# Question
Title: Why is my Samsung Galaxy S constantly dropping its wifi connection?
When I attach my Galaxy S to my home wifi network it will stay connected for about 1-2 minutes. After this the wifi icon will be enabled, however no connection seems to actually be there.

I've tried a few wifi re-enablers on the marketplace but they haven't been successful.

# Answer
I would start at the router and look there first. Do a reboot of the router and see if it still happens. if it does, there should be logging in the admin of the router that you can turn on (if its not already) and maybe you can see something causing the drop.

Try getting Wifi Analyzer from the android market (free) to check if your router is on the same channel as other networks around you. try to put your router on the "clearest" channel.
> 4 votes

# Answer
go to Settings -\> Wireless and network -\> Wi-Fi settings, then press the "menu" key at the bottom of your phone. Click on "Advanced", then on "Wi-Fi sleep policy", it should have the option of "When screen turns off" but change it to "Never" if you don't want it to drop your Wi-Fi and use your phone service provider's data network when your screen turns off.
> 3 votes

# Answer
That happened to me because the network was handling b g and n bands, if you set only n in the router, the problem is solve.
> 2 votes

# Answer
Is it dropping while you're actively using it? Then is probably a router problem, or possibly a defective phone. Try on another network.

Otherwise, try using RyanZa's One Click Lag Fix. You don't need to actually use the lagfix, just open the app and change the WiFi Timeout value to something higher.
> 1 votes

# Answer
If you have JPY firmware then it might be causing problems. Try JPU/JPX

And try also other modem.

Hopefully it will help!
> -2 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s, wi-fi
---


# Question
Title: Unbricking HTC Desire HD - really need some help here!
Been given a Desire HD that seems to have had a bad Radio Flash

I have spent perhaps 50 hours on this problem as follows:

Screen is always black whatever I do (unless /sbin/recovery - see below)

**Power on:** 3 Vibrates and Orange light (flashing) and in Windows Devices shows: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies MSM

**Power on + Volume up:** same as above

**Power on + Volume Down:** 5 vibrates and Green light and in Windows Devices shows: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies MSM

**Connect device power lead and don't turn on:**

One Vibrate Shows in Device Manager as Android USD Devices -\> "My HTC" (installed OK) Also shows an "HTC DIAG" device with question mark (can install this with software from the web) F: drive comes up but cannot be accessed

can be seen in ADB devices as: HTCxxxxxxxxxxxxx RECOVERY

**fastboot devices**

*NO* fastboot... (not seen whatever I do)

**adb shell**

At this stage I cannot adb shell into the device as the "sh" is missing, so I adb push /system/bin and/system/lib over to the Desire HD (from another Droid) and can then adb shell to a root ('#') prompt.

I seem to be in a ramdisk, with no changes saved across reboots (not persistent) - *but* I do have write access to /dev/block/mmcblk0 partitions!!

**NO SDcard mounted**

The sd card is not mounted and seems not be recognized due to the faulty (radio?) flash.androidboot.cid is totally *corrupt* (crappy strange characters)

if the kernel boots why doesn't the screen come up???

Also:

**dmesg**

msmfb\_probe() installing 480 x 800 panel mdp\_lcdc\_probe: initialized (probably probing for the display???)

...some stuff....

err: Device config mismatch

is this where the screen fails?

also

**#reboot**

Issuing reboot from adb root shell # and the phone vibrates continuously and green led flashes!!

**My only hope of recovery it seems is:**

1) Reflash all mmcblk partitions with stock from adb (but I don't have the images).

2) Somehow rebuild the bootloader so I can get some life on a reboot/power on.

3) Flash a radio.img via adb (I don't have any fastboot access). And perhaps this will 'repair'the device.

4) Make PD98IMG.ZIP (or whatever) persistent in storage to allow me to access it on an /sbin/recovery reboot (somehow get it into /data which at the moment isn't persistent across reboots).

5) "fastboot oem enableqxdm 0" somehow from adb (I don't have fastboot) so that an /sbin/recovery can retrieve the PD98IMG.ZIP from the sdcard and reinstall stock.

Any help appreciated. I really believe it can be done!

# Answer
> 5 votes
To add, after a little thought I think the lack of a cache directory may have been my problem all along. I formatted this ext2 and this may have solved the problem. Therefore a damaged cache directory might have been the root cause of this problem.

after formatting the cache and running /sbin/recovery it went straight into Clockwork (it was a big surprise) .. I went to HBOOT and RUU'ed a new ROM immediately (unfortunately in my excitement and due to a mislabel by the uploader) it turned out to be a Telus one... which is giving me problems.. but heck.. simple ones.

The moral here is don't give up. Nearly everybody said this was a bricked phone. But, I think, if you have HBOOT/fastboot or (most probably need rooted) ADB access you can do many things to get things going - I learned a lot ))))

---
Tags: htc-desire-hd, unbricking
---


# Question
Title: My nfc-enabled android-phone won't read a rfid key I own, why and what can I do about it?
Does it require some kind of activation-code? If so, can I read it while I scan it on the original scanner?

# Answer
> 4 votes
Not all RFID systems are compatible with NFC. NFC uses an RF frequency of 13.56 MHz (so-called HF), but there are other common RFID systems that use frequencies in the range of 100-150 KHz (so-called LF) or 860-960 MHz (so-called UHF). Your key may belong to an LF or UHF system. Another possibility is that your key is part of an HF system, but uses a command set or an RF modulation scheme that is not compatible with NFC.

---
Tags: security, nfc
---


# Question
Title: How do music players survive hot reboot?
When I do a hot reboot, everything is killed and restarted, but I never ever experienced any interruption in music playback. How?

**System:** Samsung Galaxy S (ICS)
**Music Players:** Stock music player, PlayerPro, Rocket Music Player

# Answer
The typical implementation of a "hot reboot" does not actually shut down the OS and restart it (see What does Hot Boot mean? for related discussion). In essence, it's killing the UI and other foreground processes, then restarting the UI components, making it somewhat analogous to restarting the X server on a \*nix machine.

The music player spawns a background service that actually handles playback, and services simply aren't interrupted in the hot reboot process. Using the \*nix analogy again, restarting your X server typically doesn't kill your daemons, but it will stop any currently running X applications. It's a similar principle on every hot reboot implementation I've seen.

Now I should probably also qualify this with a disclaimer that this is based on my understanding of *one* such implementation of the "hot reboot" feature. There may be others that do it differently, but since this is not a standard/native feature and it's generally not documented anywhere you'd likely have to reach out to the developer of your particular app or ROM for more information. Heck, this may even vary depending on the music player you're using - the above is just my analysis based on the limited information I've found available on the subject.
> 9 votes

---
Tags: music-player
---


# Question
Title: what is the use of VPN Connection in Android phone?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> What is this VPN setting good for?

Is it used for remote machine access? How to configure the VPN setting?

# Answer
> 2 votes
It is the same use of using VPN with desktop computer. You can connect to a network and become a part of it to access its resource.

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, which means that you can join a network (typically a organisation's LAN/WAN) through Internet and access its resources link printing or accessing intranet web portals etc.

As you has asked, it can be used for remote access for computers which are not exposed to Internet and are connected to LAN only.

You can see this link for more information.

---
Tags: vpn
---


# Question
Title: Application or software by which we can access tablet or mobile remotely over internet?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> Any VNC solutions for an unrooted device?

I am using TeamViewer and other VPN remote access software to access my laptop or PC from my Android phone. But is there any software by which I can access my Android smartphone remotely over Internet either through Android phone or through laptop.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Remote Phone Access from Google Play Store does what you want.

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Tags: applications, remote-access
---


# Question
Title: What launchers support Tasker's Go Home to a paticular page?
Tasker's Go Home action has a slider that lets you select *which page* of your launcher will be displayed. Trouble is, the launcher has to be written to support this feature (specifically, it needs to recognize `net.dinglisch.android.tasker.extras.HOME_PAGE` as a parameter to the launch intent).

Anyone know which launchers support this feature? ADW doesn't and Go doesn't. Tag Home doesn't. Nova does, according to its readme, but it's ICS only (I'm still on Gingerbread). I'm willing to download every launcher to see if I can find one, but I was hoping someone would know before I resort to that.

# Answer
The now (almost) obsolete LauncherPro supports this feature.
> 1 votes

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Tags: launcher, tasker
---


# Question
Title: Why are individual apps not listed in my battery usage statistics?
I'm using an Asus Transformer TF300 running Ice Cream Sandwich. When I check `Settings->Battery` the only things listed are Screen, Tablet Idle and Wifi. Why aren't apps that I use being shown in these statistics?

# Answer
The only apps shown there are the ones using significant (\>=1%) battery. If the app is not particularly resource intensive, it won't show up there.
> 4 votes

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, battery-life
---


# Question
Title: How can I create a downloadable file with my contact info
I'm trying to create a link on my website where you can click and add my info to your phones contacts. Is there a file format that android will recognize & load a contact from?

# Answer
The easiest way is to use a barcode you could e.g. create with an app like My QR code Generator. If you do not want to install an app for the purpose, there are also web services available like e.g. GOQR.ME -- simply search google for QR Code generator vcard.

The result is a QR-Code -- a simply image you can put on your web page. On Android (and other) devices, a QR code reader (best known and widely used on Android is Barcode Reader) utilizes the camera to take a picture from it, analyzes the coded content, and then offers an appropriate action. In case of a VCard, this would e.g. be to add it to your contact list -- exactly what you intended.

Of course you could simply export your contact data in VCard format for download (on opening that, the user would get the same choice to add the content to the contacts). You also could combine both, linking the QR-Code image to the downloadable VCard (make sure the file extension of the vcard file is set to `.vcf`, so the web server gets a chance to set the correct mime type -- otherwise it may be treated as "plain text" and opened inside the browser instead of being downloaded). This way a visitor could either use a barcode reader, or click on the code to download the VCard. Thus it even could be imported to apps on the PC: MS Outlook, Gnome Evolution, and others understand the VCard-Format as well.

**Troubleshooting:**

If you linked the VCard `.vcf` file for download, and it still only gets displayed in the browser window, here's how this can be fixed with Apache web server (solution by MrGlass -- thanks!):

Edit your Apache config (or, if you cannot access this, edit/create the `.htaccess` file in the directory your `.vcf` is stored) to contain the following segment:

```
<FilesMatch "\.vcf$">
  ForceType text/vcard
  Header set Content-Disposition attachment
</FilesMatch>

```
> 6 votes

---
Tags: contacts
---


# Question
Title: Android updates for Nexus bought from Amazon
Is there any difference in terms of either phone features, software versions or time to get new updates if I bought the Galaxy Nexus from Amazon instead of waiting for it to be sold direct from Google in the UK?

