text:
Can't use Swype after connecting and disconnecting my Bluetooth keyboard
I'm testing my new Samsung luetooth keyboard with my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 and discovering some peculiarities.
Connecting the keyboard was relatively simple. However, when I don´t use the tablet in conjunction with the bluetooth keyboard, I use the Swype option on the screen. Once I've connected the keyboard to the tablet for a bit, when I disconnect it, it doesn't go back to using Swype. Not only that, but I can't change the settings to use Swype manually. I can only begin to use Swype again when I restart the device.
Has anyone encountered and overcome this?


text:
Does rooting your phone always involve installing/using tools?
I want to know if tools are the only mean to root an android phone ?
can it be done using only a root terminal ?
edit: by tools i mean apps to install like https://www.google.be/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&tbo=d&site=&source=hp&q=root+android

Can you clarify what your question is and please define  tools? What tools? Where did you see that? References?

Not to say a root terminal, most of such methods are utilising ADB (Android Debugging Bridge) to push root-related files and binaries into your phone to get it "rooted".
Sometimes, there are also methods where you are required to boot into recovery to "flash" zip packages that contains those files, but this method is mostly device specific.

thanks this is exactly what i wanted to know , i dont trust 'magic' software who are supposed to do everything for you

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How do I sync with DropBox?
I want to sync DropBox with Android, so I can use the files on Android. So I installed DropBox on Android, but it won't download any files! (or at least I don't see them under sdcard/Android/com.dropbox.android. So I can't use the the files on Android. Did I get it wrong somehow?
I tried Folder downloader, but I lose the sync feature of DropBox this way. The files modified on my Android won't be synced with my laptop.
I was expecting to see Dropbox folder option on Android, same as on the laptop. But there's no such option.

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/8436/dropbox-for-android-folder-location

There's also this: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/complete-dropbox-implementation-for-android

DropSpace has some limitations according to it's description on the Play store:
*** current limitation:
Only files existing on the sdcard are synced.
That is, it's not a full 2-way sync.

I've been using DropSync. It does sync in both directions and I've had no cause for complaint.

I can only add that DropSync allows a single folder sync for free, and any number for a small fee.

Oh -- I found it DropSpace allows one to select a folder on Android -- and keep it fully synced with any (but not the root) Dropbox folder.

If this is your answer, please mark it as Answer. :)

@geff_chang He can't (yet). OP answering his own Q can mark it earliest 2 days later. But then he should, I agree :)

To download, you need to open the DropBox app, and select the file you want to download.
To upload, you need to open the DropBox app, and select Upload here from the DropBox menu.
The files you see on the DropBox app are not the actual files. They are only links that are in the DropBox server, which you must download. The DropBox app for Android does not work the same way as the DropBox app for the PC. The PC version automatically downloads / syncs the file on your PC.

Thank you for clarifying this @geffchang - has any sync capability been added to the latest DropBox Android (official) app in Jan 2015? Has any announcement been made for the feature to be added in a future release? Details are vague at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dropbox.android

FolderSync is also able to sync folders with DropBox and it supports Tasker automation as well.
This way you can configure - for instance - Tasker so to trigger a sync whenever you connect to your home wifi.
The only drawback is that FolderSync is not getting updates since quite a while, unfortunately.

Note Dropbox has their own implementation of this, but it's not at all the same (I recommend Dropsync instead). You can mark individual files as a favorite, then they sync normally:
Downloading (favoriting) files to your phone or tablet
The mobile app shows you the list of your files, but it only downloads the actual files as needed, such as when you tap on a file to view it. To ensure that a file is always on your device and up to date, mark it as favorite. This will also make it available when your device is offline.

Thank you for providing the official Dropbox help page link for this topic. While the official app may have limited support for "sync" features it is good to know where and how to try these file update capabilities.

It isn't clear to me how it knows when the file is needed. I have found that when I open some files from Dropbox, when the app opening them saves the change the file is automatically uploaded, but I don't know if they require API access to do this or if it is reliable in the sense of a more automatic app (such as a logger) being able to write data to the file now and then and have it always sync.

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


text:
How can I configure time zones on my Galaxy S?
Yesterday I got a meeting email which I read on my SGS GT-I9000, which showed the time as:

Wednesday, January 12, 2011 8:30 AM-9:00 AM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

But when I checked this on my PC in Outlook this was the time:

Wednesday, January 12, 2011 7:00 PM-7:30 PM (GMT+05:30) Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi

How can I get my device to use the same time zone as my PC?

9am - (-5) = 2pm UTC, 7:30pm - (5:30) = 2pm UTC.  So both messages show the same time, just for different time zones.

Seems to me that your PC and your Android are in different time zones. Since you've already mentioned that you're in India, I expect that your Android has the wrong setting.
Settings | Date & time
You may have to turn off "Automatic" so that you can set the time zone yourself.

thanks, i have turn off automatic setting in [setting->date time], there is no option for entering time zone on my self and there is no item in list where i find India so how to change it.

Can't help you. I have a Droid and can only share the settings that I find on it. I don't know what sort of customizations Samsung may have done.

@Jeevan My Galaxy S has "Select time zone" in Settings -> Date & time.  Automatic should work if you have a SIM card in the phone, however.

@Mathew: it is in automatic mode and i have sim on it.

@Jeevan on my Galaxy S, if I take the tick out of Automatic I am able to select a time zone, and one of the options is GMT+5:30 Kolkata which sounds like the zone you need?

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


text:
How can I get Facebook and Google contacts to sync in 4.2?
In the People app (i.e. Google Contacts), the "Accounts" area has an option for adding Facebook contacts, which I've checked. In Settings->Accounts->Facebook, I've checked "Sync Contacts," yet it doesn't look like my Facebook contacts are being synced. I have the Facebook app installed and logged in. Is there something I'm doing wrong? This is on a Nexus 4 running Jelly Bean (4.2.1).
Ideally, I'd like to import/sync Facebook contacts into Google Contacts without using third-party apps, and without installing an address book replacement.

I don't think this is possible without a third party app or a custom rom. You aren't doing anything wrong, it is just Google and Facebook not playing nice together anymore, apparently. (Most people recommend the app HaxSync as a workaround by the way, I haven't tried it yet though)

That feature was removed in the 4.x versions of Android.  I use UberSync for my contact syncing and it works great.  Haven't had any problems with it and it also has a setting to import high res contact photos.  I would recommend that.  Set it up once and forget about it.

If you have many friends or followers on Facebook & Twitter & a big group on Google Plus, then you can synchronize all those contacts with their email-ID & phone numbers to your mobile phone’s contacts.
http://www.androidwala.com/how-to-get-facebook-contacts-on-android-phone/

I wrote a TamperMonkey / GreaseMonkey script to accomplish this, which works by encoding the contact details on a friend's "about" page into a google-goggles-scannable QR code.  It's not as convenient as the (missing) ability to do a bulk export/import or sync, but seems to be the best option under the circumstances.
The TamperMonkey script is here on GitHub

I just noticed that my FB contacts were no longer in my Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX, and not Joined to the original "phone number only" Contact listings for many Friends.
I followed the steps listed in the top answer, and even though the UI on my phone says the FB Sync is off, Tapping "People > Bottom-Left Menu button > Accounts > Facebook", and then Tapping the "Contacts (Touch to sync now : Sync is OFF)" did successfully sync my FB contacts.
I then had to go to my Contact list, find the original People Contact, Tap the Contact > Tap Bottom-Left Menu button > Tap Edit > Tap Bottom-Left Menu button > Tap Join -- then find the FB Contact, complete and save the Join.
All is now good
DROID RAZR MAXX
Android version: 4.1.2


text:
Phone favorite - remove picture icon due to screen real estate
Using a new Nexus 4 with OS 4.2.2.
I've pulled my contacts onto the phone (from Exchange/OL using Companion Link) and they are synchronized to the phone's Contacts (people?) app.  I can see them from both the Google People app and from the phone app.
I have over 3000 contacts, and am trying to set up my favorites for people I call regularly (a list of about 20 contacts.)  This was very easy to do on my last Android phone, and the favorites would show me a list of contacts.
On this 4.2.2 phone, the favorites area is displayed with the contacts' pictures as a huge tile, with the contact names at the bottom of the tile.  I do not maintain pictures for my contacts, so I do not want to take up all of this screen real estate for non-existent pictures.  And, even if I had pictures, I wouldn't want them to appear as these huge tiles when I'm trying to look at a list of contacts.
How can I do one of the following things?

Force the phone/people apps to not show the picture tiles in lists.
Remove the picture tiles altogether.
Ensure that the picture tiles do not appear when there is no picture.

Beneath those tiles will be a simple list labeled "Frequently Contacted", and they're listed with a much smaller photo (if one exists). So, as you use the phone, it will automatically build that list up for you of the people you contact the most.
Otherwise, there's not a way to change the layout of the app. Even if you were to create a contact group for those contacts, the group contact display uses the same sort of large photos.
Your other option would be a third-party app.

Got it; I will give that a shot and see if it will work.  It looks like I can still set up a default phone number for each person, and that is a much better display.  Not entirely within my control, which tends to make me cranky, but I suppose I'll manage.  :)  Thanks very much for your thoughts...


text:
How can I get ADB to recognize my Spice MI 350?
I want to use my Spice MI 350 for testing an application I'm developing. I have tried following this link, but so far I cannot get it working.
When I run adb devices I get ???????? as device name. The Device Chooser which appears just before running the application also displays ???????.
How do I get my adb to recognize my Spice MI 350 (Android 2.3.3) so I can test my application?
EDIT
        I work on Ubuntu 11.10 and Eclipse 3.7.

What operating system is your computer running?

