidx/


text:
Typing/sending text messages using Kies
Does the Kies software allow one to type and send text messages from the PC?

See also http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1784/how-do-i-send-sms-from-pc-through-android-phone-or-to-android-phone

Please mark this question as answered

You can't.
But, on the other hand, you can use the Kies Air application, which you can obtain through Samsung Apps. It allows you to access your mobile on the desktop browser if both PC and phone share the same Wifi network.
Then you would be able to send/recv messages on the desktop, amid many other things like accessing photos, videos, contacts, call logs, music, file system... and so on.  It is like a small web interface to your mobile.

No, it does not support sending text messages on PC

Kies Air does support sending of SMS thru PC. You need to connect the PC and your handset with the same network.

Could you provide a link to your source? Or provide a better description? Just the other two answers say you can't.

Samsung Kies - USB connection to PC: doesn't support SMS sending
Kies Air - Wi-Fi connection with device: supports SMS sending

Try using MyPhoneExplorer.  This allows SMS sending from computer via android machines.  I've been using it for years.


text:
Is it possible to run Android applications on (normal) Linux?
Since Android is a forked Linux kernel plus software stack I am wondering whether there are any projects or ideas regarding creating a version of Android that can be added to a Linux system to allow a Linux system to run Android applications (compiled for, say, x86).
Does anything like that exist or would it be possible?
(I don't mean the emulator that comes with the SDK.)

The Android Player for the BlackBerry Playbook is close, though of course it runs on QNX and not Linux.

Things have changed a little bit in the years since this was posted.
There are now several (though none of them perfect yet) ways to run Android apps on Linux without an emulator or VM.

Shashlik features pretty nice integration with your GNU desktop environment. Lacks Google Play Services, though.
ARChon utilizes Google Chrome, and lets you install Android apps as if they were Chrome apps. It's pretty neat, though here too, compatibility is not perfect.
Finally, Google are officially bringing the Play Store to Chrome OS. Since this is an official project developed by Google, I believe it should have the best compatibility of the lot. Chrome OS is a Linux distro, based on Gentoo. The bulk of its source code is made available through the Chromium OS project. This source code being available, it shouldn't be too hard to port this compatibility to popular GNU/Linux distributions. Google are relatively friendly to open source (at least compared to Apple/Microsoft), and I don't think they'll be throwing up any roadblocks to such porting. If anything, they seem keen on the Play Store hitting as many devices as possible. They may even build this functionality into future versions of Google Chrome for Linux, or release a separate package. They release most of the source code for both Android and Chrome OS, and they use Linux internally.

By the way, there is no need to compile APKs separately for x86. The apps you write are compiled into Dalvik Executable (DEX) code, which is finally converted into assembly code (according to the required architecture) by the kernel to send to the processor. (This last part is taken from this answer.)

Nothing like that exists yet since the apps are not run natively in the OS, but they use Dalvik Virtual Machine instead (Wikipedia). It's somewhat comparable to Java in the sense that it uses bytecode and creates a separated environment for each app. So unless the Dalvik environment is ported to other platforms, they can't be run on normal hardware.
There is a project called Alien Dalvik by Myriad that tries to run Android apps in different environments, but there's not much info on it. Myriad Alien Dalvik

Things have changed again since Revetahw posted.
Shashlik seems to be an inactive project, but Anbox seems to be gaining ground. The advantage with Anbox is that it doesn't emulate the Android kernel, but rather uses Linux kernel features to share the kernel between your Linux system and the Android system.
Also, Chrome OS now has stable Android app support on several devices, but unfortunately, this integration is closed-source with no plans to open-source it announced.

I don't know whether there are projects of this kind. What comes nearest probably is the android-x86 projects that is a port of an android environment on desktop workstations:
http://www.android-x86.org/

This doesn't emulate an Android environment on desktop workstations, it's a port of Android to normal PCs.

Sure, my formulation was not very suitable. Fixed it, thx.


text:
Connect LG Optimus 2X to Windows/Ubuntu via Bluetooth/Data Cable to use Internet
I want to connect my LG Optimus 2X (P990) to my PC to use the Internet.
I tried using the LG PC Suite 4 available for windows, but it crashes as soon as I make a connection with my phone. And, There's no option in the suite to use the Internet connection from the phone.
Also, I can't get Ubuntu to detect a connection from my phone (both Bluetooth and Data Cable).
Please help me out with this.
Thanks in advance.

EasyTether is the easiest way to share your phone wireless internet with your computer. You install the program on your phone, set up the drivers (which can be found here) and run. To enable easytether, check the top box on the application screen. Easy as that!
After you install the drivers:
For Ubuntu:

start a terminal window
type easytether connect
it will connect, and give you another command that you can type into another terminal window to see status information about your connection.

NOTE: the original terminal window you open (that you typed easytether connect into) must stay open while you are using the connection
For Windows:

right click the Easytether logo in the taskbar (lower right hand side, by the clock)
choose connect via (big number here)
you're connected!

mmhmm! glad you got it working :)

I don't know if this will work with your device, but I used to use Android Wired Tether the couple times I needed to use my phones data connection. It does require root, so I don't know if that is an option for you or not.

it worked out of the box in ubuntu 12.
While installing the deb package, I got the following error message in /var/log/syslog.  But, this warning can be ignored.
May 18 22:49:29 dev01 udevd[375]: invalid ENV attribute, 'DRIVER' can not be set /lib/udev/rules.d/65-easytether.rules:1

I had installed easy tether lite application in my android phone following the instructions from the application.
To connect to the phone, I did:
sudar@dev01 /opt/testing/lens/bin $ easytether connect  80A354043043422239
trying legacy service port (this is not an error)
connected as easytether0, wait while network-manager configures it

or run 'sudo dhclient easytether0' if you do not use network-manager

press Ctrl-C when you are done with the connection

The network-manager was able to pick up the device immediately and configured a dhcp address automatically.
easytether0 Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 02:00:54:74:68:72
      inet addr:192.168.117.2  Bcast:192.168.117.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
      inet6 addr: fe80::54ff:fe74:6872/64 Scope:Link
      UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
      RX packets:2163 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:3035 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
      RX bytes:1008908 (1.0 MB)  TX bytes:418292 (418.2 KB)

When I check the default route, it was properly setup to the tether device.
sudar@dev01 /opt/testing/lens/bin $ route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
0.0.0.0         192.168.117.1   0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 easytether0
169.254.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.0.0     U     1000   0        0 easytether0
192.168.117.0   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     1      0        0 easytether0

Overall, it is very easy to get connected. :)


text:
Is there anything that can show exactly what has awaken my phone?
Recently I had some issues with my phones battery getting drained in 8-10 hours, even though the screen was active for less than 1 hour and wifi/bluetooth/gps was off.
My first thought was to check the battery usage statistics, but all I saw was the display, voice calls and cell standby, and after that a few apps that I commonly use (such as the browser).
Still suspecting an app hogging the CPU I used applications such as a task manager and watchdog to try to find the culprit, but no luck. I then looked around here and found a couple of answers referencing to the awake time. Looking at battery usage again I could see that indeed the awake time was around 75% of the total time since last charge, i.e. some app was preventing my phone from going to sleep. I uninstalled a couple of apps I don't use anymore and lowered settings for email checks etc, and now my awake time is down to normal levels.
My question is, is there any app/secret number/trick/whatever that can show exactly what has awaken my phone? In the battery usage statistics I can still see that sometimes the phone wakes up even though the screen is off, and that is normal, but if I ever get this problem again (and I'm sure I will), this would be a very valuable tool for trouble shooting.

