Android on my Galaxy Nexus is able to interpret iPhone emoticons, how can I send them back?

Android Jelly Bean has extended Emoji support. There are various possibilities to type emoji by yourself:

Install an emoji keyboard and enable the Language switch button on your default keyboard, to fast switch to the emoji keyboard. For example: New Emoji Keyboard
Use a messaging app which has in-app emoji support (obsolete since Android 4.x+ supports it by default), like WhatsApp or HandCent SMS or other 3rd party SMS replacements
You can enable basic emoji on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: Simply go into Settings > Language & input > Android keyboard (settings) > Add-on dictionaries > Emoji for English words. You may have to go back into Add-on dictionaries, click refresh and install again. Now, whenever you type out one of the emoji keywords in the regular Android keyboard, you should see an auto-complete suggestion for an emoji icon. (This is for AOSP Android, it may not work on custom roms or Samsung/HTC/LG/Sony etc)
If your rom doesn't support the above possibilities, then maybe obtain root and install Emoji Font Updater (root) to get natively supported emojis, but yeah you already have native Emoji support as I understand from your question so this is mainly obsolete and I just write it if other readers wanna try :)

emoji keywords:
Up, Down, Left, Right, Star, Smile, Voltage, Warning, Victory, Wheelchair, Five-eighths, Seven-eighths, Liter, Soccer, Woman, Man, Telephone, Phone, Flat, Sharp, Note, Multiplication, Plus, Minus, Divide, snowflake, flower, question, exclamation, circle, paper, rock, scissors, arrow, baseball, soccer, golf, fahrenheit, celsius, degree, aries, taurus, gemini, cancer, leo, virgo, libra, scorpius, sagittarius, capricorn, aquarius, pisces, phone, telephone, airplane, sailboat, aleph, king, queen, bishop, knight, rook, pawn, church, temple, differential, plus, minus, multiplication, divide, trademark, male, female, five-eighths, seven-eighths, one-thirds, two-thirds, happy, heart, star, hourglass, infinity, integral, reference, sharp, flat, wheelchair, warning, voltage, victory


How to prevent Google from "synchronizing" my personal data after a factory-reset, adding a new Google account or software updates?

The approach(es) I'm using:

don't use a Google account at all (if really needed, Playstore can be accessed via e.g. YalpStore – and instead of GMS I use microG anyway). As that's not practicable for some folks:
before adding the Google account, make sure you've prepared a different "account storage", made it the default and have all your data (contacts, calendars) in there. Examples for that:

DAVDroid with some self-hosted server (e.g. ownCloud, Nextcloud, Baïkal …)
"Device storage". Either your device/ROM supports that out-of-the-box, or you've got to use some helpers like Offline Calendar for calendars or MyLocalAccount for contacts.

I've personally made very good experiences with DAVDroid. Google Sync never touched its data.


What privacy sensitive metadata does an APK package contain?

APK files usually don't contain much of that data unless the developer explicitly has added them or used unusual third party programs to edit resources contained in the app e.g. images. You can simply check that by unzipping an APK file ready to be released. Use full text search tools on all unzipped files and search for data you consider sensitive.
If you want to minimize unnecessary data I would recommend to use a virtual machine with e.g. a minimal Linux installation you where the installation itself does not contain any sensitive data. As Android apps can be built easily using Gradle on command-line you don't even need a UI. Use it to build the final APK file and copy it to the host OS.
Examine the created file as described at the beginning and if you don't find anything it is ready for release.


How do I clear the settings of a built in app in Cyanogenmod 9 (ICS)?

The UI is a little different than before, and instead of the tabs all fitting on the screen, you have to scroll to the left or right to see some of them instead.  The "All" tab in the apps menu is off to the right of the screen.  Simply pull the tabs left, and the "All" tab will be shown.  From there, it's the same as always for clearing app data.


Using both a firewall and vpn on android

The firewall not stablish a tunnel, this only open or close ports, you can use but you need not close ports of VPN and maybe network of VPN can use other proxy if for example is you home network and you use firewall on your home router. You can use firewall and VPN, both, but is important that firewall not close ports of your VPN.


How to set up a socks5 with Android cli?

Android does have HTTP(S) proxy support built-in that can be set through Settings UI and/or command line, but it isn't global, so regarded by proxy-aware apps only. However there is no built-in support for SOCKS. So if an app - unlike web browsers - cannot be configured to use SOCKS proxy, there is no way to set SOCKS5 proxy from adb shell or terminal emulator without using a third party tool / app. See details in How to set Wi-Fi HTTPS proxy, not HTTP, via adb shell?

HOW PROXY WORKS?

See this answer for HTTP(S) proxy.

SOCKS proxy - a complete handshake protocol - creates a tunnel at lower level than application proxies (http/s) in OSI model, so UDP traffic can also be transported. However the connection isn't secure like https and the security depends on initial authentication during handshake. socks can be used by individual clients or can be set system-wide i.e. to transparently forward all traffic. A common application of latter case is encrypted SOCKS tunnels like SSH dynamic forwarding, Tor, shadowsocks, stunnel, ssf, sshuttle, obfsproxy and so on. A VPN is also an encrypted tunnel but it operates even below SOCKS, therefore able to carry all IP traffic and forward every port.

HOW TO SOCKSIFY:

Apps force all traffic towards a SOCKS proxy in two parts:

Establish a connection between client device and proxy server

Proxy can be a standalone server or secure tunnel. In latter case the proxy is running usually on the client device itself or on local network. E.g. Ki4a has a builtin interface for SSH login to create a Dynamic Forwarding tunnel that acts as a local SOCKS proxy. Shadowsocks and Orbot (Tor) are two more examples of encrypted tunnels. Both listen on SOCKS5 as well as transparent proxy ports. Drony and Postern can also create shadowsocks tunnels. And the list goes on.
Redirect traffic from whole device or specific apps towards proxy

Every app doesn't have built-in support to use SOCKS proxy, only a few apps such as web browsers have. So we need third party apps / native tools which use different approaches.

Two common methods are redsocks + iptables and tun2socks + VPN/routing. ProxyDroid uses first approach. In latter case root is not required because apps  (like SocksDroid, Orbot, Shadowsocks and many other firewalls / sniffers) use Android's Java VPN API. Drony and Postern use Java based similar methods. Ki4a provides both options.

See this answer for other proxification methods.

Just as a reference, Shared library interceptor is a popular hack in Linux world (used by socksify, tsocks, torsocks, proxychains etc.). When a dynamic binary is run for some network communication, LD_PRELOAD variable is used to force load a specific dynamic library in memory before any other shared libraries. Dynamic linker searches for required symbols in this library first. This library is modified to offer the same functions as the OS socket layer, but transparently translating plain connections to proxied connections by effectively taking control of functions/syscalls related to networking (socket, connect in particular). Proxifier and ProxyCap do something similar on Windows.

Though this approach is more relevant to native libraries and not Android's Java stack (where apps run), apps can be hacked to start with specific LD_PRELOAD values. Android's linker does support LD_PRELOAD, see Termux-exec for instance. But I haven't seen a practical example of this approach for proxy on Android.

SETTING SOCKS PROXY WITH CLI:

While executing both above mentioned steps through command line isn't impossible, it's too complicated to be feasible for a common user. redsocks can be configured with iptables while tun2socks requires creating a tun network interface as well as configuring RPDB / routing table (that's what VPN API does at back end). SSHuttle is also similar project that's based on SSH and makes use of iptables NAT, TPROXY or routing. ss-redir (shadowsocks) also uses iptables NAT/TPROXY. Plus, all methods require root access.

For a redsocks+iptables working example, see How to send all internet traffic to a SOCKS5 proxy server in local network?

CONCLUSION:

So to use SOCKS proxy on Android is best achieved using an app. SocksDroid is simple, free, open source and has no ads. Or you can use an app specific to a protocol e.g. Tor or Shadowsocks (I have no affiliation with any apps mentioned in this answer). But the selection depends on multiple factors like protocols / methods and one important being the UDP (particularly DNS) support.

SOURCE:

Comparison of proxifiers


What apps in base Android can be replaced?

Keyboard can be replaced
Browser can be replaced (Opera, xScope (i like), Dolphin HD, etc.)
Launcher can be replaced
Gallery can be replaced (3d gallery is my favorite)
Camera can be replaced (Camera 360 (drains battery like crazy), Retro Camera, etc.)
Hell you can even replace the kernel if you root.
Not an app, but you can add search providers like getting the DuckDuckGo app which allows you to search using all search tools, but ddg vs google.


Kies is not working after flashing cyanogenmod on my Samsung Android phone

Samsung's Kies software only works with Samsung phones running official Samsung ROMs.

The only way to get Kies working with your phone would be to put an official Samsung released OS version onto it again.


My phone gut stuck signing in with g-mail

The only solution left to you is flashing the phone with a stock firmware using Odin (on Windows) or Heimdall (on Mac).

EDIT:

Download the firmware from here(may need a registration)
Unzip it
Download Odin from here
Power down the phone, press volume down + home button + power button simultaneously
A menu should appear, press volume up button
Open Odin
Now connect the phone to the computer, you should see COM in blue (1), meaning the phone has been recognised.

If not, install drivers which can be downloaded from here - Download Kies and install it, will also install all drivers.
Click on AP (newer Odin version)  or PDA (for lower Odin version) and browse to the extracted firmware folder. (2)
Click on Start and wait till the end (3)


How do apps/games become featured in the Android Market?

As far as I know, they're simply picked by Google's staff. I'd assume they look for the general indicators of a quality app (good ratings, lots of active installs, etc) but popular or otherwise well-known developers probably have a leg up regardless. Google has never really come out and said "follow these guidelines", possibly to reduce people trying to game the system, similar to how they don't release their full page rank algorithm.
However, I can definitely say that it is not possible to purchase your way into the featured list. Google's Android Market developer help page notes specifically:

Featured and Editor's Choice apps are chosen by the Android Market
editorial team. There is no paid promotional spots or advertisements
on Android Market.

Technically speaking, the only restriction I've seen is that your app must have a properly sized "featured" image to be used on the "Featured Apps" area. Aside from that, Google has been very mum about the process.


How to fix Samsung Note 3 SM-N900 bootloader loop?

