text:
How do I get my Android Phone to connect its internal SD to my PC via USB?
For some reason my Galaxy Y GT-55360T phone running Android 2.3.6, won't connect its SD card to my Ubuntu 12.10-running PC when I plug the USB cable into it. It did before, I have no idea what I did to cause it to not mount the SD. Please help me, this is getting very annoying.

As you did not mention your phone nor the Android version, we can only make wild guesses.
Simplest case: It is de-activated on your Android device
Most likely you unintentionally deactivated the USB Mass Storage (or MTP, depending on device/version) mode. To get it back:
When you connected the USB cable, wait 2-3 seconds, and then pull open the notification area. It should show an entry with the USB symbol which lets you chose the action to perform ("charge only", "USB Mass Storage", "MTP", ...). Chose the one you want. Now your computer should see the new device.
Simple case: Your USB-cable got "broken"
Of course another possibility is your USB cable "got broken" (e.g. due to physical stress). If the above did not solve your issue, you might try with a different cable.
More difficult case: Ubuntu messed up
Third option I can think of is that Ubuntu somehow messed up. To rule this out, try with a different computer (e.g. visit a friend if you don't have a second computer). You can also try booting from some live CD/DVD on your Ubuntu machine. Using the same machine for the test bears the risk that, if it's a hardware issue with the machine, results are simply the same; in case your USB port might be the issue, try a different port (and try a different device on the same port to cross-check).
If it's Ubuntu messing things up, our sister-site AskUbuntu might prove helpful, and we are not any more...
Hard case: USB port on your computer is broken
I already showed above how to rule this out: Try connecting your Android device to a different USB port. If it works there, the former port most likely is broken. If not, try connecting some other USB device (external hard disk would be ideal) to the former port. If that works, the port is OK.
Ultra-hard case: USB port on your Android device is broken
If you cannot get anything to work on your devices USB port, it's a case for the repair shop...

I didn't mention those details because I didn't know. Until now when I searched my phone and managed to find out.

@BrentonHorne I was not blaming you -- it was only a hint a) for future questions, and b) that you might want to update your question with those details, which would enable us to give more precise answers. Nobody expects you to "be born perfect" ;) I hope I still was able to shed some light?

Turns out for some unknown reason when I reconnected the cable it connected the storage which it hadn't for the past 10 times.

Oh, that issue is called "demonstration effect" as far as I know :) I'd suggest take dice to chose which answer to accept, to show your problem is solved #) Of course you can answer your own question yourself, and then accept that (after two days). I was already expecting to answer your question again over at AskUbuntu :)


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How can I eliminate duplicate notifications when I have a custom notification on a Gmail label?
I've set up a custom notification on a particular Gmail label (call it [special]).   However, when an email with the [special] tag arrives, I get a notification for both the [inbox] and [special].
The audio notification plays the first half-second or so of the mailbox notification, and then switches to the [special] notification.
In the notification bar, I get two Gmail icons, both with the same message when I slide the notifications open.
Without removing the [inbox] label from these messages, is there a way to eliminate the duplicate notifications?
I'm on 4.0.4.

As long as it is in the [inbox] you will get the notification. you could create a rule that "archives" it so it only exists in [special] and never in [inbox].

@Ryan - these are emails that require an action, I archive them when done, so I don't want to archive them by rule when they arrive.

There is no way to turn off notifications for "some" items that come in to the inbox.

In the main screen of the Gmail app, from the "overflow" menu (the three dots in the top-right), choose Manage labels. From there, select a label to get a new screen with that label's settings. From that screen, the Label notifications setting controls whether you get a notification for new mails in that label. If you turn it off for "Priority Inbox" and "Important", you'll only get the notification from "Inbox".

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How to flash phone, if it stucks in bootloop
My phone gets stucked in a bootloop if I start it. The last thing I did was changing the fonts. I replaced droidsans by Segoe ui. Well I already deleted the cm10.zip on the phone and now can't flash it from CWM recovery. What shall i do now?

What kind of phone do you have?

LOL! Any phone!

The type of phone or device matters.

I read that this procedure here helped others. You should give it a try.
Following the advice from ZnewmaN I am "copy-pasting" the instructions here. The article refers to Galaxy Nexus w/ Android 4.0.2 but you can follow similar steps for other scenarios too.

Download the factory images to your PC.
Unzip the file and its contents into your SDK/Tools folder (wherever your adb.exe and fastboot.exe files are). *Make sure they are not in their own folder, but have all been extracted to Tools.
From within your Tools folder, open a command prompt (SHIFT + right click – “open command prompt here”):
Type the following commands, allowing each to finish before moving onto the next:

`
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-toro-primekk15.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio radio-toro-i515.ek02.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio-cdma radio-cdma-toro-i515.ek05.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot -w update image-mysid-icl53f.zip
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot oem lock

Reboot your phone by highlighting “Start” and pressing the lock switch.
It really is as simple as that. Your phone is now back to a 100% stock, unrooted and locked state.

Can you at least summarize what the link says? If that page were to ever go away this answer would be useless and not helpful to someone who might be trying to solve the same issue.

The guide is referring to specifically Nexus, other handsets may not have to do fastboot flash radio ... And furthermore - the OP did not indicate what handset either FWIW. :)

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


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Samsung Galaxy S3 will not reboot
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3.
For the last couple of days, it has been freezing quite regularly. I had to hold the power button and reboot, sometimes more than once. The last time I tried this, the device would not reboot. It turns on, shows the S3 logo, vibrates, and keeps the LED constantly blue. However, it does not get any further than the Samsung logo. It just keeps the blue notification light on and the Samsung logo slowly flashes blue.
Can someone help with this?

I cannot tell for sure what is causing this, but there are two things I can think of as a remedy:

Try booting into Safe Mode (see Android Safe Mode in Galaxy S3 for details if you're unsure). If that is still possible, think whether you've installed any app just before your problem started -- and delete that app from within Safe Mode. Reboot to leave Safe Mode and see whether your problem has been solved this way (hopefully it has!)
Last resort: Factory reset. This will delete all data and all the apps you've installed, and make your device "virgin" (see Hard-Rest.Com for details on how to do this).

I suggest trying the Safe Mode part right away as it does no harm. If it solves your issue, you're done; otherwise you might to wait a little more for alternative answers here before going for the Factory Reset -- maybe someone else has an additional remedy to offer.


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How do I keep CPU off when charging?
When I connect the USB power source, it makes CPU to stay on (even though "Development->Stay awake" is off).
When charging from a weak power source if makes battery to drain even faster than is case of USB power is not connected at all (because of CPU stays on instead of sleeping).
How do I stop external power connectedness affecting CPU sleeping policy?
I'm not talking about screen being on, it's about CPU being awake (unfortunately it is not easy to see if CPU is on or off).

What do you mean by "CPU stays on"? Are you talking about the screen being on? Or are you using an app to constantly monitor the frequency at which the CPU is running?

I keep a program that constantly blinks LED when screen is off, so I clearly see when (CPU is on while screen is off). Usually after I press power button to turn off screen, it blinks several times and stops. But when charger is connected it keeps blinking.

The program: brightact (source); usage: brightact /sys/...led.../brightness 20 100000 400000 /sys/power/wait_for_fb_sleep

I'm looking at the source you provided, and it's written in plain C. I'm not sure it's possible to run such a program in Android. Which device are we talking about (maker, model)? Which OS is it running?

Most of my programs for Android are currently in C, require root access and interfaces the Linux kernel directly (I'm currently more Linux hacker than Android hacker). I'm running Android 2.3 on Sony-Ericcson Xperia X10.

Have you checked what happens if you don't run your program while charging? Does the battery drain anyway?

Android should not be too aware of this program, and it does not touch /sys/power/wake_lock; 2. Even without the program I notice that when the charger is nominally connected, but not charging (e.g. there's only about 3V instead of 5V), it discharges faster (approximately the same rate as if some app holds CPU wakelock).

Long press on the power off switch while plugged in, next tap on the power off prompt.   When it powers off make sure the charging light remains on.    If light is not on press power on quickly just so that the battery percentage shows in the center, it should blank screen again and the charging light come on and remain on.  You can retest battery charge percent again anytime.  When ready to use  long press on power on/off to on and watch or wait for rebooting to take place.

If I power off the device while charging, I think it reboots into a charging mode (with CPU on) instead, just not starting usual Android UI.

I want Android to be in usual sleep mode (as with not plugged in without any wakelocks), but also charging. For example, if I connect very weak (less than 1 watt) charger, it starts draining battery instead of charging, because of charging keeps CPU on and the weak power input is not enough to keep CPU on, so battery is used more (compared to just standby mode).

I've only seen charging with CPU off when the battery is really low. In this mode it does not even try to power on, does not react to any buttons and does not light up any LEDS (unless there is already some charge in the battery).

Battery percentage cannot be shown if CPU is really off. And booting  from really off to "can show the battery percentage" is rather long (it requires Linux kernel to boot up). Long pressing the power button to boot Android from scratch (turned off) is different from continuing the boot from charging mode; the latter is even faster.

I found out that some CPU optimisation disables when phone connected to devices that support data transfer (notebook for example (even sleeping), or some solar cells), so i use USB cable that not support data transfer.

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


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How to regain control over a Samsung Galaxy S II with a Boot loop?
My device is in a wicked boot loop and I cannot get any control over the phone.
If I take the battery out and put it back in, it just restarts again and again. I don't feel like I have any control over the buttons on the phone.
Any way to solve this?
I'm completely willing to restore factory settings, but I just don't know how I could do so because the phone does not shut off, it just continues to restart.

Does it immediately switch on as soon as you put the battery back in, even if you left the battery out for several minutes? You can find a few ways to factory-reset your S2 on hard-reset.com.

Enter recovery mode and do a factory reset and wipe cache and install any ROM you like.
It worked for my S2 which got stuck during boot-up. I kept flashing my ROM without factory reset and wipe cache and nothing happened.
It went back to normal when I did those procedure above. Hope it will solve your problem. My S2 is fine and running again. I almost gave up on it.


