text:
Stop certain apps from ever using mobile data
Before you refer to this: I have tried installing Onavo as suggested here, but that did not allow me to do what I wanted (at least the current version of the app doesn't).
My Wi-Fi is not the most reliable, and it sometimes simply dies for a while, causing my phone to switch to data usage. Of course this always happens when I'm watching a video on youtube on my phone, and I only notice afterwards that this has happened, causing my mobile data usage to skyrocket.
What I would like to have is some way to completely prevent the YouTube app from ever connecting to the internet if I am not using Wi-Fi at the time. I have already checked the box that prevents the app from using data in the background, but that is obviously not enough.

Why don't you turn phone data off when you're at home?

@papakias because I don't think of that when I come home. Besides, if there is a way to do this, that makes it a lot easier for me, doesn't it? (otherwise, yes that would also help, but it's effort and I assume that android has some kind of solution which doesn't require any effort; or only some initial effort)

 Frankly telling : You just can't stop an app from using the data when it is running in the foreground. Android has not implemented any feature till now. However, You can restrict the background data for the apps and save the data. Better you keep mobile data closed when you're using WiFi. I know its frustrating but that's the best you can do.
 Another option is to use a custom ROM like CM. It has the profile option where you can set the usage of your WiFi and data when you're at your home or office.

Using CyanogenMod sounds like a good option to me; is there no such thing as profiles in regular android though?

Nope my friend. It is not. The only things stock android provides as in profiles is Silent, Do not disturb mode and Aeroplane mode which won't help you in any case.

Man that's nuts. This feature was there on my iPhone and saved my butt many a time...


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Missing Uber and Lyft on Android Wear
I am currently unable to order a Lyft or Uber on my Moto 360 2nd Gen. I've been using the watch for almost a month and have not yet found a way to order a car from the watch, despite seeing numerous references to a Lyft app on Wear.
Here's why I think there are Lyft and Uber apps for Wear:

Tim Schofield's review of the Android Wear 2.0 preview reveals a Lyft app on his watch's app launcher.
Lyft on Android Wear was revealed by Google at the IO 2014 keynote.
Uber for Android Wear was revealed at the IO 2015 keynote, according to this article from The Verge.
The Verge's list of the 12 best Android Wear apps includes Lyft.
Google Products forum that complains about Uber not working mentions Lyft working on Wear.
The official advertisement for the Moto 360 2nd Gen showing the features of the watch shows the Lyft app.

Despite this, neither a Lyft or Uber app has appeared on my watch's launcher, and the "Call a Car" action in the Android Wear app is grayed out (not letting me choose an app); other actions work just fine with third-party apps. I'm in the US and have both Lyft and Uber installed and working on my paired Nexus 6P.
What I've tried so far:
I contacted Lyft about Wear support, and they responded by saying, "At this time, Lyft doesn't work directly with Wear watches and the best way to still interact would be with a Smartphone at this time."
I contacted Uber as well, and they responded by saying, "Unfortunately, Uber is accessible in app form only through Android mobile device, iPhone and Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 at this time."
Both responses are at least slightly inaccurate (I know that Uber works on the Apple Watch and Pebble Time watch, Lyft works on Apple Watch and should work on my Wear watch), so I was left even more confused.
I also contacted Android Wear support via Twitter, they suggested that the "Call a car" action being grayed out was a bug and had me submit feedback through the app (to no avail even after 3 Wear companion app updates).
I also tried deleting and reinstalling Lyft, as well as restarting my watch and phone a few times, all to no avail.
Here's my setup:

Non-rooted Nexus 6P running 7.1.1 preview 1 (issue also existed on 7.0) with latest Android Wear companion app.
Moto 360 2nd Gen running latest Android Wear version 1.5 (based on Android M), otherwise working just fine.
Android Wear app, Uber app, and Lyft app are all installed on my phone, yet neither Uber nor Lyft shows up on my watch.

The "Call a car" action (where I believe Lyft should be appearing) is grayed out and nothing happens when I tap on it:

How can I order a Lyft or Uber ride from my Moto 360 2nd Gen?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How do you maintain a constant load on the cpu?
I am looking at my phone with a thermal camera to watch the external heat distribution as I attempt to hold it at a constant high load.
What I need to do is hold the CPU at a constant load over the span of about 30 mins, I have achieved this with relative success using the two "burner" apps available on google play. I paired this with SetCPU to max out the allowable core frequencies.
I have used HWMonitor PRO to view the temp sensor values and record them on my PC.
Does anyone know if there is an app available that applies a repeatably constant load or how one would begin to do so through programming? The main issue I am finding is that the burner apps will shut down after a certain time (or temperature) and don't feel very consistent.
Any help is greatly appreciated!

If you want the app to not stop, just launch a thread (to prevent hanging) that does some complex calculation in a while-loop. Nothing else to add to your app.

Install a terminal emulator and try the following:
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/null
or
dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/null
It will write random values to the nirvana, should cause a constant load. But since you typically have a lot of different processes on your phone running, it is hard to assure some processes don't wake up and cause load interruptions. Therefore, switch the phone to flight mode, disable all other connections like wifi/bluetooth/nfc etc. and try to shut down as many services as you can. But still, e.g. the garbage collector could run at unexpected times. Android is just not a realtime OS, but for the measurement you are probably attempting it should be sufficient.
And in case your device has several cores: Open more tabs in the emulator and run more dd processes.

I'm just curious if the CPU is doing much work there? It seems the memory controller has more to do. Generating random numbers is no significant work for a modern CPU.

Yes but at least the load should be pretty constant. To get higher load, you should probably also exercise the GPU as well. I would recommend gears/glxgears for this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jeffboody.GearsES2eclair

That's true. The GPU can stress the device as well. I don't know how hot it will get but it should be quite hot.

Looking forward to the feedback of the OP then.

Thank you kuleszdl for your answer, I have tried what you mentioned and it appears to be working! The CPU utilization isn't maxed (sitting at around 30-50%) but the temps definitely increment with each process addition. @GiantTree is likely correct. The idea is more about temperature than cpu utilization so this is probably going to be enough. Does wifi/bluetooth/cellular add any heat with their modules?, I am figuring it is negligible in comparison to the CPU/GPU.

I don't know any other hardware other that CPU/GPU that generates much heat. WiFi shouldn't do it because it would lose connectivity (technical stuff on how WiFi works), Bluetooth as well and cellular network is the same. They don't generate heat because they are designed to use a minimum amount of power so that it would only drain your battery but not generate any additional heat. CPU and GPU are the main heat producers together with the battery itself.

Well I assume it really depends how these components are implemented in hardware. In many SoCs, the modem is located in the same chip as the CPU while in some it is on a separate chip. My experience with designs which use a separated modem is that if you use the modem a lot, it generates a lot of heat even if CPU usage is low. Maybe start a process which fetches some big file from your local network or a remote location and writes it to /dev/null, similar to the dd process above and check if this causes more heat.

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


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Touching multiple web elements simultaneously brings out area with magnification for clarification of intended target – name of feature?
When you touch multiple web elements simultaneously, perhaps due to the widgets being too small, and/or too close together, the area around where you touched pops out, giving you a magnified view of that area. I suppose this is so that you can clarify which interface control that you intended to touch.
Does anyone happen to know what this feature is called?
Eye tracking interfaces have a similar feature called “Gaze Clarification” for selecting small targets. As you look at your intended target, a portion of the screen that includes that target becomes magnified, and the zoom level keeps increasing and increasing as you home in on your desired spot.

Thanks.

I'm tempted to say "Google's Glasses", but it's rather "Magnifier". Not sure if that's the official name, though – so I don't put it as an answer ;)

Google call it "Link Preview" but in coding terms it is part of the "View Port" and you could disable it by making "User Scalable" false, here's the code for the fun of it:

It's enable-link-disambiguation-popup.

It’s a handy feature and is now available in Chrome OS.
Since this is experimental, you’ll have to enable it, which is an easy process.
Simply type chrome://flags in the Chrome OS browser and find the enable-link-disambiguation-popup option.
Enable it and restart the browser to activate the feature.

https://gigaom.com/2014/12/23/a-key-touch-feature-from-android-is-availble-in-chrome-os/


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Is there a way to Factory reset my HTC One M7?
Is there a way to Factory reset my HTC One M7?
I want to completely wipe it and restore it to how it was when I first turned it on.
So all apps, pictures, phone numbers, music, everything gone.
Googling Factory reset is just showing me instructions on how to Hard reset the device as if it's stalled or frozen.

Take your HTC One and tap on menu.
Then hit settings.
Go to general and choose “backup and factory reset”.
Pick “factory reset”.
Agree and wait while the hard is being completed.
Done.

This will completely wipe all information off your phone, texts, call logs, pictures, etc.  Make sure you back up all your information onto your sd card and remove it before starting this process.
Source


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Android does not download any files from untrusted CA certificate site
I work on a site that serves mobile phones and shares some file. When I publish my site in http everything works great.
But when I activate SSL and publish my site via HTTPS with my own certificate, Android doesn't download any file from my site.
I create my own SSL CA certificate via openSSL in my local  PC and not purchasing from standard seller like GoDaddy.
How do I install my CA certificate to Android?
Do I have to purchase SSL from a standard seller to solve this issue?
My android version is 4.4.4.

You can install a CA certificate very easily through Settings.
Just go to Security->Install from SD and choose your certificate.
It will be installed to your device's certificate store/secured storage and should be used automatically by all applications that rely on that certificate store (which should be like every app that connects to the internet using SSL).
You can also look what certificates are currently installed in trusted certificates where they are split into User and System certificates.

This answer is only valid for devices running Android 5 or older. Since Android 6 apps don't trust automatically user installed certificates.

