text:
How can I buy apps from unsupported countries?
What can you do if you are located in a country that still does not support paid apps?  Please include solutions for non-rooted users as well.

This doesn't help you right now, but it looks like Paypal might be integrated into Android Market: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/08/18/paypal-rushes-in-to-save-android-market/

See also: How can I circumvent regional restrictions in the Android Market?

Requirements

a google checkout account with valid credit card (this has no country limitations)
pre-paid SIM card from supported country (for me pre-paid Three UK SIM worked just fine)

Steps for purchasing

insert the pre-paid SIM
enter google account that is associated with google checkout (account will be asked because of SIM change)
connect over Wi-Fi
purchase the wished application
just download and install

Questions
What about roaming charges? As a rule pre-paid SIMs do not work in other countries, so the only way to browse the market and download applications is connecting over Wi-Fi.
Why is a SIM required? Market detects Your location by SIM cards home country. By using a SIM from supported country You are effectively faking Your location.
Isn't it required for Google Checkout account or credit card used to be in supported country? It seems that not. For me these were both located in Estonia and everything went without problems.
What if application is using some weird copy protection that locks it to a specific SIM card? Would the app not stop working when real SIM is swapped in? To prevent this kind of copy protection on locking to the incorrect SIM the easiest option is to cancel the download after purchase has been complete. Swap the real SIM in and complete the download. If there is some kind of SIM check, it can be only done after installation has been complete.
Where can I get a pre-paid SIM card? Check eBay :) There is no actual credit required on the SIM, so these should be pretty cheap.
--credit: the poster himself (JaanusSiim)

This answer is many years old. Can anyone confirm if it still works?

For rooted phones:
There is an app called Market Enabler that allows you to fake which country and carrier you're on when you're browsing the market so that you can easily browse markets from other countries or carriers. using this you should be able to connect to other European markets (I don't know which country you're in but many European markets such as UK do allow paid apps, you don't have to go to the US for them).

For Market Enabler phone must be rooted and this only works for buying apps not selling them

You can't sell apps on an Android phone anyway.

I think you'd need to have a credit card that has a billing address in the US (or other supported country).
In Europe apps can be bought by users in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and Switzerland.
Hopefully the number of supported countries will be increased when Google announces its apparently imminent Market improvements.  The recent change to the terms and conditions to allow for carrier billing and rumours of Paypal support suggest that there will be new payment options in the near future, potentially for countries where Google Checkout is not currently available.
If you can't use the official market you could use AndAppStore, SlideME or one of the other third party app stores.  The app selection and user base is considerably reduced however.

The billing address doesn't make any difference.  I have a German credit card (in euros), but my Google Play store is set to the US.  Some German (and Swiss) apps are Play-store-region locked and won't work for me.  I strongly suspect the real issue is that developers think this allows them to geographically restrict their apps without having to demand location permissions.  They seem to have the misconception that one's Google Play store region and one's geographic region are the same.  They're not.

You could also use Entropay for obtaining a Virtual Card to make payments in Google Play Store wherever you are. I was able to buy games and apps for my Moto X using the Virtual Card from Entropay as I live in India and Google Play Store doesn't accept my debit card.
Thanks to Mr. Narendran for sharing this info.
https://android.stackexchange.com/a/65739/77738


text:
Why does my Milestone Droid erroneously report a drained battery once every few weeks?
Every so often, my phone (Motorola Milestone, firmware 2.1-update1) decides that the battery is almost drained and that I have to turn the phone off.  This may happen just a few hours after charging it, and a subsequent restart confirms that yes, the battery does still have a charge, still at 70-80% capacity.
This tends to happen every few weeks, and it's been happening basically ever since I bought the phone a few months ago, so I'm pretty sure it's not a charge memory issue, especially when combined with the fact that the problem is intermittent and very infrequent.
Does anyone know why this might happen, and what I could do to fix it?

I saw this exact same issue on my Motorol DROID v1 (same hardware I believe).  With Android 2.0, 2.1, and 2.1 update 1 my phone would sometimes report the battery completely drained just a few minutes after unplugging it.  I have not seen this issue again since the 2.2 update.  Before the update the way I would get the phone to display the proper charge level was to plug in the USB charger for just a moment.  As soon as the phone saw that it was charging the charge level immediately displayed correctly.

How did you get the 2.2 update?  It's not being offered OTA...

The Motorola DROID got the 2.2 update over a month ago from Verizon. I also use to see this behavior but have yet to see it on 2.2.

I believe the 2.2 image for Milestone is floating around the web somewhere, and you can flash without rooting your phone.  Or you can wait for the official OTA update from your carrier.  I'm on Verizon and received the OTA update a few weeks ago.

Some custom recovery images have a command to clear the battery cache, this has fixed similar problems on different phones for me.

Although not generally recommended for Li-ion batteries, I believe a full discharge and recharge cycle will also clear these statistics.

What statistics are you referring to?  (And if this is due to battery statistics, why does rebooting seem to fix it temporarily?)

I was refering to the battery cache that schwiz posted about.  Im not entirely sure why rebooting would fix it.  Are you running a custom rom?

No, no custom anything on this.  It's not rooted.

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text:
Is there an Android PMP equivalent of the iPod Touch?

Possible Duplicate:
Are there any devices that are like an iPod Touch, but run Android?

In other words, is there a piece of dedicated hardware designed (or shipped with) Android that is meant as a media player, so that I wouldn't have to pay for a phone, and just not use the phone features?

See also http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/967/are-there-any-devices-that-are-like-an-ipod-touch-but-run-android

There's also the Archos 28 which is a little smaller and a little cheaper than the Archos 32.  Again, they're both referred to as tablets but the Archos site (links previously) both say "Excellent multimedia player".
Also, MP4Nation may have some Android PMPs.

All of these are good answers, and all are linked equally. Yours is the closest to an answer I originally envisioned, with better info than my own answer [!!!].

I am now using an Orange San Francisco handset (rebadged ZTE Blade), sans sim card, debranded, flashed with FroYo (Android 2.2) and loaded with some well chosen apps as my day-to-day media player.  A review of the San Francisco/Blade can be found at:  http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/10/28/zte-blade-orange-san-francisco-review-two-thirds-of-a-nexus-one-for-one-third-the-price/

The Barnes & Noble Nook is based on Android, has no monthly fees, and includes the ability to playback music.  It probably isn't what you have in mind as a media player, but I think it fits your description.

I keep forgetting about the Nook.

also; seems that nook has been rooted http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/nook-torn-open-hacked-and-rooted/

The Archos 32 sounds like it's the closest, so far. Although it is bizarrely referred to as a tablet.

Samsung has a Galaxy Player 50 PMP, which will be coming out soon.

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text:
Does access to logcat need root?
My device is already rooted, this is why I'm asking.
Do you need root to monitor the logcat stream on the phone? If I ran the logcat command from within a Terminal on the phone, would that work?

These free apps in the Market claim to be able to display your logcat, and don't make any mention of root. Should only take you a few minutes to try them out:

CatLog
aLogcat
LogViewer

EDIT: Thanks to @mente for reminding me that these apps will only let you view the full logfile in older versions of Android. Android 4.1 brought in a new security model around logfiles that meant that apps could only read their own logfiles and logfile entries, and can't read logfile entries written by the system or other apps.
There is however still both a way for an app's user to generate a logfile of the app's recent log entries to be sent to a developer, and for a phone's owner to grant permissions to allow an app to read the logfile without full root, but this does require you to use an ADB command, which unfortunately takes it out of the reach of most normal phone users:

If you want the user to give you debugging information, you can have
  them generate a bug report with power + volume down + volume up which
  includes the logs and lots of other data, and automatically brings up
  their e-mail app to sent it all (plus a screenshot).  We were just
  discussing that we should have an easier way to generate these as
  well, I am going to look at adding something to the settings app.
I also have started introducing the concept of a "development"
  permission, which read logs is classified as.  This allows the app to
  request the permission, but not get it at install.  You can however
  grant it with an adb shell command once it is installed.  At some
  point later I expect to have a UI in the system for doing this, but we
  are going to hold off on that to be careful about how we present this.

Excerpt from a post on Google Groups by Dianne Hackborn, Android Framework Engineer. My emphasis.
The mentioned ADB command to grant an application permission to read the logs is:
adb shell pm grant <pkg> android.permission.READ_LOGS

This setting should survive reboots and upgrades of the app (but not uninstalls/reinstalls).

Starting from Android 4.1 you need root access to read other apps logs. CatLog developer posted explanation. Assume these apps works for < 4.1 versions

This shortcut doesn't work on mine Android 4.1.2

I created a utility to collect logs from a PC: https://gist.github.com/hrj/5983971

You don't need to root your phone to run adb logcat with the Android SDK, but I did just test it in my Terminal Emulator and I did have to be root (used the su command -- my phone is already rooted) to run logcat in the terminal on my phone.
So yes: if you have root on your phone you can run logcat from a terminal on your phone.

No, you don't need root to get logcat information.
To do it, you probably want to download the Android SDK and run "adb logcat", using the adb tool that comes with the SDK. Alternatively, you could install the ADT Eclipse plugin and use its handy streaming Logcat viewer.

i want to do this from the phone, not from a remote machine with the SDK

No, you don't need root to access logcat. My device (Samsung Galaxy Note, Gingerbread 2.3.6 with stock ROM) is not rooted (yet!) and I have used the following ways to access log on my device:

CatLog app
aLogcat app
Activated SSHDroid app, and connected to the device terminal using an SSH client
Using Android SDK and running adb logcat

However, the Terminal app doesn't allow you to run logcat, and gives you "permission denied". I'm not sure why.

yeah, on Gingerbread... but today's Android does require root.