You have two ways of recovering you data:

Boot into fastboot and try to flash custom recovery (like TWRP). It allows making partition backups, which you can open on PC later.

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

Try to boot into temporary custom recovery and do the same (full partition backup). However, this depends on device and can be not available for Samsung Note.

Check this and this tutorial.

What concerns fixing the tablet in general from bootloop, it depends on what you've done/what have happened, and probably cannot be achieved without loosing your data. To be on the safe side, it's always preferable to do the backup prior to any manipulations.


Is there a way to change sound profiles based on GPS position?

The free app android llama can do this.

Best of all it is not required to use the energy-expensive gps-receiver but can do the same also with "wlan-ids-in-reach" and "cell-phone-masts-in-reach" as alternative.


It's quite obvious now that you should go consult repairs. Quite possibly it's only the camera module connector that broke loose, so a quick disassembly might just do the job.


Rooting already unlock phone without losing data, possible?

Yes, you can root as many times you want without losing data if your device is unlocked. I've done that on my OnePlus One.

For further clarification, it's the default mechanism in the device set by the OEM, that whenever the bootloader's default (locked) state is tampered it would issue a data wipe (a Factory Reset), most probably to protect the user's data from a possible compromise.

Rooting on the other hand is moving a binary (su) under system (usually at /system/xbin and placing symlinks at locations like /system/bin) which with proper files permissions can be executed by an ordinary user  to gain supreme rights on the system.

It is possible that the rooting method you attempt in your device isn't the standard (via Recovery) one but needs a one-click tool, and some users have reported data loss with the latter, so you may take a backup to be on the safe-side.

Further reading:

Bootloader States
Why does unlocking the bootloader wipe phone?
What does to a "to root a phone" mean?
How does rooting work?


Samsung GT-i8262 only boots into recovery after flashing

Just remove your battery and  open download mode manually by pressing Power button+Home+volume down key. If you do like this, only then, download mode will support your Odin otherwise, it won’t support. After this just flash your CWM recovery again.

EDIT:
You just need to re-flash recovery. In your case, you can use your CWM recovery to flash. I don't remember that it will work. But you can surely flash this
TWRP recovery.

There is a bug which comes in effect if you use reboot from CWM recovery menu. Beware of that bug and reboot manually.

See this and this for any help about rooting or any problem.


Google Play Games doesn't restore highscores?

Google Play Games Services support saving game progress since the beginning, and it's upgraded on November 2014. From Android Developer blogs,

[...], when Google Play Games launched, one of the very first features we included was the ability for users to save their game to the cloud [...]
[...] this past year (ed. 2014) at Google I/O, we launched an entirely new Saved Games feature, powered by Google Drive.

However, being able to save doesn't mean it will automatically save your game progress: the developer has to implement the logic that uses this service.
Anecdotally, I have played some (rhythm) games that use this service and worked properly when I replaced my Nexus 4 with Nexus 5. On your case, unfortunately, I have to say that this is fully the developers' fault.
As for why they use Google Play Games service, its features are not only for saving games: achievements, global highscores, etc.


How do I switch profiles in Chrome for Android?

There is no way to change Chrome profiles on Android/iOS as per Google Chrome Help here.

But, you can use apps like Parallel Space to have multiple chrome profiles.


If you have Google Drive installed on your device then you can use the 'Copy to clipboard' option within the share menu.

If you scroll down past the reviews you should see a 'Share' button:

After clicking this you will be shown the share menu which contains a 'Copy to clipboard' option:

Clicking this will copy the URL for the app to your clipboard, allowing you to paste this into another app.


Data Recovery - Is the internal sd-card part of /data (gs4)?

It appears that the internal SD card is on the same partition as /data (I verified with my GT-I9500 at XXUEMJ9 - 4.3, output below):

root@ja3g:/storage/emulated/legacy # df
Filesystem               Size     Used     Free   Blksize
/dev                   931.8M    76.0K   931.8M   4096
/mnt/secure            931.8M     0.0K   931.8M   4096
/mnt/asec              931.8M     0.0K   931.8M   4096
/mnt/obb               931.8M     0.0K   931.8M   4096
/system                  2.7G     2.1G   588.6M   4096
/efs                    19.7M     9.2M    10.5M   4096
/cache                   2.0G    32.6M     1.9G   4096
/data                    8.8G     8.3G   540.4M   4096
/persdata/absolute      11.8M     4.2M     7.6M   4096
/mnt/shell/emulated      8.8G     8.3G   520.4M   4096
/mnt/shell/container     8.8G     8.3G   520.4M   4096
/mnt/ntfs              931.8M     0.0K   931.8M   4096
/storage/emulated      931.8M     0.0K   931.8M   4096
/storage/extSdCard      14.8G    10.4G     4.4G   8192
/storage/emulated/0      8.8G     8.3G   520.4M   4096
/storage/emulated/0/Android/obb     8.8G     8.3G   520.4M   4096
/storage/emulated/legacy     8.8G     8.3G   520.4M   4096
/storage/emulated/legacy/Android/obb     8.8G     8.3G   520.4M   4096

Some other manufacturers have different implementations of the layout; in fact, this decision was the largest possible reason why the Mass Storage option disappeared and MTP had to be used - because /data used ext4 which most Windows PCs can't recognize.

Some CWM versions do not perform a format on /data when you request for a factory reset - that is because they are either:

Running on a pre-3.0 version of Android that uses the older implementation
Using a manufacturer-defined custom layout
Running custom "Factory Reset" code that does only rm -rf on the folders

As to why the plaintext cannot be found, I'm not entirely sure - but I thought it might have to do with the formatting being done with secure erase (MMC_CAP_ERASE).

More information can be found here: http://teamw.in/DataMedia

And in the 4.2 source code itself: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/docs/source.android.com/+/android-4.2.1_r1/src/tech/storage/index.md


What are good Android headphones with Play/Pause and volume controls?

I've found a few Bluetooth headsets that would do this. for example the MOTOROKR S9:

  Works with any brand of Bluetooth®-enabled compatible phone or music device that supports Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) and Audio Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP).

However this is a bit offputting:

  For optimal outdoor performance, position music device in close proximity to and in line of sight with the S9's internal antenna, which is located in the base behind the user's head. Placement of the music device in a front pocket is not recommended.

So they'd be fine as long as I strap my phone to my back or hold the phone like the model in the photo on the linked page is. Hmm.

A few other Bluetooth headsets I've looked at include:

Motorola HT820 (a bit bulky, but does have a wired option)
Nokia BH-503 (my current favourite).

I would still prefer a wired solution if possible so will keep looking. I have found that the Samsung Galaxy's TRRS connector is Left-Right-Mic-Ground, so it definitely won't work with iPhone headphones (which are Left-Right-Ground-Mic). However this does mean it may work with headphones from other vendors that have the same connection order, like Nokia, perhaps.


No internet access to Google apps on Android 4.3

I had the same issue with the .zip version of the OTA I found on XDA. What worked for me was removing the google account from settings and re adding it.


Is there anything malicious with play support libraries?

What are the Android Support Libraries?

  The Android Support Library is a set of code libraries — resources that can be used to build features and/or functions into an app — that provide things like features or widgets that would normally require an actual Android framework API to include in an app.

The article goes on to state that:

  There are generally two types of support library packages. One set enables features of new versions of Android on devices running an older version and the other provides standalone features for all versions of Android. Because these aren't part of Android proper, they can be improved and updated without waiting for a major Android platform release.

Why are the Android Support Libraries important?

  we don't have to wait for the next version of Android to get an update if a feature is provided by the Support Libraries. This allows developers to add and improve how their apps work, especially on phones that don't run the current version of Android, whenever the libraries are updated.

Your device is not infected by a virus or something else. It is just Google deciding to update your device (even when did not want the update to add more features).

That said, on this thread from Google, there are other users who have noticed lagging the first few minutes after the update.

Source: What are the Android Support Libraries and why are they important?


My Kindle Fire is stuck at the yellow triangle screen after installing TWRP. How can I fix this?

You need to reset the bootmode. This can be easily done with fastboot. Execute the following commands:

fastboot -i 0×1949 oem idme bootmode 4000
fastboot -i 0×1949 reboot


Since Android 5, OTA installs verify each partition as a whole so any changes will result in verification failing even if the file is not changed by the update. You said that you unrooted via SuperSU but it is likely that there is something that has changed in the system partition. Usually the error message will indicate the file that has caused it to fail.

Therefore, your options are to restore the system partition to the 'stock' state (removing any files you've added, reverting any changes to files and re-instating any deleted files) and flash the OTA or flash a factory image using the steps in this answer (using the 5.1 file names in place of the 4.3 ones in that answer)


In general, no, it is not possible to flash ROMs made for a different model.

Specific to your device, no.  Flashing ROMs for the I9100, I9105, I9100G, I777, and T989 on you device will result in you having a phone-shaped paperweight.

You can find appropriate ROMs for your device here, among other places.


You haven't mentioned if your device is encrypted ; if it isn't you are in bigger trouble. See this Why encrypt the device?
100% security is a pipe dream. Given enough resources, it may well be possible to use means available in public domain or those available to the letter agencies to get information out of your phone . Point is that you need to address the security threat. If you are an average Joe who doesn't have sensitive information to justify using sophisticated techniques, you are relatively safe
Once your device is erased, so will those apps you mentioned be erased , unless they have been made system apps. Logging into a device with PIN lock is theoretically possible by brute force methods, I believe . Locked bootloader and USB debugging disabled make it harder ; but then back to the threat model. Is the information contained important enough to justify that ?
As far as hardware methods are concerned some typical ways are covered in one of the answers linked in the first bullet point

I believe that you cannot get a definitive answer but for an average user encryption along with locked bootloader, USB debugging disabled and PIN locked on an erased device shouldn't be a concern - your bases are covered


Link2SD Mount Script Error. [4]: can't create /system/etc/init.d/11link2sd: > Not a directory

Link2SD couldn't create folder "init.d" in /system/etc because there existed a file with the same name. I deleted the file manually by browsing to the location, launched Link2SD and selected the "Recreate mount script" option. It worked for me. I feared that something might go wrong with the device when I'd reboot it but everything is fine.


What happens if i flash a custom ROM on locked bootloader?

Generally speaking, you can't.  A locked bootloader prevents flashing.