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


text:
Android Low Memory: How to do factory reset of my phone when it won't open anything
My Android phone is constantly giving me a "Low Memory" error on the top of the screen. I would like to uninstall intensive apps or even do a factory reset (following online tutorials), but even if I open the navigator or anything else from the home-screen, the screen goes blank black and then the home-screen is restored after a while.
All the tutorials I find online to fix the error, to find which apps are eating up the memory, to delete caches and history, or to do a factory reset involve opening Settings, and doing some operations there. But my phone won't do anything.
I also tried connecting it to my PC but it fails to connect.
So my question is that what are my options? What can I do about it? Is there a way to di a factory reset right from the home-screen without opening anything?

Resetting a Device that's Off

Power down your device. Before you begin the reset procedure, you will need to completely power your device off. (If the device is frozen, you can pull the battery out to turn it off.)
Press and hold the recovery buttons. The buttons vary from device to device, so you may need to look up the instructions for your particular phone. You will need to press and hold the buttons for a few seconds. Some of the more common button combinations include:Volume Up + Home + PowerVolume Down + PowerHome + PowerIf none of the above work, do a web search for your phone’s model plus “recovery mode”.
Select Factory Reset. Once the recovery menu opens, you can navigate the menu with the volume buttons. You may need to open the Recovery menu to find the Factory Reset mode. Use the Power button, some models use the camera button, to select your menu options.You will be asked to confirm the factory reset.
Wait for the restore process to compete. After your phone resets, it will be set back to factory defaults and will be like it just came out of the box

Refer to this link . it has different ways for formating http://m.wikihow.com/Reset-Your-Android-Phone

Happy to help :)


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How to retrieve files from Samsung Galaxy S4 stuck at samsung logo after dropping it?
I dropped my Galaxy S4 GT-19500 and after i picked it up it was still open but when i tried to phone a friend it just turned off and kept turning on and off, it reaches the Samsung logo then immediately turn off and when i plug it to the pc or the charger it shows the big battery bar but empty with the circle and also flashing on and off like the Samsung logo, the problem is when i try to turn it off it doesn't turn off and when i take the battery and put it again it just go on alone, so i can't enter safe mode or recovery mode and can't connect it to the PC and Dr. Fone, i think it doesn't charge when i leave it too.
So what i need is to get the photos from my phone, i don't care what to do I will do it! Please help me I really need those photos i don't care about the phone XD.
If it's not possible to get the photos with the known ways, Is it possible to take the default SD card of the phone and take the photos from it ?
Thanks

First, odds are good you can salvage your photos.
Provided you did not encrypt your sd card, pull the sd card and take a look at it with a desktop/laptop (you won't be able to pull anything useable off of it this way if you did indeed encrypt it).  The images will be on there if you set up your camera app to save them there.  Otherwise...
Hardware repair on the phone will be required to get the connectors all back and sorted out (it sounds like you managed to short or unplug some bits, and perhaps damaged connectors on the motherboard). If you are feeling mechanical we can walk through looking at it; if not, we can suggest other repair options.

I really don't feel mechanical xD, I'd like your other repair options because I'm very bad when it comes to the hardware things. Thanks

@GasserTarek it takes a brave soul to admit that ;-)  I'm not sure that we can actively recommend vendors here, so I'll go with a generic "start with where you bought it" and ask them for prices on the repair (yes, it will be pricey). You can also google for mail-in repair services, but do your homework on them - you don't want a place that will lose the photos by careless repair.


text:
How to lock Samsung Galaxy S2?
My Samsung Galaxy S2 locks after some time I don't touch the screen.
How could I lock it immediately, without waiting for this time to pass?

On my original SGS you do it by just clicking the power button.  I would assume it's the same for the SGS2.


text:
How can I wake up my Nexus One using trackball?
I have Nexus One and the power button stopped working. It's a known issue but I'm not in USA and I can't get it fixed since I got it from there. Is there any way that I could wake it up without using the power button and without rooting the phone?

I don't know what ROM you have, but if you're using a Cyanogen based you can tweak that in the Cyanogen specific settings.

I have the original Gingerbread by Google

You can try using AnyUnlock from the android market. it is free and lets you set any button be the button to turn the device on. It has been tested exclusively for the Nexus One.
Actually, I read further in the description, the trackball can no longer be used as of gingerbread.


text:
Is it possible to add a stopover or intermediate waypoint in Google Maps navigation?
On the desktop version of Google Maps, I can add multiple destinations, or drag the route created to include a specific spot that is not on the original route.   Is there a way to do this on the Android version of Maps, short of navigating to the first spot, and then entering the final destination once that's reached?
I'm running Maps version 5.11.0

A decent workaround, as suggested on droidforums.net: add your destination/route to My Maps via a PC. From your phone, select Layers > My Maps from the Google Maps App.

I can bring the map up with the route showing, but I don't see how to get it to navigate using that route.    When I select Navigation, it asks me to choose a destination and re-calculates the route.

On Google Maps, create your trip including all waypoints.
Save that map to "My Maps" within Google Maps.
On the Android device, go to Maps, layers, more layers and then choose "My Maps"
Select the map you want, it will come into maps on your Android device with each waypoint available.
You can choose each waypoint individually and you will get the blue arrow over it which will kick off Google Navigation.

Not the best solution (e.g. Google having programmed it as a feature), but at least one can completely plan a trip with Google Maps and then port the entire thing over to the Android device and navigate with it.

Note for posterity: the newer version of Google Maps on the web doesn't allow for the creation of custom maps.

Simple steps on Android phone.   Search for route on Android phone. Click on start Navigations button with whatever route it is suggesting.  Then Magnifying symbol will appear.  Tap on the magnifyling  symbol.  "Search along route"  will appear.  Here type the point through which the map should navigate and click on the name once it appears.  Now your new suggested route navigation will appear.
This is the simple and best step.

There is a tool which allows you to do just that.
https://mapped.me

I just found out the following while I was trying to plot a more scenic route just minutes ago (mind blown!):

I plotted a route in Chrome (PC) with waypoints
(I did click the 'Share or Embed map' link hidden under the cog icon in the down right corner - but this isn't even necessary I think)
I opened my Chrome browser's history on Android and chose the most recent Google maps url I visited (you could also just bookmark it, or copy paste via eg. email or eg. Pushbullet app)
I chose 'Open with Maps' upon selecting the link and somehow magically the route WITH WAYPOINTS shows up, ready to click 'Start navigation'

Woohoo, welcome scenic route in Mobile Maps navigation!
Details about my 'setup':

I'm running Fedora Linux (21) on laptop with Chrome latest beta: Version 42.0.2311.82 beta (64-bit) - for all I know, this should work no matter what OS as long as you have an updated Chrome version, beta or not
I'm using the latest Maps UI in Chrome
I have Lollipop on my Sony Xperia Z2 (alltough keeping Maps up to date should be sufficient)
I have my history synced (obviously)

Below are the links with and without waypoints:
Default suggested route: Lijnwaadstraat to Brusselsesteenweg (Belgium)
Route with waypoints: Scenic version of the above ;-)
Can anyone confirm this is actually happening and not a figment of my imagination? ;-) - Google product forums confirmed this works (see last edit below)
Open the links above (they are safe, real Google Maps links from google.be) with your Android, chose 'Open with Maps' if asked.  The first one should take you there in about 17 minutes over mostly (sub)highways, the second one should take around 34 minutes and be completely different.
Sorry for stumbling upon this 3 year old question..  I'm happily plotting more scenic routes and bookmarking them ;-)
- edit -
This link on Google product forums contains a lot more information on this and I still need to confirm what will happen if I deviate from my custom route, triggering Maps Navigation into recalculation.  Will it recalculate to my next waypoint or straight to the destination (hence losing any further waypoints ahead)?  I just need to test this, tomorrow ;-)


text:
Gallery application replacement for adding text based Photo Notes
The Samsung Galaxy SIII Neo stock Gallery application has (and other models do too) an option to set a Photo Note when you're viewing a picture. When you select it the picture rotates via some OpenGL animation, and you can scribble on its back. But the space is limited, whereas attaching a note using the virtual keyboard would make it possible to enter a virtually infinite string of characters inside the EXIF data. Beasies the fact that I'm not even sure how to view the scribbled notes (or EXIF data!) once you transfer the picture to the PC (perhaps someone can explain), this feature would be really useful.
Anyone know how I can make use of the feature I'm after?

There are a number of photo apps that will let you edit exif data on the android.  This one specifically does the data: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teapps.exiftageditor, some do other pieces of editing, some sort your files for you, etc, etc.  Take a look around for one that works well with your particular image work flow.
Wikipedia has a nice roundup for PC/desktop meta data editors here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_metadata_editors. Your choice will of course depend on your PC, budget, and needs.


text:
In Microsoft OneNote 2013 for Android, is it possible to move a page from one folder or section to another?
In Microsoft OneNote 2013 for Android, is it possible to move a page (aka note) from one folder to another or even just from one section to another?
This seems like very rudimentary functionality, yet appears impossible.

Unfortunately the functionality to move pages between different sections doesn't appear to be available. I would love it if you could move pages between sections, and even move sections between different notebooks.
As a workaround, the functionality IS available on the web version of OneNote. If you have the OneNote notebook stored in your OneDrive (which I can't see ANY reason why you wouldn't) then log into www.onenote.com and move the pages between sections using the browser.
Then, sync your notebook with your Android device again.

Thanks so much!  Hopefully Microsoft will include this essential functionality.  It's interesting (but not surprising) they have shipped a product with incomplete functionality.

As a developer, I can understand why they have shipped a product with 'incomplete functionality'. Getting the product to market sooner to gain market share is one advantage. Also, doing certain tasks on some platforms / devices might not have a suitable metaphor or way of working, or just make sense. I could see that the accidental movement of sections on devices might cause issues for some users.