I work on the Linux 11.10, I solved the problem by researching on various blogs. I particularly found this link very helpful.
Actually the vendor ID in "/etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules" was wrong. As I couldn't find the Spice in the Android's developer site.
Executing command lsusb gave me the correct vendor id....
$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:c31d Logitech, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 046d:c05a Logitech, Inc. Optical Mouse M90
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 2006:0c03 (-->2006 is the vendor id for Spice MI 350)

Now My /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules file looks like:-
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="2006", MODE="0666" GROUP="plugdev"
Now after restarting adb services... i.e.
su
$ adb kill-server
$ adb start-server
$ adb devices

The output is :-
List of devices attached
0123456789ABCDEF    device

Now when I launch application from eclipse ide it automatically identifies the device....

in the future, in your question, specify that you are using Ubuntu 11.10 (or what ever OS you are actually using at the time).

I will remember that.. @RyanConrad,

If you are using a Windows machine, then it sounds like maybe the drivers you are using are not the correct drivers.
Download the drivers from here (at the bottom) and install those drivers on the system.
To install the drivers:

connect your phone to your pc with USB debugging mode enabled.
Windows will not be able to install drivers on its own. So, go to 'Device Manager'. Under 'Other Devices', you will have your phone's name, Spice Mi-350n/Fly IQ260.
Right click and select 'Update Driver Software...' and select 'Browse my computer for driver software' and browse to the location where you extracted the drivers and click 'Next'.


text:
Is there a Palm OS-style launcher (placing apps in categories)?
I am interested in a launcher/home screen application which behaves like the classic Palm OS (not WebOS) launcher. Specifically, every installed application is in exactly one category, and you can flip between categories. There is no separate app drawer versus home-screen. Ideally, I could reorganize the apps (and add shortcuts and widgets) within each category, and let the less-used part of that category be accessible by scrolling past the 'bottom' of the screen.
(I get the impression that iOS (and so iOS-inspired Android launchers, presumably) does a similar thing of forcing each application to be on some page of the home screen, but I specifically want to have single categories larger than my screen size; e.g. "Games".)
My goal is to make it harder to forget I have an app — because the standard app drawer is a big unorganized list, I hardly ever look at it, and when installing inessential things like games it's easy to forget to carefully add it to a folder.
I would also like it to not have extra features which require extra permissions (widgets can check my calendar for me, thanks).

I am currently using folders to organize my apps into categories (in the stock Android launcher), but this is an moderately unsatisfactory solution:

There is no “Uncategorized” folder which newly installed apps or apps removed from other locations end up in.
I would like the “rest of the category” to be more naturally “connected” to the home screen (e.g. scrolling down) rather than being a single icon on it.
I would like to have more than five categories.
There is a bug in the stock launcher in which the use of folders causes other home screen slots to misbehave.

Folders do all this apart from automatic categorization, which isn't possible without metadata that I don't believe is provided by the Market.  Are you looking for a way to have all newly installed apps put in an "Uncategorized" folder?

Yes. I’ve added details about folders to my question.

I just released TinyLaunch, which is a tiny PalmOS-style launcher that shows a categorizable list of apps.

Well, perhaps the launcher from the miui rom will do what you need- it supports folders, there is no app drawer, and you can pinch to zoom out and quickly change home screens. Most other 3rd party launchers (adw, launcher pro, my personal favorite go launcher ex) do the same things but keep the app drawer.

Can MIUI's launcher be used without installing a custom ROM? Do the third-party launchers you mention have the "always in at least one category/folder" feature?

yes, go launcher does this in a way- there are folders inside the app drawer (pretty much identical to the iphone's home screen). install it and experiment to find out, works better than describing it.
Also, this might work https://market.android.com/details?id=org.adw.launcher.miui&feature=search_result


text:
How to share a Google+ public post outside of the Google+ app?
Most apps share their content out to other apps based on intents on the phone. The Google+ app's share feature only seems to generate another Google+ post. How can I share a  Google+ public post outside of the app from the app itself? For example, to send a link of the post to Twitter, Messenger, Facebook, etc.
I can't believe Google would cauterize sharing from a service as important to them as Google+ when most other popular social apps can share freely among each other. Copy & paste of the URL is dated and onerous on Android.

Tap the post you want to share
Open the overflow menu (three vertical dots)
Tap "Link"

You'll receive a message: "Post link copied to clipboard."

You can now paste that link to whatever sharing mechanism you'd like

Not the same as using the Android Share function, but, again, Google+ is not alone in doing this. I don't know when this function was added to the G+ app.
Of course, it only works for Public posts.

Excellent news, thank you.  It's worth noting this technique only works on public posts, as it should.

The simple answer
You cannot.
Expanded Answer
The share button on Google+ posts in the app is called the 'resharing' button - it is just like retweeting on twitter (as most people probably know).
There is currently no way to share Google+ content to other Social Networking/Messaging/Chat apps etc - this is by design of the app, and cannot be changed.
The only way to do this would be to ask Google to implement this feature, or to decompile the app and add it yourself (which would be obviously very difficult).
The Conclusion
So, I know that this isn't what you wanted to hear, but I am afraid that no-one will be able to give you a 'correct' answer to this question, as there is no way to share Google+ content outside Google+ using the Google+ application.

Thank you. It's a shame, that fact, because that limitation makes me shy away from G+ on my mobile device in favour of other services in which sharing of content is more open and easy. Even with the official Twitter mobile client I can share out to many other services in addition to simply retweeting.

One thing I've found since making this post and assigning a bounty is that G+ Public posts aren't visible unless user's are logged into their Google account through a Google service like Gmail, Google+, etc.  So in a way, there's the question of: why would a user want to share out a public G+ post when it's still behind the Google wall in a way, and not necessarily immediately accessible to the masses from other platforms.

While it may be difficult to share a "post" (including comments), sharing the URL of a link which was posted should be relatively easy: a simple way to achieve this is to have an app which appears like a web-browser (and thus appears in the "open with" menu when you tap to open a link), and then automatically opens a "share with" menu using this link as the content to be shared (just as if it were a URL "shared" from a web-browser app).  I haven't found such an app yet, but making one would be straightforward. (yes, this can be done slowly by opening link in browser / then sharing)

In order to share a link from Google+ (not a link to a G+ post, but a link shared from a post), you can use an app which appears as a web-browser, and then passes the URL on as a share intent, opening the share menu.
I described this in my comment on Liam W's answer, and finally did find an app that does what I described, called Browser Intercept - Share URL.  Works like a charm!

As everyone stated, this is a feature inexplicably missing in the google+ app.
(If I were Vic I would have resigned in shame too)
Google+ only copies the link to the clipboard.
But we can use Clipboard manager to share the content of the clipping to other applications.

And you can be notified when a link is copied to the clipboard:


text:
Looking for Location-Specific Screen Locking Behaviour
I'd like to have a feature that allows my Android phone to change its lock mechanism automatically dependent on location.  For example, most of the time I use pattern unlock when out and about but tire of unlocking it constantly at my desk at work. Other solutions are:

manually change to a slide lock while at work - but must remember to revert it back after;
enable dev feature: no sleep while USB charging - but is a bit of a hack;
there are likely other semi-solutions...

I'd like for my phone, when it detects my work zone for example, to require me to unlock using the current pattern lock only once and then automatically revert to a slide unlock thereafter, until the phone leaves the zone at which point it reverts back to pattern unlock for higher security.
Is there an app or configuration that supports something like this already?

Guess you'd need to use the GPS and figure out the latitude/longitude of each zone, then use tasker to determine the GPS coordinates...

Usually a combination of GPS and WiFi is used. GPS doesn't necessarily know exactly what floor I'm on but WiFi SSIDs and strengths helps support a more granular location. Indeed, location-based services are prevalent. I wonder if they're available in the kind of app that I'm seeking.

Apologies @t0mm13b, I didn't read "tasker" in your comment as the app named Tasker until I saw it referenced in the answer below.

No worries there - The tasker master below has answered! :)

As t0mm13b already suggested, Tasker can do that easily:

Condition: [Location]
Task: Keyguard disable/enable

For location, you can use different sources:

GPS (most power-hungry variant, as it requires a permanent GPS scan -- but most accurate)
network based (less power-hungry, but still requires at least WiFi -- but less accurate)
cell based (least power-hungry, not to say: using almost no additional power, as the mobile cells are either used for telephony and mobile data -- but also least accurate)

You can even combine them: having e.g. cell-based combined with GPS would only start GPS scanning when the cells already match.
The trickier part will be the "require once" element, which will be doable with a more complex Tasker profile. If this is relevant to you, I will update my answer to include some hints on this.
Other (and easier to learn) solutions might be available as well, but I'm not sure whether they can control keyguard. So you might want to take a look at Llama - Location Profiles, which can at least handle the "location-based" part quite well. And of course you can check the "other users also liked" section for these apps on the playstore.

FYI - Llama can also handle WiFi SSID conditions, IIRC.

Oh, completely forgot about those -- thanks for the hint! Tasker of course can handle those as well. Question is just if Llama can handle keyguard...

It can enable/disable screenlock as well as enter/clear password lock. And it's free as opposed to Tasker. A good alternative, IMO.

Llama's Screen Lock action reports itself "buggy" and I haven't been able to get any incarnation of it to work on my Nexus S (have given it admin privs).  Otherwise I'm impressed at the slew of options in Llama and that it doesn't use a lot of battery. It also supports WiFi (experimental) in addition to phone masts for better location resolution. (Next I'll try Tasker to see if that suffices the requested screen lock behaviour.)

I'm trying the Tasker app now to disable keyguard when my home network SSID is detected, but haven't figured out how to program a Task to do this. If you could update your answer to provide pointers for somebody completely new to the Tasker app to achieve keyguard disablement it would be much appreciated. I'm sure I'll eventually get there on my own.

Success! I was able to glean the proper Tasker steps from this example @ http://tasker.wikidot.com/keyguard-off by substituting a "Wifi" context for the "Power" context seen in the example.