On some devices you might be able to gain root temporarily while the device is running, and could "live" flash a ROM.  Some bootloaders will refuse to boot the device at all at that point, whereas others will let you proceed after trying and failing to restore the original.  (Or, if you didn't remove the backup image, the restore will succeed.)

The best advice is to avoid attempting any of this with a locked bootloader, unless you want an expensive paperweight.


Adblock forums says

  this product is outdated (not maintained anymore), eventually use adblock browser for android

Also, see this post

  see what said an eyeo moderator:
  "Unfortunately at the moment we have no Android developer, therefore solving real issues is kind of difficult."

That's probably why all links on the official site are dead. They haven't bothered to update the home page.

It's not available on F-droid too but alternative stores seem to have it but obviously there won't be any support.


Hearthstone installation failed, now phone won't boot

After wiping the cache from recovery and waiting a while, the phone booted up and I was able to uninstall Hearthstone.


However Outlook is accessible, I can't access to Gmail via Nexus 4

I assume this has happened after a recent update to your nexus 4 to the latest kitkat update?
How did you do this update, was it naturally from google or did you manually force the update by clearing your google services framework cache? I have seen this happen before.


Truly hands-free voice recording over bluetooth

The Google Now option for Note to Self might work for you... It doesn't do a voice memo, but it will let you leave notes to yourself.


How do I add another keyboard layout to my ICS phone?

Actually it's very intuitive, open the App Drawer, look for Settings, then follow below:

Language & Input > Keyboard & Input Methods > Android keyboard (AOSP) Settings > Input Languages
And in this list tap to put a check-mark for both English and French.


In Android 6, how to deny an app permission to access the network?

You won't be able to achieve success through the native mechanism of Android.

Cody Toombs at Android Police has very well pointed this out in the article: Android M Will Never Ask Users For Permission To Use The Internet, And That's Probably Okay.

In the section Normal and Dangerous Permissions of the document  Permissions Overview, Google has noted:

  Permissions are divided into several protection levels.

  There are two protection levels that affect thrid party apps: normal and dangerous permissions.

  Normal permissions cover areas where your app needs to access data or resources outside the app's sandbox, but where there's very little risk to the user's privacy or the operation of other apps. For example, permission to set the time zone is a normal permission.

  If an app declares in its manifest that it needs a normal permission, the system automatically grants the app that permission at install time. The system does not prompt the user to grant normal permissions, and users cannot revoke these permissions.
  Dangerous permissions cover areas where the app wants data or resources that involve the user's private information, or could potentially affect the user's stored data or the operation of other apps. For example, the ability to read the user's contacts is a dangerous permission. If an app declares that it needs a dangerous permission, the user has to explicitly grant the permission to the app.

(Emphasis mine)

Surprising or not, the following permissions comes under the list of Normal Permissions:

CHANGE_NETWORK_STATE - allows applications to change network connectivity state - i.e. mobile data;
CHANGE_WIFI_STATE - allows applications to change Wi-Fi connectivity state;
INTERNET - allows applications to open network sockets.

If that doesn't suffice, checkout the permissions managed by AppOps here. If you don't find your permission listed there, you won't be able to do anything with it in GUI.

Since alternative methods are already extensively covered on this site, refer to:

Block apps from accessing the Internet on Android device
Are there any tools to sandbox a malware application even more than the granted permissions on Android?


Editing the built-in autocorrect dictionary in AOSP keyboard

This other SE answer might be of help if your phone is running under CyanogenMod. That answer, in turn, points to this article where author shows the location of built-in dictionaries on the phone filesystem, as well as the location of built-in dictionary source files in Android open source project.

The rationale (all to be tried) should be grab the source of a builtin dictionary you want to edit, modify that, generate a new APK file out of that, and finally substitute the original dictionary APK with the custom APK.


Does my battery seriously have a problem or do I have a virus?

It's a virus/maleware.

Sources that describe very similar situations:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/658156-apus-du-battery-saver-virus.html

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/7XbiK-frhVA

It sounds like it's actually a really old scam (this may be a newer variant of it)  Here's a story from 2011 that sounds like the same issue:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/241967/sleazy_ads_on_android_devices_push_bogus_battery_upgrade_warnings.html


Google App does more than just searching the web, it customizes your feed, updates you about stories, weather, etc., offers Google Assistant, Learns about how you use it and much more.
This results into an App size of about 120MB(apk size varies according to specific screen densities or Application Binary Interfaces) after installation without app data.
Analysing APK Structure of Google App 7.20.16.21.arm, I got following details which takes about 115MB of storage and further 90MB of data is stored on phone, making the total app size of 205MB.
The app size of approximately 115MB is categorized as:
classes.dex ~ 42MB(39%):

  Contains the classes compiled in the DEX file format understood by the Dalvik/ART virtual machine.

resources.arsc ~ 30MB(27%):

  Contains compiled resources. This file contains the XML content from all configurations of the res/values/ folder. The packaging tool extracts this XML content, compiles it to binary form, and archives the content. This content includes language strings and styles, as well as paths to content that is not included directly in the resources.arsc file, such as layout files and images.

lib/ ~ 23MB(20%):

  Contains the compiled code that is specific to the software layer of a processor. This directory contains a subdirectory for each platform type, like armeabi, armeabi-v7a, arm64-v8a, x86, x86_64, and mips.

res/ ~ 10MB(8%):

  Contains resources that aren't compiled into resources.arsc.

assets/ ~ 5MB(4%):

  Contains the app's assets, which the app can retrieve using an AssetManager object.

META-INF/ ~ 2MB(1%):

  Contains the CERT.SF and CERT.RSA signature files, as well as the MANIFEST.MF manifest file.

Rest ~ 1MB(1%):
org/, AndroidManifest.xml, build-data.properties, etc.

Further 90MB of data stored on disk consists of search history, feed data which grows with the app usage.


Android application firewall - interactive prompt confirmation for connections

I'd certainly like to see something like this, the best I could find so far was XPrivacy (root required) which you can setup to restrict Internet connections. However unless you apply a global template (license purchase required for batch apply) this is per app. Though maybe you can manipulate the system Internet process, I haven't investigated upon that so far (it's an expert setting with a very RED background, I don't want to mess up my system too much...). Though I'd certainly love to restrict tethering such that a connected Windows Laptop won't waste my data quota for updates...


Why does "Android Keyboard" keep crashing even though I'm not using it?

Try clearing the cache and app data for keyboard.  Go to system settings then apps and search the keyboard there.  Try clearing cache and app data.  If the problem is still there you can disable the keyboard.

Mostly the default keyboard is Google Keyboard


Snapchat for android has been updated with the ability to upload screenshots to chats, my story etc.


App Data Not Restored After Copy From Nearby Device

Two possible reasons

From Nexus help

  When you set up your phone, you can quickly import Google Accounts, backed-up apps, and data from your current Android device to your new Nexus phone by using Tap & Go.

(Emphasis Supplied)

Kit Kat didn't have the cloud backup, IIRC, so it can't be whereas whatever is backed up is Google account stuff

Again from Google help, of you scroll down the long list of complaints, you will notice problems when both the devices were not of same version. This cannot be concluded as the main cause as it is not documented officially, but the first one is more likely IMO.

On a side note, transfer from Huawei device on KitKat to Lollipop worked but not KitKat to Marshmallow (personal experience), that's why I was sceptical about it in answering your earlier question


I needed the same thing and after a bit of googling found a couple of plausible options:

Acasis H027 Mobile Tablet PC Charging Cable OTG Micro USB HUB 3Ports Simultaneous Charging Power Transmisson Cable Black - looks no name, and there are similar producs on AliExpress. relevant links: this youtube video, this forum post
Dell Micro USB Dongle for Data and Charging - more expensive and less ports, but hopefully more reliable brand

Additionally, if you're interested on the electronics side of it, this electornics stackexchange post looks very interesting. Slightly off topic, this PoE Android project looks interesting too.

Update The Dell Dongle arrived today and I tested it. It works but I found one minor caveat: the dongle needs to connected first, then power (microUSB), then the USB device. I didn't have success with a difference connection sequence. (I tested on a Nexus 7 tablet on Android 6.0.1 and a Lenovo smartphone running Android 4.2.1 using devices such as usb hub + usb stick + usb keyboard/mouse + usb to ethernet)

Update2 The Acasis OTG Micro USB HUB arrived today. While the Dell Dongle doesn't power the Android device every single time (unplugging/replugging required), the Acasis one surprisingly does. The only catch is it's switch needs to be set to position 3 (otherwise it powers the tabled but doesn't use the attached USB devices). It's also nicer that it provides 3 USB ports instead of 1 and it's cheaper.


How many devices Android 4.0+ can support connected simultaneously?

As far as I can see, there is no software limitation, and google's page on it says nothing about that (https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2812516?hl=en&ref_topic=3416342).  However, your phone's hardware may not be able to support that, for instance my Nexus 4 gets very hot with only one computer connected, and it will also be slow as all connections have to be routed using the phones limited processing power.


There is a settings option called "Custom Restrictions".  I had to search the settings (from the search bar) to find this, but it didn't indicate where it was in the menu structure.  Under "While the screen is off" de-select the option that says to not blink.  If you do not see this option (as I did not) then you do not have a notification LED on your phone (shocker, I know!) and that is the reason you can't get the LED notification working.


Even if there isn't a working root method for Android 5.1.1 devices yet, I found a working solution! The app is called Helium. (https://www.clockworkmod.com/carbon) There is a free version of the program too. It has an Android and a Windows version too. You need to use both of them together. With this app combo you can backup any android apks (with all the settings and their data, not just the apk itself!) even on unrooted devices! Data can backed up to sdcard or cloud too. I have two lollipop devices, both of them unrooted and this program combo works on both of them! So I don't even want to root them anymore. I just wanted to root them to back up my settings and program data.


How can I move apps to the external SD card on LG Optimus 2X P990?

Try App 2 SD, it should be able to move at least some of the apps.
To set it to automatic, you will need the android SDK (to use adb). From here, those commands should work (worked for me on my Samsung Galaxy Ace):

  adb devices

  Probes Android devices connected to the PC. Do this first to assure that the phone is being detected.

  adb shell pm getInstallLocation

  This results in a numerical value to state where the default install location is (0: phone, 2: external).

  adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2

  This sets the default install location to the external storage.