I agree... when the app was brand new. But the app is mature enough now that all essential functionality should be included. I think moving a note from one folder to another is essential!  It's the one detraction that keeps me from using the product.


text:
Is my phone using LTE if the notification area says 4G?
When I bought my Galaxy S5, it came with Android 4.4.2. When I was connected to my mobile data network, the notification area had a little icon that said "LTE" above to arrows showing data being uploaded and downloaded.
Recently, I rooted and upgraded my phone to Android 5.0. Now, that same icon in the notification always shows "4G" above the two arrows when I'm on the mobile network.
I looked up the difference between LTE and 4G, and if I understand it, LTE is a subset of 4G, but a faster and more advanced version. Please correct me if I am not getting this right.
Assuming I'm close enough to the truth, one possibility is that I'm using the same connection, and it's just the icon that has chanced. Another possibility is that something about my upgrade has changed how my phone communicates with the network, and maybe I'm not getting the same connection.
In either case, how can I be sure I'm getting the best connection that is offered by my mobile provider?

LTE actually does not meet the original 4G standards, it is neither faster nor more advanced.
I'm pretty sure that it's just an icon change, but if it's not it's almost certainly that your connection is better rather than worse.
I recently saw this on my device as well and used SpeedTest to check how the connection was performing.  My download and especially upload speeds were absurdly high.  You could use it to see whether your speeds align with your expectations as well.

authors: เอกลักษณ์ กางรัมย์


text:
OnePlus One (CM 13.1.2) persisting boot loop
My OnePlus One phone got stuck in a boot loop over night without, as far as I know, a specific reason to do so (no new update was installed). Before this it was running perfectly fine. The phone was running the stock CM.
The phone boots and shows the Cyanogen Mod Ready logo and then restarts (Android version 6.0.1, Cyanogen version 13.1.2).
I tried numerous things so far
Booting in safe mode, wiping the caches and a factory reset (as suggested on the boot loop info page) all did not solve the problem.
Using ADB sideload to push and flash a zip of the ROM from the computer did not work. Yet no error was returned.
Furthermore, flashing the ROM with fastboot, as described here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/guides-bacon-timmaaas-how-to-guides-t2839471 did not resolve the boot loop. Also here, no errors were returned when flashing the individual files.
I'm not sure what other options I could still explore.

The phone was plugged in when it happened?

The phone was at the moment charging through the power outlet.

So this leads me to think that there is something with the eMMC. I think it might be a hardware problem due to short-circuit

I was already suspecting a hardware issue, but afaik there is no way to check it. Also, if it would be the eMMC shouldn't the flashing return an error when I overwrite a file?
Thank you for your help so far

You're welcome. Since I'm not good in hardwares, I can't tell you exactly what is causing the issue. But let's return on software side, did you flash the Cyanogen OS Fastboot Images as described in the link you provided?

Yes, I did it in the same order and for all of the files they mention.

After contacting OnePlus they set up a remote session.
During this session they also flashed the phone using their own files.
This, however, did not solve the problem.
The phone was still under waranty so they arranged it to be send for repair.
They found the motherboard to be faulty, which has been replaced and the phone works perfectly fine again.


text:
How to explain SSL cert validation discrepancy between Chrome and WebView on a modern Android?
(original title: Do some Android vendors ship their own SSL stack implementation?)
We've been having (in production) a peculiar HTTPS-related issue lately in our Android app.
All calls to our domain from within a WebView fail in our Android app, due to an SSL certificate validation issue. But this happens only in very specific combination of circumstances:

only on Androids (desktop browsers, iOS are fine with our cert)
only inside a WebView (works fine in Chrome, default Android browser, and when doing HttpsURLConnection from Java code)
only on some devices (Samsung Galaxy Edge S6 with Android 6, HTC One M8 with Android 5); other devices (Sony/Android 4.4, Lenovo/Android 4.4, Motorola/Android 5, Huawei/Android 6, Nexus/Android 6) are not affected

Other important info:

note that the issue happens on Android 5/6 which have an auto-updating WebView. For example, I reproduced issue in a fully up-to-date Samsung Galaxy Edge S6 (non-ISP-branded), Android 6.0.1 with security patches from 1 October 2016. The webview is very modern (Chrome 53)
note that I checked the CA store and the root cert that signed our cert is in the store of the affected devices, with the same name and sha1 fingerprint.
I used to have custom (user) CA certs (generated by Fiddler and installed manually by me to be able to decrypt HTTPS for debugging) on my devices, but for the sake of test, I removed them, and now the user CA store is empty on all devices, but issue persists
I tested some 60 high profile websites, and the issue is reproducible for several of them too (including https://www.amazon.com) on the two affected devices (the set of websites rejected by Samsung and HTC is overlapping, but not exactly the same). Some of those affected websites have the same VeriSign cert as the root cert of the chain as we do, but this root cert is present in the CA store of the device as mentioned previously.
Our SSL cert is quite good according to SSLLabs, and the issue happens on amazon.com which apparently has very good server/cert config (click)
While we reproduced the issue in our device lab, we also got quite a few negative Play Store reviews that look like the same issue (all from Samsungs, but this correlates with our user base). However the app works fine for most of people, as we get mostly 5 star reviews every day.

Next steps that we're taking:

We're trying to embed the cert inside the Android app and make Android explicitly trust it, but since WebView and HTTPSUrlConnection behave differently, we're not sure if this will work
If this doesn't work, as a last resort we'll also probably try to override WebViewClient.onReceivedSslError with a custom implementation which will inspect the cert and trust it if it has the same fingerprint as our cert
any better options?

Theories:

some Android shipping customized SSL stack in their versions of Android? (but why Samsung and HTC would exhibit a very similar behavior)
does Chrome have separate CA store than the Android device?
some other apps installed on the affected Android devices that mess up with the WebView in my app?
anything else?

Edit:
I reproduced the issue on the following websites:

www.microsoft.com (Symantec cert)
www.amazon.com (Symantec cert)
mail.ru (GeoTrust cert - Symantec subsidiary)
two others with Symantec or GeoTrust certs
www.theguardian.com (cert doesn't seem to be Symantec-related)

So most probably the issue comes from webview bug that EricLaw pointed. Guardian case seems to be some another issue however.
Edit 2:
I confirmed the issue was due to the bug mentioned by Eric. We changed our SSL cert provider and it solved the issue.

While your problem description lacks much detail one could explain the given detail solely with different CA in the trust store. This means they still could use the same SSL stack but only differ in the contents of the trust store.

I checked the CA store and the root cert we use is in the store of the affected devices, with the same name and sha1 fingerprint.

Maybe you could add also details about the theory you have about the rejection so that one could determine if this is an issue of the SSL stack or something else (i.e. issue of Webview and not the SSL stack since Chrome works fine).

our theory was that the issue might have been due to the server unnecessarily sending the root cert and the implementation being over-eager to reject it for some reason. However I checked most of top-100 websites in the world, and in fact https://www.amazon.com and https://mail.ru (only those two) exhibit the same behavior, while having flawless certs and not sending the root cert from server, so I think my theory fell apart...

Our cert is reported as SHA256withRSA by SSLLabs. The issue happens also for amazon.com which has very good server config: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.amazon.com ; I put some more updates in the question itself

@Z.T. that's an interesting idea, I'll try to check that path next week. We're having reports from users having probably the same issue (due to the symptoms), all from Samsung, and according to our logs we estimate there could be 100s/1000s of people affected. But the app still works for the majority of the people which is a riddle.

My bet is that the CT log expired. See https://www.chromium.org/developers/androidwebview/webview-ct-bug and https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/m/#!topic/net-dev/d3bHcocG-NM

Yes, upgrading WebView helps for me.


text:
fastboot seems to work, can transfer files but doesn't actually flash or boot images
I bought a cheap Wiko Lenny 3 (MT6580 with Marshmallow) to replace my old Galaxy Nexus which died yesterday (after four years) from the infamous V3U00M bug.
I owned a couple of Android phones before the Nexus, and I often flashed new ROMs and recoveries, so I'm quite used to adb and fastboot (under Linux).
So, I'm trying to root this new phone but so far I've been unsuccessful. Unlocking the bootloader was quite easy: there was an item to check in the developer options, and then fastboot oem unlock did its thing. But after that, I'm stuck.
I'm trying to boot a custom recovery, the file seems actually transferred:
$ fastboot boot twrp3.0.2-lenny3.img
downloading 'twrp3.0.2-lenny3.img'...
OKAY [  0.446s]
booting...
OKAY [  0.065s]
finished. total time: 0.511s
The feedback on the phone seems to indicate that the transfer actually happened, but after that, it just sits there, instead of rebooting into TWRP. After a while, it reboots normally to Android.
Trying to flash the recovery instead of booting it ends up with the same result: the transfer works, all on-screen messages (both on the computer and on the phone) indicate success, but the stock recovery isn't overwritten.
I thought that there may be some kind of manufacturer script that checks the image's validity, but trying with the stock recovery image (extracted from a Windows executable provided on the manufacturer's website to recover corrupted phones), but the result is the same: the file is transferred, but nothing happens after that.
So I tried to install the SuperSU zip from the stock recovery, since it includes options to install updates from either an SD card or ADB sideloading (but I have a doubt about this, I used custom recoveries for so long now, that I forgot if a stock recovery including these options should be able to install any zip file, or only ones containing a full factory image). Unfortunately, it didn't work either: installing from the SD card failed with the message "Installation aborted", and the sideloading option, surprisingly, doesn't seem to even start an ADB daemon : adb devices returns an empty result, so obviously adb sideload can't work (needless to say, adb works normally when the real system is booted, and I can adb push and adb pull to my heart's content).
Can someone help me ? Are those non-functional bootloader and recovery a pattern with Wiko and/or MediaTek devices ? Either I'm too much used to Nexus devices and I'm doing something wrong, or this phone seems to be intentionally crippled by the manufacturer.
Interesting: by trying several key combinations to start the phone, I found a "Factory Mode" that I never saw on any Android phone so far, with a menu allowing to run tests; and, also, a "Meta Mode" which look like "Fastboot Mode" but doesn't answer to fastboot commands - I guess it's meant to be used with a special proprietary tool from this manufacturer. That's what makes me wonder if these MediaTek-based phones are supposed to be hacked with the usual adb and fastboot tools, or if they are completely different beasts.