Any reasons I should wait?

# Answer
Galaxy Nexus goes by variants such as yakju, yakjuxw, and takju. However yakju and takju will receive updates directly from Google. While the rest will be receiving from Samsung or probably network provider.

The difference between yakju and takju is that takju has Google wallet while yakju does not. Takju can only be purchased from Play Store.

I assume the one being sold directly from Google in the UK is the same one offered at Play Store which runs takju while the one on Amazon runs yakju.

In term of phone hardware they are exactly the same.
> 4 votes

---
Tags: updates, samsung-galaxy-nexus
---


# Question
Title: Creating and handling an encrypted folder on sd-card for unrooted devices
I'm looking for a way to create an encrypted folder on the sd-card and provide password protected access to its contents. Ideally, this would provide a UI to encrypt new files by moving files to it and retrieve them back.

I know there is EncFS but it only works in rooted devices. And also BoxCryptor which is only for Google Drive or DropBox.

I need a solution which would work with sd-card folders and on unrooted devices.

# Answer
There are many available choices, depending on the features you need:

* Cryptonite uses EncFS and requires root
* LUKS also requires root and provides on-the-fly encryption (AES by default) to virtual folders
* Eds provides encrypted containers and does not require root. It even is compatible to TrueCrypt.
* DroidCrypt can encrypt single files or full directories. No root needed.
* Encryption Manager is a file manager providing file encryption support, and so is AnDisk
* FilesCrypter supports encrypted files and folders

And many more.¹ Just check the examples, and take a look at the "also recommended" stuff on their market pages to find more.

---

¹ disclosure: link goes to my Android site
> 8 votes

# Answer
There's LUKS Manager which is available in the Play Store. It also requires your device to be rooted, however.

It's also open source. I have not tried it myself however, so I can't comment on how well it works.

The closes you can get without a rooted device is probably full disk encryption.
> 1 votes

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Tags: sd-card, encryption
---


# Question
Title: Would Galaxy Nexus US version (unlocked directly from Google Play) work in India
Would Galaxy Nexus US version (unlocked directly from Google Play) work in India on GSM networks? As far as I understand from the specifications the voice should work just fine as it is a quad band. What about data? Seems like it does support 3G 2100 which is used in India.

Galaxy Nexus specifications

* GSM/EDGE/GPRS (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
* 3G (850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz)
* HSPA+ 21

GSM Bands information by country

* 900 1800 3G 2100 BSNL / MTNL

# Answer
You may not get 21Mbps downloads on HSPA+, but otherwise, voice calls and data access should work just fine, provided you get a compatible SIM card from the local provider.
> 5 votes

# Answer
I just bought a Galaxy Nexus(unlocked directly from Google Play Store) and it works fine for me.I tested 2G and 3G over Airtel Networks.
> 2 votes

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Tags: samsung-galaxy-nexus
---


# Question
Title: Is the Google branded Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ the same as GT-I9250?
I purchased the Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ directly from Google Play. I'm looking to buy a Proclip holder that's specific to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (GT-I9250) http://www.proclipusa.com/brodit-device-holder/samsung-galaxy-nexus-(gt-i9250)/holder-with-tilt-swivel-511324-18854.aspx

Is the Google sold device the same form factor?

# Answer
Yes, the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus phone from Google Play Store is the i9250 model. That clip should fit it just fine.
> 2 votes

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Tags: samsung-galaxy-nexus
---


# Question
Title: Alert Dialog List View Shows White Text on White?
I updated my Motorola RAZR to ICS lately, and was using the Go Launcher Ex launcher, and when I tried to select a widget, it popped up a "Choose Widget" dialog that showed the icons, but the text was white on white background. I can see them if I select them, but not otherwise.

At first I thought this was a problem with Go Launcher Ex, so I installed the Apex launcher instead, and it's choose widget dialog shows the same white on white text again (see below).

I've tried changing Go Launcher Ex and Apex themes, but still have the issue so I began wondering if it was an issue with the underlying color palettes. I've seen a few posts about this being an issue with the "Light Theme", and they suggest choosing a different theme when you create the alert dialog. However, I'm just a user, not a developer, so I'm wondering the following:

1) Is this just a bug in Go Launcher Ex and Apex Launchers respectively, and I should complain to both of them?

or

2) Is there something goofed up with the color palette of my phone's light theme and I can tweak it?

Thanks in advance...

Screenshot (click image to enlarge)

# Answer
> 0 votes
Aparently this is an issue with several of the launchers in many of the ICS builds. Will just have to wait for it to be addressed by Verizon, I suppose...

Droid Forums: ICS and Go Launcher Problems

---
Tags: motorola-droid-razr, themes, go-launcher-ex, apex-launcher-pro
---


title: Root Gone but still works for many Apps

text:
# Question
Title: Root Gone but still works for many Apps
I Have a Verizon Galaxy Nexus which was rooted. I used an OTA Rootkeeper to keep the root after I upgraded to 4.0.4 which worked great, I was able to use root well after the OTA update. But recently the root has stopped working however the apps that I had saved permission before the mysterious removal of root still work. So I can use Sixaxis, Wifi Tether, File Explorer with root permissions, etc. They all work great however any new app I download is unable to get root access. I first noticed it trying to flash a rom.

When I go into SU app says I have a outdated binary and when I try to update it (from 3.0.3) it fails to gain root access.

**Any ideas why I've lost root access and how I can get it back short of going back through the entire root process?**

# Answer
Having "root" just means you have a working `su` binary installed (the "su" application is generally just a management front-end for the linux-level binary installed in `/system/bin` or `/system/xbin`). So, something has gone wrong with the binary, or the way its installed, or its permissions, or its location, or ...

I suspect the apps that still work must have `chown`'d themselves once at setup time? So they only need `su` to work once, and after that they're good to go.

If you can connect an `adb` shell or run an Android Terminal (that was just the first play store search hit, I'm not endorsing that specific terminal), type "su" and see if you get a meaningful error. You can use `adb` to copy a new `su` binary over, or just re-"root" the device. See the FAQ questions here: http://androidsu.com/superuser/faq/
> 2 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-nexus, ota-update, root-access
---


title: Can apps be controlled through adb?

text:
# Question
Title: Can apps be controlled through adb?
Can an installed application be completely controlled via adb?

For example: Consider I need to to export my Contacts to SD Card. So here there are basically 5 Steps involved

1)Open Contacts application

2)Press Menu Key

3)Select Import/Export option

4)Select Export to SD card

5)Confirm Export

Can any/all of them be performed via adb?

This can be useful when you have an unrooted phone with a bricked display and all access you have is via adb.

# Answer
Yes and no. You can issue intents with `adb` but that's it. So the steps you described can't be achieved with `adb`.

Edit: ce4 showed a blog post which mentions the `input` binary which is able to simulate key events.

```
adb shell input keyevent <keycode>

```
> 7 votes

---
Tags: contacts, backup, adb
---


# Question
Title: Has the copy/paste functionality been removed in the RAZR Maxx's Ice Cream Sandwich update?
Now that I have upgraded my Motorola Rzar Maxx to Ice Cream Sandwich the ability to do a copy and paste from Evernote and Office Suite are no longer available. Instead I have to cut rather than copy, then paste it back in the app and then go to the app you want to past in to paste it. Further there is no longer a menu item to select all text either. Has this functionality been removed by the update?

# Answer
> 3 votes
ICS and Evernote both support "copy" functionality. Highlight the text you want and then press the icon that looks like two overlapping pieces of paper (circled in red):

If this is missing then you may wan to provide a screenshot of what you see. Although it's possible Motorola removed the "copy" functionality from the system, I would find it somewhat unlikely (and this forum post seems to indicate it does exist). Also, the grid icon on the far left (circled in blue) is "select all".

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, copy-paste
---


title: Droid Charge SCH-I510 Memory Dump Crash

text:
# Question
Title: Droid Charge SCH-I510 Memory Dump Crash
I am a Android developer who has been noticing horrible performance and memory dumps that are crashing my Droid Charge SCH-i510. Besides the lack of roadmap for the phone ( because obviously they are targeting newer models) I know it will never really be updated again.

~~But I would like to see if any one else is having these issues and if they were able to pin point it.~~ Does anyone know how to solve this issue or overcome it? Obviously not everyone will have the exact same issues. But I notice the issue when processing images as well when a specific thread is chewing resources.

I reached out to Samsung and I was told to "Not have a lot of apps installed on the phone" or to "Not use so many apps on the phone" I tried to explain to them that Android when not using an app has a lifecycle that will free up resources from apps not being used so that it will not run out of resources. They just responded to that as "We are sorry you are mad"

Great job helping your dev's pin point an issue.

# Answer
I figured out why this is happening. The problem is due too a bug that most other Android users are having running 2.3.5 and higher. It happens when more than 50 apps are installed on the SD Card. To which it seems there is no work around for as of yet.

So we are stuck ATM.
> 1 votes

# Answer
Search the logcats for stack traceback. Try uninstalling apps one at a time, to see if the problem disappears when you uninstalled a certain app.

If the issue come from an installed application, then you should uninstall that app and/or contact the developer to fix the crash.

If the issue is system level, then there is not much you can do. You can either downgrade to a version that crashes less, or try upgrading to custom ROM, although with custom ROMs the crashes could also get worse.

It should be noted that newer Android versions have better application management than older versions. I recalled that there is an improvement that comes either in 2.1 or 2.2 or 2.3 that significantly improves the way the out-of-memory killer works.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: crashes, samsung-droid-charge
---


title: Call Log or now called Recent Calls

text:
# Question
Title: Call Log or now called Recent Calls
Where did the ability to sort and see your calls either by missed calls (those that you did not answer), received calls (those that you answered) and Dialed calls (those that you dialed.) There is no menu selection to choose like in previous versions of Google's Android System.

# Answer
Open the phone app and open the Call History tab. (Icon is a clock.)

If you're using Google Voice tap the word "Inbox" at the top of the screen and it will pull down a menu of the different boxes for GV (e.g., Text, Missed, Received, etc.)
> 2 votes

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, call-history
---


# Question
Title: Droid X2 constantly changing USB mode to PC mode
So I'm trying to manually backup my SD card and transfer over files to flash the CM9 alpha4 to my phone, but it apparently decided to just start automatically switching to PC Mode. No matter how many times I try to switch to USB Mass Storage, it changes back to PC Mode before the drives can even mount.