Does orientation of a USB Type-C cable matter when quick charging?

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C#USB_Power_Delivery

  USB Power Delivery uses one of CC1, CC2 pins for power negotiation up to 20 V at 5 A (or whatever less the source can provide). It is transparent to any data transmission mode, and can therefore be used together with any of them.

Representation of USB-C Pinout:

GND     TX1+    TX1−    VBUS    CC1  D+ D−  SBU1    VBUS    RX2−    RX2+    GND
GND     RX1+    RX1−    VBUS    SBU2 D− D+  CC2     VBUS    TX2−    TX2+    GND

So I'm thinking that both the phone and the power brick that is providing power will only use one of the CC1/CC2 lines and if you twist the cable the negotiation line won't be able to connect.


Exchange - exclude emails from being sent to my phone

if their isn't an option to select a set of folders.
I'm assuming there's something about those folders like big attachments? Or to sensitive to be on a mobile device?
My best advice to you would be to move the folders in question into an archive and set up a rule to automatically sort your mail into that. You'll never see an archive folder on your phone, so job done.
Hope that helps.


Other manufacturer's USB data cable for charging?

USB data cables are pretty much interchangeable. Even on devices that have modified sockets to allow connecting a headset cable to the USB port, you can usually still use a normal USB cable for charging and data with no harm to the device.


I can think of two possible things:

Hold the power button. Some phone has "Switch User" option on power menu.
Hold the "Power Off" option and select "Reboot to safe mode". May be you can figure out something from safe mode.


Android 4.4.2 youtube/video stuck in pause

The trick was to put the tablet into Airplane mode and then to take it out of Airplane mode again.

Unlike just disconnecting and reconnecting the wifi link, this actually unloads and reloads the wifi stack.

Since I did this, it plays videos from youtube, iPlayer, etc just fine.


What does the SMS limit per conversation do?

What happens is this, depending on the settings within SMS App, (really its actually MMS app), 'Delete Old Messages' option Delete old messages as limits are reached, if that was checked, then once it hits the threshold of 200 texts, Android will wipe them, to make room for more incoming messages.

Now, If that was not checked, Android does nothing but... it will slow down the handset to a crawl because it is loaded down with say, hundreds of messages, because Android is keeping track of it.

If you really care about your SMS, it might be best to use SMS Backup Restore and just back them up periodically.


No. Your location history is never completely exact. It is because GPS location is often bad, particularly in these cases:

If you are inside reinforced concrete buildings or trains. It is because the metal in wall (of the building) or the case of the train shadows the signal of the GPS satellites.
If there is no GPS signal, google maps tries to use the MAC address of the available Wifi APs what your mobile can see - and compare it to the GPS signal of other google users, whose GPS at that position worked. It works in many cases, sometimes it does not (for example, the Wifi AP is actually another telephone of another Google Maps user who shares its mobile network with it).

If you see your position history (timeline) on the google, it shows you all the cities what the google thinks, you visited.
If the Wifi-based localization worked 10000 times in your life correctly, and 3 times badly, then you will see 3 cities where you never were. It does not matter that it worked correctly 9997 times, the first what you will think that you were never in Zürich or Philadelphia.
Your position timeline overweights the mistakes of the google localization. You can see these false points, many of them are airports or train stations.
Probably there are some option to change your google maps timeline retroactively.


The Samsung Galaxy S2 does have dual microphones.

However, if using Gingerbread (2.3), the device only records mono audio.

Using Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) though, the device can record stereo audio at about 130 Kbps with a sampling rate of 48KHz.

Source: GSM Arena


How can I get IP connectivity on my non calling tablet without using WiFi?

If your device supports USB OTG, then you should look into a wired Ethernet adapter.  Depending on the specifics of your tablet, if it works, this is the best solution.  Android SE, example how-to, XDA, example cable to let you charge and Ethernet (eBay).

If you're not rooted, or don't have USB OTG, the next best option is to buy another WAP of the fastest type of WiFi that your table support and put it near the tablet.  If you normally use 2.4Ghz Wifi, then get one that's only 5Ghz, assuming your tablet supports 5Ghz.  A different band will reduce interference and let the tablet and WAP use their full speed.


Enter su first.

  > su
  > ls /data

Make sure your device is rooted.


Is there method to send by not using SMS?

Google Messenger is an SMS/MMS application. If you are not able to send SMS/MMS for some reason, you need to use a different messaging system and a different application. For example, you can use email, or a proprietary service like WhatsApp. If you need your message to arrive as an SMS, you can use a email-to-SMS gateway, though you need to know the carrier used by the recipient.


How to install xapk, apks, or multiple-apks via adb?

For those who are trying to install XAPK files through adb because their XAPK Installer does not work on their Android phone, I've got you covered.
You must have Android Debug Bridge (ADB) set up and working.
XAPK files are basically ZIP Archive files (described by their PK header at the beginning of the file)
This means we are able to open/extract those files using any ZIP tool that we have (I prefer 7-Zip)
Once we have extracted the files from the archive, we are only interested in .APK files.
Open the Command Prompt/Terminal in the folder where you've extracted the archive,
and type the following command: adb install-multiple "AppName.apk" "ConfigA.apk" "ConfigB.apk"
Notes

The order of files in the command does not matter.
AppName, ConfigA and ConfigB are examples, they will differ depending on the package.
There might be more APK files, make sure to include them all.
If there are several APK files with different architectures, make sure to check your phones CPU architecture before proceeding with installing the APK.


Foreign phone won't connect to mobile data

Your phone may not have the correct APN settings in it in order to connect and use the data properly. Check and add these settings if necessary.

Access the Settings menu.
Locate and select Wireless & Networks or More Networks.
Select Mobile Networks.
Select Access Point Names.
Locate and select the option to add a new APN. This is usually accessed by a + symbol on the screen or by tapping the menu button.

Under name, You may write what you choose. I would probably write "ATT" or similar
Under MMSC, write http://mmsc.mobile.att.net
Under MMS Proxy, Write proxy.mobile.att.net
Under MMS Port, Write 80
Under MCC, Write 310
Under MNC, Write 410
The rest of the settings remain unchanged.
After these settings have been entered, Turn off the phone, take out the battery and SIM and allow 5 Minutes to rest. After this, Turn the phone back on and see if you have data.

The settings I used can be found under "Correct Data Settings" at: http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB424489&cv=820.

My knowledge comes from years of experience with many different devices and Operating Systems.

Have an awesome day and Thank you! xD


Resetting my router to the factory state solved that mysterious problem.


Huawei P7 Ascend Lollipop Compass pointing only North or South, even after calibrating. How to fix?

I too have this problem after upgrading my phone to lollipop. However, if I tilt my phone vertically or upside down (so I'm looking up to face the screen), the compass works fine. Try calibrating your accelerometer with your phone upside down.


Jelly bean screws up Droid 4 keyboard layout

Some users have found doing a cache partition clearing has resolved the shift key issue. I have also read others that disabled the Google Chrome application, resolving the issue. I have done both but still get the shift key issues when using my browser. The cache partition clear resolved the shift key issues on the phone (ie texting or other apps). Below is a link to Motorola's step by step instructions for the partition clearing, you will not lose any data etc. Some users have gone so far as to do a factory reset with no resolution.

https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/93162


This was primarily my own mistake and I am leaving it here only for future visitors who may face the same issue.

I was using a wrong pem file and since the issue was not highlighted as "wrong pem" but as it needed password I was confused.


Fastboot - what to install on Windows Desktop?

Driver: Motorola End User Driver Installation - choose 64-bit.

Fastboot binary: Minimal ADB and Fastboot - Google now does have an "official" package, but it's unintuitive to install and use, so this one is still recommended.


How to boot Ubuntu persistent live USB on Android?

Near duplicate: Is it possible to boot an Android phone from a USB drive?

You question has two parts:

1. How to boot from USB on Android device?

On most of the recent Android devices you can't boot even Android from USB, rather Ubuntu or some other OS.

PCs:

PC world has a standardization. BIOS / UEFI, ACPI and discoverable buses make every PC almost identical to the OS, so we can boot any OS. BIOS lets you select boot device, loads bootsecotor / MBR and bootloader which loads OS kernel. UEFI Boot Manager is even more sophisticated, it can read filesystems and load one of multiple BLs or even Linux kernel directly from EFI System Partitions (ESP).

Multiboot compliant BLs can load multiple OSes. Windows BOOTMGR and Linux GRUB can also chain load each other. Latter can act as 1st stage BL (MBR/VBR) as well as 2nd stage (GUI boot manager which reads configuration from filesystem). See Boot Process: Android vs. Linux

Phones:

Phone's world has a lot of fragmentation. They are based on SoC design, so every vendor implements its own closed-source firmware. Non-enumeration-capable buses depend on Device Tree, which is stored on flash storage as blob (DTB), and loaded by final BL (like U-Boot, LittleKernel / Aboot) and Linux kernel. So SoC firmware has to bootstrap the device to BL stage so that it's able to identify hardware.

Image source: Exploiting Qualcomm EDL Programmers

SoC firmware cannot boot from a generic MBR/VBR or filesystem, instead it has hard-coded paths to partitions containing BLs. Also the strict Chain of Trust in boot process loads only signed binaries, unlocked BL can break this chain. See Rooting Android phone without unlocking BL, VB and AVB.

However final BL allows somewhat interaction with user to boot fastboot, or Linux kernel from boot or recovery partition. Both partitions don't have filesystems, but a standard raw format as per Android specifications.

Conclusion:

So due to small size, non-standardization, closed-source / signed nature of firmware and minimal functionality, SoC firmware + DT + Aboot setup is no way comparable to BIOS / UEFI + ACPI + GRUB setup. Functionalities like USB communication and graphical selection menus would make the BL kernel bigger than the by-design acceptable size limit. Note that "on embedded ARM platforms the core of LK is typically 15-20 KB."

However SoCs can boot from USB, particularly those used with development boards or single board PCs. See Difference between BootRom and BootLoader.

EFIDroid is a 2nd stage BL based on UEFI (EDK-II). Currently it replaces kernel in boot partition (like other multi-boot hacks), not the original BL.