If you are OK with using password protection for your lockscreen instead of the pattern, it does work with Llama, which is free (unlike Tasker).
As John K pointed out, the "Screen Lock" action does not seem to work for most people. However, you can use the "Screen lock password" action to set an empty password to disable the lock screen, and set it back to your normal screen lock password to enable it again.
However, your phone will likely (haven't tested) unlock automatically when you arrive at work without requiring the initial unlock you want. EDIT: yes it does
I posted this in case anybody still needs this (as I did) and couldn't comment on the accepted answer as I am new to this site.

An update -
Google has since introduced a location based Smart Lock feature into Android which effectively fulfils the question's need.


text:
How to change notification pane image
I've just installed an ICS Rom (HTC Nameless) which has background images in both the notification pane and app drawer. These images don't appear to be well planned, because I can't read anything very well on top of them.
I'd like to either change or remove both images, but don't have the faintest clue of where to start looking. I have tried a few apps that have utilities for this, but none of them seem to work. I know my way around the filesystem alright, so I would like to change them manually.
My device details are as such:
Phone: HTC Desire C
Rom: Nameless (ICS 4.0.3) v7.3 build 4
Rooted: yes
If anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd be very glad :)

That seems like a modification included in your ROM. If there's an easy way to change it, I think it'll be in the ROM settings app (A lot of big roms have their own settings app. not sure about Nameless)

Update - I've found the images in question, located in /system/app/systemui.apk (logically, along with the rest of the UI images)
I have extracted the all and fixed the images, but I'm not sure how to insert them into the apk now. Any advice?

Also, Nameless (as far as I know) does not include a rom-specific settings app. Frequently, I've noticed roms for the HTC Desire C are far from fully functional, as it's not a horribly popular device.

Since you solved it, please post your solution as an answer (then when you can, mark it as the accepted answer). That's how things work around here =). EDIT: Nevermind, apparently you can't.

As per Jeff Darcy (original):

This is what I did to fix it (without touching a PC). I used ES File
  Explorer, and "Photo Editor" from the Play Store to accomplish this:

Copy the original apk (systemui.apk and Rosie.apk) to a writable folder
Using ES File Explorer, long press on the apk and choose 'extract'
Once the extraction is complete, find the image you want to change, under res/drawable-mdpi
Edit the image using Photo Editor (I just made it black), and overwrite the original.
Using ES File Explorer, recompress all of the files you got from the extraction, using the ZIP extension
Keep the original apk, renaming it to something like "systemui.apk.old"
Rename the new zip file to "SystemUI.apk", being sure to match the original apk file name in spelling and case.
Move your new SystemUI.apk to /system/app, overwriting the default
Reboot, and enjoy.

Caution: this may not be the generally accepted method, and therefore
  could potentially cause damage to your filesystem. Be sure to perform
  a nandroid backup, and back up your original apks, JUST IN CASE.


text:
Nexus 4 speaker no longer playing any audio
The speaker on my Nexus 4 suddenly stopped playing audio a few days ago. No sound at all, no music, ringtones, etc.
Is this software problem or hardware?
If I reinstall Android 4.3 again manually, will it unmute the speaker?

Have you checked your settings? Maybe you've activated some silent mode (e.g. via the mute button in the notification area). If not, you could first try a factory-reset before "re-installing". If that doesn't work either, it's likely to be a hardware issue; in that case I'd contact the service.

thanks Izzy,    i did watever you mentioned but still speaker not working.. if i reinstall android 4.3 will it work ?  right now im using android 4.3.....if install again will it get blocked ? thanks ill wait for  your answer

If a factory reset didn't solve it, it's more likely to be a hardware issue. A re-install thus won't change anything.

It was happened to me when I was out during a rainy day. The day after everything was right. I hope your phone "solve" the problem by itself :)

Check to see if it works with headphones.  If so, try inserting/removing the jack a couple of times; sometimes, the switch in the jack that mutes audio when the headphones are inserted may get some oxidation or foreign matter.  I've had problems with headphone jacks like that on several different devices.

Happened to me.
Just try turning it off and on. (The whole phone)

Anyone else who has this should also try plugging in headphones to see if that makes any difference.
When it happened to after on a rainy run, I couldn't hear anything through the main speaker so I plugged in some headphones and they were OK.
Happily, once I'd unplugged the headphones, the main speakers were OK again.
I can't be certain but it's my guess that some moisture from the rain had made its way into the headphone socket and the resulting circuit made the phone think that headphones were connected. When I plugged out the headphone jack, maybe it cleared the moisture.
Whatever, it's working now :)

First thing to do is to check the device's settings. It might very well be you just "silenced" your phone one way or the others. There are different places to look for:

Open the notification area. On many (recent) devices, it holds some shortcuts to frequently used stuff as toggling WiFi, airplane mode, and also mute (i.e. switch between "complete mute", "vibration only", and "normal noise").
Check all your stuff in the Settings menu. Different manufacturers/devices/ROMs have different settings in different places which might cause this
If you use some "automation tool" like Tasker, Llama, or the like, check whether it could be one of its profiles

If the above still didn't solve the issue, make a good backup and then factory-reset your device. If the device still stays mute after that, it's unlikely to be resolved on a software level, but rather a hardware failure. So in that case, you should contact the service; if the device is still under warranty, they should fix it for free.

Turn off bluetooth.  I had same problem and as I looked through the settings I noticed the blue tooth was on.

Yes it's a software problem and I had the same problem. I went back to Android 4.3 and then it worked.

authors: المقنع الفاعوري


text:
Cyanogenmod 10.2 crashes when trying to access storage settings
I have just installed CyanogenMod 10.2-20130727-Unofficial-i9300 and I am facing a problem with connecting to USB on Windows. Windows won't install drivers when I connect to USB (MTP USB device driver) and Android shows an error that says:

Unfortunately the process android.process.media has stopped.

Also when going to Settings > Storage it crashes the Settings menu. Can you please help me fix this issue?

The phone won't install drivers? Sure not, there's no need for that. As for the crashes: Could you please [edit] your question and add a few more details on that: any error message displayed? What steps you are performing when it crashes?

Please also add what build of Cyanogenmod you have: is it a stable release, a release candidate, a beta, or a nightly? If it's a nightly, the solution is probably "install a stable release or a  different nightly that doesn't have this problem".

I have updated the question!


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How can I apply and use Vodafone Australia firmware/USIM on my Samsung Galaxy SIII SHV-210S?
Over last 1.5 years, I've been using a Samsung Galaxy S2 on Australia's Vodafone network. I got a Samsung Galaxy S3 (SHV-210S - South Korea SKTelecom version) and want to format it with Vodafone Australia firmware and USIM. With Vodafone Australia USIM to SHV-210S, I can make a call, send/receive SMS/MMS, but some settings/configurations are not fully catered for Vodafone Australia.
Would Australia Vodafone S3 (GT-I9300) firmware be compatible to apply to a SHV-210S device?


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Firmware Upgrade Encountered
I am in the process of restoring a Samsung Galaxy S4, for Verizon. It shows a screen
that says I need to use the "Software Repair Assistant"program. Could anyone please provide assistance as to how I can resolve this issue?


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Callers cannot hear me unless I turn on speaker phone!
I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 (SGH-S959G) and it is a Straight Talk phone (don't know if that makes a difference or not). Anyway, I have only had this phone for about 6 or 7 months.
Around August 16, 2013 I noticed that when someone calls me or I call someone I can hear them but they cannot hear me unless I turn on speaker phone. I got in touch with Straight Talk and the representative instructed me to:

turn the phone off,
take the battery out,
take the SIM card out,
clean the SIM card by wiping it on my shirt or whatnot,
and then replace the SIM and battery.

He then said to make a call, which I did and it worked.
However, two days later it started back doing the same thing by repeated the instructions listed above in the exact same manner several times and it did not work. It still does not work.
Also, when I call voicemail and change my personal settings, it will record what I say without it being on speaker. So I'm not quite sure why I am able to be heard in that manner but not when talking to someone.
Also, every now and then when I sit my phone down on a counter, the phone will just randomly turn off.
There really is no good reason for that to happen unless I was throwing it down, which I am not. I have always taken good care of my things, especially my $350 phone. It's ridiculous to pay this much and only be able to use it for 6 or 7 months.
Please Help.

I doubt the SIM card has anything to do with the issue, as it's neither connected to the microphone nore to the speakers. As this still (temporarily) fixed your issue – for the reason of the battery being removed – rather suggests something software related. I'd say some driver messes up, or it's a hardware issue with some "flaky contact". Whichever of both, it most likely can only be fixed by the service: they need to figure which of the two is the culprit, and either fix the hardware or re-flash the radio-firmware.

can you check if skype works fine? (or another WIFI based calling client)
This way I can  tell if it might be a software or hardware issue

Try disabling "Noise Cancellation" on your device.

There are two microphones on your phone: one for speaker and one for non speaker.  You have to clean the mic port on the bottom of your phone with a small pin.

I agree completely with this answer.  It must be a problem with the microphone.  It could be pocket lint, or maybe something got poked into it (which would most likely destroy it).  Glad you have the speaker option so it is still a useful phone.  But take the advice in this answer and check it out.  You may be able to clean it.  (Just don't use a toothpick).

I advise you to do factory reset of your device as the problem sounds to be software related. If your mic was to be alright, even the voice mail wouldn't have worked.

i got this problem also on my (in the mean while old) S2
there is a connector of the speaker in your phone who is not connected anymore
check youtube movies how to open your phone (not so difficult with correct tools) and connect this connector to the main pcb


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Nexus 7 doesn't have sdcard folder when connected to PC
I've just bought a Nexus 7. When I plugged it into my laptop, it shows the media folder, I'd like to access the sdcard folder just like the other devices. How to transfer files?
I think "adb push" is not a good choice.

See also Better way to connect Galaxy Nexus (ICS) to Linux

Nexus 7 doesn't support UMS (USB Mass Storage) out of box. But, it supports file transfer by MTP (Media Transfer Protocol). MTP allows you to push and pull any type of files from sdcard, but it doesn't allow you to edit files directly on sdcard (like you do with UMS mode).
From your screenshot, it looks like your Nexus 7 is connected with PTP (Photo Transfer Protocol), also known as Camera Mode. Switch to MTP mode and do whatever you want. Also make sure your PC OS supports MTP.