The only thing I've done since I was last able to change modes was upgrade Titanium Backup to the Pro version and run a backup.

# Answer
I transferred the CM9 files with Dropbox and flashed. The issue didn't persist after flashing.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: usb, usb-connection-mode, motorola-droid-x2
---


# Question
Title: New TF300 is not showing anything on the screen
I purchased an ASUS TF300 from Amazon and it arrived today. The manual says to charge it for 8 hours for optimal battery life, so I plugged it in and let it charge for a bit. The power button is now displaying a green light after about two hours of charging (it's still plugged in), and when I press the button the tablet's backlight comes on. However, the screen is blank - nothing is being displayed.

I've tried forcing a reboot (holding the power button down for 8 seconds). The tablet makes a chiming noise and appears to reboot - based on the backlight turning off and then back on - but there is still nothing displayed on the screen.

Any suggestions? Is it possible it's DOA?

# Answer
> 0 votes
I was unable to resolve the issue through all types of hard/cold resets/reboots (PWR+VOL, PWR for 30 seconds, hard reset pin, etc), so I returned to Amazon and received a working tablet today. It appears that mine was just DOA.

---
Tags: screen, asus-eee-pad-transformer
---


# Question
Title: Android Dumpstate Crash Logs Appearing Randomily
I own a Galaxy Nexus, currently running Android 4.0.4 and ever since I've updated to 4.0.4 I've had problems in that it randomly asks me to share content (without saying what it is) and when I view the files it attaches I see that it includes a dumpstate log and a screenshot.

Is there a way to find what is causing this or stop this from happening?

Samsung support don't give me any help besides the usual battery in-out reboot and restore to factory defaults (which I have both tried already).

# Answer
> 1 votes
It seems you are accidently triggering the generation of a bug reports, as described on this google support site (click on the nexus link):

> Generate a bug report immediately: Press Volume (in between Up and Down) and Power at the same time (after a \>significant delay -- up to a minute -- the device will vibrate if successful and open a new message in Gmail).

In my case, my device had a case which was triggering the bug report by inadvertently pressing 'volume' and 'power'

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-nexus, crashes
---


# Question
Title: How to have a long Standby and Battery -life?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device?

My Huawei Android is dead after one day. I am looking for

1. ways to extend the battery life
2. a new Android -phone with long battery-life (3. hopefully a phone with two Sim -cards)

I don't know what I really need. For 1, the Wifi/3D-all-the-time-on eats battery -- but hey I like to read my emails on phone. For 2, I could buy more bulky phone. For 3, something here (not sure about the quality). Look I currently use my non-3G iPad with long battery -life, I could buy the 3G version to alleviate the battery problem. I also use Nokia 9300 or Nokia 1111 with 1 week battery life.

With Wifi/3G -problem, is it possible to have them in some energy -saving mode. 1 day battery in Android phones is totally ridiculous. How can I get long battery life?

# Answer
> 1 votes
Regarding this two parts of your question:

> ...ways to extend the battery life...
>
> ...With Wifi/3G -problem, is it possible to have them in some energy -saving mode...

I own a Huawei U8510-1 (Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread) and I also had to deal with that battery issue. When I've bought it, my battery lasted a day, forcing me to recharge it every night.

After some tests, by disabling and enabling stuff, I was able to give it a slight increase, specially when I've disabled the 3G, leaving only the WiFi. , but couldn't get it to pass two days without a recharge.

The best solution I've found till the present day was this APP:

* Easy Battery Saver *free*

> Save power, extend battery life and perfect experience of using phone with Easy Battery Saver!

It works and really makes a difference. I'm able to control every small detail regarding what my phone should or shouldn't be doing, down to what apps can use 3G or WiFi. Now I charge my phone one, max two times a week, depending on the usage. :)

---
Tags: battery, standby, dual-sim
---


# Question
Title: Can a non-rooted Android 4.0.3 smartphone’s ROM be backed up?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> Full Backup of non-rooted devices

I am using a smartphone running non-root Android 4.0.3 and am also a desktop Linux user (Ubuntu 12.04 amd64).

In Linux/Ubuntu, I could backup my whole system (whole partition) into a file image and when necessary, restore my whole system (including MBR) back on my desktop computer. (e.g. using "clonezilla")

It seems that there are similar Android apps (e.g. ClockworkMod) for system backup (Android rom backup) on a rooted Android device. However, I am not sure whether there is similar system backup apps for a non-root Android device ? Could anyone tell whether it is possible ?

I have difficulties in using root-device rom backup apps such as "ClockworkMod" as my smartphone (ASK SP404) is not a branded smartphone and I could not find any rooting procedures for this phone, although there are good discussions on the web that talk about this, e.g. HOW TO ROOT your Android phone. (This thread talks about Android rooting procedures for many branded phones, but not my phone ! )

It would be great if anyone could suggest a rooting procedure for my phone, or some directions that I could try. Thanks in advance for any advice.

# Answer
> 8 votes
To answer your first question, you cannot do a whole image backup from within Android without root, as no application or service you can run will be able to read the system partitions.

If the "recovery" console (a small, BIOS-like image installed on the device) contains backup support, it has access to the raw partitions and could create a "Nandroid" backup image (see About the android recovery mode). If your phone's default recovery does not support image backup (it would be somewhat surprising if it did), you may be able to install a new recovery, without "rooting" the Android installation. Booting into recovery is very device specific (e.g., hold down power and volume down), and its features (and replacability) are fairly specific too.

If you have a recent Android Development Kit (ADK) installed, you can use the `adb backup` (and `adb restore`) commands to backup your installed apps and (some of) your data. But its not a complete image/ROM backup. I can't find any official documentation, but this XDA Dev Forum post goes over it in some detail.

To your second question, see: How do I root my Android device? There are suggestions and pointers there that may work for you.

---
Tags: backup
---


# Question
Title: Why my phone is always out of space recently, but I didn't install any new software
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> How can I free some disk space without deleting my apps?

I've installed such software as Shazam, Baidu Map, QQ, HiMarket, MeiTuan, UC Mobile, etc. At first everything is fine, but nowadays the phone always says "Low on space". What should I do?

# Answer
It should be the applications occupying /data/ space as they are in use, mainly due to runtime files, cache, database, etc.

In order to verify this, you can execute the following:

```
adb shell
su -c "du /data" | sort -n

```

It should have a result like:

```
...

3792    /data/data/com.UCMobile
28399   /data/app
35647   /data/data
49374   /data/dalvik-cache
114865  /data/

```

And then you can check the directories from large to small, to see what's taking so much space.
> 4 votes

# Answer
It could also be a good idea to clear the apps cache. You can do so manually, going to *settings -\> applications*, opening each app, and hit the "clear cache" button -- or use a helper app as e.g.

All these are available for free on the ma... play store, do *not* require root access, and do the cleaning automated with one tap only. There are many more available, if you want to check out...
> 2 votes

---
Tags: storage
---


# Question
Title: How to make an application to ignore updates?
In my rooted LG Optimus One (a.k.a P500) running stock 2.3.3, I have few Google's applications preinstalled.

When updates are being checked, notification for presence of updates are included for these applications as well. Since I am not using Wifi, I have to pay for every Kb and would like not have updates checked for certain applications alone.

Please note: I do not want to block checking of updates totally, but only for few applications that I would like to choose (that could be either through Wifi or GSM).

# Answer
Multiple approaches here.

First, you can open the PlayStore App, hit the menu button, go to settings, and advise it to only work with WLAN, plus not install apps automatically. This would cover part of your problem.

Second, you could also tell it to not check for updates at all. While on a first look this seems to contradict with your intention -- please read on. Go and install yourself the Appbrain App Market App. This actually utilizes the Google Play store, it is not a separate market. It even uses your Google account for everything. Now synchronize your installed apps with the AppBrain App. After that, you will see available updates -- and you can decide on a per-app basis whether to...

* accept this update
* skip this update only (and be reminded only for the next update)
* skip updates for this app altogether

As you told the "original" PlayStore-App to "shut up", there won't be multiple update notifications. Just use the Appbrain App for updating your apps -- it will do so by calling the PlayStore app using its API. Batch-Updates ("Update all") are of course possible as well.
> 8 votes

---
Tags: google-play-store, updates
---


# Question
Title: Alternative to Photosync to sync pictures into Picasa
The version of Photosync I have installed fails to upload pictures after I take a few dozen of them in a short period of time. Is there an alternative app that will work and not take too much memory on my poor old 2.3.5 phone?

The Google+ app is too heavy for my phone.

# Answer
If I'm understanding correctly, the Google+ app sounds like it has the functionality you're looking for. Within the app, press `Menu -> Settings -> Instant Upload` and turn the feature on. This will upload them to Google+ to a folder only you can see, and as Google+ and Picasa albums are the same, they'll be available on your Picasa account as well!
> 2 votes

---
Tags: sync, photos
---


# Question
Title: What's a secure way to message/talk to someone in CM9?
I'm using CM9 nightly (20120712 i.e. today).

I need to talk securely, without the chance of eavesdropping, to someone who also has CM9 nightly (not sure how up-to-date but not more than 1 month old).

What apps/webapps can I use to do this? Ideally I would like to be able to talk but messaging/email would be fine.

Are apps like Twitter/Gmail/Gtalk secure end-to-end? I do have HTTPS set up on my account but don't know how far it applies to the mobile version.

But really I am willing to use anything as long as it known to be secure enough to prevent MITM attacks and eavesdropping by unwanted parties.

# Answer
I found the following but I don't think this is a definitive answer though it looks close to what I need, secure end-to-end encryption with no chance of snooping/sniffing/MITM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-the-Record\_Messaging#Phone\_apps

I wasn't fully aware of OTR though I had heard the term used elsewhere but didn't know the full implications. I think OTR is what I'm looking for.

Still looking for further input though.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: encryption, privacy, https
---


title: Flash support for Jellybean (4.1)

text:
# Question
Title: Flash support for Jellybean (4.1)
Adobe has released statements saying they will no longer support flash for newer Android builds starting with 4.1.

I flashed a custom rom of 4.1 the other day and couldn't find any 3rd party flash support in the market. I use flash for Orb to stream tv. Orb has an Android app but it unusable and all around horrible experience (verified by the the many negative reviews) but you could use the website to stream flash as a work around to the poor app which worked great.