You can't root with ADB or Fastboot because you don't have the ''adress" where the files will be sent. Mediatek devices need a map file, called scatter files which maps the memory and tells the flashing tool where every file should go, the start adress and the file size.
As they run Android,  Mediatek devices can be  manipulated with adb and  fastboot (depending on manufacturer: Alcatel and Huawei seem to support fastboot commands).
META mode is like fastboot, as you've pointed out. Besides you can enable ADB in META mode, it is used by hacking tools to access internal memory, as an example for network unlocking, IMEI repairing and so, you need special drivers CDC and VCOM to get it work though.


text:
How can I boot my Nexus S with a broken power button? Can only boot to "Do not turn off target"
My Nexus S power button has stopped working and Samsung will not honor the warranty. The farthest I've gotten is to the Downloading screen with the yellow work ahead sign, that says "Do not turn off target" and USB Control Init USB Control Init End.
My computer does not find the device via the Android SDK.
I looked up this post Turn phone on with ADB or Fastboot? and others outside of this forum (eg: removing and inserting battery with charger connected), but it does not work for me.
Once I boot it I can use it by plugging a battery charger or cable to turn on the screen.
Is there a way I could boot it?

What exactly is broken with the power button? Perhaps there is a way to bypass/fix it. And why won't Samsung honor the warranty? This issue seems to be common with the Nexus S.

It does not work at all. They said it has water damage, but it has never been wet and the square under the battery is perfectly white. Just an easy excuse that they seem to be using a lot. They said it is not repairable, but did not give me a new one.

All the methods you've tried, and the ones I've been reading for the past hour, exploit a circuit "bump" that shouldn't even happen in the first place.
If they don't work with your phone, be happy, your phone is not suffering from further defects. Some I'm referencing are:

Plug your phone to your computer using the USB cable. Remove and add the battery several times to make the phone start booting: This video or this video.
Gently flick (tap) the back of the phone, right under the lens, with a finger.

What you should actually do is to repair the phone, it costs a certain amount, but at least you get the problem fixed by professionals and can take preventive measures to prevent this from happening again.

To repair, you can use Nexus S Power Button Repair or other near you.
As a preventive measure, to avoid degrading the power button, you can use an app to lock/unlock the phone. With it, you'll give less use to your power button, and in turn it may last longer.
Even if it gets broken again, with an app, you still have alternative methods of controlling your phone (lock/unlock).
Fix Broken Power Button by Destil available from Google Play Store.

Note: An app installed on your phone CANNOT power it on. So, if the power button breaks again, be sure to not let your phone's battery get empty.

Thanks Zuul. I've already taken it to a repair shop and they said it cannot be fixed :(

Ordered the fix ($45). Will update on what happens when I get it back :)

That app will allow you to unlock it without using the power button, but I don't think it will let you turn it on without it.

@SaintWacko Bad wording, thanks for the heads up! Rephrased the misleading part.

@zuul I got it back from repair. Unfixable. Great service,communication and all. Will try again in the future if I run into more problems. Will disasemble the phone now and try to learn something with it. The camera will probably end up in my Raspberry Pi.

I experienced the same problem with my Nexus S phone after many years of usage.  The power button no longer works, and I believe it is due to wear and tear in my case.  One android app I use is Button Savior.  It provides soft power and volume keys.  Try it if it fixes your problem.
Another option is if you had rooted the phone already, you can remap the keys by modifying the layout files.  I remapped the following kl files. I mapped the search button at the bottom of the screen to go power off or go to airplane mode.  And mapped one of the volume rocker to wake up the phone, as the soft button cannot wake up the screen.
The files modified are /system/usr/keylayout/cypress-touchkey.pl and
/system/usr/keylayout/mxt224_ts_input.kl. Here are the contents.
mxt224_ts_input_input.kl
key 158 BACK   WAKE
key 139 MENU   WAKE
key 217 ASSIST WAKE
key 102 HOME   WAKE

cypress-touchkey.kl
key 139 MENU   VIRTUAL
key 102 HOME   VIRTUAL
key 158 BACK   VIRTUAL
key 217 POWER  VIRTUAL WAKE

I believe I can squeeze a few many years of usage from this phone with this change. Finally, saving money to get a new cel phone is the most viable option for me in the long run. :-)

Incredibly smart and unordinary approach. Very good and I laughed for a while.

Thanks, and glad you like the solution. :-)  I got the new Asus Zenfone zoom, and the Nexus S had become a good android development machine.


text:
Does Bluetooth drain power when it's not in use?

Possible Duplicate:
Will constantly having Bluetooth on drain my battery too fast?

When Bluetooth is turned on, but not in use, is it still draining power? If so, how much relative to it being in use?

@AlEverett - I saw that question, but I didn't feel it answered my question of how much of a battery drain it was while on, but not in use, relative to being on and in use.

Most of the answers there specifically address the "standby" power, and one of them even gives numbers for how much power that uses compared to transmitting. Feel free to bounty that question if you want more information than that.

Yes.
When it is on, but not in use, it continually scans for the device it has been previously paired with.
This allows for it to do things like-- automagically connect to your car when you get in it.
However, the amount of battery drain is still minimal, even if it is continually scanning.

Alright, that's good to know. I have my Nexus 7 set up to Bluetooth tether from my phone, so I essentially have 3G on my tablet. It didn't seem to be draining my battery any faster when it wasn't in use, but I wanted to check.


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Nexus 6 display performance, PWM and flickering
Does anyone have any information about Nexus 6 (and its "brothers") real display performance? I'm worried about PWM/flickering, that usually exists in AMOLED displays and makes them completely unusable for me. (For example, all recent Samsung phones have flickering issue and because of that they are unusable). And Nexus 6 has AMOLED, if I understood right — but I couldn't find any details about it on the Internet yet.
It would be especially great if you have proofs (high-speed camera recordings, for example).
A good article about what is PWM and how to test it: http://tftcentral.co.uk/articles/pulse_width_modulation.htm
Update
I've found this test result in a review:

It implies that above 30% brightness level the flickering must be (almost) absent. But it's not a complete answer, because

it's unknown what's the real brightness at 30% and how much it differs from 100%, and is PWM completely inactive when brightness is above say 40% (the graphs show that at 30% there are indeed pulsations)
is it possible to lock the brightness setting in such a way that it's forced to stay ≥ 40% for example

I don't own a Nexus 6, but you can disable auto-brightness in Android (Settings -> Display), and CyanogenMod (if not stock android - I can't confirm if it exists or not) has the property ro.lcd_min_brightness which can be set using adb shell setprop, and checked using adb shell getprop.

True, this simple option always exists. Automatic is better when it works, though. :) Interesting to know about the ro.lcd_min_brightness. I don't own a Nexus 6 too (hence the question), but just tried it on LG D856 (stock Android) — there's no such property.

Oh well. This app seems to let you set minimum auto-brightness level, but I'm not entirely sure. Might be worth taking a look.

Hopefully this helps. I have a Nexus 6, and the display can get extremely bright if it needs to. 100% brightness on the nexus 6 is about 30% brighter than 100% on my Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. When under typical indoor lighting, I set the brightness between 35% and 50% (on adaptive display), to give you a reference. I've never noticed the screen flickering, but I've also never purposely checked for it.

Let me know if you'd like to know anything else. :)

@GreenRaccoon23 Thank you for the info. Well, what's really interesting is how steady is the light output at different brightness levels — in other words, when it does flicker and when it does not. And many (if not most) people do not notice flickering even on things like 60Hz CRT displays, so this doesn't tell much, but it's easy to check, for example, by shooting it with video camera by both 50(or 25) and 60(or 30) FPS, or some other common techniques for testing flickering.

https://youtu.be/IHKWQRzS2tE — that's an example of a test with video recording

I think a valid question here is why does the screen flicker make the device unusable to you and if this can be fixed in some way.

@MichelfrancisBustillos flickering is harmful to eyes and the brain, and causes fatigue. This is perfectly normal, most people just don't notice that or think that it cannot be better. (because A LOT of screens out there do flicker, and also there are a lot of crappy light bulbs that do flicker like crazy, too)

@SargeBorsch If most devices have this screen flicker, doesn't that mean that most are unusable to you? Sorry, but it seems your worrying about something that cannot really be avoided.

@MichelfrancisBustillos Most devices are definitely unusable. (Vendors care only about the 95% of population, who don't notice flicker OR don't realize it's harmful, because, ultimately, they care only about money) Fortunately, some of the devices are better, for example, I can say for sure that LG G3 doesn't suffer from this disease because I own it and never noticed it.

and it's certainly not only me, this is widely acknowledged fact: http://www.flatpanelshd.com/focus.php?subaction=showfull&id=1362457985

So I saw Nexus 6P phone in action (it was one of the testing devices at work).
The results are, unfortunately, pretty bad: it indeed does flicker, flickering increases as the brightness decreases, and even at 100% brightness there is some flickering that's noticeable by naked eye.
Not sure if "regular" Nexus 6 (not 6P) is the same, though.

Either steer clear of Amoled, or at 40% brightness use a screen filter app like Twilight to further reduce brightness without flickering. Contrast and colours may suffer though.

It was already clear that the phone flickers at 30% and less. But if you know something specific about the display performance in 40%..100% brightness range, then it'd deserve an answer.