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ICS upgrade to Thunderbolt deleted my Family Contact Group from Home Screen
My Family Contact Group is still intact but the menus have changed and I can't seem to find a way to move it back to a Home Screen or even change it with the Favorites Group which is on the Home Screen and I don't need. Thanks.

I had the same problem and just figured out how to fix it.

Go to the screen on which you want to display your family contacts group.
Press the screen until the 'Drag to rearrange, edit, or remove' message appears at the top of the screen.
Drag the screen to the 'Edit' icon at the top left of the screen.

You will get options to 'Select a group for widget' or 'Edit group.'
If you choose 'Select a group for widget,' it will pull up your list of contact groups.
Choose the one you wish to display.


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Is it possible to increase Samsung's limit on contact merging?
On Samsung phones, at least I know on the Galaxy S and Galaxy SII, it is only possible to merge 5 contacts max. There is also an issue on the Google Code page of Android here, but this did not solve the Samsung specific problem.
The suggested fix on XDA-Developers did not work with newer Android versions, and I'd like to stick with the official Samsung ROM.
Is there way to increase the limit on contact merging?

It is, if you have root Access.
Found the following solution on l0uy blog:
Open /system/csc/others.xml and add the following child to the <FeatureSet> parant:
<CscFeature_Contact_SetLinkCountMaxAs>30</CscFeature_Contact_SetLinkCountMaxAs>

The 30 is the limit, how much contacts you will merge. choose what you want.
Works fine on 4.1.2.

In 4.4.2 note2 I did it by adding the value to another file called feature.xml in the same csc folder. In fact, the statement is already mentioned but with the value 5, so all what you have to change is the max. No. From 5 to anything you like, then save then restart the phone.


text:
Are the signatures of gapps from zips checked?
Are the gapps (e.g. from goo.im) signed in a way that prevents tampering? Is there a way to verify they're the same as you'd get from Google?
Do all / most ROMs check for this?

All Android apps are signed.
Android will not run an unsigned app. In addition, the signatures are tied to the app permissions, such that if the signature was wrong, other apps would not be able to talk with it, and you would not be able to receive updates to it from Google Play.
Android signing is discussed in more depth in Signing Your Applications in the Android developer documentation, from which the above information was drawn.
If you are paranoid and want to verify an app's signature, you can use the jarsigner utility included with the Java Development Kit (JDK). For example:
jarsigner -verify -verbose -certs Vending.apk

the page you reference says "Android uses this certificate to identify the author of an app, and the certificate does not need to be signed by a certificate authority. Android apps often use self-signed certificates."  Doesn't this mean that, while android will verify that the app is signed, it will not care WHO signed it? That would mean that we have no protection against a malicious app unless we somehow check that the gapps we received are signed by Google.  This answer seems to be glossing over some VERY necessary checking steps.  Am I missing something?

@stochastic As the page also mentions, updates must be signed with exactly the same key or Android will refuse to install the update. It doesn't matter that the key wasn't signed by a CA, just that it's the same as the one originally used to sign the app.

Thanks for pointing that out! Doesn't this still presume, though, that there is an existing app with the same name? When installing through, say, Google Play, that is fine, but when installing a zip file of gapps via a recovery rom it's entirely possible that the gapps are simply not present yet (which is why they are being installed in this way), so wouldn't there be a real vulnerability if we don't do some kind of key checking manually?  Also, while the android system does the checking you describe, does that mean that a recovery rom will perform the same checking?

If you got your gapps from goo.im, you could manually check if the MD5sum of the .zip file you downloaded is correct. This would assure you that the file has not been tampered with.
If flashing through ClockworkMod Recovery, there is this option: install zip from sdcard > toggle signature verification.

I don't think zip signature verification will check that the apps (or other contents) inside the zip are signed, though; it only checks that the zip file itself is signed. Similarly, checking the md5 of the zip doesn't really prove anything about the apps it contains unless you create your own flashable zip with known good copies of the same versions of the same apps and then md5 them both (but then why would you download it? You'd already have your own flashable version)

As Michael Hampton's helpful answer says, all android apps are signed.  This means:

the android system will ensure that every app it tries to run has been signed by someone.
When android updates an app, the new app must be signed by the same key that signed the original app. Otherwise, the upgrade will fail.  If the key changes, the name of the app must also change.

All of this does not mean that a recovery console like TeamWin or ClockworkMod recovery will properly check the signatures of these keys, nor does it mean that a rom is from Google just because someone signed it properly.
Do common roms check the signatures on zip files? Yes, they do

Fortunately, it appears that TeamWin recovery does check.  If I understand it correctly, the source code (here are the installation and verification portions) of TeamWin recovery checks that a zip file in its entirety has been signed by using a private key that corresponds to one of the public keys in /res/keys.  It does this if told to verify the signature of a signed zip file, which is different from checking the md5 checksum of the file.  In my version (v2.7.0.0) I can see a "Zip file signature verification" option on the install screen, which I assume turns this functionality on.
ClockworkMod recovery also checks zip file signatures.  The source code (see the installer code and the verification code) behaves very similarly to that of TeamWin: a zip file will count as verified if it is signed with a private key whose public "other half" lives in /res/keys

Can we be sure that the apps came from google because of this signing? Probably Not!

It appears from this blog entry and this paper that most recovery roms have at least one key in /res/keys whose private version is publicly known (that's my inference based on what the links say and my knowledge of what the rom verification code does).  This means that the validity checks are essentially worthless, since any key in /res/keys can be used to sign.

While signatures for APK files are checked, it appears that system apps (= apps installed to /system/) have more relaxed checks. This allows inclusion of additional files in an APK file and still pass the verification checks.
I have posted the details on this page, the essence is that the validation code in PackageParser.java (part of platform_frameworks_base) only checks files listed in the manifest file against the certificate in the APK file. Other files bypass the validation.
The Nexus factory images include Google Apps without the special classes.dex file (instead they have an "optimized" .odex file in a subdirectory next to the .apk file). This means that anyone could create an APK containing a classes.dex file that is in fact malicious. Be careful with files from untrusted sources!


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How do I disable notifications for a second Gmail account?
I have two Gmail accounts, one that I use for mailing lists and signing up for online services and whatnot, and the other one for more important stuff like work and friends.
I'd like to set it up so that my phone doesn't play the notification sound when an email comes in for the mailing list account. I only want to hear notifications for the account that has the more important email.
I can't find any setting to differentiate notifications between the two accounts.
Is this possible, and if so how?

What version of Android? That might make a difference. Also, are you using the Gmail app or getting your Gmail messages with a different email app?

This is what I did in Android 4.1 and Gmail:

Open Gmail
Tap the Overflow menu (three vertical dots) and select Settings
Tap the account for which you don't want to get notifications
Uncheck the Notifications option

That should be all you need to do.

An Update for Android 12 or 13 Beta. Both versions were tested and confirmed.

Open Gmail App on your Android phone.

Choose the account to view.

At the top left there are 3 lines, tap the 3 lines.

Scroll down to Settings and tap Settings.

Choose the email you want to change.

Tap Notifications.

You have a choice of All, High Priority only, or None.

Once you make your choice, you're done and can back out of settings.


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apps wanting setting control
I am new to Galaxy S3 abd am trying to download apps. With each one I get the list of settings the app wishes to share/link. With the i-phone there is the yes/no option of allowing this control, but I am not able to do this with the S3. I do not particulary want the app to share/control me details etc.
Is there another way of downloading apps?

What you are asking is not clear. In my understanding, you are talking about the App Permissions.
So you when you are installing an app, it will say what information that particular app will get from your mobile. That is the nature of a privacy agreement. If you like it and say yes, it will be downloaded and install. If you don't want then you can be without installing it. No big deal.
But if you want the app and don't want to reveal yourself to it, then there is no way. Almost all the apps are mainly targeting the users for a customized use. So somehow you have to accept yourself to have that feature.
I wonder why you are worried much. If you don't like, just be not using it.

PS: OR you can simply download an app and turn off the data so it won't
  send much information to others till you connect to internet to
  download another app


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How to activate usb port, -sc3 usb host driver not found
I have an unbranded rck30sdk tablet running Android 4.1.1. I have run USB diagnostics, plus host controller which gives me the messages:

sc3 usb host driver not found, root hub present, usb host mode is active.

How can i resolve this? Basically I want to connect my dslr to view/download images. I am reasonably computer literate, but have no experience of programming etc. I found one answer that mentioned inserting a new command via the system, permissions etc. I found these via x-plore, but only as a read-only option.
Can you give me any advice what I could do?


text:
Remote desktop into an Android device
Is it possible, or is there an app, to remote desktop into an android device from a Windows or Mac computer?  I would like to be able to see and control the screen.

Try searching Google Play, there's a bunch of them.
One I've successfully used (and it doesn't require rooting to device) is VMLite VNC server.


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how do you properly root galaxy s3 i9300 on mac?
I am trying to root my Galaxy S3 i9300 on a Apple Mac.
I followed the instructions here
But instead of my phone starting up ClockWorkMod recovery, my phone keeps booting up on android recovery.
Any tips on how to go from here?

Try flashing again, while you do tick off the auto reboot. Then take the battery out when it’s done flashing.  Then enter ClockworkMod Recovery right away.
PS: Just try if you are ready to experiment. I don't give any guarantee.

I would first of all recommend downloading the newest version of heimdall and using the terminal to do it because the app has problems in my personal experience.
First, boot your device into download mode (vol down, home, power on most devices), then vol up to confirm, then plug your device in. Now from the bin directory of heimdall, write:
sudo ./heimdall print-pit

To see your partition scheme. If you already know your partition scheme, and don't need to check for the name of your recovery partition, skip this.
sudo ./heimdall flash --PARTITION ~/Desktop/recovery.img --no-reboot

Replace the path on the end with the path to your recovery image, and the --PARTITION the name of your recovery partition. It should be --RECOVERY but it is still good to check.
NOTE:I always put --no-reboot on the end because when I don't, the recovery never seems to flash properly. You can then long press power to turn off, or take your battery out and back in. This could also be the reason that the flash fails for you.


