Root Your Phone

I have been asked a lot about how to root specific phones. I am going to create a static page with a list of some great resources on how to root thT specific device.

Remember that you should backup as much as you can before following through these guides. Also do your researchy. Familiarize yourself with the tools to avoid messing up your phone.

Also keep in mind that OldAndroid is not responsible for damaged phones or lost data of any kind. You are on your own if something bad happens.  By all means post your questions or issues, though, and I will try to help you if something does go wrong.

Getting spammed? Try Addons Detector

I have heard of a lot of complaints of adware type popups appearing on Android phones. It appears as a star icon in the notification area.  Some peoplee prefer this to a traditional "click on" banner ad floating in the app itself, and others see it as an invasion of their privacy.

However you feel about it I have researched a few ways to get rid of it.  After reading through the airpush.com website (which seems to be the main source) I discovered that they have an opt-out program. The main problem here is that this opt-out program is provided in the form of the app and does access some semi-personal information (phone info, such as a serial number). You simply download it from market, to the phone that you want opted out and it stops them from serving you ads.

If you are interested in this option check it out here:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.airpush.optout

Another option that I found is an advertisement detector app that scans all of your apps and let's you know what apps have what types of advertising in them. It is called Addons Detector. This is a great option to allow you to see what types of advertising is in all of your apps and make the call if you want to continue using the app or not. It also tells you if the apps are linked to Amazon Appstore or if the developer uses Google Analytics.  If you click on the listed app it takes you to the screen where you can uninstall the app.

Find that app here:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.denper.addonsdetector&hl=en

So get out there and take care of this if you are getting these ads and if they are bothering you.  Also keep in mind that the developer of the app is getting paid for the ads and it is a good way to reward them without having to pay for anything out of your pocket...

Music added to Android Market (for some)

An overnight update has added the Music category to Android market for some users. The version number still remains the same at 3.3.11, though the new option is there.

To use the music feature you also have to download the new Google Music app from Android Market.  This should give Android devices a little bit of an edge over the iPhone with all it's new features that iTunes lack.

Stay tuned for a more in depth look.

Ice Cream Sandwich Launcher

Excited about Ice Cream Sandwich but can't wait for launch?  Well try out this.  A bunch of amazing developers over at XDA have ported the Launcher from Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) into an APK file that can be installed on most phones.

Simply download the APK file and install it on your phone.  Once installed click the icon and it will install it as a launcher.  Works fast and looks great, with a ton of new cool features.

Download it right now from XDA by clicking here.

PS: Don't forget to check out (and download) the Old Android App here!

Samsung Epic Gingerbread Update

A tipster sent me a message to let me know that Sprint has rolled out an update for the Samsung Epic that should be rolling out over the air over the next couple of days. If you are an owner and want the update a little quicker it is available for download directly from Google.  This download is the exact same update that would be downloaded to your phone and is safe to install.  (Just don't pull the battery in the middle of the update, and make sure your battery is charged up.)

Here's the directions, (from Android Central):

1. Download the update from Google.
2. Rename the file to update.zip. (Make sure you don’t do update.zip.zip if you’re on Windows.)
3. Move the update.zip file to your SD card.
4. Turn off your phone.
5. Hold the Volume Down and Camera buttons, then press the power button.
6. The update should automatically launch itself. Sit back and relax.
7. Reboot the phone.

PS: Don't forget to check out (and download) the Old Android App here!

Make Your Phone Look Like an iPhone or Windows Phone 7

Love the ability to change up the look of your phone?  Have a friend with an Apple iPhone or Microsoft Windows Phone 7 device that likes to brag about how incredible the interface is?  Well that’s one of the great things about Android.  You have the ability to change up your home menu to make it look like another type of phones.

Today I am going to show you a couple of great home replacement apps that will make your phone look like an iPhone or a Windows Phone 7 phone.  