But we may see (SoC firmware and/or) some (or all) BLs being replaced with UEFI and Device Tree with ACPI (particularly on ARM as it's not very unlikely). It'll make booting from USB devices on mobile phones more probable. For instance Qualcomm's Sanpdaragon 835 already has its SBL replaced with UEFI-based XBL (which also supports ACPI on Windows) and Aboot with ABL. See UEFI on ARM-V8  based Linux Embedded System.

2. How to boot Ubuntu on Android device?

On Android devices it's not possible to boot Ubuntu even from SD card or internal flash memory, rather USB.

Hardware Discovery:

Generic OSes like Ubuntu are not modified for a specific hardware environment. On an ACPI compliant system, after power on, OS may immediately start querying buses: "what hardware is attached to you?", which is not the case with DT based devices. See The case of UEFI for Windows on ARM.

Similarly on PCs Power Management is looked after by ACPI while on phones PMIC is usually a part of SoC - again hardware specific.

Kernel:

Ubuntu userspace is not compatible with Android kernel as latter is largely modified e.g. Paranoid Networking, qtaguid, USB gadgets etc. It's theoretically possible to boot Ubuntu kernel from boot.img e.g. using fastboot, or load it by Android kernel using kexec. However even bigger problem is vendor's incomplete implementations of hardware drivers in kernel, which are not part of upstream kernel source (the one used by Ubuntu). Running console login and traditional X server etc. might not be easy to achieve, see Android vs. Linux.

Binary Blobs:

Android is not strictly based on UNIX's "Everything is a file" theory. Mainly due to license issues, a lot of hardware work is managed by (again) closed-source vendor specific HALs which act as bridge between Android's native/Java framework and kernel e.g. sound, graphics, RIL, fingerprint, camera, sensors and so on. Since Android 8, HIDL (based on Binder IPC) specifically separates vendor-specific binary blobs from AOSP as well as Linux kernel.

Hardware Abstraction:

In addition to binary blobs, AOSP userspace daemons like surfaceflinger, audioserver and gatekeeperd also interface Java stack (which runs apps) on one end, and kernel or HALs on other (which interface hardware). So every hardware component is not simply a file in /dev with well documented kernel interface, instead there are layers of Android-specific IPCs and APIs between apps and hardware.

This model enables AOSP Java framework to be agnostic about lower-level driver implementations, and restricts apps direct access to hardware resources. Apps need manifest permissions to pass through protected APIs in order to access a system resource including storage, network, camera, mic, sound etc.

Partitions:

AOSP depends on a few partitions like /system and /data but HALs need more. On Qualcomm devices vendor daemons like sensors.qti, qseecomd, rmt_storage and wcnss_service read and write to raw block devices (e.g. ssd, rpmb, fsg) and filesystems (e.g. modem, persist and dsp). So camera, sensors, TEE, Wi-Fi, bluetooth, fingerprint, aDSP etc. won't work without extra partitions. SoC, processors, modem, TZ, RPM and BLs also use other partitions for boot process, OTAs, recovery, secure boot, encryption, boot/charging logo and so on. Read more about Android Partitions and Filesystems.

So it's not possible to boot an OS entirely from a single partition. PCs can be started if there is no storage device, but Android devices won't turn on if eMMC / UFS is damaged. Hardware-specific partitions are required at pre-kernel as well as post-kernel stages. That's why Android devices are more vulnerable to be permanently bricked.

Conclusion:

On Android phones there is no generic Android OS, instead we have ROMs which are tightly bound to a specific hardware. So booting Ubuntu on Android device requires integrating all hardware-related vendor code in Ubuntu kernel and/or userspace.

LINKS:

Why don't Android hardware manufacturers build to a common BIOS specification?
Device Tree: What It Is?
Engaging Device Trees.pdf
U-Boot on Arm32, AArch64 and beyond
Nvidia Tegra Boot Flow
LK BL Overview.pdf
Booting Android (Slides)
Comparison of bootloaders
Android HAL and Device driver architecture


Voice messages won't play through headphones (messenger)

This has been happening to me as well. I Googled the issue and it turn out, that it may just be messenger's update. It started playing through my speakers after I updated, but my friend hasn't updated his and he can hear them through his headphones just fine. Your phone isn't to blame- it's just messenger's faulty update.


Force Google Chrome to load background pages

No, it's not possible, because it makes a little sense. Chrome is a multi-process browser and it uses dedicated processes (in Android terms, Services) for rendering pages. On Android, processes working in background are usually aggressively killed by the system in order to free memory for foreground processes. It makes no sense to do loading of background pages as a renderer in background will most likely be killed soon, it will be just a waste of network and CPU resources. So Chrome just creates a placeholders for background tabs and only "fills" them when the user switches to them.


Cannot connect to internet within WhatsApp in Android emulator

It is problem about proxy...
because proxy set in "mobile networks" does not work
so you will need "Drony app" and configure it to work with proxy.
Download Drony!


Nexus 5 won't boot into OS, bootloader/adb won't let me do anything either

I was pretty much having the same problem.
I was told that my partitions might be messed up.
Unfortunately I won't be able to test out a fix for it until I get home from work today. But definitely look into corrupt partitions.

Infinite boot animation screen Nexus 5


How do I set the default messaging app to use google voice? (4.2.2 Galaxy S4)

I believe this is the app that can solve your problem...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.james.SmartUninstaller

I hope it helps! :)


USB Audio interface with Google Pixel 3a

Here are some options:

Use an alternative camera app, which will allow you to set the audio source. For example: Open Camera
Record the audio in a separate app then edit the audio and video together later. An example app for recording audio from your interface is USB Audio Recorder PRO

Also, since this question is a top hit for "Pixel USB Audio Class 3", I want to also mention that the Pixel 3a does not support USB Audio Class 3.0. This means that unlike the Pixel 2, it does not support more than audio interfaces with more than 2 channels. I learned this by calling the Google's product specialists.


Moto g unable to receive SMS after android 4.4.4

I just resolved by doing a factory reset. All other things didn't worked


How to display a contact address on Google maps offline?

Short answer is: you can't.

The feature relies on a service called geocoding, which is done on Google's servers. The only possibility for this to be done locally would be to download the entire map data to the device and use that data to calculate the coordinates from an address. This is a resource and space consuming task (for example, OpenStreetMap has a dataset of 370GB), and not suitable for mobiles.

A workaround would be to save the coordinates themselves as a street address in the form latitude,longitude, e.g. 62.244858,25.758712 in addition to the regular address and use this "address" to show the map. The catch is, you'd still have to use a geocoder to resolve the address to coordinates.

All address fields are sent to Google to be resolved, that's why the workaround I suggested is invalid.


Saving pix from Google camera to SD card

Unfortunately the Google Camera app does not natively support saving pictures/videos/panoramas to SD Card.  I am guessing that this goes with Google's general stance against SD cards in general.  If your device is not rooted, you are stuck with having to manually move the images/videos.

For rooted devices, there is a work-around to this limitation.  Xposed framework allows various modules to override many stock firmware options without using 3rd-party ROMs.  It should also work on custom ROMs, but that isn't "officially" supported by the framework's developer.  You will need the Pictures2SD module, which makes all media from various camera apps (including Google Camera) to be automatically saved to the DCIM folder of the SD Card.

Xposed Installer app is not directly available via the Google Play Store, so after rooting your S4 (looks like you are already rooted, since you're running a custom ROM), you will need to allow side-loading of applications via Settings -> Security -> Unknown sources, download and install the APK from here, and activate it according to these instructions:

  Installation of the framework:

  Download the Xposed Installer APK and install it
  Launch the Xposed Installer, go to the "Framework" section and click on "Install/Update"
  Reboot
  Done!

After that, the installation of modules is pretty straight-forward:

  Installation of any modules:

  Download .apk (e.g. via the
  builtin repository browser) and install it
  Launch the Xposed Installer
  and go to the "Modules" section (you will also get there if you click
  on the notification warning you that the module is not enabled yet)
  Enable the module by checking the checkbox
  Reboot
  Done!


"Android.process.media has stopped unexpectedly" error when I boot my Galaxy Nexus

The process error you are getting is android.process.media
The clue is in the media part.

You should go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Then make sure you look under the ALL tab. It is MEDIA what you are looking for.
Clear the data and cache for this one. Then Force-stop it and restart your device.

When it restarts, it should restart normal and the media will start again automatically without the issue.


How fix sd card unexpected unmounting on Lg L65 (kitkat)?

Take out your SD card, then put it into your computer. In Windows, go in and check for errors. Then format the SD card, but make sure that you back up any information on the card that you do not want to lose


Made hangouts handle my SMS. Any downside to disabling Messanging?

On some devices, especially Motorola ones, disabling the stock Messaging app will cause any app that you set to handle SMS to crash when sending an outbound SMS.  While other system apps may be safe to disable, I would recommend against disabling the stock Messaging app.

See this question for more details.


How to insert "blank character" in WhatsApp?

The methods shared here unfortunately do not work; the Arabic Character used to work but it stopped working since long.
The only character which seemed to work was the Reverse Character Unicode [which I discovered in 2005]  Pasting or Opening it on a PC messes it up.
Afterwards I stumbled on another unicode character which would work (on most devices) even when shared through PC etc.

Copy the Space visible between the bold brackets [  ] .

If for some reason you fail to copy it from above you may copy it from my blog > here.

The box type thing you mentioned appears on Apple devices and the proper technique wouldn't result in a box type thing even on Apple devices.

Fun Fact : I was the one who worked out the "blank character" thing on the internet more thn 2 yrs back and finding others using(stealing) even "my images" spoils the mood, thus I came here to post the same.


What should I do about this pop up on my android device?

Definitely, do NOT press the "update now"!!! That for sure introduces malware. Though batteries do have some kind of firmware (mainly for charging control), it is never ever updated this way (in fact, it's not updated at all to my knowledge).

Having made clear what you should not do leaves the question: What should you do about it? You must find out what produces this popup. In 90%+ of all cases, it's a "bad app". So check all apps you've installed shortly1 before this started. Especially check those apps you've installed from "other sources" (see: side-loading). The risk catching such a "bad app" is highest with sources you don't know you can trust. Remove those and see if the issue goes away. If not, as a last-resort you might need to do a factory-reset.