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Show the original timestamp on received messages
Is there any way I can change the message settings on my LG Nexus 4 to show the time a message was sent to my phone, rather than the time it was received?

Show the time an SMS was sent, not received is 2 years old, but the answers might still be helpful.

This was raised as an issue in June 2009 and despite being discussed extensively there doesn't appear to be any way to show the original timestamp in vanilla Android. This leaves you with a couple of options:

Use a custom ROM like CyanogenMod which supports this, or
Install an app like SMS Sent Time which appends the message sent time to the message itself


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Phone won't turn on after attempting to upgrade Galaxy S to ICS
I tried upgrading my Galaxy S to ICS like I did my Galaxy S2.
I used the exact same steps. However, Odin froze and shut down. So, I unplugged the phone, powered off, and went to power back on in download mode. It didn't show any signs of life now. I've taken out the battery, put back in, but still nothing. When I plug it in, it doesn't even come up with the charging symbol.
Please help.

Where did you get the update? What update did you use? There's no official update for Android 4.0 (ICS) for Samsung Galaxy S.

GT-I9100_SEB_I9100XXLPQ_I9100OXXLPD_I9100XXLPQ.tar.md5 is the name of it, I got it from here: http://androidfirmwares.net/PhoneFirmware/Download/27   .... After looking at it, I am seeing that this was for the S2 and not the S... Do you know how i can fix this?    .. This is the youtube vid i watched on how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhFylo56esg ...

That file is for a GT-I9100 or Samsung Galaxy S2! Its not meant to be flashed to other models. You've probably bricked your Galaxy S by flashing that update.

Yeah, that's what I am afraid of! How do i fix it!!?!???!? Can you "un" Brick a phone? Is there some sort of device that i can buy and plug into it to make it work again?

I'm afraid the mobile is dead... You've flashed a different bootloader, different recovery and possibly you've messed the phone partitions.


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Grooveshark app on Android
I realized that they took TinyShark offline recently.  I'm looking to see if anyone knew why or what the reason for that was?  I've found one alternative, BlueStream, but I don't think that that is a solid alternative and would love to hear some more apps from you guys.

Try Wiredog. It's new and you can find it on Reddit in the top apps category.

Care to elaborate more about this app?


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Rezound in a boot loop
My Rezound has randomly just turned off and on for a while and it doesn't stop until I take the battery out and remove the SIM card.  Any ways to fix this?  Thanks!

Do a hard reset, remove sim, set network type to WCDMA preferred.


text:
How to add new rows on a Google Docs spreadsheet?
Usually, in desktop version of Google Docs spreadsheet, I will enter a number of new rows if current document has no rows remaining, so I can extend down the document. I installed Google Drive on my Gingerbread and has a spreadsheet file in it. When I open it, I want to do so with my Android app but how can I do it? Which button should I press?

Click on the row number in the first column.
Click the number again; a menu should pop-up.
Click 4th button; a menu should popup with the following options:

Insert above
Insert below

This procedure is good to add one line at a time. If you what to add several lines (as the OP asked) without repeating that procedure as many times as the number of lines you want to add, you can follow my procedure (however a keyboard is required)

If you have a keyboard (bluetooth, tablet dock...), you can do:

Click the row number in the first column
Using shift + up or down arrow on the keyboard, select as many lines as you want to add at the end of the sheet
Click the row number of one of the selected lines, a menu should popup
Click 4th button ; a menu should popup with the following options:

Insert above
Insert below

This will extend the number of lines in the document by the same number of lines that you have selected at step 2.


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rooting Samsung Galaxy Note 2
How to root Samsung Galaxy Note 2? I have no experience with rooting. Model number is GT-N7100. Android-version 4.1.1.

I added your question to our rooting index. You might want to have a look there, maybe another device/method gives you a good starting.

@PatREllery If you don't say what's wrong with the existing answers, or what further information you'd like, then nobody will add a new answer, and your bounty will automatically go to the existing top answer.

This will work on the following Galaxy Note 2:
1.International Galaxy Note 2 GT-N7100
2.T-Mobile Galaxy Note 2 SGH-T889
3.AT&T Galaxy Note 2 SGH-I317
Other carriers
Sprint Galaxy Note 2 SPH-L900
Verizon Galaxy Note 2 SCH-I605
(Given a link to video and more description at last sentence)
Step 1.

Put your Galaxy Note 2 into Download mode by turning off your phone
first then holding down Volume Down, Center Home, and Power buttons
together.

Step 2.

Once you see the warning screen, hit Volume Up button to enter ODIN
Download Mode then connect a micro-USB cable from your Note 2 to your
computer.

Step 3.

If you  have to install Samsung USB drivers

Step 4.

Next, download GalaxyNote2Root.zip

Step 5.

Unzip the files. Next, open up the ODIN program by double-clicking on
the .exe file.

Step 6.

You should see a yellow-highlighted COM box with a random number. If
you don’t see it, double-check your Windows drivers (the Samsung USB
drivers you installed in Step 3) and unplug, plug your Note 2 back
into your computer.

Step 7.

DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE and click on “PDA” button then find the
file cwm6-root-note2.tar(in unzipped folder).

Step 8.

Hit Start and let ODIN flash the custom CWM Recovery. When it’s done,
your Galaxy Note 2 will reboot and you should have a fully rooted
Galaxy Note 2.

Your phone will boot into newly installed CWM Recovery automatically once and install Superuser app and su binaries then reboot.
You should find a new Superuser app called “SuperSU”.
You can easily verify you have root by downloading Titanium Backup app (free on Play Store) and running it. (a Pop up will appear)
In here they described with details and video that "How to root Note 2" .
You have to just go for the carrier name, under which you are now.
Good Luck
NOTE:I'm not responsible if you mess up your phone. Make sure you know what you are doing before following any instructions. Go here .Just read it.

Just to reiterate something on the above: read, read and then read more. Things often go wrong, I've made some seriouisly basic mistakes and it's always a fright when an expensive piece of tech fails to boot! Make backups on your SD card, then copy the backups on your PC (nandroid backup in custom recovery). You never know when you'll need them!

My GT-N7100 was rooted successfully after watching this video and following these steps.

I've used the following guide on XDA Developers:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1923956
And did the same for the S3 (for which they also have a toolkit and a thread)


text:
Re-installing Google Play Store
My Google Play store, as well as all of my apps, are messed up. Every one of them has an Android icon and an SD card emblem at the bottom right. I do not know how to get my Play Store back, and I can not use any apps.
Can anyone help?

Talking of "getting it back": Is it gone? Did you try to clear it's cache and, maybe, uninstall its updates? (it would auto-update again then)

I tried clearing its  cache and its not gone, just like all of my other apps it has an android with a picture of a SD card...

If all of your apps are affected, and you don't find a better solution, a last resort is always a factory reset, though this would also delete all your data (so make sure you have a good backup).


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How to access phone internal storage during flashing?
I am flashing CM10 to my HTC One X.
I downloaded all necessary files and unlocked my boot loader.  I followed all steps on how to install this ROM, but I did one stupid thing.  I forgot to copy the CM10 zip file to my phone internal storage.
Below are the steps I followed, then I missed step 1.  How do I access my phone internal storage so that I can save the zip file, and continue flashing my phone?

Copy the CM10 ZIP file to your phone’s internal SD card.
On the PC, extract the Fasboot.zip. You will get a folder named Fastboot.
Extract the boot.img file from the cm10_endeavoru-ota-eng.noeri-028.zip file and place it into the
  Fastboot folder.
Turn your phone off.
Boot to Fastboot Mode. Hold down the Volume Down and the Power buttons until the screen turns on to enter Bootloader Mode.
In Bootloader Mode, highlight Fastboot Mode using the Volume keys and select it by using the Power button.
Connect your phone to your PC via USB cable.
Open a command prompt on your PC and navigate it to the Fastboot folder.
In the command prompt, type fastboot devices to check if your device has successfully connected to your PC. Your phone’s serial number
  should appear on the screen.
Flash the boot.img by typing the following in the command prompt: fastboot flash boot boot.img
Go back to your phone and select Bootloader to go back to the main Bootloader menu.
In Bootloader Mode, highlight Recovery using the Volume keys and select it by using the Power button to boot into ClockworkMod
  Recovery.
Select Wipe data/factory reset > Yes.
Select Install ZIP from SD card > Choose ZIP from SD card > select the cm10_endeavoru-ota-eng.noeri-028.zip file > Yes.
Select Go back > Reboot system now.

Do you have the adb executable available, and can you access the recovery mode? You might be able to adb push the file then. You don't need the entire SDK for that, just the adb binary (adb.exe plus some *.dll files if you're on Windows) are fine.

From the steps above, I think you already flash a clockworkmod recovery (boot.img)

HOLD volume down until the recovery shows up
Use the volume keys to select Mount
Select mount USB storage
Connect your phone to your PC
Copy the CM10 ZIP file to your phone’s internal SD card
Eject phone from PC and unmount USB storage
Select Wipe data/factory reset > Yes.
Select Install ZIP from SD card > Choose ZIP from SD card > select the cm10_endeavoru-ota-eng.noeri-028.zip file > Yes.
Select Go back > Reboot system now.

It's not working... nothing happens. The bootloader says it has entered USB mode, but nothing happens on the PC. Tried on 2 computers.

I had same issue on a TAB4 10.1 SM-T535. It seems the network operator Vodacom had changed the id of the tablet to be a wifi model (matissewifi) to throw off someone trying to flash a ROM to it. Anyway, to get it to boot into TWRP I just had to install the TWRP app from the play store, which has an option to boot into TWRP, the key combinations never worked for me. I also flashed CF-Auto-Root to the device to install SuperSU, which might have allowed the TWRP app with ROot access to boot into recovery mode.


