# Question
Title: Resetting Galaxy S 3 to factory default ICS
I am a new Android user, and recently I have upgraded the default ROM of Samsung Galaxy S 3 to Jelly Bean MIUI ROM using the steps mentioned at the International Business Times.

Now I want to revert it back to default ROM but I am unable to do so.

Although the blog says

> If you want to return to your previous ROM for some reason, boot into recovery (using the procedure explained in step 3), choose backup and restore, then restore your previous ROM by selecting it from the list.

But I didn't find anything within the list.

I tried wipe data / factory reset but still not getting the default ROM.

What do I need to do to get back the default firmware?

# Answer
I found a workaround, Downloaded a firmware from http://www.sammobile.com/firmware/ and updated my galaxy s3 with that using odin. Upon first reboot my phone hangs showing only boot screen with samsung logo for about 2 hours, then I restarted phone in clockworkmod recovery did a wipe data / factory reset and then restarted the phone again, I got the default firmware back. Then connected the phone to pc using kies and upgraded the firmware.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, custom-roms, samsung-galaxy-s-3, downgrade
---


# Question
Title: How can I perform Optical Character Recognition and have it read with Text-To-Speech?
I know about the (Danish) app SkanRead, but apparently it is discontinued, so I'm looking for alternatives.

The only function I need is that it should allow using the camera to take a photo of some text, and then (some kind of) text-to-speech is used to read the text.

# Answer
There are at least two apps which correspond with your wishes: Scanthing OCR explicitly announces your request (OCR with TTS), and also Google Goggles seems to support it:

While the former wants to be paid (~EUR 4) but fully supports what you want, the latter is free -- but I'm not sure whether it reads text via TTS.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: text-to-speech, ocr
---


# Question
Title: App site with reliable ratings + comments?
While Android Enthusiasts is nice, it's still a very small site.

I need to find some applications for Android smartphones, and was wondering where people went for ratings + reliable comments from users? PlayStore? Other?

Incidently, I need to find two applications for a friend who wants to study English and Chinese, but don't know where to go to find the best apps for this.

Thank you.

# Answer
> 3 votes
We'll reliable is somewhat subjective. But I can recommend App Brain (Play Store App) and App Aware (Play Store App).

App Brain provides some additional features compared to the Play Store and App Aware allows you to follow app streams based on a topic (games, sw development, etc.). Both try to suggest you apps based on the apps that you have installed. And both are not a new app market, they just redirect you to the Play Store if you want to install a app.

---
Tags: applications, app-ratings
---


# Question
Title: Titanium backup shortcut/widget to toggle app freeze
My CyanogenMod 7.2 stock browser refuses to remember its defaults. I've taken to freezing opera mini, my other browser, with Titanium backup when I want to use stock to avoid all the preferred app prompts.

I'd like a faster, more convenient way to toggle the freeze. Is it possible to create a shortcut or widget on the home screen to perform this action?

# Answer
Titanium Backup itself offers the corresponding Widgets:

1. long-press on a free space on your homescreen
2. select to add a widget
3. select *Titanium Backup*
4. select *Action*
5. select one of
    * deactivate App
    * activate & execute App
    * toggle (de)activate App
6. select the app
7. tap the "create widget" button
> 3 votes

---
Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, cyanogenmod, browser, home-screen-shortcuts, titanium-backup
---


# Question
Title: Can't install custom rom: "Can't mount SD card"
I've some trouble with my HTC Desire and I'd like to ask for help. I've recently rooted it with unrevoked and turned in S-off mode. All went well, or so it seemed, until I decided to flash a custom rom. I get problem either while doing nandroid backup and backup using rom manager (free version). Both cases give the following error:

* can't mount sd card

I'm pretty sure my sd card is working well cause I'm using link2sd and it works well. The sd card has 2 partitions done with g-parted: Ext3 and FAT32. Moreover I have trouble downloading a custom rom via rom manager, it gives a download error.

# Answer
As I noted in a comment, one thing to be aware of is that (typically) the order of the partitions matters. Android basically only looks at the first partition in the table, so you need to make sure the FAT one is first on the disk and the ext2/3/4 one is second. Otherwise Android will see the ext partition and won't know what to do with it.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: htc-desire, external-sd, mount, nandroid
---


# Question
Title: Cannot copy files in recovery mode which made Google nexus S unusable
I have a Google Nexus S, bought last year and it was working fine till last week. It came with Android Ginger Bread, and I rooted the phone and installed several custom ROMs including Cyanogenmod. Recently I installed Android Jelly bean ROM, and it was working fine.

Last week, I wanted to try the Cyanogedmod 10 (on Jelly bean). I went to recovery mode for taking a backup. But I saw a recent backup which was taken before 2 months. I thought that should be fine. I cleared all cache and did a factory reset for getting ready for the new ROM.

Now something went wrong!

I tried to reboot the device, but I could only see the usual animated CROSS logo( with four colours) for ever. I even left the phone for more than a hour. But it is not rebooting. //SO CAN'T RELOAD THE PREVIOUSLY WORKING OS

I tried restoring from the previous backup.. It shows that "installation complete". After that while rebooting the device just hangs in the same place. //SO CAN'T RESTORE FROM MY PREVIOUS BACKUP

I thought of copying the new rom in the device. I could not succeed. I tried adb command through my SDK. ADB is not listing my device. In all the forums it is mentioned that to enable the USB debugging from the phone. I cannot do this, because I cannot go into the device OS other than recovery mode.

I even tried some GUI stuff like Android commander / QtADB but every thing needs USB Enable from the OS Menu.

Finally I tried mounting disk from recovery mode. Whenever I mount the disk, Windows 7 is fixing the file system errors and bad sectors for a while and shows "no problems were found" and it is ready to use. Here something weird happens. I can copy the files in windows explorer and can see the files in the device thru explorer,

BUT when I unmount and browse from the recovery mode the files are not there. (may be the files are copied in cache) //SO I CAN'T COPY ANY FILE TO THE DEVICE.. ( May be here I am doing something silly. )

My phone is now unusable!

Any advice/tips is highly appreciated!

Cheers Kum

# Answer
Prerequesites:

* unlocked phone ('fastboot oem unlock' command)
* installed Android SDK with accessible adb and fastboot executables (both are part of the SDK)
* Cyanogenmod 7/9 or 10 image from get.cm (or whatever ROM you want)
* Nexus S CWM recovery image from clockworkmod.com

Steps:

1. Flash the CWM recovery image:
Switch off your Nexus S, press **volume up & power** to enter fastboot mode
Command to flash: `fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-6.0.1.0-crespo.img`
2. Boot to recovery (e.g. via `fastboot boot recovery-clockwork-6.0.1.0-crespo.img`)
3. Enter a shell into the running CWM: `adb shell`, from there mount a tmpfs file system (used just for the update): `mount -t tmpfs none /sdcard` (This circumvents the sdcard completely, you don't need to format anything)
4. Push the ROM image to the tmpfs (`adb push cm-10-20120827-NIGHTLY-crespo.zip /sdcard/`)
5. Install this via CWM (the regular way)
6. Follow the remaining usual steps (GApps, wipe, etc.)
> 3 votes

---
Tags: samsung-nexus-s, custom-roms, recovery-mode, file-management
---


# Question
Title: How Android VNC server receiving key/mouse events from VNC clients
How does the Android VNC Server receive key/mouse events from VNC clients? Can any one explain that to me? I am curious to understand.

# Answer
> 1 votes
VNC uses simple protocol, called RFB, you can read more here:

http://www.realvnc.com/docs/rfbproto.pdf

Basically, it's a simple client/server based network protocol, server listens for clients to connect, once a client is connected, clients send mouse/keyboard information to the server using packets. The server parses the messages, and inject key/mouse to the local system.

We released a new VNC Server, VMLite VNC Server, first vnc server working on any android devices:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vmlite.vncserver&hl=en

---
Tags: vnc
---


# Question
Title: Is it possible to do an advanced compare of two apps based on instalation history?
Is there any tool which classifies apps by their features. Something like Pandora (music genome) for apps (apps genome).

For example I installed 'Chess Free' and after 3 months I installed 'Free Chess' (app2). Can I somehow see a matrix which would say: app2 can save games (unlike app1), app1 I can customize figure icons. (to better see the king vs. queen). App 2 has ads on top (app1 does not). Perhaps this is asking too much. and Google may not like it so it would have to bee from external start-up.

Or alternatively (no matrix) - can I only read reviews of users who (1) wrote a review for app2 and (2) also have installed app1 and (3) mention app1 name in their review. (i.e., "app2 in comparison to app1 review").

Or any server which comes close to this vision?

# Answer
> 3 votes
Not exactly what you asked, but Mapsaurus Beta comes close to it. You can also use the corresponding website: Mapsaurus: Just enter the app you look for "alikes", and it shows you related apps:

Click on one of them, and the tree continues. A separate frame (not shown in my picture) gives you the Playstore link to the centered app. The screenshot was made from the website.

---
Tags: applications
---


# Question
Title: Connecting Android to Fedora to browse the web
I have bought an Android phone *Spice MI-270*. I wanted to connect the phone to Linux *Fedora* so that I can browse the web using the services provided on my SIM card. How can I connect the Android phone to Linux *Fedora* to use the Internet ?

# Answer
If you want to use the internet connection your Android device provides to access the internet when working on your laptop, this is called Tethering (this Wikipedia article gives you closer information). The followint Q&A gives you some closer information on this topic:

Use 3G connection on my Android in Ubuntu

Though the title mentions Ubuntu, the solution provided there explicitly states to also support Fedora -- and it should work via USB cable.

Starting with Froyo (Android 2.2), your device can also directly act as a Wifi Hotspot (just check in the setup under *Wireless & Networks*) -- which of course requires your laptop to support Wifi (but which laptop does not?). When running into trouble with this, you might want to check this Q&A:

Tethering an Android 2.2.1 (Froyo) using Wifi

---

If your question is rather the other way around: Your laptop having internet, and you want to use that connection from your Android, this is called *Reverse tethering*. In this case check:

Connect Android device as wifi adapter to a PC to create an ad-hoc network

More on reverse tethering you can find checking the questions tagged reverse-tether.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: linux, tethering
---


# Question
Title: Can I lock android phone to one network if it is unlocked?
Can I lock android phone to one network? If can be unlocked if I have both lock and unlock code?

