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Does a carrier know I am tethering via Wifi Hotspot?
I am using my phone's built in Wifi Hotspot to share wifi with my laptop and my other devices.  I am using android 2.3 (Gingerbread), and the phone I have is the HTC Desire Z.
Questions
Is it possible for a carrier to detect that I am using "Wifi Hotspot" and sharing my mobile data connection with other devices?
Furthermore, is Wifi Hotspot a feature that most android devices have? and is it a feature that can be disabled by the carrier (on a phone-by-phone basis)?

The reason iPhone users were so easily found out is that the iPhone would use a different APN for tethering vs its own data connection. Android phones do not do this.

It is not detectable, but using tethering on Android with an second device leaves a lot of traces:

User-Agent Headers within HTTP that come from non-mobile browser
Increased Traffic consumption
Connection to services that are not available on Android/Smartphone devices (e.g. World of Warcraft)

and many more I can't think of atm.
But I have never heard of a carrier that goes for a trial, even if it's a violation of services from most carrier contracts. IMHO Mobile carriers have other problems at the moment, like overall increased mobile data traffic because of the smartphone boom. These is currently handled by soft limits of data traffic, that when reached only allow traffic over 2G connections.
Or, to answer your second question, if you buy a smartphone from some carriers, the build in tethering function is locked and not usable.

One thing I tend to do is ssh from my tethered device and port forward to a remote proxy on my server. Then the only thing the network ever sees is encrypted SSH traffic.

Wrong answer ! When I’m using tethering (which isn’t blocked by the phone), all my laptop traffic are redirected to captive portal (all ᴅɴꜱ requests resolve against captive portal website and ping is blocked but not from phone) stating that I need to pay 4 times more than I’m paying now in order to access tethering !

If that is the case then there is some software on your phone which makes this possible. I assume such a software is non-standard.

While your carrier wouldn't be able to directly detect you are using WiFi hotspot, they might notice that you are using a lot of data.
This is often a red flag in their systems, and might get you a phone call and/or your bandwidth throttled/capped.
WiFi hotspot is not available on all devices.  For instance, my og Droid with stock ROM doesn't offer this due to limitations artificially imposed by Verizon.
While a carrier cannot disable WiFi hotspot on a phone by phone basis, they most certainly can limit your bandwidth and/or cap it at a certain amount (for instance, I get full bandwith until I hit 2GB total, at which point it slows WAY down).

Wrong answer ! When I’m using tethering (which isn’t blocked by the phone), all my laptop traffic are redirected to captive portal (all ᴅɴꜱ requests resolve against captive portal website and ping is blocked but not from phone) stating that I need to pay 4 times more than I’m paying now in order to access tethering !

/u/user2284570 : "tethering" and "wifi hotspot" are not interchangeable terms.  Also, this is seven years old - perhaps you might take into consideration that technology and carrier operations have changed the teensiest bit since then, eh?

I just got off the phone with T-Mobile because I am being throttled and I was upset. He said I was not using tethering even though I had been so it appears that no, they can not see that you are tethering.

Maybe I'm wrong on this, but I thought tethering worked by setting up NAT traversal and forwarding packets from your tethered device through your mobile device. This would leave a trace in the IP packets since the NATed ports need to be embedded in the communication for NAT to work. Since your IP packets aren't encrypted the carrier should easily be able to determine if you're tethering just by observing your data stream.

No, you are wrong. NATed connections don't leave traces in the IP header that couldn't come from a normal connection too.


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Android Google map to provide alternative route
Google Map web version can provide 3 alternative routes when routing directions. However, it seems Android Google map can only provide 1 route and have no option to choose alternative routes. Is there any way to get the alternative routes?

To see alternate routes, you need to use Navigation as opposed to Maps.
If you already have Maps open, click the blue arrowhead in the upper right to switch to Navigation, then click the context button on your phone, then select Route Info, then click the third button to the right along the bottom which will have both a dashed and solid line going to a map pin.  Alternate routes will appear, and you can select them along the top of the route info map.

I have observed that in navigation mode the routes displayed are from the current location and not between the two locations selected.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Video recording asus transformer
I would like to record video of the screen of my asus transformer. I don't need high fps. 12 to 15 fps would be more than enough for my needs. I tried searching for an app on the market for this purpose. But there doesn't seem to be any app that allows me to record video of the screen of my asus transformer.
So, I was wondering if there was any app that i am not aware off or maybe some other way through which i can record some video of my asus screen.
Someone at #android proposed the idea of using the hdmi out on my asus to connect it to an hdmi input on a pc. But unfortunately i only have an hdmi out on my pc as well... If hdmi is the only option I have, could anyone please tell me if there is any way of making my laptop receive hdmi signals?
Thanks

I am having the same problem and I think I've got the solution. I'm thinking of 2 ways:

Buy an HDMI to component or HDPVR converter and buy a capture card (cheapest)
Buy an HDMI capture cart (very expensive).

You have to make sure the HDMI capture card will be HDCP compatible because otherwise it will refuse to receive the encrypted video.  Of course, that's the same for the converter but that costs about 40 euro.

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


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How can I listen to free online music while performing other tasks on my device?
I have Android 2.2 on my phone and I want an app that lets me listen to free music online in the background while I browse through other apps or do something else on my phone.
The YouTube app closes once I minimize it, so I have to keep it open to listen to music.
I have tried apps like Shazam and Soundhound but they don't offer free music. Can anyone recommend a good app?

i have tried out grooveshark but that app is only for a 30 month trial.

I have found YouTube music beta. it is pretty nice.

I heart Radio and TuneIn Radio are apps that let you stream FM radio stations.  You select the sort of station you like and listen to the music they play.
I personally use them for listening to talk radio, but same difference.

Depending which country you're in Last.fm and Spotify are good options for free, streaming music.

If you have your own music collection, you can get a Google Music account, download the app if it isn't already on your phone, and listen to your own tunes all you like.
If you're looking for an internet radio app, I'd recommend Slacker Radio, they have a lot of channels with pretty decent selection.  Pandora is very good, but that only works if you live in the United States.

is google music free?

Yes, although they're happy to sell you songs.


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Receiving "Message board service started" randomly
Randomly on my Android Galaxy S2, I'm receiving a message nag "Message board service started".
It can happens in an application, in the app drawer or anywhere randomly.
I'm unable to find any sources talking about this message.
Do you have an idea?
Android 2.3.6

Found it ....

Message Board service started
BlueLocate service started

Here is the app causing theses messages : Connectdroid


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Is it possible to view detailed GSM information on my Android phone?
I'm trying to find such an app, but I can't, which leads me to suspect that it's not possible, either because of software or hardware limitations. What I'd like to see is a list of cell towers that my phone can reach (both from my carrier and other carriers); signal strengths from each; perhaps an option to lock on to a specific tower or forbid the use of some tower. And, generally, the more data available, the better. So - have I just missed the right app; is there no such thing out there (and I'm free to write the first one); or is such data simply unavailable and I can just give up?

There is this app called Antennas. It can't do everything you have asked for. But it can show you the tower you are connected to, the signal level, and other towers from you carrier that your phone can see/connect to and their signal level.

Map the GSM/CDMA antennas in your neighborhood. This app monitors the
  GSM/CDMA cellular network connection; displays a map of approximate
  cellular antenna locations and their RF signal strength; and can log
  the data to a text or KML file.
Does not work on Verizon 3G & CDMA Support is limited by Android, not by the application CDMA requires Eclair Works
  best with 2G GSM. 3G/CDMA support is very limited.

Well, that's at least something. I really wanted to see data about other carriers too though, to see which one has the best signal in my remote location. I guess I can buy cheap pre-paid SIM cards from them... but that's a lot of hassle. :P

Open Signal Map does some very similar stuff, its accuracy depends on how much data its got for your current area, but seems pretty good in built up areas.
I used it to help work out why I always had such a terrible signal at my parents house, turned out my phone kept connecting to a cell tower on the island you can just see from the end of their road, rather than the cell tower two roads down.

But they just use statistically gathered data, not what my phone can actually sense, right?

@Vilx- Yes, but your phone contributes to the data. Even Google doing their coarse location detection via cell-tower triangulation only have statistical, crowd-sourced data (for most phone networks at least). I don't think the phone companies release the exact location details of all their phone masts to anyone.


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Spica i5700: How to downgrade from froyo 2.2 to eclair 2.1
I have a Spica i5700 with Froyo version of 2.2.2.
I want to downgrade it to Eclair 2.1, because I find the screen often produces erratic movements such as auto-input to my password even if I am not inputting anything. It also auto-scrolls, even if I am not scrolling it.

You'll need to use Odin.  This blog has a guide for how to flash 2.1.  To summarize you put your phone in Download mode, connect it to your PC, load the firmware into the appropriate field(s) in Odin and hit Start.  The site has a link to firmware but if it doesn't work try samfirmware.com.


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Acer Iconia Tab A500 - Rooting & Honeycomb 3.2
I just bought a brand new Iconia Tab A500. I just unboxed it and it shall be charging for the next 14 hours :)
While I wait for first booting it, I have a question on rooting with 3.2. The tablet comes with Honey 3.0, but I read that the 3.2 update is ready to be delivered OTA. But I absolutely want to root it!

Can I root the device after the OS upgrade?
Or should I root it first?
Or, does upgrade remove rooting and currently there's no [yet] rooting for HC3.2?