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Unable to open secure HTTPS websites on the tablet Android
My laptop and tablet are connected to the same access point. The LAN port of the WiFi point is connected to the router that uses DHCP protocol. I can access all the websites including secure ones without any problem using my laptop. With the tablet, I'm not able to access HTTPS websites, my Google account, and the Google Play market. Why does it work for the laptop, but not for the tablet? What can cause it, and how can I solve it?
My device is Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7-Inch)
I can access HTTPS websites using other networks so it means that there is a problem with my connection.

You should describe in better detail what "have problems" means.

We had similar issues in our office router which had expired security certificate resulting in denial of HTTPS URLs. When we updated our certificate this issue was solved.
I guess your issue should be similar. I stumbled on a web page that claims the solution. But looking at the solution I very much doubt its worth.


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Strange Android app displaying in Mandarin
On my Samsung Galaxy Note phone I started receiving strange notifications in Mandarin (the language of the people of China). Once I click on the notification it opens my browser with a blank page and then exits just after few seconds.
A few minutes later I get this app install prompt:

It says in French

blocked install of apps not coming from Android market.

This has been repeating several times since ~2 weeks now.
Questions:

What's this?
How to be sure that it won't repeat again?

My phone has the latest updates offered by Samsung and is not rooted. I also did not install any app in Mandarin.

I would say the app is Baidu Browser or any other app from Baidu.
Despite not being able to see an app in the laucher, you could have some sort of malware app installed that will only display notify items but stood hidden in background. On your phone go to Settings > Application Manager and check for all the apps you have installed. If you find an app that you haven't installed, uninstalling it might end the notification issues.
If you only install apps from Google's Play Store I would suggest you disable the Unknown source option to enable/disable the installation of third party app (if you have this option enabled). You can find the option in either Settings > Security, Settings > Developement or Settings > Application Manager (depending on your Android version)
As for the ROM and updates, they can't do anything about malware apps.

Yep, the prompt says 百度浏览器 = Baidu Browser.


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Phone Stuck on Samsung Galaxy S2 Screen
I have a rooted GT-I9100G. Recently the official JB for France came out, and I wanted to flash it.
Some of the reasons to do so were:

My phone use to randomly show charging even when the charger was not plugged in
Random reboots would occur
Had heard the new official firmware was pretty good

So, I went ahead and rebooted to CWM recovery (was running AOKP 4.2). Did a factory and Data wipe, wiped cache, and Dalvik Cache. Now, I've realized I made a mistake by formatting /system and rebooting. That shouldn't have been a problem, because it should still boot into Download or Recovery mode (on pressing Down+Home+Lock or Up+Home+Lock respectively). Yet, when I try entering either the phone gets stuck on the Samsung Logo screen  :(
One thing that is really bothering me is whenever I put in the battery, a couple of seconds later the battery indicator shows and stays stuck at that.
Please guys help me out. I don't even have a decent replacement phone for the time-being. :S

Factory reset and data wipe don't format /system. Did you selected format /system from CWM? If you can't get to either download nor recovery mode there isn't much to do with the phone...

yes i selected format/system , it didn't occur to me then, but i did it by default cos i do that usually when flashing a new rom through CWM...


text:
Fast lock and unclock screen by lock button doesn't lock screen at all
I couldn't find any topic related to this. If there is one, please flag to delete.
There is problem with lock button that it doesn't lock your screen even when you setted in settings to lock the screen for security.
Sometimes it happens that if you click on this button and immediately click again to unlock, last screen / activity of application is shown again without lock screen.
Step to reproduce

Turn on security screen in settings
Open your app
Click lock button
Click fast lock button again
Screen of your app is visible as it was, instead of there should be lock screen

How can I fix this bug? Did someone find this problem before?

Bug found on device: GT-I9070 v 2.3.6
I suspect that there is a problem with transition. In my private app I use custom transition by context.overridePendingTransition(R.layout.fadein, R.layout.fadeout);.
Of course there is no connection between system android <> custom app. This bug is hard to reproduce. Sometimes you see few times in row and sometimes its impossible..

Lumma, could you please add some device info (what device are you using, which Android version does it run)? I also have problems as what the "lock button" should be. Described behaviour could be normal, as some devices use a little "timeout" before activating the lock (after switching off the screen), in case you "accidentally" hit the switch.

@Izzy modified text

Thanks! I cannot give any closer help here (no Samsung device), but I added two more tags which might help to draw some more attention to your question from those who might.


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HTC One V without Sense 4
I have an HTC One V with Android 4.0 and HTC Sense 4. Unfortunately, the phone is quite slow. I suspect for the htc sense and other unnecessary application.
Can I install android 4.0 without htc sense?
Does anybody have a link to the ROM that I need to use? My phone is a HTC One V on the T-Mobile network (HU) and I got it in January.
Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

If looking for a suiting ROM, you might want to check Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?.

Glad if it helped! We've got many good resources here. It's always a good idea to hover your mouse over some tag related to your question, and hit the "faq" link ;)

Basically you can install any launcher from the Play Store. You don't need a custom ROM to do this. I suggest Apex or Nova.
It doesn't change anything on your system, fyi

Just try it like that, if your phone doesn't get any faster, I would suggest an AOSP/AOKP ROM.

Unfortunately, the phone is quite slow. I think this does not solve the problem

A friend of mine is using the One V as well, he also complained about speed issues. If you are willing to root your phone and flash a custom ROM on it, I would recommend that!

Have a look at the xda-thread


text:
Mobile data turns itself on again and again; could be caused by WhatsApp
My mobile data keeps turning on by itself and uses my data traffic. I think this is because of WhatsApp, but I'm not sure. Is there any other possible reason aside from WhatsApp? How should I stop it from happening?
Phone: Samsung GT9100i
Android Version: 4.2.1

If you are already guess it is whatsapp -- have you tried removing it and see if your problem goes away? As you specified you're running Android 4.2, you could simply disable it (via settings->apps->manage apps), so you wouldn't lose any data this way (and could re-enable it later if you want to).

If you want to check if whatsapp is causing your data issues, check out the apps mentioned here: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/26178/why-has-my-samsung-galaxy-s2-become-a-data-hog

I believe its battery saving app, disable it or force stop battery saving app and then check. I tried on my mobile and now its working fine.

What other apps related to mobile data are you using? Is there any battery saver app that are using? they can turn your data on or off automatically.
Whatsapp doesn't have the permission to enable mobile data. So it must be some other app. still you can use 3G WatchDog to check if whatsapp is the culprit.

RACHIT u're right.... If u re using battery defender application then uninstall it or click on disable notification battery if the defender is on... Av tried it and work for me..... Catch ur fun buddy

For Samsung, go to Settings> Connections> Data Usage then press menu button. Select Restrict Background from the menu. It will stop turning on mobile data automatically.

I very much doubt that – it's rather the other way around: turning off mobile data would stop background data along its path. Background data should only be active with mobile data (or WiFi) being enabled – but they should not enable it automatically. No data means no data, and that includes no background data.


text:
Identify the NFC tag or NFC-enabled device during transfer
I am very new to Android.
I want to identify which one is enabled NFC tag or NFC-enabled device.
Please provide the difference between NFC mode:

card read/write
P2P communication

Can you rephrase your first question? It's very difficult to understand.

From the OpenNFC Features page: Read/Write: Easy and transparent access to tags of different technologies is possible. P2P: Peer-to-peer functions allow easy exchange of information in different modes over the LLCP exchange format defined by the NFC Forum.

I'm not sure if you have a first question, or if I understand your first question. But, if you are looking for an app to read NFC tags, just search for "check nfc" in Google Play. There are a lot of apps there.
If you want to enable the NFC on a device, go to Settings > Wireless & Networks > More... > NFC. This is also how you check if the device can read NFC.
To answer your second question, please look at conor's answer in this question: Is it possible to use Android Beam between an android device and another NFC device?


text:
Decrypting HTTPS Traffic from Android Apps via Fiddler?
I am actually trying to debug all the traffic going in and out on my phone. I am using Fiddler on my PC, and ProxyDroid on my phone to do this. HTTP traffic works fine. I am able to decrypt it completely. However, with HTTPS traffic, all I get is "Tunnel to : xxx.xxx.xx.xxx:443 ".
Any idea how do I decrypt the traffic going through the HTTPS route?
I installed the FiddlerRoot.cer on my phone through the default browser. Still no luck on decrypting the HTTPS traffic.
P.S : I am talking about traffic from apps, and not through the browser. My Phone is running ICS and is rooted.

Humm... I always thought the "S" in "HTTPS" stands for "secure". So the idea behind that is that you should not be able to easily decrypt it -- it is encrypted for good reason.

HTTPS is for protecting against a man in the middle attack... which is what it sounds like you're trying to do. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-in-the-middle_attack and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2888884/can-https-connections-be-hijacked-with-a-man-in-the-middle-attack and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3075489/preventing-man-in-the-middle-attack-while-using-https etc

Yes, I am exactly trying to do that. Using Fiddler, we can decrypt the HTTPS traffic. Read here --> http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler/help/httpsdecryption.asp . Its easy to do this for browsers on the pc or phones etc. But I am trying to accomplish this for an App on my phone.

if the application is using custom trusted server certeficates , then no , you have to decompile the apk , crack it (disable that custom trust) then recompile it .. if the source is smali , search for "SecureRandom" on all smali files whene u find that word , u will find ur friend :D

I ran into the same issue.
First - make sure you have it all set up correctly on Fiddler on your PC:

Goto Tools-->Fiddler Options-->HTTPS and make sure the first 3 check boxes are   checked.
Click "Export Root Certificate to Desktop" and copy the cert file from your desktop to your device/SD card
In your device, goto setting-> security -> Credential Storage-> Install from SD Card , and install your certificate.

That's it.
worked for me :)

Not sure why it didn't work for me, but after another try I installed the fiddler root cert from  Fiddle Echo Service page http://ipv4.fiddler:8888/ (as described in docs http://docs.telerik.com/fiddler/Configure-Fiddler/Tasks/ConfigureForAndroid) and HTTPS traffic is decoded OK

Starting with Android 7.0/Nougat intercepting SSL traffic has become more complicated because the Android apps don't trust the installed additional system certificates unless the app developer explicitly has configured the app to do so.