It seems you cannot run logcat from Terminal Emulator without having root on your phone. In this case you have to su first. AFAIK, it comes from Android Permissions: Terminal Emulator simply doesn't have enough permissions to view device's log. So the system says Permission denied.
On the other hand, as others said, there are plenty of apps that allow you to view device's log just because they request the permission.

The application Android System Info has the ability to output log info to the screen which as far as I can tell is the same log info as logcat spits out.

Have you got a link to that app, I can't find it in the Market?

@GAThrawn In case you're still interested: homepage and Google Play Store links.

Logcat does not need root. Simples - its a de-facto standard across the board in respect to different Android versions and is part of Android irrespective if you're rooted or not, and is a standard means for diagnosing problems as in for example - you install an app, the app force close, you complain to developer of said app, chances are quite high the developer will ask "send over the logcat" regardless if you're rooted or not!
aLogCat is one way of gathering the information, with the option of logging to webpage layout or plain text, bear in mind, if you schedule it to log at a certain frequency such as every 15 minutes, the SDCard will fill up quite quickly.
Another aspect, usage of logcat will be dependent on the kernel in terms of how much it can store - in any kernel that is used by the ROM, the source for the logging from a kernel level, where it reserves the memory for the logcat service can be found in drivers/staging/android/logger.c using the appropriate defines for example:

DEFINE_LOGGER_DEVICE(log_main, LOGGER_LOG_MAIN, 64*1024)
  DEFINE_LOGGER_DEVICE(log_events, LOGGER_LOG_EVENTS, 256*1024)
  DEFINE_LOGGER_DEVICE(log_radio, LOGGER_LOG_RADIO, 64*1024)
  DEFINE_LOGGER_DEVICE(log_system, LOGGER_LOG_SYSTEM, 64*1024)

Again, mileage will vary, some developers of such ROMs will choose to minimize consumption to reduce memory overheads...

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text:
How can I prevent applications from running on startup?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I stop applications and services from running?

I've installed some applications that I mostly like, except for the fact that they all decided they were too important not to auto-start.  None of them give me any option within the application to disable the auto-start "feature."
Can I stop these applications from auto-starting?  And if so, how?
Note: My phone is not rooted, so I'm especially interested in solutions that do not require a rooted device, but all answers are welcome, even if they require rooting the device, since I may do this eventually.
Also note: I'd prefer not to fiddle around with clumsy auto-kill features in task-killer programs, as I've found them to be incredibly unreliable on my phone (Motorola Milestone/Droid).

You could kill the apps after they start, but contradicts your question's requisites. Do these apps really create that much overhead? If so, I'd look for alternative apps that don't auto-start.

It's not really an overhead issue, more an issue of bugginess; they seem to run fine interactively but I've seen them inexplicably eat up enormous amounts of CPU and therefore battery in the background.  And then there's apps like Google Finance that just have no business whatsoever auto-starting.  I do of course look for alternatives but as I'm sure you know, it's not always that easy to find a perfect fit.

That's quite normal behavior for Android. Android manages running applications by firing Intents. Most of the time, you shouldn't need to control/kill apps that automatically runs, Android manages resources smartly, and will kill and resurrect applications as necessary to provide as much services as needed given the memory constrain. If a particular app have a disturbing behavior though (e.g. turning on GPS/Wifi all the time and sucking up the battery), simply uninstall them.

I found Android Assistant to be useful to some extent, since it's really not a "preventer" but rather a "killer" (after a tasks start) and also there are some applications/services with which it cannot deal and it asks the user to force close them manually.

Merged http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2258/apps-automatically-starting#question  into this question

Related: Disable autostart on boot.

Please, please, please, please put down the task killer.
It isn't needed.  The operating system knows how to handle and end applications just fine.  Otherwise you are going to waste performance/battery because when you kill a task it is going to re-spawn back up.  And if you  killed a task that was writing to disk (or a database), then you could potentially create corruption.
The only time you ever, ever, ever should kill a task is if it is obviously running wild or hung up (and usually when this happens you get the Force Close screen.  If not, go to Settings --> Applications --> find your app and kill the task there).

Frankly, I don't give a damn about (for example) Maps' corruption when it's running automatically after rebooting without ever touching it. It doesn't need to store any data. What is it doing writing to the disk anyway? And indeed, I wouldn't run a task killer that runs automatically (that'd be ironic actually).

There are some apps around that will claim to offer this functionality. However, they are basically task killers under the hood. This means they will allow the app to load, and then kill it. This means that extra battery power is used to kill the app, and then it will probably be reloaded on some event trigger later, only to be killed again.
Honestly, if you use these apps, and don't want to uninstall them, the best thing is to just let them load. They will use a bit of memory, as long as there is some that isn't being used. As soon as something needs the memory, then the system will kill the app - and believe me the Android system has a better idea of which tasks to kill than any dumb task killer.
There is a good description about why task killers are a bad idea here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6426198#post6426198
Otherwise, there is no way to do this on an unrooted phone, unless the app specifically gives an option to disable auto-startup. On a rooted phone, however, there are a range of apps that are able to actually change the way broadcast intents are delivered to apps, meaning they can pre-emptively be prevented from starting.
To be honest I struggle to think of a reason that an app might want to load a service at startup, that it couldn't achieve by just registering a broadcast listener. Services should typically be used for background tasks that have a limited lifetime. Some apps may load a service at startup to do some processing, but will then typically close it once that processing is complete.
However, that said, not all developers understand the rules. I would rather uninstall a badly written app that consumes resources like this.

These are good points, and task killers are probably going to become extinct eventually as the new devices gain processing power and memory. Still, my question isn't born so much out of an anal-retentive concern that the apps are wasting resources, it's born out of observation of apps that are too useful to uninstall entirely but clearly buggy in their implementation - to the point of literally turning my phone into a mini space heater.

Understood. While the task killer approach will certainly work for apps that ONLY respond to phone startup events, some apps will respond to other events too (e.g. location changes, SMS arrival, email, incoming calls, app install/uninstall etc). For those apps the task-killer will be perpetually re-closing the app everytime it loads. It may be a useful tool in this case, but just keep an eye on it.

'Course I wouldn't have asked the question if I was satisfied with task killers - but it bears mentioning that we are talking specifically about startup apps, meaning that the objective isn't to prevent the apps from running at all (otherwise they'd be uninstalled), just to have better control over when they run.

I have updated my answer, hopefully to clarify. I just saw a lot of task-killer being recommended in other answers, knowing that wasn't what you were asking for. I'm quite familiar with the Android source, and basically wanted to say there that unless your phone is rooted then all of the solutions rely on killing the task once it has started.

Can you enlighten me on the “range of apps that are able to actually change the way broadcast intents are delivered to apps”. Tell me three, please. And maybe some keywords to search for the rest. Add their differences if you know.

Android is an OS specifically designed for resource constrained environment. Android manages resources intelligently, and will kill applications when other applications need to use memory, and resurrect them later to restore service. Unlike some other phones, which sacrifices basic smartphone functionality, like multitasking, by only allowing one running application at a time).
As for how Android determine how to resurrect apps, it's mainly determined by Intents. Applications can register to be notified by the OS when certain events occur, e.g. the phone starting up, you're entering a particular location, the wifi gets turned on, etc. When handling notifications (Intents), the application (or parts of it) may get resurrected. In a sense, conceptually in Android, all installed applications are always running all the time and you have conceptually infinite memory. The OS will kill and resurrect applications as needed to maintain this illusion.

How I hate crappy answers... Or actually not answers at all! The OS will not maintain any illusion, but make the phone slow, because endless apps hang in memory all the time and the OS keeps killing and launching. – This questions asks about how to keep apps from being run.

You don't really want or need to run a task killer. See: Do I really need to install a task manager?
Apps on the Android are pretty well-behaved. If an app is starting automatically it's because it needs to. Well-designed apps that may or may not really need to run automatically will have an option in their settings to turn that on or off.
Note that unlike your PC, having extra RAM doesn't improve performance so much. It's better for your often used apps to already be in RAM when you launch them, so that they don't need to be loaded. Running with little to no free RAM is a good thing on Android, and the OS does a good job of killing things it doesn't need any more.

hmm the example of application which starts automatically are instant messaging clients, which causes me to go online when I don't want to, and sync clients which i suspects drains the battery a lot.

thanks for the info that small available RAM is a good thing, +1 :)

Every app I've seen that syncs for you allows you to modify the frequency of its syncing. Making it less frequent will drain the battery a bit less.

I'd recommend the application Autostarts.
What it does (citing from the Market description):

Keep control over your phone: See what applications do behind your
  back.
Shows you what apps run on phone startup, and what other events
  trigger in the background. Root users can disable unwanted autostarts
  and speed up their phone boot.

Though not a dedicated app for this purpose, the System Tuner free app has the feature of disabling "startup apps".
You can find that option by scrolling the list of buttons below in the app and select "Apps" then choose the "startups" tab.
This seems to perform things in a much better fashion than other startup managers.
I am not sure if it works exactly like a auto task killer or if it explicitly requires root (other features of system tuner may be the ones demanding root actually)

I doubt you can fix this without rooting the phone. But, if you are ready to root, you can try Autorun manager.

These look promising, in particular the second one, insofar as it explicitly describes different behaviour for root and control over all of the triggering events (not just system start). I'll give that a try very soon.

You can use applications like "Startup Cleaner" or other similar applications

Appears to be just a task auto-killer; can you confirm or deny this?

Actually I believe it is. :-(

+1 for providing links to tools that at least offer a chance to accomplish what I have been looking for.

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text:
Are there any risks to rooting a device?
I see lots of tutorials telling me how to root my phone (Motorola Droid), but none of them mention any potential "side effects."
Aside from a few relatively minor issues that seem to require rooting to fix, I'm basically happy with the phone and therefore a little leery of messing with a device that cost me a lot of money and is only a few months old.
Assuming that I'm just talking about rooting, and none of the typical post-root actions (like installing a custom ROM), am I taking any risks by choosing to root?

