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If you ask a question on IRC, and get an answer, feel free to add it and the answer to the Unsorted section of the FAQ. If not you may get lucky by adding it to the unanswered questions section below.
A: Well considering that most of these questions were asked on #Android@irc.freednode.net, I would say visitors to #android. However, it's really for anyone who has serious technical interest in the Android platform.
(Brian Gupta) initially wrote the FAQ, but many people have helped. Feel free to contact
with any suggestions, and any questions that should be added.
A: There is a list of mailing lists here:
Also you can try IRC (#) Also the xda-developers mailing list has a lot of Android discussion.
A: #android, #android-dev and #android-root (All on irc.freenode.net). Also Jay Freeman (saurik) is hosting: #android@ and last but not least is #android-downloads (our channel, kinda small and empty, but still there)
#android - Official Android-platform channel (IE: OS discussion)
#android-dev - Official channel to discuss app development
#android-firehose - Live stream of all commits to the Android Open Source Project
#android-root - Rooting, custom ROMs, etc
#android-offtopic - Fans of Android can hang out
#androidnyc - New York City Android channel
#nookcolor - Unofficial channel for Nook Color hacking
#cyanogenmod - Forum to discus leading custom ROM
A: An IRC bot that collects a lot of "interesting", and occasionally (rarely) useful information. Be aware, infobot sits on many IRC channels... and logs:
(Update: infobot has been banned from #android.)
A: Absolutely not. Check the following:
A: Yes, the "bugdroid" is licensed under the creative commons, although the font used in the Android logo is trademarked and off limits. (not the font on the G1, the futuristic font used to create the word "Android" on many of the logos. Here is a freely reusable sample image:
(with transparent background)
A: Yes. You can find it here:
A: To put it simply - the Linux kernel has wide hardware and industry support, and keeping GPL code in the kernel as much as possible makes a pretty clear line between GPLed stuff and unencumbered stuff, but vendors are somewhat scared of the GPL, so it is avoided as much as possible outside the kernel. It seems that currently bluez is about the only userspace code in android which is GPLed. Official reasons for why to use a Linux kernel from a Google IO preso:
Great memory and process management
Permissions-based security model
Proven driver model
Support for shared libraries
It's already open source!
For an unofficial explanation of why Google prefers the Apache2 license over the GPL license, please see this ArsTechnica article:
A: Apparently the author has ancestors from Dalvik, Iceland. (Or so the story goes).
A: First, enable then disable Airplane mode. As a last resort, reboot the phone.
A:The following releases have been made public
1.0 (branch name unknown, backnaming it Apple Pie)
1.1 (branch name unknown, backnaming Banana bread)
1.5 (Cupcake branch)
1.6 (Donut branch)
2.0 (Eclair branch)
2.1 (Eclair branch)
2.2 (Froyo branch)
2.3 (Gingerbread branch)
3.0 (Honeycomb branch)
3.1 (Honeycomb branch)
4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich branch)
4.1 (Jelly Bean branch)
4.2 (Jelly Bean branch)
4.3 (Jelly Bean branch)
4.4 (KitKat branch)
5.0 (Lollipop branch)
A: Android 1.5. It was the first major update (and it was major) to Android that supported devices other than the G1. See the following link for more details.
Notable changes introduced in cupcake:
Applications
New features
Save attachments from MMS.
Significant bug fixes
Faster conversation list scrolling
Significant bug fixes
Accounts that were marked "never check" are not auto-checked.
Date & time displayed using user preference (e.g. 24 hr vs. AM/PM).
cc: displayed in message view.
Relaxed POP3 parser rules so it works with non-compliant email servers.
Password quoting bugs in IMAP.
Makes it work for users with funny chars in their password (e.g. spaces).
Various sources of errors in auto & manual account setup.
Improvements on how we report various connection errors. Makes it much easier for user to diagnose failed account setups.
New-mail notifications for POP3 accounts.
Properly recover from POP3 connection failures, so that the next connection has a chance of working properly.
Remove automatic accounts setup entries that were broken or not testable.
Minor fixes to a few of the remaining entries.
Improvements to warning dialogs used for a few special cases.
New accounts are now set to check every 15 minutes (instead of defaulting to "never").
Fixed a bug causing approximately 1 in 25 outbound messages to freeze up the IMAP connection (to a Gmail based server) when transferred to the Sent folder.
This broke the entire connection so new messages could not be downloaded either.