I want to lock my android phone to use only one network.

# Answer
> 3 votes
If you're talking about sim unlock, it is possible to re-lock it back to the network as was often the case with old nokia dumb-phones. However, I have not seen this in practice with most phones now-a-days. Usually, once it is unlocked from the network, any sim card can go in place and use it.

However, if you're talking about locking the boot-loader - then that's a different thing altogether, hence my comment above to ask for clarification. In this case, you can re-lock the boot-loader, depending on the manufacturer and the procedure used originally.

---
Tags: sim-unlocking, bootloader-lock
---


title: Pause Android LogCat output

text:
# Question
Title: Pause Android LogCat output
How can I get a wider LogCat output than the one from the terminal window? I also want to be able to pause the output so I can actually read something.

My OS is Windows 7 X64.

# Answer
# Windows

Its easier, what you can do is this, from the *cmd* window, `adb logcat > my_logcat.txt` and just let it run, now, you can pause, resume the scrolling, in that *cmd* window, same keystrokes for Linux terminal, IIRC, now launch an editor and open the file 'my\_logcat.txt' and there the results will show, had there not being a pause/resume in the cmd window, the file will get updated, such as using 'notepad2', 'Notepad++' or similar, the in-built Windows's version of Notepad would do very little justice.

# Linux

From a Linux terminal under a GUI such as KDE/Gnome, using the two utilities combined, found on most distributions, *multitail*, which is like a `tail` unix utility, only more powerful!

```
adb logcat # want to see the logcat on the screen

```

Using Ctrl+S to suspend, then Ctrl+Q to resume the display, and simply mouse scroll the terminal to back-track seeing the logcat output.

The other way is this...

```
adb logcat > my_logcat.txt 2>&1 &
multitail my_logcat.txt

```

The first line above creates a background process by using the `&` at the end of the command, redirecting any errors to `/dev/null` hence `2>&1`.

As the process is forked into the background, using `multitail` can perform, scroll-back on the logcat.
> 6 votes

# Answer
If you are using LogCat viewer in Eclipse you can click the "Scroll Lock" button to prevent it from automatically scrolling down.

It is the icon on the top right in the screenshot above.
> 4 votes

# Answer
I don't know what logcat does so I can only guess you should use it the same way you do with any other command that spews out text.

Redirect the output to a file you can read in an editor or view with `less`

```
$>logcat [<option>] [<filter-spec>] > /path/to/a/file-to-open-in-an-editor

```
> 0 votes

---
Tags: logging
---


# Question
Title: transfer files from Mac to nexus 7 via bluetooth?
I forgot the USB cable and I have some files on the Mac that I would like to transfer to my nexus 7. Is it possible to do this via bluetooth? Is there an app that can do this?

# Answer
Provided both the Android handset and your Mac share a common wifi connection (same AP that allows client-to-client connections):

Install an FTP server or a webserver app that allows uploading:

For example Airdroid. It allows file-uploading via drag&drop even. You'll find your uploaded files in airdroid/upload in the SDcard folder.
> 1 votes

# Answer
It's not Bluetooth, but try my Open Source project cross copy for inter-device copy and paste:

1. browse to http://cross-copy.net on both devices
2. choose the same code word to establish a connection between the devices
3. upload the files on the Mac
4. a download link for each file will appear on the page of the Nexus 7
> 0 votes

---
Tags: bluetooth, file-transfer, nexus-7
---


# Question
Title: A music widget that works with Google Music streaming and offline service?
I'd like a widget to display playing info and cover art that works with latest Google Music app, more importantly both while playing offline tracks (those marked to be offline, so actually Google Music cached tracks) and also streaming ones. Do you know any? Thanks.

# Answer
Go check "Plug in music widget" at Android Market. It's working with Google Music and free.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: music, app-widgets, google-play-music
---


# Question
Title: Where are android drivers located in the system?
Specifically, I'm looking for the drivers responsible for the tf101 and sl101 detachable and slideout keyboards in ICS.

But in general, where are the drivers located inside the Android OS itself?

# Answer
> 4 votes
They're most of the time baked right into the monolithic Linux kernel (or sometimes available as loadable .ko kernel modules located in /system/lib/modules/). Note: Linux kernel modules are build-specific and cannot be interchanged across devices, different firmware versions.

See the Wikipedia entry for Linux kernel modules

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, asus-eee-pad-transformer, usb-drivers
---


# Question
Title: If I 'adb push' a file to /system/xbin, will it persistent?
If I 'adb push' a file to /system/xbin, will it persistent? will it stay until I flash another image?

```
$ adb push myfile /system/xbin/myfile

```

Thank you.

# Answer
Yes. /system is for persistent firmware files and will survive a wipe/reset unless you don't install another firmware (depends on the MOD's installer/installation script: some preserve other files, some do not).
> 3 votes

---
Tags: adb
---


# Question
Title: What is the clockworkmod blobs folder good for?
I recently upgraded my clockworkmod recovery image to version 6.x and noticed that there's now a new **blobs** folder in the /sdcard/clockworkmod/ directory:

```
/sdcard/clockworkmod # ls -l
drwxrwxrwx    3 root     root          4096 Aug 27 14:46 backup
drwxrwxrwx 2329 root     root        131072 Aug 27 14:49 blobs
/sdcard/clockworkmod # ls -l blobs/
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     root          4096 Aug 27 14:48 000
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     root          4096 Aug 27 14:48 001
[... 2322 folders omitted]
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     root          4096 Aug 27 14:48 ffc
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     root          4096 Aug 27 14:49 ffd

```

What are those blobs good for?

# Answer
> 13 votes
Starting with version 6, deduplication support has been built into clockworkmod recovery. The blobs directory folder contains a hashed directory structure that holds the deduplicated files across all backups.

See the developer's Google+ post for more, in short:

> TL;DR:
> ClockworkMod Recovery now deduplicates files between builds. This results in way smaller backups.
> Don't delete /sdcard/clockworkmod/blobs

---
Tags: backup, clockworkmod-recovery
---


# Question
Title: Android limited to 1 hour video recording?
At the moment, I am using the standard video recording app for video recording. I have found that the recording automatically stops after just 1 hour. Is this a deliberate limitation placed on the app, or is this an android limitation?

I have a 32Gb sd-card, so I don't think storage is a problem. I am using Android 2.2. I understand that this particular version of android has a 2.1Gb file size limit, but the videos I am recording are no where near 2.1Gb in file size.

So what is causing the video to stop after just one hour is my real question.

# Answer
> 5 votes
Most video recording apps are IMHO limited to 1h non-stop recording, as you can find with a simple Google search, which is probably a safety measure to not let you run out of battery -- as video recording is the biggest consumer (see What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device?).

However, a developer can have his app overriding this limit (see Max duration for capture video on android on Stack Overflow) -- so you might just have to find a video recording app which has this setting increased (as e.g. One Eye Browser in this linked pro-version).

---
Tags: 2.2-froyo, video, file-system, video-recording
---


title: Load only small subset of messages

text:
# Question
Title: Load only small subset of messages
I have thousands upon thousands of text/picture messages on my Samsung Galaxy S 2, ice cream sandwich. When I go to open a conversation, the phone stops for a good 30 seconds, even after a fresh reboot. I don't want to delete my messages, but I'm sure if I could somehow limit it to, say, the last 100 messages by default, it would load much quicker. Again, I don't want to delete them, and I still need access to most of the messages, but only on demand

# Answer
> 2 votes
Try using an alternative to the stock SMS app like Handcent SMS. A cautionary note - turn off the auto delete option (the option to auto delete messages older than X days).

An additional note - since your SMS store seems quite precious to you, I'd also recommend SMS Backup & Restore. It can backup your SMS at scheduled intervals and also email / upload them to Dropbox if need be.

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-2, sms
---


title: Avoid reload when activating browser

text:
# Question
Title: Avoid reload when activating browser
When I start my mobile browser it is usually to browse some other place than what it currently shows, but both firefox and the default browser insist on reloading what random page they hold before I'm able to proceed.

Is there any way to avoid the reload in these browsers?

**Edit**

The answer from *NDgeek* works as a workaround for the default browser, but not for Firefox as it requires at least one tab to exist.

After poking around a bit with the two applications, a similar workaround occurred to me, which is to point the active tab to a light-weight page before exiting, e.g. `about:blank` or `about:home`, now when the browser is activated it is available quicker.

I'll use the above workaround but as it requires extra work from me before I move away from the browser, I would prefer a more automatic solution.

# Answer
> 1 votes
The only way I know of to prevent this when opening the browser directly is to close all tabs before exiting the browser. If you open a link from another app, you should be able to avoid this as well.

---
Tags: browser
---


# Question
Title: Is it possible to change the LED notification color on Galaxy S3?
I want to be able to select which colors show up for different notifications such as sms email facebook and phone calls. I know the led for the s3 is capable of showing multiple colors but don't know if these are changeable, I've seen it on other phones tho (my old bb curve) I figured android has something similar.

thanks,

# Answer
If you have a US Galaxy S3, all LED programs have issues with the colors (Handcent, GoSMS, etc) except LightFlow. If you select Green, it will be Blue, etc. LightFlow works flawlessly. The problme I have with LightFlow is the battery would drain faster with the app installed. I ran a test where I left the phone idle for 55 mins (no screen on, no led flashing, no gps, txt, phone..) and battery drainage was 8-10%. I uninstalled the app, and did the same test and battery drainage was only 4%. For now (until GoSMS supports LED for the US S3), I'm just using the built in S3 Led Notification option (under system settings). It works, you just can't change the colors.
> 5 votes

# Answer
It depends on the app in question. Handcent SMS / GoSMS have options for changing the LED colour. As an aside, there's also the ability to configure per-recipient tones, vibrate modes, notification icons and of course LED colours.

If you're looking for an all-in-one app to manage LED notifications for commonly used apps, give Light Flow a try.