When I chose MTP, it even didn't show any folder so I chose PTP.

@Emerald It means that Ubuntu has problem accessing over MTP. Try finding a software for that.

@Emerald Try using command line.. http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man1/mtp-tools.1.html

it's not even 'not out of the box' but more 'not at all'

@ce4 But, few tricks and hacks can enable UMS in Nexus 7. I'd say 'not at all' if there was a limitation from hardware layer.

Sure, the hardware is not the limitation here. At the moment it's more of a 'not at all' for me. One of the possible ways (just a feature request atm): UMS support for LuksManager and of course a kernel that supports it.


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Where is debugging mode on Kindle Fire?
I want to connect Kindle Fire with Eclipse to develop apps but I don't see any entry like "Development" in "Settings". What's wrong with it? If it doesn't exist on KF, is there any way to do that?
When I open Manage on Windows XP, a yellow exclamation mark appears on Kindle. Is its driver missing?

It is always enabled on the Kindle Fire. You simply need to add the Fire's device ID to your android_usb.ini file so that the Google ADB drivers will find it. You can do this from the command line very easily with:
echo 0x1949 >> "%USERPROFILE%\.android\adb_usb.ini

Then restart adb
adb kill-server
adb start-server

And you should be good to go.
If it still won't recognize it then you may need to go into the "Manage" menu and uninstall the Fire, then unplug it and plug it in again (I don't remember if that step was necessary).

where is android_usb.ini?

@Emerald214: On XP is should be C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\.android\android_usb.ini. On Vista/7 it should be C:\Users\<username>\.android\android_usb.ini.

I tried this and followed your advice.
http://www.freerepairguide.com/kindle-fire-enable-usb-debugging.html
but the KF doesn't appear on device list (step14).

@Emerald214: So the driver and everything installed properly like in the guide? In your Windows device manager, do you see a "ADB Interface" (or similar) device?

Yes, I saw it, ADB Interface. I tried to unplug and plug USB cable then restart adb but nothing changes. It shows this error in console "Adb connection Error:An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host"

@Emerald214: I think I actually had to terminate the adb.exe process from Task Manager once when Eclipse wasn't playing nice. I recall also shutting down Eclipse beforehand, but I don't quite remember. I'm not sure if that will actually work, though it sounds like now the issue is that adb is in some kind of weird state (but the drivers are set up correctly).


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How to download via Chrome on Nexus 7 with Jelly Bean 4.2.2
I have a Nexus 7 updated to Jelly Bean 4.2.2, with all apps updated. Chrome is version 28.0.1500.94.
I navigated to
http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-3-podcast-102-public-game-leeches-economics-and-hardcore-dh-follies
in Chrome and long-clicked the "Download" hyperlink located below the video. This is a link to a .MP3 file (audio podcast). A short message appeared, indicating that the download had started.
However, no indicator appeared in the notification bar at the top and nothing is present in "Apps, Downloads", either when the download starts or a while afterwards.
I looked in the Downloads folder via Rhythm Software's "File Manager". The file appeared there for a short while, but vanished soon afterwards; it vanished long before it would have finished downloading.
Neither uninstalling "File Manager" nor restarting the tablet solved the problem.
Single-clicking the "Download" link causes Chrome to start playing the file, which is not what I want; I want to download the .MP3 file.
II only have a few other apps installed, which are not download/file manager apps.

There is a downloads app that should contain your file.

No, as I indicated, "Apps, Downoads" remains empty, immediately after starting the download and after the file vanishes from the Downloads folder.

Ahh... that is odd...? Do you have a link to the page you could post so others could try to reproduce the problem?

Sure; I'll update the question.

I wasn't able to get anything to download. Have you downloaded videos from this site before on Android?

I long-clicked the word "Download" below the video, which is the link to the .MP3 file.

I tried to download the link using Chrome for Android SEVERAL times, but it always disappears. Like I've been telling myself before, Android for Chrome is not mature enough and lacking in (so many) features.
I would suggest installing a 3rd-party browser like Dolphin or Boat, which are both highly-customizable. I downloaded the MP3 file successfully using Boat (which is my main browser), and it appears in my Download folder.

I solved this by installing Opera Classic 12.1. Single-clicking the "Download" link prompted me to open the file via Google Music or via Opera. Selecting Opera started the file downloading via Opera's built-in download manager.
Quite a fail for Chrome :(


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Move saved YouTube videos between devices
Is it possible to move the saved/downloaded exo YouTube files (downloaded with the YouTube app) between devices to avoid having to download them again on other devices? If so, how?

Unless you downloaded them completely so, that you can watch them with any video player, I guess every device has its own key that is used to en- and decrypt the downloaded video files just like Google Play Music, Spotify etc do it.

Have you tried moving it? You can say us whether you are able to play the videos.

I am afraid to say this but moving videos between devices is not supported, Yet, AFAIK.
Here are few technical details.
When user download those videos, using official YouTube app, Android saves those videos on Internal storage(and not on external store such as sd-card)of the device. The path can be something like below:

Internal
  storage/Android/data/com.google.android.youtube/files/Offline/(system
  generated folder name)/streams

If you can go to that location, you will find that, all those downloaded files are saved as .exo files.
Since these .exo files are supposed to be system files, these are usually filled with System info(in another words, the device info) into it. Also, those downloaded videos are encrypted and the video file is split into chunks of .exo files.
Hence not only they can be played on the same device, but they can only be played with Official YouTube app.

You can not play these downloaded videos using any Other Media player.

You may want to check the links related to YouTube offline feature here and here for more information.


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YouTube app not preloading
I have a Nexus 7 running 4.4.2. I have one video in my "Watch Later" list in the YouTube app, which successfully preloaded a few weeks ago. I have the preload setting activated.
I have added a second video to the list, but it will not start preloading. The device is connected to a wifi network with excellent signal strength and is connected to a computer via the USB cable to charge. The battery icon indicates that it is charging.
I removed the video from the list, restarted the YouTube app and added it again, but it will not start preloading. Any ideas?

Preloading no longer available on version 5.6 and above.
source

5.6 only started rolling out on 16th April so I don't think this is the issue the OP has. They also mention that they have the setting activated which implies they still have the option to preload.


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Unable to bluetooth pair Galaxy S5 with BG-BluBox
I paired a BG-BluBox external sound cube to a Samsumg Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition successfully.
At a later time, I initiated a pairing of the BG-BluBox with a Samsung Galaxy S5 (Android 5.0). The pairing was not successful*. I am now unable to pair this device with the S5.
I have located the Bluetooth app under Device Manager and have deleted data and cache and restarted the device.
I have also wiped the cache partition.
In both of the above cases, the outcome is the same. The Bluetooth app on the S5 still shows other paired devices as before, shows the BG-BluBox, but the S5 reports that the PIN/password is incorrect when I try to pair.
How can I pair this device with the S5?
*I may have had to enter a PIN, which I may have entered incorrectly. This was a while ago and I don't recall the details now.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

I connected the S5 to the sound box via the supplied headphone connector jack.

Based on our chat discussion, consolidating

By entering PIN correctly on the sound box, you are able to pair with S4 or any other device
This doesn't repeat with S5, even after clearing the cache and data of S5 (The first way is to to clear cache and data of Bluetooth app from Settings > Applications Menu > Application Manager.

3.There is no option of resetting memory of sound box and it remembers the last known good connection, which in this case is S4
Available information points to a problem with S5 persisting to remembering the wrong PIN entry and attempting to pair
To fix this,(Considering your device is NOT rooted), would suggest to factory reset your device after taking back up of data and attempt to pair
EDIT:  You had mentioned that clearing Bluetooth app data/ cache did not clear the saved settings for S4. Which makes me suspect that cache of app is not being cleared. Suggest try this to clear cache of your device -turn your Samsung Galaxy S5 off and press at the same time Power + Home + Volume Down buttons to enter in Recovery Mode. Inside Recovery Mode press “Wipe Cache Partition”  and reboot your phone.  This option I understand had not been tried. You will not lose data. If this also doesn't help, factory reset would be the last resort
Meanwhile, you can mail OEM of sound box to get instructions on resetting or clearing it of stored device information and do that as well to have a clean slate

My question includes the line, "I have also wiped the cache partition."

I had seen that but was wanting to make sure that you had done it from recovery.please ignore in that case

Had the issue been resolved?

No, it has not.


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Help in identifying the pop up notification icon
Can anyone please help me figure out the icon provided by me in the screenshot that appears on the top left corner of the notification bar which looks like a message box with an exclamation mark! Whether it is an app notification icon or android system based icon.

Pull down the notification bar to see which is the app responsible for this

Being on the left side it is an app icon and not system icon

This looks like a mail client not able to send messages in outbox, due to poor  connection or wrong outgoing server settings. Review the settings and try resending the message again, it will disappear

Thank you guys for your promt replies, @xavier_fakerat Yes that was an issue with my mail client, however somehow the name of the 3rd party mail app wasn't showing initially. I had to manually search 3 of my apps and check for then unsent item that was pending showing 62 days ago.

You can pull down the notification bar, tap and hold on the notification and then tap "i" to show more information about the app that pushed the notification.

Thanks for your advise, was an issue with my mail client. However the notification icon wasn't showing any details but rather stayed static with that icon, even when I tried to swipe it off to clear. Thanks anyways.

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


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Workaround for Android 4.4 not being able to write to SD cards?
Yesterday I upgraded my Samsung Galaxy S4 to Android 4.4 KitKat and had the bad surprise that it cannot write to my SD card anymore... I know this problem is widely documented everywhere, but has any workaround been found for it yet? (Other than removing the card physically from the phone and opening it on my PC) Also, because of the KNOX flag I can't downgrade to 4.3...
(PS: Rooted or not, it makes no difference)

Is it the offical release or a custom ROM?