**My question is: how can I play flash video in Android Jellybean (4.1)**

# Answer
> 11 votes
Currently, you can side load the flash player on a 4.1 device. Meaning you have to download the apk file and install directly from the device, or with adb. There is no guarantee that flash will work at all in the future. Not only is Adobe dropping flash support for Android 4.1, No new installs for any version of android will be allowed for the Flash Player app from Google Play after August 15th.

I hope that this actually means that Adobe is moving closer to making flash "export" to something that modern browsers can all run, like using the HTML5 canvas. Flash on Android has always been pretty limited. It's only real use was for playing flash video, anything else I ever tried to use it with was buggy and laggy.

---
Tags: adobe-flash, 4.1-jelly-bean
---


# Question
Title: How can I reliably screen or block callers on a number-by-number basis?
Last night I got a telemarketing call on my Verizon Droid X. I was horrified, to say the least. I absolutely do NOT want telemarketers wasting my time and minutes with their B.S.

I looked into screening blocking calls through Verizon, but it seems Verizon only lets you block a total of FIVE numbers. I think this is unacceptable.

I went to the app store and there are a number of such applications available. From reviews and comments it's really hard to choose.

Is there a way to solve this problem? An app? A procedure? Something within the phone itself?

I'm using the soak release of Gingerbread, 2.3.3. I don't care about price. I just want something that is fast and effective.

# Answer
> 9 votes
I don't use an app.

What I do is have a "Spammer" record in my Contacts. Whenever I receive a telemarketing call, I add that phone number to the Spammer contact.

I give out my Google Voice number exclusively. Within GV I have that contact blocked, so any calls from one of those numbers receives the *"ding-ding-ding This number is not in service"* message.

In those rare cases where the call is to my actual cell phone number, it quite obviously displays "Spammer" on the screen and I simply slide to ignore the call.

# Answer
> 9 votes
If you are in the US, I would highly recommend getting a Google Voice number. Anytime a form asks for your phone number, give it your Google Voice number instead of your real phone number. This way you can screen calls or block calls inside of Google Voice, along with other benefits such as transcribing your voicemails and unlimited texting.

# Answer
> 4 votes
Root Call Blocker seems to fit the bill perfectly. As the name implies though, it requires the handset to be rooted. I use it personally and so far it's been doing its job well.

There are plenty of alternatives on the Market for you to try.

# Answer
> 4 votes
I would recommend two apps. Call Blocker, which works really fine and blocks calls as well as inconvenient text messages, and Tasker -- a very powerful tool that does a lot of things besides blocking undesired calls.

# Answer
> 1 votes
A new app in the Play Store: WhoAreYou

> Completely FREE Visual Caller ID, Call Blocker, and Text Blocker. Know exactly who is calling or texting you - even when they’re not in your address book. WhoAreYou is a completely FREE visual Caller ID, Call Blocker, and Text Blocker.
>
> * See a name, visual picture, city and state on almost every call and text.
> * Use it as a call filter and call blocker to effortlessly block calls from telemarketers, spammers, and ex’s from ringing your phone.
> * Also use it as a text filter and text blocker to get rid of those unwanted, annoying text messages. Block SMS / TXT messages with ease!
> * Reverse lookup any number in the US or Canada

Lifehacker review

---
Tags: motorola-droid-x, call-screening
---


# Question
Title: Automatically replace app after opening APK
If I download an APK and open it, I get a "Not Installed" error if the app is already present on the device. Is there any way to automatically delete the old version?

(Note I'm not trying to avoid opening the APK, which isn't allowed for security reasons. I'm just trying to avoid manually deleting the old app.)

# Answer
As eldarerathis already pointed out in his comment on your question: If the app is already installed, and the certificate matches, you will be prompted whether you want to replace it. If the certificates differ, there's a conflict: The app cannot be updated due to the mismatch, and it cannot be installed along as the package *name* is already in use (apps use an internal package name, which e.g. is shown in the URL on its Google Play Store webpage). If the package is corrupted, you again get another specific error (telling you it is corrupted).

So most probably, the `.apk` you try to install manually has been tampered with. If it wasn't you doing so, I would refrain from using it. If it was you, and you know what you are doing -- or you know the source to be trustworthy (e.g. the developer of the app provided you with an unsigned testing version), you have to first uninstall the original app before installing the "tainted" `.apk`.
> 8 votes

---
Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, apk
---


# Question
Title: How can I record phone calls on Motorola Atrix 4G?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> Is there a way to easily record a phone conversation in-progress?

I'm using a Moto Atrix 4G (MB860) running Android 2.3.6 bought from AT&T, and have tried a wide range of call recording apps but have yet to find one that actually works on my device. I notice that some apps explicitly explain that they don't work on Moto phones. Is this a hardware problem? Can I do anything to make it work?

I would like my phone to automatically record all incoming and outgoing calls, and save them in a common audio file type in the SD card or internal storage of the phone.

I've search the website, but the posts I found about call recording are *neither specific to Atrix nor Motorola*, which I believe are the key to the problem I currently have.

(Despite that I bought the phone from the U.S., I live in a country where call recording is perfectly legal to the best of my knowledge.)

# Answer
Simple answer: No, you can't.

Longer variant: While you can recording your own voice, the system prevents you from recording the remote voice (the person you called or who is calling you). This already frustrated a lot of developers who tried to write some "answering machine" apps. So there seems to be no way without hacking the entire system...
> 4 votes

# Answer
Google Voice provides this functionality, if you install it and make calls through that number. They explain:

> To get started simply enable the call recording feature:
>
> Click the gear icon and select Settings \[on voice.google.com\]. Click the Calls tab. Select the checkbox next to Call Options. Once you've enabled it you can turn it on during a call by pressing 4 at any time to record your incoming calls. You can do it when you first accept a call, or any time after it's started. To stop the recording, press 4 again or hang up.

NOTE: I believe this method stores the recorded calls online, but don't know if there is a way to save them to your device.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: call-recording
---


# Question
Title: Latest Motorola update burns more battery on RAZR phone idle?
I had my Droid Razr tuned pretty well to give me 10-12 hours of use without going below 70-80% of battery life. Since the update to 6.12.181.XT912Verizon.en.US (GB 2.3.6), I'm now down to 40% in the same time period.

Cell standby is the big culprit. It's sucking down huge amounts of battery now. My question is this: Is there anything I can do about this short of rolling back to the previous (flawed) update?

# Answer
Try Juice Defender. It has a data toggle widget.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: motorola-droid, battery-life, motorola-droid-razr
---


# Question
Title: Is there a way to control which audio is sent to Bluetooth and which is sent to system speaker?
**Background info explaning why I want what I want**

I'm almost totally deaf. I have a Bluetooth-enabled hearing aid that is paired with my Droid RAZR (ICS 4.0.4). When any audio is played on the phone (ringer, phone call, media, etc) it triggers my hearing aid. The switch-over is not instant and I miss a few seconds of audio (plus I get a really loud, annoying beep from my hearing aid informing me that it is making the switch from external audio to BT audio).

As a result, text messages and other short audio notifications (like navigation speech) trigger my hearing aid, the loud beep occurs, the external mic is turned off, the BT connection is enforced, and then... nothing. In the time it takes for all that to occur, I've missed whatever the audio input was.

**TL;DR**

I'd like to be able to tell my phone to direct text messaging, ringer, and other audio playback (navigation) to the system speaker and to continue to direct in-call and media playback to my paired, BT-enabled hearing aid. Is there a way to do this?

# Answer
Try BTmono, maybe it helps.
> -1 votes

---
Tags: speaker, headset, bluetooth-audio
---


# Question
Title: Google Drive’s image recognition on Android 4.1 demo available on older versions?
There is an example of text recognition from an image on the recent Android 4.1 demo. The example is a picture taken with the phone of a post office receipt that is then OCRed and indexed. Is this OCR and indexing already available to all Google Drive users or just limited to Android 4.1?

# Answer
This is nothing new. Google Docs supported character recognition in both images and PDF files.
It is also available in the mobile clients regardless of the OS version as this is a server side feature.
> 4 votes

---
Tags: 4.1-jelly-bean, ocr
---


# Question
Title: How to only get Gmail notification with certain tag(s)?
I get too many Gmail notifications so my phone beeps too often and is annoying. How to only get Gmail notification with certain tag(s)? For example, only "Important" ones as I'm using Priority inboxes with Gmail.

# Answer
> 11 votes
You don't mention what version of the app you're using or which OS version, but this is how I do it on my Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0.

* Open Gmail app
* Open the overflow menu (three vertical dots) and choose `Settings`
* Tap the email account you want to use
* Under "Data Usage" tap "Manage labels"
    + You'll see your labels there, including "pseudo-labels" like "Starred" and "Important"
* Tap the label for which you want notifications (in your case, "Important")
* If not already on, turn on `Sync messages` (either last 30 days or All)
* Tap the checkbox for `Email notifications`
    + Choose your options (ringtone, whether to vibrate or not, whether to notify once or not)

You can have different notifications per label per account, which is nice, but if you overdo it you'll have way too many notifications in your notification bar.

---
Tags: notifications, gmail, sync
---


# Question
Title: How can I determine what is a normal USB transfer speed for my Android phone?
I've been struggling to get decent USB transfer speeds with my Ubuntu computer, which I've asked about on the Ask Ubuntu site.

The answers there have helped me improve USB speeds overall, but it seems my phone is still much slower than other devices. For example, I can transfer to my Sony video camera at about 17.5MB/s, but transferring files to my Android phone (Samsung Galaxy 2 with ICS) is running at about 2MB/s.

How can I determine if 2MB/s is a normal transfer speed for my Android phone? In other words, what do I need to know about it's SD card (it has two, internal and external) specifications or other details in order to determine if I am getting the maximum performance or if it is still hobbled?

# Answer
> 7 votes
There's no such thing as normal USB transfer speed. It depends on several factors including but not limited to:

* Class of the sdcard
* USB speed (1.1 vs 2.0)
* Performance and load of the the computer

Out of these three the one with the most influence is the class of the sdcard. The class describes the **minimum** write speed of the card in MB/s. For example a Class 10 card has a minimum writing speed of 10MB/s.
Based on this your sdcard is most likely a Class 2.

---

If you can't locate your sdcard Class, there's a free tool *(only for windows users)* that gives you the transfer rate of your sdcard:

H2testw 1.4

> After you've finished verifying your unit you will be able to see the exact time it took for the operation to complete, the number of megabytes tested, and, of course, the writing / reading speed.