EDIT: Also Blink
> 3 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-3, notification-led
---


# Question
Title: Looking for software to create an exact copy of the memory card
What software can help me Copy memory card From my phone Into my hard disk My pc have Operating system is windows 7 My memory card Have two partitions, one FAT32 And second EXT Total memory 8 GB A MICRO-SD card Thanks to anyone who can help

# Answer
> 2 votes
The best tool for dumping partitions and devices is a unix tool called dd, which is also available with almost any Linux distribution, like Ubuntu.

If you're running windows then you might want to try dd's counterpart for Windows - WinDD.

It's usually:

`dd if=[source_inputfile] of=[sink_outputfile]`

# Warning!

These tool can do harm to your drives if used incorrectly (if you mix up data source and sink, the source will be overwritten). A quote from Wikipedia:

> It is jokingly said that dd stands for "disk destroyer", "data destroyer", "death and destruction", or "delete data", since when used for low-level operations on hard disks, a small mistake, such as reversing the if and of (input and output) parameters, could result in the loss of some or all data on a disk.

So please, be cautious.

---
Tags: windows
---


# Question
Title: Trusting the manufacturer like Google Play
I just purchased a Toshiba Excite 10. I was surprised when I attempted to update manufacturer-bundled software and found that I couldn't because it wasn't installing through Google Play.

Is there a way to make my tablet understand that an app downloaded or upgraded through my OEM is just as safe as something downloaded through Google?

# Answer
You should go to Settings -\> Security and check the option: Unknown Sources (or something like that). then your tablet would allow you to install apps from everywhere.
> 4 votes

---
Tags: google-play-store
---


# Question
Title: How to import Contacts from old Sony Ericsson C702 to Xperia X10?
How can I import contacts from non-android phone?

Are there dedicated applications?

What I want to avoid is doubling contacts when moving them from old phone to SIM card and then to new phone.

Any suggestions?

# Answer
I have no prior experience with Sony Erricsson software, but I think their PC Suite solution (found here) deals with the syncing of Contacts etc.
> 2 votes

# Answer
I just succeeded in transferring all my C702 contacts to Gmail via the Sony Ericsson C702 PC suite. My new Samsung Galaxy S2 was updated with my contacts within a few minutes with no further measures, though I had logged into my Gmail account via the Samsung phone earlier. I tried Bluetooth transfer from the C702 which didn't work, although I didn't try the X10 transfer route.
> 1 votes

# Answer
You can use powerful and free software **MyPhoneExplorer** (from www.fjsoft.at). It works with all SonyEricsson Old phones and most Android phones (including X10). You can easily backup contacts from C702 to your PC and then import the contacts to your X10.
> 1 votes

# Answer
The X10 Phone Book application can import vCard-files.

I imported my Palm Centro contact list successfully using 1.6, but it failed in 2.1. I think the import facility in 2.1 is a lot pickier. I'm sure it'll import fine if I clean up the vCard file a bit. I've written to Sony Ericsson and complained as well.
> 0 votes

# Answer
As a **last resort** you can use Bluetooth to send the contacts to the new phone. Just select all contacts and send them to the X10 (pair first) and then set the X10 to accept all incoming files from the C702. After all contacts have been sent (they're separate vCard files) go to the phone book and press `Menu -> More -> Import contacts -> Memory card` and select the contacts from your bluetooth folder. **Haven't tested** with SE phones but worked with Nokia-\>Samsung and Samsung-\>Samsung.
> 0 votes

# Answer
I would recommend doing it via bluetooth. In first place the PC-Companion for C702 is not the same version as for the Xperia, so you will have two installations. And when I've tried syncing through the sonyerricson online sync service (SynML) I've faced the problem that some number types ("mobile (privat)" and "mobile (work)") could be exported to the online service, but not imported back to the Xperia. They were missing on my Xperia. So make sure if "mobile (privat)" and "mobile (work)" numbers of your C702 are missing on your XPERIA. Seems that number types "mobile (privat)" and "mobile (work)" have problems being accepted on other phones. But when I did it via bluetooth, Android switched the number types correctly on the fly.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: contacts, sony-ericsson-xperia-x10, import
---


# Question
Title: Cannot play videos in any browser only in player
I use Opera for Android but the same problem exists in the stock browser as well as Mozilla. Until about a week ago I could play videos from the web in the browser but now when I click on the video instead of starting to play I get the option to use the stock video player, SoapCast or the browser to open it and if I chose the browser it downloads it instead of playing it.

Does anyone have any idea what I am doing wrong?

Thank you. I want to play videos in Opera again.
I have Android 2.3.4 running on an Xperia Ray.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Well I kinda' fixed it. I changed the user agent setting in my Opera browser from Mobile to Desktop and every flv file now works.
As you might expect there are side effects(I'm getting dektop sites instead of mobile sites - they are bigger, harder to use and they take up more space so they load slower).
This will be a good work around at leas.

# Answer
> 1 votes
This is because you have installed some other apps that are capable of opening the same media. Previously, only your stock video player was associated. Now I guess SoapCast can open it.

This is how android works normally, but if you want the old behavior at all times, **select the checkbox that says "Use by default for this action"** and then click on the stock video player or "Movies".

# Answer
> 1 votes
You could try to use Default App Manager to remove the association for flash video (.flv) files. This should tell the browser(s) to play the video without to open a new app.

---
Tags: browser, video
---


# Question
Title: How to replace the generic Google TTS service?
I kind of hate the voice used for navigation, alarm clock. Seems everything is using that same voice. Too robotic for my liking. I found IVONA Text-to-Speech Voices | TTS Voices | Text To Voice

Not sure how good it is. Is there a better app than Ivona?

# Answer
Ivona voice sounds the best hands down (especially Amy and the new not yet on Android Salli voice). Works great on all apps for me. Sadly, whenever I reboot phone, Ivona no longer works. Only fix is to reinstall the whole thing which is a total PITA. I still do it though cause it sounds so much better then any of the other choices.
> 1 votes

# Answer
If it's possible, you can update to Jelly Bean (regular or via mod).

Android 4.1 comes with a new Google TTS engine that sounds *very* natural and IMHO tops SVOX classic (at least the german voice as of Q3/2012).

Included languages so far are:

* English (US or UK accent)
* Spanish
* French
* Italian
* German
> 0 votes

---
Tags: text-to-speech
---


title: Ctrl+Click to open in new tab

text:
# Question
Title: Ctrl+Click to open in new tab
I use ASUS Transformer with the keyboard attached.

In Google Chrome for Android, I would like to use `Ctrl`+Click to open up a new tab which contains the website where the link is pointing to, just as I would on my desktop computer. But somehow this does not work on my Android device? I can use for example, `Ctrl`+`tab` to open new window.

BTW I click with my touchscreen, maybe this matters?

# Answer
For now, AFAIK, every action associated with a mouse click can be accessed using a touch or a long-touch. Combo using a key-press and a touch aren't well supported *(if supported at all)*.

Long-Touch over a link, gives you a popup with:

* Open in new Tap;
* Open in incognito mode;
* Copy link address;
* Save link as.

For future reference, Google Chrome shortcuts link, from Google support page (the majority of the Linux links are available for Android... just waiting to have this page updated with the Android shortcuts list):

Google Chrome - Keyboard and mouse shortcuts
> 4 votes

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Tags: browser, chrome-for-android
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# Question
Title: How can I have 'Next homescreen' and 'Previous homescreen' buttons in ADW EX on the dockbar like LauncherPro?
I'm using ADW EX (purchased in the recent 10 billion, 10 day sale). How can I have buttons for next homescreen and previous homescreen on the bottom dockbar like in LauncherPro Plus?

Currently using ADW 1.3.3.56

# Answer
I know this question has been asked a while ago, but on the CyanogenMod 7 version of ADW, you have to go in ui settings, then set the dock size to 3 or less and enable "Desktop dots". I think there's similar option on the original version...
> 2 votes

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Tags: adw.launcher
---


title: How to show password while typing?

text:
# Question
Title: How to show password while typing?
*Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 (there is no such tag, and I have too little reputation here to create it).*

On LG L5 when I type password I can see in the edit box the last character I typed. Better something than nothing.

However, with Ace 2 the story is worse -- all I see is sequence of dots, and I have real difficulties to type anything correctly.

**Question** -- how to show the password while typing?

# Answer
I do not have your phone model on hand to try, but you can give this link a shot.

Generally, just go to Settings \> Security \> check Make passwords visible. This is true for my phone (HTC Desire, BCM 4.0.4).

Hope it works for you.
> 5 votes

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Tags: settings, password
---


# Question
Title: How can I force-link a Google contact with a Facebook profile?
Back when my HTC Desire had its stock Sense, there was an option to link Facebook accounts to Google contacts, by selecting them from the Facebook friends list.

This created fields for my contacts such as:

```
<HTCData>
<Facebook>id:02394985720/friendof:2103910923|id:123768123/friendof:09812387</Facebook>
</HTCData>

```

Now, my phone is on CyanogenMod 7. I've added a Facebook account under Synchronization settings, but it seems it only matches contacts who have the same name as their Facebook counterpart. Those who are matched get a Facebook profile link:

The other ones aren't linked. Therefore: **How can I force link a Google contact with a Facebook profile?** This would allow me to link contacts even if their names are different.

I'm aware of this question: how to link contact with facebook, gmail etc?, but there is no "Join" option for me, and it isn't really answered as well. I'm also aware of SyncMyPix.

# Answer
First, in the Facebook app, under its Settings, enable synchronization for all contacts.

Open up your contact list and select the Google contact you would like to merge. Then push the menu button and select "Edit Contact". Then hit the menu button one more time and select "Join".

Choose which contact you would like to merge it with and you should be good to go.
> 11 votes

# Answer
For those using Sense, you also can add the link manually (I found that Sense doesn't always add the notes tag to Google Contacts automatically). You can get the Facebook "id" by going to `graph.facebook.com/username` instead of `www.facebook.com/username` (i.e. after you click on a friend on the Facebook webpage, replace "www" with "graph"). Then just paste into Google Contacts notes:

```
<HTCData><Facebook>id:12345/friendof:67890</Facebook></HTCData>

```

where `12345` is your friend's id and `67890` is your id.