Does it have the potential to brick the device?
Will it void my warranty?
Will I stop getting updates?
Will the cops show up at my front door the next day? (Yes, I'm being facetious.)
Anything else I should be aware of?

(See also: Are there any risks to flashing a ROM?)

See also Security risks of rooting Android, which is marked as a duplicate of this, but actually isn't.

@romkyns, concur.  I am astonished on an ongoing basis about the number of people willing to install and run compiled code from a forum post without source.  Just posted this:  http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/83038/is-any-of-the-android-rooting-software-open-source

Does it have the potential to brick the device?
Although it has become relatively simple on the Droid, some methods of rooting pose more risk than others. So in short yes there is a potential.
Will it void my warranty?
It mostly depends on where you live and on your manufacturer (and their warranty policies). But technically this does void your warranty in most cases.
Will I stop getting updates?
Again this depends. Some manufacturer provide updates for rooted devices while others do not. These will usually continue to come in and may unroot your phone if you install them, or even require you to unroot manually before you can receive their updates. If you install a third party ROM, then there's nothing else to do with your original manufacturer.
Will the cops show up at my front door the next day?
I certainly hope not :) but if rooting involves cracking a bootloader, it could theoretically get you in legal trouble in some jurisdictions (anti-circumvention laws, etc.)
EDIT:  Also be aware that there are different root methods based on which current build you are running.
EDIT:  It may (as of May 24, 2017) prevent you from installing some apps: Google Play can now prevent rooted users from downloading certain apps

re: warranty, you can just unroot if you need warranty, right?

@MGOwen Usually yes; no guarantees.

Rooting is legal in nexus according to AnswersFactory and MakeUseOf

Does it have the potential to brick the device?

Yes, it is possible to brick your phone, but should be very unlikely.  Usually there is a way out of even what seems to be a brick.
If you do not know what you are doing and want to use the ADB method (entering shell commands manually) to root your phone, then be sure to follow all of the directions exactly as listed. If you somehow brick your phone, then it does not matter how good your phone insurance is with your cell provider; if they find out you rooted or attempted to, they will not fix it.
If you do somehow brick your phone, then do not panic.  Try these things:

Post a thread to where you downloaded the root program or where the root method was posted.
Post to XDA under their questions and answers section.
Search the web. Someone else has probably had the same problem as you.

It is quite possible to unbrick your phone, but it will take some time and patience to sort it out.

Will it void my warranty?

Yes. But in most cases you can restore your phone to a condition that they'll never know that you rooted your phone.  And sometimes they do not even check to see if you rooted your phone when you return it.

Will I stop getting updates?

Yes and no.  If you flash a rom, yes.  But most likely that rom has constant updates (such as CyanogenMod).  Also if you root and keep stock rom, you will still get OTA update notifications (but running an update will un-root your phone).

Anything else I should be aware of?

May the force be with you.  No, really, it's a relatively painless process with a lot of these "easy one touch (un)root tools" and even then there is a plethora of guides and help from XDA to guide you and troubleshoot any problems you might have.  But if you are happy with your phone just the way it is, then don't root.

Rooted phones are just as secure as an unrooted phones if you never grant root permission to any apps. The problem is that if you root your phone, you're bound to give root permission (otherwise, why are you rooting your phone in the first place), and applications that you give root permission may turned out to be rogue or leak their permission to allow an untrusted applications to gain root-like permission.
Running rooted phone is safe as long as you know which app to give root access and which are not. Problem is, even assuming that you only pick trustworthy apps they still can leak permissions inadvertantly (in security parlance, this is called confused deputy problem), so you must really be careful when choosing trusted apps.

Is root one of the permissions that show up on the permissions dialog when installing an app?

@Jeff: no, it isn't one of the permissions in the permission dialog, at least not on non-rooted devices. I figure a root manager could potentially integrate root permission management into the permissions dialog, but that would most likely not be a good idea as most people had the habit of just clicking through the permission dialog without inspecting it carefully.

Some malwares can escalate to root permissions even on a un-rooted phone. Like the one they just recently found in over 50 (popular) apps on the android market.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/221247/droiddream_becomes_android_market_nightmare.html

They were copies of popular apps, not the popular apps themselves.

By popular I meant that they have been downloaded many times. But indeed they were copies of relatively well-known apps with malware code added to them.

I didn't think any of the Android trojans so far actually bothered to escalate to root? They just asked for more permissions than that sort of app generally needs, and that gave them enough access to do all they wanted? That is after all what a classic trojan does, gets you to let it in and give it the access it wants.

Does it have the potential to brick the device?

Yes.
Will it void my warranty?

Definitely.
Will I stop getting updates?

Yes, if you install a custom ROM.
Will the cops show up at my front door the next day?

Yes, but only if you're Chinese ;-). And even then, only if your police administration is near enough to Beijing.
And you should be aware that it is a security risk. A root user has access to the entire phone, including all of its functionality, and the memory of all running applications. A backdoor could be installed in a custom ROM. It might not even be to your disadvantage, but your phone might become part of a botnet.

This seems a little alarmist.  Most of these ROMs are open source, so any backdoors would be found quickly.  And I thought that it was very easy to root a Droid; can you point me to a link or resource about this Motorola issue so I understand whether or not it can affect my phone?

I have read it on a codeproject newsletter, don't have it anymore. I don't know anymore, but the 'destroy' part was specific to one line [latest probably] of mobile phones. (it's a kind of fuse, which PERMANENTLY disables your phone if you attemp to load a custom ROM) See here for the nearest thing to a reference: http://theunlockr.com/2010/07/14/motorola-continues-to-block-custom-roms/

@Aaronaught: I've never seen the source of one of these ROMs. Maybe I didn't look good enough. But even if I had the source, you need to compile from that source, there's no telling whether the ROM image was actually compiled from that source. Then, you've to review the entire source. Good luck with that. If you are really good, it takes you about a year. Then you've to create a gold-card, and some of these tools were closed-source, and that makes me a little bit uncertain about their FOSS motives. Just as the phone companies that don't release the drivers or digitally sign the boot ROM.

You won't brick the phone, it'll just refuse to boot until you flash a signed rom back on it. That whole "e-fuse" thing was fear mongering.

The e-fuse doesn't brick.

It needs to be clarified that there is a security risk only when you allow an application root access; applications which do not request root or where you deny it will be as safe as ever (which is to say, somewhat unsafe, since there exist exploits). The su binary could itself be malware too, but that's unlikely. Full answer: http://android.stackexchange.com/a/6010/9240

TLDR Version (2017)
Does it have the potential to brick the device?
Yes and no, kinda depends on the method: Installing an official rooted ROM or a setting toggle is safe. Using a script that relies on a CPU bug to crack kernel security isn't.
Will it void my warranty?
It depends on:

The OEM ToS (Terms of Service). Most major OEMs say you lose warranty.
ToS validity under the regional law. For example, in the EU a ToS claiming warranty voids upon rooting is not enforceable. They can't legally refuse your warranty because of it. But in worst case you may have to fight them in court to get it (unheard of as yet).

Will I stop getting updates?
50/50, varies by OEM. In the negative case, you can often unroot then re-root the updated version. But not always.
Cops? Other stuff?
No cops. Rooting is not illegal, anywhere. But:

the play store can detect it and may prevent you from downloading certain apps, though it doesn't prevent you getting those apps elsewhere.
apps with root permission can do more damage to your system, so beware of security threats, see here


text:
Voice action "Set alarm..." doesn't work on HTC Desire
I have been trying out Voice Actions on an HTC Desire. Actions like "Navigate to...", "Directions to..." and "Note to self..." work fine. When I try saying "Set alarm to 9 o'clock" though I get this error message:

"Set alarm..."
In order to use this feature, download the latest Clock from the Android Market.

I already have the HTC Clock application and as far as I am aware it is fully updated but I'm assuming that the HTC Clock doesn't support the voice actions. Where is the correct "Clock" application? Opening the Market and searching for "Clock" doesn't seem to show any promising results (though I have to admit that I haven't checked all 1062 hits). Has anyone got this working on an HTC Desire? What do I need to do?

I don't see "Set alarm..." in the list of Voice Actions (http://www.google.com/mobile/voice-actions/).  Are you sure it is one?

In order for the Voice Actions to successfully set the alarm the device must contain an app that implements the android.intent.action.SET_ALARM intent. (Read more in the documentation of android.provider.AlarmClock.) There is no guarantee that your device contains such an app (unless it's a stock Android). The situation is worse on Samsung Galaxy S II (with ICS) which by default comes with Samsung's own Clock app which seems to handle the intent but actually does not, i.e. in response to the Voice Action a blank Clock window pops up and no alarm is set. So Voice Actions won't even find out that the alarm setting task was not carried out.
The only app that I'm aware of that properly handles this intent and can be used with Voice Actions is Alarm Clock Plus★. It is likely that there are more such apps but Android Market does not make finding them easy, because it does not offer a search-by-intent feature...

It appears that it is possible to get the "Set Alarm..." voice action working by installing a leaked version of DeskClockGoogle.apk as described on this website. I have not tested it.
It seems that this feature is not yet officially released but is coming soon.

I believe the clock application on the HTC Desire is one made by HTC and not Google. I believe Google is in the process of releasing their own clock application via the Market as they have done with their other apps like Maps and soon to be Gmail.


text:
How can I disable popup-SMS notifications (2.2 Froyo, HTC Evo)?
I have the HTC evo, and I need to disable the popup SMS notifications. I have the stock notification app and chompsms. I disabled all notifications from stock, and chomp has no option for popups (even when disabled this happens). Basically every SMS = a popup stating that heres your message, what to do: Done, Reply, etc. I would really rather it be a notification on the bar and not a popup.

Nevermind. This was a "quick reply" feature of chompsms. Wow. That was hard to find. Guess will accept this in 2 days.


text:
Cell standby and Phone idle
On the battery use screen, what are the differences between Cell standby and Phone idle items?

