text:
Can I hide a program from ongoing activities in the notification bar?
Is there a way to hide the notifications that a given application shows in the Ongoing Notification bar?

It depends on the application, AFAIK. Do you have any specific ones in mind?

Some applications don't have the option to remove the notification itself. Does that mean it's impossible to remove the notification?

correct.  What app are you using?  Some apps put it in the notification bar such that the OS doesn't kill the app (such as Locale).

It's my understanding that whether the OS will kill an app depends on how the app handles the application lifecycle events. The official documention doesn't indicate that it matters whether the app places a notification.

As of Android 2.0, the system requires that apps that run constantly in the background, and that require a certain level of priority so that they don't get killed offhand (like music apps), put an Ongoing Notification. This was to prevent abuse of requesting this level of priority without letting the user know that it's occurring.
You can read about this here:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Service.html#startForeground(int, android.app.Notification)

But some apps allow you to hide the notification but still allow it to run in the background. I use Gentle Alarm which allows this. I think it is an app by app basis.

Gentle Alarm probably does not run constantly in the background, but rather schedules an "alarm" with the system for that app to be woken up at the proper time, which then sounds the actual alarm.  My answer is specifically about apps that run constantly in the background (such as music apps).

As others have said, you can't remove an ongoing notification from the notification bar. It's there to alert the user that the app is constantly running, and without it the app could potentially be killed at any time by the OS.
That said, if you are running Jelly Bean (or newer), there is the option of disabling all notifications from an app. The setting is per-app and can be found in Settings > Apps > (select the app) > uncheck the "Show notifications" box. The one caveat to this method is that the app will no longer show any notifications in the notification bar, but if that's acceptable to you than I've found this method to be an easy way to stop my notification drawer from filling up with unnecessary notifications.

Try Smartbar.  I used to use it and it allows you to put shortcuts in the notification bar as well as hide icons in the notification bar.  I can't remember off the top of my head if it hides the icons put there by other apps but I think it does.  Sorry for the cheap answer, I just can't remember and I don't have time right now to download it and try it out to be sure.

I would talk to the developers of apps and ask them is they plan to include the option to remove the app from the notification bar. They may oblige such a request. You could also leave a comment for the app and add that as a side note.
CM team and other ROM developers do create flashable updates to their ROMs so that icons and other items can be removed from the notification bar, but they usually do not do this for specific applications. You could check out information on this in the forum of the ROM you are using.


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How to increase music playback volume?
The volume on my headphones (even on maximum) isn't very high at all. Is there any way I can increase the volume higher than the program allows?

Which device are you asking for?

possible duplicate of How can I boost the volume on my Droid's speaker?

@Keyboardsurfer: For HTC legend

I know I may not be understanding your question the way you intend it but Bryan Denny just pointed out AndroidAudioHacks.com which I believe will solve your problem but not mine (because it only works on HTC phones).
via Bryan's answer to another similar question

The AndroidAudioHacks.com link is a 404 (looks like the site got redesigned).  I think its now: http://androidaudiohacks.com/home/louder-volume-hack-pre-nexus

I don't think so. But depends of the application, if it's open source you can submit a patch or ask for bug fix/new feature.

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text:
How to type a pipe "|" on an HTC EVO Android 2.2?
I am using Connect Bot on my HTC EVO Android Version 2.2, and on the keyboard I do not see a "|".  How do I type a pipe, "|" character?  I am trying to run a ps -ef | grep XYZ command.

If you're using stock keyboard, then go to the symbols (?123, bottom left), then press Alt (ALT, vertically second from bottom left), the pipe character is third from top-left.
If on HTC IME, then go to symbols (12#, horizontally second from bottom right), go to the second page (1/2, horizontally second from bottom left), the pipe character is the fifth character in the third row, and the broken pipe character is the sixth character in the second row.

You are correct my friend, except on the HTC EVO you hit the 1/2 key instead of ALT and I see the pipe.

On the Droid slide-out keyboard, it's shift-alt-,

On my HTC Wildfire the broken pipe character is as you described, but on the bottom row of my second symbol page I just have emotion buttons! How can I replace these with the remaining symbols?

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text:
Is Kismet or another WIFI detector available for Android?
I'm a Sysadmin and would like to use my Android phone to detect Wifi networks at my workplace or at home.
Are there any tools like Kismet available for Android? I'm currently using a Samsung Intercept, which runs Android 2.1, but should receive Android 2.2 in the next month.

Looks like there are several options.  Here are a couple of the more popular apps:
WiFiFoFum
AppBrain Description:

WiFiFoFum scans for 802.11 WiFi
  networks and displays information
  about each including: SSID, MAC, RSSI,
  channel, and security. WiFiFoFum also
  allows you to connect to networks you
  find and log the location using the
  GPS. KML logs can be emailed.

WiFi Scanner
AppBrain Description:

*No ads
  *Option to connect added for open networks!!!
  *Update comming soon
A free WiFi Scanner for wireless
  networks for Android.
The WiFi signal is displayed in dBm
  format!

If you are looking to sniff traffic try:
Shark for Root
AppBrain Description:

Traffic sniffer, works on 3G and WiFi
  (works on FroYo tethered mode too). To
  open dump use WireShark or similar
  software, for preview dump on phone
  use Shark Reader. Based on tcpdump.
  Please leave comments/send e-mail if
  you have any problems/suggestions.

I  use Wifi Analyzer, a free tool which gives a good range of Wifi detections. It will show you things like signal strengths, encryption levels, SSIDs on overlapping channels and a few other details.

There are quite a few apps capable of detecting wifi networks, however, Pixie (Root only) is the only passive wifi detector that I'm aware of.

I have been running kismet on an original Droid with a 8 gig micro-SD card. 4 gig is fat32 for the phone pics , videos, and such,  the other 4 gig has Debian Squeeze running on it. Not to hard to setup.
Once the phone is rooted (must have) you can just use the freebee Linux installer from the market. Uncheck the loop box in settings, and change the device install to /sd-ext. Further at the bottom you will need to change the device to mmcblk0p2  or whatever your actual ext2 formatted Linux partition is.
You can type mount into terminal and it will list all the currently mounted directories and partitions. Make sure that mmcblk0p2 or whatever is mounted to /sd-ext. The phones by default will mount the Linux partition on the /sdcard at boot, but do check and make sure.
I suggest connecting to Wi-Fi with fast inets for this, although your 3G with good bars will work just fine for this too.
Just follow the buttons 1) 2) 3):

1 is extract Debian to ****,
2 is install Debian to SD card,
3 is install script.

Be patient,  each step will take time. If you get errors check the log. Each device is a little different, but you will get it.
I have my kismet log dumps going to the fat32 partition on the sdcard. This way it is very easy to get the files you need for things like kismet log viewer or Backtrack.
Enjoy, I hope this sparks some fun for you :)

Sounds interesting, if you do ever write a full tutorial please let us know.


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What are some Facebook contact integration alternatives?
I'm using HTC Hero.
I really love its seamless integration with facebook contacts.
My favorite thing about this feature is that I can link my google contact to facebook contact then automatically get profile picture and birthday information from facebook.
since I can't get any decent froyo ROM for HTC Hero, I use this non-htc-sense ROM and now I miss that feature.
is there any application that (or any way to)  bring similar feature?

This is not Sense-specific.  It should work with the Android contacts app regardless.

@Matthew maybe I miss something. But with the new ROM, I can't figure out how to connect my contact to a facebook profile.

OK, added an answer with steps.

First, in the Facebook app, go to settings -> Sync Contacts -> check either Sync all or Sync with existing contacts.  Then in the contacts app, go to Display options and find your Facebook account in the list, then check All contacts.  They should show up in your contact list then.  To join them with existing google contacts, go into one of the contacts, edit it, hit menu and select Join, then find the other contact and select it.

Bonus: If you have contacts that aren't linked (most probable cause: name differences), if you edit the contact and tap the menu icon, there's probably going to be a "Join" item that lets you manually select the Facebook contact.

Make sure that your Facebook account is set to sync contacts (Settings -> Accounts and sync -> Facebook -> Sync Contacts).  Then in the Contacts app, Select a contact -> Hit the Menu button -> Join contact -> Select the contact to merge.

thank you. but @maxpower47 answer is 4 minutes earlier. +1

My one complaint about touchscreen phones: Slow typing :P


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Why is charging from computer using USB slower than using an outlet?
And what is roughly the ratio of the charging speed in USB vs charger? My phone is Samsung Galaxy S, if that matters.

Not an exact dupe but check out this question http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1887/charging-from-power-outlet-or-computer-to-save-battery-lifetime/1888#1888

I find that charging from a powered external USB hub goes pretty fast.

A computer USB port is limited to 500 milliamperes (or 900 mA  for a USB 3.0 port). The dedicated wall charger, on the other hand, is usually able to provide 1000 mA or more.
Let's take the case where a connected phone uses 200 mA. Then, the USB port would have 300 mA left to charge the battery while the wall USB charger would have 800 mA left. A typical smart phone battery has a capacity of about 1500 mAh (milliamperes-hour) nowadays. This means that in a perfectly efficient world, a current of 1500 mA would charge the battery in 1 hour. So the same battery would then charge in 5 hours over the USB 2.0 port and in about 1h50 with the wall charger.
Of course in reality power losses would also affect charging times but these numbers are quite close to what I get with my actual phone.

As a side note, if you're plugged into an unpowered USB hub that other devices are sharing, you'll have even less available for charging the phone.

Note that the device needs to comply with the post 2007 BCS spec to actually benefit from using the dedicated charger. Also the perfect charging time is not so much affected by 'power losses' but by non-linear charging when the battery is almost full.

This answer is partially wrong. A computer port is NOT limited to 500 mA. The USB 2.0 specification says that a DEVICE is not allowed to consume more than 500 mA. This is a huge difference. Because of that is allowed that an PORT or HUB delivers more and most of the PCs (except of some small ultrabooks) deliver much more. The problem is that a connected phone decides to use "PC charge" and lowers the amount to 500 mA and this is to respect the USB specification. But you can charge with much more power easily. Just buy an adapter/cable with bridged data pins and it will charge with the maximum.