Sense picks up the link on the next sync with Google Contacts and the Facebook link is added permanently.
> 3 votes

# Answer
FOr making this process simpler, use go contacts. One click joining. Just open go contacts and open the menu, at the menu click on merge, it would give you sort options. Sort based on name, email and phone number. Choose an option and it would cluster the contacts it feels are duplicates together and ask you for confirmation. You can review and decide what to merge and what not to.
> 0 votes

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Tags: contacts, sync, facebook
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# Question
Title: Using Android phone as Bluetooth headset to PC
I'd like to use my HTC One S (running Android ISC) as a Bluetooth "headset" for my computer, so I can use it to make VOIP calls.

For devices without that capability built in, are there computer/phone applications that make this possible? Wo Mic is a start, but only supports the voice input, not output.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Why not use the Google Voice application for Android? It can be found in the Google Marketplace.

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Tags: windows, bluetooth, voip
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# Question
Title: How to disable vibration on widget drop?
*Samsung Galaxy Ace 2.*

I set vibration to activate only in silent mode. I am **not** in silent mode, and yet when I drag and drop a widget from desktop to desktop, or to trash, on each drop phone vibrates.

How to stop it, i.e. how to disable this kind of vibration?

# Answer
> 5 votes
The vibration you are referring to it's called "Haptic feedback", and can be disabled for certain UI interactions. This may or may not work for you:

1. Touch "home";
2. Touch "menu";
3. Touch "Settings";
4. Touch "Sound";
5. Scroll your way to "Haptic Feedback";
6. Disable it by touching to remove the green tick.

Try and see if it provides the desired effect. Take not that this option doesn't affect all UI interactions, as mentioned under that option.

---
Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, samsung-touchwiz, drag-n-drop
---


# Question
Title: HTC One X - recording filters high frequencies
I've got an HTC One X, on which I'm trying to record uncompressed WAV audio.

In particular, I'm interested in a 13.5 kHz sound. Other Android devices pick up that frequency easily, and so do iOS devices, but the HTC One X doesn't.

For example, the spectrogram below shows the same recording from the HTC One X (top) and an HTC One V (bottom), recorded with the same app (called Hertz, but any will do), with identical settings (mainly 44,100 Hz sampling rate).

Why is the One X not picking up the same?

* Is the microphone different?
* Is there any low-pass filter applied that I'm not aware of? If so, how can remove it?

Trying with different apps (e.g. Audalyzer) doesn't make any difference.

# Answer
> 3 votes
It doesn't say it on HTC's website under the specs for the One X, but this review points out that the phone has dual-microphones, used for sound cancellation during phone calls. My guess is perhaps your recording app is recording from the wrong microphone? Or using both to cancel out the pitch you're looking for?

I'd look for settings in your recording apps about using the dual-microphones. I don't have a phone with two, so I can't test that for you :/

Good luck though!

# Answer
> 1 votes
I have the same issue. After playing around with One X a little bit I'm pretty sure the issue is with the noise cancellation thing, most likely software issue.

There are 2 microphones on the One X - one at the bottom and one at the top. I played a high frequency sound on my earphones and tested 2 cases:

1. I put both speakers next to the bottom mic. Sound level was very low, but it was there.
2. I put one speaker next to the bottom mic and one next to the top mic. This time sound level was pretty much 0.

So it seems that what the top mic picks up is cancelled from what the bottom mic picks up. I haven't figured out how to disable this feature.

Any luck on your side?

---
Tags: htc-one-x, filter, audio-recording
---


# Question
Title: Using Droid as a computer microphone via USB?
Is it possible to use my Droid as a computer microphone (for Skype, Teamspeak, etc) via the USB cord? If not, does anyone know of a Teamspeak client app?

Any help would be appreciated.

# Answer
There are all sorts of apps that enable you to use your phone's camera and mic on your PC over Wi-fi or USB.

Here are some examples:
> 10 votes

# Answer
The App Microphone allows this. Just do it by 3.5mm cord; it's way easier.
> 6 votes

# Answer
Sure... you just have to choose between hacking the phone or hacking the PC.

Via hacking the PC:

Enable USB debugging on the phone. Install the SDK and get adb working. Set up an adb port forward to the phone. Write an apk which listens on a local network port and upon connection opens the microphone and pushes samples through the forwarded 'network' socket. The hard part: on the PC, write a "microphone driver" which gets its data by connecting to the program on the android through the adb port forward. You could also do the same thing substituting a wifi network for the adb-usb.

Via hacking the phone:

Compile a new USB kernel driver which presents the expected interface for a USB microphone, and have it gets its data from the microphone. If going to this much trouble, you might as well make it into a USB webcam. Root and serious coding required.
> 2 votes

# Answer
WO Virtual Mic 1.39€ + you need to install a client
> 1 votes

# Answer
The answer is "No" - at least not without a dedicated app (if such exists).

BTW, I can understand wanting to do this via Bluetooth, but via USB? Why?
> 0 votes

# Answer
Senstic PocketAudio Microphone, plus you need to install the PocketControl software on your PC (or Mac)
> 0 votes

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Tags: usb, microphone
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# Question
Title: Will this audio/video cable work with a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1?
I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and I'm looking for a cable that will allow me to output audio and video to a TV. I found this on a website and I was wondering if anyone has tried it or knows if it will work?

# Answer
> 2 votes
As I had commented to @onik's answer: If this cable does not have a DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter), this cable will not work.

I also found a search result about a scam related to this kind of cable, which again confirms this. Since I am unable to view the video (restriction at my work) I am unable to see to comment more on it.

# Answer
> 1 votes
A source link could give us more information, but I see no reason this wouldn't work, since it uses the correct port and that port also supports HDMI, which means that video output is supported.

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Tags: samsung-galaxy-tab-10, video-out
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# Question
Title: How can I edit/remove my pictures in Android -devices on desktop?
I want to remove a bunch of images and it is extremely slow in Android. I want to edit things directly in Desktop, maybe such services with something like Google Picasa (?). In other words, how can I edit my images on the memory card of the Android device on Desktop?

The Desktop and the Android are linked with the same Google account.

# Answer
You can do this via WiFi, using a remote management app like e.g. AirDroid or, when on Windows, MyPhoneExplorer. There are a lot more apps like this, and they give you the added benefit of being able to manage a lot of other things remotely -- as e.g. reading/writing SMS, managing apps/contacts/ringtones, copying files between your device and your computer, and sometimes even backup stuff.

Most of them (like the mentioned *AirDroid*) start a web service on your device, which you then can access with your browser. This often looks like a "virtual PC" (see screenshot below). Others (like here *MyPhoneExplorer*) have a native PC-Client, which can even do more (like here: synchronizing with Outlook and others).

*AirDroid* managing pictures

*MyPhoneExplorer* Windows Client
> 1 votes

---
Tags: camera, images, photos, picasa, editing
---


title: during reboot stuck on "Samsung" logo

text:
# Question
Title: during reboot stuck on "Samsung" logo
After installing CM9 on my Samsung Galaxy S+ (Plus) it gets stuck in the "SAMSUNG" screen whenever I restart, the very first screen (I guess). I have to press the Power button 10 seconds to restart when I come to that point. Did someone discover that kind of problem before, how can I solve the issue?

# Answer
This is a common outcome for many possible problems. If you can get in to clockworkmod(or whatever custom recovery) try reflashing cm9. If that doesn't work try doing a factory reset from recovery (clear data/factory reset) and then reflashing cm9.

On the international SGS you always had to flash cm-roms twice (on first flash it sets up the partitions and on the second flash it finaly flashes the rom).

If you still can't boot, flash a stock ROM with Odin (I think it is Odin you use for flashing stock ROMs, since it is Samsung device, if not use whatever is recomended on XDA-developers under topic named something like "restoring a stock ROM"), and check that it boots that. After that install root, recovery and cm as before.

If you still can't get it to boot after that, let us know.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: cyanogenmod, reboot, samsung-galaxy-s-plus
---


# Question
Title: How can I get a random image on my lockscreen?
Could you recommend me a simple solution to set a random image for my lockscreen?

I have the stock Samsung launcher, stock ICS rom and I don't want to install any custom launcher. I'm just looking for an app to switch the image every few hours.

# Answer
> 1 votes
You can use a live wallpaper that downloads new images periodicaly. This one has a lot of built in image sites (like national geographic, nasa, ...):

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dngames.picofday

It looks like a normal wallpaper and is battery friendly. The only problem I see is that most of the built in sources update once per day not every few hours, but you can define your own source of images.

You can also try searching for other similar solutions. I think the livewallpaper way is the best beacuse it has a lot less issues with lockscreens (you just choose the live wallpaper as the lockscreen wallpaper and it should leave the normal background intact.

# Answer
> 0 votes
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.j4velin.wallpaperChanger

From Google Play:

> Change your wallpaper with one click or automatically every X minutes! This app allows you to quickly change your wallpaper with one single click on a widget! Additionally, you can enable a timer to automatically change your wallpaper on a predefined time. Images can easily be added to the rotation list by using the Android Gallery app or a file manager like FileExpert. This app is optimized for battery life & performence, so it might take some seconds to actually change the wallpaper after a click on the widget! Features:

* easily add images or even folders through the Android gallery & other file managers
* change wallpaper with a timer, on each lockscreen unlock or through a customizable widget
* 3 widgets: change to next wallpaper in rotation list, select the wallpaper you want to see or change the album with one click
* ordered rotation or random wallpaper
* very low memory and battery consumption: doesnt need any background services running and is not implemented live wallpaper
* no ads

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Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, lock-screens, images
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# Question
Title: Poor performance with portable wifi hot spot. Is this normal?
I'm using an HTC Desire HD to create a portable wifi hotspot on a 2G connection (yes, I know, but its all I got sometimes) so I can use my laptop for simple internet based tasks. My 2G connection on the phone seems to max out at about 40kbps (unrelated, but is this normal?). However, the connection is pretty much unusable by my laptop which seems to gain a maximum of about 300 bytes/sec download speed (strangely though, it gets almost 4kbps upload).

So, 1) Any idea what's wrong? 2) If the phone's 2g connection is capable of 40kpbs, is it reasonable to expect a portable wifi hotspot client to be able to use all of this capacity?

Thanks!

# Answer
In theory you should get full speed but this things can be dodgy sometimes. Make sure you make these speedtests at the same spot and at the same time to avoid congestion and diffrent signal strenghts effecting the test.