Unfortunately modern Android does not trust the certificates generated by the built-in certificate generators, so we need a better certificate generator, luckily someone made one :)

go to https://www.telerik.com/fiddler/add-ons and find the "CertMaker for iOS and Android" and download it and run it as administrator

restart Fiddler

go Tools -> Options -> HTTPS

ensure it says "Certificate generated by BCCertMaker.BCCertMaker from CertMaker.dll" (if not, re-run the CertMaker installer, and restart Fiddler again..), also make sure "Capture HTTPS" and "Decrypt HTTPS" is enabled

run "Reset all certificates" and wait for it to finish (this takes about a minute), then run "Export Root Certificate to Desktop"

Now move the FiddlerRoot.cer to your phone (doesn't matter how. HFS + your web browser is an alternative. Netcat and Termux is another alternative)
then on your Android go

Settings -> Security -> Other Security Settings -> Credentials storage -> Install from device storage -> CA certificate -> FiddlerRoot.cer

Settings -> Connections -> Wi-Fi -> the settings-button on your Wi-Fi -> View More -> Proxy -> Hostname to Fiddler computer's IP, proxy port 8888


text:
Google service connection + Corp wifi
When connected to the corporate wifi the signal bars turn grey suggesting that there is no connection to Google services. Gmail, web browsing, contact sync, calender sync, play music all appear to work correctly. YouTube and DeskSMS do not, there may be others but I haven't been specifically looking for what does and doesn't work. Both services accessed via computer work perfectly fine, there is no block on YouTube or DeskSMS. I'm running Android 4.1.2 on a Nexus S, DHCP network configuration with HTTP proxy.
Any suggestions as to why the phone believes it doesn't have Google service connectivity?
Broken YouTube doesn't bother me but DeskSMS would be handy to get working, any suggestions?

I bet you can't sing in to Google Talk.

Correct, that's not working either.

When it can't connect to Google Talk it believes that there is no service.

So is there a protocol/url/port that needs unblocking? How would I find out?

Check http://thoughtpad.cs3.in/2007/03/07/blocking-google-talk-in-your-organization/


text:
Persisting permissions on /mnt/shell after reboot
CWM Nandroid backups are being stored in /mnt/shell/emulated/clockworkmod
I want to use DropSync (or something similar) to automatically upload the contents of this folder to Dropbox as a backup however the permissions on the /mnt/shell folder are 700 so DropSync isn't able to access them.
I can change the permissions to 755 which allows everything to work but as soon as I reboot the device the permissions reset to 700.
How can I persist the permissions? Or is there a better way of getting the backups automatically uploaded to Dropbox?


text:
Can the Android YouTube app display annotations?
I run the stock YouTube app on my HTC One X phone.
There are a couple of channels I follow who post videos narrated in their local language, but with translations added as annotations on top of the video stream. These are perfectly viewable in my desktop browser but are not displayed in the Android YouTube app.
Is there a setting for this I am missing, or are they just not available?

Actually, MixerBox 3 did display annotations.

Annotations are unfortunately not supported on Android at this time:

Notes

Annotations appear on standard YouTube players and embedded players.
Annotations do not appear on custom YouTube chromeless players.
Annotations do not appear in video playbacks taking place on mobile, tablet and TV devices.

Someone from Google has evidently acknowledged this feature request, but I don't believe there's any kind of timeline for its implementation (or official word that it, in fact, will be implemented).

It was technically possible!


text:
How can I search the SMSs/MMSs using the default search interface?
I have a Cyanogenmod 10.1 ROM installed. I love the Google Search interface and can search most of my phone using it, but I am unable to find "Messaging" as a searchable item. I've seen a lot of photos showing "Messaging" as a searchable item, but it isn't on my phone.
I dug through the Cyanogenmod source and found that a commit was made that removed this functionality. I haven't been able to understand the reason for this.
Is it possible to re-add this feature? Do I need to configure something?

I don't know if this will help or not, but if you need this option, you can give it a try (if you are ready to face the aftermath whatever it is).
First, you have to access the system files of your mobile, so you might need
Droid Explorer. You may face an error sometime while showing the android SDK path if you have already installed it on PC. For that, you can simply create a folder named android-7 inside your sdk/platforms folder.
Then connect your phone and open Droid Explorer and try locating the particular searchable.xml file which I have no idea where it is.
Open it and try changing the false into true.
Sometimes, it might have triggered some other file to change this particular option. I tried myself for some time using this and I couldn't figure it out.

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


text:
Galaxy Note 10.1, does not recognize finger touch
I have a Galaxy Note 10.1, It suddenly stopped (when switched on) finger touch detection, but works with normally with S Pen. I tried Factory resetting but still it does not detect finger touch... I tried to find any setting regarding finger touch but I couldn't. Is there a way to fix this?

How long have you had your Note for before it started doing this?

@Denny After about a week... :(, After another two weeks time it worked normally.. :)

If you have the Samsung Book Cover, try closing it (which turns off the screen) and opening it. The screen should turn on again and finger touch will work again. You can also do this by holding a magnet to the sides of the screen (the book cover has little magnets in it). This solved the problem for me instantly, where previously only the S-Pen worked but not my fingers. For some reason I cannot add this as an answer even though I have more than 100 rep.

Go to settings, then language and input, then Samsung keyboard settings, then handwriting, then recognition time. Try changing it and then try touching. Sometimes this could solve. Also try touching the 4 corners.

I tried changing Recognition Time but no avail. :( , What do you mean by touching 4 corners? Anyway thanks for the answer...

Since Note 10.1 is auto calibrated,touching the four corners of the screen will do some help. :-)

This video describes an issue that could be related to your problem.

Let it run dead to the point where it won't turn on, charge it till full (without using it at all) turn it back on and it should. Be fine. Happened to me. :)


text:
Why does my phone have erroneous input when connected to a non-OEM power source?
My phone (Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX) seems to have problems accepting touch input when connected to a non-OEM power source. When connected to my computer via USB, it accepts input fine, as it does when connected to an Xbox 360 through USB. When connected to the wall USB charger it shipped with, it also accepts input fine, but when connected to a third-party wall USB charger, the touch input goes crazy and starts selecting objects all over the screen where I'm not pressing. The charger did not do this with my previous Android phone.
Is this because there is some data connection it is looking for through USB so that it acts weirdly if not using an OEM charger or actually connected to a data-using device?

Let me guess: that 3rd party charger comes from HTC? In that case I can confirm the strange behavior to 100%. To me it seems they have some special PIN assignment which confuses Motorola devices (providing a strange signal on some additional PIN I'd guess). Some proof of my theory: XDA

See also: PinOuts, note the "x" PIN which may be connected to GND for cable detection in some cases. If the Droid expects it one way, but the cable does it the other way, this might cause some confusion. In my case with the HTC cable, the "x" PIN seems to be grounded on the charger side (power connector; here the cable is connected with standard USB) -- as when I use the same cable with some other power connector, it works fine.

@Izzy - yes, it does come from HTC.

Thanks for the confirmation! In that case, I convert my comments into an answer (see below). As stated, though Ales's EMI theory has its points, I agree with you that "my" theory is more likely to hit the point. But there was no scientific study on that (or all of us missed it) -- so I could be wrong as well ;)

Though Alex's answer has its point; but as the OP confirmed the second adapter in question is a HTC charger, I hold it more likely that a special "PIN usage" is the cause. As I explained in my comments to the question:
PinOuts describes how the PINs of the USB connector are used in general.

screenshot from PinOuts.ru
Note the "x" PIN which, according to the description, may be connected to GND.
Now to my observation: As I was annoyed by the very same problem, I decided to dig a little deeper. I tried 3 different cables with the HTC power unit versus two other power units (one Motorola, one generic) on my Motorola Milestone 2. In short, all cables behaved exactly the same: connected to the HTC power supply, they caused the very same behaviour described in the question, i.e. unpredictable reactions to the touchscreen. Connected to any of the other power sources, there was no such effect. So the cause very clearly was the HTC power supply.
If EMI were involved, as Alex suggests, the same strange behaviour should appear here daily, as that HTC power supply is connected to a power source (and such must emmit those electro-magnetic disturbance), and my devices are often positioned not much more than 20cm from it. A connected cable might bundle that, true -- but I still hold my theory for more likely. And as one can find by looking at this XDA thread, HTC chargers do obviously use a different PIN layout -- which adds its weight to my arguments.
Besides: Other devices connected to the HTC charger (I tried with two tablets, none of them a HTC) did not show the effect. So with the EMI argument, the resumé would not be "HTC builds lousy adapters", but "Motorola builds lousy displays" ;)

The effect you are observing has nothing to do with any "strange signals" like some suggested but with the quality of the power adapter. Capacitive touch screens are very sensitive to EMI and the low quality power adapter you are trying to use is interfering with the touch sensor controller in the phone.
Slightly more detailed description of the problem

I don't think it's low quality - I think Izzy's comments is the reason. It's a HTC adapter.

It only proves that HTC makes crappy adapters. There's no "signal" on the ID pin of USB connector. Period. If there's an EMI noise - it's because of poor design and/or low quality.

Or it proves that HTC makes better displays (not that sensitive to EMI, but as sensitive to touch as others) -- as the problem seems not to appear on HTC devices used with the very same adapter? How likely is that.

Well, but the article linked may suggest a third variant: Do all Motorola devices use such a crappy touch screen controller as described there for the Photon and Atrix? Especially the Droid Razr Maxx (from the OP) and the Motorola Milestone 2 (mine)? That would explain why my tablets were not affected, provided they use a better controller. So I must admit, Alex made his point (@Alex: you just forgot to point out the crappy controller mentioned on the linked site. My apologies for not checking your provided source thoroughly enough before!) Will check that and come back then.

A deeper look shows: what that site mentions as the worst touch screen controller is, according to their link, the Atmel mXT224. Look for it: [it] is undoubtedly one of the most popular ones as evidenced by a number of design wins (followed by a list of devices, including 3 Motorola, 3 HTC, and 10 Samsung devices (Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab, Nexus S amongst them)).