I'm using Better Battery Stats.  It will shows what apps are causing wake locks and that sounds like what you're after.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809

Perfect, just what I was looking for, thanks!

The problem came back. Thanks to the app you pointed me to I managed to find out that the app Improved Email wakes up the phone quite a lot, even though I've set it to only check once pet hour. I installed that when I used froyo because the stock email app used to lag a lot. However that seems much better now in gingerbread, so I'm using that instead, awake time seems good now.


text:
How to upgrade from one version of Cyanogenmod to another?
I am fairly new to rooting / putting custom ROMs on devices; I finally have my phone in a state that I like, after putting Cyanogenmod 7 on my HTC Desire Z. Since I've done this, there have been a few point releases, and a minor release is not far away. However, I don't really know how to upgrade from one version to another (and I couldn't find any instructions on how to do so).
How do I upgrade from one version of Cyanogenmod to another? Is it the same process as installing it in the first place? Will I have to wipe all the data on my phone, as I did the first time?

Cyanogenmod 11 has a built-in mechanism for checking for updates.
Go to Settings -> About Phone -> CyanogenMod updates
There you can toggle when your device will query for an update and on what release channel (Release and Development being Stable and Nightly respectively).
When an update will appear click on it's icon to download and Install, from there, it will do everything for you.

You can basically upgrade the same way as the original installation (flash the new ROM from recovery).
The general rule is: Do a complete wipe for major releases, but just clear the caches for minor releases.  See this CM forum topic.

This question is old and newer versions of CM have a self updating feature, I've added a new answer


text:
Gingerbread upgrade for Samsung Galaxy Gio?

Possible Duplicate:
When will my phone get the Android 2.3 update (Gingerbread)?

A few days ago I bought the Samsung Galaxy Gio, an Android phone that ships with Froyo. My regional Samsung site implies that a Gingerbread upgrade is available to me.
I then installed Samsung Kies to see if I could upgrade the firmware, but it said that currently no update was available for my device. (Related discussion about the cryptic update message.)

How do I find out whether Samsung plans to release an official Gingerbread upgrade for my device?
Are there any unofficial firmware upgrades available that work with my device? Would you recommend them? What about security?

Everything I can find suggests that a Gingerbread update is assumed because firmware has been leaked.  So you can't (yet) get it through something official like Kies.  This guide shows how to install the leaked version if you're so inclined.

So an official update appears to be on its way? In that case I'll wait for Samsung to release the upgrade.


text:
How to import Facebook Birthdays to get merge with Android Contacts?
Apparently importing Facebook contacts to Android contacts is straight forward procedure by just checking sync option in Accounts and Settings, but is it possible to have birthday info imported from Facebook and merged with Android contacts.
PS: I was able to import FB birthdays imported to Google Calendar but that didn't help as the birthdays will just remain in calendar and not in Contacts.

I can never remember my mom's birthday either.

If you sync your contacts with Google than you can add a special calendar. That you can only do on the web interface.

Select Settings | Calendar settings in Google Calendar.
Go to the Calendars tab.
Follow the Browse interesting calendars » link under Other Calendars.
Open the More tab.
Click Subscribe for Contacts' birthdays and events.

Now after syncing the events will show up in the calendar app.

It depends on the android version.
I used to have Froyo and gingerbread (stock) it would not import the birthday info, but custom ROM MIUI does import the birthday info.


text:
Is the app version I download always the latest?
I have recently submitted an app to the Android market to quickly realize that I had left in a bit of code that needed to be removed. I quickly re-submitted a new version but was wondering if the market makes you download version 1 and update.
I could not see this being the case but when I tried to re-download the new version after removing the old one from my phone - it was exactly the case. The faulty version 1 was downloaded and I needed to manually update it to v1.1.
If anyone has any ideas or would like to help me out by maybe downloading the app and letting me know which version you were given that would be great - App Link.

The only way this would happen is if you downloaded the old version of your app before Google had "pushed out" the new version you uploaded.  If you download an app you won't get anything but the most recent version Google has available.  I assume you just didn't wait quite long enough after uploading before trying to download it.


text:
How to set a solid color wallpaper?
My android comes with 3 different solid wallpapers. I have found more in the market but its paid. How to get a black wallpaper for free?

I used "Pitch Black Wallpaper" and I got just that: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tecdrop.pitchblackwallpaper&hl=en_US&gl=US

Can you not make your own?
Open up paint or photoshop of some sort and fill an area black. Save the image as a png and then place on your phones memory card. Then on the phone set your wallpaper from the gallery and select the black image.

That's what I did. I created a 1x1 png file with a #000000 pixel. My Galaxy A7 2018 won't allow it. It said something like image too small. This is just outright silly. As somebody said, even Windows 3.1 has it.

Gimp > New > Width: 1080, Height: 1920 > Bucket Fill > Export As > solid_background.png

The simplest way to create a black image is to keep the phone with camera down on desk (so that no light falls on the camera) and shooting an image.
Then simply set the recently shot image as your wall paper. :)

Disclaimer: I am one of the developers, and super excited to announce that we just published a new app for this!
We focused on making it simple and really good looking to change your wallpaper to a solid color of your choice within the palette of Android Lollipop material colors. You can find the app in Google Play:
Material Colors Wallpaper HD
Have a nice one :)

Very nice! Would have loved to seen a black variant though. Only gray.


text:
How to set Spotify as default Music Player?
I want spotify to appear in the drop-down menu instead of the default music player. Is this possible?
(I stream all of my music, so I don't need the default music player).
(By "drop down menu", I mean the one you drag down from the top of the screen -- the place where you can see everything that's going on. Is there a name for that "place"?)

Drop down menu = notification bar/area. Also, what phone do you have? My Galaxy S only shows the default music player there when i'm using it, and does the same with spotify.

Same problem with my CyanogenModed Desire HD. I'd like to specify a default media player to be used through A2DP (with blue tooth)


text:
what is my personal data storage as opposed to program storage  and how can I reduce it?
I am using Android 2.2, samsung galaxy tablet.
When I look at task manager, summary it list 4 types of storage
1. program    mine is 1.1 / 1.5 gb full
2. personal data      59.35 / 81.26 megabytes
3. internal sd storage 10 / 12.8 gb
3. external sd storage 13.7 / 14.83 gb
It is 2. personal data that is giving me trouble. For many weeks it was over 70 Mb / 81.26 mb and I was getting warnings about my database storage being nearly full. At times the phone would slow down or crash, mp3s would not play smoothly and SMS couldn't be received. Clearing phone logs and texts and programs I didn't use much etc only helped for a very short while.
When I look at main menu, applications,  manage applications, running -
it says my calendar storage is 180 kb
contacts storage  0.98 MB
maps 10.49 mb
facebook 5.7 mb
yahoo mail 4 mb   Are these figures relevant?
The big one in this list is
media storage 53.0 mb   (I have much more than that in my internal SD storage in many small files, but deleting 4000 of them didn't change my personal data storage even after a reboot).
For the last few days my personal data storage has stayed just under 60 mb and is not giving problems,  but I'm not sure what is different this week and What does the personal data storage consist of and where is/was the main part of my problem coming from?
I also note that when I reboot the phone the media scanner runs and takes forever and slows the phone.  This last week I have just noticed that when it is nearly finished my personal data storage jumps to over 70 and I get warnings again. But it goes back to about 59/81 after a few minutes.
Is the amount of personal data storage I am using higher than usual ?
Thanks for any help.

related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2065/what-can-i-do-to-manage-my-phones-internal-storage

Program storage is the amount of space taken up by the actual app, i.e. the APK size, personal data storage is the space taken up by your personal data. I.e. if you have a to-do list program it would likely create a database and all the to-do are added to the database which would take up personal data storage space.
The only way to reduce personal data storage is to clear the app data, but this will delete all your personal data for the app, i.e. settings and based on the example above all of your to-do's.
What I tend to do is go to settings > applications > manage applications and then go to the all tab. Then on the menu go to sort by size and clear some of the apps near the top that take the most amount of size that aren't a big deal if I lose the data. Google Maps is usually one that takes a lot of personal data storage space.
Hope this helps


text:
auto (usb) tethering when phone is connected?
Can I somehow auto turn on

usb tethering when I connect my
HTC Desire with Cyanogenmod 7.0.3 to my
Windows 7 computer?