You can try USB tethering and see if the speed improves. If you can't find usb tethering in settings there are apps that should allow you to try this.

You can also try to put the phone to a better spot (signal wise) when using the wifi tether.

On an unrelated note, please try to be more precise when using units such as kbps. You used bits 3 times and byte once. A small(normal) b means a bit and a large(capital) B a Byte. One Byte is 8 bits. 40 kbps (kilo bits per seconds) is 5kB/s(kilo bytes per seconds). Please do the tests again and edit your question with the correct numbers with correct units or post in a comment.

It is also possible that your computer is doing some stuff (such as cheking for windows updates or antivirus definitions) that might effect your speedtest. Also the compter might show the results in a diffent unit than your phone, so the numbers are smaller but the speed is the same.
> 1 votes

# Answer
No, this does not seems to be normal. When I use my phone for tethering I get the full 100% speed my phone is normally capable of. Maybe you network supplier is slowing down the connection or the tethering isnt working all that great.
> 0 votes

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Tags: performance, wifi-hotspot
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title: Why Android can't be just mounted?

text:
# Question
Title: Why Android can't be just mounted?
I read a lot about rooting android, that it is risky, that I can mess all and get my device completely dead and nothing can be done about it. So my question -- why all these phones can't be just mounted? If I mess up my system with root, I always can boot with live-cd or write disk image directly to `/dev/sda`. After all, I can just mount broken system and repair it.

Why android to not support it? Is it some real technical restriction, related to flash memory or something, that differs between phone and PC/Notebook?

# Answer
The only reason you need to root phones in the first place is that the manufacturer has tried to prevent software choice on the phone platform. The PC design is pretty unique in that it has had a choice of software platform for so long that it's an ingrained feature, although with Secure Boot on Windows 8 devices this is likely on the way out.
> 8 votes

# Answer
You can't mount them because there has to be some software to communicate between the phone and your computer. With the Phone the full software stack needs to be involved as it needs to take into account what happens when you mount the device when it's running. Also there are often multiple partitions on the phones, a raw mount would show up all the raw system files in the computer's File Manager which would be bad and things like Windows would probably try and format the Linux partitions as it can't understand them. On newer devices you can't even do a normal USB Storage mount but you have to use MTP as they use internal storage which still needs to be accessible while mounted. Technically it would be possible for them to make some kind of failsafe raw mount mode when it's plugged in while powered off (or started with some button held down), but they haven't, they do provide other methods of recovery instead. Also the firmware generally needs to be installed somehow, there are scripts and so on that run to set up things. If you have totally bricked the phone then there isn't much you can do.

But having said that flashing modern Android phones isn't too risky and actually bricking it is hard.

Firstly there are actually several images that can be flashed:

* Boot loader (HBOOT)
* Radio firmware
* Recovery Firmware
* ROM Firmware

Older devices did have some issue when flashing Radio/Boot. Specifically if you flashed them in the incorrect order and had mismatched versions you could actually brick the phone. But I believe that is mostly a problem with first/second generation Android phones, I haven't seen it being an issue on newer phones (also you probably shouldn't flash a radio of a different region as you might lose special features, like the 'HD Voice' for Australians).

Now days, in order to actually brick your device you would have to be totally unable to enter HBOOT, Recovery *and* the main ROM. If you can enter any of those it should be possible to flash firmware from them (although in some cases they might have security enabled meaning you are limited to flash the official stock images, but you can generally break out of them and flash whatever you want). HBOOT allows for fastboot flashing. Recovery and the main ROM both have the flashing binary in them.

Finally if you did totally manage to brick it, you can look at using JTAG to reverse it. That probably does require soldering a cable onto the phones mobo though as well as a (cheap) cable. And some knowhow.
> 5 votes

# Answer
The root filesystem of a typical Android device can't be mounted because there's no way to interface to it in order to mount it.

The root filesytem is typically stored in flash chips soldered to the phone's board. When the phone boots, it runs a boot loader (also out of flash) that doesn't provide any option to run user-supplied software. The flash is software locked from modification, and the boot loader provides no "unlock" option.

The USB port is connected to the CPU, and there's no way to get the CPU to let you run code that mounts the root filesystem. Code loaded by the boot loader will only give you limited access that doesn't include raw read/write to the flash device.

Thus it is necessary to find some way to break this security chain in order to modify the root filesystem.

There are two reasons for this craziness. The primary reason is permit the sale of subsidized phones tied to a single carrier. The secondary reason is to make Android devices more reliable because a user can't, either intentionally or through inadvertent malware triggering, corrupt the device to the point where it can't recover.
> 3 votes

# Answer
I agree that this would be a great idea, but sadly wasn't implemented for security and carier locking's sake.

But do note that most phones have almost the same functionalty. Samsung download mode with odin does pretty much what you want it to do (flash an image directly to the flash device) and it is very hard to break download mode. It is very much like on the computer: if the BIOS is still working you can boot from a CD and restore an image, here the bootloader is a sort of bios and if it works you can flash an image. If you flashed a custom non compatible bios on your computer you could just as well "brick" a pc.

If you avoid touching the bootloader on an android device you won't brick it, and even then some devices have "usb jig"s that will force restore the bootloader back. Why people are so much more reckless on their phones than on their pc is beyond me.

I think the idea is good but there really is no need for this right now, beacuse in practice the restore options and real "hard brick" possibilities are almost identical to the PC world and noone is complaining about PCs. People just need to be more carefull.
> 2 votes

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Tags: mount
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# Question
Title: Can I use multiple Android devices with a single Google account?
Surprisingly I haven't found a satisfactory answer for this in a FAQ somewhere or anything.

I have a Motorola Droid (with froyo, if it matters)
I am thinking about getting a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Pretty simple question: What will happen if I attach the same google account to the tablet?

**What I do *not* want to happen** is for the new device to automatically download all of the same apps from my phone, especially the ones that don't make sense on a Wifi-only non-phone device. And especially if the installed apps on both devices need to always stay synchronized.

**What I want** is to be able to sync contacts, gmail, calendar, etc, on both devices.

---

**Bonus Question**

It would be nice if my paid apps were available for re-download on the new device, but that isn't even necessary. So I was thinking about creating a new google account just for the sake of apps on the new device, and adding my gmail account as a "secondary" on the tablet. So, the bonus question is: would *this* option be a better plan (if it would work at all)?

# Answer
I have a Motorola Droid running CM6 (Android 2.2, effectively) and a G1 running CM5 (Android 2.1, effectively). The Droid is on Verizon and the G1 is on a pre-pay SIM card with no data (so it is basically a wifi device I use for dev testing).

I use the same Google account on both. It does not force me to have the same apps on both phones. I can download apps I have paid for on both phones without any problems. Contacts, gmail, etc. sync just fine.

However, I do believe that if both devices are running Froyo, it will try to initially restore your apps when you add your Google account. But I believe you can then uninstall them (it won't try to re-install again).
> 31 votes

# Answer
That's true. It's no problem to use multiple phones with one account. I do it like this myself with a g1 and a galaxy s. The paid apps are connected to your gmail account so you can use them on any phone with your credentials. Otherwise you would have to pay with every new phone you are going to buy.
> 8 votes

# Answer
Great question. Here's an answer for someone with two G1's as seen here.

> I have 2 G1's and only one sim card. I have put the sim card in each and wiped, even with different esn numbers they both sign in to google flawlessly. And the paid apps are associated with the gmail sign in, so they show up on both phones.

So accordingly, it seems that paid apps are "synced" with the gmail account. This makes sense from a ownership standpoint (paying for a given app grants access on multiple devices), however it may not make sense for some specific apps (i.e. GPS, location, etc.).
> 5 votes

# Answer
I can confirm what @Bryan Denny has said in the accepted answer. I have a *Samsung Galaxy S* and an *Archos 101* device.

* Both running Froyo 2.2.1 now.
* Using the **same Google account**.
* **Nothing was installed automatically** when I set up the *Archos 101*.
* I had to install all applications I wanted.
* I was able to install **both the paid and the free applications** I had running on the *Galaxy*.

---

I only want to add that, if you select an application from the **Android Market via pc**, you have to **choose between your devices** to which device you want to install the application ( *the devices are listed in a combo box* ).

If you want to **install it on both** :

* Click the `install` button, and choose the first device. The button will now read `Installed`.
* For the second device, just click `Installed` again - it will give you the option once more to choose a device from your device.
* Choose the second device and it will be installed a second time ( *although is displays `Installed` , it's still a click through to the next screen* ).
> 5 votes

# Answer
Just looking around my desk, I see at least 10 phones running Android from 3 manufacturers. And a XOOM. Nearly all of them are activated with my "primary gmail account" for the sake of getting them going and doing some testing. I also connect some of these devices to my work Google Apps account.

Android does exactly the right thing with regards to syncing of data. Email, contacts and calendar works flawlessly. Apps that I purchased on one device show up in the market app for those devices that are compatible, but it doesn't download them until I say to do so. Books I bought are available in my book reader from one device to the next. Apps that I downloaded or paid for but don't want to use on a particular device show up in the market, but I'm free to ignore them and not download them.

When a new device arrives, usually it's a matter of 20-30 minutes to get it to a useful state by downloading the core apps and data that I need. I'm sure that could be shorter if I bothered to set up a install routine, but half the fun of getting a new toy is figuring out how it feels in my hands. The new web-based Market interface makes this much easier. I just sync once and it shows up as another device in my Market account. Then I start pushing apps at it.
> 3 votes

# Answer
I have a Droid 2 with Gingerbread, and then bought a Xoom with Honeycomb. The Xoom did indeed download all the apps, paid and free alike. I did have to remove some. Oddly, some it left off randomly. Could be due to the variation from gingerbread to honeycomb. Contacts and email sync perfectly, apps downloaded since the initial sync do not self-sync to the other device.
> 1 votes

# Answer
When you finish setting up a google account it shows you two options one to backup and one to restore apps and data (the last page of the "google account wizard", two checkboxes) if you disable those options it will not auto install any apps. You will be however able to install payed apps on the second device wihout buying them again (just search for the app again and you can install it without paying). Syncing of contacts, gmail and gtalk will also work normaly.
> 1 votes

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Tags: google-play-store, sync, google-account
---


# Question
Title: Cannot set up a yahoo email account with @yahoo.com.au address (.au not accepted)
The mail app on my Samsung note does not allow me to set up my email account with the full Yahoo address: it does not permit adding the `.au` at the end of the address. If set up the account like this, then I receive all my emails, but any I send out from my samsung misses the `.au` domain suffix -- resulting in anyone replying, not being able to respod without it bouncing back to them. They obviously do not notice the `.au` is missing.