I think "phone idle" just means general power use from the phone being on (listening for user activation, waiting for scheduled app actions, basic memory and CPU "being on" stuff etc.) whereas "cell standby" is about keeping the phone active on the cell network (brief signals back and forth with cell towers alerting them of your presence, listening for calls or SMS).

Sounds about right.

what is the "Android system" item about then?

Android system refers to the operating system itself: app management, opening and closing apps, boot time, etc.


text:
My HTC Hero Upgrade to Android 2.1 has slowed it down!
I went ahead and let my phone update itself and since then it's been realllly SLOW. Phone calls take 5-45 seconds to connect, which is beyond aggravating. Apps don't run as fast as they use to. And I am constantly reconnecting the Mobile network because it keeps losing it. Anyone have similar and get around it??
Thanks,

A brief post about speeding up a HTC Hero.
Are you with Sprint by any chance?
This thread and this thread have at least one suggestion:  Have a look in Menu > settings > About phone > System updates > HTC Software update. Apparently there is a .6 firmware patch. Unfortunately, most of the posts are not reassuring. Perhaps time to upgrade/change phones?

It is a sprint phone, and other posts I've read on that site suggest calling sprint, they may replace it. I guess into the call queue I go!  Thanks!


text:
How do I upgrade firmware on my Samsung Galaxy S without using windows?
So far Samsung has been rolling updates out using its windows only software Kies, and not over the air like the rest of the android world.
Is there anyway that non windows users can get these updates?

I'd get a virtual machine and run windows in that for updates. Will probably be the easiest for you, if you're not comfortable with flashing. Usually the ROMs for Samsung come out as Odin packages (program Samsung uses for flashing i guess).
The forum for Galaxy on XDA has alot of resources to get you started. http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=665
If the above doesn't help you, you can use a custom recovery. ClockworkMod Recovery has just been updated today. Follow the steps on http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734166. With this you will be able to flash updates from Samsung when the community releases them as update.zip, from your sdcard.
This REQUIRES root on your device, but is probably your only solution without Windows. Before you start with this, sit down and read the resources on the forum. Flashing a wrong firmware COULD damage your phone. Be aware of your phone version. The above guide is for the Galaxy S i9000 International version.

So I have to pay the windows tax in order to update my linux based phone. No thanks.

Actually, ClockworkMod recovery went into stable today. I'll update my post.

I can't understand what the step 2 "Flash Recovery." in the linked ClockworkMod instructions mean. Could you please explain?

@imz - Sure! Old post you responded to :) You have to open Odin and in the PDA box, chose the recovery.tar.md5 file. You should get a newer recovery and rom for your Galaxy S though. Things have changed alot in 2 years time.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PPIbHmU2G4M/UAw2OOtr3mI/AAAAAAAAAes/IEKauXD6RKE/s640/galaxy+tab+odin+flash+clockworkmod+recovery.jpg.

Going through the Galaxy S Flash/Root/ADB/ROM guide on XDA, I just spotted this:

I'm running Linux/OSX. Can I still flash my firmware? Do I need to
  install windows?

If you are running
  Linux you do not need to install
  Windows. You can either run Odin in a
  virtual machine or alternatively use
  Heimdall by Benjamin Dobell. Heimdall
  runs natively on Linux and has reached
  a well tested release state.

Which takes us to here Heimdall - Cross-Platform Open-Source Flashing Software:

What is Heimdall? Heimdall is a
  cross-platform open-source utility to
  flash ROMs onto Samsung Galaxy S
  phones.
How does it work? Heimdall uses the
  same protocol as Odin to interact with
  a device in download mode. USB
  communication in Heimdall is handled
  by the popular open-source USB
  library, libusb-1.0.
What platforms does Heimdall run on?
  Linux, OS X and Windows (XP, Vista, 7
  etc.)
What Galaxy S variants has Heimdall
  been tested with? I've tested Heimdall
  with a Galaxy S GT-I9000 (8 GB) from
  the United Kingdom and Galaxy S
  GT-I9000 (16 GB) from Australia. I
  don't have access to any other devices
  to test with at present, but community
  members have confirmed it to also
  function correctly for the AT&T
  Captivate.

Hopefully this will help us all out!
Though obviously as this is effectively a replacement for Samsung's Odin software it's more designed towards people who are happy grabbing their ROMs from various places across the internet and flashing them on in a fairly custom way, as opposed to Kies which is (supposed to be) pretty much plug and play.

Pretty nice to see that there's something like that. On the next update, i will give it a try.

There is a further problem if the other computer (which runs a GNU/Linux) is ARM. So to flash a new OS onto the Samsung Galaxy S through the USB cable from the other computer, I'd need something like heimdall for ARM. It's not among the available pre-built downloads, will have to try to build it for ARM then... Is this possible?

@imz running a minority OS on minority hardware, I think you're probably going to end up doing a lot yourself, unless other enthusiasts happen to have hit the exact same problems as you, with  the same exact combination of circumstances.

Ok, I've put up a separate question: Is obtaining heimdall for ARM possible? Either the result of my work or someone else's exploration will be the answer.

If you can find someone or somewhere who has a direct link to the update, you can probably download it to your SD card using your mobile browser. Im not sure what the key combos are for the Galaxy S to get to your Recovery, but im sure with some web searching you can find out how. Once you are in Recovery, you can flash the update. I am basing all this on how it works on other Android phones but have not actually seen it done on a Galaxy S variant. You may try this site for Samsung Firmwares: http://www.samfirmware.webs.com/

Interesting... I'd like to know the details, I've even asked a specific question about this possible way: reinstalling the OS without even a USB cable -- http://android.stackexchange.com/q/27765/13117 .


text:
Ways to improve battery life on Droid Incredible?
Out of the box, I noticed my Incredible has a lot of stuff running/turned on by default.  Besides the basics of turning off WiFi, GPS, and BlueTooth when I'm not using them, are there more steps I can take to make my battery last longer?

In general, I believe reducing use of vibration helps save battery life on a phone. So for the Incredible, I even disabled the feature of vibrating when entering keystrokes.
Here are some good tips from wikiHow.

FYI, for HTC, keyboard "haptic feedback" is found in the sound/display settings.

Switching to 2G when there's no need to use 3G networks is also increasing the battery life.

How do you switch?

The biggest thing I've seen is to dim the backlight as much as possible (while remaining comfortable for your eyes), as well as lowering screen time-out length. Another big killer is to stay connected to wifi or 3g with a very weak signal. If it is at the point of losing connection and reconnecting repeatedly, it will eat through the battery very quickly.


text:
How to make certain apps turn on GPS automatically?
Is there any way to have certain apps automatically turn on GPS when they launch (or at least prompt me if I want to)?
For example, if I use voice commands to ask for navigation directions, and GPS is not turned on, I'd like for it to enable GPS instead of guessing from cell towers.  Bonus points if it turns it back off when I close the app.

Take a look at Tasker.  It pretty much allows you to automate and set rules for everything on your phone based on times of the day, what apps you are using, your location...  You can set a profile to automatically turn your GPS on or off based on almost any condition you can imagine.

Looks like a less expensive alternative to Locale?

I believe it is although I have never looked much into Locale because I thought it was for profiles that are only based on location.

It would be great if you could point directly to instructions for how to set this up.

Directions: Create a new Profile, first context "application", select all the apps that depend on GPS, click Done, + to add action, Misc --> GPS, set On.  Done done apply

Even if you do have GPS enabled it's only used when you are using an application that is actually requiring GPS location services.
So the best way to get your apps to use GPS location is turning on GPS by default.

It's my understanding that a lot of the apps that run in the background will utilize the GPS if you have it on like Facebook or even your browser, hence the battery drain.  Correct me if I'm wrong but if you only need GPS for your Maps app then it's best for battery performance to turn it on or off as you use Maps so those other apps don't utilize it and drain your battery.

Hi Matt, from what I have read (I cant find the links right now) it shouldn't affect the battery much if at all, the only exception I can find to this is if you are using the Navigation software and return to the home screen. You can see in the notification area that it is still navigating. hth.

Every time that I've seen the browser use my location it's only used the "coarse" non-GPS location (ie cell-tower or WiFi type location finding). This is certainly the case for when you allow the Google homepage to know your location for local searches. Never seen Facebook use my location at all?

If you don't want to pay for Tasker or Locale, you can use AutomateIt, which is free and has the same idea, though it offers much fewer triggers and actions, it does allow you to enable or disable the GPS when you start or end an app.

Note that turning on the GPS programmatically seems to be impossible without rooting your device after 2.3 (according to the AutomateIt description).

I published a GitHub entry for the GPSToggler quite some time ago.
To enable/disable GPS you need root. Period.
http://github.com/sms2000/GPSToggler
Some antivirus and automatic system backup applications conflict with the GPSToggler. I'm investigating this problem.

It's great that you've written this app, but could you describe how it helps the OP to get GPS enabled automatically?

A part of the sources deals with this exact problem. It recognizes whenever Waze, Google Maps or iGo is foreground app or not.

Please go ahead and add this information to your answer. Installation instructions would be useful too, as most users aren't used to installing software from source.

No point doing that. There are quite a lot of automation applications free and paid on the Google Play. My sources are intended for programmers who can understand the processing and create their own applications.

The audience of this site is Android users, so you can't assume that readers here understand about programming. Questions and answers that are only useful to programmers are usually closed or deleted.

My fault. I came from the StackOverflow (also a part of the StackExchange). Stepping back there are two problems in this question: how to recognize the application is started/finished and how to enable/disable the GPS. First is relatively easy but you have to permanently monitor the list of running apps and its status. The second requires 'root' and an additional system bound application. For the end users I'd recommend to try publicly available automation apps like 'Tasker'.