Unit test framework so Email can be extended & tested more reliably.
Fix IMAP manually-created accounts so message delete works properly.
Alarm Clock
Significant bug fixes
Alert now plays audio/vibe directly, rather than through AlarmManager. AlarmClock alert starts playing audio/vibe in its IntentReceiver, rather than on activity start. These changes should prevent alarms from being blocked by modal dialogs.
Package Installer
Significant bug fixes
Bugs related to replacing existing applications.
New features
New menu option to list running processes in Settings-&ManageApplications.
New features
Music playback fades in after suspending for phone call.
New media search intent allows for 3rd party apps to launch or respond to media searches based on artist, album, or title.
Affects: Music Player, YouTube, Browser applications.
New features
Updated WebKit browser core, synced with Nov 2008 WebKit version.
Support for new, optimized JavaScript engine (SquirrelFish).
Copy / paste is enabled in the browser. To copy with touch, press and hold the shift key and select the text. Releasing the shift key or ending the touch drag copies the text. To copy with the trackball, press and hold the shift key, move the cursor to the selection start, click the trackball, and move the trackball to the extend the selection. Releasing the shift key, or clicking the trackball a second time, copies the text.
Find is enabled in the browser. To find text, choose it from the menu and type the text to find.
Drawing has been sped up substantially by supporting partial content invalidates and partial screen invalidates. Pages with animations are 5x faster.
VoiceDialer
New features
VoiceDialer supports 'open app' command
Camera/Gallery
New features
Video recorder mode
Share intent for videos
Video thumbnails
Local file playback
Download manager
New features
Support for HTTP codes 301, 302, 303 and 307 (redirects).
HTTP code 503 is now handled, with support for retry-after in delay-seconds.
Downloads that were cleanly interrupted are now resumed instead of failing.
Applications can now pause their downloads.
Retry delays are now randomized.
Connectivity is now checked on all interfaces.
Downloads with invalid characters in file name can now be saved.
New features
Support of touch events in WebView.
New JavaScript engine (SquirrelFish) in WebView.
Input method framework, for soft keyboards and other on-screen input methods.
Includes new APIs for applications to interact with input methods, and the ability for third party developers to write their own input methods.
Access to the raw audio data for playback and recording from application code.
New PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT option.
Support for top-level boolean resources.
Tactile feedback to the LockPatternView. Tactile feedback can be enabled/disabled by going to Settings & Security & location and then checking/unchecking "Use tactile feedback". Note that this can be used independently of the visual feedback of the lines ("Use visible pattern"). Thus it gives users a middle ground between showing the lines on the screen and having no feedback at all.
PackageManager changes to support un-installation of partially installed applications. Added new flag PackageManager.GET_UNINSTALLED_PACKAGES to include partially installed apps in all relevant PackageManager api's. ManageApplications screen now lists such partially installed apps and the user can uninstall these applications completely.
Support third party updates of system applications. New menu options in Settings-&ManageApplications to list updated system applications.
Framework support to list current running processes. New API in ActivityManager.
Framework feature to declare required configurations by applications. New manifest attribute uses-configuration in android manifest.
Hardware accelerated video encode (video recorder) in opencore.
Simplified SREC speech recognition API available.
Streaming audio I/O for applications.
Significant bug fixes
Fixed issues with saving state in the view hierarchy, so that you can properly subclass from something like TextView and create your own state that inherits from that provided by TextView.
TextView now implements onKeyMultiple(), so that flinging the trackball will result in accelerated scrolling. This required some changes to movement methods, and included some improvements to the acceleration computed when flinging.
Framework bug fixes in PackageManager to share/un-share permissions for applications with shared uid's.
Significant rework of Settings-&ManageApplications Performance and UI enhancements.
A number of settings in android.provider.Settings.System were moved to android.provider.Settings.Secure. Only system software can modify these settings. Additionally, a new permission, WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS, is required to access these settings. The old constants in Settings.System have been deprecated.
It is possible to read settings values via **** Settings.System using the deprecated constants. However, attempts to modify these settings via Settings.System will result in a log message and the setting value will be left unchanged.
Many bug fixes in the media framework
New features
Support for A2DP & AVRCP profiles.
Significant bug fixes
First connection after pairing always fails on many carkits.
Mini Cooper and some late model BMW cars fail to use Bluetooth or take 2 minutes for Phone Book transfer.
System software
New features
New kernel based on Linux 2.6.27.