I've contacted Yahoo, who say my address is with `.au` and anything without that will not get through.

I've tried resetting my samsung by removing my yahoo adress, and replacing it, but it will still not accept setting up the account with the `.au` and only simply as `@yahoo.com`.

Is there any solution known?

Tim

# Answer
> 2 votes
I would guess that Samsung failed to provide proper support for Yahoo Mail. Therefore I recommend that you install the offical Yahoo Mail app. It should work out of the box.

Antoher approach is to forward your yahoo mail to your google mail. They advantage is that you don't have to use an additional e-mail app.

---
Tags: email, settings, samsung-galaxy-note, yahoo-mail
---


# Question
Title: Free Wi-Fi network: how to autoaccept (robotic click) wifi policy web page?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> Can I automatically log in to open WiFi that requires web login/password?

At a hospital, there is a no-password Wi-Fi network which is for guest and prior having internet, I have to click "Accept" button on an initial web page I get in a browser. The page is super simple, single frame with single button at the bottom called accept.

There is an app in the play store which can open browser so that **I** can click the accept button.(app name: Auto Wi-Fi Prompt) Well, is there a way to write such script which will make even the "accept" click for me? (e.g., llama advanced config and a ".bat" file after that)

for example, once I activate Wi-Fi, it detects being connected to hospital-guest and will auto-click accept for me.

# Answer
I don't think you looked very hard in the Play Store. I found several apps which look like they'll do what you want. (I searched on "wifi auto login".)

* Wifi Browser Login "This app will automatically detect if your WiFi connection requires browser login. It can be configured to either notify you or automatically popup a webview for you to login."
* WiFi Web Login "Automatically logs you on to any WiFi hotspot, hotel WiFi, guest WiFi."
* WiFi Auto Login Lite "WiFi Auto-Login automatically logs in your Android device into some of the most popular FREE WiFi hotspots, eliminating the need to deal with that annoying WiFi hotspot login page!"
* ...plus a bunch more. There's quite a few that have a very fine focus, such as one just for Starbucks.
> 4 votes

---
Tags: wi-fi
---


title: Find-and-Replace on contacts

text:
# Question
Title: Find-and-Replace on contacts
Is thee any way to perform a find-and-replace in contacts? I want replace a letter with another one in all contacts texts. (My device is an Xperia Mini Pro Android 4.0)

# Answer
> 3 votes
You can export the contacts from gmail, than edit in whatever editor you want and than import back to google. Your phone should then update the changes.

How to export from gmail:

http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=24911

and how to edit the CSV files:

http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=12119&topic=1669027&ctx=topic

There are also related links on the left (for import and other questions)

If importing them back to google makes duplicates, remove all google contacts and then import from CSV.

If your phone does not currently use google contacts sync for it's contacts you can try a similar "hack" by exporting contacts to the SD card and then importing them back.

# Answer
> 2 votes
As Mihic mentions a "similar hack" to process your accounts without Google:

1. open your contacts app
2. open its settings
3. chose to "export to file"

The resulting export file stored on your sdcard is in `.vcf` (VCard) format, which can be read by many applications. As it is mainly plain-text (except for embedded contact photos), you could do a basic search-and-replace with any plain-text-editor (do not use a word processor like MS Word), if you are careful (a simple "replace `a` with `ae` might mess up things -- so take care to specify something more unique, or let the replace ask your confirmation for each single place). Best make a copy first -- so in the worst case you still have the original.

Having finished that, you can import the resulting `.vcf` file the same way -- maybe after you emptied your contact list:

1. open your contacts app
2. open its settings
3. chose to "import from file"
4. select your new file, and import it

---
Tags: contacts
---


# Question
Title: How can I merge duplicated contacts that are different only in one letter?
I use "Contact Remover Plus" to merge duplicated contacts. But I want also merge contacts that their names are different just in a letter.

How can I merge these duplicated contacts? I am looking for a automatic solution.

# Answer
> 5 votes
Google Contacts is your best option. It will merge contacts with different names if things like their email addresses are the same. Also, if for some reason, it doesn't detect the contacts that should be merged, you can select multiple contacts manually and click on `Merge Contacts` from the more actions menu.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Use latest version of MyPhoneExplorer (www.fjsoft.at). It is compatible with nearly any android phone. connect your phone with Bluetooth or USB to PC. Sync your contacts with the software, then you are able to easily merge your contacts by selecting some of them and right-click -\> Merge Contacts.

Note, this requires installation of a client on your Windows desktop (no Mac or Linux available)

---
Tags: contacts
---


title: GTalk and phone with wrong time

text:
# Question
Title: GTalk and phone with wrong time
I have a phone where I like to have the time a few minutes forward the right time. Now, when I chat with people through Google Talk, I got all message mixed up because the received messages arrive with the sender time. If the answer is faster than my forwarded minutes, it appears before my message.

Example:

```
Phone 1 time        Phone 2 time       Sender       Message time        Message
08:01               08:18              Phone 1      08:01               I'm fine
08:00               08:17              Phone 2      08:17               How are you?

```

Is there anything I can set up (beside the right phone time) to avoid this?

# Answer
> 0 votes
Unfortunately not, except perhaps a different chat application that can interface with Google Talk. Talk uses the timestamp of the sender to order the messages, using the assumption that cellphones on a cell network will have a consistently accurate clock. It is likely that a different chat application (such as IMO or Trillian) which interfaces with Google Chat will display these messages differently; I do not use multi-protocol chat applications, or change my clock, so I cannot confirm that this will solve your problem; I remain rather confident it will however.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Check the time zone you have set under *Settings -\> Date and time* and make sure that it's correct. I had the same problem on my Samsung phone and this solution fixed it.

---
Tags: google-talk, clock
---


# Question
Title: How to find out the UID of a given file/folder?
I have an issue with inconsistent UIDs.

I would like to know how to manually find out the ID of a folder (specifically the /data partition). I *think* that it should be the same concept of an usual unix/linux filesystem but... I'm evidently getting older for this stuff :-)

From the Astro app I can see the details of the /data partition but it only tells me `d--` and I cannot find any user id.

Actually, I have not set up any account on this phone, so there should be (I guess) only one UID present (the default one) apart from the system daemons etc.

Maybe for this reason it doesn't show up? Is there another, more powerful/informative app to be used? A file manager of some sort, a terminal console would be ideal for me.

# Answer
> 3 votes
I'd personally recommend using a terminal emulator or `adb shell` and then using the `ls` command. You can get the UID's listed by name if you use the `-l` flag and listed by number with the `-n` flag. Note that in the `/data` directory you'll need root permission in order to index the files/directories, so `ls` will fail with a normal user:

```
root@android:/data # ls -l
drwxrwxr-x system   system            2012-08-27 14:29 anr
drwxrwx--x system   system            2012-08-29 17:46 app
drwx------ root     root              2012-08-27 00:54 app-asec
drwxrwx--x system   system            2012-08-27 00:54 app-private
drwx------ system   system            2012-08-27 00:55 backup
drwxrwx--x system   system            2012-08-29 17:46 dalvik-cache
drwxrwx--x system   system            2012-08-29 17:34 data
drwxr-x--- root     log               2012-08-27 00:54 dontpanic
drwxrwx--- drm      drm               2012-08-27 00:55 drm
drwxrwx--- gps      system            2012-08-27 10:29 gps
drwxr-x--x system   system            2012-08-27 00:54 lightsensor
drwxr-x--x root     root              2012-08-27 00:54 local
drwxrwx--- root     root              1969-12-31 19:00 lost+found
drwxrwx--- media_rw media_rw          2012-08-27 14:10 media
drwxrwx--t system   misc              2012-08-27 00:54 misc
drwx------ root     root              2012-08-27 10:30 property
drwxrwx--x system   system            2012-08-27 00:54 resource-cache
drwxr-x--x system   system            2012-08-27 00:54 sensors
drwxr-x--- root     shell             2012-08-27 00:54 ssh
drwxrwxr-x system   system            2012-08-30 11:05 system
drwxr-xr-x root     root              2012-08-27 00:55 tf
drwx--x--x system   system            2012-08-27 00:54 user

root@android:/data # ls -n
drwxrwxr-x 1000     1000              2012-08-27 14:29 anr
drwxrwx--x 1000     1000              2012-08-29 17:46 app
drwx------ 0        0                 2012-08-27 00:54 app-asec
drwxrwx--x 1000     1000              2012-08-27 00:54 app-private
drwx------ 1000     1000              2012-08-27 00:55 backup
drwxrwx--x 1000     1000              2012-08-29 17:46 dalvik-cache
drwxrwx--x 1000     1000              2012-08-29 17:34 data
drwxr-x--- 0        1007              2012-08-27 00:54 dontpanic
drwxrwx--- 1019     1019              2012-08-27 00:55 drm
drwxrwx--- 1021     1000              2012-08-27 10:29 gps
drwxr-x--x 1000     1000              2012-08-27 00:54 lightsensor
drwxr-x--x 0        0                 2012-08-27 00:54 local
drwxrwx--- 0        0                 1969-12-31 19:00 lost+found
drwxrwx--- 1023     1023              2012-08-27 14:10 media
drwxrwx--t 1000     9998              2012-08-27 00:54 misc
drwx------ 0        0                 2012-08-27 10:30 property
drwxrwx--x 1000     1000              2012-08-27 00:54 resource-cache
drwxr-x--x 1000     1000              2012-08-27 00:54 sensors
drwxr-x--- 0        2000              2012-08-27 00:54 ssh
drwxrwxr-x 1000     1000              2012-08-30 11:05 system
drwxr-xr-x 0        0                 2012-08-27 00:55 tf
drwx--x--x 1000     1000              2012-08-27 00:54 user
root@android:/data #

```

---
Tags: terminal, astro-file-manager
---


# Question
Title: Would it be possible to use the SD card as the root filesystem
This may sound stupid to someone who knows more about Android, but I don't and it it has been bugging me for some time now.