You can use the "Auto-Enable GPS for Maps" application, which switches both WiFi and GPS on when you launch Maps, Navigation, Local or Latitude, and restores them to their old state (e.g. switched off) when you quit these apps.

Are you affiliated with this app?


text:
How to choose micro USB cable for my device?
The plug sure looks like any old micro USB plug.  Will another cable (like the one from my digital camera) work to charge the battery, or do I need one specifically designed for my phone (incredible)

I took the liberty of editing the title, to make the search device independent, while my solution specifically uses your device as an example. Thanks

Any Micro USB cable that has the capability of charging your phone does excactly that.
I found a link on USB powering. The source is from 2005 but the issue remains the same.
Some cables do charge your device due to a sufficient power flow through the cable while others don't.

That's not answering the question you are just saying that if it does then it does.  Any piece of string that has the capability of charging your phone does exactly that.  I'm not aware of any string that has the capability but if it had the capability then it would have that capability. Profound, yes, I know.  Not all cables are capable of charging a phone.

That's true, but you should look in the cable's description whether the cable is capable of charging or not since your phone already has the charging contacts built into the USB socket.

I have used three different cables that came with other devices and they have all worked just fine.  But yes, not every cable will be fully wired to support power flow/charging.

Edit:  Proof of theory is in testing it, so the reults are right on top to encourage making an informed decision while shopping for USB charging cables.
Of late, I noticed that my Huawei Honor 6 device was charging slower and decided to replace USB charging cable. I bought these Tronsmart cables at a price comparable with budget cables. These are 20 AWG thickness for charging (provide best charging) 28 AWG for data (thinner thickness doesn't affect data transfer speeds). Picture below from product

Performance: I have two devices Samsung Note 2 and Huawei Honor 6 both with OEM chargers and OEM cables (nearly a year old). Charging current as measured using OEM cables and Tronsmart cables is very encouraging

Samsung Note 2 with OEM cable -  1100 mA, with Tronsmart cable - 1900 mA
Huawei Honor 6 with OEM cable -  550 mA, with Tronsmart cable - 1750 mA

Caution: Please make sure you don't end up buying CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum Cables) instead of Copper cables. Former are comparatively brittle and have lower conductivity compared to Copper conductors

Standards

USB standard 3.0 in   lays down standards of 10 W: 5 V, 2 A  for smartphones and tablets
Battery Charging Revision 1.2 lays down " standard for establishing the proper way to charge a battery from a USB port "
American Wire Gauge (AWG) is a reference for thickness of cables. In this system, larger numbers indicate thinner wires. USB specification above makes reference to AWG numbers of 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28,

These standards are to ensure that appropriate Voltage and Current are available to the device being charged and selection of  right USB cable is based on these to deliver right amount of Power to charge

This is applicable for all Android phones- OP's device is taken as an example ( see Notes at end )
All USB cables are NOT the same when it comes to charging
Selection of USB cables depends on:

Device it is meant to charge
Length of cable
Thickness of cable in AWG ( externally, they may look the same but what matters is the electrical conductor thickness internally ). USB cables of standard make are marked showing the thickness, for example,
28AWG/2C and 24AWG/2C or 28AWG/1P + 24AWG/2C

This means

The first code is normally the specification of the data signal pair, which is normally 28AWG. "2C" means 2 conductors, and "1P" or "1Pr" means 1 pair. "2C" and "1P" are basically the same.
The important part is the second code, which is the specification of the power distribution pair (relevant to the solution here)

Before we get into details of how to select based on these factors, a quick recap of  basic electrify would help:
Ohm's Law  Current = Voltage divided by Resistance

Resistance = Length  of cable divided by Area of cable (ignoring resistivity)

Power = Voltage multiplied by Current

What do those equations mean?
Current carrying capacity depends on resistance, for the same Voltage.
Resistance is inversely proportional to the area of the wire ( Less area = Thinner Wire = More Resistance = Less Current )
Resistance is directly proportional to length (Longer cable = More resistance and vice versa )
Power in turn is therefore dependent on length and thickness of cable (affecting resistance) and Voltage
In a nut shell, quoting from USB Cable Resistance: Why your phone/tablet might be charging slow

if you are going to replace your cable with an aftermarket cable, it would be best to see if you can find a cable with the thickest possible conductors for the power. If that isn’t possible, stick with short (to very short) lengths, as that always works.

Power (Voltage times Current), thickness, short lengths are qualitative and need to be in numbers to choose the right cable. For this you need to know, firstly, Power-  Refers to the charger rating of your device .  Your device as mentioned is "incredible" and  Charger for HTC Droid Incredible shows it to be rated for 1A
Next, is Voltage- For a 5V output, the USB specification demands that the voltage remains within 5% (i.e. an acceptable voltage drop of 0.25V). Some vendors provide a slightly higher Voltage rating

.... some vendors have realized the issue (of Voltage drop ) and decided to push the output voltage up to 5.1v or 5.2v, which is still within USB specification but allows for an extra 0.1-0.2v voltage drop. This is a potentially nice feature as it means the requirements on the cables are slightly relaxed (i.e. maybe even 0.7v voltage drop is tolerable).

Choosing the right cable
You know the Power and Voltage , only thing left is to know the thickness and length of USB cable. For that refer to the tables (choose under the current rating of table With Contact Resistance, which is real life, without contact resistance is to give the effect of cable alone) and look for maximum cable length / thickness combinations by choosing "non red" color (green or yellow) which tell you that you can safely choose, as indicated by arrows:

24 AWG cable upto 2 metres in length
26 AWG cable upto 1 metres in length

Google for this cable specs (normally cables are commonly sold as 24/28 AWG ,in  which case select maximum 1 meter length ) and buy from a reputed vendor. Done!!
Notes

You can calculate the voltage drop using Ohm's law yourself. Tables are for convenience. Helpful pointers on using the tables :

If the exact rating of your charger is  not available, say 1.35 A, select the next higher rating or work it out issuing Ohm's law
Green color in table indicates, that the values are compliant to USB standard.
Yellow While yellow-zone figures are not going to be strictly compliant with the USB -0.25V maximum drop, it may still be sufficient for a full charge as many devices can accept somewhat more loss of voltage without detriment to charging
Red Non compliant to standards. Don't use
For lower current rating upto 1.5 A, selection of yellow zone lengths may still be sufficient for a full charge as many devices can accept somewhat more loss of voltage without detriment to charging. For higher currents (more than 1.5V), you need to be more conservative, so you should choose towards the green.

For Tablet users: you need to choose what falls in "green" zone only, since Voltage drop sensitivity is higher. See this as an example Google Nexus 7 Charging
I am in no way affiliated with the source and I believe it to be credible given the detailed logic presented and relates well with other sources which recommend short cables, without proper justification. It is an educative read for those inclined to get into technical details

A very well informed answer, +1, hope full the person asking the question can make sense of it all

The picture say Voltage drop at 1000mA and 2000mA what is it? how you read that? did you crop the image for the 2000mA table? I mean my charger say 1500mA so I guess can get green area at 2 meters for my Tablet?

Sorry, that was a cut paste problem. Tables are linked in answer and again here for the source 2. As pointed out in the answer if your rating is not covered in the tables, you can either work out yourself using Ohm's law or  select the next higher rating for tables, which is 2000mA

I use 2 metre cables for my three devices all rated at 5V 2A and it works fine (two of them are capable of fast charging and no problem with them either)

My un-technical answer is no.  I have a microUSB AC Adapter for a bluetooth headset that charges my headset just fine but won't charge my phone for some reason.  I also have a retractable miniUSB cable to connect to the computer with and it is fine for data but it also fails to charge my phone.

That is not an issue with the cable, its an issue with the power source. Some power sources(usb ports or wall worts) will not supply sufficient power for some devices.

No, it is an issue with the cable.  I know the difference between powered and unpowered usb ports and the ones in question were all powered and worked fine to charge my phone through the stock cable that came with my phone.  I'm pretty certain it was the slim retractable cable that failed because I tried it on 3 different computers. Data' yes; power, no. Also your comment does not take into account the ac charger I mentioned.

I'd say it depends on the cable, but you have a fair chance to get your phoned charged.
I've tested HTC Hero with 3 types of USB cable (universal, bought with my pocket hdd and bough with my dvd-drive), 2 types of a GPS charger and one type of a GPS car charger. All worked well. :)

For what it's worth, I purchased a generic MicroUSB cable on Amazon for like $2, which was advertised as being for BlackBerry users, and it works just fine on my Incredible. I use it as my charger at the office.


text:
Editing text - how to change the cursor position?
I find it quite hard to edit spelling mistakes, using just the touchscreen. Currently I try to tap the screen exactly where I want the cursor to be, but this isn't very accurate.
The iPhone has a nice 'magnifying glass' feature which allows you to accurately move the cursor. Is there a similarly nice way to do this in Android?

If you use swype you can move the cursor by swyping from the swype symbol to the SYM key.  That brings up a screen where you can do easy cursor movements and text selection.  Also, you can correct words easily by double-tapping on a word; this will bring up the word choice box.

I'm not sure what you mean by swyping from the swype symbol to the SYM key. I know where the swype symbol is, but I'm not sure where the SYM key is. I can't figure out how to do this, but it would really help!

@Matt - the Swype button is at the bottom left of the keyboard and the Sym button is the one next to it (on the right). Thanks for this tip, Joe.

Using the trackball or D-pad for this is pretty accurate.
You can easily go up, down, left and right with it.

I have a Milestone and I generally use the touchscreen to write text (the Swype app makes this very fast) so I'd like to be able to edit mistakes without having to slide the screen open. Just wondering if there is a nice way to do this, using the touchscreen?

IMHO there is no stock way for doing this without using the D-pad or the trackball.

TouchPal input method has a (similar to Swype) feature to do cursor movement, copy, cut, paste functions.
You need to long press on the "Edit" key (that's the one to left of the SPACE button, with the pencil icon) and you'll get cursor movements and edit keys keyboard.