Thank you

As far as I know, the 3.2 update on the A500 has not been rooted (some discussion here). There's one XDA thread where someone has described a method of downgrading so you can root, but nothing that lets you root 3.2 in and of itself.
If you want to have root access then I would suggest rooting the shipped version, then manually upgrading to a pre-rooted version of the latest OTA update.

Great answer. Another quick question: is it hard to brick the device if I want to try several ROMs. I mean, in the HTC devices I know that you can actually brick only when you try to flash bootloader, otherwise you'll ALWAYS have the time to flash the ROM again with another one. Does the same apply to Iconia? The last link wasn't quite assuring about safety :D

@djechelon: As long as you can get to you recovery (even stock recovery) you're okay, but I don't know if the A500 allows you to flash partitions using fastboot and the like. I've never seen anything that implies that you can, which would mean if you wrecked both your recovery and boot partitions you could be in a bad state. That's about as familiar as I am with the A500, though.


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Can I purchase apps from Android Market without installing them?
There's currently a promo on the top 10 applications, available at barrel-bottom prices. I'd like to purchase them but not install them just yet. My phone is low on internal storage and there's just not enough space to put some of the bigger ones. I can't even attempt to install some of them (yeah, it's that bad).
I'm planning on purchasing another Android device in the near future, and those nifty apps will surely come in handy when this happens.
Please don't suggest the usual circumvention methods of moving apps to SD, installing custom ROMs, removing unused applications, etc. These either won't work or have already been done.

It won't even let you hit the "Buy" button? What if you try to buy it from the web store?

Same motivation as http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/16586/how-can-i-buy-an-app-that-isnt-supported-on-my-current-device :)

The best you can really do currently is to buy them from the Market (web or app) and then just cancel the download/installation when it starts on your device. This only works with apps your device supports, though. Purchasing unsupported apps was the topic of this related question.

I don't think this answer still works. Most likely the app is immediately refunded if you uninstall it. Canceling the download I would assume also end in a refund.


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Can the buying process from the Market be made more secure?
I just took advantage of the $0.10 promotion of several apps on the Android Market.
However, I noticed that I can buy apps by just selecting my saved credit card. There is no further verification process (AFAIK).
Can I make this more secure, for instance with some sort of password?
I mean, if I should lose my phone, someone can just buy apps without any further verification.

Only if you don't have a secure screen lock set, someone could buy apps. But why should one do that besides to harm you? He wouldn't have any benefit from it, since the purchases are linked with your account. Maybe it's different with Google Music.

Don't save your credit card info.  (Edit: Just tried, you can't enter info without it being saved.  Ugh.)  You can set up a PIN in the Market but that's easily worked around by clearing the data.  Google Wallet (Checkout) doesn't appear to have any security settings beyond needing to log in, though obviously saved credentials work on Android.
I think then that your only option (besides using another market) is to use full encryption on the device such as is present in Honeycomb in combination with a lock screen and not being rooted.  Which doesn't rule out exploits, but if there was no risk of your CC being used nefariously then it wouldn't be usable by you either :P.  Of course, if your phone is stolen you could just cancel your cards and/or let your credit card company know about the risk or actuality of unauthorized purchases.
Google will also help you fix it:

Account Hijacking
If you previously created a Google Wallet Account, and an unauthorized person has accessed your account, please contact us immediately. Our fraud protection policy covers you against any unauthorized purchases that were made with your Google Account. If we find that an unauthorized purchase was made, we'll make sure you aren't charged for it.

Can I enter my credit card while buying an app from the phone ? And than don't save the credit card info ?

@Edelcom I recall doing that in a 2.x version of the Market but I just tried and you can't seem to do it now :(. It would require logging into your Wallet account to remove the info. Google is dumb :P.  You could always use an alternative Market like YAAM if you can endure the evils of PayPal, but I suppose that doesn't get you the promotions.

Press Menu -> Settings in Market.
Then Set or change PIn, and set a new PIN
Check the Use PIN for purchases checkbox
Then you should be done.

Easily worked around.


text:
How to disable virtual keyboard when in landscape mode?
I have a Droid 2 (on Gingerbread); The device has a physical keyboard.
I use virtual keyboard in portrait mode sometimes, but never in landscape mode (since I have physical keyboard.)
Is there a way that would allow me to disable virtual keyboard when in landscape mode, but leave it available for portrait mode?

Doesn't the soft keyboard go away if you open the keyboard tray? It did on my Droid, anyway.

There is a way but not an easy way. You can use keyboards like Null keyboard.

A keyboard that does nothing.
  Yes, really.
  This keyboard is useful if you have an external bluetooth keyboard paired with your phone and you want to stop the on-screen keyboard from popping up all the time.

The problem is every time you change mode you have to change the input method.

You might be able to automatically change the OSK using an automation app. I use Llama(https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kebab.Llama) or you might want to use its more well-known app, Tasker.

Don't touch the screen. Instead, use the tab and the arrow keys on the bluetooth keyboard to navigate. This way, the pop-up keyboard will never come up.
It is a challenge. There are a lot of shortcuts and tricks to learn, but it's more convenient once you get the hang of it. I guess the simplest answer would be to get a bluetooth mouse as well. Use that to select things instead of touching the screen.


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Samsung Galaxy S2 Problems - Possibly Hardware Related?
I've had my Galaxy S2 SGH-I777 (AT&T) for about 2 months now and everything has been great up until yesterday. I started experiencing some freezing and strange behavior. The phone is unrooted and using the stock ROM.
The problems include but are not limited to:

Random freezing when the phone is locked (by pressing the power button). Always have to do a hard reset.
Random notifications about MTP initialization when no USB cable has been plugged into the phone.
Vlingo Voice command (come preloaded on the phone) randomly popping up/starting without anything being pressed.
Sometimes when I power off the phone it doesn't actually turn off completely but just restarts.
Plugging in the USB cable while the phone is off turns it on (I don't think this is default behavior).
And just recently I've had some strange touchscreen issues. Random letters being typed that I haven't touched etc.

These issues are not constant but occur intermittently. I've already performed a factory reset, but the problems persist. Since I have yet to read about anyone else having similar problems with their phones, this leads me to believe that it's not actually an issue with the stock ROM but an issue with the phone itself and the hardware. But before I take it back to AT&T I wanted to get some input from you guys. Any ideas on what could be causing this?
Thanks in advance.

I am also a user of Samsung Galaxy S2. Mine is rooted but all the indicators of your phone are pointing to a hardware problem. There is most probably a short-circuit like instantaneous electric jumps inside the motherboard. Most of your problems can be answered rationally by uncontrolled electric jumps.
For instance plugging the USB cable (namely a power source) directly starts the phone, indicating that there is a short circuit which transfers the USB power to the power button of the phone whereas they should be insulated.
When you power-off the phone, it restarts. This may be explained with a short-circuit of the phone's battery with the power button.
So on and so forth...

This is my inclination as well. Guess I'll be visiting the AT&T store again.

I am experiencing the same exact issues here with an AT&T Galaxy S2 bought Oct 26 at Best Buy.  I did root and have tried various ROMs along with returning to bone stock with no help.  I have called AT&T for replacement but I have found 2 possible solutions in my research on the internet:

I saw a random post somewhere about a user who tried CM7 (Cyanogen Mod 7) ROM and for whatever reason. It has rendered my phone very usable with none of the above issues for a few days now.  For curiosity, I switched back to another ROM I had used before, and the problems came back immediately.  Needless to say, I'm not sure why CM7 did any good.
I also came across a post suggesting to use a small paintbrush and rubbing alcohol to swab out the USB port area.  Several users reported success from this.  I have not tried this yet but plan to.

I have had this issue for a couple of months now with the whole MTP connection when I have not plugged it in. Turns out I just needed to clean the USB port on my S2. It had its little fit of unplugged/plugged in while I was cleaning and stopped once cleaned.

I had this problem recently and found out that I just have to clean my USB port.


text:
Are they any browsers without double-tap zoom feature?
I am looking for a browser to use on an Android tablet or mobile device that either does not have a double-tap zoom feature or where the double-tap zoom feature can be disabled. There are  other uses for "double clicking" on the web, but is currently impossible when a "double tap" always zooms the page instead.

Is that a function of the browser or of the multi-touch aspects of the touch-screen?

Double click events on web sites really ?
What a bad idea !
Do you have examples ?

I use Dolphin Broswer HD. It doesn't zooms on double clicking. You can try this.

I use Dolphin Browser also and it zooms on double-click. Do you think it really could be a function of the device I'm using (rooted Nook tablet)?

What you are using is Dolphin Browser Mini. I am talking about Dolphin Browser HD. Both are different and the later one doesn't have double-click zoom functionality.

Actually I am using Dolphin Browser HD.

For me its working (not zooming on double click). Need to check this on other devices.

Dolphin Browser HD zooms on double tap... Double tap on big page which could be zoomed, not on mobile pages.

Try UC Browser it has both zoom and without zoom display settings.


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Does any version of Android support ad-hoc connections?
I just bought a Lenovo Ideapad A1 which runs Android 2.3. It seems that connecting the device to an ad-hoc network is not possible.
Does any other Android version support this?

There are no Android versions that support the 802.11 ad-hoc mode (unfortunately).  To have ad-hoc working on an Android you need to root your phone.  This however does not fix the basic issue that the Android java API does not allow you to programatically control the wifi interface in ad-hoc mode - to do that you need to resort to native code which is not portable accross devices.
Android 4.0 however supports (and provides API's for) the new WiFi direct standard which offers some of the functionality of the 802.11 ad-hoc mode (+ a bunch of other higher level stuff).  One of the nice promises of WiFi Direct is that it will be backwards compatible with regular infrastructure mode WiFi (in the sense that a WiFi direct device will appear as a regular Access Point to non WiFi Direct devices).