@mgutt: NO! Exceeding the amperage rating of a USB power source can cause property damage and personal harm (fire, computer damage, and burns). How can we guarantee to the reader that their power source is actually engineered to deliver much more than its rated current?

Is there any way to see how much power a particular USB port is supplying? My mobile discharges faster than it charges when connected to my desktop USB according to Ampere. Fine on the mains based charger which charges at >1000mA

A computer with Charging Downstream Ports (usually with a lightning symbol next to them) can supply more than 900 mA.  Likewise USB-C ports can support 1.5 or 3.0 A, also indicated with a lightning symbol.  Unfortunately the lightning symbol is ambiguous because it doesn't say which current or which standard is being used.

Charging from a USB port of a computer is slower than charging using a charger because the voltage and amperage provided by the computer is considerably lower than in the case of using a normal charger, so the mobile is using “slow charge mode”
I don’t know which is the charging speed ration between USB and normal charger in the case of a SGS, but in my case (HTC Desire) with a normal charger I need approximately 2 to 3 hours for a full charge, but with a USB connection that time only charges 15 to 35 percent.

The voltage is actually the same (5V) its the current (amperage) that's lower.

@ChrisThompson while definitely true for now, the USB org decided to confuse people even further, and added multiple supply voltages to the USB 3.1 spec.  Only after lots of confusing negotiation, of course...

The reason your android device draws less power from your USB connection than from a wall adapter is because of the USB specification. This can be side-stepped by shorting the data wires in in the USB cable, which will switch the phone or tablet into wall mode where it can draw the full available current. The amount of current available will vary considerably from PC to PC.
The reason the specification exists in the first place is that the voltage to the computer's USB ports is usually supplied via the motherboard by a single loop connection which services all of the USB ports at once. Being only a few microns thick, this circuit is not able to deliver the same current as a dedicated charging wire. It is highly improbable that you will 'burn out your motherboard' by trying to draw the full available current through this circuit (although it is theoretically possible if your computer was a total P.O.S. to begin with). What is more likely to happen is that you will exceed the manufacturer's design specification, thereby denying sufficient power to any other USB devices you have connected, and/or other internal circuits which can cause the PC to crash. This is the very same reason it is recommended you use powered USB hubs.

A word of caution, while we all want our batteries to charge fast, be aware that the faster you charge a battery, the warmer it gets, and heat destroys battery life. A battery charge to full each time @ 0.5 amps will last longer than one charged to full each time @ 1.0 amps. I don't know enough to say this small difference is enough to be of concern for a cell phone battery, but I have found out that using an iPad charger (5.2V, 2.4amp) vs the recommended PC USB port (5V, 0.5amp) charge rate will shorten the life of a Bose noise canceling earbud battery. Happy charging.

I've heard the same story.  Did you find any references to back up the answer?

Most of the answers are incomplete so I try to answer it, too.
The USB 2.0 specification defines a minimum of 500 mA for the hub and a maximum of 500 mA for the device and the USB 3.0 spec has the same limits for 900 mA:
http://www.maxrev.de/files/2014/08/usb_3_0_english.pdf

This means a device (the phone) is not allowed to consume more than 900 mA if it is connected to a hub (the pc) but the hub is allowed to provide as much as possible!
In addition you need to know that the USB specification does not cover USB power supplies. This is covered by the power delivery specification. This means they can deliver up to 2A @ 5V and many smartphones make use of higher currents.
Now back to the PC. A PC with three USB ports is defined as a "hub" and to meet the USB specification it will deliver >500 mA per port. And because its much cheaper to use one power supply, all three ports are connected to the same one. And because of that a device can easily consume >1500 mA if it is the only connected device. But the problem is that the device "talks" to the hub (by using 100 mA) and then both arrange the higher current (500 or 900 mA depending on the USB version).
So to answer the question: Charging from the computer is slower because both devices comply to the USB specification.
But if you fool the device so it thinks its connected to a power supply it can consume its maximum from the hub. For that you need an adaptor called "fast charge adaptor" that shortens the data lines (example 1, example 2).
So a computer port is not limited to 500 or 900 mA as stated in other answers. The limitation comes from the spec.
Note: There exist exceptions. For example mobile devices like ultrabooks are allowed to share the one port minimum for all ports. And I had a HP monitor that interpreted the USB specification very strict and limited the current of one of two USB 3.0 ports to 910 mA (avoiding the usage of many USB 3.0 usb drives that consume for a short time a little bit more).

Using a USB data blocker to enable fast charging is interesting, but I'm curious if there's any risk of damage if the device being charged draws more current than the laptop can provide. This answer suggests it's "probably safe"...

USB from computer delivers only 500mA. So, a 2100mA battery will take 5 hours to charge from a computer.
The charger outlet delivers 700mA to 1A. So, the battery will charge within 3 to 3.5 Hrs.

Consider that computers often have other things inside of them or connected to them that need the same charge. The power within a computer itself is always lower than direct power from a outlet from a wall. When power is distributed through a computer to your phone, that same amount of power is also being used throughout the whole computer slowing the voltage to your phone, and other things that are plugged up. Always remember, if you want direct power and a quicker charge, its always good to use to wall outlet instead of a computer or labtop.

The USB standard officially limits the current flow to 500mA. Most mainboards can supply more, but today's phones only take 500mA when they sense a PC-USB port.

Completely depends on your motherboard I have a beast of a PSU and top range type motherboard which lets you turn data connection off and the charge up - it charges phone in less than half the time of dedicated charger. As said though most computers will limit this so result in a slow charge

Most of the answers here are very informative on the battery issue, I don't want to touch on that, though I should let you know that if you have to charge your android with your laptop or desktop, make sure it gets full before you unplug it, otherwise you will be slowly ending the long life of your battery by unplugging every time you have to leave because it kind of takes longer. I take a major precaution when it comes to charging because I changed my phones charging adapter more than thrice due to charging using my laptop. I was finally advised by my techie to use the specified charger and since then, i have no battery issues. Just a precaution.

Samsung bridges pins 2 and 3 facing the phone. If pins 2 and 3 are open, the phone limits your charging capability to about 350 mA or so.
Check it out:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1384253

Shorting pins 2 and 3 together is the official USB charging spec, but not all phones and chargers follow it.  Sony and HP and Apple have their own proprietary connections.

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text:
Can I install additional language support (Russian) on HTC Desire HD without rooting?
I bought HTC Desire HD and I want to change UI language to Russian. The issue is that I see in settings only English, German, Italian and French.
Is it possible to add other language without rooting phone?

You can use the same app that I found for my problem to fix yours:
Custom Locale

Just install it and then select Russian as your predefined language and you're good to go mate.

Thank you. Actually, after I installed russian SIM-card and performed factory reset, phone automatically started with russian localisation. My wife is happy now.

I have added my language using morelocale2..
Language : ta (Tamil)
Country  : IN (India)
ta_IN
I am able to add and select my language. But, It is not changing the default language of the device.. Still i could it see the things in english .. any suggestions?

While the first part of this answers the original poster's question, the remainder should be submitted as a new question.


text:
How do I root my Chinavasion TechPad 7" Tablet android tablet?
I have a TechPad 7" Tablet from Chinavasion, S3C6410 Android 1.6;
None of the generic rooting methods work.
Any ideas?

So Chinavasion is a legitimate site then...I thought it was too good to be true and a scam

@Simon -- legitimate, yes. But their customer service involves your paying $35+ to send back items to china for repair/exchange;  Worse than none!

I came across that website about a year ago, didnt really believe it, I came across this recently http://android-sale.com/, so must be legitimate then :)

Droid2Bootstrap.apk was able to root it

Take a look at the post entitled Rooting an unbranded tablet by AdemC on September 7, for further information that maybe helpful to you


text:
Help with resizable widgets on Samsung Galaxy S 2?
I'm using the default launcher (TouchWiz 4.0). Some of the widgets can be resized which is great, but unfortunately it seems many others cannot be resized at all.

What causes this discrepancy?
Is there any other way to resize those seemingly non-resizable widgets?
Is there a way to tell in advance whether a widget (for example, one I am seeing on the market) is resizable this way?

Stock Android widgets are not re-sizable (although this is supposedly a feature that will be coming soon). If you can re-size some of them one of two things is going on: either the developer of the widget made it that way, or Samsung implemented this ability to work for some widgets. In the case of the latter they probably had to set it up specifically for the widgets that do it, so it is unlikely that any you find on the market are going to be re-sizable via TouchWiz. However, you do have another option. Launcher pro is a homescreen replacement app on the market; the paid version (yes the free version is misleadingly called launcher pro) offers resizing widgets as one of the added features. To my knowledge that would work for any widget regardless of how the developer made it. So if you're willing to put a couple bucks into it, you can re-size any widget that you want.


text:
USB debugging on Samsung Galaxy Tab -- How do I prevent it from resetting debug setting?
I have a Samsung Galaxy tab that I'm using for development purposes.  For some reason, when I choose 'Enable USB Debugging' in the settings menu, it turns off after a random period and drops whatever USB connection I have.
I'm debugging on a Macbook Pro, and have one coworker who has similar problems.  Other coworkers don't have this issue.

What Android version?

2.2. Non-rooted device. Kernel - 2.6.32.9

Are you sure it's not the USB connection dropping and causing USB debugging to get disabled? Perhaps USB debugging only make the problem visible?

Its possible, but the USB debug checkbox actually gets unset. Additionally, on other Android devices, this isn't a problem.

I'm seeing the same problem. No obvious reason and/or solution

Well, I figured out how to get it to stop unchecking the box, though the solution is hardly much less a pain.
If you activate the debugging mode, plug in the cable, run your test and then as soon as you're done testing (or if you're not actually debugging, as soon as the app is installed), unplug it, the checkbox will stay checked indefinitely.
You're still replugging the device every re-compile, but at least you don't have to keep going back to the settings menu to re-check the box.