Improvements to the wakelock API.
Work to transition to the USB Gadget Framework underway.
Basic x86 support.
Radio & Telephony
New features
SIM Application Toolkit 1.0.
Green CALL button is no longer a shortcut for "add a new call". This has been a rarely used feature and confusing if triggered accidentally.
Longer in-call screen timeout when using the speakerphone.
"Show dialpad" / "Hide dialpad" item added to the in-call menu, to make it easier to discover the DTMF dialpad.
Significant bug fixes
An obscure case where the Phone UI could cause the device to not go to sleep on its own. This would happen if user bails out of the in-call screen by hitting HOME, followed by the call disconnecting remotely.
Don't allow a single tap to open the in-call dialpad. It is now required to touch and drag it.
This makes it much harder to accidentally open the dialpad by touching the screen with your face.
Developer Tools
New features
Enable handset manufacturers to extend the Android SDK with add-ons. SDK add-ons will include:
system libraries to let developers use additional APIs provided by handset manufacturers or from other 3rd party vendors that handset manufacturers chose to include
emulator system images, skins, and hardware configuration to let developers test their applications on their Android implementation
Build System
New features
The functions in build/envsetup.sh should be much more useful
A: Donut is the Android development branch following cupcake. (released as Android 1.6) It adds the following features:
Built in Google Translate
Text to speech
gestures/handwriting recognition
local search integrated with web search
A: Android 2.0/2.1 which introduced the following features:
Account manager API
Sync adapter API
Quick contact
Unified inbox with support for
multiple Google/Gmail accounts
Microsoft Exchange/Activesync accounts
New Bluetooth API
HTML5 compatible browser
Overhauled camera app
Improved accuracy and usability of onscreen keyboard
Additional screen resolutions and sizes
Updated UI
New Gallery app
Live wallpapers
New News/weather widget
A: Android 2.2:
JIT (Just in Time) Compiler
2 to 2.5 times faster due to JIT compiler.
Enterprise
Microsoft Exchange friendly!
New APIs for device management - remote wipe, etc.
browser enhancements
2-3 x performance improvement (Chrome JS engine) "World's Fastest Mobile Browser"
Application data backup API, in addition to the installed applications backup
Cloud to phone API (Send intents from PC browser to phone)
Android Market improvements
Improved search
(Quick search)
Search from within app data
Official Apps on SD card support
"Update all apps"
Optional auto-update of all apps
Crash reporting API
Macromedia/Adobe Flash 10.1 support
Internet connection sharing
Tethering to a single PC over USB or Bluetooth
Mobile WiFi hotspot/router
Separation of core OS and Google apps
A: Released as Android 2.3.
Details provided by Google on December 6th, 2010:
Update: See
for more enhancements
New user features
UI refinements for simplicity and speed
Faster, more intuitive text input
One-touch word selection and copy/paste
Improved power management
Control over applications
New ways of communicating, organizing
Internet calling
Near-field communications
Downloads management
New Developer Features
Enhancements for gaming
Performance:
Android 2.3 includes a variety of improvements across the system that make common operations faster and more efficient for all applications. Of particular interest to game developers are:
Concurrent garbage collector — The Dalivik VM introduces a new, concurrent garbage collector that minimizes application pauses, helping to ensure smoother animation and increased responsiveness in games and similar applications.
Faster event distribution — The plaform now handles touch and keyboard events faster and more efficiently, minimizing CPU utilization during event distribution. The changes improve responsiveness for all applications, but especially benefit games that use touch events in combination with 3D graphics or other CPU-intensive operations.
Updated video drivers — The platform uses updated third-party video drivers that improve the efficiency of OpenGL ES operations, for faster overall 3D graphics performance.
Native input and sensor events: Applications that use native code can now receive and process input and sensor events directly in their native code, which dramatically improves efficiency and responsiveness.
Native libraries exposed by the platform let applications handle the same types of input events as those available through the framework. Applications can receive events from all supported sensor types and can enable/disable specific sensors and manage event delivery rate and queueing.
Gyroscope and other new sensors, for improved 3D motion processing- Android 2.3 adds API support for several new sensor types, including gyroscope, rotation vector, linear acceleration, gravity, and barometer sensors. Applications can use the new sensors in combination with any other sensors available on the device, to track three-dimensional device motion and orientation change with high precision and accuracy. For example, a game application could use readings from a gyroscope and accelerometer on the device to recognize complex user gestures and motions, such as tilt, spin, thrust, and slice.