Android-wifi-tether supports ad-hoc mode for rooted devices: http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/

While most Android OS versions do not support Adhoc, You do not need to downgrade or upgrade your OS to connect to your computer or use wireless LAN. Please use Connectify, its a software that creates Wireless Hotspots for your android or any other device you need.

Thanks for your answer. I exactly used that tool! (Windows XP / Free Connectify version) The tablet could not find the created hotspot. For what I know, Connectify creates Adhoc networks, does it? I'm only seeing the option >Settings >Security Mode: Ad-Hoc, Wep.

No I'm not sure it creates adhoc. It creates a wireless hotspot rather.

Are you using the PRO version?

@Tom: Connectify can only run in ad-hoc mode on XP and Vista. The infrastructure AP mode only works on Windows 7.

Thank you! So I guess there is no way to do it under Windows Xp, right? On my original question: Are there Android version supporting ad-hoc connections?


text:
Possibility of monitoring internet traffic in case where galaxy tab is used as a mobile access point?
My employer gave me the Galaxy Tab. I am using it as a mobile access point (Wi-Fi) connection for my home computer. I do not have other internet access.
I would like to know if my employer can monitor my internet activity (see my email, visit sites I have visited, etc.) ?

This depends completely on their mobile plan and how they have set up the tablet. AFAIK, most internet tethering apps do not collect activity, but theoretically their mobile provider could be monitoring the activity on their connection and reporting it back to your employer. However, there are too many factors here to give you a definitive answer.

AFAIK, from the employer side, he can know the amount of traffic you've spend, if your using a data plan, but not where you spend it.
A data plan provider would have to violate some privacy rules/laws to collect such information.

I don't think the OP meant measuring traffic volume but looking for surfing habits and general spying on emails, chat, torrenting and such...

@ce4 My last paragraph then! I'll switch it to the top :)

Most probably there's no surveillance.
Android's corporate device management support is still in its infancy.
In case you got it pre-setup'ed for you you can wipe/factory reset it. You're then sure you got rid of whatever setup was done by anyone after the tablet has been bought.
But before you do this:

Check for device management software.
Settings -> Security -> Device administrators.
You could look for stuff like mobile iron (used to enforce policies and monitor installed apps and such on company owned or BYOD  phones/tablets).
Check for a configured VPN connection.
Settings -> wireless&networks -> more -> VPN.
Your company might have set up a VPN that routes all traffic including tethered traffic through company servers. Monitoring could be done there then.
Check for a Microsoft Exchange profile.
This can only be used to remote-wipe your tablet, there are however no further options for device management and monitoring.


text:
Does any version of Android support smb natively?
I use Android 2.x on my phone and will buy a Tegra 3 tablet in the (hopefully) near future.
I use files on my NAS with my phone. I can access those files with external tools (ES file explorer), but other applications cannot access these files.
I just wonder if Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich have built-in support for smb?

In a word: No.
In order for all applications on the device to have access to a cifs mount, cifs support needs to be compiled into the kernel (or at least available as a loadable module).
I've never seen a device that shipped with such a kernel from the manufacturer.  Doesn't mean that they don't exist, I just haven't seen them.
Now, for some devices that have been rooted/unlocked and replacement kernels can be compiled, I've seen kernels made with cifs support built in.
Once you have cifs support in the kernel, you could use an application like Mount Manager to handle the system-wide mounts.
The applications like ES File Explorer you've seen with cifs support have their own private implementation.  They are unable to mount the share into the global namespace such that other apps could take advantage.


text:
Why do all my MMSes show up as videos?
Long text messages, photos - all show up as a five second long "video" (still image). Happens with received MMSes and the ones from me that I've sent. Using a galaxy s2. This is really annoying, my shoddy old nokia brick just opened them up how they were meant to be and then offered 'save to gallery' when I left the text. Why would such a better phone use such a worse approach? At first I thought it was that for some stupid reason it couldn't read normal pictures, but it does the same with my sent messages so unless it converts pictures out of readable format and back into a still video, that's not it (and that was also the only answer I could find on google).

Similar question here: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/11460/mms-images-showing-up-as-videos

As onik points out, it's most likely a carrier issue such as a badly configured APN.

I agree with Onik's comment linking to his answer to a previous similar question; this very well may be up to your carrier and something you'll have to take up with them.
SMS/MMS delivery is a ballet involving the sending and receiving carriers' interest in cooperating, the network technology your phone uses, and how the SMS app on your phone interprets the messages you receive. An unfortunate number of these factors are out of your control, but have you tried another SMS app like Go SMS or Handcent? These may help your issue.


text:
What does FOTA mean
I just got an over-the-air update from HTC for my Wildfire S  for the "FOTA Client" (or something like this, can't see it anymore after the update and can't find any logfiles in the FileManager or elsewhere) and somne related component also with FOTA in the name.
Googling FOTA only yields blog posts and news about "phone X getting FOTA update" with none of these explaining what it means. Searching here yields zero results...
So, what does FOTA mean?

FOTA -  Firmware Over-the-Air
This is the update sent to the OS via your service provider(for 3G/GPRS/EDGE..) or Wifi.
It will download an image of the new firmware from the server and install it after you accept.

From Wikipedia,

FOTA is an acronym for Firmware Over-the-Air. It is used for upgrades to mobile phones and PDAs.


text:
What parts of the regular Linux graphics driver architecture is used in Android?
For example, could the Nouveau driver be used and provide hardware accelerated drawing when Android is compiled for x86?

I don't think this question is on-topic here. This is a site for Android users as opposed to Android developers. See the faq for details what questions are considered on-topic here. You might have better luck on Stack Overflow, and in that case a mod can help you with migrating it.

Sounds like a question about Android architecture and drivers, rather than programming, so I'm pretty sure it is on-topic here. Whether there's anyone that knows Android at a low enough level to be able to answer is a different question, I know I don't know the answer.

Isn't the nouveau driver specifically for Xorg, which isn't/can't used for Android?

I agree with @GAThrawn. It's not a great fit, but it's not explicitly off-topic.

Noveau is a driver for the X.org graphics system so it definitely couldn't be used verbatim. The one part that I'd expect to possibly be useful would be the code that actually talks to the hardware. The same is true for any other X.org driver.
But in Noveau's case, most of the work is in reverse-engineering the hardware interface as Nvidia refuses to release the documentation. This work could definitely be reused in a hypothetical Android Nvidia driver.

Almost none of the regular Linux graphics architecture is used on Android (that is, Mesa, XWindows, etc). Driver developers can choose to reuse major portions of their drivers, but there is a lot of plumbing involved to get drivers to work with SurfaceFlinger (and gralloc, and the Hardware Composer), including 3D rendering as well as display output (HDMI support, etc.).


text:
How do I re-install the system app "Google Talk"?
I accidentally uninstalled Google Talk using Root Uninstaller and now I can't download anything from the Market.
Can anyone help me? I don't have the .apk file for Google Talk.

Did you take a backup with Nandroid or Titanium Backup? Which device/ROM?

The Google Talk application is a key part of the Android Market authentication. If you are not signed in to Google Talk, you cannot use the android market. This is one of the reasons there needs to be more "Warnings" with apps like Root Uninstaller. They allow you to remove vital apps from the device, and don't tell you what damage it could do.
You have a couple options:

You will need to find the apk for your device, or that works for your device. There are some devices that use a different version of the application, Then use a tool like Root Explorer for example, to put the apk file back in /system/apps
Restore from a Nandroid / Titanium backup (if you did the backup before hand)
(re)Flash a ROM on your device, which could put the device in the "factory state" if you are not flashing the same ROM that you already have on the device.

I also seen this in the applications description and it may actually make a backup of any app that you freeze or uninstall. check and see if you can restore with the application.

If you CANN'T freeze/defrost, try to enable USB Debugging (HOME/Settings/Application/Development/USB Debugging)
If you CANN'T restore backup app, try to "find apps on SD card" then long-press the app and select "install as system app".
This application uses SDCARD to store data

If you don't have a backup of the app, I would think the most sure fire and straightforward way to get it back would be to "restore to factory state".
Prior to doing that, I'd recommend using Titanium Backup to save all your settings and apps.  Just reinstall TiBU again after you reset your phone and restore everything from the backup.  Short and sweet.
If you decide you absolutely need to remove system apps in the future, Cyangogen mod has a bare bones guide on what's safe to uninstall.


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How to sync android market account if I have the app but the market isn't in my add account?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I install the Google Apps Package (Play Store, …) on my Android device?

I've been trying to get the new market on my phone for a while, I finally did then it asked if i wanted to add an account, i clicked yes. Once i went to settings to add the account market account wasn't in there, how do i add one now?

So are you saying the account is gone from your phone completely, or it's in your settings but the Market won't let you use it?

It never was there, i downloaded the android market from the internet and when i went to add an account the option to add market isn't there

Do you mean you're looking for a separate "Market" account type in the settings? Market accounts are just Google accounts, there isn't a separate type for them.

how do i make the google account then?

Settings->Accounts and Sync->"Add Account" button

What account do i add?

Because I don't have the gmail account option there either, i only have exchange active sync (which i already have made), facebook, htc sense, htc sense QQ, HTC sense Qzong, HTC Sense Tencent Weibo and Mail?

Oh. Do you live in China? I'm not even sure if you can set up a Google account on Android devices without rooting your phone and installing a completely custom firmware (related forum thread here)

oh my god this is so annoying /: Why does all technology have to have problems in China?!