Starting off with the iPhone we have an app called EspierLauncher.  It provides a nearly identical home screen to the iPhone. If you are familiar with the MUIU custom rom, it gives you the same sort of interface without having to reflash your whole phone. It gives you a bunch of iPhone features:

1. The ability to have the universal search as a screen to the left of the home screen.

2. Pressing and holding an app allows you to either put it into a folder, move them around, or uninstall them.

3. No app tray.

4. It auto loads all of your icons into the home screen pages.

5. Plus a bunch more iPhone looking coolness.

Next up is the Windows Phone 7 interface, which I will affectionately refer to as WP7. For that we will turn our attention over to an app appropriately called Launcher7.  Launcher7 gives you the start screen look of WP7 along with the ability to customize your tiles, and pin an app to the start screen.  it also allows you to swipe to the right screen and get a full list of all your apps. The colors are customizable and you can even create custom tiles using your own images.

So that is a couple of examples of ways you can change up your Android phone to make it look more like and iPhone or a Windows Phone 7 phone.  

PS: Don't forget to check out (and download) the Old Android App here!

Android Market Rant

Before I get started with my little rant I wanted to say that I am not bashing Android in any way, just a little frustrated with a little aspect of it, and am seeking a solution. I give a huge amount of credit to the developers! But, if anyone has any suggestions for me, please feel free to comment or send me an email at oldandroidsite@gmail.com (or via twitter: @oldandroidsite).

If you are an email “power user” like I am you probably have a bunch of email addresses on your Android phone.  One problem that I have seen on my Android device is that the Market app gets confused about which account to attach your apps to when you download them.  For example I have my main email address that I use for everything and then an email address that I use for my website plus and email for my Android apps.  I also even have a SPAM email address that I use for signing up for stuff that I don’t want to get email from.
 The problem lies when I check that email than go into market to download an app. It seems to attach the download to that email address instead of my primary email account. So what I decided to do to combat this is to reload my secondary emails and see what happens.  To do this I went into the Settings – Accounts & Sync menu and selected one of my secondary emails. Then just press “Remove Account” twice (once on the initial screen, than again on the popup) and the account is gone. For this experiment I made a quick list of the apps that were attached to this secondary account, just incase they all went away, but fortunately they are all still there.

The next step of the experiment was to verify if the apps were still attached to me in Market.  Apparently they aren’t.  They are still installed, but kind of in the dark when it comes to the Market app.  If I am to do a search for an app that I know needed an update, once I find it does still show that the update is needed, but only then does it attach to the primary email account. This seems like a lot of effort just to fix an annoyance with the phone.  The hardest part of the whole process is that I now have around 50 apps on my phone that aren’t going to update because they aren’t attached to the Market.
 Another solution that I see is that the (Root Only) app Titanium Backup has an option that will “Attach Market” if you long press on an app if gives that option.  The downside to this is that the feature is only available through the donation version of the app, which I highly recommend, but can totally understand that not everyone is willing to part with the handful of dollars for an app like that, especially if it is just because of this annoyance.
 The last attempt that I am trying is the download an app called Zemna Applist Backup which is an application that takes all of your apps and creates a document with all of the Android market links.  This seems to work, but you still have to know which ones aren’t already associated with your primary account.  PLUS, once you click on the “orphaned” apps they just show up as installed and the only way to reassign them is to uninstall and reinstall them, which could take hours with 50+ apps.

Anyone out there have any suggestions?

PS: Don't forget to check out (and download) the Old Android App here!

StumbleUpon for Android

If you are at all like me you may spend a little too much time surfing the web.  If you love to surf the web as much as I do than you probably already use the StumbleUpon service.  If not you will definitely want to start.

StumbleUpon is both a great service for discovering new websites and an addiction.  I say addiction because once you start you can't stop.  Traditionally StumbleUpon is a browser addon that sits at the top of your screen and has a button marked (appropriately so) "Stumble".  When you click the button you are taken to a random website.  Once there you can either give it a thumbs up or down, or you can write a review of the site.

Sounds simple enough, right?  Well what if you could have that same capability in the palm of your hand?  Right on your Android device?  Well now you can.  Simply install the app, log in and all of your favorites are now available to you, plus you can "Stumble" for some new favorites.

Wasting time is not just reserved for at home anymore!

PS: Don't forget to check out (and download) the Old Android App here!

Android Market Updated Again

Google is at it again adding a few nice features to the Market App.  My favorite is the option to change the default setting for auto updates so that all your apps will auto update, plus the ability to only autoupdate on Wifi.

Download it from here!

Via: Android Police

PS: Don't forget to check out (and download) the Old Android App here!