NOTE Not when I connect it to anyother computer though.

Your phone is managed by the computer when connected, so you'd need to set something up computer-side.  Perhaps some sort of script to get adb to run a tethering app on your phone, I don't know.  Even if the phone started the tethering itself it would require something PC side to tell it that it's connected to the right computer.

So phone cannot 'know' what computer it is connected to?

Right. You could think about it this way, perhaps it's more intuitive: When you connect your phone to a PC for the first time, the PC installs the driver for your phone after getting determining what device it is.  But you phone does not install a driver for your PC, since it does not determine what PC it is.

If you use EasyTether, you can always have it enabled on your device and simply right click the icon in the tray (Windows) or enable it via terminal (Linux) and be on your way. Not quite 'default' but one click is pretty good. And EasyTether uses nothing when you're not attached to a computer, so no wasted battery or processing. It does display a notification icon to be persistent (not be killed), but you might be able to turn it off.
As far as it knowing, you have to have the client installed, so any computer you hook it to that didn't both have the client and have you enable it computer-side would do nothing.
Hope that helps!

Sounds good. The thing is that I connect my phone the the computer and then I have to turn on tethering. It takes some time for computer to pick up the connection but sometimes tethering won't start. Not sure why. An icon in Windows sounds great. Does it mean that when I connect to my office computer and do nothing, tethering won't start? It starts only when I click the icon in Windows?

THE LITE VERSION BLOCKS HTTPS, INSTANT MESSENGERS AND GAME CONSOLE TETHERING. does that mean the the application filters the connection???

the lite version blocks certain protocols and https:// connections i believe. the full version (while pricey) is unrestricted and has raving reviews. And as far as the turning on, that's the beauty of it, is after running it once, you can always have it activated on the phone, making it a one step process on the computer. And yes, you're still required to right click the icon and say Connect in Windows, otherwise nothing will happen. You might be able to write a script to enable it and attach it to the "Always do (...) when this device is connected" in Windows...


text:
Yellow Triangle at bootup
A few days ago I bought a Samsung Galaxy S2. But, at phone start up under the Galaxy S2 Logo I see a strange Yellow Triangle. I read a few forum posts found on google, but I have some doubts about this. To be more precisely, what that means? Ah, and yes, at first start up I didn't see this triangle, he appears after I tried to update the phone software from samsungapps.com

You just got case of failed update. Try to have look at this article and see if you can get it sorted

I cannot get it into Download mode, when I try to start it with 3 butons clicked, it turns on as a normally startup

@hoss Try removing the battery, then while holding the buttons reinsert the battery.  Only let go of the buttons once Download Mode is shown.

I managed how to get into Download mode, I removed the battery, and it's starts, but when I try to flash it, it stops on the cache.img in Odin and don't moving forward, something like freezes, but I still can turn on the device after I force disconnect it. (Sorry, I know my english is not so good)

Ok, I have upgraded it, Kies just stays in backround, and I have to remove it, to can make an upgrade successfully.


text:
Unable to connect Galaxy Tab 10.1 to Windows 7 for transferring files
I am unable to connect a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to a computer via included cable. Here is what I tried:

Tried to mount on Windows XP (32), Windows 7 (32), Windows 7(64), and OSX (Snow Leopard).
Tried installing official drivers from US and CANADA Samsung website.
Tried installing several versions of Kies.
Tried installing driver through each version of Kies.
Tried to see/push to device in DDMS using Eclipse with latest Android SDK.
Tried to connect using Odin, but I do not get any device information.
Tried installing drivers from other websites.
Tried Android File Transer for OS X.

None of these seem to work and after two weeks, I really have no other ideas of what to try. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Called Customer Support and it sounded like a defective unit. They covered it under the 1 yr included warranty. They pay for the shipping label as well, all you need to supply is the box.


text:
What's the difference between the 5 Samsung Vibrant models?
I have a T-Mobile Galaxy S Vibrant, which has the Samsung model number SGH-T959.  However, Samsung's download page has 5 different sub-models: SGH-T959ZKATMB (appears to be the "default"), SGH-T959ZKDTMB, SGH-T959ZKMTMB, SGH-T959ZKBTMB, and SGH-T959ZKBTMK.  The only difference in the downloads is that the ZKBTMK doesn't have any manuals or instructions.  Apart from that, all the files are dated the same across all 5 versions.
What are the differences between these phones?  And how can I tell which one my device is?

While this is not an answer that should be taken with any facts to base it on, I would think that the "ending" to the model numbers could indicate "batches" during manufacturing, or where the device was assembled. Another thought I have is when manufacturing another "batch" some piece of hardware changed for what ever reason, even if they used a newer chip for something like the the GSM radio.
I also looked up the SGH-T959V (The 4G version of the Vibrant) and they only have 1 "sub-model", which this device did not sell very well, and I have not heard of any "upgrades" to it.
Another example I could use to support minor hardware changes is these devices have, as you probably know, bad GPS chips. Samsung has made attempts to correct this while the device was being manufactured.
My device does not even have ANY of those model numbers anywhere on it. All mine says is SHG-T959.

I think you're on the right track with this.  In an amazing coincidence I actually read somewhere last night that the 850 MHz band is supported for 3G on one of the sub-models, but I can't find the webpage again :/.


text:
SIM settings icon always on notification bar
I bought an imported HTC Desire about 6 months ago and put my New Zealand Vodafone SIM in it. When I start up the phone, there's nothing in the noticication bar as you'd expect. Then, after a call is made or data connection initiates, an icon appears that looks like a SIM card with a cog next to it. I assume it's something to do with SIM settings. When I drag the notification bar down and click on it, nothing happens.
It's not a big deal, but I'd like to get rid of it if I can!
Don't know if it matters, but since I upgraded to Gingerbread, most of the icons in the notification bar are grey rather than white, but this one has remained white.
The phone is running the official HTC Desire Gingerbread upgrade - Android 2.3.3.
Update: Photos of the icon:

Obviously the phone is unlocked if it makes calls, but is it still running firmware from another region or carrier? That would likely explain it.

It's running the official HTC Gingerbread firmware - assume that's not carrier- or region-specific... That said, I assume it's my carrier trying to send me some settings but the phone can't read them or ignore them or something...

Usually that symbol means it's preparing the sd card. I always get it when I restart my phone as it's loading all the apps/wallpaper that I have.