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Rooting Samsung Galaxy Young 2 (SM-G130HN)
I am having issues in rooting the Samsung Galaxy Young 2 (SM-G130HN).
I did search online and found a root file named G130HNXXU0ANH2_ROOT.tar. The method described in various android forums did not work : everything seems fine, but when I restart my phone and check with SuperSU, I am not root.

and I suspect the reason is that my phone has a different baseband number. Mine is G130HNXXU0APA2. Considering the name of the root file name, it might only work on baseband number G130HNXXU0ANH2.
I've checked on this list How do I root my Android device? and I'm afraid my phone is too old (for this sh**)...
Am I right in thinking that the reason of the fail could be the band base number? Is it possible to change this number so the file I have would fit?
Another solution could be having the right root file corresponding to my baseband number but I can't find it.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

The standard way of rooting is to use a custom recovery to install a SuperSU zip, which not only contains the SuperSU app itself, but also proper binaries and tools. Luckily, this unloved device still has a custom recovery available in this XDA-Developers thread.
Install the CWM package via Odin, then install SuperSU from it. Don't bother with the build.prop and custom ROM mess, those are for another purpose.

I was helped by @Andy's answer and I wanted to add more details about the rooting of the Samsung Galaxy Young 2 (SM-G130HN).  Bebs
Root
After the first steps described in the question, I had to try another rooting method. I found one in this post How do I root my Android device?, and the ont that worked is

Kingoapp

I had to download it from my hpone because my PC navigator detected a troyan. It indeed worked with one clic.
CWM
At this moment, I still could not use SuperSU --the one dowloaded from Google Play--, my phone was seen as rooted, but there were a problem with SuperSU.
I learned from this page I could manually install another SuperSU package but first I had to allow my phone to be CWM.

Download CWM.
Start Odin.
Start the phone in Download mode by holding Volume Down, Home and Power. Plug the phone via USB to the PC.
In Odin, check AP and browse to CWM.tar file. Click Start.
Rebbot the phone (in my case it rebooted itself).

Now your phone can be CWM.
SuperSU.zip

SuperSU.zip file can be downloaded here.
Store the file into a mini SD card, and plug the card in the phone.
Start your phone in CWM by holding Volume Up, Home and Power.
The the menu is clear and you can install the zip file.
Then browse in the menu to reboot the phone.

Now SuperSU works.
I also finally could remove crapy bloatware with Titanium Backup.

@Bebs That's quite a long edit you did there, could've been a standalone answer... I approved the edit at this moment, but if I have time later I will try to merge this to remove some irrelevant details and reduce clutter. For now, problem solved :) Let's delete the comments we left above.


text:
How to Make Spotify the Default Music Player in CM13?
I cannot find any setting for the feature in Settings.
I want Spotify takes over the buttons' actions in the lock screen. So drawing the next symbol should play Spotify's song instead. I do not want to remove the built-in one (Eleven).
Phone: Oneplus 2
OS: Cyanogenmod 13
Related: How to set Spotify as default Music Player?

How do you want it "default"? Play music when clicked file in a file manager, or take over media button actions?
Maybe simply disable/remove the built-in one (Eleven)? Do note that Eleven is capable of playing music directly from file managers, and Spotify may not have this function.

Take over the button actions. So drawing the next symbol should play Spotify's song instead. - I do not want to remove the built-in one.

@Masi Try using apps like MyAndroidTools to disable Eleven's MediaButtonIntentReceiver. That will at least stop Eleven from responding to media buttons.

I tested MyAndroidTools. It only works with root access, but I do not want to enable it.

@Masi Enable root, do the tweaks in MyAndroidTools and disable root. The changes should theoretically persist even if MyAndroidTools is gone.


text:
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Says Connected to Wifi But Can’t Get Internet or YouTube
PROBLEM:
My android device is showing that I am connected to the Wi-Fi network at my community college (where I attend), however, when I try to use anything that requires internet it says there is no internet connection.

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)
WHAT I’VE TRIED:

Clearing cache (as per this TheDroidGuy article)

Rebooting to bootloader

Rebooting phone

Navigated to Google in Chrome

Navigated to Google in Firefox

Called AT&T store: They gave me 3 options:

Try another place and see if there are issues with wifi
To update to Marshmallow: Settings > System > About Device > Update Phone
Dial 611 to get to Customer Support

I tried the last one. The representative in Iowa ended up "sending an OTA switch", whatever that means. In the middle of him explaining it to me the phone cut out.
DETAILS:
I don’t know exactly what info an android-wifi savvy reader would need to be able to help, so I have provided as much info as I could find in an effort to be as thorough and helpful as possible. If any other info is needed, please let me know.
DEVICE:

Provider: AT&T

Brand: Samsung

Model Name: Galaxy S6 Edge

Model Number: SAMSUNG-SM-6890A

Android Version: 5.1.1 (Lollipop)

Android Security Patch Level: 2016-04-02

Baseband Version: G890AUCS3BPCG

Kernel Version: 3.10.61-7277676 (etc...)

Build Number: LMY47X.G890AUCS3BPCG

Security Enhancements for Android:

Enforcing

SEPF_SAMSUNG-SMG890A_5.1.1_0046

Wed Apr 06 20:28:50 2016

Security Software Version:

MDF v2.0 Release 3

VPN v1.4 Release 5.2

CONNECTION:

Signal Strength: Strong(351Mbps)

Security: 802.1x EAP

IP Address:

EAP method: PEAP

Phase 2 Authentication: None

CA Certificate: (Unspecified)

IP Settings: DHCP

Proxy: None

ALTERNATIVE POSSIBILITIES:
Mercury retrograde -- a time when communication between people can be very confusing and when electronics fail more than others times of year -- was supposed to be over yesterday, but maybe it’s still the 22nd in some part of the world (I’m in Western USA).
Virgo astrology horoscope for today said that I was going to be “tired of having to troubleshoot things”. Immediately afterward I realized my phone was only streaming via mobile and not via the wi-fi network it told me it was connected to.
These may be longshots, but I think they are worth mentioning.
Any help is appreciated. From one soul to another, thank you in advance for your kind assistance.
Namaste & Mitakuye Oyasin

Dns probe image no internet error.You can try changing your ip settings from DHCP to static and connecting to GOOGLE dns.
Important: Before you start:
Before you change your DNS settings to use Google Public DNS, be sure to write down the current server addresses or settings on a piece of paper. It is very important that you keep these numbers for backup purposes, in case you need to revert to them at any time.
To change the DNS settings:
Open the Settings on the device.
Select “Wi-Fi”.
Long press your current network, then select “Modify network”.
Mark “Show advanced options” check box.
Change “IP settings” to “Static”
Add the DNS servers IPs to the “DNS 1”, and “DNS 2” fields.
DNS 1 to 8.8.4.4
DNS 2 to 8.8.8.8
Press “Save” button, disconnect from the network, and reconnect for changes to take effect.
Good luck!

Thanks for your reply! I'm at school right now, but I will try this later tonight and report back with my results.

This is good information and since nobody else replied I am marking it as the answer. However, for clariity, here is some important information: Nobody at AT&T support was aware of any update, but the day after I posted this it was common knowledge that an update was pushed. Also, I was able to connect to wifi on my phone the next day at school without a problem.


text:
Transparent notification bar after Android 4.3 Update on Samsung Galaxy S3
I've just updated my Galaxy S3 to the OTA 4.3 update and whilst its fine, there are a couple of really annoying niggles.
The main one is the notification bar at the top - where the little icons are shown. This used to be black with white icons and they were easily visible.
Now its transparent.
I use a nice landscape image as my wallpaper, so I have pale blue sky and white clouds, and you can imagine the white icons on white cloud background isn't exactly what I'd call usable. short of editing my wallpapers to have a black bar at the top, is there a way to revert this?
It seems the update is fine but for the lock screen that has so many pointless changes that result in usability problems I'm tempted to downgrade.

You could install a 3rd party launcher, but the lockscreen will not revert to black without a third party lockscreen. Touchwiz may override this even so. It does on the S4 most of the time. You may not be able to downgrade if you have a Knox bootloader I'm afriad. Kitkat is now transparent statusbar by default so this is the general trend. Samusng introduced it with 4.2.2 on the S4 as AMOLED screens are prone to 'burn in' and the black bar had to go. It's not pointless, what I think is a bit pointless is not giving users the option for what they want, but it was done for a reason.

@RossC thanks. An option to change the text colour would have been nice.. I guess they're not bothered by burn-in of the little battery, signal, smarteye, wifi icons :)

From what you said in the comments above, there is a way to change the text colour & the icon colours along with the colour / transparency of the status bar.
It requires a rooted phone unfortunately but once rooted download WANAM Xposed from the play store here is a link Wanam Xposed work's on Samsung Android 4.2+ so you shouldn't have any issues
Once this is installed it will ask you to install the Xposed Framework, don't be alarmed it is required and will not harm your phone. Once the framework is installed you'll be prompted to enable Wanam Xposed from the new Xposed Installer, if not you can simply click on Xposed Installer, Click Modules and Wanam Xposed should appear and check the checkbox.
Now go on Wanam Xposed, note everytime you make a change it will only appear after a Reboot!
You can now go on Theme and click either Background Color (or Colour as it should be :) ) and this will enable you to select a colour for the status bar, or you can click on the following

Circle Battery Color
Stock Battery Text color
Signal Icons Color
Clock And Date Color
Status bar icons color (remaining icons)

Each of these will change the icons instead of the status bar background colour
Hope this helps!


text:
UVC/UTV007/HTV600 driver support for Galaxy Tab S2 or Galaxy Tab E
I'm planning to connect a reverse camera to an android tablet.
I am using the famous EasyCAP device to get the analog RCA signal to USB input.
I have tried this with a few apps and turns out they rely on a kernel mode driver which may or may not be included in a given device.
My Nexus 5X works well, but my Galaxy Tab A 7" (2016) doesn't seem to have it. (Go FPV app says it can't find the driver)
So my question is, is there a list of device models that I can refer to, to find a device that has the driver? My target is to use a Galaxy Tab S2 or a Galaxy Tab E (due to another constraint for my project)
How can I find out which of these 2 devices will include the kernel mode driver I need?
Another option is to use the popular EasyCAP Viewer app which is paid, since Arksine's Easycam project here suggests that app uses a user-mode driver which doesn't rely on the kernel mode driver to be present. I'm not sure whether it is true.