I run into this same problem with a Galaxy Tab 4 with Eclipse on OSX.
I found that if you select the "use same device to future launches" option, it'll eliminate having to unplug and plug the USB


text:
Larger Lock-Screen PIN buttons?
Problem:
I just upgraded my phone software, and the lock screen PIN buttons have changed appearance!  They are now shifted up, smaller (circular with spaces in between them, instead of square and using the whole screen area), and less responsive.  This seems like a terrible idea from a UX standpoint- completely messing up my muscle-memory; now every time I try to log in to my phone, I screw up the pin at least twice.  Very annoying.
Examples:
Before the lock-screen PIN had something like this, with square buttons, except they were larger & took up the whole the middle of the lock screen:

Now, this is the awful new lock-screen PIN layout:

Phone Specs:

Galaxy S10e (SM-G970U)
Android Version 11
ONE UI version 3.0
New Software Version: G970USQU4FTLN / G970UOYN4FTLN / G970USQU4FTN

What I've tried:
When I try to look up this issue, most of the responses will be about changing my PIN lock-method to a password / pattern, etc. lock method, or changing the PIN itself.  Those Q&A's I've found addressing the appearance / behavior of the lock screen tend to say it's inbuilt to the system & nothing you can do except for really cracking your phone software.  I also don't see anything in Accessibility options, but maybe I'm missing something.  Any ideas, or is this really something I'm going to have to put up with (until I get mad enough & just throw it in the trash)?

Edit:
Some additional info, it looks like the lock-screen is its own app now?  It's Samsung Always On Display, and the recent (annoying) update was to 6.2.11.3, which people are already complaining about in the reviews.  I tried to uninstall back to factory version, but strangely that did not help.

There are Apps in the Play Store that provide an alternative lockscreen. Have a look at this page to see some. But from a perspective of security, I would personally avoid using an alternative lockscreen app, as you give your whole security and privacy into the hands of one app. But that's a decision you should make on your own. Android itself does provide the functionality to let other apps handle such important things using Device Administrator rights.
Other workarounds would include using an alternative locking method like Smart Lock or installing another ROM, for example LineageOS.
I personally would try getting used to it.

I think you're right that using a 3rd party lock screen app would be unsafe.  I tried uninstalling back to factory version of Always On Display and that didn't seem to help, and Google Play store doesn't host older versions of apps.
The best work around I tried was to switch lock method to password.  Typing an additional letter on QWERTY and then switching the keyboard to the pin-pad type (first example in OP) is ironically waaay faster & more reliable than using their terrible new lock screen PIN pad.

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text:
How can I increase the maximum number of background apps on Android 10+?
The way Android works, there are two cases in which an app is killed.

The device is low on RAM. This is kind of self-explanatory, there is generally no page file on Android, and RAM is finite.
The maximum number of cached processes is reached. To quote a comment in the AOSP source code:

The maximum number of cached processes we will keep around before killing them. NOTE: this constant is only a control to not let us go too crazy with keeping around processes on devices with large amounts of RAM.  For devices that are tighter on RAM, the out of memory killer is responsible for killing background processes as RAM is needed, and we should never be relying on this limit to kill them.  Also note that this limit only applies to cached background processes; we have no limit on the number of service, visible, foreground, or other such processes and the number of those processes does not count against the cached process limit.

I've noticed that it's not quite that simple, though. Time especially seems to be a factor. I can open 10, 20 apps and it's not a problem. Let the phone sit overnight, and it will only be 4 apps in my case.
In the first case, the solution is fairly obvious: somehow increase the amount of usable RAM, whether that's by reducing the number of services running, using zRAM, using a device with a lot of RAM, etc. My device (SHIFT6mq) has 8GB of RAM, and usually only about half of that is being used, so that's obviously not the restriction in my case. Which leads us to 2.
The solution here is less obvious. The most promising bit I found is this: https://github.com/crok/crokrammgmtfix, and the accompanying blog post here: https://telegra.ph/Fine-tuning-an-Android-system-04-20. I've tried the magisk module, and tried what's listed on the blog post. Doesn't matter, when I execute su -c dumpsys activity settings the results stay the same, and when I wake up, there are still only 4 apps running, whereas there were many more before I went to bed. I also found this thread on XDA: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/how-to-disable-adjust-the-background-task-limit.3886743/, which has very similar measures. Problem is, this all seems to apply to Android versions under 10 - and I definitely couldn't get it to work on Android 10.
Now, some would say, that's the way it should work. You know what? If I wanted the app closed, I wouldn't have left it open. Now leave it open. I have 8GB of RAM, which has shown to be more than enough for that. And it closes the apps overnight... which is specifically when I have the phone plugged in.
So, how do I tweak the settings of the activity manager (or anything else for that matter) so that  it stops killing apps I explicitly left open, when there's more than enough RAM available?
Note: I realize there are some devices (e.g. Samsung, Huawei) with overly aggressive battery saving measures on top of that in AOSP. This is not what I'm referring to. The stock ROM on the SHIFT6mq is very close to AOSP.

"My device (SHIFT6mq) has 8GB of RAM, and usually only about half of that is being used..". How did you get the exact RAM usage? 2. Did you set "Background process limit" in Developer Options?

I checked in the developer settings. And no, I've checked over and over again, "Background process limit" is set to the standard setting, "Standard limit". Which makes me wonder... maybe there's some setting that can be unofficially changed to increase the number of apps that can run?

Why would you want to force apps to stay running if they aren't doing anything? The only result is draining your battery quicker.

Not necessarily. Most apps won't actually use battery while running in the background and doing nothing.
Also, the first part of the solution doesn't necessarily increase the number of apps running in the background. If you look into the details of how Android works, it increases the number of activities for which it has a saved state. For me that is extremely useful. For instance, I would start watching a longer youtube video and when I wanted to continue the next day, it would have lost where I was in the video. Or look something up on a map, keep it open for later, and lose what I found.

Keeping more apps actively running makes them restart less. Especially, for instance, web pages. If I have a large number of browser tabs open that I'm actively using, plus a larger number of apps that I'm also actively using, pages will constantly be reloading, losing where I was and possibly my input - even though my device has more than enough RAM to handle them.

Well, this sure enough confirmed my hypothesis of "if no one on stackexchange knows the answer, you're going to have to figure it out yourself".
So I did.
The answer to this question is twofold. There's the window manager and the activity manager, and both play a certain role in this.
While it was tempting to write a TL;DR at the top here, I didn't, because especially with the second part, you have to be very careful with what you're doing, at least for now.
Window Manager/Recent Tasks
Let's start with the window manager, as this will also be interesting for people without large amounts of RAM. Also, it's quite a bit simpler.
It works with a number of variables: config_activeTaskDurationHours as well as a number of NumVisibleRecentTasks variables. config_activeTaskDurationHours determines, as the name suggests, how long a task is considered active, that is, relevant to the user. On my device, this was set to 6. After those 6 hours, the "task" no longer appears in the recent apps list, with one exception: the number of open apps would be lower than, in my case, config_minNumVisibleRecentTasks, launcher included. In that case, the app is not discarded. If the number of open apps is the same as config_minNumVisibleRecentTasks, though, then as soon as you open an app that isn't opened yet, the oldest open app that hasn't been used for more than 6 hours is discarded.
There are also a couple of other related settings that weren't relevant in my case:

config_minNumVisibleRecentTasks_grid: This is for when apps are displayed in a grid. This view is not available on many builds of Android, though.
config_minNumVisibleRecentTasks_lowRam: The same setting for low RAM devices.
config_maxNumVisibleRecentTasks, config_maxNumVisibleRecentTasks_grid, and config_maxNumVisibleRecentTasks_lowRam: these are upper limits for the numbers of recent tasks. In my case config_maxNumVisibleRecentTasks was set to -1, which means there is no maximum limit.

These are all grabbed from resources, and can be modified with GravityBox (root and XPosed/EdExposed/LSPosed required), under the Advanced tuning section, in the Framework section. They require a restart to activate the changes.
In my case, I set both config_activeTaskDurationHours and config_minNumVisibleRecentTasks to a ridiculous level: 5000. That way, it takes over a half a year for a task to have a chance to be removed, and that only if there are more than 5000 apps open, which I suspect will never happen.
Activity Manager/OomAdjuster
This was a bit of a tougher nut to crack for me, and took a good amount of searching through the source code to find the answer - although the answer may not have really required it. Oh, well.
I first tried writing an XPosed module to override com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerConstants, specifically updateMaxCachedProcesses. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to hook the method properly, I don't know why. Mind you, I've never tried writing an XPosed module before, and I did this with AIDE - maybe sometime I'll unpack Android Studio again and try it in there. But if anyone wants finer control, this should offer an avenue to do that.
At the end, my original suspicion that you might be able to use the background process limit unoficially to increase the limit ended up being true. Sure enough, if you go into developer settings and change the background process limit to, say, 4, the output of su -c dumpsys activity settings looks like this at the end:
mOverrideMaxCachedProcesses=4
CUR_MAX_CACHED_PROCESSES=4
CUR_MAX_EMPTY_PROCESSES=2
CUR_TRIM_EMPTY_PROCESSES=15
CUR_TRIM_CACHED_PROCESSES=10