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How to switch to vibrate mode using only hardware keys
I have a Nexus 4, and I would like to be able to switch it to vibrate mode without having to look at the screen or unlock it. My previous phones had this ability (my iPhone had a switch dedicated to this on the side, and on my flip phone before that I just held down the volume down button). I've found this feature pretty useful in many situations where I realize after the fact that I want my phone to be silent, but I don't want to show that I'm silencing my phone (movie theaters, churches, meetings, etc.). I keep my phone in my pants pocket, and the other two phones allowed me to silence them without even removing them from my pocket.
I've tried holding down the volume up, volume down, or power buttons, but that doesn't do anything. I know that there are apps that I can configure to automatically silence based on my location, time of day, and/or calendar items, and while those are useful they still don't give me a universal way to silence the phone with minimal interaction. A home screen or lock screen widget won't work for me because my work requires that my phone lock itself, and doesn't allow me to put widgets on the lock screen.
I'm also not interested in rooting my phone, but a free or paid app (preferably on the Google Play store) is fine. Really, an ideal solution would be an app or setting that allows me to press and hold the volume down button (while the phone is still locked) to put it in vibrate mode.

The following short procedure should work:

press power button (enable the screen)
hold power button for 1 second (new required step on Android 4.2.2, not needed on 4.2.1)
press volume up or down until phone vibrates
optionally press power button again (turn off screen)

The idea is to enable the screen first, because then volume buttons would be enabled to change ringer volume (when screen is off they only work for music volume if it is playing).
Then depending on what volume you had set you need to press volume up or down:

if volume was set to silent, press volume up once, the phone should vibrate, now the phone is in vibrate only mode
if volume was set to regular ringtone, press volume down several times until phone vibrates. Now phone is in vibrate mode. Pressing volume down again would enable silent mode.

So you need to press volume down or up until you feel single vibrate and the you can leave the phone as is and it should turn off screen after short time by default. There shouldn't be much risk leaving screen enabled in a pocket for a while, but if you want you can press power button again to disable screen, but you risk pressing volume keys again which might either put phone in silent mode or enable ringtone.
Full procedure that should always work:

press power button (enable lock screen)
press volume down up to 7 times until phone vibrates then stop the procedure (this assumes there are 9 levels of volume, see below)
if phone not vibrated press volume up (you were probably in silent mode), phone should vibrate
if phone not vibrated repeat the procedure only one more time (maybe screen was enabled and first step turned it off)
optionally if phone vibrated, press power button once to turn off screen

Phone changes between following states when pressing volume up/down keys:

Maximum volume
...
...
Medium volume
...
...
Minimum volume
vibration only
no sound, no vibration - silent mode

The procedure was tested on Galaxy Nexus, but since Nexus 4 is very similar (same button layout/number, OS version, nexus brand) it should also work for it.
Update: Since android 4.2.2 changing volume on lock screen as described above does not work. There is additional step needed: holding power button for at least 1 second when screen is enabled. This will bring the "power off/airplaine mode" dialog and volume buttons will work there.

Thanks, I tried it out and I was able to do it with the phone in my pocket.

I struggled with this for a long while as well.
I found Silent Mode Switcher, which lets you the press power button and shake the phone to switch it to vibrate mode. Easiest way I've found, and it works great on Nexus 5.

Yepp, possible -- TaskerMan is back :) One solution would involve Tasker, available for about EUR 5 at the playstore (free 7 day trial on the homepage). Tasker is an automation solution, connecting "events" with "tasks". In your case, the event would be the corresponding hardware button pressed -- and the task to silence/vibrate your phone. Unfortunately, the volume buttons don't seem to be available here, but...
Condition: Event → Hardware → Button: Camera
Task: Audio Settings → Vibrate On
Optionally you can have it adjust volume settings as well, of course (a task can consist of multiple actions).
There might be alternative apps able to do this, but I cannot tell for sure what they cover (I'm using Tasker here for years, so I've lost track about the others ;) But you might want to take a look at the free Llama as well (though from its description, it cannot act on hardware-key-events).

That would work, but unfortunately the Nexus 4 doesn't have a camera button. And according to https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/taskerreq/VebYCEl4yRE, an Android app can't get access to the volume buttons


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Configuring ADB for Nexus 4 on Ubuntu 11.10
I'm trying to deploy and test an Android app on my Nexus 4 from my Ubuntu 11.10 computer, but ADB doesn't recognize it. I think I need the Google USB drivers, but I cannot find instructions on how to install them on Ubuntu.
How can I install the drivers on Ubuntu 11.10 so that ADB will recognize my N4?

You don't need any special drivers -- all you need is to make your device known. A few simple steps can accomplish this when your device is connected via USB:
sudo lsusb
[...]
Bus 002 Device 054: ID 18d1:4e22 Google Inc. Nexus S (debug)

See the two hex values separated by a colon: 18d1:4e22 This is the manufacturerID:deviceID you need to tell the system to handle. So as root:
sudo su -
cd /etc/udev/rules.d
vi 51-android.rules

In this file, add a line (you can use the editor of your choice, of course -- my example uses vi)
# MyDeviceName
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="4e22", MODE="0666" GROUP="androiddev", SYMLINK+="android%n"

This example uses the values from above lsusb output -- you need to replace them by yours. Now, to let your changes take effect:
sudo service udev reload

Final step: Disconnect your device, and reconnect it. It should be recognized now.

As explained at Enable developer options in Android 4.2 on Nexus 4 and Galaxy Nexus you need to activate developer mode.

Step 1: Pull down the notifications panel on your device’s interface and tap on Settings.
Step 2: Next, scroll all the way down and tap on About Phone, and you will notice a segment detailing your device’s build number.
Step 3: Repeatedly tap on Build Number (seven taps should do the trick) until you’re met with a message that reads: “you are now a developer!”


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Can I stop installed apps adding their icon to my homescreen?
Currently every app I install adds a launcher icon to the homescreen.  As my default homescreens are nicely arranged and as a result full, it creates another home screen 'page' to put the icons on.
This is really very annoying as I have to remove both the icon and the newly created screen on every install.
Is there any way to stop apps adding a launcher to the home screen by default?

From Google Play Store application:

Go into Settings
Uncheck Auto-add shortcuts

That will prevent Google play store from creating shortcuts to the home screen each time a new app is installed.


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Launcher App Slow
I installed an unofficial build of Cyanogenmod 10.1 from here on my Droid 4 and the launcher app runs really slow. When I scroll through the screens or scroll in the app drawer it lags very bad. Should I do a factory reset on my phone?

What do you mean by unofficial? Did you install the nightly version?

Did you do a wipe (dalvik cache and/or cache/data) when installing CM?

@GreenGuy Unofficial means it was made by someone else, not the cyanogenmod team.

@Izzy Yes I cleared both caches and data.

That's strange then. Maybe simply try a different launcher then -- and be it just to check if it makes a difference? You might even "fall in love" with the replacement, and forget about your "original problem" that way :)


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Removing Gmail app for guest device in my home
I recently picked up an HTC One V phone for practically free. I want to use it as a "media device" in my home. I have it hooked up to a dock and would like to have Netflix/Pandora/Play Music (linked to my personal Google account) installed. Since I frequently have guests in my home, I do not want ANY access to my personal things. (GMail and Play Store).  What is the safest way to remove access to Gmail and the Play Store (or to force password entry every time), while allowing full access to my Play Music without a password?

You could use a so called "App Locker" like e.g. App Lock, which allow you to protect selected apps with a pattern lock. A more restrictive way would be to turn your tab into a "Kiosk device" (details can be found following the kiosk-mode tag; just 6 questions, so it should be easy to browse).


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How to disable file extension check during incoming file transfers?
I'm running CyanogenMod 10 on my Nexus 7. As with all other Android devices, for some reason Google thought it cute to check file extensions of incoming Bluetooth file transfers and reject them if they're not one of a handful of extensions.
In other words, a file called file.pem, file.xxx will not transfer via Bluetooth but file.zip or file.jpg will.
Is there something I can do on my rooted device to disable this silly file extension check?

No, you cannot do anything about it as that is integrated into the actual framework, where there is a list of filters based on filename and extensions.

Can change the extension to jpg or some common extension and then transfer

You could use a workaround, compress your file as zip archive and then extract it on your Android Device.
I use AndroZip for it. As an alternative you could use a better Variant. Total Commander.


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Difference between touching the screen with finger and S pen
What is the difference in touching the screen of Galaxy Tab (10.1) with Finger and the S Pen  ?

When using the S-Pen your Touch is a bit more accurate, if you use a app like "Papyrus" where you can write on a "Virtual" Sheet of Paper you will see that a Pen is much more accurate. But in normal Terms if you dont need to be that accurate your Finger is enough.
The Pen is nothing more than a Piece of Hardware having a organic material on it's top. That the Galaxy Tab can recognize.


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HTC One X won't charge
I bought a HTC one X in China, in order to send it to my girlfriend who's in UK, but she's constantly get charging problems.
The problem is like this:

Can't charge at all using AC adapter if the battery is not empty. The battery bar just keep decreasing no matter whether you plugged the power line or not. (Faster with the line plugged). The only way to get it charged is to wait until the phone drain its battery and die. Then it charges again.
Battery can be charged with computer USB, but very very S..L..O..W. Maybe after hours and you get an 1% increase.
When using 1) the battery bar is around 50% after one night's charge. Restarting or shutting down\start again from the Android GUI won't help. But if we shut-down the phone and restart using the HBoot, it will show a bar of nearly 100%.

My girlfriend didn't have the adapter shipped along with phone. She has a BlackBerry 5V600mA adapter and a 5V1A adapter bought from AMAZON. Neither of them work. We hesitate to use a 2A adapter because we fear it may do harm to the battery.
I have read a lot threads these days. I think its maybe caused by some error on battery software of system or hardware error. But others' problems didn't seem totally the same with mine, and the solutions to these problems didn't work.
Does anyone have idea to deal with it?