Are you sure it is a sim related icon and not a micro SD card icon ? Does it have any text with the icon ?

Could you make photo or another image of this icon? I'd like to take a look at it.

@nathpilland - Pretty sure it's not the preparing SD icon, I see that on startup too.

@George - have added photo links just now...

That is the SD card icon not the sim card icon.
Perhaps your phone does not recognise the SD card, or the card needs reformatting to be used with the phone.
Or you don't have an SD card inserted.
EDIT
After further research:
That icon is called "stat_notify_sim_toolkit." It is used in just two places, both methods inside com.android.server.MountService:
notifyMediaUnmounted()
notifyMeadiaChecking()
Tracing these methods backwards, I see that the MountService calls them when either:
1) a volume is detected as not mounted
2) it is checking to see if a volume is mounted
Num. 2 should only take a few seconds at longest.
So, "something" is not mounted properly, though I cannot guarantee that is the SIM that is having a problem.
You should remove and re-insert all plugable items (SIM, SD).

Another option recommends:

settings > applications > manage applications > SIM Toolkit > Select Force Stop button

If this removed the icon 'temporarily' at least it confirms it's a SIM problem and not SD.
EDIT 2
Someone has a recommended solution for NON-ROOTED phone's here:
(I cannot verify this method as I haven't tested it)
SimCard Notification Icon Fix
For rooted phones simply use Titanium Backup and FREEZE the app: Sim Toolkit

I have an SD card in there and it works fine... There is a different icon there when it says "Preparing SD card" etc...

@x3ja Edited hope you can fix it!

cool thanks! Yes, force stopping SIM Tolkit removes the icon temporarily (comes back after a few seconds). As for the temporary root option - will look at that too - interesting that it's on the Vodafone NZ forums - I'm on Vodafone NZ too... perhaps it's unique to us kiwi Vodafoners?


text:
Unable to move apps to SD card after Gingerbread upgrade
I upgraded my HTC Desire to Gingerbread via the official update yesterday. It wipes all settings, so I've been working through re-installing all the apps that I previously had on the phone. They all install fine and some move to the SD card fine too, but some just say "unable to move to SD card" when I select them. I suspect it's because they were on the SD card before and it's getting an error when trying to overwrite the existing files/directory. Where do these get stored and how can I work around this?

Hmm, actually just tried again a few hours later and it works now... Odd!

I guess it is sorted now.

Yep, it's sorted. Not really an answer, but there we go...


text:
Why aren't there notifications for updates to built-in applications?
On July 29th, Google released an update for the Gmail application, that brought it to version 2.3.5. Since I had version 2.3.4, I was expecting to be notified of the update shortly as I had for updates to other applications including ones that came pre-installed on my phone, such as Google Maps.
Alas, I still haven't received the notification, even though I can see the update available in the market (yes, I realise I can download it manually).
I have since surmised (though this is a guess on my part) that the difference is that gmail is considered a "built-in" app, but Google Maps, while pre-installed on my device, is not considered built-in.
Is this right?
If it is, why are built-in apps treated this way? Is there a technical reason, or are they somehow considered more sacrosanct, because of their status n the platform?
Update:
Apparently, the SDK doesn't list Google Maps as built in, but it does list the "email" app.  Furthermore, Google Maps is listed as a "Downloaded App" but Gmail isn't.

Is it possible that it autoupdated?

@PortableWorld no the version is still 2.3.4. Should it auto-update?

Since it is a built in app, I don't know. Hard to say since the autoupdating option is inside the Market Place. My Gmail app doesn't show up in the Market Place. Good question. Hope someone provides an answer.

I can confirm that Maps is a system app on my phone, as well as a couple apps I've downloaded manually from the Market, e.g. Flash.  The link you added shows apps that come with the Android emulator -- no Google apps like Gmail, Maps, or the Market come with the emulator.

If the app has never been updated via the market (you are still using the version that was bundled in the ROM) then there's no link between the market and the installed app. Because of that, you won't get update notifications. Once you install a newer version from the market you will begin to receive notifications of future updates.

I don't think so ... I do not recall ever needing to manually search out and install Gmail, it's just showed up in My Apps. Market linkage can be part of a ROM as well.

Google Maps is generally a system app as well.  There's another question where the user had GMail update automatically despite having auto-updates shut off.  So as far as we know, Google pushed this update out specially just like they push out Market updates.  Perhaps there was a critical security fix or something like that.

Interesting, that other asker had the update pushed, but I haven't. I wonder what the difference is? If there was security fix, I would definitely want to know about it.

@zdan Google tends to do rolling updates, so it could just be that you hadn't been hit yet. Or network issues, some configuration thing not quite right on your phone ... probably lots of things could be the cause.


text:
Droid only boots into ClockwordMod
So I've just rooted my Motorola Droid (I've done this before on the same device, but with a different method back on 2.0.1). I am on 2.2.2.
The root went successfully, Super User app was present, etc.  I then installed ROM Manager and http://www.cyanogenmod.com/ from my SD card.
After that, my phone would boot, then run through the boot animation, freeze, then start the boot animation over again, and repeat.
I made a backup through ROM Manager before the install, and have restored it.
From what I could tell, that went fine, but now I'm stuck in ClockwordMod Recovery each time I try to reboot my device.
It boots once, showing the Motorola logo, then shuts off, then boots again showing the logo, then goes directly into ClockworkMod, without me holding x or anything special.
Can I get out of this or am I bricked?  And troubleshooting suggestions?

Restoring a backup of one ROM over top of a different ROM is a bad idea; although it may work in some cases, the device partitions often get screwed up.  You need to flash a working ROM -- preferably the original one -- and should have no problems doing so since you have Clockwork access.

Where can I find a 'working' ROM?


text:
Where can I find my Android applications?
I want to know where do Android applications stay?
For example, if you install a program with package name xx.yyy ,  you will see xx.yyy-1.apk in /data/app and will see xx.yyy in /data/data and data@app@xx@yyy-1apk@classes.dex in /data/dalvik-cache.
I want to know other places that a program can stay.
At a glance, I want to remove a program manually, and I want to know places the application might occupy.
At the end I want to know the function of each file.  What's the duty of data@app@xx@yyy-1apk@classes.dex  in /data/dalvik-cache for example?

The /data/app-private directory is another location of 3rd-party protected apps.  System apps that come pre-installed with the ROM are stored in a read-only /system/app directory.
/data/dalvik-cache contains optimized bytecode for each installed app, which allows the system to launch it faster.  These ...@classes.dex files get generated at installation/update time, or during the first boot-up for pre-installed apps.
Also, with Android 2.2 Google introduced ability to move apps to the SD Card.  When you do this, a new virtual mount point is created under /dev/block/dm-X (where "X" is a sequential number starting with 1) which points to /mnt/asec/xx.yy-1.
/data/data/ folder contains settings, preferences and cache for all apps, each within its own folder named after the package name.  E.g. /data/data/xx.yyy/.

Good answer.  I would only add: Apps can create any files / folders on the SD card they like, so there's nothing to do but inspect and remove those manually.


text:
Buying apps and entering credit card number via 3G/GPRS. Is it secure enough?
As title. Of course using Android market and the Google Checkout payment. By the way, how about other market-like apps?