Open API for native audio - The platform provides a software implementation of Khronos OpenSL ES, a standard API that gives applications access to powerful audio controls and effects from native code. Applications can use the API to manage audio devices and control audio input, output, and processing directly from native code
Native graphics management - The platform provides an interface to its Khronos EGL library, which lets applications manage graphics contexts and create and manage OpenGL ES textures and surfaces from native code.
Native access to Activity lifecycle, window management - Native applications can declare a new type of Activity class, NativeActivity whose lifecycle callbacks are implemented directly in native code. The NativeActivity and its underlying native code run in the system just as do other Activities — they run in the application's system process and execute on the application's main UI thread, and they receive the same lifecycle callbacks as do other Activities. The platform also exposes native APIs for managing windows, including the ability to lock/unlock the pixel buffer to draw directly into it. Through the API, applications can obtain a native window object associated with a framework Surface object and interact with it directly in native code.
Native access to assets, storage - Applications can now access a native Asset Manager API to retrieve application assets directly from native code without needing to go through JNI. If the assets are compressed, the platform does streaming decompression as the application reads the asset data. There is no longer a limit on the size of compressed .apk assets that can be read. Additionally, applications can access a native Storage Manager API to work directly with OBB files downloaded and managed by the system. Note that although platform support for OBB is available in Android 2.3, development tools for creating and managing OBB files will not be available until early 2011.
Robust native development environment - The Android NDK (r5 or higher) provides a complete set of tools, toolchains, and libraries for developing applications that use the rich native environment offered by the Android 2.3 platform. For more information or to download the NDK, please see the Android NDK page.
New forms of communication
Internet telephony - Developers can now add SIP-based internet telephony features to their applications. Android 2.3 includes a full SIP protocol stack and integrated call management services that let applications easily set up outgoing and incoming voice calls, without having to manage sessions, transport-level communication, or audio record or playback directly. Support for the platform's SIP and internet calling features on specific devices is determined by their manufacturers and associated carriers.
Near Field Communications (NFC) - The platform's support for Near Field Communications (NFC) lets developers get started creating a whole new class of applications for Android. Developers can create new applications that offer proximity-based information and services to users, organizations, merchants, and advertisers. Using the NFC API, applications can respond to NFC tags “discovered” as the user “touches” an NFC-enabled device to elements embedded in stickers, smart posters, and even other devices. When a tag of interest is collected, applications can respond to the tag, read messages from it, and then store the messages, prompting the user as needed. NFC communication relies on wireless technology in the device hardware, so support for the platform's NFC features on specific devices is determined by their manufacturers.
Rich multimedia
Mixable audio effects - A new audio effects API lets developers easily create rich audio environments by adding equalization, bass boost, headphone virtualization (widened soundstage), and reverb to audio tracks and sounds. Developers can mix multiple audio effects in a local track or apply effects globally, across multiple tracks.
Support for new media formats - The platform now offers built-in support for the VP8 open video compression format and the WebM open container format. The platform also adds support for AAC encoding and AMR wideband encoding (in software), so that applications can capture higher quality audio than narrowband.
Access to multiple cameras - The Camera API now lets developers access any cameras that are available on a device, including a front-facing camera. Applications can query the platform for the number of cameras on the device and their types and characteristics, then open the camera needed. For example, a video chat application might want to access a front-facing camera that offers lower-resolution, while a photo application might prefer a back-facing camera that offers higher-resolution.
New Platform Technologies
Media Framework
New media framework fully replaces OpenCore, maintaining all previous codec/container support for encoding and decoding.
Integrated support for the VP8 open video compression format and the WebM open container format
Adds AAC encoding and AMR wideband encoding
Linux Kernel
Upgraded to 2.6.35
Networking
SIP stack, configurable by device manufacturer
Support for Near Field Communications (NFC), configurable by device manufacturer
Updated BlueZ stack
Dalvik runtime
Dalvik VM:
Concurrent garbage collector (target sub-3ms pauses)
Adds further JIT (code-generation) optimizations
Improved code verification
StrictMode debugging, for identifying performance and memory issues
Core libraries:
Expanded I18N support (full worldwide encodings, more locales)
Faster Formatter and number formatting. For example, float formatting is 2.5x faster.
HTTP responses are gzipped by default. XML and JSON API response sizes may be reduced by 60% or more.