Note that the trim levels aren't changed, and IMO it doesn't make sense to change those levels even if the device has a high amount of RAM. Essentially, if the process numbers are below the trim levels, the system doesn't even bother trimming memory.
So, how can we assign a higher value? This is where things get complicated. I tried to call ActivityManager.setProcessLimit() with the permission android.permission.SET_PROCESS_LIMIT (which is only available to system apps but can also be granted via ADB) as defined in the IActivityManager Interface, but I couldn't get it to work (again, I was working with AIDE, so that may be the problem, I may try it again on Android Studio later).
However, there is a little known android shell command, service call, which essentially lets you call a whole bunch of methods from different service interfaces, see Where to find info on Android's "service call" shell command?. What you're looking for is the activity service, which is defined in android.app.IActivityManager.aidl, and you're looking for the method setProcessLimit(int max). Using the terminal, we can do service list to get a list of the services that can be called here. In my case, the service name I'm looking for was activity. Then, we look up the setProcessLimit(int max) command in the source code. Since I'm reasonably close to AOSP, I can look it up in there. In my case, it's the 40th command.
WARNING: Before I show what I needed for my device, don't just blindly follow this. This is different for just about every version of Android, and if you mess it up, it could cause problems. Read the link from the paragraph beforehand to be sure, at the very least be sure to understand my explanation in the previous paragraph.
In my case, I decided to set it to something ridiculous, so I took the tenfold of the original value, 600. That turned it into: service call activity 40 i32 600 (be sure to run su before that as this needs root privileges). Now, when I call su -c dumpsys activity settings, the section looks like this:
mOverrideMaxCachedProcesses=600
CUR_MAX_CACHED_PROCESSES=600
CUR_MAX_EMPTY_PROCESSES=300
CUR_TRIM_EMPTY_PROCESSES=15
CUR_TRIM_CACHED_PROCESSES=10

Halleluja! We did it! Mind you, AFAIK, you'll have to repeat the service call command on every restart, and if you mess around with the background process limit setting in developer settings, you'll also lose what you just set.
Maybe someday I'll try the approach with a root/adb app or an XPosed module again, and If I do, I'll update this answer. But for now, I'm happy with the results. RAM usage is now more between 5.5 and 6GB, as opposed to 4GB. Apps seem to be restarting less. Life is better.

I updated my module that's been mentioned in the original question and actually there's a way to set max_cached_processes to a value that survives restarts - even without root, with simple adb commands. Check the module's documentation and all the links lead me to the solution. Cheers!
Android 9 and below:
settings put global activity_manager_constants max_cached_processes=256

Android 10 and above:
/system/bin/device_config put activity_manager max_phantom_processes 2147483647
/system/bin/device_config put activity_manager max_cached_processes 256

Or something like this:
[ $(getprop ro.build.version.release) -gt 9 ] && cmd device_config set_sync_disabled_for_tests persistent
[ $(getprop ro.build.version.release) -gt 9 ] && cmd device_config put activity_manager max_cached_processes 256 || settings put global activity_manager_constants max_cached_processes=256
[ $(getprop ro.build.version.release) -gt 9 ] && cmd device_config put activity_manager max_phantom_processes 2147483647
[ $(getprop ro.build.version.release) -gt 9 ] && cmd settings put global settings_enable_monitor_phantom_procs false
[ $(getprop ro.build.version.release) -gt 9 ] && cmd device_config put activity_manager max_empty_time_millis 43200000
[ $(getprop ro.build.version.release) -gt 9 ] && cmd settings put global settings_enable_monitor_phantom_procs false


text:
How to set the DNS server on Nexus One?
The ISP I use on my N1 doesn't allow me to open facebook. Using a PC, I can use Google DNS server (8.8.8.8) to by-pass them but on N1, I can't find where to put the stufff.
Please help if you know how to.

While you're on Wifi, have a look in Wi-Fi settings > menu|Advanced.
It looks like it's easier when you're on Wifi than when you're on a celular signal (3 or 2.5g).I've found a blog post here that seems to do what your asking, but you may need to have rooted the phone, or at least be comfotable with editing a few system bits and bobs.

The following was added as an edit to the question. It seems like it should be an answer.

Go to Setting - Wireless & Network - Wifi settings
Press Menu button, and select Advance
Check Use Static IP
Enter IP adress, Gateway, Netmask and DNS Server 1&2 of associated with your LAN networks.

Eg., for me, I use

ip=192.168.1.100
gateway=192.168.1.1
DNS1=8.8.8.8
DNS2=8.8.4.4

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


text:
is there a place where new phones release dates are posted?
I recently got a new Inspire 4G and its awesome but how can I know if something new is coming out in a few days and I should have waited? Is there a site that keeps track of this stuff? Sorry if this is not the correct place to ask this. thanks!

I actually didn't know this until just a few minutes ago but you can use pdadb.net's pda-chooser to search by release year (so not exact date but at least its something).  Obviously if its not in the database it won't appear and I'm guessing that only confirmed devices/dates are entered.  That along with Gus's answer should help.  You may also want to check out Engadget

I typically find out about new android devices coming out on gizmodo. The only official place I know of is Google's phone store. It doesn't list new phones that are coming out, only what is currently out.

thanks - i tried voting up your answer but it wouldn't let me. I'll check gizmodo out.

Daniels suggestion (pdadb.net) definitely has the most comprehensive list but I'm not thrilled with the UI. It's not the most user friendly.
I prefer PhoneScoops search which seems to cover all the major US devices.  Here is a link to a search for results of all the "Coming Soon" Android phones.
Also, if you are looking for Blogs, BGR.com is always seems to be one of the first to report on new devices.

http://www.androidauthority.com and http://www.gsmarena.com are the best sites for new stuff and mobiles !

GSMArena.com is another popular site for cellphone news and device information.  As with PDAnet mentioned by Daniel, you can search by "coming soon" devices that meet whatever specifications you're interested in.


text:
How can I filter out Foursquare status updates in 'Facebook for Android'?
I have installed Facebook for Android on my android phone.
A friend of mine is disappointed to see all the random stuff going on in the news feed.
He's particularly not interested in the Foursquare status updates.
Is there an ability to filter the news feed?
I know that Facebook, when viewed in a webbrowser, has the ability to select 'Hide all by foursquare'.
I'm using version 1.5.1 of 'Facebook for Android' (version released in Januari 2011).

For all that they've improved the Facebook app for Android lately, it's still woefully underpowered. I don't see any way to filter anything within the app.

Guess we'll have to wait a bit then... Thanks for your reply!

You'll need to filter it through the web interface, then you won't see them in the fb app.

I have found that the web interface works, but I don't use it that often. I prefer the Facebook app.


text:
Application to take and share pictures automatically
Are there any applications that can take a picture and upload to several different services automatically, like Facebook, Twitter (using a third party service), a WordPress blog, etc?

Similar to What's the most effortless way for “cloud” back up of photos taken with an Android phone?. PicPush and PixelPipe are two options among many.

On June 2, 2012, PicPlz announced that they would be closing permanently as of July 3, 2012

PicPlz.
Not only does it give you a number of effects you can apply to your images (like Hipstamatic) but also automatically posts to  Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, Foursquare, and can backup to a Dropbox folder.

You can post photos to twitter (using a third party service) and facebook with tweetdeck.

TweetDeck is your social browser for Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Buzz.
TweetDeck is your mobile browser for staying in touch with what's happening on Twitter,  Facebook, Foursquare and Buzz. TweetDeck makes it easy to stay up to date and organized no matter where you are.
(A Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare or Buzz account is required)


text:
Complete Dropbox implementation for Android
I'm looking for a method to retrieve all my files from my Dropbox account and download them to my SD card.
This should download everything with no user intervention. There are a couple of Dropbox applications around but none of them have the ability to download everything and even worse most seem to work incorrectly on huge files skipping the last part or simply not working.

Closest thing I've found is an app that will sync any folder on the SD card to Dropbox. https://www.dropbox.com/apps/1836/sync-folder-with-dropbox

maybe realsync does this? i use realsync pro to sync photos to dropbox, it works good for this purpose.

Another app is now available to be a more complete solution: Titanium Media Sync

The reliable and battery-friendly way of syncing your files to/from the cloud !
This unique app allows you to sync a set of folders from your Android device to the cloud and back. It currently supports the free Dropbox storage service. The official Dropbox app is not needed.
Innovative "setup & forget" sync engine with these features:

Battery friendly.
Works on ALL Android devices.
Will NOT slow down your device when no data changes.
Will backup your new/modified files (eg: photos, videos) in the background, as soon as possible.
Adapts to ever-changing connectivity and power conditions.

Supports 2 different sync modes (both are one-way):

Continuous sync from Local to Remote.
One-shot sync from Remote to Local.

And from Lifehacker's review:

If you've been unhappy with the way Dropbox's mobile app only uploads files manually, you'll want to check out Titanium Media Sync, which will constantly sync folders from your phone to Dropbox, just like Dropbox does on the desktop.
From the makers of the amazing Titanium Backup, Titanium Media Sync is what Dropbox's mobile app should have been. You pick folders from your SD card to sync back to your Dropbox. Any time you add something to those folders—say, if you take a picture on your phone, or download an app you want to try out on your computer later on—it will automatically sync those changes back, so your files will be waiting for you when you get back to your computer. You can also sync folders from your Dropbox to your SD card, but it's only a one-time sync—Titanium won't monitor your remote folders, only the ones on your SD card.
The interface is pretty easy to use, too. The left column shows all the folders on your SD card, while the column on the right shows your Dropbox, and you can just drag and drop folders from one to the other to sync them. Dragging from the the right column will download that folder to your SD card, while dragging from left to right will give you the option of setting up that folder for automatic sync. Because it only syncs one way, it won't constantly call the internet slow down your phone when it's waiting for changes. You can even set whether you want it to sync over Wi-Fi only, or over 3G and 4G in the preferences. By default, it will also sync only when your phone's plugged in to save battery (but you can change this in the preferences too). Seriously, if you're a Dropbox user, this app is absolutely worth having—even moreso than the official Dropbox app itself.
Titanium Media Sync is a $2.99 download for Android devices.

This seems to be the one answer I was looking for. Too bad it costs money.

It's 3 dollars for a great product :)
Sometimes we have to support our developers :)

The app has 3-stars.