First be aware that you're transferring data over a wide area wireless device (the range of 3G is much wider than Wifi), therefore it is easier for an attacker to snoop on whatever your device is transmitting on 3G than on Wifi. The 3G/GPRS only has a lightweight encryption (to limit unnecessary use of CPU power and battery, which is already scarce in mobile devices), this encryption should never be relied upon.
However, applications can use its own encryption. I have not checked into it specifically, but I would presume that Google Checkout on Android does use SSL encryption; which is widely accepted to be strong enough for doing online purchases.
In short, you should not need to worry about doing online purchases using Android Market. If you're doing purchases on other apps, you should check whether they're using SSL or other strong encryption. Be aware that your banking details are being transmitted wirelessly, it is trivial for anyone to record data that are transmitted using radio waves; your only line of defense is SSL encryption, which should hold attackers at bay long enough until your credit card expires.

Thanks dude, that's a very clear answer. Is it possible to check that Checkout uses SSL? In computer browser there is that secure symbol, but since Checkout is an app, there is no such thing (the same for other market-like apps)

Keep in mind that there a lot of other things that can go wrong -- a man in the middle attack could still work if the certificate chain is not validated, etc. etc.  Normally you can rely on these mechanisms, but all it takes is an incompetent CA -- of which there are many -- or a tiny flaw or exception in security software to make the whole thing fall apart.

Its worth pointing out that 3G/GPRS only "feels" like it is more risky.  You should consider that if someone wants to intercept a significant amount of internet traffic they will find a way.  Keep your sensitive data protected regardless of how you access the 'net.

@greg: due to the wider range, 3G is much more risky if you're transmitting unencrypted data or weakly encrypted data such as the one used in 3G (the default encryption 3G is optimized for battery and cpu consumption, not security). Adding encryption such as SSL is necessary for any wireless communication to ensure man in middle won't be able to obtain your banking data.


text:
Does updating to 2.3 fix Galaxy S' lag issue?
As title. The lag issue I am talking about is the notorious "RFS lag" as explained here, and is also refered to here and here

Although they didn't change the file system, they did make improvements and I'm personally noticing significantly less lag on 2.3.3 coming from 2.2.

From techie-buzz.com:

[O]ne major disappointment with this firmware is that it still uses the RFS file system. The RFS FS is the major culprit behind all the lags and stalling issues which majority of the Galaxy S owners face.

If you want to fix your lag I recommend an Ext4 lagfix.  If you flash a kernel such as Voodoo with Odin, you don't even need to root first (note that flashing it will void your warranty anyways though).  This guide describes the process for an Android 2.3.4 kernel for the SGS GT-i9000.
I use Voodoo on my SGS Vibrant and it's awesome.

Note that flashing Voodoo will automatically root your phone, not including installing the superuser apk from the market.

@Nathan Hmm, really? How? I'm trying to unpack the kernel zImage without much success but from what I understand it's supposed to write to a specific block of storage (so the flashing itself can't root) and I don't see why supercurio would add code in the kernel to root the phone.

This is in the guide you linked to: "François Simond a.k.a supercurio the founder of project-voodoo for Galaxy S devices has created a kernel based on ext4 with custom recovery menu and root(you need to install superuser app from market)." (emphasis by Nathan)

@Nathan My bad, I should have read that more carefully. I'll try testing later to confirm one way or the other.  Thanks!

Does this have other consequences? It looks like you are recommending installing a whole new OS. Will it remove features from Samsung, like Samsung Apps, Samsung-specific menus, etc?

@Louis No, I'm recommending installing a kernel. Supercurio provides stock kernels that are modified to support an ext4 filesystem, that is all. Thanks for bumping this though, I had forgotten to test; favorited the question for later.

@Nathan I just tested on stock KB5 on my Vibrant. I flashed the stock+Voodoo-Froyo-T959-UVKB5 kernel and it worked, yet my system is not rooted.  I do not have busybox, su, or the SuperUser app.

So I'll still have Samsung stock UI and apps? What does installing a kernel exactly do?

@Louis It's similar to installing a kernel on Linux.  The kernel provides system functions, it's the core of the OS.  The most noticeable change between kernels is normally battery life and speed, it definitely doesn't affect apps or your launcher.

2.2.1 was the big lag fix release on the Galaxy S, that made a huge difference to the device's speed compared to the previous 2.1 and 2.2 releases.
To me, the Gingerbread 2.3.3 feels very much the same to me as 2.2.1 did.


text:
Disable Phone's Built-in Microphone?
I just conducted a tiny experiment with the original headset that comes with Nexus One: I plugged it into the phone, expecting the phone built-in microphones to be switched off, replaced by the microphone on the headset.
I was disappointed to see that the voice input behavior of the system didn't change: The phone seems to continue picking up sound from the built-in microphone(s).
So, I thoroughly covered the headset's microphone with tape and tried again...
Still, no change. The Nexus One's built-in microphone are fully enabled.
This is disappointing because I really need to disable the Nexus One's built-in mics, so that I can use a different microphone instead.
Is there a way to accomplish that?

which icon do you see in the notification bar, headphones or headset?

Maybe disabling the noise cancellation feature might work..
Get a rooted file editor first, then
from "/system/build.prop" change the
"media.a1026.enableA1026=1" to "media.a1026.enableA1026=0"
Then do a reboot. See if your problem is solved. I simply suspect the android's mic always gets enabled for the purpose of noise cancellation during calls/voice input.
REMEMBER! I do not hold responsiblilty for any failure. I suggest you make a backup and everything when you try this.
SOURCE: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6787214

@Android Eve, Did you accept it because it worked or for being the only answer alone?


text:
Can you run Linux command line apps on Android?
I'm brand new to Android; in fact I've never owned one.
But I'm traveling all this summer, and I'm very interested in doing some programming while I'm on the run.
QUESTION: Is it possible to run a full Ruby development environment with Emacs on Android?  How?
And does "rooting" give you anything close to a real Linux system?

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/4339/what-linux-distribution-is-android-based-on and http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/6268/is-possible-install-eclipse-ide-in-honeycomb

Try this method. Basically any c, C++ compiled for ARM will work http://geeknizer.com/install-run-linux-applications-on-android/

As a new user as well, Jackpal looks like it ticks the boxes as a reworking of the Android Terminal Emulator.

"Rooting" allows you access to the internal Android environment, which of course consists of more than just the Linux kernel.  So you are running Linux, but you should consider it as though you are running under a different distribution than say Debian or Redhat.
There's a different set of standard libraries and some files are in different locations.  At least on my Droid ext2 support is not built-in by default.  There is also no init or cron.  The full set of Linux modules is not available unless you compile them yourself and put then in /system/lib/modules.  Important ones you may miss on standard ROMs are cifs, ext2, tun, and others.
Most, if not all, phones running Android are ARM CPUs.  So the binaries you run on them must be ARM "EABI" "soft-float" binaries.  If you have the source you can cross-compile whatever utilities you need, but read on.
There are many standard commands and utilities available in the /system/bin directory such as grep, ps, cp, rm, mv, ls, ip, even vi.  You have enough to get by until you...
...use the "Linux Installer" utility to install a chroot'ed Debian environment.  Debian has supported ARM for a while.  It takes some work, but if you can root your phone, and have a sizeable enough SD card, this is the way to go.
This is close to a standard Linux system and under it you can install and run Ruby.  Of course CPU and RAM limitations come into play.