New collections and utilities APIs
Improved network APIs
Improved file read and write controls
Updated JDBC
Updates from upstream projects:
OpenSSL 1.0.0a
BouncyCastle 1.45
zlib 1.2.5
A: Will be released as Android 3.0 and 3.1
This release is targeted strictly at tablet devices. For highlights of this version see
A: 4.0. Expected release Q4 2011
Google has indicated that this release will bring features introduced in Honeycomb to smartphone devices. Features such as the updated "holographic" UI, widget size editing, and improved multitasking where mentioned at Google IO. In addition Google has indicated that ice cream sandwich will be a unified platform that runs on both tablets as well as smartphones.
A: 4.1/4.2/4.3 Released
A: 4.4 Released
A: 5.0 Announced Oct 15, 2014
A: Google TV is a family of HDTV consumer video devices that enable convergence between tradition live broadcast digital video, internet video, local media files, some DVR support, and a relatively full featured internet browsing experience. One way this convergence is manifested is as a unified search feature, that allows searching across live TV, internet video, the internet in general, and if supported DVR recordings. In addition all currently shipping Google TV devices allow a single remote, to control all these video sources. In addition Google TV can run specially developed applications. Currently applications are shipped with the devices, but in the future one will be able to install third party applications from the internet. Google TV devices sit either between the primary digital video source (cable, or satellite) and the television set, or are built into the television set itself.
Google TV may also refer to the software stack, maintained by Google, that powers these devices.
A: The software that Google TV runs is a version of Android that has been enhanced to support video search, HDTV signaling, and a full Google Chrome browser. It current'y doesn't support certain Android features like installing third party apps.
A: Google's official sites:
Official site:
Google TV Twitter feed:
Sony manual:
More Sony info:
GoogleIO announcement video:
Wikipedia:
A: Logitech currently ships the "Revue with Google TV" a "Set-top box", that enables basic Google TV functionality for legacy HDTV televisions. Sony ships a line of HDTV "Internet Televisions" (NSX-24GT1, NSX-32GT1, NSX-40GT1, NSX-46GT1) that have Google TV built in, in addition Sony also ships a Google TV HDTV device that is combined with a optical disc/BlueRay player (NSZ-GT1).
for more information.
Supported video file formats:MP4
Supported music file formats:MP3/AAC
Supported photo file formats:JPEG/PNG/GIF
USB keyboards
USB storage, including flash and hard drive
Certain video cameras
A: Bluetooth input devices. e.g. Keyboard/pointer/remote control. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any option for headsets. (The option to support A2DP stereo headsets would be great).
A: Currently only FAT32. EXT2/EXT4, NTFS and exFAT have been tested and did not automount. (message indicating that USB was Damaged was displayed). Currently there is no supported way to access files larger than 4GB over USB. Hopefully this will be addressed in a future update.
A: Standard:
Chrome Browser
Amazon VOD
Disk player
A:Third party application support will be enabled in a future software update. Today the only applications supported are those that ship with the units.
A: Not yet. For more information see:
Please note: That at least some of the Google TV is GPLed such that a source release is legally required. Update: It appears Sony has released some code, but we are still waiting for the source tree to be released from Google:
A: Ctrl+Alt+Delete
A: Yes there is currently a number of books available. Here is a link to an Amazon list:
"Unlocking Android: A Developer's Guide"
"Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform"
"The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development (Paperback)"
"Android Essentials (Firstpress) (Paperback)"
"Android A Programmers Guide (Paperback)"
Andy Ross put together a GPL'd native code OpenGL demo and performance rig.
There's a makefile build system and a perl wrapper around the compiler.
Probably worth looking at if you need sample code:
There are also demos directly from google:
These demos use utility libraries created by google that aren't officially part of android, but presumably can be reused (under the Apache License).
Google announced (in June, 2009) the
In the blog entry, python is stated as being supported, and they give sample code for an python application which
can run on a phone.
lets you run Python inside the JVM.
is a port of Jython to run inside Android's Dalvik JVM, so in theory, you could write Android applications in Python that could interact with Android's APIs.
Damon Kohler also has patches for . It will, however, run as a native application (without access to Android's APIs), so most scripts written will have limited use. Most interesting things will also require a rooted phone.
A: Numpad 7 will do it. CTRL + F12 will also suffice.
A: The Android development team has provided developers with an NDK (native Development Kit) for those edge cases where Java apps do not make sense.