---

**As a side note:** The cache that Abdul mentions has nothing to do with this. That's for reading and only applies if the card is mounted in the phone.

# Answer
> 1 votes
The transfer speed majorly depends on the 'class' of your SD card.

micro-sd-cards-smartphones-speed-class-explained

Edit:

I googled about this issue and it appears that the slow transfer speeds is due to the Cache size for reading from SD Card. It's set to 128 KB in most cases. You can check it by running the following command.

```
adb shell cat /sys/devices/virtual/bdi/179:0/read_ahead_kb

```

To change this value you must have **root** access. Also the changes will be reset on reboot. Developers at xda have made scripts to make this change persist, check this link for a detailed explanation.

---
Tags: usb
---


# Question
Title: Where are extra keyword tags for photos stored?
I have a Droid3 with Android version 2.3.4. I tagged some photos using the Gallery application. For the first keyword tag added to a photo, the tag is stored as XMP data in the JPEG file itself. However, any additional tags are not stored as XMP data. Adding the second tag doesn't even modify the file at all.

Where are the other tags stored?

Is there a way to get the photos along with the tags off my phone?

# Answer
> 3 votes
The tags are stored through the media's content provider. In layman's terms, the content-provider is a way of Android interacting with a database backing store.

The location can be found in this directory:

```
/data/data/com.android.providers.media/databases

```

Which is Sqlite3 database that has the following information stored in it, or rather, a combination of certain columns, not all of them, due to the way developers can optionally add the fields of the data to be stored. (If you're un-rooted you will not be able to list the database - if someone can clarify this, just checked on Europa GT-i5500 which is unrooted and issuing `ls` fails)

If you have a look at this document that details the columns used in the database for the Media (that is a generic columns that is a de-facto within the database), it is combined with this other information

(Now at this stage, your brain is probably turned to mush looking at it but the pertinent information is in the column names which is found in the database)

As for the 'Tag' field you're referring to, quite simply, Android does not store them, there are replacement apps that replaces the stock version of the Gallery with extras such as the 'tag' field you're referring to. The most it can hold was the latitude/longitude/display name of the image and a picasa id in which it may get uploaded to depending if picasa is enabled with your account.

---
Tags: gallery
---


# Question
Title: How can I change the default location for bluetooth file transfers?
I have an Android 2.3 device (Samsung Galaxy Y Duos, S6102) and want all files that I receive via bluetooth to save to my SD card.

How can I do that?

# Answer
> 8 votes
The default location is already on your external SD card in the /bluetooth folder.

**It's not possible to configure it up to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean**:
With the included stock bluetooth receiver you cannot change the location as of now, because it's hard coded. You need a 3rd party app like Bluetooth file transfer which might be configurable here.

In ./packages/apps/Bluetooth/src/com/android/bluetooth/opp/ you can see it.

Constants.java defines this:

```
public static final String DEFAULT_STORE_SUBDIR = "/bluetooth";

```

BluetoothOppReceiveFileInfo.java has no switch for the location:

```
File receiveFile = new File(uniqueFileName);
if (sDesiredStoragePath == null) {
    sDesiredStoragePath = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().getPath() +
        Constants.DEFAULT_STORE_SUBDIR;
}

```

---
Tags: settings, bluetooth, file-transfer
---


# Question
Title: Can I run ICS on the Samsung Galaxy S+ I9001?
I have read a lot of documentation about how to run ICS on the Samsung Galaxy S I9000. Can I use the same approaches for the S+? Or is it not possible to run ICS on the S+?

# Answer
> 3 votes
The Galaxy S Plus i9001 looks like the i9000 however it has completely different internals:

* side by side comparison at gsmarena.com
* different CPU (1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon vs. 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird)
* different GPU (Adreno vs PowerVR)
* different baseband modules (the i9001 has faster HSDPA)
* better battery, less internal space (512MB vs 2GB for the i9000)

**Most importantly**, the i9000 is well supported while the i9001's community support is rather poor. There's no official CM port for it. See the i9001's forum at XDA-developers.com. Regarding the approaches: Yes, you can use the same tools and your knowledge for the i9000. Just not the same ROM downloads.

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, custom-roms, samsung-galaxy-s-plus
---


# Question
Title: How to quickly lock screen to landscape?
For the use with a neoprene bracelet for running, I would like to quickly lock my Milestone 1@Cyanogenmod 7.2.0 to landscape mode. All widgets that disable auto orientation seem to cause the phone to switch back to portrait.

I could achieve that by disabling 0°/180°/270° in the settings, but I would like an easier solution with a widget.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Rotation Locker says that it supports this:

> * Lock your screen's rotation in Landscape, Portrait or Auto. When you launch the app, you're faced with these three options.

For doing this quickly, it does also include a widget to lock whatever your current orientation is:

> * A widget is provided so you can lock into whatever your current orientation is. (Useful for reverse landscape for example).

---
Tags: cyanogenmod, orientation
---


# Question
Title: google.com redirected after xpressconnect installed
I'm using Android 2.3 on Nook Color (ROM CyanogenMod). I installed xpressconnect to connect to the wifi network of my school, and successfully configured it. I can access the internet normally. However, when I go home and use my home wifi, all web addresses work, except \*.google.com. Every time I go to \*.google.com, it gets redirected to the configuration web page of my school, and it's permanent (not because of the cache). So all google services on my nook are not working. I checked /etc/hosts and it's empty. I don't know how to fix this problem. Will I have to factory reset my nook?

# Answer
I fixed the problem by the following steps:

1. Clear data of the xpressconnect app, then uninstall it. This step alone didn't fix the problem.
2. Reboot my nook to recovery mode, and clear/wipe the Dalvik cache.
3. Restart.

To start fresh, I also clear the cache of all my web browsers.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: wi-fi, networking
---


# Question
Title: How can I manage Intent association with Apps?
When the system emits an Intent for which you have multiple apps that can handle the intent, a dialog opens to tell you which application you want to use with that intent.

Is there a way to see what these associations are, and clear them?

If there is no app or interface to do that, do you know of an API to access these associations?

EDIT: When I said associations, I was thiking of the "late-bound" associations. For example, when I open a link and I have multiple browsers, an intent is fired saying "view link", and I choose "always use that application"; what can I do if, after some time, I would prefer to use another application for that intent?

# Answer
I believe it's a no to both those questions. Yes you can clear default associations only if you know which app is associated with with `Intent` (you will still be prompted with the dialog asking you which app you'd like to use with the current `Intent`).

Apart from that there is no way to clear associations. They are hard coded inside each app, there is no way to remove them.

UPDATE: To answer your edited question head to **Settings \> Applications \> Manage applications** find your application that you chose as your default app for that intent, click **Clear defaults**
> 13 votes

# Answer
You can remove some `Intent` associations by going to the specific app that you specified the `Intent` for in the `Settings` --\> `Applications` --\> `Manager Applications` --\> `[Find your app]` --\> `"Clear Defaults"` button.

There is no way to view all associations given from `Intents` to `Apps`
> 5 votes

# Answer
If your device is rooted, you can use apps like AutoRun Manager (ARM) to list up all registered listeners, and even can disable/enable them at will (e.g. to prevent a certain app from firing up at times you don't want it to). This would correspond to "clearing an association".
> 2 votes

---
Tags: applications
---


# Question
Title: How can I open password protected ODS files (Open Office)?
Found many Open Office viewer apps, but couldn't find a password protected ODS viewer ... I wonder why it was not ported yet - it is open source so it would be just an issue of converting existing code.

ODS password protection is by far a lot better than XLS password protection.

If anyone knows of an app or some other method I would be grateful :)

# Answer
> 1 votes
LibreOffice is currently being ported to Android. It's reported they are making good progress, but I couldn't find any planned due-date yet. According to the article linked, they focus on having a viewer ready soon, and add the "tons of features" later to make it a full-featured office app. See also here for the original source, including some screenshots.

Apart from that, there seems no app currently available to effectively handle OpenDocument. True, there are tons of office apps on the market/playstore, but they all stick with the MS formats. Which leaves us to hope for LibreOffice coming soon to the Play Store...

---
Tags: openoffice
---


# Question
Title: How do I change the default sms font size? (ICS)
I know I can change (in settings) whether or not the volume rocker can change font size, but is there a way I can change the default to be different? (I'd rather not have the volume button change function) I want the smallest size, but I can't seem to get it to stay that way

# Answer
The default appears to be simply what the phone itself is set to use as Font Size under Settings \> (Device) Display. Change that to Tiny and your messages will display that way, but obviously everything else on the phone will also be impacted.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, samsung-galaxy-s-3, fonts
---


title: Enabling wireless tools on Android

text:
# Question
Title: Enabling wireless tools on Android
I need to use commands like iwconfig in Android, I know I have to install the wireless tools because they are not in Android by default, The problem is that I have just seen 3 chinesse tutorials that makes no sense when I translate them, and a link that downloads a directory with Android wireless tools, but I don't know what to do to get them into my device and use them.

Any help would be apreciated.