Titanium Media Sync offers continuous sync from SD Card to DropBox, but not the other way... the way I do it is setup rsync jobs with tasker and rsyncbackup... (requires your DropBox to be automatically kept in sync on a desktop pc somewhere, running an ssh server). The following should get you up and running:
Step 1: DropBox remote.
First, setup DropBox on a computer somewhere running an ssh server, so you can copy files from it over ssh (with rsync), and make sure it’s setup with private key encryption with an agent so you don’t need to enter passphrases/passwords every time
Step 2: RSync from remote to phone
Then, get rsync4android (market link)
That lets you setup rsync jobs from a remote server to your phone (and vice versa… I use it for this, but also for backing up my photos to my PC automatically every night)
Then create an rsync job to download a particular folder from your remote DropBox on your PC into the DropBox folder on your sd card.
Step 3: scheduled automatic rsync jobs
Get tasker (which lets you schedule jobs to happen on a large number of triggers, including time) (market link)
Create a tasker job to fire off your new rsync job to keep your dropbox folder up to date.
Step 4: Enjoy
Like I say, it’s a bit around the houses, but seems to do the job
I've also posted a copy of these instructions on my blog.

If you are not totally tied to Dropbox, I think SugarSync and their Android app might do what you are looking for.
If it has to be Dropbox, I would say that you should post the feature request to them.
Or, if you are really desperate, fund a developer willing to write an app to do it using the Dropbox API. It would actually be fairly straight forward.
Good luck.

Dropsync also works, it syncs any folder on your sd card (including /sdcard/ ) with any dropbox folder (including the main dropbox folder), so it's possible use it like the desktop client, i.e. to have a directory called /sdcard/dropbox/ which contains your entire dropbox, but it's really much more flexible than that :)

Use FolderSync (Free lite version is also available with some limitations). It has many sync options: Two-way sync, One-way sync (up or down).

This very informative & comprehensive article written for Freeware Genius on September 4th 2012 entitled "How to automatically sync your PC folders with your Android" by Samer Kurdi
http://www.freewaregenius.com/how-to-automatically-sync-your-pc-folders-with-your-android/
This post will describe how you can set this up so it happens automatically without your intervention based on certain rules (for example sync every night, only when connected to WIFI). If you’re thinking ‘Dropbox’ then you’re partially correct: you will use Dropbox for this, in conjunction with 2 other free programs that make it possible to (a) sync a PC folder without moving it into the Dropbox folder, and (b) to schedule folder syncs on your Android so they take place automatically.

The official Android Dropbox app is your best bet. If they don't offer support for what you want, you should request that they add a feature.

I'm looking for a feature thats not in the official client. A mobile client that does complete syncing.

Request the feature.

I'm not trying to be dick but what kind of answer is this?  It's pretty obvious from reading the question that the asker has looked into the official Dropbox app and it didn't suit his/her needs.  That's why they asked the question.  Suggesting they request the feature is a good idea, but it's not an answer. Unless you've tried every other Dropbox app and Dropbox compatible app and can say with authority that the functionality they are looking for does not exist, I see no value in an answer like this.  If you have in fact done this, you should say so in your answer.

I can say that I've tried all other apps I'm aware of that integrate with Dropbox, and the official app is the best. There aren't any apps that offer this functionality yet. I don't think suggesting a feature request is being rude or inappropriate in any way. Its the best answer at this point in time.

Fair enough. I wasn't implying your answer was rude or inappropriate.  I was just expressing frustration with an answer that I felt didn't really answer the question. Given that no 1 has offered in the better answer it's safe to say I may have been too quick to judge. That comment was so long ago, back when we were all so young and brash.  Things were so different back then... last week ;)


text:
Bricked LG Optimus P999 using ROM Manager
I have the LG Optimus P999 from Wind Mobile.
I downloaded ROM Manager and tried to flash a Cyanogenmod ROM (cm-7.2.0-p999.zip). The backup and flash said they went OK. But when it rebooted, it froze at the second LG logo and won't go anywhere. Booting into recovery mode did nothing.
It took many tries to get the LG Optimus unbricking tool to recognize my phone, but I finally got Clockworkmod Recovery to install on it. Now when I boot into recovery mode, nothing works because it can't mount the SD Card.
My next attempt was to flash stock ROM back to it, but I can no longer get the tool to recognize my phone.
Have I totally bricked my phone?

That is why I recommend to others, to not use ROM Manager.... :)

Rom manager is old, outdated and uses the flash_image binary. You need to be sure you are flashing the correct image when using it. (There isn't actually anything wrong with the flash_image binary)

Ok, I managed to fix my phone.
The first thing that differed about my phone from the video tutorials I watched was that when you are preparing to flash the phone, you're supposed to hold Vol+ and Vol- then connect the USB cable. In the video tutorials the LG logo came on at that point, but on mine it did not. I figured out that if I plugged in the cable first, then held Vol+ and Vol- the LG logo would come on. This was wrong. The P999 does not display the LG logo when ready to flash. Hold Vol+ and Vol- and then connect the USB cable, wait a few seconds and then let go. Your phone should be ready to flash now. If it's not, try again.
Secondly, this is the software you want to use to flash if you've bricked it: T-Mobile G2X One-Click Recovery Flasher. The version I found on some other websites was outdated and wouldn't fix the problem I had mounting the SD Card (which is actually internal memory on the G2X). With this version I was able to boot into Recovery mode, mount the SD Card manually, and then flash the ROM. I was able able to properly enable USB Mass Storage from recovery mode, which would allow you to copy a new ROM to the SD Card if you've somehow lost your data.
The final issue I ran into was no Google Apps, and no ability to sync my phone to Google. You can grab the Google apps and Flash them through Recovery mode here.


text:
Can I screenshot my HTC Legend without rooting it?
I've been told rooting is the be all and end all, but at the moment, I want to see how far I can extend my device without rooting it.
One thing that would be good is screenshot functionality, but I can't seem to find an application on the marketplace that does this without a ** ROOTED PHONES ONLY ** disclaimer.
Is there any way to get screenshot functionality without a rooted phone? And what is the reason for this functionality being disabled by default. The iFail can get screenshotted with 2 button pushes, why not the Android?

This functionality is available with the developer toolkit.  The post is a bit old so newer versions of Android will have different icons and slightly different menus, but it walks you through getting the tools installed and then being able to capture screen-shots.  Also the tutorial is for Windows, but it should work with any OS that you get the Android dev tools running on (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux).
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from Windows

No - there is no way to get screenshot functionality on your phone without rooting it.
If you want to carry around a laptop with you just so you can take a screengrab whenever you want, you can install the JDK and hook it up via USB.
But if you want an experience comparable to the iPhone process (on device screenshotting), then you'll have to root.
As to why this is disabled by default, I haven't found a good answer to that.

You can try pressing the power button and the home button at the same time.

Doesn't work that way in unrooted HTC Legend.


text:
Chrome tabs flicker and appear blank
I'm using chrome 106 on Lenovo tb3-710i android 6.0.1 LineageOS custom rom. Chrome tabs at the top flicker constantly and appear in a white blank block shape. How can I solve this problem?

Could be a bug of chrome or of the ROM (graphics driver). Try different versions of Chrome and check if they show the same behavior.

@Robert Thank you. I actually remember that this didn't happen till chrome updated to version 106. I installed chrome 94 for android 5 (I had it before installing LineageOS) and it returned back to normal! Thanks.

I solved the problem by installing an older version of chrome (version 94) that's made for android 5. It was my android version before switching to LineageOS.
I also went to chrome app in google play and unchecked "enable auto update" from the three dots at the top so that it doesn't update by itself.


text:
Why Google Apps have TikTok APIs and Libraries?
I'm new to Android app development, but a privacy Enthusiast who looks into the Activity's of Apps to see what kind of tracking does the specific apps use. And while doing so, I came across, TikTok's APIs and Libraries that are related to Account and all. And I've a very little amount of knowledge about that.
BELOW IMAGE: Receivers that Google App has. [App is Warden]

I've turned off those TikTok's things(I'm not sure whether they're libraries or APIs or any other and sorry for that).
I've searched the internet and got no results that are related to my query but related to usage of TikTok's APIs.
Editing's are welcome. Waiting for knowledge about these.:)

Related on Stack Overflow: Does anyone know the function of this Android class? “com.google.apps.tiktok.tracing.db”?. Google is known to use weird/"unique" package names (there were some questions related on here, but I currently couldn't find them), and it's just a coincidence that there's TikTok app now.

Here, in India, TikTok is banned months back stating "Privacy Concerns" by the Government. And I was somewhat amazed to see every Google Apps using the the content from the banned app...

Wow, that sounds weird. Just read that tweet by Pratik on twitter. Google is weirdmost of the times!

According to the Google Xander (which is "Gold Product Expert") on the support:

Tiktok is an internal component in Google used by many apps, it was written and named like that before the social network existed and is absolutely unrelated.

the support page is no longer available unfortunately.

@theycallmepix right. I don't have an archive, there is an SO question that gives the same quote (user from twitter, quoting reddit which I couldn't find). It's like Google don't want attention to this API


text:
How do you extract an .ab file to .tar?
For 2 days, I've desperately been trying to recover a very important, accidentally deleted text conversation from Message+. Let me say, I know NOTHING about tech! After trying questionable softwares that could not assist without rooting (and I felt doubtful they be helpful even if I had rooted), it seemed like the best option was to try to find the deleted files by downloading ADB and doing a backup. After a lot of frustration, I was finally successful in creating a backup.ab file. The phone did require be to encrypt it. But the issue that has plagued me today is unpacking that to a .tar file. After tons more research, I have installed Android Backup Extractor and java. While I have found a couple people ask similar questions on the web, my error message appears to be different. I was praying for some help in translating it and figuring out what to do next. Here is what I typed along with the error message. BTW, my phone is a Galaxy S10+ running on Android Version 12. And the backup file has over 40,000 kb.
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-21\bin>java -jar abe.jar unpack backup.ab [password]

This backup is encrypted, please provide the password
Password:

Calculated MK checksum (use UTF-8: true): 37BDEBD1C840E3B9C82E9EE3D221758E8358AC92DF1C2FD274BBDC525066311D
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.RuntimeException: java.io.FileNotFoundException: [password] (Access is denied)
        at org.nick.abe.AndroidBackup.extractAsTar(AndroidBackup.java:233)
        at org.nick.abe.Main.main(Main.java:40)
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: [password] (Access is denied)
        at java.base/java.io.FileOutputStream.open0(Native Method)
        at java.base/java.io.FileOutputStream.open(FileOutputStream.java:289)
        at java.base/java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:230)
        at java.base/java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:118)
        at org.nick.abe.AndroidBackup.getOutputStream(AndroidBackup.java:314)
        at org.nick.abe.AndroidBackup.extractAsTar(AndroidBackup.java:199)
        ... 1 more

Update 1
After fixing the missing tar file argument problem the error message changed:
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-21\bin>java -jar abe.jar unpack backup.ab backup.tar [belle]

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.RuntimeException: javax.crypto.BadPaddingException: Given final block not properly padded. Such issues can arise if a bad key is used during decryption.
        at org.nick.abe.AndroidBackup.extractAsTar(AndroidBackup.java:233)
        at org.nick.abe.Main.main(Main.java:40)
Caused by: javax.crypto.BadPaddingException: Given final block not properly padded. Such issues can arise if a bad key is used during decryption.
        at java.base/com.sun.crypto.provider.CipherCore.unpad(CipherCore.java:861)
        at java.base/com.sun.crypto.provider.CipherCore.fillOutputBuffer(CipherCore.java:941)
        at java.base/com.sun.crypto.provider.CipherCore.doFinal(CipherCore.java:734)
        at java.base/com.sun.crypto.provider.AESCipher.engineDoFinal(AESCipher.java:446)
        at java.base/javax.crypto.Cipher.doFinal(Cipher.java:2244)
        at org.nick.abe.AndroidBackup.extractAsTar(AndroidBackup.java:131)
        ... 1 more

Thank you so much for any help!
Update 2
I also just tried using android tools processor instead.
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-21\bin>java -jar abp.jar unpack backup.ab backup.tar
Backup encrypted, enter password (will NOT be displayed):
Password:

No error message was produced, so I thought it might have worked. Yet no .tar file in sight!

Crypt errors usually mean that the password was wrong. After update 2 of your question you use abp.jar - what is it? Also make sure there is no fixed backup password set in developer options. Otherwise the backup password may work different than you expect, see e.g. last comment of https://android.stackexchange.com/a/255843/2241

abp.jar was the file included in android backup processor. It doesn't give error messages, but doesn't seem to do anything. I did check, and no password had been set, so it should have been using the password I entered when prompting. However, I tried creating a permanent backup password through developer tools and redid the whole process, yet got the same results (same error with abe.jar, same nothingness with abp.jar).

GOT IT! I ran the command prompt as an administrator and it worked. I then had to run 7-zip as admin to extract. Needed another java program to convert into readable text. Sadly, the deleted texts ARE NOT there.

You have a little error in your command, the output tar file-name is missing.
If you look at the unpack syntax in the abe README.md you find this:
abe unpack  <backup.ab> <backup.tar> [password]

As you have not provided a backup.tar file name abe uses the password you supplied and wants to write the output tar file untm that file. It seems that you password is of high quality with special characters the Windows file-system does not support or a similar effect that leads to the access denied error.
A second problem is that you execute everything in C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-21\bin. Directories below C:\Program Files are usually only writable for users with Administrator permissions. Therefore I would strongly recommend not to place user data files like Android .ab backup file there.

Please make sure the .ab files has a size of 1KB or more. If not the ab files is empty. Also it would be better not to execute your command in Program Files subdirectory where only admins have write permissions.

Oh, and to your advice about the subdirectory...the only way I could get it to recognize java existed was to copy abe.jar and backup.ab files into the java bin folder. I'm sure there's a better way, but again, I have no tech knowledge/skills.


text:
Is it possible to install Android on a PC?
Is it possible to install Android on a PC?  If so, how would this be accomplished?

You can run the emulator on the PC....  Otherwise... you'd have to make drivers specific to the hardware you are running it on?

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/6849/can-i-install-android-on-my-non-android-device

The HowToGeek has a set of instructions on how to Run Android on Your Netbook or Desktop here. It uses the Android builds from Android-x86.org but I don't know how active that project still is?
However if you just want to try Android out you're probably far better off just using the emulator on your PC.

Well, I've got a project for this weekend now.  Thanks!

Checkout Bluestacks or GenyMotion

I bought an Acer Aspire netbook, and it has Windows 7 and Android 2.1 pre-installed.

Which model of Aspire have you got? Is it fully functional Android? Does it come with the Android Market and the other Google-only apps?

@GAThrawn it's an Acer Aspire One D255. Actually, I am an Android-noob, but I think it is a fully functional Android. Android Market Store is not preinstalled. I had to install it myself.

@GAThrawn But Android is clearly not made for use on a netbook. I can not scroll with the touchpad, and I can not increase mouse-acceleration, so the mouse is pretty slow.

@GAThrawn Firefox is also preinstalled, and Flash works out of the box.

@Natrium thanks for filling us in with more details. Android shouldn't have any big design disadvantages for running as a 2nd OS on a Netbook, unfortunately it sounds like your problems are more down to Acer not spending time getting the drivers for their hardware right on Android. Have you looked to see if they've released any updates for it?

@GAThrawn no, I did not check that yet. Good idea anyway; I will check it out and post a reply here.

There are many ways to run android on PC

Using Official Android Emulator
BlueStacks
YouWave
AppSurfer (run Android app in browser)
Android-x86 Project
Windroy
Genymotion

I came across another way to install Android on a PC from MakeUseOf via this Android Enthusiasts question, and thought I'd post it as an alternative answer.  It's a live CD called, appropriately enough, "Live Android."

Yes, it is possible. I am running a fully functional Android 4.0.4 (ICS) on my Acer ASPIRE ONE D255E.
Amazing how fully functional it is, out-of-the box, without me having to spend any time tweaking or hacking.
Use these up-to-date instructions on How To Install Android On Your Netbook.


text:
Are there any known conflicts between the official Samsung GpsRestore App for the Galaxy-S and custom roms?
Samsung have released an app for the Android Market in order to reset the GPS to factory settings, on Galaxy-S devices that experience problems using it. It should fix the GPS problems that a lot of people are experiencing.
(Android Spin: Samsung Finally Has a GPS Fix)
However, I know that several custom ROMs also attempt to fix the problematic Galaxy-S GPS. Does anyone know (or experienced) any problems after running that application on a custom ROM?

I think if you're using custom ROMs, you do not need to apply Samsung's fix.

Note that this fix is only for the US Captivate and Vibrant Galaxy S variants. Presumably Samsung are releasing this as a stop-gap until they (or the networks) get round to releasing 2.2 for those Galaxy S variants?

See also: How can I fix my GPS?

The app only changes the settings, so it doesn't matter which GPS code the ROM has.  All the custom ROMs I know of use GPS code from Samsung anyways.
One note: This will fix very few people's problems.  The factory settings cause most of the problems, so restoring will probably hurt more than help.  It is possible that the new 2.2 releases will fix some issues, however, and in that case it's probably better to use whatever settings Samsung tested with the new GPS code, i.e. the settings GpsRestore uses.


text:
galaxy tab video conference
I'm confused... the Galaxy Tab commercials make a special point of showing people doing video conferencing on the device, and yet, I have been entirely unable to evoke said functionality from the one I have in my hands here (it's with Verizon)... So... what gives?!

As matt read expressed it would be helpful if you explained what you've tried.

I *tried Skype and then looked around for anything else that would suggest video conferencing... I mean... how much searching am I expected to do, given the amount of time Verizon has dedicated to promoting this feature in their advertising, one would imagine I wouldn't have to do a whole lot!

You're putting too much faith in truth in advertising. Supposedly its possible, and big red implies that its easy.

How are you "evoking" this functionality? Video conferences do no appear from the ether. Try a video conferencing app, perhaps -- like Qik, Fring, or Yahoo! Messenger.

There have been reported problems with qik on the galaxy tab, particularly no option to start a chat. Try to download something from vcast apps or try oovoo. Sorry for not giving any links but I'm on my droid and my latest CM update is acting crazy closing my browser w/o warning.

Don't see anything on vcast apps that would do this.  Do you know of something in particular?  oovoo yields no results in market.

I don't know anything in particular I just read somewhere that there were some different apps.  For oovoo search google.


text:
Trying google mobile android on my pc
In order to try google mobile android on my pc (See this Website) I downloaded the file liveandroidv0.3.iso and used the 'Universal Netboot Installer' software to write the image on USB device. After restarting all works correctly until I get the image 'Live android' but the OS doesn't launch and nothing happens! This can be due of what?
Best,

In other words, i'm stuck at this step :  http://i55.tinypic.com/nnw7li.jpg

Hi again! Worked for me moments ago when i tried again (But with Virtualbox) by setting more virtual memory. Though still doesn't work with CD live boot or USB device!
cheers!

I recommend using the Android emulator if you want to experiment with Android without buying a device.  LiveAndroid isn't supported by Google and it hasn't been updated in quite a while.  It could be that your video card is not supported.
I'd also recommend using VMWare Player instead of VirtualBox if you really want to use LiveAndroid.


text:
Is there something in the Android architecture that prevents people from creating MP3 players that read embedded lyrics?
When I play certain MP3 files (such as lessons from JapanesePod101.com) on my iPod Touch, lyrics or transcripts that are embedded in the MP3 files are displayed in the media player.
I find this to be an extremely useful feature, and I believe I'm not alone. Despite that, neither the stock Android media player nor any other media player I've downloaded from the Market seems to support this. I just have not been able to find any way to get feature on my Nexus One.
This feature is important enough to me that I'm considering learning Android development just so I can write a simple media player that displays embedded lyrics or notes. However, the fact that nobody else seems to have done this makes me wonder - is it even possible? Is there something in the Android architecture or APIs that make it difficult or impossible to read and display lyrics information from MP3 files?

I don't see why it would be possible.  It's just meta data in a file.  Maybe a dev could use something like this? http://javamusictag.sourceforge.net/  The only thing is most mp3s don't have lyric data.  TuneWiki crowd sources this problem for you.