If those popups only occur in your browser (the screenshot looks like such an example), it might also be a "bad website". Avoid it then, see if it happens on other sites as well.

For one thing, the popup tells the truth: pressing "update now" has a "high risk level" – you will get worse stuff installed on your device …

1: "shortly" is a relative term here; some malware waits up to 30 days before acting such


How do I sync Exchange contacts & calendar in Oreo?

Microsoft Outlook now has the capability of syncing contacts. It's a heavyweight solution for just that feature.

I haven't found a way of doing calendars directly. If this is a cloud based exchange server that supports sharing calendars via iCal, it's possible to add that to a third-party calendar provider, then sync that to Android.


How to test my Device's capability to support WiGig?

From what I can tell WiGig exists, and is part of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Running in the 60 GHz range means line of sight so streaming to VR headset appears to be a common use case.

While do you don't mention which Android device you are referring to that page does link to a list of WiGig Certified Devices which appears to be chipsets, no routers or mobile devices.

Even if you had such chipsets on your device, it doesn't mean that the antennas or firmware is configured. Given the lack of consumer hardware supporting WiGig, without more detail, I suspect it to be "marketing enthusiasm" rather than a useable feature.

Update

So from the comments, OP has a ASUS ROG II which does market itself to have WiGig, primarily to use the ASUS WiGig Display Dock which makes sense for high-bandwidth video streaming. Companies like ASUS will add in unique features/capabilities to sell devices.

The lack of "WiFi Certified" branding to me seems that while the ASUS ROG II can use WiGig with the ASUS Display Dock, that may be the only thing it is capable of pairing with, at least until you can test with other consumer WiGig devices, if and when they come into the market.


Can't connect to Windows 7 "hostednetwork"

Well, after tearing my hair out and feeling my hair became lighter, I gave up. But then, the wifi of the laptop became even flakier: It can no longer connect to the Office WiFi.

So, I did some drastic measures:

Uninstall all ThinkPad utilities that manage the wifi
Uninstall the wifi drivers
Reboot
Reinstall just the wifi drivers

Afterwards, I can connect to the office wifi... and hostednetwork works! Go figure :-/


Can I use mono sound on a set of headphones instead of stereo?

I am not familiar with a setting in Android to mix both channels but perhaps this stereo to mono adapter could help.


ClockworkMod Recovery doesn't use touch interface. If you can flash stock ROM with it.. But you may have problem getting rid of CWM after flashing the ROM. It might be possible - some ROM's do a reflash of recovery partition before every reboot. You can try letting the battery run low to the point where the system shuts down automatically.


Do every Android version store the PIN/passwords at the same file?

According to this source

  Android stores this pattern in a special file called password.key in /data/system/. As storing the pattern in plain text wouldn’t be very save, this time Android stores an salted SHA1-hashsum and MD5-hashsum of the PIN or password. The numeric PIN and the alphanumeric passwords are processed in the same way...

  Due to the fact that the hash is salted this time, its unfeasible to crack the password with help of a dictionary attack. For cracking the password it is important to get the salt and enough time for attempting a brute force attack. The salt is a string of the hexadecimal representation of a random 64-bit integer.

From this page it seems you are correct in believing that the password is located here in at least the 2.2 versions of Android and later.


Is there a way to customize keyboard settings?

There is a nice (free) alternative keyboard on the Android Market - that is somewhere between Swype and the built in keyboard - called TouchPal.  It allows for three different layouts (16 key, 20 key and QWERTY) and you can set a default for different orientations - i.e. 20 key for portrait, QWERTY for landscape.  And there's a bunch of other things it does that make it nice and easy to use.

One thing to note is that it's made for Chinese and English input but there are options to turn off the Chinese input.  Also, some version of Android have a bug that sometimes prevents a newly added input method editor (IME) from showing up properly.  You may need to restart the handset after installing.

All that aside, I use it every day on my HTC Desire as a replacement for the stock keyboard and I couldn't do without it.  Have a look at CooTek's Site or search Market for CooTek or TouchPal.


What is the difference between Peak schedule/Off-peak schedule in Android mail application?

When you setup a Mail for Exchange, the default synchronization mode is Direct Push.  With Direct Push, the device maintains an open connection so that information is delivered to the device as it becomes available.  The setting for Direct Push in Mail for Exchange is called “Always on.”  The alternative is a Scheduled Push mode where the device is set to check for new messages at a set interval.

Though Direct Push offers more up-to-the-minute message delivery, for some users, increased battery consumption may be a trade-off.  If your battery is not lasting as long as you would like, set a Scheduled Push interval by changing the Peak sync schedule and Off-peak sync schedule in Mail for Exchange.

So you can setup high-frequent mail checks with peak schedules for the time periods when you get more emails and off peak schedules when you normally do not receive more emails, (e.g. after office hours.)

Should you require how-to on setting up the schedules, refer this article.


Will trying to flash an unofficial update with stock recovery harm my device?

Stock recovery should just fail, it will look for a digitally signed package from the manufacturer, not find it, and error out without making changes. If the developer who made the package specifically made it to work for that device and spoofed the signature somehow, it could do anything from work perfectly to perma-brick the device, hard to say.


How to disable secure credentials password?

Have you tried disabling the "Use secure credentials" option in Menu -> Settings -> Location & security, under "Credentials storage" section?


Is it possible to watch Youtube videos on the Youtube App while multitasking

Use multi task option of your phone. Your screen will be split into 2 parts, you can watch Youtube and do other stuff. You can also change the formation of the screen so 90% of the screen is browser/email etc en 10% of screen will be youtube for listening music.

I am pretty sure Android Kitkat can do that – I am doing it right now.


Installing an app from Play Store using the command line

I was looking for the same answer, i can't find a single command to do this, but i found few options that could be useful in such cases:

A. download the .apk to your computer and install the apk from it (just google 'apk downloder' and find one suitable for you):

adb install com.myapp.apk

B. open playstore app from adb and point it to your package, this will look like this:

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d 'market://details?id=com.myapp'

(i'm sure it can be automated to simulate the neccesarry clicks and install the app, but this requires much more work)

none are as easy as just installing from computer cmd, but that what we have now.


It was the Firechat app for me.  It'll be one of the most recent apps you installed if the Bluetooth started turning on out if nowhere.


If you're using an unrooted Android, you can consider using BatterySaver Lollipop Shortcut with Tasker (userguide), AutoShortcut and Nova Launcher.

Fire up Tasker and follow these instructions:

Profile: Event → System → Intent Received:

Action: android.os.action.POWER_SAVE_MODE_CHANGING
Priority: Highest

Task: (Actions):

Task → If → Condition: %mode eq false
Task → Wait → Seconds: 1
Optional: Alert → Flash → Enabling Battery Saver
Plugin → AutoShortcut:

Configuration: Activities (next to Nova launcher's icon) → tap Battery Saver entry and select the entry listing the activity com.fd.batterysaver.ToggleActivity

Profile: State → Power → Power:

Source: Any
tick Invert

Task: (Actions):

Optional: Alert → Flash → Enabling Battery Saver
Plugin → AutoShortcut →

Configuration: Activities (next to Nova launcher's icon) → tap Battery Saver entry and select the entry listing the activity com.fd.batterysaver.ToggleActivity

You can use QuickShortcutMaker in place of Nova Launcher. However, I noticed that when Nova Launcher was not set as default launcher in my stock Android 6.0.1, although Settings app reported Battery Saver mode being enabled, I didn't get to see red shade in status bar and navigation bar. You may have to do some experiments here.

If you've root access, instead of using a shortcut to that battery saver app, you can setup the action Code → Run Shell and enter the following in the command field:

settings put global low_power 1

Make sure to tick Use Root in that action. (I came to know about this trick from this answer of Paweł Zmarzły.)

Whether the Android is rooted or not, the pro version of Battery Saver Lollipop claims to provide support for automation. It might be helpful considering that the free version causes few glitches during toggle. I cannot confirm though.

Information about said Tasker profiles

Alright, so the first profile would make sure that as long as the device is not plugged in to any power source, whenever you would disable Batter Saver mode, whether accidentally or deliberately, the mode would automatically be turned on!

The second profile would make sure that Battery Saver mode gets turned on whenever the device is unplugged from  a power source.


Does the Pixel 3 need an active or passive USB C to 3.5mm Adapter?

Google store doesn't sell this adapter in India but links to retailers whose product description shows it has a DAC chip and therefore  is active similar to this. Note that this works on Pixel 2 and Google Support for Pixel 2 clearly mentions it has a DAC and  is active.


Where can I find documentation for icons used in the notification bar?

You can find a list material icons linked in Android Developers which is as official it can be.

But note that OEMs and carriers are free to add / modify their own icons so it's not possible to have all the icons listed on one site officially.


USB Driver for HTC Dream G1 - 64 bit Windows 7

Go and download the Android SDK installer.
When the SDK setup tool runs, you can select the USB Drivers
The drivers will be in <install_directory>extras\google\usb_driver
find the android_winusb.inf and right click it
click install

if right click -> install doesn't work, then try the following

Start Menu -> Right Click Computer -> Click Properties
Click Device Manager (on the left)
Find the device in the hardware list, will probably have a "warning icon"
Right click the item and select Update Driver Software
Select Browse my computer for driver software
Select the usb driver directory noted above
Check Include subfolders
Click next
finished...

your device should now have usable drivers so you can mount the sdcard.

For reference, the android sdk documents also has a page with links to many of the different OEM drivers too.


Galaxy S2 Messaging: persistent badge number

Head to Settings
Scroll down to find Application manager
Scroll to the right until you reach the page All
Locate Badge-provider
Click on Clear data, if you cannot click clear data then first hit Force stop, then you should be able too.
Restart your phone

(Source)


Share memory access on SD card between a PC and an Android App

There is apparently an app in the Market that does this.  I do not know the name.  It probably requires root.

However, doing so is a terrible idea.  Two operating systems should NEVER access the same disk at the same time, because they do not know about each other's writes.  If you do this you will lose data, possibly everything on your card.  There is no advantage to this anyways unless you are doing something extremely bizarre.


Only one account showing on Google+ Android app

Version 1.0.2 is out, and appears that it's going to fix your issue.