Prior to the NDK's release other methods were needed:
A: No, see the following for more details:
A: The keyboard backlight can be controlled via /sys/class/leds/keyboard-backlight/brightness It appears that it's a simple on-off control (echoing '0' turns it off, echoing '1' or higher turns it on).
For some reason, the default system backlight control stuff seems to set this to "83", but I don't know why.
I can't seem to see any difference between 83 and any other number. The file is readable by anyone, but only writable by root, so you'll need root access to the phone to manipulate it this way.
A: Yes! As of version 1.5 (Cupcake) there are now widget API's that are accessible to developers.
Jeff Sharkey has written a few very nice introductory tutorials on writing widgets for the home screen here:
He has also written a forecast application with the source code fully available.
You can grab that here:
A: Yes, but read-only. There are three sites:
The official site is here:
(This is rather limited)
is a rich view of the market, and can display all the comments for an application. Its data is delayed behind the official Market by 8-16 hours.
Jay Freeman (saurik) has written . It's cleaner, cuts of app comments to the first 15, but is synchronized live with the official Market data.
None of the websites allow post ratings or comments that would be reflected in the Market.
A: Currently, developers in the countries listed in the following link may register as Google Checkout merchants and sell priced applications:
A: Bug caching code needs cleanup. Android team is aware, and plans to fix.
A: The developer selects the category upon upload.
A: Not at all.
A: Yes. There are a a number of options for either direct distribution or third party apps/websites. Please note for all these methods, the end user will have to enable installation of third party (non Android Market) applications.
You can always directly sell/distribute it yourself.
Android Community & Application Marketplace
(SlideME Application Manager), an Android On-Device App Store client
Handmark mobile application Marketplace
Freeware Lovers is a Wiki-like community, which
only freeware apps for Android
Any apps not published on Google Market could found here
A: Check out ircbeta.apk Source and downloads here:
A: ConnectBot rocks. It is available in the market. If you want to run a prerelease version or play with the source check here:
A: Long story. Short version is, we're trying.
A: Nope. It is unclear whether or not there ever will be a Flash player, but signs are promising:
A: Yes. Check out
There is also one produced by HTC for 1.5 (Cupcake) found here: .
This particular version is a bit more involved in the installation process and requires that you install files to the system.
This can be accomplished with ADB for those without root access.
A: It's in setting, see settings -& data synchronization.
A: Using anycut you can make a link to the sync settings.
A: Yes. See:
A: No. According to this offical Mobipocket forum thread, it seems there are no plans for one to be released.
(Not sure it will help, but it can't hurt to add your support to the thread). Currently you can install FBReader from the Android market, as it has, among other formats, support for non-DRM mobipocket files.
A: No, but there is a paid app, which requires ROOT access.
Alternatively you can use Eclipse with the Android DDMS tools which contains a button to take a screen shot of the phone when it is plugged in and configured properly.
A: It has been said (by infobot) that devphones is a phone with magical powers and will make all your wildest dreams come true. You can read about them here:
- in order to buy one, you have to pay a $25 to be in the "developer club" and then you can get into the back room where they keep them behind a curtain of lava. very expensive to ship outside the US, or sporting this: , or ...
A: The differences are cosmetic, radio lock configuration, and bootloader. Cosmetic differences consist of the removal of T-Mobile branding and a new etched back design . In addition the firmware that comes standard on the ADP1 is missing some of the customization Google and T-Mobile added to the G1. See the following link for details:
(However, this isn't a major issue, as the ADP1 can be flashed with any firmware, including the official G1 firmware).
A: The ADP2 is a HTC Magic (PVT 32B) Qualcomm MSM7201a
A: Quoting from help page on ordering side: "For Orders shipping outside the US, shipping pricing includes cost of shipping service and the applicable customs, duties, import and country specific other fees."
A: It seems it cost about $200 (so says the "").
Update: $ 40.40 as of April 18, 2010.
A: Apparently it comes with a very skimpy warranty (think saran wrap bikini skimpy) that warrants the device is free of defects and nothing else.
A: Nope, sorry. You can only order it online.
A: Yes, however, like the T-Mobile G1, it is not compatible with AT&T's 3G network. (You will be limited to EDGE speeds).