Not something that I've actually sought out yet, but it does get me that most of my music files are stuffed with tons of metadata that's being totally ignored by the players I'm using on Android. As I use Squeezebox music players on my home network, I've made sure my metadata is correct just to make the experience better, and so a lot of my music does have lyrics embedded.

I haven't actually researched this answer, so take it with a grain of salt. Basing it off of other development work I have done with MP3s in the past.
I do not think there would be any reason that Android would limit an application from reading the embedded lyrics (or, rather lyrics from the ID3 tag). Because the tag supports this, really all you would need is a Java library that you can bring into your Android app that will read the lyrics.
With that said, the lyrics tag tends to be a little more in the "advanced support" for many applications. Everybody reads the title and artist tags. Most people will even display the album art (which is also part of the ID3). I haven't researched any recent libraries, but if you are curious about the ID3 tag in general, read this ID3 Easy article.
So, the short answer is: no, nothing is stopping anybody from supporting it other than library support. Either a library doesn't exist, or nobody cares to utilize that feature within an Android media player.
Hope that helps!

Meridian Media player has support for lyrics - i believe, embedded as well as .lrc files, but you might need the payware PRO version for that functionality to be enabled.
UPDATE: You're right! Turns out I had .lrc files in my music folder which is why i was seeing lyrics.

Nope. Downloaded the PRO version and tried it. Doesn't seem to read embedded lyrics. Thanks anyway.

Is there something in the Android architecture that prevents people
  from creating MP3 players that read embedded lyrics?

Apparently the answer is "Yes."
There's an open issue in Android's issue tracker on this very problem. Only users with Commit permission may comment, but you can star and follow the issue and perhaps help it get more attention.

That doesn't stop other players reading the lyrics from the MP3 file directly. It just means that the MediaProvider, which is a central store of music metadata, doesn't offer that information.


text:
Is Hebrew support built into Android?
Is Hebrew support built into Android?  If so, is it in all versions?

Here is my understanding as a developer:
Android 1.5-2.1: Right-to-left support is built-in, but most ROMs do not contain the letters.  This means that Hebrew in most applications will show up as boxes (but in the correct order).  This does allow individual applications to include their own fonts and thereby display Hebrew correctly.
Android 2.2: The default system fonts now include Hebrew characters.  Right-to-left layout still works.  (Although the rules for justification did change, annoyingly.)  Based on some bug reports, Google did not yet consider support for right-to-left languages to be final in this version.  (Note the comments by Google engineers, such as Romain Guy here: https://review.source.android.com/#change,15955).
Android 2.3: The SDK has been released, but no updates for actual devices.  The SDK does include a Hebrew locale for the first time (http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.3.html#locs).
Also note that locale support ultimately depends on the vendor of the actual device (either the carrier or handset manufacturer).  They may choose to remove locales they deem unimportant to save space, or they may choose to add some that they deem important for their targeted market.

Hi, I'm new to Android. What does the OP mean with Hebrew Support, is it Hebrew keyboard/visibility (i.e. the OS is able to show Heb chars), or Hebrew menus, buttons etc.?

And what about Android 3?

I meant that the OS is able to display Hebrew characters.  Hebrew keyboards are available with some of the third-party keyboards (AnySoftKeyboard, GO keyboard, many others in the Market).  Hebrew menus and buttons require a localized version of Android, and that doesn't often happen outside of Israel.  (Note that 3rd-party ROMs such as CyanogenMod contain the Hebrew localization.)

I believe that Honeycomb (Android 3) is the same as Gingerbread as far as Hebrew support.  I don't have any devices running it, so I am less sure.  Hopefully we'll learn more about Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4?) soon.

Froyo/Android 2.2 added support for displaying text in Hebrew and Arabic (among other languages), including the needed fonts.
Unfortunately, previous versions do not have Hebrew support in the stock source, though I would not be surprised if a device maker added support to their device on an ad-hoc basis.


text:
How do I assign cover art to songs? (Archos 43)
I have an Archos 43 Internet Tablet running Android 2.2.
Has anyone figured out how to assign cover art to songs in the Music player?  Some of my songs work just fine, others don't.  What should I be doing to ensure that cover art displays properly in the music player?

I don't know if Archos have modified the music player at all, but on most Android devices and players, the most reliable way to ensure that all your music shows its album art in the player is to embed the album art directly in the MP3 file, rather than relying on a "folder.jpg" or a "AlbumArt.jpg" being in the folder.
As far as I know most music selling websites embed the album art directly in the file, and a lot of popular CD ripping software does too these days, so it's probably only your older files, or ones you've got from elsewhere that don't have the art embedded in the file.
I use a Windows program called MP3Tag to embed the album art directly into the file amongst other things, but there's lots of other software that will do this, see these answers on our SuperUser sister site for some suggestions: What's the easiest way to update album art?, or Bulk fix Album artwork in iTunes library for display


text:
What's with the Donut/Froyo?

Possible Duplicate:
What are the names of the various versions of the Android OS, and how are these names chosen?

What the heck is Froyo?
Are android trying to be cool with the naming conventions?
.. oh wait, they.. they're alphabetical, right? Just like Linux?

They haven't publicized how they came up with why the version naming scheme they did.  There has been speculation about what future names would be and more speculation.  All of this could have something to do with obesity, but we may just never know.
After Froyo it looks like it's Gingerbread and then Honeycomb.  The original name for Froyo was apparently going to be Flan.  I think speculation about what the next names will be helps generate buzz and adds a playful element to the product.

I assume it has to do with the opposite of apple. Not healthy, fattening, and spreading like wildfire.

@Dmitriy Likhten: Yes, and intelligently designed, and a decent price/performance ratio, and secure, and OpenSource, and free, and Linux, and using Java (Python would have been better), and no politics in appstore, and no manufacturer lockin, unlike Apple. Sugar on steroids, so to say. One needed be really stupid to bite in a sour Apple when there's sugar on steroids nearby. Besides, the rumors of sugar being so unhealty are vastly exaggerated. Today it's sugar, tomorrow the 0815-flu, and the day after tomorrow potatoes.

The updates have been:

1.5 Cupcake
1.6 Donut
2.0/2.1 Eclair
2.2 Froyo (Frozen Yogurt)
2.3 Gingerbread
3.0 Honeycomb
4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
4.1 Jelly Bean

Each codename has been a sweet treat.

That list looks like the ingredients for some kind of sickening recipe :)


text:
Battery conservation?

Possible Duplicate:
What can I do to increase battery life on my Android phone?

What are some general ways to improve the battery life of my phone?


text:
Why can't I Sync Picasa Web Albums?
Device: T-Mobile G2 (UK) / HTC Hero
OS: 2.1
I would like to Sync Picasa Web Albums, like on this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIfjt3pye5c. However, the option is not present - only contacts, Google Reader, Google Mail, calendar. I've tried visiting Picasa Web Albums site on my phone browser, and re-starting the phone, but it's not there. How can I enable it?
Edit (28th Jan) - I raised a ticket on support.htc.com about this a while ago. Here are their responses...

"Dave": "Do you have the Picasa option showing in the accounts and sync folder of Settings on your phone, please?"
"Dave": "Can you confirm you are running at least Android 2.1 on your handset?"
"Richard": "Christopher, your email has been passed to myself for further action as there has been no activity on it since the 22nd Jan. Picasa is a 3rd party application and you will need to install additional software from the Android Market to enable this functionality. (Picasa Album Sync is not pre-installed on your phone.) "
"Richard": "The picasa sync is not pre-installed on any of the HTC handsets running Android 2.x. I have checked several android phones running 2.1 and 2.2 that we have here and none of them have a Picasa sync option. I will pass on this information to the developers and inform them that a customer has asked for this function to be included on the phones. This may lead to it being implemented in a future update. In the meantime if you want that functionality then you will need to obtain 3rd party software which can provide it."

I'm not sure why Dave asked those questions, when Richard is adament that the functionality doesn't exist. Does anyone have any examples of Picasa working on HTC handsets running Android 2.x?

Don't see it on my 2.2 Evo either so I can't say it's truly on all 2.1 and above devices.

Is it a Gmail or Google Apps account?
I don't have "Sync Picasa Web Album" in my Google Apps account, though I do have it in Gmail.

It's my primary @gmail.com account.

I have a Samsung Intercept, and I also don't see an option to sync Picasa Web Albums with the Gallery app on my phone. I do have the Gallery app, and I can upload photos from the Gallery to Picasa Web Albumns (And to Facebook and Dropbox). But this 'sync' option is not there.

@Chris: Does your Gallery app look anything like the App in the video, with the smooth animation and the flowing icons? The Gallery app on my phone has none of those fancy animations-- it's much simpler looking. I've read elsewhere that there are two different Gallery apps for Android 2.1, although I cannot find a link at the moment.

Do have the stock Android 3D Gallery app? (someone has given this answer already) The HTC gallery app doesn't sync to Picassa in the same way.

@Stefan  No, I have the 'simpler' looking one. The frustrating thing is that I'm 99% sure I previously saw the option to sync Picasa, but never used it.

Tier 1 support personnel very often don't have any deep knowledge of the products they support. More than likely he's working off a script.

This problem affects more then just HTC phones. Samsung Intercept is also affected, as are other models (according to my google searches).

Here's what you have to do:

Go into the Gallery
Long click on a photo, choose "Share" and then choose "Picasa"
On the "upload photo" screen add a new album, then upload the photo (it doesn't matter what album, you just need to add one to create a new folder in Picasa.  This is the trick to linking your phone and your Picasa Web Albums).
After it's done uploading (check on the web to make sure it worked) from the home screen hit the menu button and go to Settings > Accounts & Sync > Click on your gmail address that is associated with Picasa.  Now you should see "Sync Picasa Web Albums" in the menu.

If that doesn't work.  Try restarting after that process, and then if that still doesn't work... :o(

I should mention that I had the same problem as you on my Moto Droid, and this fixed it for me so HTC may be different, but I'll bet its the same problem, an account linking problem.