Did you buy an original HTC or a fake? I assume it's a hardware problem. If you've bought an original HTC you could go to a HTC store and get a replacement as long as it's will in its warranty period. Charging with a 2A adapter should be a problem actually. 2A means that it's capable of giving 2 amps to your device while the phone might ask just 0,6-0,9 amps.

Yeah, I guess that's the root cause. Quite a long time since I last visit this post. Thanks for the help guys.

I haven't had this problem with my HTC One X, I have used several adapters and all of them were charging as normal.
I don't know if this will solve the problem, but you could try to do a reset of your phone, to make sure it is not a software related problem. But I guess the problem will still remain after the reset, so in that case, it is pretty sure that it is a hardware related problem of your phone. So you might want to contact HTC support for this problem. I think the only solution will be to swap your defective device with a working one.

original charger would solve all of your problems...
I had a similar problem on my hox as well, even with samsung galaxy s3 charger, everything is normal when I charge with original charger device & cable

Try to reset to factory settings, charge with ant without SIM card, reeboot.


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"press" spacebar on website
I am using quite nice timer for measuring my Rubik's Cube solve time: http://mzrg.com/qqtimer/
I want to use it too on my Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, when I don't have access to computer. Problem is, that site wants you to press space to start and stop timer. Is there possibility to emulate pressing space in Android browser? If this needs to install some specific browser that's fine.
PS. I know there are some Cube timers in market, but I can't find one with all handy statistics that this site has.

Well, you could...press the space bar? There is one on the keyboard. If the keyboard is "invisible", it might help to long-press the menu button to bring it up (doesn't always work, but is always worth a try).

Long pressing menu button brings up virtual keyboard, but also "leaves" site and starts entering new site address. So it is not a solution to a problem.

Oh -- I wasn't aware of that (never used that feature with the web browser). OK, was worth a try though. So except for an external keyboard, I'm out of ideas then... (or maybe Tasker could be used to insert a keystroke? Tasker can do such things, according to its manual, but I never tried).

This is just html with javascript. Copy it to another site and modify the code (put a button in it).

@ott-- You mean - modify and store as offline page? That can work...

You can also use the greasemonkey plugin (in firefox) and simply add it online. The site owner will not be aware of it.


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how to fake my personal information
I downloaded a game from Google Play. In the permission page, I noticed that it asks for my personal information.
Allow this application to:
Your personal information read sensitive log data.

Why in the world a game needs my personal information to run? so I decided not to install it. However, I really want to play this game. My question is this, is there any way to fake my personal information so developer of the game can not be able to reach my info?
My Android version   : 4.0.2
Model number         : GT-N7000
Baseband version     : N7000XXLB2

This app wants the "read logs" capability which may include sensitive information logged by other apps (also system apps). However note, that this specific problem has been adressed by Google with Jelly Bean onwards (apps can only read their very own logs, and not everything in the log since then). You have Cyanogenmod (or similar), right? (if so, you can have a look at PDroid (here, here and here))

I have a stock ROM installed. so do you think is it safe to install?

Nope, no official ROMs are supported. It's a rather invasive patch that depends on a firmware as close to Android 4.2 as possible. A number of aftermarket ROMs are supported (from the above linked Autopatcher thread: CM10, CM10.1, AOSP and AOKP 4.1.2 and 4.2.1. Evervolv, PA and SlimRom 4.2.1.) PS: Doesn't the N7000 only have an official Android 4.1.2 firmware yet? That's why I thought you might have CyanogenMod. Android 4.0 and 4.1 are also supported but with the same restrictions on the supported firmwares.

Bottom line: The read logs permission on Android 4.1+ is safe. You can install the app without fear on Jelly Bean devices (but not ICS and below).

you were right. my phone was running Anroid 4.0.2 . I was confused with my iphone's firmware number. sorry about that.

ok. It's baked into the firmware, i.e. you need to upgrade if you want that functionality. You can either install an aftermarket mod (4.2.1) and additionally apply the pdroid patch for fine grained control or upgrade to an official JellyBean firmware to (only) get the read logs security.

Have you checked the app description either in the Play Store or on the official web site to see if it has an explanation for why it needs that information? Have you considered contacting the developer directly and asking?

@ce4, thank you for these awesome information.

@user267, there is no explanation at all.

@ce4 I think it would make very much sense if you take all your valuable comments and compile an answer! You could also include a hint to LBE, which runs fine with its Playstore version up to 4.0 on any ROM (including stock).

Summing up from the comments on the question itself, so it doesn't "get lost":
As ce4 pointed out: The READ_LOGS permission requested by the app grants it access to the system logs, which might include sensitive information logged by other apps (also system apps). However note, that this specific problem has been adressed by Google with Jelly Bean onwards (apps can only read their very own logs, and not everything in the log since then). So the READ_LOGS permission on Android 4.1+ is safe. You can install the app without fear on Jelly Bean devices (but not ICS and below).
PDroid
If one has CyanogenMod (or a compatible ROM) installed, there's the option to use PDroid in one of its incarnations. Visit the XDA-Developers for information on...

The OpenPDroid AutoPatcher, working on Linux, MacOSX, and meanwhile also Windows. With this tool you can patch a ROM image so it will contain the PDroid functionality.
The OpenPDroid project. This thread gives you detailed information on what OpenPDroid is, what it does, what features it includes, and more.
PDroid 2.0, which now also offers support for stock ROMs. Tons of screenshots there, for sure an interesting read!

Still, PDroid is nothing for Android newbies to install -- it's not like just picking an .apk and go. All PDroid incarnations require you to patch an existing ROM image file, which you then must flash to your device. So no easy-go.
LBE
LBE Privacy Guard, on the other hand, can just be installed straight from the playstore if you run Android 4.0 or below. There are issues with JellyBean like e.g. boot-loops, so do not install the playstore version on JellyBean devices! At least not if it was not updated May 2013 or later. You have been warned!
For JellyBean users, again XDA is a good source: some busy members took care to translate the Chinese LBE安全大师 (LBE Security Master) to different languages. The thread can be found here, and this version does not boot-loop JellyBean.
XPrivacy
XPrivacy is pretty new in this area (I just discovered it recently, after I wrote this answer -- so I felt the need to update it). As with the other mentioned solutions, it requires a rooted device. In order to install the app, you also need a Custom Recovery such as e.g. clockworkmod or twrp. XPrivacy is based on the Xposed-Framework, so you will need that as well. Requiring Android 4.1 or higher, this seems a nice option for those having used LBE Privacy Guard before, and don't want to use the overloaded LBE Security Master on JellyBean.
From its behavior it's comparable to LBE: on a per-app basis, permissions can be set separately. In most cases, if you "revoke" a permission, "fake data" will be served instead -- with two exceptions, where this seems not to be possible (internet and external storage). More details can be found on the project page.
CyanogenMod, Paranoid Android, & Co. with Privacy Guard
CM 10.1 nightlies and onwards of CyanogenMod as well as Paranoid Android already ship with a Privacy Guard, which lets you define what apps should be placed into "incognito mode". While that's better than nothing, it's just an on/off switch: either the app is put into "incognito", or it is not. No selective withdrawal of permissions here.
Android 4.3+ App-Ops
With Android 4.3, Google finally introduced a kind of "permission manager". In 4.3, it's still hidden, but can easily be made available: App-Ops allow you a fine grained control over your privacy, almost similar to what PDroid, LBE, and XPrivacy provide. But just almost: not all permissions can be revoked here (e.g. network/internet access cannot).

From what I've read about Android 4.3, the security is clamped down alright (dmesg_restrict which means you need to be root to read the kernel log), and also, from rumours, parts of the app ops is slightly broken...?! unsure

All I've read about this was it should be working, but apps might crash (i.e. information is not "faked" like with LBE etc., but simply the permission revoked). I cannot verify myself, but nowhere was the word that root is needed, AFAIR.

Yeah, Even Chainfire had trouble in getting Superuser app to work comfortably with 4.3 as well.. and it would be fair to say it would have broken a few apps such as LBE etc

If you ask Steven Kondik (Mr. Cyanogen), root will die soon either. LBE was good up to ICS. The "new LBE" working with JB is a monster.

cheers for the linky... did not about the demise of root! how the eff did I miss that - TIL! +1

Proid 2.0, OpenProid and XPrivacy which one is the best at performance ?

Don't know. People able to use OpenPDroid will probably not check the other two. And considered that (Open)PDroid only runs on CM, people on other ROMs have no choice to test it out. My guess is, as both PDroids directly integrate deep into the system, they are the "more performant" candidates. But I never heard of any contest.

Log Data can't be faked without root and doing that would be a painful waste of time. All phones pre 4.1 that app can access a list of everything the phone has been doing (after you install 4.1 it can only access what it has been doing itself). You will have to trust the maker of the game to not use any logs maliciously currently or you can try and use this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1923576. I would recommend trusting the app or uninstalling it.
If you still want to play the game and be sure no one is getting your logs, you can play in aeroplane mode and then uninstall the app before you take it off aeroplane mode.


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Mount pendrive in chroot on Android
I have a fedora chroot running on an Android device and want to be able to plug a USB pen drive into the Android device and have it accessible to a user in the fedora chroot.
The pen drive is mounted to /mnt/usbhost2 within Android.
I have created a folder within /media of the fedora chroot as a mount point this folder (/usb) is owned by the user that needs access to the usb device.
I have then tried the following command the mount the USB device to this folder:
$bbox mount -o bind /mnt/usbhost2 $mnt/media/usb

Which does work however the usb folder is no longer accessable by the user (only root user has access).
Before the mount the usb folder ls -l out put:
drwxrwxr-x username username 4096

However after the mount the ls -l out put it:
d---rwxr-x username media_rw 8192

So the question is how to I get the owner to have access again, simply using chmod does not work. I guess it has something to do with that fact that the usb device is formatted FAT32.
Is there another way I could mount this drive in the chroot that would give the user access?