It's been a while and I haven't seen any answers, so I'm gonna post my approach and findings. If someone has an answer, please post here and I will accept it.

So far, I couldn't find a list of devices that supports the UVC driver.
If you do have a device and wondering it would support UVC, you can download Go FPV App which will show whether you have a UVC driver or not on a given device upon launch. (You do not need to connect the UVC device to get this.)
If you're using the EasyCAP Viewer app, you do not need the driver. I can confirm it doesn't rely on the kernel driver.
If you're writing an app that requires input from a UVC adapter, this GitHub project looks promising.

Just to muddy the water a little. nothing about using Ezy cap is so simple. I have an OTG cable between my EzyCap unit and a Samsung Galaxy tab 10. When I plug in the OTG cable to the tablet the power led on the EzyCap lights up. On the tablet, it works fine. If however I use the same OTG cable to two different (cheap) mobile phones, when I plug in the OTG cable the power LED on the Ezy cap does not light up. I tried another OTG cable and also tried splitting an OTG cable to supply external power to the Ezycap. Simply doesnt work on either phone.
Ive tried a lot of different apps including those you list. The only way to know if your phone or tablet is compatible is to try it!
Sorry its not good news, but its the facts.


text:
Google Translate offline translation
I downloaded tons of offline translation packages for Google Translate some time ago. Then at some point I must have done something, maybe an update, or a setting change (perhaps that Primary Language thing that kept popping up every time I opened Translate?), and suddenly my packages have all vanished! Moreover, when I go under the top-left corner dropdown menu and choose "Offline translation", I end up here:

after getting a message Can't get offline packages list (or that pops up after those two blue texts appear, that varies from time to time), and none of those is a link. How do I get my offline translation back?

I just had the same problem. Just delete your app data and download them again.


text:
Are there any "iptables like" firewall for Android?

Possible Duplicate:
Are there any good firewalls available?

How can i make my Android more secure with a firewall? Are there any legal/offical ways to do it?
Thank you!

That quest has an answer which discusses iptables.

DroidWall is an Android front end for iptables. Root is required though.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/


text:
Security risks of rooting your android smartphone

Possible Duplicate:
Are there any risks to rooting a device?

What are the security risks specific to rooting your android smartphone? Are there any security exploits available because you have a rooted android that are prevented on non rooted androids? Examples or links to more info would be greatly appreciated.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/


text:
what are the disadvantages of rooting your device

Possible Duplicate:
Are there any risks to rooting a device?

What are disadvantages of rooting device . why should it be avoided  ?

I realize this question just got migrated from StackOverflow, but this is a duplicate of http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/164/are-there-any-risks-to-rooting-a-device

Edited to retag. Agree with @Amanda below, duplicate.


text:
how can I change defaults in Android?

Possible Duplicate:
How do I change the default Complete Action With?

I've accumulated a number of programs that do the same thing (browsers, mp3 players, video players etc), and some of are set as defaults.
How can I change the defaults?  For instance, let's say I'm tired of Opera and want to to switch back to the stock browser, but I want to leave Opera installed, how can I do that?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S with Froyo.

Find the application which currently handles the action by default in your application list (Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage Applications).  Once you've found the app in question (note that the 'Manage Applications' list is almost, but not quite, in alphabetical order), tap it, and then tap the 'Clear defaults' button.
Then, next time you start an action that would previously have been handled by the app, you'll get the 'Which app should I use' popup.


text:
Device recognition on Android SDK
I've got a Chinese aPad running Android 1.5, how do I get it to be recongnised by Android SDK? I want to do adb hacks as recommended by this answer. Pointers to using adb also welcome.

You forgot to link to the answer mentioned in your question.

Is the aPad "Google approved"?  I thought it didn't pass Google's Comaptibility Test Sheet.

@Daniel, my bad.

@Matthew, no idea.

Assuming that the PC you've got the SDK installed on is running Windows, the first step to getting your device recognized by the SDK/ADB is having the right Windows USB drivers for your device installed.
See this previous question for more on getting hold of the right ADB drivers for your device: Substitute Win7 USB drivers for ADB mode


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Gallery Sort Order

Possible Duplicate:
gallery sort order

Photos taken by the camera app are sorted newest to oldest by the default gallery app. All the other folders are sorted from oldest to newest.
Is there a way to adjust the sort order?
I am on CM702 on a TMO G2 (HTC Vision)


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Xoom - images for recovery
When fixing or recovering Xoom as described in How to Restore and Relock a Motorola Xoom Tablet to Stock using fastboot one needs to do following:

fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase system
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase cache
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
fastboot erase cache

For this one needs images boot.img, system.img, recovery.img and userdata.img. Given Xoom is old now, I have serious trouble getting those images, links I have found so far are no longer working. Are there any recent and working links, if not for stock images, then for some alternatives?

Could've just asked this along with your previous question...

There's a sticky XDA-Developers thread for that: [INFO]Stock Images & Other Links. I have clicked and verified that the MediaFire links are working, downloadable and contains exactly the files you wanted:

Thanks. I do not know how I missed this, looks fine and works for me. If the question seems to trivial now, I understand if it is closed / deleted.

Nah, I think the question itself is valid, just that you could've saved a day's worth of time by asking this yesterday. To me, more renown is always welcome ;)

As I am proceeding step by step, yesterday I did not now I will need this once I get fastboot working. ;)

Ah, that, different way of thinking and preparing, I guess. I look at guides prior to getting my devices and ready every file needed to set 'em up, if one of the files is unavailable anywhere, I'd simply give up on the device.


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Good ways of clearing internal space?

Possible Duplicate:
HTC Desire low on internal storage, I'm clueless

I need a good and solid way to find large things which are taking up lots of phone internal memory. My phone really just stops working, sync-wise, when I'm running low on space, which seems to be all the time.
I'm running LeeDroid and have set my default install application as the SD card, but it seems that I can still fill up my internal phone storage quickly. I did try the App2SD+ setup, but couldn't seem to partition my card properly.
So does anyone have any good tips? At the moment I'm clearing Maps data and Browser cache, but now that's gone also. Do apps on the SD card still put data on the phone? Or do I just need to make more effort partitioning my SD card to get App2SD working?
Something which created a list or pie chart or both of internal space with links to clear data or uninstall would be idea.

Closely related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/3359/how-can-i-free-up-more-space-on-my-android-2-2-froyo-phone

There are several that should cover this.

Sorry guys. I might have a go at making an app for this!


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Marshmallow: Changing and connecting to an APN
Okay, before anyone can downvote this or anything silly, I need to clarify a few things:

This is for Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
I'm using a FlashFire-Rooted Cherry Mobile One (technically called Android One Sprout8)
Prior to upgrading into Marshmallow, I am able to do these steps.
This is not a duplicate of this particular ticket or this one, please.

Scenario
I want to use a certain APN (for a certain cellular network) which does not connect to the internet without a corresponding VPN. To do that, in the previous versions of Android, I simply create an APN with the corresponding configurations, switch to it by tapping the radio button, then the Android system connects to that APN, even if it can't connect to the common internet.
In Marshmallow, (or at least the stock ROM I flashed?) this doesn't work, and the it connects to the default network APN. It's similar to how my other phone, ZenFone 2, works, but with LTE (always defaulting to the nearest working APN; otherwise HSPA+ works.)
Is there some way to force the APN into this system? But I wouldn't want to downright delete my old APNs, as I still would want to connect to them when needed.

In APN type, did you write default,supl Means default APN

unfortunately, yes. It still defaults to the usual APN. Should I try deleting that instead on all the other APNs?

Thanks for the insight of user157947 though, I found something that helped:
I set all the Bearers in all my other APNs to something jibberish (not applicable in my country, like IS95A). I haven't seen this feature in Lolipop though (it was only LTE iirc)
To set it back to the original APN, set the Bearer to Unspecified then set your custom APN to IS95A.
I think I can also use this feature as well to force a custom APN on LTE on Marshmallow.

give it a go, if anything goes wrong you can always reset to default

Also, Wifi tether or HotSpot changes the apn on some networks


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Uninstall the applications provided by the company

Possible Duplicate:
How can I uninstall applications that are locked by phone vendor?

I am using the LG P500 phone, running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).
I want to uninstall the applications provided by the operating system distribution, that is, the default applications. Is there a way to do this?

System apps are stored in the /system/ partition. You can only uninstall them if your device is rooted (see: How do I root my Android device?).
Preinstalled software are most likely system apps, so if you can't uninstall them through the Settings menu there is probably no other way than rooting.

Suppose one roots one's device and then uninstalls a few applications. Now after uninstalling can he "unroot" his device and go back to using the standard OS again?

Yes it's possible to unroot.


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Why has the emergency contacts functionality been removed?
According to some users at What is an "Emergency Call," and can I  set number for it? there used to be a feature to add emergency contacts that can be dialed without passing the lock screen.
Does anyone have knowledge of why this was done?


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How do I just charge (i.e. not mount for data transfer) a Galaxy Nexus when connected via USB to a PC?
I like to be able to charge my phone from any PC I happen to be using. With my previous HTC Android, I could default to "charge-only" and only switch it to "mount as disc drive" when I wished to, on my own machines.
Why? Being prompted for driver installs (at least on a Windows machine) is annoying;  connecting a storage device to a PC I don't own may be against policy/protocol/politeness.
It would appear that the Galaxy Nexus uses two protocols, MTP and PTP; I currently have only MTP switched on, but can't turn it off.
I could try to find a '"USB" cable that only connects pins 1 & 4 ... [to provide] ... power and no data'.. But this would mean carrying two different USB cables around.
Any other solutions?

This is a security issue also.  I want to be able to connect to untrusted computers for charging.  It seems crazy that this option available by default.