It says I can do this if i download european software, android 2.3.4 Gingerbread but how do i get this on htc cha cha?

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the ChaCha or how to do that :-/ You could re-word this question to ask for help with that (or just add that detail), though, since it does seem to be the underlying issue.


text:
Map internal Wi-Fi strength?
I'm a system administrator for a school division, and we are upgrading our Wi-Fi network.  Is there a way that I can map the strength of the Wi-Fi signal at different places inside a building (where GPS does not work)?
I have used some stumblers -- Wi-Fi Analyzer and Meraki Wi-Fi Stumbler -- and those really do most of what I need, but I'd really like to see things on a map.  I've tried some standard wardriving applications -- such as WiGLE Wi-Fi Wardriving and Wi-Fi Map Maker - Free -- and they just don't really work without a GPS coordinate.
I'd be more than happy to snap a photo of a building map and indicate where I am at different places and be able to see, say, a heat-map of the signal strength (and better still if I could see if by BSSID).  I'd also be find with using the phone as a collection device and analyzing the data later on the computer.
Is there a way to map the Wi-Fi signal strength at different places in the buildings I'm providing Wi-Fi service to?

Thia question does not belong here.

@sam, is there a place you feel that it does belong, then?

Its a n/w related question and does not involve any android platform. You should ask this question on n/w forums.

Did you try WiFi Mapper?

You could try "WiFi Maps Light" for Android, available for free in Google Play.

Recommending your own app is fine on this site (when it's relevant), but please abide by the rules and make it clear in your answer that it's your app.


text:
Securing a young child's tablet
My wife has decided to get the kids a set of android tablets for christmas.  These are Coby Kyros 4GB wi-fi only models.  The kids are ages 6-10 so I don’t particularly want to let them have free reign of the internet or the app stores.  I also want to make sure the tablets are protected from the various forms of malware.
Ideally I would like to be able to establish a white list for the websites they are allowed to visit, and make it so that they are not able to add any apps or modify the white list without parental intervention.  However I am not familiar enough with the android platform to know where to start on any of this.
Google has helped me find out that apps exist which claim to be able to restrict access to other apps, but almost all of them have comments indicating that they are very easy to bypass.  Likewise I have been seeing mixed reviews as to the effectiveness and value of the antivirus options that are out there.  So far I have not been able to find anything about building a whitelist, or restricting content accessible from the web.
So I am asking for suggestions as to specific topics/apps that I should be reading up on, and/or other approaches that I can take to reach these goals.
EDIT:
I should note that this model does not come with the android market pre installed, it has some third party app store on it.  It does come with an apk manager installed, and I have played with one of them enough to get the market and gmail onto it.  So I should be able to get most anything installed/removed if I can figgure out what it is I actually need to do.

As I noted in your other thread, your best bet is probably to manually set a web proxy server via the devices network settings that filters by keyword or whitelists.  Even if they do go to another person's house or try to get on another network, they will be unable to browse (especially if you are hosting the proxy server yourself on your own network; in that case, they most likely won't be able to browse to anything at all).
From wikipedia:

In computer networks, a proxy server is a server (a computer system or
  an application) that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients
  seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy
  server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page,
  or other resource available from a different server. The proxy server
  evaluates the request according to its filtering rules. For example,
  it may filter traffic by IP address or protocol. If the request is
  validated by the filter, the proxy provides the resource by connecting
  to the relevant server and requesting the service on behalf of the
  client. A proxy server may optionally alter the client's request or
  the server's response, and sometimes it may serve the request without
  contacting the specified server. In this case, it 'caches' responses
  from the remote server, and returns subsequent requests for the same
  content directly.

The overall outlook is not so great for you, AFAIK.
The Market has content filtering, check the Settings in the Market app.
For the browser, that's a wholly different kettle of fish.  The built-in browser doesn't have any kind of filtering available.  3rd party browsers might, but they'll be trivial to sidestep (by simply opening the built-in browser).
The next best thing you can do is filter the tablets at the router, if it allows for that.  However, that's only useful when they're at home (or other places where you can control their internet connection).

Yeah, setting up filtering on the router did occur to me. But as you said it falls apart as soon as they leave the house, or figgure out how to link into the neighbors connection.

You should also be able to change the hosts file on the device: /etc/hosts

@BryanDenny: Only if the device is rooted.  In which case, it might also be possible to remove the built-in browser.

This isn't really manageable from a technical perspective (you could go some way towards it by sorting out your own firmware, using something like Cyanogen) as we often point out over on security.stackexchange.com once an attacker (in this case, your children) have a device, they control it.
So, my alternate course of action would be as detailed in this question over on parenting stackexchange - start off with visibility, using the devices together, and education - that will go much further towards making your children safe than any technical control you can implement.
What I have done with my 3 (now 5, 9 and 11) was let them use computers in the main room while we were there (aged 3 - 5) and then unsupervised until about 8 (but knowing we would be walking in and out) and over 8 year's old I trust them not to be stupid.
It helps that their dad is a security and privacy specialist who often provides awareness training in this area :-)

+1 User education is an important step, but the tablet's nature as portable, concealable devices means the "we are walking in and out" bit doesn't work as well, sadly.

Use OpenDNS on your router at home. As long as they are accessing the Internet from home then you can whitelist or greatly restrict what sites they can visit. I use OpenDNS currently to restrict my children's access with the browser on their Nintendo 3DS. Since it is at the router level it doesn't require any support at the device level.
If they are accessing wifi outside the house then there isn't much you can do - for example at the library. But they could just as easily use an unrestricted computer at the library instead of the restricted tablet.
If you can remove the app store from the device, and then just manually install the apps you want them to use, that is probably the best way to go. You will be pretty close to a walled garden.
Additionally I would suggest you perform an "audit" on the devices weekly or at least regularly. Check out what is installed, and look for any worrying activity, or lack of normal activity. Also use that as a chance to talk to the kids about the devices and see if there are new apps they want you to get for them. If you install a new game or something every time you audit their tablets then they will be looking forward to it! Actual communication generally trumps technology.

I was going to suggest the same thing.  +1

Try using Surelock And Surefox. They will lock it down and give you a white list provisioning.

Note: the following extension has a whitelist feature as well. Works on Android. But might be a little harder to install.

What works best for me is a keyword filter. This is the best way to filter any content because it can catch almost 100% of what you target. Eg. if you're addicted to the game Warcraft, you simply add that to the keyword, and that will be gone from the internet.
It works only on Firefox version 56.0, using Procon latte filter. This extension no longer works on the later versions, and it's no longer on the addon store.
Introduction, https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/2617/filter-web-content-in-firefox-with-procon-latte/
What sets it apart from other keyword based filters, is the accuracy, and minimal false positives. Plus its totally free and has password protection on addons page.
Some keyword blockers are overly aggressive. eg. if you set it to block the word, "bra", it will block "branding", "brain", "library" as well. This makes it pretty much unusable.
For instructions on how to set this up on Firefox Windows and Android, https://github.com/hpaolini/procon/issues/29

You can try Pluckeye android browser. Easy to install, and disables ALL images/videos. Might be blocking too much, but it's definitely safe.

Once you've decided on the browser to use, you will need to use an applocker to disable the playstore, and other browsers and apps that have open access to the internet.
Highly recommend Applock.

It's a free app locker, that is very full featured. Allows you to toggle between different groups of apps to be blocked/allowed. Password protection and email reset.

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


text:
How can I install a CA cert on my Samsung Nexus?
I have the cert as a .cer file on my Mac, and my phone is connected via USB. How can I install the cert on my device?

Rename the file with an extension of .crt and place it in your SD card /download folder.
Put the SD card back into your device (or remount it, if internal) and navigate to SETTINGS > SECURITY & PRIVACY > INSTALL CERTIFICATE FROM SD CARD.
Hopefully that ought to do the trick, else try this online Certificate Installer tool - it gives you a link that you can navigate to using the Android web browser and install the certificate.


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Facebook Android - Too Many Server Redirects Error
I have posted a bit.ly link on Facebook, which got converted to an epi.us link (it was an epicurious.com link to begin with). Everything works as normal in most cases, but on the Facebook Android app, there is an error when I click on the link. It states:

Data Connectivity Problem - The page contains too many server redirects

This is with the latest update to Facebook (just updated today 12/8/11). I am running Android 2.2 (Froyo). Is this something that can be fixed by using a different url shortener?

It's probably doing something like m.facebook.com -> facebook.com -> bit.ly -> epi.us -> epicurious.com, which is a fair number of redirects.  You could try a different browser that might have a longer limit or you could just post the link directly.  Unlike Twitter you don't need to shorten URLs for Facebook most of the time.  At minimum you could remove the epi.us step.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried removing the epi.us step (there is a way to disable that in bit.ly). Unfortunately, the problem persists. If it happened in more operating systems, I could explain the problem to my manager. But since it is only happening in Android, it is something that I must fix. Any other suggestions?


text:
Reboot device without ask for the PIN again
I want to Reboot my phone but not enter the PIN on it again. This will make my developing testing easier.
I found out that on some devices like Motorola Defy it is possible with the "adb reboot" command, but it did not work on Samsung Devices.
An adb command or some source code will help me.

Related question: deactivate PIN-request after airplane mode. Unfortunately, still no "global solution".

There are a couple of ways to temporarily disable the PIN. One that I use is an app called Unlock with WiFi. Basically, as long as my device is on my home wi-fi network, the PIN to unlock is disabled. As soon as I leave home with it, thus disconnecting from my wi-fi, the PIN lock is re-enabled.
(The free version only lets you connect to one home network.)