Thanks for the detailed instructions. Sadly, this didn't work for me. I'm sure it's an account linking problem, but just not sure how to get the accounts linked except for deleting/recreating my account.

Did it let you create a new folder on Picasa from your gallery app?

Matt; 1) I have "Photos" not "Gallery"; 4) I see the new album name and photo in picasaweb, but even after restart I still only see contacts/Reader/Mail/calendar in the Android sync options. I've had a ticket open with htc.com's official support for a month now, with no info.

You need to install the Gallery 3D app. It's not available on the market but here is a link for the APK which you will need to download to your SD card and install manually (use Astro, or similar).
(Dmitriy already gave this answer but I had the link & wasn't sure you'd seen my comment so I've added this as an answer too)

I have a T-Mobile Vibrant and when I was running the Stock Samsung 2.1 TouchWiz I did not have this option to sync to Picasa. But I am now running a 2.2 ROM and I can sync it. I would say to try to log in to picasa via your PC first, and maybe upload a photo, create a gallery, things like that. Then go back in to your device and see if you can sync it.
You will go in to your google account in Accounts & Sync and it should have the option in there to sync. you do not have to add another account on the main Accounts and sync screen.
It will also work with Google Apps accounts, if they have been upgraded to the "full google account" by the apps administrator.

Thanks - I've even tried creating a public profile, and having pictures publically viewable on the web, but no sign of it yet. I can upload individual pics from the "Photos" app to Picasa (all folders I create online are visible on the phone!), but not sync through the OS.

I've tried logging out & logging in on PC & Phone, creating gallery from phone, uploading gallery from phone, etc. Still no success here.

There is an application called 3D Gallery. This application supports using Picasa from the google account. After installing and launching it will ask you for permission to access picasa and then you will browse the online library as if its local with options to copy.

I can't seem to find (Android 2.1). Who's the developer, and is there a link?

@Chris get the APK here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=653503


text:
How to change Android device's default search engine?
I am trying to play with Android...To change the default search engine (now is Google, or add more selectables) when I press the "search" button on the device.
Is there anyway to do it? I have HTC Hero and HTC Desire, already rooted

It seems to depend on manufacturer and/or country: Motorola Permits Chinese Users to Change Android Phones Search Engine.

A search engine other than Google?  On an Android phone?  That's heresy!

@DaveRook That question is about changing the search engine in a browser. This one is about changing what happens when you press the search hard-key (which used to be common on phones).

Possibly helpful/similar http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/39575/how-do-you-set-the-default-search-engine-in-firefox

Not currently possible. It's not locked in to Google, but determined by manufacturer and/or carrier. (For instance, there was a bit of a tempest in a teapot when a new phone was released with Bing as the search engine.)
I do not know if this is something that can be got around by rooting.

Thank you. Any hacker way to do it? Such as replace a compiled file or something, haha?

Any app can offer to handle the intent generated when you press the search key, just like how an app can handle the intent from the home key in order to replace the default home screen. So all you need to do to change the search behaviour is to install an app with that feature.


text:
Why can't I see live wallpaper option in HTC wildfire after updating to 2.2 (Froyo)?
Hi I updated my HTC Wildfire from 2.1 to 2.2(Froyo) i can't see an option to set live wallpapers also i don find the Android wallpaper option. Is there any fix available to this.

Live walls are available for wildfire if you install custom ROM. For example i use WildpuzzleROM. But there are lags while you use some walls. Processro is too slow. You can install custom kernel and increase frequency up to 768MHz.


text:
Can I sync my Kindle books with my Android phone?
I have just bought a Kindle and the cool thing about it is you have an email address @kindle.com where you can send your books and it automatically converts it to a .azw and syncs it with your Kindle. I was under the impression it would also sync the books with all your devices, including the Kindle app on my Android phone (Isn't this the whispersync thing?). However, it doesn't seem to do this. Is there way to also sync all my books to my phone as well as my Kindle automatically?

Have you tried manually syncing?

@Matthew: With a large number of books, this is effort.

I meant through the app itself (Menu -> Sync) but I guess that won't help according to Matt's answer.

That might work according to the other Matt's comment. I never tried adding a .mobi file directly to the sd card, I only tried a pdf and txt.

It currently doesn't sync outside content with your phone, no pdfs, txts, emails... only kindle books you get from amazon.  I have tried to manually load pdfs with no luck. I believe the functionality is planned but not yet implemented.

I've managed to get downloaded (free) .mobi files into Kindle by simply copying them to the 'kindle' folder on my sd card. I haven't tried PDFs. I got my .mobi files from the Project Gutenberg website.

@Matt H didn't know that you could do that! Sounds like I need to start copying some of my outside content across from my Kindle to my phone.

@Matt H: It worked on my WildFire running Froyo (Android 2.2) but only after I force closed the Kindle app and started it up again. It didn't happen immediately. Just so people trying that know. Thanks and +1 for confirming what I suspected though.

If you look at your Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon (the same page where you set the email address up) you can see that the Kindle email address is specifically assigned to one Kindle device. If you had more than one Kindle device, then you can assign different email addresses to each. The upside of this for Kindle owners is that you and other family members can both have Kindle's on the same account (and thus share books) but you can avoid bombarding anyone else with your documents (if you did want to send to both at the same time, you just list both addresses in the "To" box when you send the email).
The fact that Amazon don't allow you to set up an email address for any non-Kindle device (and I have the Kindle app installed on my laptop as well as my phone) suggests to me that they're keeping the conversion service as a "value-add" incentive for people who've bought a Kindle device. It's also worth bearing in mind that the conversion process will use some of their computing resources and cost them (albeit a tiny amount compared to the rest of their business) this could be the reason that it's only open to paying customers.

Or you could use Calibre from calibre-ebook.com tho convert your .mobi files to .epub files (it does .epub to .mobi as well) either singly or en mass, so you can read your books on all devices. Hope this helps.


text:
Where can I find a comparsion of non-offical cooked rom/firmware of Galaxy S i9000?
I've been searching around for the topic these few days. However, I am getting into a problem of information overflow - there are too many different version and custom kernal around. Most of them are still in active development with a chain of discussion on forum that is difficult to check what they actually are.
Do you know are there any feature matrix of these kernel?
If it is yet exists, I am going to build one from here. Please share the kernel/rom you found that

CyanogenMod is a famous community-build Android ROM for multiple Android devices. Give you a very different user experience.

CyanogenMod is a free, community built
  distribution of Android 2.2 which
  greatly extends the capabilities of
  your phone.

Require flash : Yes
Custom ROM: Yes (that's mean no Samsung stuffs, changed app launcher, etc)
Custom Kernel: Yes
Lagfix: hot development
Latest development: Work in progress

And there are stable releases of CyanogenMod based on the much newer Android 4.x sources than the official Samsung ROMs for Galaxy S.

One Click Lag Fix a one click application to fix the IO performance lag issue by using a ext2 on top on the original RFS. In addition, it provide few utility to optimize IO scheduler and also WiFi timeout.

OCLF uses a loopback EXT2 mount on top
  of RFS to store the RFS data inside

Require Rooted : Yes
Android App : Market (TODO: add link)
Custom ROM: No
Custom Kernel: ??
Lagfix: ext2 on RFS
User option: In app selection
Latest stable: 2.2.8

Project Voodoo is a community-build kernel based on Samsung official sources with minimized patches. It provide few fixes focusing on file system, visual and audio improvement, without a lot of changes feature add-on or changing of user experience.

In a nutshell, voodoo replaces RFS
  with EXT4 in order to greatly boost
  your phone’s speed and user
  experience.

Require Rooted : No
Custom ROM: No
Custom Kernel: Yes
Lagfix: Native ext4
User option: multiple builds provied
Latest stable: beta4 for 2.1
Latest development: pre6 for 2.2;


text:
How can I bypass the activation on my Droid 2 Global?
I want to put a custom ROM on my D2G, but I think I went about it in the wrong order.
I thought that I had to do a factory reset, but that wound up setting me back. The phone demands that it be activated, but I can't get past that step. I don't want to go back to Verizon with this phone.
How can I get past activation?  I don't want to use the phone on another carrier. I just want access to the phone.

There's a very useful way to bypass the activation on this model of phone.
When you're presented with the activation screen (the little Android), press the following corners of the screen in this order:

Top Left
Top Right
Bottom Right
Bottom Left

You now have the option to completely bypass activation.


text:
Does the Google Nexus 10 tablet-PC have a standalone GPS?
Does the Google Nexus 10 tablet-PC have a standalone GPS, or does its GPS rely on GSM data?

I believe Nexus 10 has GPS hardware which can provide location information without any aid from GSM or Wi-Fi sources - same as my Nexus 7 Wi-Fi only model.
I have used my Nexus 7 on road (without any data connection) and used is GPS capabilities.
I'm just wondering how a did you get this suspicion when the specification clearly says about availability of the GPS?

The Nexus 10 has A-GPS, so it can speed up the time to the first fix, either via GSM (if it has one) or via network from an assistance server. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS

Yes, you can turn off "Wi-Fi & mobile network location" from settings, which disables A-GPS features leaving you with plain, unassisted GPS.
You can read more from Google Nexus 10 help: Manage location access

The Nexus 10 has AGPS and also a hardware GPS built in.


text:
Android 4.2 for Asus Transformer tf300t
I bought an Asus Transformer tf300t tablet. It runs on Android 4.1.
I really need the multi-user feature of the Android 4.2.
I read that Asus will provide an upgrade for all the Transformer series to Android 4.2, but there isn't any official announcement.
Should I wait for this hypothetical upgrade or install a CyanogenMod ROM right now?

FYI from the future: the stock ROM is now at 4.2.1

You can install Cyanogen now, and in the event of an official update, go back to the stock Rom.
Steps to install CyanogenMod in Asus TF300t: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_tf300t

I never install cyanogen, is there any risk ?

I installed Cyanogen myself many times, and it's very simple. Just follow the steps they provide and remember to backup all the appData you can (Games and other apps).