This feature is called "fast charge", and it charges your device slightly faster by disabling the USB data capability. It's not available in the stock ROM that I know of, so you need a ROM and a kernel that you know supports this. I'm using AOKP with the Franco kernel and it works great on my Galaxy Nexus, so you could try that. (There's even a quick toggle for fast charge available).
There's probably not an unrooted solution for this.

Being prompted for driver installs (at least on a Windows machine) is annoying

It might be good to know that installing the correct USB drivers for the Galaxy Nexus in Windows is not something that happens automatically. If you decide to root and flash your device, you'll encounter this; I highly recommend using Galaxy Nexus Toolkit to make the procedure as easy as possible (it's really not that hard).

I'm on CM9 with Franco and fast charge seems to work fine but I'm still promoted to install the Samsung drivers on the computers at work. Does that mean fast charge isn't working properly? It is pretty annoying to be prompted every time when in have no intention of installing the drivers on a particular computer.

I think that means it doesn't work properly, yes. The phone shouldn't make any data contact what so ever with the computer in fast charge mode.


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Is there an official Android "Google" ROM?
So I have an old unlocked phone and I'd like to load up my own OS.  I've seen some mods out there.  CyanogenMod seems to be the most popular.  However, I was curious if I could just install a pure untouched version of the OS -- as distributed by Google. I seem to remember being able to download a clean compiled version of the Android OS.
Does Google distribute any binaries like this, and if not, is there someone out there that does?
Additionally, is this even worth trying?  These days is it necessary for Android to be packaged with special drivers and such for all of the different hardware out there?

To answer if Google distributes binaries for your device: No, they do not (Unless you have a Nexus device). They do, however, have the full Android source code available so that if you wanted you could compile the source code for your device. However, that leads into your second question about the drivers and such. Yes, you will need to find the drivers and any other proprietary files that your device requires for it to interface with Android. You would have to search about compiling a custom ROM for your device and how to include these files.
Likely, your simplest choice is find an AOSP (Android Open Source Project) ROM that exists for your device and install that. Check the XDA Forums to see if your device is included on their site. IF so, go into the development sub-section for your device to search for ROMs.

Do you have any recommendations?  Would CyanogenMod pretty much be the way to go (most reliable / actively developed / up to date) for something that is closest to a base Android OS while keeping up with all of the drivers for your phone?


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How to update GTalk to feature video chat?
I would like to know if it is possible to 'force update' the Talk app. I have Nexus S and I have the video chat in my Talk, but my girlfriend with S Galaxy II (2.3.4) doesn't. I read somewhere on the internet that Talk should feature videochatting from 2.3.4 on, but well... It doesn't so far.

This post from xda-developers will help you if her phone is rooted.

I was thinking about 'official' approach, rather than rooting. But I understand that this means there is no such way. It also turns out it's 2.3.3, she looked it up wrong..


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LG G2 sound randomly turns on from vibrate mode
I have a Verizon LG G2 (VS980) updated to Android 4.4.2, which I always keep on vibrate mode.
However, every day, at exactly 3 PM, without fail, it turns itself from vibrate back to sound. It doesn't matter whether or not it's charging, if it's on wi-fi or data, or anything else.
Any idea what may be causing this, or how I could fix it?

I had the same issue. Here is the solution which works perfect for me.
Settings>Sound>Quite Mode>Set quite time
after enabling quite timing, unselect all days and then disable quite timing.


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Installing Google Account on i9500 on leaked 5.0.1
I recently installed the leaked lollipop 5.0.1 ROM for the s4 i9500. I can see that it does not come with the google package of google play, google search and also one cannot add a google account in the accounts.
I downloaded the apk but that is not running and not even an error is displayed when i click on it.
Is there a way to get google play without rooting? and even add a google account?

Follow the below procedure:

Download the ROM
Download GApps package for Lollipop
Download SuperSU
Put the zip files on your SDCard
Reboot in Recovery
Wipe Data / Factory Reset
Select "Install zip from SDCard"
Choose ROM zip file
Choose GApps zip file
Choose SuperSU zip file
Reboot system

You need customized google apps package.
Courtesy:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/i9505-orig-develop/rom-cyanogenmod-12-t2943934


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Android Emulator size issue
I'm having some issues managing/running AVDs from the commandline.  Whatever device I create/run seems to get cropped and displayed wrongly (see below).  I've tried various devices and settings (-scale) and have looked at the avd config files (they just seem to get reset after I make a change).
How can I fix this?
System Info:

Windows 10;
Latest Android SDK (manual install - no Android Studio);
Android Version: 23

Make sure you select the right device resolution and screen size
There are a variety of options for example:

dpi (1440 x 2560)
xxhdpi (1080 x 1920)
tvdpi (800 x1280)
xhdpi (1080 x1920)

In my setup (API 23)
Here is my configuration:

5 inch screen size
Density 480
Monitor dpi 96

Can you check if these values correct you problem, I suggest you try from GUI this time:
See image:

To start from GUI go to the folder where android sdk was extracted for example:
C:\Users\Test\Android\android-sdk\AVD Manager.exe

I don't think the GUI is available in the sdk-only version, but I'll have a look, thanks.

Also in GUI toggle the option: Scale to real size, you need to disable it, if it was enabled

Did you manage to resolve this matter?

Yeah, I caved and used the Android Studio installer. Works fine now, but seems odd that the stand alone SDK doesn't... I'll give you the answer, but it's gonna need more investigation I think.

Seems strange, but be welcome to answer your own question when you find the solution.  If I get something I will update you too.


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How can I prevent apps from running in the background?

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

There is already a similar question to this one, but mine is narrower in scope and not addressed in the other question:
Consider the case of an app that meets the following criteria:

Let's take a file manager as an example, but it could be a different app just as easily. The specific app isn't important to this question.
This app has no legitimate need to run in the background. I only need file management when I'm actively using the app. (In case my specific example does turn out to have a need, suppose for the sake of the discussion that it actually doesn't.)
The fact that it runs in the background is confirmed by a system monitor.
Even though I believe that it has no legitimate need to run in the background and don't want it to do so, I don't want to uninstall it.

Can I prevent such an app from running in the background?
Practical application
To illustrate the need for this specific question, and why I'm not naming specific apps, consider what I had in mind when I wrote this question:
I would like to go through my apps and decide which ones I want to run as services. Some should run without restrictions. Some should never run. Some should only run when some set of conditions is met. Using the information from an answer to this question, I could implement this--possibly by some custom scripting, possibly using Tasker, or possibly using another approach. Trying to handle this via each individual app's settings would be well-nigh impossible.
Of course, if what I'm asking in this question isn't possible, then this application of it isn't viable.
Notes based on the comments and answers

The reason why I want to do this is irrelevant. Perhaps it's to save battery. Perhaps it's another reason. This question is about how, not why. A warning that a particular solution could have negative side-effects is useful if presented along with that solution. Saying, "It's impossible" is legitimate if true. Saying "Don't do it" isn't useful.
This is not a duplicate of the question I linked to in my first paragraph. That question was about saving memory. This one isn't. That one said, basically, "Don't try." That's not a valid answer to this question.
The specific apps are unimportant, which is why I was vague. I did give a hint as to a specific example I had in mind, but I'm looking for a general answer here.
A solution must also prevent an app from automatically restarting; otherwise, it isn't much of a solution.
A number of people have stated that this is a duplicate. Let me try to explain more clearly why it isn't:

This question is about how to prevent an app from running in the background, which includes stopping it from restarting if killed.
The answers so far have fallen into a few general categories:

You shouldn't try, because doing so is unnecessary. I'm not disputing this point at this time, but "You shouldn't try" is very different from "You can't." Logically, it's addressing a different question, namely "Should I try to kill apps that I don't want to run?"
Use method X to kill the app. Unfortunately, when I tried said method, it didn't prevent the app from restarting, just like others predicted. So, it isn't really an answer.
Ping the developer/it's a bug. This is the most useful of the suggested solutions, but my question was looking for a generic solution.

The other questions that this question has been said to be a duplicate of cover the same ground as in my previous point. Thus, my specific question has not been addressed, despite many claims to the contrary. It's appearing, however, that the answer is a simple "You can't".
There's a related question on meta. In Jeff Atwood's answer, he says in part, "It's generally sufficient to link to the other question and explain why it doesn't meet your needs." The whole thread is apropos to this question. I've done this since the beginning, and provided further details in subsequent edits.

As this is not a real answer I'll just comment: many custom ROMs have a function to make a long press of the back button completely shut down any active app. I frequently use this to quit apps that I want gone completely until I open them next time. Other than that, it's good to know that background apps shouldn't affect your battery life.

Your question is a duplicate of too many questions; it is not narrower in scope, you're just spelling out what many others didn't. Saying it isn't a duplicate didn't make it not a duplicate. The solutions always fell into three categories: 1) use task killer, 2) uninstall the app, or 3) disable the service in the app. There are also many questions discussing pros and cons of task killers. At this point, I don't see anything in this question that hasn't already been discussed in other threads. Please be more specific, managing background task can only be decided on case-by-case basis.

@LieRyan: See my edit above, where I explain how this is, indeed, a different question.

I think we need some canonical question of that type. The duplicates 1, 2, from 3 don't fall into that category. I propose to migrate the answers from 3 here and mark it a duplicate.

The simple flow of the activity life-cycle, which is documented over on Google's developer pages, and employed and used by a large majority of developers, What you're coming across is this how can I control an app that a developer has made, to prevent it from going into the background - you cannot! The developer may have made a design decision over the life-cycle and used a service instead! But this question is moot as you're not being specific and dodging the true question - what apps are you referring to?

Finally, there's some discussion of the real issue. The question as you summarized it is perfectly reasonable, since in some worlds (I come from the Linux world) you can in many circumstances do just that. So in Android you apparently can't. Fair enough. That's the answer I was looking for. By not being specific, I'm not dodging the true question. I'm attempting to push people to answer the true question instead of answering more comfortable irrelevant questions, as people have been trying to do. If I was more specific, I'd get answers specifically related to those apps, not general answers.