@RossC, its a rule change in Kitkat regardless of ROM. OP:  Only possible workaround is this, if you need write access, you need to provide the permission, or use the Storage Access Framework which comes with KitKat will do this.

RossC: Mine is the official I9505XXUFNB8 (Germany), but @t0mm13b is correct, it happens regardless of the ROM, it's a KitKat "feature". Also, I'm looking at a workaround for existing applications, not one I'd write myself...

@t0mm13b ah, that's not ideal. I knew that change was there alright, but I was under the (obviously wrong) impression that Samsung would patch this to work on their own device with official ROM as they still 'support' EXT-SD cards. On a rooted device SOME have had success with folder mount, but others have bricked their device. Try XDA and see what's there, it is being worked on but I've not see a definitive answer.

@t0mm13b: Is there a way, as a user (rooted), to provide additional permissions to applications that don't request them? I'm thinking FolderMount, music players, photo editors, etc.

Almost bricked my device too with FolderMount... It asked me to patch the filesystem, I let it do it, then nothing worked in the phone anymore (both SD cards disappeared...) - I reinstalled the official KitKat and re-rooted, everything's fine again

My KitKat ROM on the S4 can wite and read the SD card. I can't move apps (that's gone) but pictures / media are fine. It is a customised Google Edition ROM (I'm free of touchwiz thankfully). Ah it's patched, and samsung are going to follow Google's guidelines on SD cards sadly: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Android-4.4-update-for-Samsung-Galaxy-S4-Note-3-likely-to-cause-microSD-problems_id52995

Have you complained to the authors of whatever app(s) you're having trouble with? It's up to them to set their permissions correctly.

In short, the real workaround, is to change one line in the manifest within the kitkat source and recompile the rom and flash it. Google are clear on moving away from SDCards, flash memory capacity are increasing, and cheap to embed on device board, and furthermore, using cloud services for storage. Its a major inconvenience, perhaps someone with Xposed framework might circumvent it.... pita..

@DanHulme complaining to author of app is not the solution. Its a drastic change by Google...

@t0mm13b It was announced years in advance and app authors could add the permission before it was required. It's not like the MediaScanner change, which was presented as a fait accompli. This isn't the appropriate place to discuss Google's compatibility policy, anyway.

Source for the "announcement years in advance" of changes in Kitkat in relation to the SDCard?

The permission's existed since API 16, and there's been a big warning in the official training for as long as I can remember.

I disagree with you @DanHulme, those documents, api 16 was there about a year ago, "not announced years in advance" and furthermore, the docs were just recently updated to reflect API 19.

It's still a dumbass move.  Why should we be forced to store all our downloads on internal memory?  The whole point (more or less) of having an SD slot is so we can dump a bunch of media onto a card and swap one collection for another.  I suppose Google wants us all to use "cloud memory" which is worthless when off the network.

I see their reasoning though, and it's not necessarily for a "bad" (as in: they want us to move to cloud) reason. Currently all the apps that have media access have access to the whole SD card, so potentially other apps' data. That's a security concern. Just need to make sure I don't save any sensitive stuff on the SD card.

Found an answer to my own question! Might as well share how I did it (DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK, it worked fine for me). Needs root obviously.

Using a root-enabled file manager, navigate to /system/etc/permissions
Edit platform.xml and find the WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission.
Add an additional group definition for this permission...<group gid="media_rw" />
Save the changes to the file.
Restart.

Credits go to mateenf from the XDA-developers forum

I used this workaround to edit tags from my external SD card on my rooted LG G3 (LG-D851). Audio player is PowerAmp.

Download and install Xposed installer from the Google Playstore: Instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj_fgrpgDRU (GadgetHacks)
In Xposed Installer click on "Download." (you may have to hit refresh symbol to load modules).
Click on and download "KitKat SD Card Full Access" from the repository. Make sure you have the download from Unknown Sources box checked (settings >security >unknown sources).
Once the module has been downloaded and installed, reboot your phone and tag away to your heart's content.

No need for an Xposed module, there are plenty of apps in the Play store now to do that (they all require root, obviously). Look for "SD Fix" in the Play store, you'll find them.

Now you tell me...lol. Good looking out!

These apps didn't exist at the time I asked the question :)

I found a way better solution! With uTorrent I was not able to write to
"/storage/extSdCard/"

But I am able to write to:
"/storage/extSdCard/Android/Data/com.utorrent.client"

So look for a folder on the SD card that your app has access to given by Android.


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Is there any way to manually bring up the keyboard?
In most cases where the keyboard is needed, it pops up automatically. However, I am trying to play Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup Webtiles on my tablet, and it does not bring up the keyboard. Is there any way to bring it up manually? I'm on a Nexus 7, running Jelly Bean. Ideally, there would be something that did not show up on the status bar, but sat in the notification drawer, and I could tap that to bring up the keyboard.
Actually, even better would be something that sat down in the bottom, next to the navigation controls, but I don't believe that's possible without modifying the framework.

On some of my devices, long-pressing the menu key pops up the on-screen keyboard. I don't know the Nexus 7, so I cannot tell if that works there...

That's an old thing, from Gingerbread, I believe. The N7 doesn't have a menu button, anyways.

Was afraid of that -- as they said so before ICS, they would "remove the keys". Which is why I didn't place it as an answer -- but thought a suggestion wouldn't hurt. OK, sorry for that... I have no ICS. Hopefully somebody else knows a solution.

At one point I remember hearing something about a 'hacker keyboard' that had this feature, but I can't find it now, and I would rather something that worked on any keyboard. Shouldn't be too hard, it just needs to pass to the framework whatever trigger causes the keyboard to pop up.

Can we reopen this question, please? Hacker's keyboard is no longer maintained.

As I see an alternative keyboard may solve your issue, and this seems to be an acceptable solution, and you even mention something you cannot find -- hereby I proudly present:
Hacker's Keyboard
Checking its Guide, there's in fact a section suggesting such a feature:

You can configure the gesture used for this in the keyboard's "Gesture and key actions" settings menu. If the swipe action is too hard to trigger, try binding the "close keyboard" action to the "Volume down" hardware key. This won't interfere with normal use of the volume button while the keyboard is closed.

Though this applies to "close": If there are gestures you can configure, it might as well be able to have one for "open". The FAQ may reveal some more clues.
SaintWacko notes in the comments:

To be able to open it anywhere, you go into the settings for the keyboard and check the box for 'permanent notification'. It will then keep an entry in the notifications which you can tap to bring up the keyboard at any point.

So this would be an alternative possibility -- the hook being it is hooked to this special keyboard.

Ah, I saw that, but I didn't see the part about opening it manually. I'll see if it works, but what I'm really looking for is to be able to open my normal keyboard manually.

Hey, it mostly works! The part you have there for "how to open" is just how to enable it. To be able to open it anywhere, you go into the settings for the keyboard and check the box for 'permanent notification'. It will then keep an entry in the notifications which you can tap to bring up the keyboard at any point.

Oh, that's annoying. I have to have the Hacker's Keyboard selected as the input method to be able to open it. Hmm... I'm going to leave this question open for now, to see if I get a better answer. I'd really prefer something that can just open the selected keyboard, whatever it is.

As it turns out, this was exactly what I needed. I didn't think about it at the time, but DCSS uses some ctrl+* key combos, and the Hacker's Keyboard has ctrl and alt and esc and all those keys that are missing on other android keyboards. I do, however, wish that I could switch to Hacker's Keyboard for this, and Swype for everything else, without having to do it manually. Perhaps I'll look into Tasker.

Yeah -- Tasker, the ultimate answer to all questions of the universe and so on xD

Oh, do you use Tasker? Would something like this work? I'm thinking of downloading a second web browser, setting its home page to the DCSS lobby, and treating it as a DCSS app. Could I set up Tasker so whenever I launched that browser, it would switch to the Hacker's Keyboard, and when I closed it, switch back to Swype?

Tasker can react on the app in foreground, sure -- but it probably cannot switch IME. All it can is popup installed IMEs to let you chose from -- see https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/tasker/bHknbZEq5jw

Hm, that's too bad. Well, I suppose the popup is better than nothing. Guess I'll buy Tasker. Good link, always nice to see direct quotes. Removes all ambiguity.

Is there some way to force the keyboard to stay on screen?  If I hit a key in a form (e.g. in Firefox) that causes focus to jump to a different text field, the keyboard disappears and I have to make an effort to bring it back, not at all what I wanted!

This no longer works. The notification shows, you tap it, and the keyboard doesn't come up... Pixel with Android 14. Seems like it stopped working around 2014.

My math lab problem solved with the hackers keyboard! Download the hackers keyboard, then go into  settings and enable ''use permanent notification''. This puts the hackers keyboard logo at the top right of your screen next to the clock and settings button. Click on the settings bar or clock at the bottom right and press ''Show Hackers Keyboard''. It will popup for you in flash and other times when it doesn't do it automatically.

I had that same problem and bought a Bluetooth keyboard in order to get around it.

I used a combination of "Hacker Keyboard" and "Smart Status Bar". Both free, no root required.
I set "permanent notification" in the Hacker Keyboard settings. Now, all I have to do in my full screen game is swipe from the top of the screen to bring down the notification menu, and then I select Hacker Keyboard.
Simple as that now.

for some reason the show hacker's keyboard thing in notifications does NOT open any keyboard in landscape mode with physical kb present

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


text:
How can I close Skype so that it stops running?
I installed Skype on my wife's phone (HTC Desire), played a bit with it and then exited using the back button as suggested in other question. I can still see her account saying she is logged-in though. How can I exit Skype so that it really stops running?

On my N7 there is a button in the top right of the main screen which logs out an exits. Is that there on your phone?

Related: How to quit Skype on Android?

In the Skype app, press Menu -> Sign out, or use the Sign-out button on the top-right corner of the app's home screen, then confirm.