Yes - if you touch into the text on a word and hold, you will usually get a small magnifying glass bubble just above your fingertip that will allow you to drag your finger and change the cursor point.
I say usually because sometimes pressing and holding will bring up the "Edit Text" menu that gives you the options to "Select All", "Copy", etc.
If this happens, just exit out of the menu and try again.

I get the edit text menu every time when using the technique you sugessted to try to edit a typo in an SMS. Doesn't work for me.


text:
How easy is it to return to stock after rooting with Unrevoked?
I have found the following link for rooting several Android devices:
link text
It seems quite easy to root, but how difficult is it to go back to unrooted once you've rooted?

I'm using a HTC Hero and when I had to unroot my phone, I found the RUU for my phone. This in simple terms is a restore to your phone which the service provider uses to restore the phone to absolute stock. I'd check and see if you couldn't find the RUU to your specific phone!
Good luck!


text:
My Milestone doesn't always charge
I have a Milestone and sometimes when I plug my (supplied Motorola) charger in the 'charging light' on the side does not illuminate and the phone does not charge. I think that this may also happen even after a successful initial connection (i.e. after plugging it in and getting the light) since occasionally I have unplugged the phone in the morning, after an overnight charge, and it is only 30% full (rather than the expected 100%).
This problem is intermittent and sometimes rights itself but other times I need to reboot the phone.
I have replaced the cable, and still have the same issue, so it is unlikely to be due to a faulty cable.
This happens both when charging it from a wall socket or a USB port.
Does anybody else have this problem? Or maybe have an idea of what it could be?
edit: Faulty hardware may be the cause... I have seen similar posts about people having intermittent problems connecting their Milestones to USB ports, so I'm curious that this may be either a generic bug or a generic hardware fault, rather than just my phone.

May be possible that when plugging in your charger/usb cables it's not making a connection, I had a problem on an old phone (Nokia N95) with this and had to send it off for a new one.
Also possible that it may be the charger, have you got another you could try?

Yeah, I have actually tried it with another charger and it still didn't work. Faulty hardware may be the cause... I have seen similar posts about people having intermittent problems connecting their Milestones to USB ports, so I'm curious that this may be either a generic bug or a generic hardware fault, rather than just my phone.

I say sending it back is the best bet then. I hope this isn't an issue on the Milestone 2, I've got my eyes on one!

I have a charger with a bad cable. It sometimes charges and sometimes it won't. Wiggling the cable point seems to help (don't do that though for risk of damaging your phone.
Check if its your cable or your phone by charging your phone with a data cable. If that charges your device your original charges is faulty. If this doesnt work either your phone connector is bad and you can either wiggle till it works or get a new phone.

Sometimes cables don't conform to standards and mess up the auto-negotiation of power level for the devices attached to them. (Devices can tell the computer / charger how much electricity they require). Phone can handle the max level of electricity, so soldering the 2nd and 3rd pins together on the cable will demand more power from the computer.

Do you use any app killer? I used to use this kind of software, and sometimes I accidentally killed some system service and then it only charged again after a reboot.
I stopped using app killers after that.


text:
Is there a better sync application for Windows than HTCSync?
I'm running HTCSync 3.0.5422 on Windows 7 Ultimate but I find it just a bit unreliable. One one PC, sometimes the application doesn't see my HTC Desire (bought as an unlocked SIM free unit) and on another computer it just won't connect/sync at all.
Is there an alternative?

What are you actually using it to sync? Are you syncing files to and from the SD card, or syncing Outlook Mail.Contacts/Calendar? Or something esle? Do you need to sync with a PC, or would syncing to the web be better?

I'm syncing files (mp3's, photos etc), my outlook contacts and calendar.

Given android phones just run as USB drive mode for syncing:
Just for music:

DoubleTwist
Media Monkey

All Media:

WinAmp*

Will also sync outlook contacts, files etc.

Missing Sync for Android*

*Syncs over Wi-fi

Thanks Gus...missing sync looks like the tool I'm after.

h/t to @mlevit for pointing out WinAmp in http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/321/

Missing Sync is not free. Not only is it not free, you can't even try the damn thing. You have to buy it and then try it. The price is no big deal (about 30 USD) but not being able to test the software to see if it can solve my problem means I refuse to buy it. Otherwise I would probably buy it if I could see that it works with my phone and Outlook. It really seems like a good piece of software.


text:
Can I screenshot my HTC Legend without rooting it?
I've been told rooting is the be all and end all, but at the moment, I want to see how far I can extend my device without rooting it.
One thing that would be good is screenshot functionality, but I can't seem to find an application on the marketplace that does this without a ** ROOTED PHONES ONLY ** disclaimer.
Is there any way to get screenshot functionality without a rooted phone? And what is the reason for this functionality being disabled by default. The iFail can get screenshotted with 2 button pushes, why not the Android?

This functionality is available with the developer toolkit.  The post is a bit old so newer versions of Android will have different icons and slightly different menus, but it walks you through getting the tools installed and then being able to capture screen-shots.  Also the tutorial is for Windows, but it should work with any OS that you get the Android dev tools running on (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux).
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from Windows

No - there is no way to get screenshot functionality on your phone without rooting it.
If you want to carry around a laptop with you just so you can take a screengrab whenever you want, you can install the JDK and hook it up via USB.
But if you want an experience comparable to the iPhone process (on device screenshotting), then you'll have to root.
As to why this is disabled by default, I haven't found a good answer to that.

You can try pressing the power button and the home button at the same time.

Doesn't work that way in unrooted HTC Legend.


text:
Any tips for phone stability?
My Moto Droid has seen great performance improvements with each new Android version, and has been much more stable and reliable with each version release.
Recently I was in a situation where the phone just didn't think it had a cell signal, and then wouldn't disconnect the call that it couldn't place because of the non-existent cell signal.  Ultimately I had to reboot the phone to get it to be usable again.  This happened when I really needed to make a call and was a huge hassle.  Having a smart phone with tons of data network features is great, but I still pay more for minutes than I do for data (thank you US carriers...) so not having it function as a phone when I need it is very frustrating.
I'm running Android 2.2 and don't use many widgets nor do I keep many programs running that use background services (don't usually keep GTalk connected, etc)
Does anyone have any general tips or apps to avoid to help keep my phone stable and reliable?

Well, it sounds like you don't want to monkey much. (Otherwise I'd recommend rooting and then installing vanilla 2.2, which is going to be the most stable of any release). It sounds like the problem you experienced is just a flat out bug and might not have anything to do with any apps you are running.
On the other hand, are you using any task-killing apps, or battery saving apps or anything that might be screwing around with system processes? If you are, I would recommend getting rid of them -- they are generally cause more problems in the long-run than they solve. If not, then I'm not sure what to tell you other than file a bug report or call Verizon and complain, but neither of these options will fix your problem.
If the problem was at root a signal issue, there is a way to update cell tower information, which Verizon can help you with. It involves dialing a number and allowing an automatic update.
BUT, if you did want to monkey a bit, then I do suggest flashing the vanilla froyo. It is just a little intensive, but wouldn't take you longer than an hour. If you want information in this regard, I can provide you with a website that includes step by step instructions.

A couple of things here:

Widgets use memory. The more widgets you have running, the more memory will be consumed thus slowing down the unit
The more applications you have that will give ongoing notifications (i.e. Twitter clients, weather apps, etc.) the more memory will be used. Some of these have to run as a background service to function

On another note, I have found that if I am in an area where the signal is poor (or I guess in this case where the phone thinks the signal is poor) not only does my battery get used up faster, but it seems to slow my phone down. I think, and I don't have data to back this up, that if the phone struggles to find a signal it does degrade performance.

The phone isn't like Windows. Having free RAM does not improve performance. Now, more widgets might be using more CPU cycles, and that will affect performance.

Yeah, you are right. Good catch.


text:
What are the alternative Android app markets?
How many competing Android markets (other than the Play Store itself) are there and are they any good?  Which ones do you use and why?

I use AppBrain because it provides a nice site, and it makes it really easy to install apps onto my phone.  Additionally, I'm finding that many bloggers that are reviewing apps are putting links to the AppBrain page for the app in their posts.  This makes it really easy to mark something for install while I'm at my computer reading the blog posts, and then install it when I get a chance.

Edit by Izzy:
AppBrain offers an alternative (and much cleaner) interface to the Google Play Store, which offers several advantages:

search results are much less limited (30 pages à 10 apps = 300 results, much more than Play offers)
search results "gray out" possible spam, offensive, and otherwise harmful apps. You still can see them, though – but it's quite clear what to skip
app details page gives the most important details at a glance. It's easy to see what permissions are requested. And if those form "potential dangerous combinations" (called "concerns" at AppBrain), that's automatically pointed out by a warning sign on the permissions tab
Their app (an alternative to the Playstore app) enables you to skip single (or all) updates on a per-app-base, which keeps your list of "pending updates" quite clean.

For installation, you will be redirected to Google Play. In the past, AppBrain had a separate app for this called the "Fast Web Installer", but unfortunately this app was banned by Google. So even for batch updates, the Playstore app will now be opened for each app separately (not AppBrains fault).

AppBrain App Market (source: AppBrain; click images for larger variants)
Still, I count their Website as a much better alternative to the Google Play website – and the same is to be said for their app, though for installations it has to redirect you as described above.

If it's a "cleaner interface" to Play, how is it an alternative?

If it redirects to Google Play, then there is no point in having the store anymore!