Ruby has not been ported to Android, though you might want to check out Ruboto.  For simple editing there are a few options, but I don't believe emacs has been ported either, there are no Market results anyways.
Rooting might provide you the ability to run Linux on your phone, but Android is not Linux.  Its kernel is largely based on the Linux kernel but that's about it.  You cannot run any Linux application with a GUI on Android, it would need to be rewritten.  I'm not sure to what extent native command line apps would need to be rewriten, though of course they would need to be recompiled.
Android also does not have a full Java VM.

You can install a working debian distro on your phone without upsetting the distribution on the phone already. This way you'll have a full userland with stuff you're used to on any other Linux box. You should ssh into your phone to use this comfortably.
Install this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dyndns.sven_ola.debian_kit

At the present date, Emacs port for Android already exists:

android-emacs-toolkit released Jun 23, 2012:

Android-emacs-toolkit helps to build android development environment on emacs. It contains a emacs major mode which help to develop android sdk and ndk program.

GNU Emacs ported to Android available from Google Play Store, last updated August 23, 2012:

GNU Emacs ported to Android!
Runs on modified version of Terminal Emulator - requires hardware keyboard and a rather big display.
Includes Busybox and eshell. SSH (for TRAMP) and git are planned.

Additionally, you may find useful the information provided by EmacsWiki - EmacsOnAndroid, that essentially is a guide about installing Emacs into an Android device.


text:
What are the limitations of installing Ubuntu on an Android device?
I'm looking at
http://androlinux.com/android-ubuntu-development/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-android/
What are the limitations of this Ubuntu installation?  Can I install anything that runs on Ubuntu?
I'm only interested in using this for commandline tools (Ruby, gems, and Emacs).

Ubuntu running on one computer is really no different from Ubuntu running on another computer, whether one of the computers is called a "phone" or not :P
Things to consider for your applications:

Does this application rely on specific video libraries?  No existing Android phone has an ATI video chip, for example, as far as I'm aware.
Does this application rely on specific input methods or other hardware?  Not all Android devices support peripherals.  Of course, most have Bluetooth so Ubuntu should be able to manage a Bluetooth keyboard, for example, but I'm not sure whether a phone's Bluetooth stack could be so different as to not work in Ubuntu.
Does this application rely on the x86 architecture?  Most (all?) Android devices use the ARM architecture.

I would suspect that Emacs would be fine if you compiled it for the chipset of whatever device you used.  Ruby might be more complicated -- maybe it relies on specific x86 instructions, I haven't really studied how interpreted languages work in that regard -- but maybe not.
You're making me want to try Ubuntu on my phone so I can better answer these questions :P

I've seen OpenOffice.org running on Debian on an OpenMoko FreeRunner. That doesn't mean it was a good idea, but I've seen it done. :)
If there is an ARM build of a package, you should be able to get it to at least run. The limitations is that things may not always be supported by Free Software - even the venerable Dream (G1) has binary drivers. There are projects reverse-engineering these drivers (as of this writing, the RIL has been reversed and GPS (not AGPS) works.)

Can I install anything that runs on Ubuntu?

No, you can install anything, but it may not work. You need to find packages and programs matching your hardware architecture. For example, in common case programs compiled for x86 architecture won't run at all on your smartphone, because phone has different CPU type - usually ARM7.


text:
Search2Play broke my Samsung Infuse's back button. How can I fix it?
I have a Samsung Infuse 4G, rooted and unlocked.  I installed Search2Play and it broke my back button.  I uninstalled and unrooted, then rerooted, but the back button is still not working. Could someone please help me fix this?

You'll probably want to wipe everything and reflash your ROM.  This XDA post has everything you need:

What this is:
A package to return your device to a completely stock state. It differs from h8rift's packages in that it includes a PIT file to repartition your phone. This is especially useful for those who accidentally flashed the wrong PIT (cough... bella) or screwed up their partitions some other way.
Is this dangerous?:
No. The PIT file I created has been tested and confirmed working by myself.
Instructions:

Make sure the drivers for the Infuse 4G are installed (installing Kies is the best way to accomplish this)
Download and unzip GTG's_Ultimate_Unbrick.zip
Run Odin3 v1.7.exe as administrator
Place your phone into download mode (pull battery, replace battery, press and hold both volume buttons while plugging in the USB cable)
Make sure your phone shows up in Odin as COM##
Click the PIT button and choose infuse.pit (and make sure Re-Partition is checked)
Click the PDA button and choose PDA_UCKD5.tar.md5
Click the PHONE button and choose PHONE_UCKD5.tar.md5
Press Start
In the rare case that it finishes and your phone proceeds to boot loop, pull the battery, replace it, press and hold both volume keys and then press and hold the power key, keep holding all three buttons until 3e recovery comes up, select "delete all user data", and finally select "reboot system now".

----Download----
GTG's_Ultimate_Unbrick.zip (183MB)

Note that Odin is very powerful and, despite the fact that the post says it's not dangerous, Odin can brick your phone.  Proceed at your own risk.  That said, I've used Odin dozens of times myself and it's saved my phone several times.

Will this work if I originally used short fuse superoneclick?

@amy Yes. Odin relies on Download Mode (the bootloader) but that's it.  Your current ROM, data, root status, etc. are irrelevant :)

AWESOME! thaak you very much!!

... so I followed the directions.. still didnt work?? is there something I am missing??

@amy Hmm. You could try a factory reset and try again -- do make sure Re-partition is checked in Odin. If that doesn't work, though, maybe the touchscreen actually broke in the area of that button?


text:
cyanogenmod 7 mytouch 3g cannot connect to wireless
Upgraded to cyanogenmod 7.0.3-slide a week ago. Just today the wireless (802.11G) quit working. Wifi Analyzer just shows "Nothing yet ;)". Rebooting doesn't seem to help. Any ideas?

I remove the saved networks and it started working again.
Hope this helps someone else.


text:
How to upgrade to Android 2.3 from 2.2?

Possible Duplicate:
How do I update the OS in my device?

I own a Sidekick 4g currently running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and I want to upgrade to 2.3 (Gingerbread) to use my front camera on video chat with family on Skype. How do I upgrade my Sidekick?

Have you heard of an official, or unofficial, update to 2.3? The sidekick uses another "custom" version of android by samsung, and they haven't even rolled out TouchWiz Gingerbread to their Galaxy S devices yet, officially.

If there is an official update to Android 2.3 (check the post on Gingerbread updates) then you'll get a notice on your phone (eventually). Just follow the instructions.
If there's not an official update and you don't want to wait for one, you'll need to root your phone and install a Custom ROM.


text:
What does the yellow progress bar in stock browser means, while rendering downloading web page?
While rendering / downloading web page the stock browser shows moving yellow progress bar. It tends to start increasing from the left, at times increasing from the right, there are also gaps in the yellow bar, before finally completing rendering / downloading and disappearing. I'd love to understand what it all means.
Whatsmyuseragent.com gives ...
"Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; ViewPad7 Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1"

Android browser progress bar video on Picasa at ...
00:01 shows short yellow bar from left
00:02 shows yellow bar from right
00:03 shows longer yellow bar from left
00:05 complete rendering, progress bar disappears

I've never seen it come from the right, nor have I seen it "gap", but the progress bar is just that, it shows the download progress for the page that you about to view.
After you posted your screenshot and video, it looks like that the browser is seeing that you are on the Malaysian version of Google. If I am correct, the Malaysian is read from Right to Left, which would be why the progress bar loads from right to left.
If you just go to Google.com, it will load from left to right, or you have the default language on your device to be Malaysian, in which case, would default it to right to left.