Try signing out first. And than back button.

pressing the back button only stores it in the stack (keeps it running in the background)

Well first off.  Theres no true way to stop it.  Secondly, The way I do it.  I sign out of skype first.  Then, i use the manage apps or task manager.  Stop the app first. Then, make sure it has been cleared from the cached background processes.  A phone restart might be required to start the app again or other apps.  I am fine with having to restart my phone.  It gives me the chance to control everything I do on it.


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How can I deal with mass texts from an Apple phone when using an Android phone?
Occasionally one of my friends using an iPhone will send out a mass text, and for the next few days I get spammed with texts from all the other numbers they sent it to, most of them unidentified on my phone, and since some of them are responding to each other, none of them make any sense. It's incredibly annoying. Presumably iPhones have something that can detect and properly order mass texts, as Apple wouldn't want to annoy their own users, only Android users. Is there something I can do to make the mass text make more sense on my end?

What's your end goal, organize the emails? move them to a specific location? ignore them? trash them? Sorry but I don't get the "make more sense on my end" :/

@Zuul - It's not emails, it's text messages. Apparently Apple recently added some mass text thing, where you can send out messages to a whole group of people, and they all appear, along with their responses, in a single conversation. As well, when any of them responds, it goes to everyone else the original message was sent to. At least, I'm guessing that's how it works. As I'm on an android phone, all these messages don't get put together, instead each person is in their own conversation, so the messages don't make any sense without flipping between conversations checking the timestamps.

Which app do you use to read your text messages? And btw, do you know which app your friends use?

I'm just using the default Android Messaging app. And I'm pretty sure they're using the default iOS Messaging app. The mass text thing is part of iOS.

By "mass texts", do you mean Iphone's group texting?

@JaredBurrows - Yes.

That is very strange. I just recently got the HTC Droid DNA and it supports group texting, so my phone gets along with iPhones.

I suspect newer ones support it. When I asked this, I was using a Samsung Galaxy S. I recently got an S3, but I haven't had an opportunity to see how it handles group texts.

Maybe use Whatsapp or Viber?

@JaredBurrows HTC will have modified the SMS app to support it :)

Jelly Bean upgrade (4.2) add support for group messaging.
So, two solutions :

upgrade your phone to Jelly Bean 4.2.
install a third party application that handles it : this one seems to have a fair number of good reviews.


text:
Bluetooth audio connection confirmation with Tasker
Just bought Tasker, my goal is that when I get into my car I have a Jabra Freeway, it has a motion sensor and turns on when it detects motion. But my VZW Galaxy Nexus won't always connect. I get tired of checking, how do I go about creating a task or profile that would allow me to hear a notification sound to act as a confirmation that the phone connected. I'd like to get in, and hear for example a text tone on the Bluetooth to let me know it's connected. I need a step by step walkthrough. I haven't found one online?

I just found a related question which might be worth a look as well: Can Tasker/Locale tell me what BT device is connected?. As Tasker and Locale share the same plugin interface, the answer from Locale Support is valid here as well :)

You could make use of the condition State→Bluetooth Connected:

The device is connected to another device via Bluetooth. If either of Name or Address are specified, they must match a connected device.
Connections to non-paired devices (e.g. while pairing is taking place) are ignored.
Warning: Tasker can't directly detect when a BT device is connected, only when a connection or disconnection is made.

As for the task, take a look at Music Play:

Play a sound file from the SD card.
File is the path to the file on the SD card e.g. Music/wow.mp3

Alternatively: Notify Sound:

Show a notification on the top bar and play a sound.
The specified Title will appear on the bar initially. Notifications with a particular (non-empty) title replace existing ones with that title.
When the notification area is pulled down, the specified Text will be visible.

Or Notify Vibrate, Play Ringtone, Say (Synthesize the given Text into speech)...
Trying a raw thing (I didn't test this):

Condition: State→Bluetooth Connected (specify the parameters)
Task: Say "You are connected now."

For more information, you might want to take a look at the User Manual. Also check the Tasker Homepage itself for more Guides, FAQ, How-Tos, etc. Moreover, the Wiki contains a lot of ready profiles, step-throughs, and more.

I'm still new, and can't upvote you yet with my reputation. But I really appreciate your help and you helped me figure it out. I can now also get my phone to tell me to buckle up or whatever I want which adds a cool factor! You're awesome. Thanks!!

You're welcome! If that solves your issue, you can hit the checkmark next to the answer to "accept" it. This shows to others: This is a workable solution :)

Yup, I choose the check mark to choose this as a solution... it took me a few minutes to figure it out, but I got it.


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How do I reduce Haptic feedback intensity in CM9?
I use a CM9 rom in my Samsung Galaxy i9001. The intensity of haptic feedback is annoying, especially while unlocking the phone. I can't find an option in the settings.
Is there any related setting in Developer options / by using Terminal emulator for CyanogenMod9?

In CM10.1, Settings > Advanced > Haptic.

OK, but any idea about CM9?
The CM 10 rom is not out of the alpha stage yet for my phone.

@jadelord Have you checked if it's there? It might be the same path.

It's not. The Advanced menu opens up as Galaxy S Plus settings. The only thing that's available are Backlight settings and Horizontal calibration.

@jadelord Have you tried updating to the latest CM9 nightly? It might be there, according to this XDA post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1579919

in that case I'll just wait for the next update. I use a custom ROM - arco68's Cm9. I was looking for a hack as a solution. Thx @geffchang


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Battery Life on Desire HD
Why does the battery for android phones perform much better after 2 or 3 weeks of usage? Is there any logical reason?

Is your question about the battery in the Desire or in Android devices in general?

I didn't notice a significant difference in battery life after a little usage, except insofar as after two or three weeks I wasn't playing with my new "toy" as much and just using it.

My question is about Android phones in general and DHD specifically, I heard that Android manages the phone usage after a while and saves more battery power. I don't have a logical reason till now.

I've had the Desire HD for 2 weeks with the following settings

auto contrast
GPS + wifi + bluetooth off
background data on, with services retrieving data once a day

i get around 5 hours of usage out of the stock 1250mAh battery.
I need to charge 2 full batteries to go thru my day, with short charging at work when the first battery dies out.

I'll agree with Al Everett and say that the amount of playing with the new toy is certainly a factor early on.
I also did not notice any intrinsic changes in the systems battery management over time.  I did however notice a massive increase in battery life by turning off auto-sync, and even mobile on occasion.  With those two on, I'd see a significant drop in battery when I slept overnight, but it doesn't budge with those two off.
I use two power control widgets, the HTC data dashboard and the Android power control widget. Between the two, it's a piece of cake to tweak power settings to make sure I get the most out of the battery.

It does not.  If you don't change any settings, Android will always do power management the same way.  Installing and removing apps can affect battery life since running processes may eat battery while your acreen is locked, and the like.

Actually battery life can change and according to this post from HTC it can even be improved by the steps outlined in the post.

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

authors: Иван Бишевац


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Download video from DailyMotion
Is there a way to download videos from DailyMotion? I do have the DailyMotion application on my phone (Canvas 2) but as far as I can see it doesn't provide any feature to download video.

Install the official dailymotion app from play store.
Click the download button as seen on the picture below. (left of HD)

Hi Roxan, Thanks for you answer. Actually the option is for sync the video which is equivalent to download. Its reaching at Ultimate goal of download to watch the video without internet connection. I couldn't realize that thanks again for your answer :)


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Delete a folder in my home screen Android 4.0, Aquos?
My home screen looks like this:
Empty_folder | Application 1 | Application 2 | Application N

When I long press over the folder, I have the option to rename it.  How do I delete the folder, though?  I've been moving them to a different screen, but now I have three screens of blank folders that I accidentally created by trying to rearrange icons.
Also, I wonder how do I switch two icons on my home screen?  When I drag two items into each other, they don't switch but rather create a folder and then add themselves to it, which seems ridiculous.  In any other OS, if I want a new folder, I have to be very specific about that.

You could say that in any other OS you have to do something obscure and not easily discoverable to create a folder. Android just works out that if you're dragging one icon on top of another you're trying to fit more than one in that space and just automatically creates a folder for you.

@gathrawn I agree.  It's a little annoying when people talk about "the true linux way" to me, also, so....  Sorry if it came off like a rage.  Thanks for the edit.

If you press and hold the folder, one of the home icons will turn into a trash icon. Just drag the folder to the trash icon.

If you long press over something in the Aquos, "Peel off" is used to remove it.


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What is a "native web app"?
I've come across the term "native web app" also known as "hybrid app".
I know what "web apps" and "native apps" are, the difference being that
the former are downloaded and run within a web browser and the latter
are code (not html) and run a little faster without requiring a web
browser to interpret them. So what is a "native web app", how can
a web app be native?

Unlike native apps, web apps can't access low level API of system (to access hardware etc) unless it is supported by web standards (most aren't supported to maintain web app portability). Here, native web apps comes to rescue.
In Native Web Apps, web codes (HTML, CSS & JS) run in a native wrapper code. The wrapper code is native (can use low level API) which contains webview to render the web app. So, it taps the benefits from both worlds (that's why its called Hybrid App).
For example, Facebook app (in Play Store) is a native web app. When you see your timeline, friends' profiles etc in this app, you actually see webpages. But, at the same time, this app can access your camera, Android's system-wide share menu etc.
Another great example is Google Currents.

Native app sounds like a contradiction of terms. The better term, as we see in this post, is hybrid app.

I am sure that the performance of native web apps should be better than wep apps. But how are they in comparison of native apps?