There are actually several alternatives to the 'official' Google Android market (aka Play Store).
I personally like to search for new apps from my PC browser, and a bit less from my phone. Most (all?) of the markets nowadays offer both, via a dedicated phone-app that you'll have to install, except from the official one which is already there.
Until, well, yesterday, the 'official' market would not have been available from your PC (meaning: on a PC web browser). Now it is, with a neat push-to-your-phone one-click installation that is taking away one of the advantages of the competition (see AppBrain). The alternative markets, though, have still their peculiarities. I'll make a short summary but don't expect it to highlight all of the differences. Some markets (e.g. AndSpot) do not offer very specific features to users, but try to gather developers by offering advanced features such as easy stats.

Amazon AppStore: latest big entry. countries limitations; catalog looking very promising with some (exclusive?) good pay-for apps; also features special offers and daily freebies. Def worth checking out
AppBrain: born to let you install Android Market applications directly from your PC web browser, also allows you to discover new apps based on the ones you have. It's a meta-store (my favourite before the official market update)
APKPure: don't need any registration to use it
SlideME: they provide applications to niche markets, based on geographic location, payment method, or even types of applications that users can't find in traditional channels
Samsung Apps (must be installed on Samsung Galaxy devices, or else you can't use this): Samsung app store, which of course requires you to own a Samsung Android device
F-Droid they distribute FOSS open source packages that pass audit and verification to ensure that code has no malicious parts.
GetJar: my latest discovery. Quite a lot of apps, and they have special ("GOLD") commercial apps for free. An extremely interesting platform for developers, since they seem to offer above-the-average marketing and PS activities!

I suggest you click on some of these links and see for yourself if the look/applications suit your style!
Thanks to various sources, in particular, this thenextweb.com article

I've been using F-Droid, which is a smallish repository focused on free and open source tools. Not all encompassing by any means but one of the few that is explicit about showing you the license before you download an app.

Edit by Izzy:
F-Droid is a small, but superb alternative to Google Play. Though it offers only about 1.200 apps1 in its main repository, they are mostly high quality. In comparision, these are some advantages it has over the Playstore:

Apps are OpenSource, which means they are all free (to support the devs, there are donation buttons on each apps page)
F-Droid compiles the packages from the sources. This adds a level of security, as it makes sure nothing was "sneaked into". The draw-back is, you cannot simply cross-update apps between the F-Droid main repo and other sources.
Compiling the sources themselves, they also often throw out "binary blobs" and other unfree material (i.e. included modules from proprietary sources). In many cases, this means the advertisement stuff being removed. This again increases security (and privacy). But in some cases it has the draw-back of some functionality being broken, if the removed part was e.g. stuff enabling specific Google services, such as maps.
Next to its main repository, F-Droid offers several others2. Developers can provide their own "channel", e.g. for Beta versions. A nice way also for companies or organizations to keep together groups of apps their members are supposed to use.
F-Droid is very clear when it comes to "anti-features" such as ads. If an app in any way deviates from the OpenSource idea, that's pointed out straight in colored boxes you can't miss when browsing the apps pages. Quoting bgvaughan from the comments:

f-droid's Preferences allow you to screen apps by various traits: whether they contain advertising, track your activity, or promote non-free add-ons, among others. While I miss the lack of user ratings on f-droid, and f-droid app versions sometimes trail behind those on Google Play, the fact that I can be sure that anything on f-droid is free, open-source, and not a freaking PITA, is more than enough to recommend its use.

I can also only approve what Nicolas says about F-Droid in his comment:

F-Droid apps are guaranteed open source, ad-free, tracking-free. That means smaller apps that don't waste your bandwidth for anti-features.

F-Droid also offers its own Android client, the F-Droid Application Manager:

F-Droid App (source: AndroidNext; click for larger variant)
More details on F-Droid can also be found at Wikipedia. Interesting fact: F-Droid is a fork of Aptoide3.

1 as of 06/2014
2 see also Broam's and daithib8's comments below – and this list
3 see Wikipedia: F-Droid History

F-Droid also allows you to add ALTERNATE repositories, which makes it much more powerful than it first seems. :)

you are free to submit Foss apps and try out the 100 or so that are waiting in the queue. add them by posting the relevant details in the f-droid forums. We need help converting submissions into structured metadata: only a basic knowledge of git required!

I've discovered F-Droid after the Free Software Foundation recommended it.

f-droid's Preferences allow you to screen apps by various traits: whether they contain advertising, track your activity, or promote non-free add-ons, among others. While I miss the lack of user ratings on f-droid, and f-droid app versions sometimes trail behind those on Google Play, the fact that I can be sure that anything on f-droid is free, open-source, and not a freaking PITA, is more than enough to recommend its use.

Everytime I need an app, I check F-Droid before any other, because F-Droid apps are guaranteed open source, ad-free, tracking-free. That means smaller apps that don't waste your bandwidth for anti-features.

The Amazon Appstore (download link).

Web site (You can download apps from here to your device once its set up)
Advantages of the Amazon Appstore
Uninstalling Apps from the Amazon Appstore
Using the Amazon Appstore from an "Unsupported Region"
Developer FAQ

SlideME, this is very handy when you want to buy stuff in countries without paid Market. (actually you mention it in your question. I posted this answer just for the sake of completeness)

Don't forget about GetJAR. :-) This market got its first big break when Rovio announced Angry Birds would be exclusive to them when it first launched.

Aptoide serves a bunch of repositories in APT style (which some of you might know from Debian and its derivates). They also have their own Android client used to access (search and install apps from) them. For checking available apps, any web browser can be used as well – simply point it to m.aptoide.com. According to Wikipedia, they serve more than 900,000 different apps with over 3.6 billion downloads in over 250,000 stores (as of 5/2017).

Aptoide App for Android (source: Aptoide; click images for larger variants)
Often associated with black markets and other "unsafe sources", that's not what it is by default (like peer-to-peer exchanges are not, and like Youtube isn't – though you easily can find "pirated content" there). Paulo Trezentos, co-founder of Aptoide, kindly pointed out several details behind Aptoide in his answer on How safe is it to use Aptoide? And even more in a mail he sent to me. Some core-points:

Like Google Play, Aptoide actively scans its repositories for malware. They're using 3 different malware scanners, doing signature checks, and having implemented a chain-of-trust based in the signature of the developers.
They work with several universities and research centers to make and keep the environment as safe as possible.
They use a "trust stamp" to mark apps they've thoroughly checked (see the now archived 1000contest). If you see that on the page for an app, you can consider it 99.9% safe (according to Paulo).1

Privacy is considered a high value. Aptoide is very cautious about the way they internally handle the user’s private information.
Their “Apps” store is manually curated. So when looking for a way to stay as safe as possible with all those hundred-thousands of repositories, this would be the place (all the app links in this post point there). But even towards all the other repos, Paulo states:

we have a responsibility to assure that the apps in those stores do not harm the end user.

In his mail to me, Paulo concluded: Believe we still can do better. Which to me indicates they don't settle on what they have achieved, but try to continually improve. If you additionally consider there's a company behind the "stores" which recently even filed an antitrust complaint against Google, that should be sufficient to deviate from associating Aptoide with "black markets" and "piracy" any more than Youtube – but rather consider it a good alternative (or supplement) to other Android app markets.

There are some more advantages worth mentioning:

you can have your own repository there – whether private or public. Their Aptoide Uploader helps you upload your apps there.
you can use a private repository to automatically backup your apps. Their Aptoide Backup Apps is your helper for that.
you can schedule installs/updates. Comes in handy when you're e.g. on mobile data, and just found a bigger app you'd prefer installing on WiFi. Just mark it, and when on WiFi toggle the "scheduled installs" (see third screenshot above).

Try that with Google Play :)

1 Example of untrusted app detection:

Aptoide warns an application might be malicious (source: Aptoide; click image for larger variant)
A couple of things to see here:

The little yellow exclamation mark with the red "Warning" title is visible immediately; details below are displayed when "show" was clicked
3 anti-malware-checks have been run against this package, one of them the Aptoide specific malware guard
the signature was found suspicious for multiple reasons:

it is not known to Aptoide as a "trusted signature" (Aptoide maintains a "chain of trust" for signatures, comparable to PGP/GPG)
it was used elsewhere to sign another developers package (and moreover, that developers signature was known to Aptoide, so that was a "re-sign" possibly introducing a hack of some kind)

some information on the Anti-Malware checks is included at the end of the box

The Samsung app store is installed on every Samsung mobile device (which is a lot). They are ultra helpful, unlike every other app store I have submitted to.
It can take over a week to get a new app past their quality control but it's worth the wait. They are so good at reviewing apps that I now submit to Samsung before Google Play.
It can be a little confusing at first to understand what they call their seller office is all about but hey, we are developers so are used to learning curves.
Among other things they review content to ensure that there are no copyright issues (something that can get you banned from Google Play) and they review every option VERY thoroughly on ALL the devices you have selected.
If anything goes wrong and quality control fails you get a complete breakdown of exactly what went wrong (including log cat) and even a video replicating the issue and they provide details on what is expected from you to fix it and re-submit.
What really impresses me is that they are so constructive with their criticisms.
Once an app has been approved by Samsung, I am more than happy that I have a very solid app that functions the way I want it to.
I just get a comfortable feeling when Samsung approves one of my apps. They don't tell you off or slap you on the wrists or, in any other way treat you like a naughty school kid if you get something wrong. They just help you to understand what to put right. Google Play will just pull your app and suspend you with no help whatsoever to put things right.

Yalp Store allows the download of apps directly from Google Play Store.

By default Yalp Store connects to Google services using a built-in account, so you do not have to own a Google account to use it . The only reason to use a live Google account is to access the paid apps you own or leave reviews.