The progress bar increasing from right is obvious on my Android browswer. FWIW, its user agent is ...
"Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; ViewPad7 Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1"
I can snap a video of the progress bar progressing if that helps.

A video or even a screenshot may help. There is an app on the market called "No Root ScreenShot It" - https://market.android.com/details?id=com.edwardkim.android.screenshotitfullnoroot&hl=en that can take a screenshot. You can then edit your original question and add the image.

Added image and video, snapped with a cheap android phone. Sorry for the quality. Yet to root my ViewPad7 and get a free screenshot app.

I have modified my answer.

Malaysian (or Bahasa Malaysia) used roman alphabet and is read/written from left to right (not right to left). My Viewpad7 Android language setting is "English (United States). The progressing from both left and right sides occurs for all websites. So, I'm not sure your modified answer is the correct answer, yet. My other android device is still on Eclair 2.1, and that doesn't seem to exhibit this progressing from left and right. I'll see whether other Android device I can get hands on, shows the same ...

oh, it is? When I searched for Malaysian alphabet, the site I looked at said it was written right to left. And if you default language is English on the device, then I don't know why yours is loading from right to left... :)


text:
Is there any tool that tells me the min and max battery consumption rate of an app?
Is there any tool that tells me the min and max battery consumption rate of an app?

Apps don't consume battery.  The device consumes the battery as it does things like run apps.  So the only way to measure battery use is physically.
Fortunately, devices record battery use themselves.  There is most often an area in Settings where you can view the approximate percentage of battery used by apps, cell standby, etc.
You could also kill/remove everything except your app and see how long the battery lasts on a full charge, and compare it to how long the battery lasts without your app running.
The best way to ensure low battery use is good design, though.  Your app should not be busy waiting, otherwise it will consume much more battery than needed.  You also mention (I think) that your app won't work if the phone is rebooted.  Plenty of other alarm apps work after the phone is rebooted, so I think you need to look into that.


text:
How to make screen 'unsensitive' on incoming calls?
Here's the scenario: what I often find happening is that I receive a call on my Android phone (HTC Desire S), and as I'm rushing to get it out of my pocket I'm accidentally managing to swipe the screen, which rejects or accepts the call, when I didn't want to.
What's the best way to avoid this, given that I want to keep my phone in my pocket? I'd kind of like the screen to remain disabled when a call is being received until I press the power button at which point it becomes sensitive. Is there a way to do this or something which would avoid this accidental accept/reject of calls?

I just did it again.  I just hung up on someone who was calling me.  AAAAArgh!!! :-)

The way I solved the issue to my satisfaction was to buy and install the WidgetLocker Lockscreen app.  This is an awesome little app that basically allows you to replace your lockscreen (and incoming call screen too) with something customized.  I just have one horizontal slider to unlock the screen now, and it has completely eliminated accidental screen unlocks, as well as accidental accepts/rejects for incoming calls!  :-)
I would highly recommend WidgetLocker Lockscreen in any case, because being able to customize the lockscreen is really nice.

An anonymous user asked this (by doing an invalid edit): WLL has some bugs. On my LG P500 it sometimes unlocks sceen by its self on incomming calls. If I have some SMS or Missed call nottification, screen unlocks on incomming call.
This problem is the biggest minus of android. Solution is wery easy but android builders didn't take it in consideration. Why? Why unlocker is separate from loncher and is hard to override.

This doesn't quite answer your question, but I wonder if you could change how you grip or store your phone. For example, I never have this problem with my Droid 1. It lives upright in my pocket, and I'm able to grasp it and pull it out without touching the touchscreen at all, and since it's upright, even if I did grab the screen, I would be touching the top part, which is away from the sliders for me.
My previous phone has a little place for a wrist strap, and I tied a big rubber ring to it which I could then grab with one finger to retrieve from the pocket.
Your phone is different of course, but maybe you can reason your way to some handling procedures that work around the problem.

Buy case or cover for your phone. It will give you opportunity to take phone from your pocket without touching the screen. This isn't perfect solution, but I don't see another solutions.
Also I agree with you that swiping screen while getting phone out from pocket is annoying. +1.

Install Tasker from Google Play, create a scene without any further contents, produce a task to show this scene as overlay, blocking, fullscreen, with exit button, and then a profile to run on state call, incoming performing this task.
More beautiful scenes are possible.


text:
disable sync when in mobile (3g) network
How can I enable auto-sync only when wifi is available? I have a small data plan and I don't want to waste it on sync.

There isn't a way to do this in the default settings for Android devices and most people are surprised to learn that they can keep sync on full time without exceeding even modest data plans.
I would recommend checking out Tasker.  It's an Android application that allows you to automate almost anything on an Android device.  You can use it to automatically toggle on your auto-sync setting using the WiFi state as a trigger.  Tasker is a bit pricey, so please read on.
This widget, if it lives up to its billing should do the trick for you, read the comments, you'll see it turns on sync when wifi is present. It's not named very well, but check it out: wifi AutoSyncAuto Toggle


text:
Wifi Error when turning on

Possible Duplicate:
How can I fix the WiFi button or prevent WiFi errors when turning it off and back on?

After I turn on my phone (a Samsung Galaxy I551) the wifi works great. After some times of turning it on and off it gets screwed and when I try to turn it on it displays "Error", without any further specifications. I found a lot in some forums but I couldn't really get any solution.
It is really annoying because I generally don't turn off my phone so now I have to reboot it frequently.
I can't relate this with the opening of some app or something like that :(
Thanks for any help!
Diego

Unfortunately the dupe doesn't have a good workaround, hopefully someone figures it out eventually.

It's not duplicated. For me once it showed Error message, I can't turn it on again until reboot, not even from Settings

I've had that happen before too.  I'll update my question.

I've finally found a workaround to this issue (which ALWAYS required me to do a restart). See here: http://android.stackexchange.com/a/56206/4336


text:
My HTC Desire Keeps Overheating, what can I do to stop this?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I prevent my HTC Desire from overheating?

I've just purchase a HTC Desire and after about 10mins of using it, it will overheat and crash onto the opening green HTC logo which you get when you turn the phone on. What can I do to prevent the phone from overheating?

How do you know it's overheating?  (And since you just purchased it, can you return it?)

Because the lower back of my phone gets really hot then crashes.

I suppose your best bet is to return the phone, since you have just bought it!
It is normal for all phones to heat up when using hardware resources like Camera or GPS, it is not normal to crash recurrently after a simple 10 minutes usage.
You can check some information about battery conditions using the dial code ##4636##
One last thought: Does it happen all the time? I mean, sometimes it is hard to reproduce some kind of error or behaviour to the vendor because of its uncertainty and they might distrust you. But if you had just bought it, that should not be a problem.
Cheers

If the Desire is on T-Mobile, there was a very long support thread with folks reporting unusually high battery drain around the time this question was asked. The workaround seems to force usage 2G networks (EDGE or GPRS) as the problem seems to be with all phones on T-Mobile that talk 3G, not just Android phones.
(This doesn't affect me, as I'm on AT&T I can't do better than 2G anyway. My T-Mobile prepaid backup phone has no data plan, so isn't affected either.)


text:
How can I make the GMail app open to the accounts page when using multiple accounts
When I open the Gmail application, it opens the last inbox I looked at. Is there a way to make it always open to the "Accounts" page instead?
I have an HTC incredible 2 if that matters.