# Answer
1. Download wireless\_tools.30.pre9.tar.gz. This version supports non-ASCII char in ESSID.
2. Unpack it into *mydroid/external/wireless-tools* directory.
3. Create *Android.mk* file with the following content:

```
LOCAL_PATH:= $(call my-dir)
################## build iwlib ###################
include $(CLEAR_VARS)
LOCAL_SRC_FILES := iwlib.c
LOCAL_CFLAGS += -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wshadow -Wpointer-arith -Wcast-qual -Winline -MMD -fPIC
LOCAL_MODULE:= libiw
LOCAL_STATIC_LIBRARIES := libcutils libc libm
include $(BUILD_STATIC_LIBRARY)
################## build iwconfig #################
include $(CLEAR_VARS)
LOCAL_SRC_FILES := iwconfig.c
LOCAL_CFLAGS += -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wshadow -Wpointer-arith -Wcast-qual -Winline -MMD -fPIC
LOCAL_MODULE:= iwconfig
LOCAL_STATIC_LIBRARIES := libcutils libc libm libiw
#LOCAL_FORCE_STATIC_EXECUTABLE := true
LOCAL_MODULE_PATH := $(TARGET_OUT_OPTIONAL_EXECUTABLES) # install to system/xbin
#LOCAL_UNSTRIPPED_PATH := $(TARGET_ROOT_OUT_UNSTRIPPED)
#LOCAL_MODULE_TAGS := eng user
include $(BUILD_EXECUTABLE)
################## build iwlist ###################
include $(CLEAR_VARS)
LOCAL_SRC_FILES := iwlist.c iwlib.h
LOCAL_CFLAGS += -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wshadow -Wpointer-arith -Wcast-qual -Winline -MMD -fPIC
LOCAL_MODULE:= iwlist
LOCAL_STATIC_LIBRARIES := libcutils libc libm libiw
#LOCAL_FORCE_STATIC_EXECUTABLE := true
LOCAL_MODULE_PATH := $(TARGET_OUT_OPTIONAL_EXECUTABLES) # install to system/xbin
#LOCAL_UNSTRIPPED_PATH := $(TARGET_ROOT_OUT_UNSTRIPPED)
#LOCAL_MODULE_TAGS := eng user
include $(BUILD_EXECUTABLE)

```
4. Modify it as follows:

* Change *wireless.22.h* to be *wireless.h* ;
    * Modify *ifrename.c* , add *getline()* function. You can get the code from *external/genext2fs/genext2fs.c* ; Notice that this file uses macro to pass another function to *getline()* .
    * Modify *iwlib.h* , change #include to be #include . \[You might need to check the original file to know what the author means\]
5. Compile

```
~/eclair-21/external/wireless-tools$ . ../../build/envsetup.sh
~/eclair-21/external/wireless-tools/wireless-tools$ mm

```
6. Copy files to the system

```
~/eclair-21/external/wireless-tools$ croot
~/eclair-21$ cp out/target/product/generic/system/xbin/iwconfig /nfs/rootfs/system/xbin/iwconfig
~/eclair-21$ cp out/target/product/generic/system/xbin/iwlist /nfs/rootfs/system/xbin/

```
7. Test After starting Android:

```
# modprobe libertas
# modprobe libertas_sdio
libertas_sdio: Libertas SDIO driver
libertas_sdio: Copyright Pierre Ossman
model=0xb
sd8686_helper.bin sd8686.bin
init: untracked pid 853 exited
init: untracked pid 856 exited
libertas: eth1: Marvell WLAN 802.11 adapter
# iwconfig eth1
eth1      IEEE 802.11b/g  ESSID:"Antrose-11g"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:15:E9:0C:87:7C
          Bit Rate:1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=13 dBm
          Retry limit:8   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr=2346 B
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=83/100  Signal level=-60 dBm  Noise level=-93 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:1441
          Tx excessive retries:44  Invalid misc:11220   Missed beacon:0
# iwlist scan
eth1      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:22:6B:8C:5D:3A
                    ESSID:"Antrose-11g"
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=65/100  Signal level=-78 dBm  Noise level=-96 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
# iwconfig eth1 essid Antrose-11g
# iwconfig eth1
eth1      IEEE 802.11b/g  ESSID:"Antrose-11g"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:15:E9:0C:87:7C
          Bit Rate:1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=13 dBm
          Retry limit:8   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr=2346 B
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=83/100  Signal level=-60 dBm  Noise level=-93 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:1441
          Tx excessive retries:44  Invalid misc:11220   Missed beacon:0

```
8. Done.

Ref: http://anemospring.blogspot.com.es/2011/03/android-wireless-tools.html
> 6 votes

---
Tags: ad-hoc-networks
---


title: USB connection problem with Galaxy Ace

text:
# Question
Title: USB connection problem with Galaxy Ace
My Galaxy Ace doesn't get recognized by my HP laptop with USB connection. When I tried to connect it with my friend's cable on his Dell laptop, it notified `CONNECTION UNSUCCESSFUL - NO DRIVER FOUND`. My phone still gets charged though. When I tried the `*#7284#` solution it wrote:

```
DIAG CONFIG
[1]USB[*]
[2]UART[]
[3]DBG MSG ON[]
[4]DBG MSG OFF[*]

```

I selected `[1]USB[*]` and it gave me:

```
USB_Diag Selected
Change Complete.
IF you change Uart or USB diag
Please reboot the mobile.

```

I'm not able to find MODEM-\>PDA mode.

# Answer
You need to download the correct version of kies from samsung website and after successful installation check for kies update.

also try toggling under

settings-\>development-\>USB debugging, w/wo connecting USB cable.
> 1 votes

# Answer
Notice the cable. Once I tried a normal USB cable for a Samsung Nexus S phone, and the connection failed. The cable that was given together with the phone worked. The official cable's shape is a little bit different from a normal cable. It has a small cylindrical protrusion on the wire.

I know this sounds strange, but it might matter.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: usb-connection-mode, samsung-galaxy-ace
---


title: Disable the default browser in ICS

text:
# Question
Title: Disable the default browser in ICS
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> Can deleting stock web browser cause problems?

Ok since I got chrome now, can I safely disable the stock browser in the apps menu? Are there other services/apps on the phone that require the use of the stock browser?

# Answer
> 1 votes
I installed Chrome and disabled the built-in browser months ago and haven't had a hint of trouble.

# Answer
> 0 votes
You should be good to go. If any app specifically asks for the stock browser it isn't particularly well-written and by and large you'll be prompted by any app that needs a browser but can't identify what you've set as default.

# Answer
> 0 votes
If you're rooted, go ahead to disable stock browser apk. Other services may require webView to display webpages which has nothing to do with browser.apk file.

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, browser
---


# Question
Title: Does Android support the single-user mode runlevel?
Since Android is powered by a Linux kernel it should support booting in single-user mode.

Which version of Android supports single-user mode and how is one able to start an Android device in this mode? Any references?

# Answer
> 11 votes
Single user boot is a feature of the init daemon (initd, like sysVinit) and *not* the Linux kernel. Since Android only shares the kernel with Linux and not the init process, a genuine single user boot can not be achieved.

Android has something that is called "Recovery Mode", but it's not exactly the same as a single user boot on an Unix system. The approach of recovery mode on Android is different because instead of trying to repair the bricked/broken system, on simply can re-flash the ROM or perform a factory reset, which will hopefully restore the systems functionality.

About the init used: Android uses just a script called `init.rc`, which gets started by the kernel and is used to start further services. You can view the current source of `init.rc` here. It supports no runlevels.

# Answer
> 2 votes
IIRC, there is a equivalent of a single mode in Android, when powering up, hold down the menu key, Android boots into '*Safe mode*' a lá Windows Safe Mode. This will vary with manufacturers and their Stock ROMs.

# Answer
> 0 votes
# As per a brief introduction

Single user mode, also referred to as maintenance mode and runlevel 1, is a way of running Linux or another Unix-like operating system that uses minimal system resources and provides only minimal functionality.

Single user mode can be useful for checking and repairing operating systems, particularly those that have been damaged and will not allow booting (i.e., starting up) into the default GUI (graphical user interface) or console (i.e., text-only) multi-user mode.

**Source:** The Linux Information Project - How to Change to Single User Mode

---

# To answer your question

With Android, the equivalent of a low runlevel, as to perform critical operations with minimal system resources, is rooting.

From the Wikipedia - Rooting (Android OS):

> As Android was derived from the Linux kernel, rooting an Android device is similar in practice to accessing administrative permissions on Linux or any other Unix-like operating system.

---

# References:

Since what you are actually seeking is a way to root your device and gain the maximum allowed privileges over it, you can refer to this links:

*Internal links*

*External Links*

---
Tags: boot, device-administrator
---


title: How can I remotely change the volume?

text:
# Question
Title: How can I remotely change the volume?
At home I often connect my android to some speakers, to listen to internet-radio. It would like to be able to change the sound-level through a command on my laptop.

I can open an ssh shell to the phone, but I am stuck finding a command to change the volume on the android.

Is there a command to change the audio-volume on the android-shell? Or maybe there is a different approach without ssh that I missed completely?

I am running Android 4.1.

**Edit**

The accepted answer should work for rooted devices. I am still keen on getting an answer for an unrooted device.

# Answer
Have a look at simulating keyevents on Android and search for "KEYCODE\_VOLUME\_UP" and "KEYCODE\_VOLUME\_DOWN".

Events can be generated by executing "input":

```
#local shell:
input keyevent 24 #vol up
input keyevent 25 #vol down
#remotely using ssh
ssh your-phone input keyevent 24 #vol up
ssh your-phone input keyevent 25 #vol down

# 'su -c command' to make it run as root (if not already). EDIT: now escaped properly.
ssh your-phone su -c "input\ keyevent\ 24" #vol up
ssh your-phone su -c "input\ keyevent\ 25" #vol down"

```

Your shell needs appropriate permissions most probably to fire input events I guess. If you do public key authentication and keep your private key loaded in memory (ssh-add) you can make a wrapper script and just execute this without beeing asked for a passphrase. **Note:** There's a considerable overhead for both 'su' and 'input', all in all one single volume adjust takes 2.5s to complete on my HTC Desire.

EDIT2:

```
shell@android:/ $ id
uid=2000(shell) gid=2000(shell) groups=1003(graphics),1004(input),[...]
shell@android:/ $ time input keyevent 24
    0m0.92s real     0m0.29s user     0m0.06s system

```

Seems like you have to be member of the input group (here GID=2004) to have the capability to generate keyevents using 'input'. Also, I noticed that the screen has to not be locked (and/or off), because the lock would consume all keyevents eventually. Note also that the command takes almost 1 second.
> 13 votes

---
Tags: audio, ssh, remote-control, command-line
---


# Question
Title: Beginner's questions on tweaking non-branded Android phone (rooting, update recovery, update rom)
I have some beginner's questions for clarifying some concepts in Android phone.

I am using a non-branded phone (ASK SP404) running Android 4.0.3. The Android OS in the phone comes from the manufacturer and it is non-rooted. I could use normal apps from Google Play but not the more powerful ones that need root privilege. Recently, I want to find a way to backup and restore my phone's rom (like Norton Ghost). However, from my previous thread : Could a non-root Android 4.0.3 smartphone's rom be backup?, I know that this operation seems impossible without some serious tweakings of my phone. "Tweaking" involves risks so I want to clarify some concepts before performing such potentially danger tasks.