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Problems with downloading apps
I have recently brought a Samsung Cooper and when i was trying to download an app from the market it keeps saying insufficient memory on device. My phone has a 16GB memory card and the internal memory i big enough for the app.
Does anyone have any ideas why its saying this please.
Thanks.

I've had this problem on my Vibrant the last couple days with big apps.  Maybe a Market bug?

One of the more obvious things to attempt is to clear the Market data/cache.
Another thing to try is to backup all data on your SD card. Next - format it from within your Android device, then copy back all the data. Corrupted files on your SD card can also cause installation failures (even if you aren't installing to an SD card), or so I've heard.

OKay, I had this problem a couple days ago. Here's the fix. On the market, look up an app called "MarketFix" It's a very small app, so it shouldn't cause any problems. I was able to download it when I couldn't download anything else. Download MarketFix, run it, and click its one button. I'm not sure exactly what it does, but it solved this problem on my phone.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the insufficient memory error probably means RAM and not the storage space. If this is the case, I've found that its usually because most of my apps are installed on the phone memory and not on the SD card. Try moving your apps to the SD card from the phone memory. Keep in mind that doing so would prevent you from using that app's homescreen widgets.

It seems like you're kind of mixing terminology here. RAM is not where apps are installed, it's memory used by running processes. Moving apps to your SD card won't free up RAM, but it will free up storage space.

and the OP has already mentioned he has enough space.


text:
Home, Back, Menu, Search buttons not working
Suddenly, Home, Back, Menu, Search buttons are not working.  No amount of rebooting or taking out the battery work.
I saw somewhere that clearing the Dalvik cache might work, but I got as far as getting adb running, only to discover I need root access to clear the Dalvik cache.

What device are you using? Could be relevant, I suppose.

Samsung Galaxy with Spring

This means the provisioning (first run) got somehow interrupted.
To fix this, run the following command from a root terminal or from adb shell:
sqlite3 /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db "INSERT INTO secure (name,value) VALUES ('device_provisioned','1');"
and then reboot.

He doesn't have root.

Ohh! Also, it's not a fresh installation, so what could possibly screw them up?


text:
downloading 'boot.img' while using fastboot to copy ra recovery
In the process of attempting to get Cyanogen MOD onto my HTC Hero. I rooted it successfully, and can connect with ADB.
I restarted the phone with the back key held down and get the fastboot screen.  I press volume down to get to the HBoot screen (otherwise fastboot was failing to connect).
Now I run:

C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools>fastboot boot recovery-RA-hero-v1.7.0.1.img

and get

downloading 'boot.img'...

and I wait.   And wait.  And wait.  It certainly appears to be doing something in Task Manager (win 7) - it's showing some CPU activity, but how long is this step supposed to take? The longest I've waited was 1100 seconds before interrupting.
Using HTC Hero GSM.

Is there a specific reason why you're trying to boot the recovery image directly instead of flashing it onto your device?

At the time I was going through yet another poorly written walkthrough.  Some reading and understanding, and found it would make more sense to flash the image (clearly), and then the CyanogenMod.

At the time I was semi-blindly following another poorly written walkthrough that just had a series of commands without explaining them.  Now with some knowledge I eventually worked out that it was better to flash the image to the phone.  Still don't know why it was taking so long though.
Eventually with flashing to the phone and then the Cyanogen Mod, I got it all working.  Now with ROMManager on my phone it'll be sooo much easier in future!


text:
Is there a way to share my mobile screen with another Android phone like Netmeeting or Live Meeting?
The requirement is similar to Netmeeting software where the screen of a desktop is shared and can be accessed for another system. Is is possible in a mobile device?
There should be no PC to Mobile connection.
Applicability: This can be used for verification of railway or air tickets where I can show my ticket shared with examiner's device instead of handing him the device.

FYI: It's better to ask question about a problem ("how can I share my screen...") than to ask for an app. In the latter case you've already selected your solution and the question becomes a "what's your favorite app that does X" poll question, which the [FAQ] tells us is off-topic.

If your device is rooted you could try to run a VNC Server (e.g. droid VNC server BETA) and access it from the other mobile device with a VNC viewer of your choice.

You can try using ScreenMeet for Android.  It lets you share from your Android to any web browser.  The App is in the store.

What's your affiliation? Edit your post to include affiliation, app description, reviews, screenshots, etc. Otherwise your post will be considered spam according to SE rules.

join.me should work. Although i have never tried it myself for two android phones but it seems it may work. Try.


text:
Is it possible to free up phone storage while keeping HTC Sense?
I recently factory-reset my HTC Desire to free up space for apps, because it was suffering from constant 'low space' warnings, and it wasn't possible to free up space.
(Initially I installed Cyanogenmod, but didn't like various things about it, so returned to the HTC Sense UI).
However I can see the phone storage problem is going to come back soon - after moving 4 apps off the phone and onto SD card (the only 4 that supported this) I ended up with 10MB LESS space on the phone!
So I am wondering if there's a way to get more stuff off the phone and onto the SD card while keeping the HTC Sense UI. I have heard of 'A2SD+' for example. Can I use that while retaining HTC Sense?
(My phone is rooted and has S-OFF).

I also have the safe device and had faced the same problem. I have two wonderful solutions:
1) Use link2sd. This app moves your app's apk, lib and dex file to second partition of you SD card. It will leave only the data files in the internal memory. So you can install nearly five times the more apps. I have a blog post if you want to try it out.
2) Use sueprnova ROM. This ROM is the stock ROM with data2sd support. So you can even use 2GB of SD space as internal memory.
Both of this solution requires you to have a better class of SD Card.

A better class of SD Card - meaning a faster SD card than the one that came with the phone?

Yes. Class 4 or class 6 SD card. As the files will reside on SD card the speed matters.

New card ordered!

I thought I would give an update: I installed suprnova on a 10x SD card (requirement was for a slower 6x card). I have been able to install as many apps as I want, but the downside is that the phone is incredibly slow to use. On balance I am not sure if I'd recommend going through the hassle to others.

I have a LeeDroid Rom on my Desire, and it has Sense and A2SD+. There are many roms with sense...

Okay, so it sounds like the answer is to install a ROM with Sense (and presumably also do some work to set up A2SD+).

Yes. But it really requires very little works to set up A2SD+ with a rom that includes it. I only had to partition and format the SD card in a particular way before flashing the phone.


text:
Looking for a network monitor that can enumerate outbound connections
I have a rooted Galaxy S2, and I want to block access for all apps whose primary function does not require network connectivity. I am using DroidWall and LBE Privacy Guard (both require root) to control application behavior.
Droidwall is an excellent firewall, but it doesn't provide a snapshot of currently active network connections. Is there an app that can do so, on a per app basis?
Update : Just realized I can simplify things by just saying I want for Android what I can achieve using netstat -b on Windows, but properly presented!
I have already seen a few - but they just wrap a commandline interface - as though they're calling netstat locally and then just piping output.

I see a bunch of apps that come back on the Market with a search for "netstat". What have you already tried? Why didn't they work for you?

Opensource Network Log (Play) app does exactly that. The features are:

real time log display
hostname resolving
per app view
filters based on app name, hostname, port

It needs root and busybox.

Thanks, I'm on a HTC One X now, but haven't rooted it yet.. Will give it a try.

There are other apps doing similar without root, e.g. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.secuso.privacyfriendlynetmonitorapp


text:
Is it possible use an Android phone as a telephone switchboard?
I'm looking for a way to convert my Android phone into a telephone switchboard.
The goal is to have the ability to redirect incoming calls to another telephone number. But if this is not possible (I don't know if any Android terminal is able to redirect calls in real-time), perhaps there is an intermediate solution: the mobile pick up the telephone, launches a recorded message ("Please, say what is the purpose of your call"), waits until the user says something, and then put a music loop until somebody picks up the telephone.
I don't know if I explained :) But the final goal is to substitute an expensive internal switchboard with an inexpensive cell phone network driven by an Android phone. Is there something similar?

I was looking for something similar and it is hard to find one that would work for Android.

However, it is not so expensive to have a really good phone switchboard, you may use a very old computer with a phone modem and utilize the landline, for example, you can get an almost-for-free, an old PC computer from garage sales or bank or company that is in the process of updating their IT systems, (like a Pentium II or III).
Then install either Windows XP or Linux alongside a PBX server which you can download for free for both systems. Sure it will take a little bit of time and patience to configure, but the end result will be worth it if done properly.
A switchboard that will change a PC at your office to a desk phone. Even, you can also have an intercom facility as well (where users can call each other without using land line just over your LAN - just PC to PC), even you can join remote branches or offices into one phone system.
Then you can have internal numbers like 1214 or of your own preference and choice, and share the one line over many users, and the most beautiful part is that there's no need to make new wires and get phone sets!
Search for 3CX (for Windows) or Asterix for Linux.

Not quite what you are looking for, but Google Voice will let you forward calls to other numbers based on time of day or defined "groups" of people that call you.  Essentially, it will "ring all the phones" you want it to and then you pick up on any of those phones.  For example, you could have a mobile phone, a work phone, and a home phone. You could have Google Voice ring all three phones at once when someone dials the Google Voice number.
Also, US only.

Thanks but the "US only" is a showstopper :) Anyway, it seems to show that is possible to redirect calls in real time.. interesting

@Ivan: Except it's not the phone that's doing it, it's the Google Voice service (which used to be Grand Central). I really doubt you're going to be able to do what you want in the limited hardware in an Android. That's why switchboard systems are so expensive.