A: Excluding cosmetic differences, the two differences are the radio lock and the enhanced bootloader. The radio lock can be removed with a simple request to T-Mobile. That only leaves the bootloader as the major difference. There currently is a bootloader floating in the wild, that seems to be very similar to what is expected to be running on the ADP1 (Android Dev Phone 1). The catch is you can only install this boot loader if you are one of the lucky few that has a "rooted" G1. This means that you are out of luck if you are running a stock version of RC30+. See
for details.
If your phone is not rooted but above RC30 it is still possible to root your phone by downgrading to the insecure version and then re-upgrading with a patched firmware update. See:
A: In short if you have the Engineering bootloader installed you can use the fastboot utility to update the boot image. See this link for detailed instructions:
A: Only from Google at:
A: Nexus One Desktop Dock and Nexus One Car Dock
A: First connect to the bootloader and run "fastboot oem unlock". Or on newer firmware there actually is a menu in the bootloader, that asks if you want to unlock the bootloader. It does warn you that you will be voiding the warranty though. This will allow you to install any number of rooted firmwares.
A: Power on the device with the "volume down" button pressed.
A: Boot into the bootloader and select "Recovery." Then when the Android and exclamations logos show up, press the power and volume up buttons at the same time. (Hold power and then press Vol up)
A: United States, UK, Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Check here for the latest info:
A: Android-DLs has created its own little
(and maybe other Android devices once they surface). Find the items you need and help out the site. Also Disconnect (who has helped tremendously in the hacking side of G1 has an Amazon store of his own you should check out )
A: Root could best be explained (to windows users) as the "administrator" account. For game nerds, think "God Mode", for all others, you already know what root is. ?
A: Short answer: No. Long answer:
The chipset supports OTG so it is theoretically possible, but I'm not sure if the G1 hardware would need to be modified.
Also, we have no OTG support in the USB driver, and none of the higher level code in android supports host side USB.
A: Yes, it has a built in digital compass. You will need to install an application that calls compass's API in order to actually use it. Search the Market for "compass" to find these applications.
A: Short answer, it does cause short term issues with compass, long term is unknown. Better safe than sorry. See here for more details:
A: libhgl.so (Currently only used by apps using opengl at the moment (since the current version doesn't do multiple context support))
A: The Qualcomm MSM7201A RISC Chipset, which has a ARM1136EJ-S ARM Core:
(There is also a ARM926 core included). Here is a link to a technical specs doc:
A: Any USB power adapter should work.
A: Google for: "3 in 1 USB 11 pin Adapter for HTC TOUCH MOGUL PPC6800"
A: Yes it will fall back to EDGE if 3G is not available? The current implementation seems a bit buggy, however.
A: Yes. If you are running a G1 with rc29 or lower, you can use an exploit. See: . If you are running RC30 (US) or above see
and if you are on RC8 (UK) or above see
A: Same as for anyone else. You may want to investigate the Android Developer Phone 1 instead.
A: Originally not, and many thought it probably never officially would. From an interview with the CEO of T-Mobile: "When I talked to Cole Brodman, the CTO of T-Mobile, after the event about what would stop something like Skype from designing a program that could run on the phone, negating the need for a massive voice plan, he said he had "worked with Google" to make sure Android couldn't run VOIP."
. But more recently Andy Rubin, Google's Vice President of Mobile Platforms made
discounting a newspaper's claim that Android does not support VOIP, writing "the first generation of our Android software did not support full-featured VoIP applications due to technology limitations, we have worked through those limitations in subsequent versions of Android, and developers are now able to build and upload VoIP services.".
There are currently the following Android applications offering [true] VOIP:
SIPDroid, a project which allows SIP VOIP connectivity.
A: You want to take a look at installing dropbear. See the following links for details.
- Dropbear
or call T-Mobile
A: Yes. Please see the following thread for details:
A: Yes, search the following site:
A: Please not the base battery that the G1 ships with is a 1150mAH battery. Quite a selection of extended batteries are available now from (barely extended) 1200mAH to the mammoth 2600mAH (no, that is not a typo).
1400mAH (standard door)
1600mAH (standard door) Link Needed
2200mAH (needs replacement battery door)
2400mAH (needs replacement battery door)
2600mAH (needs replacement battery door) If you are man (or woman) enough, click here:
A: Yes and no. What can be achieved is in the works by ryebrye and lucashutch. As soon as something viable (and useable) is out, it will be posted here. They are currently working on adding what they have already created to maps/browser.