Since Android is at its core a Linux system, **shouldn't it be possible to directly boot from a different storage device** (like the SD card) the same way I can boot my computer from a thumbdrive?

This would (in theory) enable the to use a (big) SD card as system memory instead of the (in my case, which is a Wildfire S) ridiculously small real system memory.

So, is this possible? If yes: How? And are there links/howtos? If no: Why? Which meachanisms prevent that from happening? Or has just nobody tried to do it?

# Answer
The `boot.img` that is responsible for booting up Android, has their init scripts embedded in the RAM Disk of the actual `boot.img` which mounts the partitions into the respective `/data`, `/cache`, `/system` mount points respectively.

By altering the init scripts to hit on the SDCard, could lead to an unstable system, furthermore, reducing the life of the SDCard via wear and tear of the SDCard - why?

The kernel when booting, is loading from the `/` which is within the same partition as the `boot` partition - hence the need for the RAM Disk to be present along with it. It is that, which gets loaded into memory - a temporary file-system, in order for the init scripts to be read in and executed. Once the mount points are established, then the RAM Disk gets removed and thereby, the temporary file-system a lá RAM Disk, gets "flipped" over to the real partitions at a later stage during the bootstrap.

This is where the RAM Disk comes in - only temporarily, it is through that, the whole process of booting can happen.

The chicken and egg is this - the kernel prior to boot, has no idea what partitions are there!

Not alone that, by hard-coding the SDCard into the kernel's init parameter, which is a specific option that can be passed into the kernel upon boot in which it alters the kernel's processing of the environment.

The wear and tear of the SDCard would be significantly increased, not alone that, the entire Android ecosystem would drastically change, the API's have defined internal storage and external storage - so it could lead to confusion in where to store their own content providers for contacts etc, "Are we sitting on a external storage or internal storage?" from the perspective of Android itself, bear in mind, the content providers itself are housed in internal storage and from an overall picture, its one of de-facto standard convention for Android's file-systems involved.

So to sum up, I do not think that's possible, not ruling out its impossible either but if it can be done, chances are it will be tied intimately to the handset itself, give or take, what manufacturers put in there from a perspective of partition format types (yaffs, emmc, LinusStoreIII, and more importantly, the SDCard handling mechanism from the kernel/hardware viewpoint will be different - am talking about different IO addresses here) and not alone that, differing sizes of the partitions also, this would make the whole concept of Android - not exactly portable either due to non-standard scripts found within the RAM Disk itself.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: file-system
---


# Question
Title: What's the difference between real dual-touch and fake dual-touch?
I have a `Xperia X10 Mini Pro` and by some ungodly reason it's dual touch feature is not working. I have searched around the net and I have seen here and there people use terms such as `real dual-touch` and `fake dual-touch`.
I don't really understand what's the difference here? Can the dual-touch ability be faked and how is that possible?
By the way, if anyone can tell is it possible to activate the dual touch feature in my phone I would be super thankful.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Multitouch touch screen digitizers handle (2,3,4...) or more input fingers at a time at the hardware level.
Single touch devices handle only one finger at a time even if 2 or more are present. If you touch with a 2nd finger, the detected touch will "**jump**" from the first finger to the second finger location.

Install a touch screen visualizer or test application like Z device test. You can watch a video how it looks with one finger on youtube (which has fake dual touch and has some flaws).

So what a fake dual touch driver does is this:
It basically detects "**jumps**" of the finger and assumes it comes from a second and just keeps reporting a fixed virtual event (coming from the last known position from the (now vanished) 1st finger touch) while the 2nd touch is from your actual finger and reported regularly.

# Answer
> 1 votes
The difference between real dual-touch and fake dual-touch has to do with how the screen is built. Real touch screens have an additional layer to allow for additional inputs. There are ways to emulate dual-touch with software. This is helpful in the case of your particular phone.

This XDA forum page has a list of updates for particular ROMs including 2 stock ROMs which enable fake dual touch.

---
Tags: sony-xperia-x10-mini-pro, multi-touch
---


# Question
Title: Change android device physical resolution
I have downloaded an app that, when it starts, check the device resolution and displays a message indicating that my resolution should be at least be 800x600. I have changed my screen density using the LCD Resolution app in order to have a fake 800x600 resolution (it worked well).

Problem is that the app still disaplys the error message and displays my resolution has if it hadn't change so I guess it is based on the physical resolution of the device. Is there a way to fake the physical resolution so that I can run the app?

# Answer
# Short Answer

Your device uses a screen resolution of 320 x 480 pixels, while the application you're trying to run needs a minimum of 800 x 480 pixeis.

While you are using an application to manipulate the Screen Density, this can't overcome the physical limitation of your device's screen, that the application checks for before running.

In short, you can't run the application on that device.

---

# Elaborating the Answer

## Your Device

Your device, the Samsung I5700 Galaxy Spica uses 320 x 480 pixels of screen resolution.

## PokerStars Mobile Game

The application you've mentioned in the question comments, under the FAQ section says:

> **Does PokerStars Mobile Poker work on all Android devices?**
>
> No. PokerStars Mobile Poker is designed only for mobile devices running Android™ 2.2 and above, with a minimum screen resolution of 800x480. Compatible devices include (but are not limited to):
>
> * Samsung Galaxy
> * Galaxy Nexus
> * Motorola Droid RAZR
> * HTC Sensation
> * HTC Desire
> * Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
> * Sony Ericsson Xperia X13
> * Acer Liquid A1

## What is Screen Resolution?

Quoted from Android Developers - Terms and Concepts

> The total number of physical pixels on a screen. When adding support for multiple screens, applications do not work directly with resolution; applications should be concerned only with screen size and density, as specified by the generalized size and density groups.

* Screen Size

> Actual physical size, measured as the screen's diagonal.
>
> For simplicity, Android groups all actual screen sizes into four generalized sizes: small, normal, large, and extra large.
* Screen Density

> The quantity of pixels within a physical area of the screen; usually referred to as dpi (dots per inch). For example, a "low" density screen has fewer pixels within a given physical area, compared to a "normal" or "high" density screen.
>
> For simplicity, Android groups all actual screen densities into four generalized densities: low, medium, high, and extra high.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: screen, samsung-galaxy-spica
---


title: How to disable desktop scroll wrap?

text:
# Question
Title: How to disable desktop scroll wrap?
*Samsung Galaxy Ace 2.*

Let's say I have 3 desktops, I can scroll from 1 to 2, from 2 to 3 and... from 3 to 1. The last one is undesired by me, so how I can disable this effect?

# Answer
> 2 votes
It is likely that the option does not exist on your stock phone launcher (can't confirm that, I have a different phone), but if it does, it should have the keywords "looping", "wrap around", "circular scrolling" in the settings.

I would recommend installing one of the following 3rd party launcher instead, which do not wrap around by default, and provide other useful functionality:

1. Go Launcher Ex
2. ADW.Launcher
3. LauncherPro

Go Launcher Ex appears to be in active development though so you'll probably have better support going with it. There are other launchers as well but these 3 are the ones I have used before.

# Answer
> -3 votes
Just use your fingers in the main page. Place one finger on the top of the screen and the other on te bottom. Then, diagonally, slide them untill the middle, joining them. That should expand all the pages you havr. After that select the one ypu want by long pressing it and slide it to the bim to remove it. Good luck!

---
Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, samsung-touchwiz
---


# Question
Title: Can I download large downloads on the PC?
I just got my new Nexus 7 and found out that most big Android games download their data over WiFi. This is problematic for me as I don't have a good WiFi connection and most downloads freeze halfway. Can I download the extra data on my wired connection on my computer?

# Answer
> 5 votes
It depends on game. Some games allow you to download the data off phone and extract it to your SD card at the said location of the game instruction. I remember doing so for few games myself.

If the game instruction doesn't have anything like that then you've to manually find out what file it downloads from where and put it in relevant place in SD card.

# Answer
> 5 votes
If you root your tablet, there are reverse tethering apps that will allow you to use your PC's net connection via USB. One of the apps in the Play store is free, and another offers a free trial, so you may give them a try. It appears this working is hit or miss, but since this is a Nexus device you may be in luck (being vanilla Android, not some carrier or manufacturer's possibly locked down version).

---
Tags: google-play-store, downloading
---


# Question
Title: Why can't android connect to an ad hoc hotspot?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> Why can't my device see an ad-hoc WiFi network?

One thing I have noticed about almost all android-powered smartphones is that they find it so difficult to connect to ad hoc wireless hotspots. I can connect most wifi enabled devices to this ad hoc connection(created with an iPhone 3G app, MyWi) but not android phones. Is there a fix for this situation?

# Answer
> 3 votes
As far as I know, this is something inherent to Android itself. I'd go further to say that if you've ever used an Android device that could access ad hoc WiFi it's something the manufacturer added.

I would love it if someone could prove me wrong on that though.

So as for why, I suppose only Google knows.

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


# Question
Title: Galaxy S screen glowing in locked state as if some one tried to unlock it, even with out touching it
My mobile is working fine till yesterday, but suddenly I observed that when I lock it and keep it aside, I can see that the screen is glowing as if some one tried to unlock it. This is happening quite often. Can some one please explain me what is the problem and the solution for that pbm.

# Answer
Go to Settings, Wireless networks, WiFi settings then uncheck NOTIFY ME FOR OPEN NETWORKS. This solved the problem for me :)
> -1 votes

---
Tags: lock-screens
---


# Question
Title: Terminal emulator's ssh trying to read /data/.ssh instead of $HOME/.ssh
When I try using Terminal emulator's ssh I get

> ssh: Warning: failed creating /data/.ssh: Permission denied.

or since 2012-08-19:

> Could not create directory '/data/ssh\_client'.

But when I type:

```
echo $HOME
/sdcard

```

Why isn't ssh checking `/sdcard/.ssh` or `/sdcard/ssh_data`?

# Answer
This doesn't happen when you run ssh as root.

/sdcard is an **unsafe(!)** location for ssh client config and valuable keys (some users don't even encrypt their keys for reasons of laziness). Each app has read access to that location, so this is most probably set deliberately **not to /sdcard/.ssh** for security reasons.