@AlEverett: Uppss.. So there is a real switchboard behind Google Voice. Thanks for the info. Anyway, I'm not an Android programmer, so I don't try to do it, just looking for something that help me save some money in my bussiness :)

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


text:
samsung Galaxy s firmware
I had a message about running out of space on my GT-i9000 so like a fool I started deleting things...turns out I deleted most of my operating system is there somewhere I can download the os rather than sending back to the manufacturer (and is this the firmwear)

You rooted your device?

Samfirmware.com or XDA are your best bets.  If you need instructions for flashing with Odin or recovery, we have lots of questions on that so just do a search :)

You can do a recovery of firmware using Samsung Kies software.


text:
Settings -> About phone -> Battery use bug?
When I open the "Battery use" screen it says that the phone is on battery for 14663d 4h 34m 53s, which is clearly wrong. The graph shows a linearly descending line. What is the problem? Why does the phone display these values? As far as I can tell the feature has been working correctly so far.
I have tried restarting the phone (I've removed the battery for a short time too). The phone is a Samsung Galaxy S Plus with firmware version 2.3.5.

Have you tried plugging it in, letting it charge a bit, then unplugging it? That ought to reset the battery statistics.

Yes, I've tried but didn't help.

Perhaps you should attempt to re-calibrate your battery.
Google Android battery calibration and have read. There are a number of sites that describe the process and even some apps that claim to do it (I haven't tried any, so I can't vouch for them).

If you are rooted you can use Battery Caliberation App  to recaliberate your battery.
It will reset your battery status.


text:
Streaming a movie from Windows (Media Center??) to A500
Simple straight question: I own an Acer Iconia Tab A500 w/3.2 OS and a Windows 7 PC with lots of movies, including H.264 HD in Matroska format.
How can I stream that content, supposed that I installed K-Lite Codec Pack, on Android by installing the least possible amount of software? The tablet is already shipped with Acer ClearFi which is a DLNA implementation and looks compatible with Windows Media Center, however when I tried to play a non-HD movie in MPEG-4 format the default player reported that the fortmat is unsupported.
I'm new and a bit confused to Android video and home streaming. I don't know how codecs work in the Linux-like world.
[EDIT] About codecs (if these matter): on Windows, I can watch the videos with Windows Media Player too, not only VLC/MPC
I remember that once I was able to stream to my Xbox 360 with Vuze's embedded media server with live transcoding. Do I need something like that for streaming to Android too?
Thank you.

I use TVersity to stream to my Android device, Logitech Revue, Original Xbox, Xbox 360, etc. TVersity can transcode the video on the fly.
I have, in the past, been able to get Matroska container files to play, but not always and with varying results. Sometime they don't play at all, sometime they played fine, and sometimes they play, but the video is choppy and out of sync with the audio.
Being able to stream the video to your android device will depend on the video codec used to encode the video. If the device does not support the codec, it will not play. AFAIK, android, out of the box, does not support the matroska container, actually, there are a lot of formats that android does not support. Using something like TVersity on your "Media Server" allows you to transcode these videos in a format that the device will understand, and can play.

Very helpful answer. I have been able to set up TVersity and I'm able to play videos by browsing TVersity via browser. Not much like the Xbox 360 experience but the files are actually being transcoded on the fly. Any ideas on using ClearFi could be appreciated. ClearFi provides a very simple and intuitive interface

TVersity is a DLNA server, so if ClearFi is a DLNA client it should pick up TVserity as a server.

ClearFi is DLNA compliant, but I found that while ClearFi detects the server (after properly REconfiguring firewall) it finds no content. I'm looking into it

I personally like Subsonic to stream my media, and they have apps for all major mobile device platforms.  It does on the fly transcoding to FLV.


text:
Saving a bookmark in Firefox?
This question might sound dumb, but I really don't understand how can I save a bookmark in Firefox for Android!!
I see no bottom menu option for that. If I click on the address bar I still have no option to save a URL as a bookmark!
Who can help me? Please!

On Android < 3.0 or on Firefox v8 or earlier I think you still have to use the clunky, not-so-intuitive method. You swipe the screen to the left and it will reveal a sidebar on the right side of the screen which has the bookmark star. Press that and it bookmarks the page. How they expected to you to find this on your own I will never know.
On Honeycomb devices with Firefox 9+ (currently beta) you just need to press the little star icon on the far right side of the address bar. It pretty much works just like the desktop version.
Annotated screenshot for the right sidebar:


text:
How to remove saved email addresses from dropdown To: menu?
Native Android mail app using Exchange. Some email addresses are incomplete or incorrect in the dropdown list when adding recipients. I want to delete these. Anyone know how?

Are these emails tied to any of your contacts? If they are incorrect in the contact's details, they'll be incorrectly shown in the dropdown too.


text:
Change the location of on screen buttons bar
The on screen buttons bar "Back, Home, menu" are not convinently located at the bottom of the tablet screen as it is in close proximity of controls of the program being run.  Specifically I am using a SNES emulator and it's using that area for it's joypad control.
It would be very helpful if I can move the bar to the top of the screen, is there any program to do this?

What device? What version of Android?

I have a tablet Acer Iconia

As Romain Guy, one of the Android Engineers, stated in a Stack Overflow answer: No, you cannot move the Honeycomb status bar, either via a setting or programmatically (meaning it's not possible for an app to move it for you). You'd have to modify and build the Honeycomb source if you wanted to have any chance of accomplishing this.
You could, however, try to find an emulator that lets you move the controls to the top of the screen. I recall seeing one that had this option, but I don't remember which one (I think it may have been Snes9x, but I'm not positive).

So it's basically no go, ok.

One of the apps, elderathis might be referring to is Button Savior. One does need to be rooted to make use of it, though.

I was actually referring to SNES emulators that let you adjust the location of the gamepad controls. Button savior won't really do anything here - you'll just end up with two sets of soft buttons on Honeycomb.

I have a tablet Acer Iconia


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How can I link my contacts?
I have two Gmail accounts and an Outlook account. How can I sync my contact lists and link them together so I don't have to manually add/update the same contact in each?

You need a third party tool to sync your Outlook and Gmail contact books together.  Google offers a tool you can download to sync, and there are others out there you can download/buy if you don't like theirs.


text:
How do I get a gmail account on my HTC Cha Cha?
I live in China and when I go to Settings > Accounts it's not an option to add a Gmail / Google one, is there any software I can download ?

You can manually add a Gmail mailbox using IMAP in the separate Email app.
As to adding a Google account to sync your contacts and calendar, unfortunately a great many of Android devices obtained from China have this "issue". The best course of action is to flash a firmware meant for the same device, but from a different region.
THese links might help - SuperDroidROM for ChaCha // HTC ChaCha forum on XDA

As to registering a new Google Account (Gmail Account), you can do it on this page: https://accounts.google.com/SignUp
As to how to add the Gmail account to your phone, you can do it from the Accounts & sync menu:

"Google" is not an account choice on Chinese firmware.


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adb doesn't detect my Defy (Motorola MB525) after I call adb kill-server (rageagainstthecage exploit). Any ideas?
I'm trying cyanogen's mod approach to root my Defy. I can do adb shell, it works as intended. But after I run adb kill-server and try an adb shell I get
error: device not found

It seems my phone just decides to not be connected anymore when I call kill-server. I need to physically reboot it and start everything again.
This is the complete command session I did:
[~]$ adb devices
List of devices attached
0A3AA8D5195599849BN device

[~]$ adb shell
$ exit
[~]$ adb kill-server
[~]$ adb start-server
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
[~]$ adb devices
List of devices attached

[~]$ adb shell
error: device not found
[~]$

This is driving me nuts. I've searched about this problem, but there simply isn't a solution in entire Google's database. I want to use this rageagainstthecage root approach because I can see the exploit source, I'm a little nervous about using something in my personal phone that I don't know what it does (an explanation about rageagainstthecage, and a compact explanation)...
Anyone here at SE network have seen a similar problem - or have a suggestion?
I'm doing this in a Macbook Pro machine (OS X 10.6.8). My phone has Android 2.2.1.
(PS: Even without using the exploit, just doing adb kill-server and adb start-server, my cell phone isn't shown anymore on adb devices, thus receiving error: device not found. So this seens to be a problem with adb kill-server)

do adb start-server after killing it.

Instead of doing kill-server, try going in to Settings -> Applications -> Development and turn off USB Debugging, then turn it back on

@PadmaKumar When you run adb devices, it automatically starts the server. So, if you try to run adb start-server before doens't matter, you receive the same error: device not found.

@RyanConrad this doesn't work either... Even if I remove the usb cable, it doesn't detect after I call adb kill-server. I have to physically reboot my phone. :/

I missed this before that you have the motorolla defy. This runs BLUR and I have always had a hard time getting adb to find a BLUR device. I had to switch the different USB modes to get it to find it.

@RyanConrad The problem is: it finds my phone. BUT if i call adb kill-server it stops seeing it. I don't think is a problem with the usb modes, since what I need to be able to use adb is check on debugging mode... but I'm going to try your suggestion.