The exact capabilities of each of the individual web technologies is not what matters. This term works whether your markup is HTML 4.01, HTML5 or HTML37. It doesn’t matter, and the term won’t be obsoleted by the next version of any spec.
    It covers the case where the runtime is a regular browser, a webview, an OS such as Firefox OS or Chrome OS, or something like node-webkit.
    The key point is that it’s written for the technologies that are native to the web platform.
    The term makes a clear distinction from the serverside.
    It even works OK as an acronym if you’re into that sort of thing.
Other benefits include:

Dynamic loading of external libraries
   Zero configuration installs
   Expressive, extensible, event-driven native language
   These runtimes are already installed on billions of devices
   Can be "wrapped" into "native-feeling" apps on a wide variety of platforms
   It’s easily the most open and accessible platform on the planet. We don’t have to pay homage at the "walled gardens" of the world,
like the Apple App Store.

Exact copy of this BlogPost. Please see the help center for how to reference correctly. Edit your answer accordingly please

Native Apps :
- Apps that are fully programmed in the development environment specific to each operating system.
- Stored on a device and require installation.
- Tend to have better graphics and a smooth user experience due to the interface with the device.
- Have full access to the device-specific features, including GPS, camera, gestures, and notifications.
- More expensive to develop, as they need to be developed for each specific operating system
- Take longer to develop. Maintaining apps on multiple operating systems is also expensive and time consuming.
Web Apps :
- Apps that are written entirely with web technologies (HTML5). and the code is executed by the browser and installation is optional.
- Content is a lot more discoverable on the web.
- Platform independent.
- Use features that are available in HTML5 like the GPS, the tap-to-call feature and native features remain inaccessible.
Hybrid Apps :
- Developed partly with the native development environment and partly in WEB language (HTML5).
- These are native apps with embedded HTML. They have most of the benefits of native apps.
- Like native apps, they live in an app store and can take advantage of the many device features available (including GPS, camera, gestures, and notifications)
- Platform independent, Increasingly rising in popularity as operating systems become more fragmented.

This answer is plagiarized from this blogspot article. Please consult the help center for referencing other works.


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What does the "VimTouch Full Runtime" do?
I just installed VimTouch; it works as well as you expect a text editor to work on a phone. What is the point of the separate "VimTouch Full Runtime" app?

From browsing the source code, this appears to be the same as the vim-runtime package as provided in most Linux distributions. It ships a variety of Vim scripts which provide additional functionality, such as additional color schemes, file type handling, automatic indentation, etc.
Without this package, Vim operates in a minimal mode and many features that are provided by these scripts are not available.


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Camera - Using the flash to illuminate in camera mode?
On my HTC One-X the Camera app can take videos or photos. When recording video you can turn the flash on to provide some illumination.
Is there a way of doing this while in the camera mode when composing a shot?
The other night I was in the garden in the pitch black trying to take some photos of some nocturnal animals. When in camera mode the viewfinder is also pitch black which made it very difficult to line up the photo. I ended up having to record a video, turn on the flash for some light and then take photos while the video was recording.
This is not ideal, and so I wondered if there is any way to get the flash to provide light while aiming the camera for a normal photo.

Within the camera App, if you tap "menu" -> "settings", do you have a "Flash mode" option?

No, not that I can see. There is an on-screen toggle to Force the flash on, off or set it to automatic, but forcing it on only makes the flash fire when taking a photo, it doesn't make it illuminate at all times.

I don't have a device with flash at hand, but you can give a go to Tiny Flashlight + LED, it's free and should not take more than 5 min to test.

I did try turning on the in-built flashlight device, but the light goes off when I swap to the camera app. I'll see if the linked app is any better.

It doesn't seen to be. @Zuul

I'll look into this to see if any configuration option is available... +1 to this question!

The built-in camera app (on vanilla Android and every other device I've personally seen) doesn't support this. The flash will only come on as the picture is being taken, and you cannot set it to provide continuous light when taking a picture.
There are two potential options, depending somewhat on the version of Android you're using. One option would be to use the video mode (with the flash enabled) and capture images as you're recording, then discard the video at the end. You should be able to do this on newer versions of Android by tapping the screen while video is recording. I believe this only works on Jelly Bean (or later), but manufacturers have implemented this themselves in a few cases (ex: The Galaxy S3).
A second option would be to use a third-party camera application. Camera MX, for example, allows you to put the flash into "torch" mode while taking pictures. Simply tap on the lightning bolt icon until the small infinity symbol appears on top of it:

Camera MX no longer has torch feature.

Camera Zoom FX has this feature


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what is the most comfortable way to ssh and vim/latex/c++ on android?
I'm debating if i should get droid x. i'd like to use it for work, meaning latex and code in c++. I use vim.
i know this is possible with connectbot. but possible doesn't mean i can substitute a laptop in a coffee shop. are there people that use bluetooth keyboard with android device and are happy like this one (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/08/20/travel-with-no-baggage/)? I don't mind the small screen.
just curious about your experience. and i think some keyboards have esc key, which is good for vim.
Update
My current set-up:
note 3 running juiceSSH and vnc (i couldn't get nx to work), perixx 805L, ms wedge mouse, and quikpod tripod to hold the note 3 at the eye level.

Really good question.  I'd like to know myself as I've recently created an Ubuntu machine that I can remote into.  Droid 1's keyboard is much better than the virtual screen for shell, but still lacks a lot of necessary keys.

droid x has a bigger screen and i agree about inconvenience of virtual keyboard. i was gonna use this (http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Pro-Bluetooth-Keyboard/dp/B0030IT6AO/ref=pd_sim_e_1) with droid x

I ended up coding a lot on it. it works quite well. i use iGo Stowaway bluetooth keyboard (it fits in a pocket). i map esc to jk or jj. i also bring a charger just in case.
the small font size doesn't bother me as much. i just move my head closer to the screen.
also alt-tab works for switching application. it's useful because you need to use a stackoverflow for coding :-)

So, I have a Nexus One.
Firstly: do not try to use the soft keyboard for any form of coding. It's workable, to an extent, with connectbot's help, for system administration, but coding is flat out. If you insist on trying, look at Full Keyboard.
Secondly: the screen size is an issue, at least for me. I haven't found a font size that is both readable for long sessions and displays enough code on the screen.
Coding and longform text are still definitely a Computer thing.

Try mosh for a potential solution to latency issues. It does heuristic echoing of local keystrokes, so you get more immediate feedback and things feel less choppy.

I recommend ConnectBot for SSH. My biggest issue with Vim has always been getting the Escape key to work. By default, I believe the Escape key is the same as the Back key in Android.
One answer I found on stackoverflow (can't find the link) is to map a key sequence to escape:
:imap qq <Esc> " map qq to Escape while in insert mode

This should allow fairly normal Vim usage on Android. You can either enter it every time or add it to .vimrc. I got fed up with my Lapdock before I found this, but I will need to go back and try again.
Alternative: instead of Esc use Ctrl-[ - that works without additional mappings (http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/insert.html#i_CTRL-[)


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Can anyone reccomend a 2g / 3g switching widget?
I've just got my new HTC Desire HD and I want to switch 3G on and off as required. I used to do this on my old HTC magic and got quite good battery life compared to some friends with the same phone.
Is there a reccomended, not spammy, preferably free, 2G 3G switchng widget?
If it's only a shortcut to the relevant menu option, so be it.
Edit: Little extra info - In the Marketplace there seem to be dozens of these little things, can anyone reccomend which work fine, and which will steal all my email contacts and sell them to spammers in Eastern Europe? :)

Power Control Plus will do this, and more.  Specifically for you, it will open up the settings page to toggle 2G/3G. However, it is not free.  It will cost you $2.

There are quite a few settings/control widgets that you can get to solve this issue. The only problem with them as Bryan stated is it will only open the settings page (for security reasons) where you'll have to change the settings yourself.

@mlevit, Thanks for the info. I'm happy with one that just opens the settings page, I'll have another look in the marketplace and try to pluck up the courage to try one.


text:
SD card readers don't work via USB OTG but USB thumb drives do, any ideas?
I have a Huawei Ascend G6 LTE (G6-L22) and bought a little USB OTG cable so I could read full sized SD cards while out and about.
Only, it doesn't work, on either of the SD card readers I've tried - both of them small USB2 based readers.
When I plug in USB thumb drives to the adapter, they work fine and I can browse files and photos.  But no go on the card readers.
What will happen is the phone either doesn't see the drive at all, or it sees it momentarily then it disappears with a "your SD card was disconnected" notification.  The LED on the card reader lights up when you first plug it in, but then goes into a fast blinking pattern which seems to indicate a problem.
Any ideas?  I wouldn't have thought an SD card reader would exceed the normal power supplied via USB OTG ports, and its LED lights up.  Could the phone just not have a driver that supports card readers?
Edit: the filesystem on the SD card was FAT32, as it was a 16GB card I use in my DSLR.  I use the stock ROM but am rooted.

Was just about to ask the same question.

I believe that the problem is lack of power. Your phone doesn't deliver enough power to the card reader. I would suggest using the same kind of cable you used to need when connecting an external hard disk using USB. It has one contact for the hard disk (card reader in your case), one for the phone and one for extra power (use a separate USB charger/adapter).  That should solve the power problem.
I don't know where one can find this kind of cable in your part of the world. They should be fairly easy to find though.
If this doesn't work I would use the Googles ADB developer tool to check the logs on the phone to see if there are any error messages that could help.
Good luck!

You tried different readers and each exhibits the same problem. Also try a different card by a different manufacturer with the hope it draws less power.

Without having the same phone, but playing around with OTG, the problem that you are describe seems to be because of the lack of power. Try using an external source of power for your USB card reader before connecting it to the phone. Maybe rooting the phone and searching through the file, you will find the option to output more power to the USB port of your phone.Once I was able to use (on a 4 different devices when I had a USB hub getting power from a power socket. Last but not least maybe this card drive can't be recognised by your phone because of the lack of drivers.

try another card reader like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XBB4KJ3/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=


text:
How can I get all 6000 photos back out of Samsung Cloud at once rather than doing them separately?
My Samsung Cloud storage is full, and it turns out I have about 13GB of photos (over 6000 photos) in there, that have been synced from my phone.
However, I only have around maybe 1GB of photos on my phone. Clearly the majority of photos in my Samsung Cloud are not on my phone anymore.
The first part of my question is, is there any chance that there may be some photos on my cloud account which Samsung has deleted from my phone automatically to clear space, assuming I'm happy that it's still in the cloud?
And the second part is, how can I sync them back to my phone, or even a PC, so I have them again? I can't find an option on the phone and I went to the Samsung Cloud site and browsed my photos, but there's no way to methodically download photos in bulk, and scrolling beyond the first few hundred becomes painful. Is there seriously no way on either my phone or a PC to download all my photos again rather than selecting a few at a time?
Note: "Select all" on the web interface only selects those visible on screen and the system prevents you selecting more than 500.