From the release notes:

  What's in this version:

  Spiffy new profile icon on the menu screen
  Handle multiple Gmail accounts on first sign in
  Minor UI polish

(emphasis mine)

Unfortunately, I don't have my own invitation to Google+, so I'm not able to test this.


Warning bar in "Settings - Data usage" disappeared. A bug?

This is indeed a bug, or possibly, an overlook by Google, since the possibility for this bug to happen is very small. The bug occurs when you set the data limit above 700,000,000 GB (or 700 petabyte).
Note: This solution needs root access since it modifies a system file directly.

Open file manager that can browse internal storage (e.g. ES File Explorer)
Browse to /data/system/
Open netpolicy.xml as text file
Find <network-policy> entry which has an attribute of warningBytes="<very_large_number>" (in my case, it's warningBytes="775911474387222528")
Edit the value to reasonable number (e.g. 1000000 for 1MB, this is for temporary value)
Save and close the file
Restart the device (important)
If you don't restart the device, opening "Data usage" will reset and overwrite the file with previous buggy value, thus you have to do it from beginning
Open "Data usage", and the data limit bar should come back

Update: this issue has been mitigated on Android 6.0.1. The maximum warning/limit bar is set to 1TB.

Clamp large data usage values.
Without clamping, they can wrap around to negative values and cause
all sorts of havok.  1TB ought to be enough for anyone: that's 3Mbps
for a solid month.


How can I browse some document-like apps offline?

The app doesn't save anything, and it's using in-app browser to load the codes from GitHub repository. From its app description,

All of my solution files are on GitHub, and are in Java. It contains almost all of the problems of LeetCode except some of them I haven't came up with a good solution. Since this app read files from GitHub repository, it requires network connection. I think this will not require too much data usage. And it make it easy for me to update solutions without update this app.
(Emphasis mine)

Searching based on it returned the corresponding GitHub repository.
Now, given the GitHub repository, the next step is to clone it to the device (e.g. for offline usage). As of current, I only found and tested SGit, and it worked for me.
Usage:

Install and open SGit
Tap Clone (plus icon) on the top bar
For Remote URL, input https://github.com/softstar1990/LeetCode.
For Local Path, input anything that can be used as identifier (e.g. LeetCode).
Tap Clone. The cloned repository will be stored on: [sdcard dir]/Android/data/me.sheimi.sgit/files/repo/[Local Path]
Browse the repository from SGit offline.


Tablet and old Nexus don't appear in device manager

If anyone has a similar problem, I was able to see the last seen date for all my devices here:
https://play.google.com/settings


Home Key pressed when not even touching it?

If you have older firmware than 25.0.A.2.14 it's probably a software issue (check that link: multitouch bug xperia e4g Otherwise it's probably broken screen or another unknown software bug.. :(


Successfully download app 100% but wont install after that

I have the same problem. It get stuck at 100% and doesn't give any notifications.
Nexus 6p running Android 7.0 (not rooted).

After the app reaches 100% I close the play store (swipe it away from recent apps) and start it again, it'll install and download the next app and get stuck at 100% of the next app.

I am repeating the process to download the updates but it is by no means a fix to the problem. But atleast your apps will be updated.


Disable syncing of contact that belongs to multiple groups

You could look at this the other way around and create another group called "not archived" or "active" or something like that, and put all of the contacts that you do want to appear on the phone in that group.

Then you could just sync this group to the phone (and don't select "Friends" "Family" or anything else to sync) and it should work.


How to change device name for Kindle in Nexus 7 2nd Generation (2013)

You can rename from the Amazon website itself:

Manage Your Kindle
Manage Your Devices
Edit (blue link under Edit Kindle Information dialog) > Edit Kindle Information


How do you view a long whatsapp profile message

In the contacts list, tap the photo of the contact in question. This pops up a larger version of the photo, with three icons at the bottom: a message, a telephone, and an information 'i'. Tapping the 'i' takes you to a contact information screen, which includes the full status message.


Sony XPeria Arc: How force DNS resolution with a specific host?

You need a rooted phone for this. First get the /hosts file:

adb pull /system/etc/hosts

This copies it into your current working directory. Now make your changes. (If you're not using a UNIX system make sure that you use something that supports UNIX newlines, like Notepad++, Sublime Text, Gedit etc.)

Then we need to send it back to the device with:

adb remount
adb push hosts /system/etc/hosts

The first line remounts your /system partiton so you can write to, and the second pushes it back. Now reboot your device. As you already have a terminal open just type:

adb reboot


Does a minor software update effect rooting method?

This ultimately depends on the manufacturer. Samsung is not at all friendly to the rooting of it's stock ROMs, and does lots of modification to it's Android ROMs, so I'd say it is a real possibility. If it were me, I would install Cynaogenmod instead if I were to root but still wanted OTA updates.

Google itself, which is where the baseline Android comes from, usually doesn't care all that much if people want to root their devices, and usually doesn't plug holes that allow rooting unless customer data is at risk as a result.


On the Samsung Galaxy S5, how do I change the default USB connection type?

You have to enable the developer options, which allow setting a default USB mode.


According to the android developers guide

  This grid can vary by device; for example, many handsets offer a 4x4 grid, and tablets can offer a larger, 8x7 grid

That being said, most phones have a 4x4 grid. One exception that I know of is the Galaxy Note which has a 5x5 grid. Also I've read about custom ROMS or mods that change a default 4x4 grid to 4x5 or 5x5


Enter *#*#7378423#*#* to access the service menu.

Tap Service info > Configuration

If unlocked, it says, Bootloader unlock done under Rooting Status


The loud speaker on my Samsung Captivate stopped working! Is my phone broken or can I fix it myself?

The Samsung Captivate's speaker can work its way loose, usually after the phone takes a hard knock (like being dropped). In most cases you can fix it yourself by opening the back and pressing HARD on the speaker with your thumb. You should probably power the phone off to do this.


It appeared to be a bizarre SIM issue: after replacing the SIM I haven't seen such behavior for more than a month. It's weird that the SIM would fail sporadically and a reboot would fix it, also that it would happily work on other devices. Anyway, this is hopefully solved now.


Is there a way to access and edit Apple's Reminders.app database from Android?

There is a way to sync reminders to your Android device described on CNet. The solution consists of two apps, SmoothSync for Cloud Calendar and Tasks. With this combination, you'll have a separate reminder-style app that syncs with your iCloud account.

First buy and install SmoothSync and add your iCloud account to it. After this, install Tasks and wait a couple of minutes for the sync to happen, and after this the setup is complete and ready to use.


IIRC, one difference is that ODIN can change the filesystem to a different "format". for example, there are ROM for the Galaxy S devices that would change the filesystem from RFS to ext4. if you did a nandroid of the device, before you flashed the ROM, then decided to go back to the "Stock ROM", your filesystem would still be ext4. This could cause issues if it is not a filesystem that the Stock ROM can deal with, or expect.

As for, "Is it better", it does make it easy for Samsung owners to go back to complete stock, but Nandroid is still a full backup of your device at that time and could, essentially, work just as well.


Find a recovery, such as CWM or TWRP, and download an image. Then use "fastboot boot recovery.img" to boot into the recovery file and reflash a stock ROM, which should solve the problem. Note that even if you don't have a sd card, you should have a partition called /sdcard on the internal memory, which you usually can push files to. Also note that adb access can usually be gotten in recovery. Good luck!


How do I set up Slack to send notifications to my Android phone?

You might have different settings for each channel, so that the channel you are testing with, does not send mobile notifications.

With a channel selected in the sidebar, click the Notifications icon (the bell), and check the settings for the channel you are viewing:

In the Mobile push notifications section, make sure you have not selected Nothing. And make sure you have not checked the Mute this channel option:


Can I use an android phone running Ice Cream Sandwich to test apps created in Gingerbread?

In short, yes. Android apps are upward compatible as @ce4 said. But if you are going to build an app, its best to compile it on the latest version of android, ie Jelly Bean 4.2.1. This question would have been better suited on StackOverflow.


I figured it out; I forgot you can hold down on a blank spot on the 'desktop' and it'll pull up a new screen for Widgets, Wallpapers, or Settings. I was able to access it there.


That screenshot suffices to say that the Netflix app is a permanent bloatware. A permanent bloatware has Disable option instead of Uninstall option. Furthermore, it is not the only bloatware. Many folks consider Google apps as a bloatware too. Regardless, your only choice to get rid of that bloatware permanently is to root the device and delete its APK. Otherwise,  because Disable option is available it should work for non-roted users. However, If you are keen to uninstall the app without root, you can use adb but do know that the app would return after a factory reset. Follow the link here for that method.


Flashed addonsu-arm-signed.zip on LineageOS, still no root

Go to Settings.
Click on About phone and then tap 7 times on the Build number.
Navigate back, open Developer Options.
Tap Root Access.
Select Apps or Apps and ADB.

Now you have root and Titanium Backup finds it:


i9300 bootloop and cannot install GApps?

This is on Other Resurrection Remix ROM's is normal.You're right, i had the same problem with that.But try this (i fixed with below after two try) :
Just like this ; (it maybe take a ten minute or more)

Download the latest build of Resurrection Remix ROM
Take a nandroid backup
Flash ROM usingrecovery
Flash Gapps (Latest build, availabe in here !)
Wipe cache
Wipe dalvik cache
Reboot
Enjoy.

But please remember, ask this question from Developer for Bug fixes or More information.
anyway, hope this helps.


There's no official answer for this question from Google.

Here's an answer from the Android Authority Website:

  We finally have the gooey answer to the Android M conundrum and it’s Marshmallow. Not a major shock, it was always a front-runner, but some people have been surprised by the fact that Marshmallow will be version 6.0 of Android and not 5.2 or 5.5. Should a whole number leap imply some major overhaul? Why is Google jumping straight to 6.0? There are various possible reasons.

  It never made sense

  Did Google’s version system ever really make sense? Anyone who has worked with programmers will understand the often arbitrary nature of version numbers. Traditionally, the first number is supposed to mark a major version and the second number a minor version, but that’s just a general convention, it’s not an unbreakable rule. In practice, version numbers often just mark the point that something was pushed out the door. They’re useful because they make it possible to track down problems later, but they don’t really tell the end user anything, and they’re not really meant to.