This is a puzzle.  You say, “only root user has access,” but d---rwxr-x (075) should mean that everybody in the media_rw group (except for your special user) has full access (7), and that everybody else (i.e., not the user or in the group) has read-only access (5).  Have you tried accessing the drive as some other user?  Other things to try: (1) chown the mount point to a user other than username.  (2) Check the documentation for mount on your system.  If it supports any of noowners, -u, or -uid, use it.


text:
Is TrimApp specific for Samsung phones or present on all 4.x Android Phones?
I'm confused regarding the Trim Video application. On my Galaxy Note it can be launched from the Gallery when I play a video and chose Trim from the menu.
I would like to know if this Trim application is available on all the Android 4.x phones or only specific to Samsung?

Can you edit to include the source of where the app came from?

It comes with my Samsung Galaxy Note, I haven't installed it from any external source. I would like to know if the same comes with non-Samsung 4.x phones.

There are a couple of video trimmers in the playstore in case you need one on another device.

No, I just would like to know if a stock Android 4.x firmware comes with any vdeo trimmer. Unfortunately I only have 2 Samsung devices, don't have anything else.

More than likely, the Trim Video application is part of the Samsung Galaxy Note ROM, so its proprietary and confined to Samsung only. :)

@t0mm13b I guess that's the answer then, I can accept it then if you put it as the answer.

There's certainly no such app on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

@Alex - Trim video is also present on my Galaxy S3 on 4.1 JB.


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Voice to text app for Messaging ICS
I am using stock ICS 4.0.4 on my phone and it seems to be missing a utility which I have seen on other Android phones with ICS. It doesn't have the option for voice to text native app for messaging.
How can I activate it?
Note: I do not have an always active internet connection

What phone do you have?

Under input methods do you have google voice typing?

no there is not.

Do you have Google Voice Search installed?

I installed it before but it requires internet access all the time which I don't ahve

Up until Jellybean (4.1/2) Voice typing requires an active internet connection as all of the voice processing is done in the cloud. In Jellybean they added offline voice typing.


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Creating Swap memory without rooting
I want to set up swap memory for my Android phone.

How to set up swap memory without rooting the device?
Is there an app for doing so?

I know only 2 swapper apps, both need root. Search for swapper in play store.

Why exactly do you want to set up swap?

to increase memory for playing heavy new games like Modern combat zero hour.

There is an app in the play store, the name is "Swap No Root", it is from the same creator of "Swapper". A 2GB of Swap already shows a big performance change.


text:
What is the typical Android OS Upgrade policy?
I noticed that our HTC Thunderbolts were upgraded from Android 2.3 to Android 4.0. That is very nice, I thought it would never upgrade.
Now that it did, I am wondering, why / what rules qualify an upgrade? Is it once every 18 months regardless? Is it diverse depending on which phone you have? Does it also depend on the carrier and/or brand? (are the HTC phones generally this way, or is it Verizon's choice)
Please clarify the Android OS update policy for me.
It would be extra good if you knew the policy on the iPhone OS, and how it compares.
Oh, and I already know that apps (YouTube, Play Store, Play Music, Gmail, Games) are not part of the OS, except for certain bundled apps. (Camera, Internet, Phone, etc.)

There basically is no policy. You'll get updates whenever the carrier/manufacturer/Google decide to release them.

Then the question is, who decides? The Carrier, Manufacturer, or Google? Or do they have to agree?

Google releases updates of Android regardless of what anybody else is doing with it. They develop it on their own timeline. What the manufacturers and carriers do after that probably varies, I would guess. In the US where phones are (typically) heavily subsidized by carriers, they generally have much more influence. In places where subsidizing is less common that may not be the case at all.

Who decides depends on where you buy the phone from. If you're buying a nexus device directly from Play Store, it's Google that decides the update. If you're buying carrier subsidized phones, it's usually the carrier that decides update schedule, sometimes that closely follows the manufacturers's update schedule, other times there can be significant delay between manufacturer update and carrier update schedule. How large the delay is is carrier dependant.

There isn't a specific Android OS Upgrade Policy. If it's a Nexus device and it can handle the latest version of Android it will get the latest version of Android from Google. Other than that it is up to manufacturers to update drivers and their specific customized version of Android for their own devices and then it is up to the carriers to approve those updates and release them to users' phones.
Apple has only one phone basically and they release updates on what seems to be a yearly basis and update is done via their own service, not restricted by carriers.

Well, then for completeness, do you know how often Google updates the Nexus device?

Major updates tend to be every 6 months and minor updates in between.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history
The last few new Android versions have been

Android Jelly Bean 4.1 on July 2012
Android Jelly Bean 4.2 on November 2012
Android Jelly Bean 4.3 on July 2013
Android Kitkat 4.4 on October 2013
Android Lollipop 5.0 on November 2014
Android Lollipop 5.1 on March 2015

So apart from a gap between 4.4 and 5.0 the minor releases have mostly been about half a year apart, and there has been a new major release (eg new dessert themed codename) about every one and a half years.
Important notes, however:

Only Nexus branded devices get the updates as soon as they're released.  Third party manufacturers get given the source code on that day, and it takes them a few months to make it into a release, depending on various factors.  Additionally, they have various agreements with carriers to let the carriers test updates before releasing which can add months.
Not all devices receive all updates, and some receive no updates at all.  The more "popular" a device and the more it is considered a "flagship" device, the more likely it is to get updates, but that's only a general rule of thumb.  There are phones being sold today still using only Android 4.3 with no further updates.

According to Google 18 months is the OS life.
"Nexus devices may not receive the latest version of Android if they fall outside of the update window, which is usually around 18 months after a device has been released."
https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en


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Viewing local style sheets/javascript/html using Emulator
I want to view style sheets/html pages via the Android emulator. I pulled the html pages into the SD Card and was able to view them. However, I'm not sure how to pull the style sheets/javascript in to see specific styling.
How can that be done? I'm not a programmer, but can find my way around Eclipse pretty well if that is needed.

Welcome to Android.stackexchange. Programming questions are considered off topic here and really belong over at stackoverflow.

Don't know whether to really call this a programming question -- it's not about programming, exactly, but how to "offline view HTML with external stylesheets". This also can apply to several end-user situations I can think of.

@user28314 I just re-phrased yout question to avoid it being closed as off-topic (see the comments above and on GreenGuy's answer below). As pointed out: Development questions are off topic here according to our [FAQ] (please read!), but the real issue you are having IMHO is not. The question itself stayed the same: Please compare it to see how to avoid such trouble in the future :)

I don't know much about Eclipse. But for your goal, it all depends on how the external stylesheets are defined. If they are using full-qualified URLs (e.g. http://www.example.com/example.css), there's no way you get them working offline. If they are using a relative path (easiest: just their file name, residing in the same directory as the HTML file), you can simply copy them next/relative to your HTML files, and it should work.
Examples, assuming the HTML file is put to /sdcard/html/myfile.html:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">: simply copy style.css to /sdcard/html
href="../style.css">: Copy to /sdcard
href="foo/bar/style.css": create /sdcard/html/foo/bar and place style.css there
href="/style.css": Sorry, nogo without root, as you cannot write to /

You need to open the HTML file on your browser, so that you can see the actual styling.
You can also open a browser via Eclipse.
PS This really sounds like a dev-related issue. Probably off-topic.

See my comment above (on the question). Though the context here looks like a dev thing, the real qeustion itself is not -- I can think of many situations where this might be of interest for "normal users" as well (leaving Eclipse out, as I did in my answer). General rule: If you can re-phrase it (without changing the "real question) so it becomes on-topic, it's not off-topic :) Though the OP probably should do that...


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How do I get a camera icon on my lockscreen?
I've seen screenshots from Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) that have a camera icon besides the unlock icon on the lockscreen (see below).
My Nexus 4 (latest Jelly Bean, 4.2.1) has a camera widget on its lockscreen instead, but I find it sometimes hard to open. (As long as the lock symbol is pulsing, the swipe has to be started from the very edge. If you are already widget selection mode, it is easier.)
Is there anyway to add the camera icon (or any other icons) to the unlock circle? In stock, with apps, or with any mods?

You could try WidgetLocker Lockscreen. It lets you add app shortcuts on your lockscreen.
It replaces your lockscreen though.

Go to
Settings-->Lock Screen-->Slider Shortcuts-->Swipe to any side--> Click on "Empty"-->Select "Applications"-->Camera
Now you can see a camera Icon on Lock Screen.

I don't see settings for Lock Screen on android 4.2.1. What phone did you use to provide these instructions?

Are you using Stock ROM or Custom?


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Computer will not recognize phone with USB Debugging enabled
so I'm trying to test apps on my Motorola Droid Razr so that I can test with audio and video playback. I'm running Windows XP (woot), and the problem is that when I connect my phone with USB Debugging enabled, the computer doesn't recognize it even though it was just connected as a media device with USB Debugging turned off. I thought I downloaded the correct USB driver because it worked before without USB Debugging.
I thought that the computer could automatically find the new hardware because i had just downloaded it, however this leads me to my next problem: whenever I connect my phone to the computer it kills the computer's internet...weird right? I've tried turning tethering, wifi, bluetooth, you-name-it on/off and it still does that. Any thoughts??
Appreciate the help
Peter M.

Connect your device in debug mode; and on your PC, go to Control Panel -> Add New Hardware to check if the ADB drivers for your device have been installed correctly / properly (if not, the device will show up in the list). If not, there is your issue.

The problem lies with the type of USB driver you have downloaded. They are two types of USB driver's.
1.Type1
2.Type2
Type1 USB driver is used only for file transfer and personal purpose like backup etc.
Whereas type2 USB driver is used solely for debugging(development). You need to download the Debug driver for your Motorola Droid razr
You had downloaded the type 1 driver so your device didn't get recognized by eclipse(or ADT).  In order to get your device identified via the debug enabled option download the latest debug driver for your device.
Follow this  link on downloading the device drivers for your device

Endless hours were spent trying to connect my Motorola Razr to my computer. This finally worked:
Go to Google Playstore on the phone. Download Motorola PIM (all upper case).
If you have an extended battery case/charger on the phone, remove the phone and insert the USB cable into the port on the top of the phone.
Or
Download AirDroid and connect wirelessly.

AirDroid is awesome...use it all the time