You can't just select the whole directory to download via a long press or options menu?

Not on the web interface.  I've since discovered there's a Microsoft Store app that is supposed to be able to sync your cloud photos to your PC.  So I am trying this.


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Adjusting between Group & Single text messaging on Galaxy S4
I recently got the Samsung S4 on AT&T. I used to have the Motorola Razr M on Verizon. On my Razr M I was able to switch between group text and individual text messages at the time of sending. So if my main setting on my Motorola was to send individual text messages, I was still able to receive group messages as a group and the default was to respond individually, but I had the option to respond as a group also. Does that make sense?
Example 1:  I could send a picture to 10 people but those 10 people would think they were the only people who got the text message.
Example 2:  If I receive a group text message that someone wanted 10 of us to get and we all need to be able to respond for a work project we were able to with the Motorola.  With my Samsung if I disable MMS then I am only able to see who sent me the message but not everyone who was included so I am not able to respond all.
Example 3:  If I needed to send a group text message and have it sent as a group I was able to adjust at the time of sending by clicking on group instead of individual and all the people who received the message would see who was included on the text.  Even if the main text message default setting was individual.

In the stock messaging app: settings->multimedia message (mms) settings->Group messaging.
When this is checked, it will send a single MMS message to multiple people (all within the group), like in examples 2/3.
When it is unchecked, it will send a message to each person in the group individually, like in example 1.

All incoming group messages will come in as a group message regardless of this setting.  This setting simple controls how your messages are sent to a group.  As far as I know, however, you are not able to do this on a per message basis.


text:
Is there a shop like Cydia on iOS for Android?
Most apps in the Google Play store have a free version and a paid version. On iOS there is a shop called Cydia, where you can try out most apps for free before you buy them in the App Store.
Is there such a store for rooted Androids as well?
I know of the store F-Droid for free software

F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software)

There's a list of alternative app stores in this other question What are the alternative Android app markets?. My understanding was that Cydia had both free and paid apps, it's main distinction was that it hosted apps that wouldn't be allowed on the app store, or required jailbreaking, it wasn't meant to be a try before you buy service?

@GAThrawn, you're correct. Although (at least when I had my iPhone 3GS) you can use Cydia to get Installous, basically a piracy platform. This may be what he's talking about. In which case, there ARE pirate android markets, but I recommend staying very far away from them because they 1: generally don't have patched/updated versions of most apps and 2: the apps from those stores may have been modified by potential attackers. (The same is also true of Installous on iOS)

While there are Android markets offering pirated versions, (not try before you buy which is signified usually by Demo or Lite) as the other users have mentioned, installing them is very risky. I would recommend being involved in the development community. As a developer I share keys and am invited to test apps often by frequenting XDA forums and Reddit.com/r/Android.
Developers will discount or give away versions of their apps and being involved in the community will help you learn more and score you some software deals.
Update:This answer does not really address the question.

To say "Cydia is a black market" is fairly misleading. Its business model was fairly embattled in the past, but has gained official legal status in the US since then.

I do stand corrected. It has been so long since I used iOS and I switched Cydia and Installous in my memory.  Hopefully I can be of some help and offer Humble Bundle as a great alternative Android App store (for games) since you can purchase their android bundles when available and install through .apks.


text:
Permission denied while trying to do MKDIR
I am loading media files into the /sdcard folder on my Android device and playing them and everything seems to work fine. When I tried to do a MKDIR on this folder, it said that my permission is denied and this is a Read-Only folder. After researching a little bit, I realized that I will have to mount this folder. So I did the following:

adb shell
su
# mount -o rw,remount /sdcard/
Now, I close and open the command prompt because when I see root #, I can not do mkdir.
When I restart cmd prompt, I again see c:..\ so that I can again do adb shell mkdir
I again see the error that I have read only permission to this folder. I am not sure what is wrong.

Any ideas?

As you are not saying what device and Android version you are using, a raw guess: Is the SDCard at that point mounted to the PC using USB Mass Storage? Because then it's not available to the device until unmounted from your PC. With UMS only one device can have (write) access here.


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How to record More than 4GB Video on exFAT?
I have a Galaxy S4 4G (I9505) with a 32GB external micro-SD card formatted as exFAT. I use this to record some seminars that takes often 0.5-1.0 hour. The video seems to stop after 30-45 minutes based on the video resolution, but always when the file size reaches 4GB.
I know that ex-FAT allows more than this. My device reads it fine and everything, but the camera app still enforces the limit. I'm using the stock app, on a non-rooted Android 4.2.2 (OTA update), the Samsung version not the Play one. It's also usually not a battery problem (battery is often above %50 after recording, and sometime it's in charger from laptop or power plug).
If I understand correctly, Android API allows overriding this limit and maybe making it unlimited, but I can't find any video recording application that does have this limit disabled. Can you suggest any?
Otherwise, if there is another custom ROM or whatever that I may install to get a modified stock app without the limit, I'd take that as an option, although obviously just recommending a 3rd party video recording app that overrides the limit sounds like a much less hassle (even for someone familiar with rooting and flashing, from my old Galaxy S 1 days).

exFAT is not FAT32. exFAT is a Microsoft format that's meant to override the limit but be lighter than the full NTFS filesystem. It's supported in some relatively new phones natively, like Galaxy S4.
Read about exFAT on Wikipedia or check something like http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2801/exfat_versus_fat32_versus_ntfs/ for more info.

Because Samsung cannot predict if the user of the phone will have their sdcard formatted with something like exFAT or FAT32, they (samsung) put a size limit of 4GB in to the camera app. If they did not have the file size limit, and a user did have the sdcard formatted with FAT32, the file would not save to disk and could cause other issues as well. They had to scope to the lowest common supported format.
You might be able to find some cameras that have this limit removed. For example, here is a post on XDA that someone modified the camera for the Note 3 (this may, or may not work for your phone) to remove the size limit. The time limit of 90 minutes still exists.

Had exactly the same problem. ExFAT is not the solution as Samsung prevents videos over 4 GB. The solution is an app that records for a preset time, then automatically start a new recording. I use AutoBoy Dash Cam. I can now record for hours and hours. You then stick the videos back together. There is a slight glitch at the join, but minimal.


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How to install Samsung (or other manufacturers) apps on Vanilla ROMs on Galaxy S3
I've tried installing CyanogenMod on my Samsung Galaxy S3 device.
I was amazed by its smoothness and speed, but I've missed some of the apps of the official Samsung ROM, such as the camera, the keyboard, and the contacts list.
I've tried installing them using the recovery mod (like installing a zipped ROM), but it didn't work.
Is it possible to install Samsung apps on vanilla roms (like CyanogenMod) on my device? If so, how?
I also wonder if a similar thing can be done on other devices (like installing HTC apps on and HTC device which has a vanilla ROM installed in it).

Theoretically, one should be able to side-load them. But as those manufacturers often use their own frameworks, those apps might fail without the frameworks being installed as well. And with those frameworks installed, you might again lose at least some of the smoothness...

so, in the unknown future, i'm bound to choose between new empty-from features vanilla version of android and an old samsung version ? this is quite annoying. i thought that i can have both. no wonder some people prefer nexus, at least the get the same features no matter what they do.

I didn't say you cannot have both. I never tried, it could be possible as I wrote. Moreover, there might be custom ROMs available which have that combination already -- see Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device? for where they might be found.

do you know of such a thing?

Not for Samsung (I never owned a Samsung phone), but I remember from the HTC Wildfire that there were such Custom-ROM compilations in all directions -- from minimalistic (AOSP and no bloatware, e.g. CyanogenMod or OpenFire) to absolutely "sense-ified" (e.g. WildPuzzle). So I'm pretty sure the same is valid for other major manufacturers' devices.

AFAIK, this is not possible. For example, HTC App depends on HTC framework and Sense Versions. I guess, this holds for samsung devices as well. Samsung Uses TouchWiz UI and the Apps depends on Touchwiz framework to run. But, On otherhand nothing is impossible, if these frameworks in vanilla are moded to use these Apps, you can.

my guess is that it's illegal then? because if they made it possible, it would work on any device , no? this is quite disappointing, as i've thought that i don't care about new versions from the manufacturers , and could simply use the vanilla roms like CM and add whatever apps i wish from the official samsung rom. i wonder though if third party apps could harness the API (if it even exists) of the manufacturers . i know that samsung has one for the s-pen for example, but not sure about others and what other features are available in the APIs.

Copyrights are a separate thing. I never heard any of those manufacturers offer their app for free download -- so that means they had to be extracted from existing devices. Just because they come pre-installed with your device does not make them "freeware". As long as you extract them from your device, and re-install them on the same device (after flashing a custom ROM), that should be fine or at maximum "gray zone". But as soon as you upload/share them, you should have explicit permission from the manufacturer to do so.

Unfortunately, it's not possible. Those apps rely on parts of the TouchWiz framework to operate. No TouchWiz, no apps. The only way would be to install a custom TouchWiz based rom. It would give you some of the performance improvements of CyanogenMod but with access to the Samsung apps.

is it possible then to install the touchwiz framework on CyanogenMod?

Nope, unfortunately not.

this is quite disappointing . i really liked some of samsung's apps, yet i don't like the rest and i really like the smoothness of CM and the low space it uses. there isn't even one app of samsung's rom that can be installed on vanilla roms?