  Let’s take a brief look at the historical line-up of Android versions:

  Android 1.0
  Android 1.1
  Android 1.5 Cupcake
  Android 1.6 Donut
  Android 2.0 Éclair
  Android 2.2 Froyo
  Android 2.3 Gingerbread
  Android 3.0 Honeycomb
  Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
  Android 4.1 (4.2, 4.3) Jelly Bean
  Android 4.4 Kitkat
  Android 5.0 (5.1) Lollipop

  Take a look through the versions and try to find a pattern that establishes consistently why some versions are whole number leaps and others aren’t. The closest you could argue is probably that whole numbers indicate an aesthetic leap, but Éclair didn’t really and Marshmallow won’t either. What does it matter when the system never really made sense anyway?

  The dessert names are for users, marking larger leaps of style and function, but even the incremental updates within names have sometimes delivered more than just bug fixes. There’s no real consistency there.

  Maybe it is a major version

  Perhaps you could argue that Marshmallow is a major update, even if there isn’t an aesthetic overhaul. We’re getting a much improved, granular app permission system, a revamped payment system in Android Pay, contextual data with Now on Tap, support for fingerprint sensors, seamless custom Chrome tabs for apps, deep linking directly into apps, better cut and paste, support for USB Type C, a battery life boost with Doze, and the list goes on.

  That sounds like a lot. But then Froyo, Gingerbread, and Jelly Bean all delivered long lists of improvements without getting a number bump. Push notifications, Wi-Fi hotspot functionality, NFC, Google Now, IR blaster support, Bluetooth LE, and many other things came without whole number updates. What makes Marshmallow different?

  Leaving Lollipop behind

  It could be just as much to do with distancing Android from version 5.0 Lollipop as it is with reaching version 6.0. It’s no secret that Lollipop has negative associations for some people. There have been serious battery life issues for a lot of devices, Wi-Fi problems, lagging, stuttering, and frequent crashes, not to mention a host of smaller bugs. Version 5.1 doesn’t seem to have solved everyone’s issues, either.

  It has also been far from a smooth roll out. Google’s latest figures suggest 5.0 adoption is at 15.5% with 5.1 accounting for another 2.6%. Bugs galore will ensure that Lollipop isn’t as fondly remembered as it might have been, but it’s not just the problems, it’s also the design changes. The Priority Mode has not been popular with people who want a simple silent option, widget support disappeared from the lock screen, and not everyone likes the new Material Design aesthetic.

  Microsoft was so keen to distance itself from the unpopular Windows 8 that it skipped a whole number to land on Windows 10. Maybe Google is trying to make a similar break and show clearly that Marshmallow has moved on from Lollipop. If you didn’t like 5.0 then try 6.0.

  Switching to the annual release cycle

  We were discussing how a yearly release cycle could improve the Android experience a while back. Predictability and stability makes it easier for everyone to plan. It will help tackle the fragmentation issue and introduce a bit more clarity. OEMs, carriers, and developers can work with an established schedule far more easily than a series of random updates. It also means one big exciting release with the attendant fanfare each year, instead of a steady dribble of smaller improvements. That’s something that the media and consumers are more likely to get excited about.

  It makes a lot of sense to assign a new name and number to the annual update and to save those .x releases for minor changes and bug fixes. It’s nice and neat. It’s a system that makes logical sense. Everyone can grasp what’s going on and that can only be a good thing.


How to get Power Control Widget (Status bar widget) on stock rom

Stock ROMs for some handsets from some manufacturers actually include such a widget.  For example, Samsung's TouchWiz overlay provides a similar looking functionality, although not as configurable or flexible as the one from CyanogenMod ROM.

For other stock ROMs that don't have this feature built-in, 3rd-party apps (like the one you already tried) are the only options.  Even if your device is rooted, porting this widget from CM is not an easy task, since it heavily relies on changes to Android framework and other core services that are specific to CM.  In other words, by the time you're done porting all the prerequisites, you'd end up running CM anyways.


What way of controlling volume is more battery efficient?

Conclusion first: It doesn't really matter as this operation needs almost no power anyway for both ways.

Changing the volume alone has only a minimal affect on the battery given the screen stays off.

Reason: If you listen to music there's already some processing going on and increasing/decreasing volume levels has a very low processing demand (almost none). It's more of a side-note event for Android.

The volume buttons on the side of your device trigger some event and so do the buttons attached to the string of your headset. I'd say it's equal or at least very close to equal.

You can have a look over at George Smart's HTC headphone analysis and see that the L channel is not shorted against the common ground. Instead some coded resistor values is used to pull the common control line (also used for the microphone) which probably has a high impedance.


Can I connect to WEP-secured MyWi network from iPhoDroid?

Have you checked whether the network is broadcasting its SSID? If it isn't then your phone won't find it and the network won't appear in the list. You can enter the network details manually by going into the Wi-Fi settings (under Wireless and network on my 2.1 phone), then clicking Add Wi-Fi network (at the bottom of the Wi-Fi networks section), then entering the network's SSID.

If you're already doing this and the network isn't being added, it may be that the router has restricted the client devices that can connect to it. In this case you'll have to use a client with an established connection and modify the settings to allow your phone. You can typically add the MAC address to a whitelist. You can typically find your phone's MAC address under Settings->About phone->Status->Wi-Fi MAC address


Why are apps on Aptoide newer than the Play Store?

Staged rollouts, alpha and beta testing.

APKMirror states testing builds clearly, for example on Google Apps:


Samsung Galaxy S2 - sound notification does not always work

Are you sure that you receive the message?

If you don't get a beep nor a top screen message but you get the message once you re-enter on the talk application (after a small delay) maybe the problem is that you lose the connection with the server.


This is a feature of Huawei's Android devices known as "Find me" function.

For video demonstration: Huawei P8: Find Your Phone

The feature works by calling the name of the phone then saying "where are you?", then the device will turn on its display, turn on the flashlight, play music, and saying "I'm here".

When the phone is paired to Huawei HONOR Band, it can also be triggered by accessing the "Find my phone" feature from the band (thanks to user Bangyou for additional info).

Depending on the model, the setting may be found on:

Settings - Speech Awareness - Wake Up
Settings - Smart Assistant - Voice Control - Voice Wakeup
Settings - Smart control - Wake Up

Additional sources:

Reddit - Random "I'm here" alert
Reddit - Interesting "I am here" function


System images do not show up in SDK Manager

There may be the proxy problem. Go to the option under tools and enter the Http proxy and port no.


Root One X.

Official bootloader unlock and unofficial unlock.

Found all of these via Google. You can always search online for these kind of questions. And this question is likely to be closed down.


How to get my phone to access WIFI channel 13?

My phone can now detect ch 13 on 2.4 GHz wifi.

Here's how I did it. I borrowed a local sim card. As soon as the phone booted up, if was able to see the wifi signal. I confirmed that it indeed was on ch 13 with both wifi analyzer and on my pc.

I have since removed the borrowed sim card, and the phone continues to see channel 13. So indeed, as suggested in the comments by @Robert,

  auto detection of the country you are in e.g. via used SIM card

Is the correct answer.


How can one create a file shortcut inside the Android file system?

What you are looking for is called symbolic linking

ln -s command is your friend. Now depending on your device and the file manager you use, this process can differ. I don't think you'll need root for this, but if your device doesn't come with symbolic linking by default, you'll need root to add this.

And like the other comment said, it's better to use a Gallery app for photos rather than doing this.


Using a different account for writing reviews on Play Store

Google Play write a review does not say that your review account has to be the same as the account on the phone. You can have multiple accounts on your device.

So I would conclude what you are doing isn't wrong, but I see no advantages of doing so. On the contrary, it may cause confusion. Let's say a developer responded to your review saying that a paid app isn't working and asks you for app logs, they would see a different account


What is the difference between the official and unofficial version of a ROM?

Rahul Gopi describes the basic concept of official and unofficial, but I'd like to add some important additions.

Unofficial is not necessarily different from official in sense of code and result. One can build purely from codes supplied by the ROM team without additions, and the result will be exactly the same as Nightlies, minus some fingerprints here and there that shows who built it.
Official is not necessarily better than unofficial. For many popular devices, both exists, and the developer for unofficial versions will add tweaks to differentiate, e.g. a custom kernel, slimmed down build (i.e. removed some preinstalled apps), themed to the developer's liking. This is what I'm doing monthly as a home compiler, by the way.
Official is not always perfect. Sometimes developers have unreleased patches that aren't pushed to upstream yet, or haven't been approved in code review for various reasons, leaving long overdue bugs in official builds. Devs can push out unofficial builds with those baked in when building locally, thus fixing the bugs.
When a new Android version releases, unofficial builds almost always come first. This is due to the strict requirements (e.g. what basic features should at least work) the ROM team choose to enforce on official releases. Contrarily, devs for unofficial builds are mostly concerned about bringing the version to the mass as early as possible as a proof-of-concept.

For those reasons above, you should not assume that "who builds it doesn't matter" - look carefully at the intro of the unofficial ones (because official ones rarely offers such intro), and decide if it has an edge you need.


Calendar sync with Google Calendar notification time

In your Google Calendar on the web you can set a default notification period for the events you subsequently set up on the web calendar.  In the calendar app provided with Gingerbread I don't see any similar default setting but you can set a notification for each event you set up.

FYI Google has numerous problems with alarms in Gingerbread.  One is that if you subsequently change an alarm that was set up in the web calendar using the web calendar that change may not sync to the phone.  Another is that eventually notifications will start coming late and there is no known fix (in spite of Google presumably knowing about it for almost a year although they've only apparently actually acknowledged knowing about it for about six months).


This has happened to me on my Samsung Note 4 just recently under similar circumstances. I don't cross timezone and it had nothing to do with a time change because none happened. I'm also using Lollipop 5.0.1 so it doesn't appear to be an OS issue.

Mine was in the Google Calendar, not the phone's default one also. It did seem that it shifted after I synchronized the calendars with Google. It only happened to the event I had sat as reoccurring on an 'every other' setting.
I'm guessing it may be a bug in the synchronization system trying to figure the days when having sat them with a 'every other whatever' type setting.

I fixed this error by editing the event (selecting ALL events) then moving it back to the correct Saturday and editing the occurrence to 'every second Saturday of the month' as it was and it seemed to correct all of them when synchronized.