My questions are :

1. Does every Android phone has a Boot Partition, a Recovery Partition and a Rom Partition ? (Boot Partition stores the Linux Kernel, Recovery Partition stores the BootLoader and the Rom Partition stores the other Android system and application files)
2. Is every Android phone's BootLoader locked ? How could I tell whether it is locked or not ? (Supplementary Info : I could go into the Factory Mode of my phone by turning on my device with "power on" + "home" key, the Factory Mode has the following menu items :

```
Factory Mode
Full Test
Item Test
Test Report
Version
Reboot

```

It seems that my BootLoader does not let me to backup/update my phone's rom. I can't tell whether it is locked. Moreover, when I enter the "Version" option, the following information is listed :

```
IMEI1 : 35958561001666
IMEI2 : 35958561001666
S/N code :
MT012345678901234567
10
SW Ver. : HTC_A100_V401
Custom Build Verno : 1331982298

```

I am not sure whether this phone has used a HTC A100's firmware rom ! \]
3. Must I unlock the BootLoader if I want to update my phone with a custom rom (e.g. CyanogenMod) ? What exactly is the meaning of "unlock" ?
4. Must I unlock the BootLoader if I just want to root my phone to run some rom backup programs such as "romdump", "titanium backup" etc ? If not, would I void my phone's warranty by just rooting my phone ?
5. I know that the "SuperOneClick" program could be used to root many Android 2.2/2.3 phones. Could this program be used to root an Android 4.0.3 phone ?
6. If the "SuperOneClick" rooting process fails somewhere along its way, would the failure hurt my phone and brick it ?

That's all my concerns before I would actually perform some serious tweakings to my phone. I am sorry if I have asked too many naive questions and/or I am looking for too much, but I hope the answer(s) in this discussion may be beneficial to other Android tweaking beginners.

Thanks for your attention. Any suggestion ?

# Answer
> 2 votes
1 : Yes , Android does have many partitions as mentioned Here

2 : By default it's locked unless you unlock it as mentioned Here

3 : Yes , it must be unlocked as mentioned in XDA-Developers's Flashing Guide

4:

A: No you don't have to

B:It depends on your vendor.

5:Yes, It can as mentioned in XDA-Developers's Root I9100G

6:it might brick your phone but for me it stopped in the middle and it didn't brick.

# Answer
> 0 votes
To answer your questions individually:

1. Not all handsets have those partitions - Sony has boot and recovery combined into one.
2. Most bootloaders are locked by the appropriate manufacturer. Some are willing to allow you to unlock the bootloader through their website (check with that first)
3. Yes, the bootloader must be unlocked, that is to enable the overwriting of the boot loader with a custom kernel, in some cases, see Sony above, if overwriting the boot, you are hosed!
4. see 3 above.

For 4 and 5, the ICS has a different method of exploiting root unlike previous versions, zergRush is the latest for Gingerbread, as for ICS and later, not 100% sure.

As for bricking, now, let's clear up something, bricking is a wrong terminology to use. The only true way of bricking is, doing a firmware update, and halfway through that process, pull the cable... you're well and truly hosed. By firmware definition, I am not referring to ROM updates mind you, its more of hardware update - think of BIOS updates on desktop pcs, then you're not far off the mark there, such as Radio firmware.

The problem is the word brick has become a common parlance among new beginners to Android and often associated with the 'rooting process', and that's FUD.

Think about it, a brick used to build a wall, that's a brick. Phones can be brought back from the dead so to speak with specialized JTAG cables and stripping down the phone to the circuitary level (some have it accessible to avoid stripping down). That is a hardware-brick - can only happen with the above scenario in firmware update - pull the cable halfway through or even, attempting to do a firmware update when the battery is \< 5% and the battery dies, that's another way. That is why it is recommended to have the battery have sufficient charge capacity \> 85% prior to doing a firmware update.

Soft brick on the other hand - is commonly associated with boot-loops, incorrect ROM flashing. That is salvageable.

You will know if a brick has happened, phone is dead, no power, not responding with a fully charged battery. If on the other hand, you see a boot logo appear, and responds to power, leds lights on, its not bricked.

That is a very simple but important concept to understand to aid in distinguishing when doing the procedures such as rooting it, updating ROMs.

---
Tags: rooting, updates
---


# Question
Title: How does Android determine which apps are "social networking" apps for data usage purposes?
My phone carrier (Bell Canada) says that in addition to my maximum data limit, I have "unlimited social network" usage.

I'm wondering which apps count as social networking apps? As an Android developer, I'm also interested in how I might designate one of my apps as a social networking app.

(Let me know if this would be better off on programmers.stackexchange or stackoverflow...)

# Answer
> 2 votes
Your carrier determine a social network by his hostname or IP as said in comment, not with a specific application. But there is sometimes where this feature doesn't work with apps ( some apps use proxy, don't know if this is the case for facebook or twitter... ). An other case is this only work on the carrier's website (if they provide social network functions directly on their site), but it would be said on your carrier's offer.

Anyway this is only determined by the IP or hostname. You can't do that by designate an app with a certain programming function...

---
Tags: applications, data-monitoring
---


# Question
Title: What is the difference between AOSP/vanilla and stock?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> What's the difference between an AOSP ROM and a stock ROM?

When referring to Android ROMs or kernels (etc.), what is the difference between:

* AOSP ("vanilla")
* Stock

# Answer
> 7 votes
They are both Linux, but the AOSP kernel is a very standardized, general Linux kernel provided by Google that requires minimal modification to work across different devices, to make it easier for manufacturers to get Android working.

The various modifications made by manufacturers to their own kernels relate to the different hardware found in these devices. So HTC may enable some features in their stock kernel that only works on that particular HTC device and would not work on other devices by other manufacturers.

An example of such a feature is voice recording which was present in a certain version of the HTC Hero stock kernel, but this feature would not be possible on the AOSP kernel because the drivers being used for voice recording were only compatible with the HTC kernel, not with the AOSP version.

Similarly, an AOSP ROM is one built directly from Google's unmodified sources whereas a stock ROM is the manufacturer-modified version of Android that comes with a device or is released as an official update.

# Answer
> 5 votes
AOSP software is released by the Android Open Source Project (i.e., by Google), while stock software may include modifications by manufacturers.

---
Tags: stock-android, vanilla-android
---


# Question
Title: Google play login different GSM carriers
I moved to the USA from Kenya with my android handset, but am unable to log in to google play on my new network, T-mobile.

Can anyone help me fix this?

# Answer
> 2 votes
Go to Settings \> Applications \> Manage Applications. Select Google Play Store from the list. Select Clear data. Then try using Google Play again.

---
Tags: gsm
---


title: ICS: Use site's bookmark icon

text:
# Question
Title: ICS: Use site's bookmark icon
The bookmarks on the home screens of my Galaxy Nexus have the same red bookmark icon.

Is it possible to automatically display the site's default icon (i.e., the one which appears in the URL bar) as the bookmark's icon?

# Answer
> 1 votes
The icon that is displayed on the action bar is called a favicon. It's a low resolution (usually 16x16) icon made to be displayed next to the name in a bookmark bar.
Android understandably doesn't use this as it would look hideous on your homescreen. For a website's icon to show up they need to add another icon: the apple-touch-icon. This one was meant to be used as an icon on the homescreen. Originally for iDevices, but android adapted it. Unfortunately I'm not aware of a way to add an icon yourself if the site doesn't supply it.

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, home-screen-shortcuts, bookmarks
---


title: Why Do I Need to Wipe Dalvik Cache?

text:
# Question
Title: Why Do I Need to Wipe Dalvik Cache?
When I'm updating a custom ROM, there's always an instruction to *wipe the Dalvik cache*. I don't see a reason why this is necessarily.

Watching the logcat while the system is booting I can clearly see that if an app changed, its `dex` file is invalidated and then regenerated. Yet still when I mention this anywhere I'm met with silence. As if not even some ROM developers are aware of this and they're only doing this because everyone else does.

So the questions:

* **Was there an Android version where Dalvik files were not invalidated during boot?**
* **Is there any advantage in doing this yourself, instead of letting the system do the work it's supposed to do?**

An ideal answer would include references to the relevant code, so I would have a reference the next time this comes up.

# Answer
> 45 votes
To answer your questions:

* Am not aware of any Android version where the Dalvik was not invalidated on boot. Maybe the initial version 1.0 had that, I really do not know, have gone through Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich. You need to look into the source tree and rebase it back to CupCake or Donut (1.5 and 1.6 respectively)
* The detailed reason :)

The reason the *Wipe Cache* must be used is because all apks, including system apks, have a *dex* file attached to it, when the ROM is booted up for the first time, Android's Dalvik goes through each and every one of those apks, and extract the dex file from it and place it in the cache `/data/dalvik-cache` thereby speeding up the execution of the app itself.

Most ROMs have apks that are *odex* 'ed, the cache is bundled into the apk itself as an external file.

A lot of custom ROM modders would have those apks *deodex* 'd, meaning the dex file is replaced and repackaged to make it easier to theme/modify an apk.

When you flash a custom ROM, and did not wipe the cache, the newer custom ROM's apk's will have a different *dex* file attached to it, and when the Dalvik goes through them, it sees the existing cached dex file found in the directory, and skips it, then when you run the app, you're guaranteed a force close or ANR (Application Not Responding).

You are not losing data per se, if using ClockWorkMod Recovery, and *Wipe Data* is selected, then yes, all the settings relating to the apps are wiped cleanly - look in `/data/app`.

So you can *Wipe Cache* but not *Wipe Data*, what is done effectively, is slotted in the newer apks in place, in which it has the settings retained. This was quite a common scenario with CyanogenMod nightlies where a unstable/testing ROM build is flashed, and the settings retained with cache wipe. The mileage will vary depending on what apps downloaded from the market (settings would have changed by version bump quite likely).

For best results it would be wise to perform both *Wipe Data* and *Wipe Cache* to ensure integrity and no program errors within the app itself.

Yes that would mean the boot time would be slower but its initial once off moment. After that it would be booting quicker. Really in a nutshell, explicitly wiping the cache itself via CWM actually helps speed it up and ensure no residue from the previous version in place which could get munged in (Now at this stage, am realizing your question so in all fairness, have not actually seen Android not performing the invalidating of the cache itself upon boot when flashing a new ROM..)

**Use the source Luke** seriously! :D

`frameworks/base/core/java/com/android/internal/os/ZygoteInit.java` is the bootup code for each apk runtime. It interacts with the native C code found in the `dalvik` directory tree which contains specific chipset instructions to interpret the bytecode within the apk to native CPU instruction set. ARMv6 is pretty much a hacked version of ARMv5 (which was the original chipset in the older Android versions prior to Eclair), so you will not see ARMv6 in the AOSP source from google. CyanogenMod will have that ARMv6 in their source.

---
Tags: custom-roms, rom-flashing, dalvik
---


title: Tablets being able to make calls

text:
# Question
Title: Tablets being able to make calls
I wonder can any of the Android tablets make calls (it's about Cellular calls, not Skype or other)?