I'm developing android apps for 2 years with a MB525 as main testing device. The USB connection of that device is so flawed its unbelievable. I think the main problem is the 4 different USB modes you can choose. and also defy only looks for ADB once. You can try to switch USB modes after you kill your servers, maybe then it will find it agai

I had the same problem (Rom: 34.177.3.MB525.Retail.en.DE). The only rooting method that worked was Gingerbreak ( http://project89.com/root-defy-without-pc-gingerbreak-200/ )

Well, thanks for answering about another exploit working. I believe SuperOneClick used gingerbreak as well, since it uses a lot of different exploits to accomplish the root goals.

i'm late to the party but in case anyone googles this and finds it - my own experience of this is solved if you perform the rooting without an SD card in the phone
that way windows doesn't mount the phone and get in the way

I had the exact same setup and problems described by @"Somebody still uses you MS-DOS". I'm using a mac 10.6 and trying to root Motorola Defy following the Cyanogen's wiki and using rageagainstthecage to root.
The wiki suggests using "psneuter" to gain root. Instruction below come from the RootzWiki.
Download latest version of psneuter, and extract. Then run the following ADB commands
./adb push ${LOCATION_OF_PSNEUTER_BINARY}/psneuter /data/local/temp/psneuter
./adb shell
chmod 755 /data/local/temp/psneuter
./data/local/temp/psneuter

ADB should hang, wait a while and then type
./adb shell

If you see a '#' sign instead of the '$' then you have temporary root.

Hum, I believe the psneuter wasn't available as an option when I read the wiki. Thanks for this information, it might be helpful for someone in the future!

Try running adb start-server using sudo.
On my ubuntu machine that I use as my test environment, I always need to start adb service using root.

This isn't a problem with Mac OS X, since I already run these commands and can use them without problem (they're installed using homebrew), but thanks anyway. (I've already come across this hint about sudo on http://www.pocketmagic.net/?p=762)

This isn't exactly an answer to this question, but to the exploit itself: I just became fed up after two days of suffering. I used a tool named SuperOneClick and in 10s it rooted my phone.


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Why does my phone come up with a multimedia message sometimes when I am sending a message

Possible Duplicate:
How can I prevent my device from automatically converting SMS to MMS?

Can I turn off the multimedia on my phone .  Why does it come up sometimes when I am trying to send thru a message. When it comes up the massage doesnt get sent thru ???

By default, attempting to send a long text message (usually when the content is larger than 3 text messages), it gets converted to a multimedia message MMS.
If you'd prefer that this behaviour not occur, I'd suggest switching from the default SMS Messaging app to an alternate one like GoSMS or Handcent SMS.
Both free apps have an option that allow a user to send long messages or to chop up a long message into sections that will fit and be sent as individual 160 character SMS messages.

Yup. GoSMS Pro is a much better option than stock messaging application. Once you start using it, you will never switch back to the default one.


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How can I reset auto-complete dictionary for my Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro?
The stock soft keyboard on Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro has a feature called 'Learn words' (Settings > Language & keyboard > International Keyboard > Text input settings > Learn words) that learns from user input and adds them to the autocorrect dictionary. Over time however this has resulted in many misspelled words also being added to my autocorrect suggestions. I want to start this over from a fresh canvas. So how do I reset my autocorrect dictionary? When I go to Language & keyboard > User dictionary so I'm guessing Sony Ericsson uses its own keyboard replacement with its own user dictionary store.

On my Droid, Settings > Language & keyboard offers a "User dictionary" option, where I can see the words I've added and edit or delete them. Has that been removed from your device?

@AlEverett That menu entry is and always has been blank.

I am looking for the same answer for the Xperia Pro. I guess it is a common issue on all Xperia phones, or at least those with a physical keyboard. Please if you find how to do it, post the answer here, I would much appreciate it.

Best answer I've found so far:

You could try clearing all data from the keyboard.
Menu>Settings>Applications>Running Applications then tap All. Scroll down and find Internation Keyboard (if thats the one you are using) and Clear Data.

Source: Sony Ericsson Support Forum
Of course, it will also set the keyboard to the original settings.
Anyway, I would like to find a way to remove some misspellings and not all the learned words, so if somebody knows how to do it, I will be glad to hear from it.

on my x10 it was Menu > Settings > Applications> Running Services > Default Input but your answer got me 99% of the way there

on my Xperia Ray (ICS) it was Menu > Settings > Apps > All > Xperia Keyboard.

Menu >settings>apps>running application>find Xperia keyboard >settings(xperia keyboard)>text input settings>my words,..choose the word you want to delete or edit,,..  Thats the step that I learned so far
,.,hope helps..

Don't wipe everything. It is possible to delete individual words.
I have the Experia T, I and have just done this:

Open a text
Click to reply so the keyboard pops up
press the 12!? button down-left corner
Go across to the right, and click on the spanner icon
Go in to My Words
Hold your finger down on a word, and down the right of the screen will pop up a box next to each word
Ticking the boxes of the ones you don't want
Hit delete, and they all magically disappear.

goto settings>applications> (select all) > goto user dictionary/message extention/ anything having dictionary or with the Envelop logo. go there and press Clear Data. and u r done


text:
How does an android compass application work?
I recently installed a Compass app on my phone (it's a HTC Wildfire S if it matters) and I'm curious as how it works.
Found some answers online that the phone's hardware has a digital compass in it, is that it? or is it just a smart use of other sensors?

Yes, it has a magnetic sensor / digital compass.

Thanks Matthew. Found it in the specs: http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_wildfire_s-3777.php.

Most Android Devices have a Geomagnetic Field Sensor built in. This sensor provides raw field strength data (in μT) for each of the three coordinate axes. You can also use theese values to program things like Metal Detectors.
I programmed one once, if you're interrested in source code let me know.


text:
What is "PMEasyView"?
I got a little toast pop up just now saying "hello world, PMEasyView!" I just woke up my phone, was in the SugarSync app. I haven't recently installed anything except from the Android Market and Amazon market; nothing named like PM Easy View.
The wording sounds like something I would have written in a development Android app. I don't see any unusual running processes or apps, so I'm wondering if it's dummy code from a real app I own, but I was hoping someone knew for sure. I'm having Lookout scan my phone now.
All I found on this topic was this thread which has no answers.

The system app, PerformanceManager.apk has the line Hello World, PMEasyView! in the resources.arsc file. This does not appear to be malware, just a mistake that this appears to some users with the Motorola Task / Performance Manager.

Hm, it is a Motorla phone; that may well be it!

Please see Are taglines & signatures disallowed? If you want to add links that are relevant to your answer then feel free, but Stack Exchange answers are not a medium for you to plug your site for free. You can put links to your websites or professional works in your profile.

It's likely to be a debugging message from a program you've installed that the programmer forgotten to remove. If you want to seek which program that does it; you can try to copy all installed applications (android apps are installed from market are in /data/app/, pre-installed apps are in /system/app/), unzip them (an .apk is basically a zip file with a certain directory structure), and search which ones contains the string (you can use grep in Linux/Mac or find in Windows).
If you do found out which are the offending app, please post it here to save other people from the hassle.

Never saw it again, must have been a debug message someone left in, an update probably fixed it. Didn't catch the app I'm afraid


text:
How to plug in an  Android Tablet and show it's screen on PC or Laptop for training session?

Possible Duplicate:
How do I project the screen of my android phone for a presentation?

I just bought an Android Tablet, Toshiba Thrive AT100, its HDMI port make me able to plugged it directly to HDMI-support projector in my training session.
But I wonder if there is any application which allow me to do this kind of activity...

Plugged Android Tablet to my laptop via HDMI (or any port), then show real-time tablet display on my laptop (or PC). This could be show via the application's area itself.

With this function, I can just switch from my presentation to show real using on tablet without to switch the cord between my laptop and my tablet.
Do you know this kind of application or any technique to do this?

You want a VNC server for Android. They are available, but this is off-topic on superuser.com. This question should be migrated to android stack exchange site.

Try a vnc server for your tablet, if you have rooted it. Thats the free option.

Most projectors have more than one input port; perhaps one HDMI and one VGA is a common arrangement, and there is usually a functionality to switch between HDMI and VGA on the projector. If you can arrange such that your laptop uses the VGA port and the Android uses the HDMI port (or vice versa) then you can use the projector's switching functionality.
It is also possible to use an HDMI switcher, such as this one http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-High-Performance-Switcher-Switch/dp/B0015YWKYY
For a software-only solution, you can use VNC; although you'll need a rooted device. With VNC, you can display the Android's screen in a window on your laptop, and you won't need to use HDMI cable.


text:
Terminal "Permission Denied" - Need more info on error message
I am trying to run an executable from the android terminal with root permissions, but I am constantly receiving the following error:
[ExecutableName] : permission denied

I am confirmed to be loged in as root.  I see the # sign before my prompt and I can run root commands such as chmod.  I saw that the android shell guide says

"The built-in shell has very limited error handling. When you type a command name >incorrectly it will say "permission denied", even though the real problem is that it >couldn't find the command:"

Does anyone know how to get more information on this "permission denied" error?

Can you run ls -l from the directory the executable is in and post that?

Here is what I ran, I just really want more info on what happens when i run it. ---xrwxr-x 1 system sdcard_r  76 Oct 3 2007 doukutsu

Hm, the sdcard_r is interesting. Is the binary on your SD card? I know some devices (but possibly not all) simply won't let you run an executable if it's on the external storage. You could try moving it to /data/local or somewhere similar and see if that helps. I don't know that there's a way to simply get more info from the shell as to why you're getting permission denied, though.

Do you have SuperUser installed? What does the log say?

@MatthewRead It says "terminal emulator allowed"

@eldarerathis That gets me to some different error messages at least which i think is promising.  I now get ./doukutsu not found or running its associated bin, ./doukutsu.bin: 1 Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting ")").  I think this file might have some errors, but i think for the purpose of this post that got me around the error thank you.