If you have root access, create a symlink from /data/ssh\_data or /data/.ssh to /data/jackpal.androidterm/ or create the folder with appropriate access rights for the terminal app (not system wide read/write though!).

By the way:
This might be fixed soon. See CyanogenMod's github commit log here. Excerpt:

> Some users have / as home directory, some /data. This commit fixes ssh and ssh-keygen trying to create /.ssh which is volatile and read-only anyway.
>
> To allow an app (e.g. Android Terminal Emulator) to use ssh /data/ssh\_client still has to exist and owner permissions need to be set to the app user. This could be fixed by using the real data directory (/data/data/"app") in a later commit.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: ssh, terminal
---


# Question
Title: How can I increase the brightness of photos on the HTC Wildfire S?
I just moved from a Sony Ericsson C510 to a HTC Wildfire S.

Although the Wildfire as a flash and the C510 doesn't, I was able to take pictures in dim rooms better with the C510 than the Wildfire. **Even using the flash creates dark pictures.**

For example, in this picture you can see in the reflection in the picture glass in the lower left that I used the flash but **the flash was so weak** that it didn't seem to make the picture any brighter than without the flash.

**What settings can I change on my HTC Wildfire S to help make pictures taken in dim rooms brighter?**

# Answer
> 1 votes
You can access advanced options to better configure your photos outcome and maybe improve them on that particular environment.

## Open the menu panel to access and change camera settings:

To open the camera settings, while within the Camera application, press your device "menu" button.

## Available Options:

1. Image adjustments

> Slide your finger across each of the slider bars to adjust the exposure, contrast, saturation, and sharpness.
2. White balance

> White balance enables the camera to capture colors more accurately by adjusting to your current lighting environment.
3. ISO (photo mode only)

> Choose an ISO level or set it back to Auto. Higher ISO numbers are better for taking pictures in low light conditions.
4. Auto enhance (photo mode only)

> Select to reduce noise when using a high ISO setting and to automatically adjust photo brightness.

These are the most relevant settings to play with in order to obtain better results to your current scenario. You can read all about this and the remaining available settings on the users manual for your device under page 86.

---
Tags: camera, htc-wildfire-s
---


# Question
Title: How can I monitor the device battery consumption?
I need information about which applications or hardware features discharge the battery. Built-in Android option for this doesn't fit because not all devices have it. Also it would be a great advantage if the solution would send statistics via email.

# Answer
You could take a look at SystemPanel or System Tuner. Both let you monitor your ressource consumption (not only battery), and (at least in their respective Pro versions) also offer to do so in background, collecting data for later evaluation. *System Tuner* also offers a bunch of nice widgets for your homescreen, if you need to watch things for a while.

**EDIT:**

After seeing Mihic's comment above, I noticed I missed another important point: While up to Froyo, "dialing" the magic number `*#*#4636#*#*` brought up a nice system menu (it still does *that* part) including many battery stats, the latter (battery stats) have been removed since Gingerbread. If your device is rooted, BetterBatteryStats can bring those back -- and do a great deal to help you identifying battery hogs:

These two screenshots show you the most important information *BetterBatteryStats* provides: Which apps used the most battery power while the device tried to sleep -- and those who kept the device awake, preventing DeepSleep and such "PowerSave Mode". Just helped me getting 20% more battery out of my device ;)
> 3 votes

---
Tags: battery, battery-life, resource-monitoring
---


# Question
Title: Using software keyboard in AOSP custom build emulator
I was finally able to build my own AOSP image, and I want to debug some problem with the software keyboard. However, the default emulator has a physical keyboard emulated, and I don't know how to disable it.

I know that the Android SDK allows disabling the keyboard when creating an AVD, but I was only able to create such AVDs for the platforms that come with the SDK, and not for my own build.

# Answer
> 1 votes
I found a solution. I don't know if it is the best place to do such a modification, but I was able to edit the default emulator skin at

```
development/tools/emulator/skins/HVGA/hardware.ini

```

And set `hw.keyboard=no` there.

---
Tags: keyboard, android-emulator
---


# Question
Title: Is Wi-Fi always favoured over other data connections?
I am at home and I would like to be sure that the data connection is always going through the Wi-Fi rather than the (expensive) data connection.

Is it enough to simply turn on Wi-Fi and connect to the (password protected) network? How can I control that the download is happening through the right connection? Can sleep (or other events) disable/change/toggle this setting?

# Answer
In Android, AFAIK, when you connect to an active Wi-Fi network, mobile data (GPRS, 3G, etc) will be disabled (even if are turned on) temporary. So it would be OK to just connect to the Wi-Fi network. But, if you want to be sure about disabling mobile data, you should go to Settings -\> Wi-Fi and Networks -\> Mobile Data and uncheck the option to disable mobile data. (in ICS it's in Settings -\> Wireless and Networks -\> More -\> Mobile Networks)
> 10 votes

# Answer
An adition to yrajabi's anwser:

> In Android, AFAIK, when you connect to an active Wi-Fi network, mobile data (GPRS, 3G, etc) will be disabled (even if are turned on) temporary. So it would be OK to just connect to the Wi-Fi network. But, if you want to be sure about disabling mobile data, you should go to Settings -\> Wi-Fi and Networks -\> Mobile Data and uncheck the option to disable mobile data. (in ICS it's in Settings -\> Wireless and Networks -\> More -\> Mobile Networks)

Sleep might change this if wifi is set to sleep when screen is off - wifi turns off and data comes back on(unless data is force-disabled as per yrajabi). To keep wifi on during sleep be sure to set: Settings\> Wireless & Networks\> Wi-Fi settings\> MENU button\> Advanced\> Wifi Sleep policy to Never.
> 6 votes

---
Tags: wi-fi
---


# Question
Title: Why my (unrooted) /data partition appears to be empty?
I am having some issue with my /data partition. Among other things, when I browse its contents with the Astro app, it appears to be empty. The phone has never been rooted and it has been factory-reset at least three times in the last hour, so I would expect it to be at least minimally functioning.

Why is the /data partition empty? When factory reset, is it not supposed to contain something? Is this the cause of my inconsistent (maybe they are not inconsistent: they are MISSING) UIDs?

PS: I am putting the unrooting tag even if the phone was never rooted, since I would like it to go back to its original state :-)

# Answer
> 1 votes
Without root Astro doesn't have permission to view the contents of the /data directory. It probably displays it as "empty" in an attempt to handle it gracefully, I would guess (but that's mostly a guess). It seems like a fairly sensible alternative to other solutions, though, aside from perhaps giving you a message that says "Permission Denied" or similar.

---
Tags: file-system, system, unrooting
---


# Question
Title: Will the WWE region RUU version work for my region?
The HTC Desire S RUU for Android 4.0 is now available in the HTCdev website (htcdev.com/devcenter/downloads).

Unfortunately (or is it?), region is set to (WWE - World Wide English)

My region is "038 - HTC India"

Will the WWE be compatible with my device or do I have to wait for a separate release for my region ?

I read somewhere that

> WWE - World Wide English, this tells us it is meant for devices all over the world and is a generic update.

Is this true?

# Answer
Yes it is true. It also removes all the crap the carriers put on there as well.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, stock-android, htc-desire-s
---


title: Reducing the list of language options

text:
# Question
Title: Reducing the list of language options
I would like to see an option that allows the list of available languages reduced to those I actually need. When I use Voice Search, switching between English and Spanish is a pain: way too many options to choose from. All I need is a selection of the few languages that I speak, and not the entire list time and time again.

When I input using a keyboard, I can have different types of keyboards, eg. US international and Dutch. It is easy to switch between those, but the voice input does not follow suit.

I don't know why Voice Input language should not be in sync with selected keyboard option.

This is on HTC Wildfire S with HTC Sense, btw.

Any views?

# Answer
> 2 votes
Unfortunately, you can't. The list of available languages is a system configuration option that affects the Voice Search app, but can also be used by other apps, and by design isn't intended to be updated that often.

Google assumes that a user sets the desired language and performs actions based on it, as one tends to use the native language to perform such actions, the list is supposed to contain as much available languages as possible.

From the recent post on the Google Blog announcing 13 additional languages for Voice Search, it's mentioned:

> Note that you can only speak one language into the app at a time, and you may need to change your language settings to use one of these new languages.

The list itself is extensive as to allow developers to provide support according to their target users, and as mentioned, to allow users to select their own desired language.

A workaround would be to have a custom ROM limited to the desired languages.

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Tags: settings, languages, voice-recognition, google-voice-actions
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# Question
Title: Is there a way to trigger the menu in Play Books without a menu button?
On my HTC One X there is no menu button. Once I have selected a book and started reading all the menus disappear (for changing font size or scrolling through the book), the only way I can get them to re-appear is to switch out of the Play Books application and then switch back, the menu then appears for a few seconds. Is there an easier way to trigger the menu to appear when I don't have a menu button?

# Answer
Tap anywhere on the page and the menu reappears.
> 5 votes

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Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, htc-one-x, google-play-books
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# Question
Title: How can I make scroll bars always visible?
Android hides scroll bars unless the window is actively being scrolled. This makes it hard to tell if a window can be scrolled without actually trying it. Is there a way to force Android to always show scroll bars when there is something to scroll?

I have a Thunderbolt running Android 2.2 (Froyo).

# Answer
When an activity that can be scrolled opened, the scroll bar should show for a few seconds before fading, therefore you can will know that the page can be scrolled. If you missed the subtle hint, then just slightly swipe the screen to display the scroll bar.

IMO, it wouldn't be a good idea to always display the scroll bar, as the scrollbar is in the content area and may obscure whatever is in the screen.
> 4 votes

# Answer
The scrollbar visibility and fadeout effect can only be defined on the application itself at a programming level, there's no general option to control this.

Developers tend to follow the best practices, regarding small screen devices, since the space is limited. The general concept here is to have scrollbars hidden while not in use, since they appear over the content being presented. This is due to the limited space available, that portable devices tend to have.

Don't know if you ever noticed that scrollbars on smart-phones and tablets appear over the contents, and don't have a designated space as we see on desktop computers:

*It's all about the UI, and unfortunately for you, it's the general concept that AFAIK isn't going to change.*
> 2 votes

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Tags: 2.2-froyo, settings
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