Yeah, I am okay to have 7' or even 10' tablet near my ear and have a talk (well, or use headsets).

Having those tablets being able to make calls would make me throw the smartphone away and have the single gadget.

I know that Galaxy Tab 7' is capable doing this.

But how about Galaxy Tab 10' or Nexus 7?

Are they capable? Or is there any possibility to make them having this feature?

# Answer
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 can make 2G/3G calls and calls over Wifi with Voip apps like Skype or Tango.

The Nexus 7 can only make calls over Wifi with Voip apps as I already mentioned. There would be no easy way of getting the Nexus 7 to make 2G/3G calls as it would require adding a radio to the tablet.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: tablet, calls
---


# Question
Title: can i get a froyo 2.2 or other latest android OS which i can put on my samsung omnia i900 with all bluetooth, wifi, cdma and other phone features?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> Can I install Android on my non-Android device?

my phone specifications:

Samsung i900 Omnia

Also known as Samsung WiTu

```
GENERAL 2G Network  GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network  HSDPA 2100
Announced   2008, June. Released 2008, July
Status  Discontinued
BODY    Dimensions  112 x 56.9 x 12.5 mm
Weight  122 g
DISPLAY Type    TFT resistive touchscreen, 256K colors (65K effective)
Size    240 x 400 pixels, 3.2 inches (~146 ppi pixel density)
    - Optical trackpad
- Handwriting recognition
SOUND   Alert types Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack  No
MEMORY  Card slot   microSD, up to 16GB (verified)
Internal    8 GB/16 GB storage, 128 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM
DATA    GPRS    Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
EDGE    Class 12
Speed   HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps
WLAN    Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
Bluetooth   Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
USB Yes, v2.0
CAMERA  Primary 5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Features    Geo-tagging, face and smile detection, image stabilization, wide dynamic range
Video   Yes
Secondary   Videocall camera
FEATURES    OS  Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
CPU Marvell PXA312 624 MHz
Sensors Accelerometer
Messaging   SMS (threaded view), EMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
Radio   Stereo FM radio with RDS
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support
Java    Yes, MIDP 2.0
Colors  Modern Black
    - Pocket Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, PDF viewer)
- MP3/AAC/AAC+/WMA/OGG/AMR player
- DivX/XviD/WMV/MP4 player
- TV-out
- Voice memo
BATTERY     Standard battery, Li-Ion 1440 mAh
Stand-by    Up to 500 h (2G) / 450 h (3G)
Talk time   Up to 5 h 50 min (2G) / 6 h 30 min (3G)
MISC    SAR US   0.39 W/kg (head)     0.52 W/kg (body)
SAR EU   0.67 W/kg (head)
Price group
TESTS   Loudspeaker Voice 70dB / Noise 64dB / Ring 75dB
Audio quality   Noise -79.3dB / Crosstalk -78.7dB
```

# Answer
> -1 votes
Yes, it has been done. You can find the directions here.

---
Tags: samsung, windows-mobile
---


title: Offline HTML5 apps

text:
# Question
Title: Offline HTML5 apps
Does android natively have good support for fully-functional HTML5 offline apps?

By fully functional I mean without artificial limitations on HTML5 features; for example a limit on the size of offline storage would make many potential applications impossible.

# Answer
> 3 votes
What you're referring to as HTML5 is not that. DOM storage is not a feature of html. So lets address the questions now.

> Does android natively have good support for fully-functional HTML5 offline apps?

There're several versions of android out there and thus each of the stock browsers implement a varying set of the different specifications. One way to find out if the feature that you depend on is supported is to use a website like HTML5 test to compare the different versions. Also make sure that don't forget Opera Mobile and Chrome users.

> By fully functional I mean without artificial limitations on HTML5 features

No browser limits features artificially. At most it's not implemented.

> for example a limit on the size of offline storage would make many potential applications impossible.

You're severely mistaken here. The limit is in the specification of DOM storage. It's intentional and unlikely to change. You don't want apps taking up hundreds of megabytes of space do you?

> Also, please post examples of HTML5 offline apps that work well on Android.

Sorry, I don't use any.

Without more details this is as much as I can tell you.
For further reading refer to the documentation available on the Mozilla Developer Network.

# Answer
> 3 votes
# The storage limitation

Extracted from the official documentation provided by the W3C:

Web Storage: Editor's Draft 10 July 2012 - disk space:

> User agents should limit the total amount of space allowed for storage areas.
>
> ...
>
> A mostly arbitrary limit of five megabytes per origin is recommended. Implementation feedback is welcome and will be used to update this suggestion in the future.

Is safe to assume that developers follow the recommendations and in fact there's a limit (five megabytes). Do beware that everything is in flux, but I don't think this limit will change drastically.

Additionally, you can access http://html5test.com/ and check your browser's support.

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**As a personal note:**
I'm a programmer and I've developed some APPs for iOS and Android, that go over the 5MB limitation. All is working well, and had no complains from the client or the APP users.

My recommendation: Try to respect the limit if possible, but I believe that those 5MB will soon be expanded.

Check this article that provides some tests on the Offline Storage Limits.Posted on February 24, 2011 by Garth

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# Example of an HTML5 offline app

Google Currents

> Beautiful, free, favorite publications for your phone and tablet.
>
> Google Currents delivers beautiful magazine-like editions to your tablet and smartphone for high speed and offline reading.

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Tags: offline, html
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# Question
Title: How to stop a text received from splitting up?
I just got my first Smart phone (Galaxy S II) and it splits up texts longer than 160 characters when I receive them. I often forward these long texts. Is there something I can do?

# Answer
The following may work: download an app called SMS Backup+ from Play which backs up texts to Gmail. From there, it should be simple enough to forward.
> 2 votes

# Answer
in my experience the division of texts like this has more to do with the carrier. For instance, I am on T-Mo.. and texts I get from other T-Mo users are never split.

This is not a limitation of the device so much as it is a limitation with SimpleMessageSyntax
> 1 votes

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Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-2, sms
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# Question
Title: I can't install or update Apps from Play Store: Error 905. How to fix?
Suddenly (after a Play Store update?) I can't install or update any Apps. I always get error code **905** when I try to do so. How can I fix this?

# Answer
Uninstalling all Play Store (Market) App updates fixed it for me.

Go to `Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> All tab -> Google Play Store` and uninstall the updates. This will leave you with an older version of the app, which is probably named "Market". Then you should be able to install or update apps. After a while, the Play Store update will be installed once again, but you still will be able to install or update Apps.
> 12 votes

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Tags: google-play-store, system-error
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# Question
Title: Accessing the Android Phones SMS and other feature via Data Cable
Is there any way by which I can connect my computer to my HTC Wildfire S and access the SMS (read, compose, delete) without touching the phone? I am looking for something similar but no hope yet.

Please help.

# Answer
There are a lot of possibilities to remotely administrate and use an Android Device from your PC -- including, but not restricted to reading/sending SMS. Take a look at the following apps/links:

* Airdroid is simply to be installed on your Android-Device and can then be accessed via a web-browser ("browser-based"). Manages SMS/MMS, Apps, photos, videos, ringtones...
* PAW Server has similar features, looks a bit more plain, but adds interesting stuff for developers (you can create your own add-ons, run a webserver with PHP and more)
* Remote Web Desktop can be compared with Airdroid (web-based "virtual Desktop")
* Phonedeck is another alternative, but utilizes the Cloud
* Droid Phonecontrol also involves an "alien server" (routing everything via its authors servers)
* LazyDroid Web Desktop seems also worth a look
* Remote My Droid is another browser-based management app supporting messaging, browsing the Androids file system, and more
* WebControl offers its browser-based services, including messaging, managing contacts and call history
* if you run windows, MyPhoneExplorer might be your choice, as it includes all above features plus synchronizing your contacts etc. with your PC, creating backups, and more

I stop here, before the list gets too long -- you see there are plenty of possibilities around :)
> 6 votes

# Answer
You can use Airdroid. Not only you can use it to manage SMS but lots of other things like apps, photos, contacts and so on.

You can also use Mighty Text. With this you don't even have to connect your phone to computer or even leave it at home. This uses the Internet connection of your phone and your browser to send/receive and syns sms messages.
> 0 votes

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Tags: sms, remote-control
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# Question
Title: What is the matrix.txt file on my SD card? Is it safe to delete?
I have a file called `matrix.txt` at the root of my SD card.

It is a text file that contains the serialization of a matrix of floats.

What is this file? Can I delete it?

# Answer
The Android OS itself is not dependant on any files on the removable SD card. If you have no apps that use this file, you can safely delete the file, or even format the SD card if you want.
> 7 votes

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Tags: files
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# Question
Title: Factory reset (including USB storage) prompts for password after I already typed it in
I went into Settings-\>Privacy-\>Factory reset and checked "Format USB Storage". Then I pressed the button to continue and it prompted for my PIN (just numbers) as usual. Then it said it was formatting the USB storage as I told it to. And then it just shut off. So I started it back up and it prompted for a password (full keyboard; any characters you want).

I don't know what I had set that password to (I haven't used that kind of a password in a while) so now I'm stuck. Going into recovery mode does the same thing. Download mode works just fine.

So now what do I do? Is there some way I can format `/data` manually from my computer?

Here's some more info about my device:
Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0
Samsung Galaxy S build.prop
Rooted
Stock Gingerbread ROM, stock kernel, stock recovery

# Answer
Since I don't know what the password is, I played around with it and failed enough times that it told me that if I failed one more time I could lose data on the SD card. So I failed one more time (I didn't care about the SD card) and it did the reset just fine.
> 0 votes

# Answer
If your Recovery Mode is also password protected, you are out of luck with GUI interface from device.

Go to Download Mode and flash the ROM. This is the only solution if you don't have password.
> 1 votes

# Answer
You can "wipe user data" from recovery mode, though that also means that you get to spend a few hours setting up your phone again.
> 0 votes

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Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, security, factory-reset, samsung-galaxy-player
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# Question
Title: Taking screenshots on Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Jelly Bean
Apparently on Ice Cream Sandwich you can press power + volume down to take a screenshot, but this doesn't work for me with Jelly Bean. Anyone know how to take a screenshot on a stock Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.1?

# Answer
> 11 votes
You need to press the `Vol Down` and `Power` buttons together, and hold them for a second or so.

Some users report that it works better if you press both buttons simultaneously, as opposed to one after the other in sequence.

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Tags: samsung-galaxy-nexus, screenshots, 4.1-jelly-bean
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