I got the expected xxx: not found on both normal and root shell on my Samsung Spica; what's your phone model?

As eldarerathis already mentioned: On many (if not most) devices supporting an SD card, this card is mounted with the noexec option -- which means as the name suggests: "no exec from here", i.e. you cannot execute anything from the sdcard.
Again, one solution was already mentioned by eldarerathis: Try a different storage. You've got the power, your device is rooted.
A second approach would be to re-mount the sdcard without the noexec option. But there's a good reason why noexec is used here; it at least offers an additional level of security. So before using this approach, you should research a bit whether it might trigger unwanted side-effects.

+1 from me - that's the sole reason why SDcards have the executable bit blocked at the filesystem level, to prevent malicious apps wreaking havoc from another place outside of the ROM i.e. SDcard!


text:
Prevent phone from automatically lowering media volume
I have a Samsung Galaxy SII Skyrocket. Everytime I unplug my headphones/auxiliary cord from my phone and plug it back in, the media volume gets lowered to about 60%, system-wide, regardless of media player. As much as I appreciate that Android is looking out for my hearing, I don't want it to do this. Any way to prevent the phone from lowering the volume of its own accord?

Maybe have a look in the settings of your media player. And more details would be helpful like: which media player? which phone?

Updated with more detail.

There is a setting "Limited Headphone Volume" or something it should prevent too loud sound. You can toggle it in Settings->Sounds, i'm using CM10 but i'm not sure if it works on other ROMs(ie Touchwiz)

@wayback no such luck on default ROM.

I'd say this is solvable with an automation tool like Tasker, Llama & Co. Rawly described profile:
Condition: Headphones plugged
Action: Set audio level to X
Where "audio level" in many cases (at least with Tasker) can be defined more specific (e.g. different levels for notification, alert, incoming call...) -- and "X" being the specific level you'd like it to have.
This done, everytime you plug your headphones in, you'll have the same media volume you've defined.

Here is how to fix the problem without root and without setting the volume to some predefined volume (such as 100%).
This "feature" is controlled by a System.Global property audio_safe_volume_state, which is also reset automatically every 20 hours (this is why the volume periodically gets lowered all of a sudden even without plugging / unplugging the headset).
This excellent tutorial shows how to prevent volume lowering by changing the value of this property.
I cannot repeat the tutorial here, but the main points are:

Install Tasker and AutoTools
Grant AutoTools WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS permission (no root required, but this is to be done from a computer via USB debugging with ADB; the command is adb shell pm grant com.joaomgcd.autotools android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS)
Create tasks in Tasker (using AutoTools plugin) for start and for every several hours; you will probably need also to catch the event of plugging in a headset
In this task, set System.Global property audio_safe_volume_state to 2.

The value of 2 tells the system that it has shown you the "Do you REALLY want to increase the volume?" dialog and you have agreed.

There's an Xposed module to fix that: http://repo.xposed.info/module/com.pyler.nosafevolumewarning
It does the trick for me on the Galaxy Nexus I have plugged into my sound system.

This is not correct. Even with the mod installed the volume is still reduced. You're just not prompted when you try to raise it.

Hey Guys ive had this problem... volume decreasing to mute and youve got no control of it, even when going to settings of media player.. volume goes to mute, its was a simple solution in phone settings.
I went to settings/ my device /Sounds & notifictions. There youll see option for sound mode/ Make sure its set to sound and not vibrate or mute. Fixed my Problem with galaxy S4 . Dont know how the setting got changed but it while my phone was connected to my laptop via USB & the internet was on, Sum bug may have changed settings Possiblaly. Fix now

There's no hardware issue.  It has a software issue. Problem can be solved in this way

Install an anti-virus software on mobile. I recommend AVG.
Scan device and delete threats apps.
Problem solved

And how did you reach to this conclusion? Consider mentioning the source which lead you to this answer.


text:
How to set the default dialer?
Where are the configurations to set the default dialer? I installed a new one and want to know where I set the default.

Go to your Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications.
Select the 'All' tab and scroll to the current dialer app.
Scroll down and press the 'Clear defaults' button. Now when you select dial, you should be prompted to select a particular app and also have the opportunity to set a new default.

It should have automatically done the prompt for you to choose once you downloaded it but this solution guarantees that it will ask you to choose the default.

@Vian - Unless the way Renato is launching the dialer is actually via a shortcut to a specific dialer. Some launcher apps allow you to place shortcuts on the dock (I vaguely remember Zeam working like this when I tried it).


text:
Android external keyboard layout switch
I have and Android tablet and using external keyboard with it.
Is there any shortcut or another quick way to change keyboard layout on the fly (like on desktop, e.g. Alt+Shift)?

Try Shift + Space Bar
It works with Samsung TabS on Logitech Keyboard


text:
How to force the locale/language of a specific app?
I'm looking for the functionality of MoreLocales2 but only applying the changes to certain apps. In this case, I'm trying to force German on TypoClock 0.51 but have the rest of my phone left in English.
Any apps out there that could do this? Or any suggestions for how to accomplish this? Specific advice to get TypoClock to show in German would be good too.
The device is Samsung Galaxy S2, if it helps.

You may need to request this from the developer, as the app needs to explicitly ship with support for the language(s) you want. I saw several apps already offering to either auto-select the language ("system default"), or let the user force it to some language (usually to English).

TypoClock and TypoClock Free both use the system language as one can see on the app features:

Multilanguage (widget uses your system language to display day name and month name).

There's no solution for situations like this, as you can only manipulate the application i18n feature if it was developed with such an option.
You can, as mentioned by Izzy on the comments, email the developer and see if this can be a feature a for future release.

There is a way of forcing a certain app to be in different locale / language than your general phone settings!

your device need to be rooted
install "Xposed framework" from xposed.info
within this app, install a module "App Settings"
within this module, search for your app
change its locale to "english-us"
enjoy


text:
How to add wallpapers to Kindle Fire?
Where do I add/delete pictures so the Kindle Fire will randomly select it as a wallpaper for the device?

Someone over at the XDA Forums already discovered how to do that. See link to the thread below.
I strongly advise to follow this guide only if you know your way around the procedures mentioned (repacking & zipaligning an APK file, file system operations with root permissions) and wouldn't mind jumping through several hoops to recover your device if the process fails.
XDA Thread - [Guide]Changing Kindle Wallpapers!

The free app, My Kindle Wallpaper does this simply and easily, no root required.  D/l & install it, and point it at a photo or a folder full (on the KF, not on the net), and get your favorite background photo or cycle through several (one per wake-up, the way the stock software does).  Works perfectly on my original KF with KF v6.3.1.
(I know it's a year later but this works, no f**ting around, nothing to break. It's literally a download and go. Kudos to the author!)

You can use QuickPic plus ES File Manager to customize the Kindle Fire wallpaper. Both are free.
The key point is actually that the Kindle Fire system will restore the default wallpaper by default. That's why ES File Manager is indispensable.
Note that the device must have been rooted.

QuickPic is an efficient picture viewer. It allows you to set any picture as wallpaper. Click here to download QuickPic.
Open QuickPic and choose a picture which you want to set as wallpaper. Tap the picture and then tap the top right corner of the window. Choose "Set as" option in the drop-down menu.
Drag the box to adjust the wallpaper size. Click "save" and it will be saved and set as wallpaper.
Until this step, you may not find anything different as these are normal operation. If you just lock the screen as you did before and want to see the new wallpaper (I mean "if", please don't lock the screen now), you'll find the new custom wallpaper doesn't work. The boring original wallpaper comes into your eyes again!
This is due to the fact the system will set the original wallpaper as new wallpaper forcedly every time you lock the screen. So we need to revoke the system's "write" permission so that it can't modify any data again.
Remember not to lock the screen before step 3!
Open ES File Explorer and navigate to this path: /data/data/com.android.settings/files/. You can find a file called "wallpaper". Press on it and choose "More" – "Properties".
Choose "Permission" and tap "change". Revoke the "write" permission of "Owner" and "Group" (They have write permission by default). Tap "OK" to confirm revoking.
Now the system won't modify the wallpaper any more. Lock the screen and press the power button, you'll find the custom wallpaper works!
Next time you change the wallpaper, please restore the "write" permission of "Owner" and "Group" first, then revoke it after you set wallpaper.

(Quoted from epubor)


text:
How to turn on load external Javascript on the Galaxy Nexus?
I just got my Galaxy Nexus and was browsing Stack Exchange (in both mobile and full theme) and got the following warning. As a result things like voting, the dropdown and such don't work. I never had this problem on Gingerbread, so I think it has something to do with Ice Cream Sandwich.

So I'd like to know which settings do I have to tweak so the Javascript gets loaded anyway?
It does seem to load on Dolphin, so it seems limited to the stock browser.

FYI: This does not reproduce in the emulator's stock browse (running ICS)

Maybe Stack Exchange is doing some weird stuff based on the client string and doesn't recognize the one from ICS?

That message means that jQuery fails to to load from http://ajax.googleapis.com

Can anyone else reproduce this on another Galaxy Nexus?

Does this happen on both wifi and mobile networks?

It happens on both @Mokubai

It turns out my probably was solved by something as simple as clearing my cache.
Which makes me feel pretty stupid, because I should have done that before even bothering to ask. I never suspected this could happen straight out of the box, guess I was wrong.

Have you enabled JavaScript in Settings -> Advanced -> Enable JavaScript? The site works normally for me on ICS stock browser on my Galaxy S.

Yup its enabled, toggling it on or off doesn't really make a difference either