Please note, this site (and by extension the rest of Stack Exchange) works best with specific questions that have the possibility of a single, definitive answer. A "general" question may be overly broad to get useful answers.

The problem here is that the lack of specificity means too many entirely distinct cases are lumped together: there is background residence without actual running, simply pending resource reclamation.  There is background running to do something on your behalf you didn't realize still needed to happen.  There is background running due to bugs/developers who don't understand activity and service lifecycle issues.  And finally there is background running to accomplish things you wish the app were not trying to do, that are either useless or actively detrimental.

tl;dr
It's ok if the app in background is just an activity. Activities just consume some memory are usually  not able to run computations in the background. Therefore no CPU or battery is used for them. But if the app in background is running a service:
Ping the developer
Ping the developer! One of the greatest daemons that come with Android are Services that run in background for no reason or when a simply interval check with Android's AlarmManager would be sufficient. We need to kill them all with fire and not by ignoring them. Everything that does not involve a fix by the developer is just a dirty hack that by experience will result in other negative side-effects.
Activities that run in Background
Pure Android apps and their activities usually stay around in memory for a while after they were put out of view. But at some point they may get deleted by Android's ActivityManager if there is an ongoing memory pressure. This is intended behavior, we (the users) want it that way and it works good in recent Android versions. Therefore there is nothing wrong if you see your file manager hanging around in memory.
Services that run in background
But, if it's a service that you see running forever without apparent reason (and without the possibility to disable the service somewhere in the Apps settings), you should contact the developer. In 99% of all cases, there is no reason to waste your precious memory by doing so. Android provides with intents and the already mentioned AlarmManager enough facilities to avoid long running services. Sometimes developers will response with "but Google Maps does that too". I argue that this is never an excuse to point at others, plus it doesn't provide a valid reason to run a background service.

Good explanation and to the point, +1 from me. I'm just mad you stole my Google-Maps-Argument xD In too many cases, Google itself gives the worst examples (see e.g. background sync settings, which are permanently ignored by several Google apps, and other "background activities" which are not configurable -- I could sing a long song about those...).

Can I prevent such an app from running in the background?

You're refusing to accept the answers you're getting because you don't think they fit, but they do. Your question is how to stop apps automatically instead of letting them run in the background. The answer you're getting is that in most cases this is unnecessary and completely bypasses the way Android is created to deal with background apps.
There's plenty of apps available to kill apps in the background, you can also swipe them away or you can use short commands like "long press back" in certain roms to shut down the process. Very rarely however is this to be expected from the user; a misbehaving app should be reported first of all, instead of being worked around.
If an app has "no legitimate need to run in the background", but it is still using system resources (please make sure this is actually true), then that app is poorly designed. It's not a fault in the Android operating system.
That being said, there are plenty of ways to shut down apps manually. Doing it automatically makes no sense, most apps behave well.

You correctly summarized my question and a commonly-stated position. But there's a logical problem here. The answer "It's not necessary" logically doesn't answer the question "How can I..." See my edit to my question for more.

It's counter-productive to answer questions that likely build on a misunderstanding. It's like expecting an answer to the question "how do I copy files with the dd command" and then refuse to accept that cp is a better alternative. I can see the point of answering every question from a learning perspective, but we also don't want to confuse people coming into the question externally via searches and so on.

@bigbadonk420 - good point, questions with an invalid premise often can't really be answered.  But your example is an odd one, given that a stock android install has a dd command but lacks a cp one ;-)

If you are running ice cream sandwich or jellybean you can go into settings hit apps and manually shut down the app by tabbing over to the running apps. Alternatively you can hit the recent app button and swipe them of the screen. However this method wont get all background processes.

Use Llama, an app that can automate many things including killing an app when you go to a different app. It does require root to kill apps.
Create a new Event. Add the condition called Active App, and choose the status App stopped or in background. Choose the app you want to focus on.
Next, add an Action. Select Kill Application (root privileges), then select your app again.
Now, whenever you leave the app, Llama will kill it.
Note that the app may have other ways of starting, such as starting on boot or recieving a text or any other Intent that it handles. To keep it from handling those Intents, use the app Permissions Denied, or use a custom rom like CyanogenMod that have the ability built in. These apps can revoke permissions for any app (again, root required).
Edit: It looks like the free version of Permissions Denied is no longer available. I can still access the google play page (because I have it installed), but it's gone for new users. The paid version is still there, though.

Not recommended to be killing apps that run in the background, especially services, as that will instantly restart and suck up battery juice... just my 2cents. ;)

The OP doesn't specify what apps they desire to be killed. Killing Facebook, for example, will save battery life, since it won't be checking for updates. And it won't automatically restart; only some services are able to do that. There are situations where killing an app is good.

I used Permissions Denied on my previous phone once. When it started up, it immediately started making changes I hadn't asked for and destabilized my phone. I won't be using that app again.

Thanks for the answer. Since I'm a Tasker user, I set up an equivalent configuration. However, it didn't prevent my test app from restarting.


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Right swipe on contact defaulting to internet calls
My problem is: right swipe is defaulting to internet calls instead of 'regular' calls.
First off, these are my relevant call settings:

as you can see I have no accounts and the internet calls are not enabled.
My contacts came from Google contacts (configured them online and then the phone got them).
After they came I used the "Mark as Default" function to select the correct phone number and emails and that's when things started behaving strangely. Doing a right swipe showed me this:

Instead of calling the contact 'normally'.
I started experimenting and was able to reproduce the bug using other similar contacts (contacts that I got from Google with 2 phone numbers + 2 emails). But if I created the Google contact locally (which would sync Ok with google) I didn't have any issues.
No other calling functions are affected: moving the phone to my ear still calls the correct number, direct dial widget still works.
My phone is a Galaxy S III running android 4.1 (but the same thing was already happening in 4.0), if that makes any difference.
What is causing this? How can I fix it?
Seems to be related to: How do I prevent "No Internet calling account" error? but I was still unable to fix it.

tldr: I have found a solution work-around:

Go to google contacts in your browser and remove the emails from the contact (you can put them in the notes to avoid losing them).
Let it sync with your phone.
Add emails back to the contact (still from the browser).

You can now do all the "Mark as Default" you want because it will keep calling correctly.

Long version:
I decided to do some other experiments.
I started by creating a contact specifically for this (with 2 fake phone numbers and 2 fake emails) and let
it sync with my phone. Used "Mark as Default" to select just the phone number.

It kept working fine. Then I selected the default email.

Thats when the phone started to try to make internet calls.
To continue my experiments I needed to deselect the email (which is not possible from the phone),
so I went to google contacts from my browser and removed the emails and let it sync with my phone.

I then re-added the emails.

To my surprise the issue vanished completely for that contact.
Sure enough I did the same for my problematic contacts and everything is fine now. :)

Mr. Portela has it right, and I figured out a way to solve the issue more quickly:

Select the misbehaving contact.
Long press the 'default' email address.
Select 'Clear default'.

Voila.
I'm not sure what will happen when you try to email these contacts from now on, but at least calling works as intended.


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Data connection takes a long time to start up
My tablet has a SIM card that gets data over AT&T's cell network. Once the connection gets going it works great, but connecting to the network takes about 5 minutes. This is strange because it only takes a few seconds for the tablet to determine that it can detect the network at full strength; it just takes a long time for the little "H" to show up next to the signal-strength icon, at which point data exchange can occur.
What can I do to accelerate this? I'm running CyanogenMod on a Nexus 7 2012 tablet.

You can make sure you have the correct APN selected. I don't have AT&T so I don't know what one is correct, but I know with CM on my TMobile, when I installed CM12 I had to change the APN or I couldn't even get a data connection.

Just checked my settings against http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB424489&cv=820 and everything seems to match up.

Do you have many other APNs defined? Try deleting ones that you don't use.

I took this issue to my local AT&T store and had them look at the tablet. They inspected my settings and said they were correct. I had them give me a new SIM card in hopes that would fix the problem; this seemed to lower the connection time somewhat, but it would still take several minutes.
Eventually I factory reset my tablet and switched from CyanogenMod back to stock Android. That made the problem go away; data connection time is back down to a couple seconds.

Reason 1 :
H (HSDPA) signal requires greater strength and a mobile tower that emits 3G (HSDPA) signal. In your case ,the phone connects to a 2G mobile tower (near your vicinity) and then searches for a 3G signals ( maybe that tower is somewhere far)
Reason 2:
Cyanogenmod maybe designed in such a way that it first connects to 2G and then swithces to 3G. You might want to head on to their support page for further information.


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How can I stream my android phone screen to my laptop computer?
I am mostly trying to solve a low resolution problem when watching Google Play movies as on my Windows 8.1 PC many of them are not available in HD quality. As Android phones have access to higher resolutions, but I have a better screen on my laptop, I was wondering how I could stream video content from my (unrooted) phone to my laptop screen.
I am aware of some DLNA solutions but as far as I know, they do not allow streaming of Google Play movies.

Possible duplicate of Is there a way to see the device's screen *live* on PC, through ADB?

I don't think it's quite the same question, because of the extra complexity added by the copy protection functionality (i.e. "secure surface")

@DanHulme recommend making it clearer on title so Googlers will find this.

Search for screen mirroring apps like these:

Screen Stream Mirroring
AirDroid - Android on Computer

Here is the tutorial video on YouTube

Thanks! I checked both of them but they do not seem to work well for an unrooted phone. AirDroid requires root and the other app requires you to enter developer mode and run a fairly lengthy startup procedure each time you restart your phone (plus it doesn't work for many people even after they do).

Yes bluestacks seems like a good workaround, hopefully there will be a more easier ways to mirror screen in the future. Thanks!