It has an option to know the number of trackers found in an app and view the app's report via Exodus Privacy

Missing in previous answers is AndroidPIT which is running a separate market. Sure, almost all apps found there are also in the Playstore (but not necessarily vice-versa: so for missing apps there are links to the playstore provided). Developers need to actively maintain their apps on this platform (i.e. upload new versions), and for paid apps AndroidPIT provides its own license API.
So what is the plus of this platform? It has an active community (in the forums and the news blogs), and one can use alternative payment methods (e.g. Paypal) in addition to credit cards. Moreover, reviews for apps can be found there as well. So with the playstore comments, local comments, and the reviews, one can get a better idea of what an app is like -- before downloading it. Furthermore, the German branch even has an App Reviews section in their forum, including overviews for apps on a kind of "per-category" base -- which makes it easier to find a suiting app, as similar apps are grouped together.
So if you like that idea, but do not want another "source of apps" (it's a good idea to stick to one market platform, especially for paid apps -- so you don't lose track which app you installed from what source, and get into trouble on a re-install for a new (or factory-reset) device), you can still go there for information.
UPDATE: AndroidPIT has closed its independent app market on 2014-12-31.

The Opera (as in web browser) mobile store (now Bemobi Mobile Store) has many Android Applications that are arranged by category.

Looks like Soc.io Mall has become Eferio Communications, and there's no public app store that I could find. Antiroid seems dead already. Opera Mobile Store redirects to Bemobi Mobile Store. Yandex.Store seems dead too.

Aurora Store is an open source fork of Yalp Store which provides a Material UI to the later.

Aurora Store is an UnOfficial FOSS client to Google's Play Store, with an elegant design, using Aurora you can download apps,
  update existing apps, search for apps, get details about in-app trackers and much more.
  You can also Spoof your Device Information, Language and Region to get access to the apps that are not yet available or restricted in your Country | Device.
  Aurora Store does not require Google's Proprietary Framework to operate, it works perfectly fine with or without GooglePlayService or MicroG. Thereby avoiding the various privacy issues.

Now Google is focusing on the educational side, offering a special version of its app store called Google Play for Education. (Initially applicable to USA only I believe).
It makes it easier for educators to find apps, books, videos, and other content appropriate for K-12 students, enables bulk purchasing and the ability to distribute apps to a group of students’ tablets wirelessly.
At launch, Google is offering Play for Education bundled with Google Nexus 7 tablets. In early 2014 the company plans to offer Asus Transformer Pad and HP Slate 8 Pro tablets as well.
Teachers can find apps by grade level, subject, or other criteria, and content can be paid for using a purchase order.
Video: Introducing Tablets with Google Play for Education

Though it's rather a "link only answer", in this case there's no way around as the given source is (hopefully) maintained and the content subject to change: Here's a list of available markets in the DMOZ Mozilla directory, also giving users the possibility to report issues with them (if any). In addition to those already mentioned in answers here, it also names e.g. Aptoide, AOpenSource – altogether at the moment of this writing 25 Android markets.

Unfortunately, the DMOZ link now returns 400 Bad Request...

@AndrewT. link works fine for me, I've just tried. Maybe a temporary hick-up?

Hmm, is it geoblocked? I got this error.

Ah, double-mistake: 1) different links (the one reading "DMOZ" is going to Wikipedia and working fine), 2) you meant one hosted on AWS. For the latter, I get the exactly same error. I'd say a server configuration issue which must be fixed by the maintainers of dmoz.org. By the way: if you follow the advice and replace the domain accordingly, you get another 400 saying that bucket does not exist either. And trying https on the original one gives a timeout… Until solved: https://web.archive.org/web/20170317110639/http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Android/Markets/

I received a very good amount of installs from mobiletoones.com and apps.opera.com (now android.oms.apps.bemobi.com).
Also, my revenue was ramped up too within 2 days. If you are looking for targeted users for your app, then you should distribute your app to many sources, not just stick to one website!


text:
How Do I Keep My Droid X's SD Card from Mounting as a Drive in Windows?
Stock Droid X, running 2.1. I have the USB Connection mode set to "Charge Only".
Whenever I connect the phone to my computer to charge, the SD card mounts as a drive in the computer. In the phone's USB Connection settings, it is still listed as "Charge Only", but the SD card is not available to the phone.
They only way to get it back is to:

Change the connection mode to "USB Mass Storage" on the phone
Unmount the SD card within Windows.
Change the connection mode back to "Charge Only"

This works, but it is a pain to do this every time, when I should be able to just set the connection I want and plug it in. Is there anything I'm missing?
Edit: This happens with more than one computer - one running Windows XP, one running Windows 7. Neither have the Android SDK installed.
Update - The upgrade to Froyo seems to have fixed this issue.

Have you tried to unset the USB Debugging?

USB Debugging is not enabled.

Do you have DoubleTwist installed? It helpfully mounts the SD card whenever you connect the phone.

I do have DoubleTwist. I just checked that setting and it is disabled. Good catch though. I might try and uninstall it just to see if that makes a difference.

If the Froyo upgrade fixed this for you, could you add that as an answer and accept it (or accept one of the other answers) to get this off the unanswered list? Thanks

Try this (not sure if it's the same for all phones):

Go to Settings -> About phone -> USB Settings
Select 'Ask on connection' (if it's there).

When you connect your phone via usb, it should ask you what to do. There was the option to 'do nothing' for me.

I don't see that option on mine. What version of Android are you using? Maybe that is something I'll get whenever the 2.2 update comes out for the Droid X.

@81bronco 2.1update1 on Samsung Galaxy S Gt-I9000.

No, these kinds of things vary from phone to phone (unfortunately). So, it is not connected to the Android version.

@Dr.Dredel is there some way to add/remove these types of things (available apps/widgets, number of home screens)?

I don't think there's a way to overwrite the pre-set "settings" options.  I'm pretty sure that each phone manufacturer works with the carrier to offer exactly the options they see fit to add.  Though Android is inherently malleable so there is probably *some way... I don't know what it is though.

@81bronco This option is hidden in different places on some phones and versions, on mine it's (bizarrely) under Settings -> Wireless and Network -> USB Settings, I can then select "Ask on connection"

Motorola Mytouch 2.1
Settings -> connnect to PC -> Default connection type
Choices are charge only / Sync / disk drive
I leave it at charge, unless I want to get to the SD card.  It gives a alert that it's charge only, pull up that alert and it lets you change it.


text:
Black screen starting an app
Occasionally I'll start an app only to be presented with the App's title bar and a black screen. Usually the app's interface shows after 3-10 seconds. Very rarely the screen will stay black. I don't have any real idea about why or how to reproduce it.
I'm wondering if this is simply the phone working to try to start the app or maybe  I've got too many other applications open?
Is there some way to reduce/prevent apps from showing a black screen at first and/or not opening at all?

Black is the default plot color for Android, so this is the placeholder until the app completes it's layout operation.  There are a number of things that can cause an app to have a delay here:

Performing a network call(s).
Loading data from disk.
Garbage collection from other tasks.
Restoring a complex drawing.

You can check to see if it is related to network latency by putting your phone in airplane mode and opening the app.  If the app pops right up, the long delay is likely due to a network call that takes a while to complete (and completes immediately as an error when there is no connection).
The other three are trickier to test for.  If it is garbage collection, you will likely only see the delay when other apps have been recently running and then switching immediately the misbehaving app.  You can completely uninstall an app, including user data, and then re-install to see if it has something to do with your personal settings.

The black screen is probably related to 'lag'. This lag can be caused by a number of things.
On the Samsung Galaxy S its a 'known' problem that the memory used for main storage is pretty slow. Especially when another app is writing a lot of data (mostly big downloads and marketplace updates)
When I'm updating applications or creating a lot of data traffic I generally just don't use my device for anything while those apps are busy, this should help you too prevent the 'black screen of lag' on your device.

I'm not sure whether the memory is slow or the file systems used or maybe one of the file caches. But it's slow so applications take a while to load.

I've seen this before, it seems to be when the application is loading or switching back into the foreground while the OS is busy doing something else.  Seems more likely to occur when in the middle of a sync or while happening to receive a text message or some other notification causing event.

yes, all those things can cause it. Is it just lag, or is there something that can be done about it?

when you flip your smartphone you can tell if the app is protected (maybe want to register first before use or so like Obi Dos Applications).

Go to Settings select Systems > Reset > Reset all settings.


text:
How do I set a custom MP3 as a ringtone for other notifications?
I have an HTC Droid Incredible running Android 2.2 FroYo and would like to use custom sounds/songs as ringtones for text message notifications, event and task reminders, Facebook and Twitter notifications, and email messages. I have the MP3s that I want to use located in the /ringtones directory of my phone, but they don't show up on the list of possible sound effects/tones/notifications, but they do show up in the selection for incoming call ringtones. What do I do to use them?

Put the sounds in the /media/audio/notifications folder on your SD card. Create this folder if it doesn't exist.

I had to reboot before it was visible in the selection list

No reboot necessary using a Moto E (1st gen) on Marshmallow.

I use Tone Picker to use any of my mp3 or other audio files for ringtones or other alerts. Even clock alarms!
Pro Tip: ambient music makes for a lousy wake-up call.

TonePicker was the first ringtone app I could find that didn't want permission to access my contacts.  Perfect!

RingDroid will let you use any MP3 or part of an MP3 or even record your own sound as an MP3 as a ringtone.
Here's the QR Code:

RingDroid wants access to my contacts.  Boo RingDroid.

To set up your mp3 file as a ringtone, simply create a new folder on your SD Card and rename it "ringtones", without the quotes of course. (Do same for alarms, notifications and ui). After that, add your mp3 files to the folder. Go to "Setting--sound--phone ringtone", there, you will see your added mp3 file.
Joseph Nwalor (Slow).

It seems in froyo (at least in my HTC Legend with froyo) you need to have the .mp3 file not in  notifications folder but in "ringtones" folder at the same level with notifications.

To do this you need to create a folder called "notifications" on the root of your SD. You could mount your device to do this or use an application "Astrow" either way, Put your MP3 files here and you can use them as Notification sounds as well as ringtones.

I added my MP3 files to a notifications directory and they show up as ringtones, but not as notification sounds.

I know the question is for 2.2, but for the record, it does not work for 2.3.