Could not find a way to do this every time the app starts. I did discover that if multiple accounts have new messages at the same time, the app starts on the "Accounts" page.
It seems when you start the app it opens the account with new messages automatically, and only opens the "Accounts" list if multiple accounts contain new messages.


text:
How do I stop Facebook linked contacts' pictures from automatically updating from Facebook?
I have several contacts with linked Facebook accounts.  I've set contact pictures for them using Google Contacts, but every time they update their Facebook profile picture, the Facebook picture is selected automatically.
When this happens, I need to go back and change manually back to the picture I selected myself, which gets pretty annoying.
How do I prevent Facebook (or other linked account) pictures from taking over?

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2178/htc-people-widget-changing-pictures

These appear to be the opposite problem: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/7277/how-do-i-prod-my-droid-2-into-resyncing-facebook-profile-pictures http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/8812/how-to-update-the-picture-of-my-contact-from-facebook-in-htc-wildfire

From your home screen, under Menu->Settings->Accounts&sync->Facebook you can uncheck Contacts. Obviously, this will stop your phone contacts from syncing to facebook, but after you get the list the first time, the only thing that really updates is the pictures, so disabling it should take care of it :)

This seems to have done the trick.  Thanks a lot!

There is no Menu->Settings->Accounts&sync option in Android 4.1.2. Any other options?


text:
Is there a 3D photo stitching app for Android? (as an alternative to Photosynth)
Photosynth for iOS is a great app that allows you to create 3D panoramas by taking multiple photos and automatically stitching them together.
Is there any alternative for Android?
I've already tried:

Camera360, despite the name, it doesn't create 3D panoramas
PhotAF, which only creates horizontal panoramas
360, only horizontal panoramas as well

A simple search on the Market gives at least a couple of likely candidates. Checking AlternativeTo.net reinforces at least one of them.


text:
Can I use mono sound on a set of headphones instead of stereo?
I have a friend that is deaf on one ear and she would like to get all the sound through one ear bud. Is it possible to get mono sound instead of the default stereo sound through the headphones?

I am not familiar with a setting in Android to mix both channels but perhaps this stereo to mono adapter could help.

That's mono to stereo...

@BloodPhilia Take a look at the photo of that plug (I don't have enough points to post the image in the body of the answer). You plug it into your phone's stereo jack. Then you plug your mono ear bud into it. That's stereo to mono. I know this works because I have been using it myself (for an under-the-pillow speaker).

You might want to look for a TRRS (tip ring ring sleeve) to mono converter, some android phones have an FM radio lead soldered into the headset jack, and can have weird reactions to just a TRS ("stereo") or TS ("mono") plug

authors: محمد احمد الجبوري


text:
How can I disable cellular data on an Android device?
Can I easily disable cellular data on an Android device and just use Wi-Fi? Does this change based on whether or not I have root on the device?

You can pretty easily disable cellular data on an android device without root.  On Android 2.2 and above, you can go to home --> menu --> Settings --> Wireless & networks --> Mobile networks --> and then uncheck Data enabled (on phones with Motoblur, the Data enabled setting might be in home --> menu --> Settings --> Data manager --> Data Delivery instead; YMMV).
If you have Android 2.1 or less, or just want a widget that will let you turn mobile data on and off, there are several apps that do the trick, for example Widgetsoid and APNdroid.
Like Matthew Read said, the major carriers won't let you put a smartphone on their network without a data plan.  However, you might have better luck with smaller carriers that operate on the big carriers' networks.  You end up getting better prices but the same coverage areas.  For example, Walmart Family Mobile plans include unlimited talk and text, and pay-as-you-go for data.  So if you don't use any data, you don't pay for data.  They run on T-Mobile's network, and you can either buy one of their phones, use a T-Mobile phone, or an unlocked GSM phone.  Here are a few other examples:

Boost Mobile (Sprint)
Simple Mobile (T-Mobile)
Virgin Mobile (Sprint)

And then you've got other carriers that operate their own smaller networks, but have roaming deals with the bigger carriers, so once again you still get coverage areas comparable to the major carriers:

Cricket Wireless
MetroPCS
US Cellular

There's a more comprehensive list of US wireless companies that operate on the larger companies' networks here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_MVNO

AT&T will let you put a smartphone on their network without a data plan - JUST DON'T TELL THEM YOU HAVE THE PHONE, and don't be locked in a contract. My wife and I have been using G1/Magic with Mobile Data disabled for at least 6 months on AT&T.

Also, I'm using PAYG on T-Mobile without a dataplan. MMS works, and you enable data for that, but I turn it off afterwards.

@Broam I think the key is whether or not you're using a phone whose ESN is in the carrier's database.  So yeah, if you use a non-AT&T phone (like the G1) with AT&T, you'll probably get away with it.  But I know people who have put AT&T smart phones on AT&T by popping in a SIM card without a data plan, and AT&T adds the data plan automatically.  As long as you're not on a contract, I suppose it's not a huge risk, but my preference is to bypass the increased prices and hassle of the major carriers altogether.

I think you've stumbled upon it right there. Next stop, Rogers phone. :)

Yes. It is possible to fly under the radar. I have done this on AT&T and T-Mobile in the USA.
CDMA2000 providers (Verizon, Sprint) will instantly catch you because to activate the phone you have to provide the ESN - which they will look up.
For AT&T, I switched to an unlocked phone (OpenMoko FreeRunner) a while back, so AT&T isn't sure what phone I have - the site says "We don't recognize your phone." I'm now using an HTC Magic (T-Mobile MyTouch 3G) that's unlocked. I have data disabled and only turn it on to send MMS. I have used data with their "WAP.Cingular" data plan. It's EDGE and it's a penny a KB, but it does work (I've loaded a few websites to test mobile data.)
My wife, best friend, and his father all use G1's with data turned off on AT&T and they do not pay for data plans.
All our contract terms are expired - we're month-to-month and can leave at any time.
The website doesn't recognize my phone because AT&T does not issue the Dream or Magic, this may be part of the solution. Using an AT&T phone on AT&T may be inviting trouble.
Keep your data turned off and never tell AT&T what phone you have, and you should be fine. Change your useragent in your browser (Cyanogenmod has a way to fake some old Nokia, that's what I use).
For T-Mobile, I'm using a G1 on their Pay-As-You-Go plan (it's a backup phone for running, SIM is usually in an old Motorola candybar). They know I have the G1, but a data plan isn't available at all for PAYG. As I don't use the phone this much, it's acceptable.
YMMV, buyer beware. It's possible, though.

How to disable cellular data
You can open the “Tester” application by opening the phone dialer and entering the number
*#*#4636#*#*
(It is easy to remember as 4636 = INFO on the keypad.)
Now

Tap “Phone Information”
Press the Menu button
Press the “More” item in the menu
Now, select

“Disable data connection” to disable cellular data now
“Disable data on boot” to have cellular data disabled also after the phone is restarted

Why?
The carrier I use for my kids' phones does not allow me to disable cellular data from the carrier side, so I use this method to turn off cellular data on their phones.
As others write, several apps exist to accomplish the same, but doing the way described above does not leave an app on the phone that allows the kids to accidentally turn on data again themselves.
References
Thank you to these guys:

http://www.gogi.in/manually-disable-mobile-data-connection-3g-edge-gprs-android-phones.html
http://www.careace.net/2011/03/07/4-ways-turn-3g-network-connection-wi-fi/

This is where I found the information after searching the net for a long time.