A: Sadly the official G1 manual only states: "While receiving incoming call, press either (+) or (-) to silence the ringer." As best as I can tell, the default behavior for the volume keys is to change the ringer volume. Apparently, this can by overriden by the currently running application. e.g. - While on a call, the volume keys change the call volume. While listening to Music, the volume keys change the playback volume. While running connectbot the volume keys change the font size.
A: Yes, check this wiki page:
A: Bluetooth/USB/WiFi are supported, but WiFi currently is only in Adhoc mode.
Tetherbot socks proxy (Does not need root):
Bluetooth tethering (requires root):
June Fabrics () has a USB tethering program called PdaNet (currently freeware, at least to version 1.14beta) for the G1 which does not require root. It does not appear to support FTP transfers, but otherwise is a reasonably stable tethering program. PdaNet for G1 is a bit easier to install and get working than Tetherbot.
Android WiFi Tether (requires root):
A: The following codecs are supported:
Audio: MP3, AAC, AAC +, WMA, WAV, MIDI, REAL AUDIO, OGG
Video: H.264, 3GPP, MPEG4, and Codec 3GP
A: In the settings, accessible by pressing menu on the home screen
A: As of 1.5 this is now a part of the Camera application and produces 3gpp video which can be directly uploaded to YouTube from the phone.
A: dream, "DREA"
A: The HTC Magic Is HTC's second Android device. It looks like it will be
A: The HTC Magic is basically a smaller sleeker and slimmer G1, without a physical keyboard. (Uses a virtual keyboard like the iPhone) It also has twice the ROM and a higher capacity battery.
A: G1 and G2 are trademarks of T-Mobile, and they sell the HTC Dream under the name T-Mobile G1 in various countries.
In other countries where T-Mobile does not operate, it is sold as the HTC Dream by other operators - Dream is both the HTC codename for the device, and the name under which is is being sold.
The Magic has been announced (as mentioned) as a Vodafone exclusive, but it is not clear if the exclusivity is time- or territory-limited.
As of mid-March, 2009, there has been no announcement from T-Mobile about a G2, although there is a wide expectation that the Magic will be released as the G2 sooner or later.
There have been
being used in a demonstration at a conference, but there was no sign of actual G2 branding on the device.
A: sapphire, "SAPP"
A: Yes! (Currently Droid only) See:
A: There is always the soft keyboard. However, if you are open to memorizing some key combinations, take a look at this:
-- To be clear pipe '|' is SHift+Alt+',' (comma)
A: AOL has an official AIM application in the Android Market. In addition there are plenty of third party IM clients that support AIM.
A: Check out this website:
The devices have the same hardware:
Apanda A60(China):
ChinaVision Excalibur
Cincinnati Bell Blaze f800
Commtiva Z71
Gigabyte Gsmart G1305
Motorola XT3 XT502:
Motorola XT5 XT502:
Muchtel A1(Taiwan):
Nexian Journey A890(Indonesia):
Optimus Boston
Orange Boston
Spice Mi-300:
Vibo A688(Taiwan):
Wellcom A88(Thailand):
Turn your mobile off and Unplug the USB cable.
Press fellowing keys to go into specific mode.
Normal Mode: [Power]
Recovery Mode:[Sound Up] + [Camera] + [Power]
Fastboot Mode:[Hang Up] + [Sound Down] + [Power]
FTM Mode:[Sound Up] + [Sound Down] + [Power]
Qualconn Download Mode:[Sound Up]+[Hang Up]+[Power]
For Android 1.6:
Universal one-click root(1.6 only):
(Universal Root App)
For Android 2.1:
Install the k0ng's custom recovery rom, and use the backup menu to backup roms.
k0ng's custom recovery rom(for 1.6)
k0ng's custom recovery rom(for 2.1) (repack by snowwolf725)
(for 1.6 only)
A688 Tools and APP2SD roms:
A60 roms and tools:
A88 custom recovery rom:
A: Check out their website:
A: List in progress. See the following projects for status:
Nokia devices
Nokia Internet Tablets:
Nokia N900:
Sharp Zaurus:
HTC Models:
Vogue, Neon:
Raphael (Touch Pro) and Diamond:
Rhodium (HD2)
OpenMoko FreeRunner:
Palm Treo 650/680:
A: See the
See also the android-porting mailing list:
A: Yes, see
. As a note, the Asus Eee has been mentioned as a target for the x86 port. Here is latest status:
Kogan Agora:
Unknown Sprint phones:
Lenovo Chinese Phone:
2009 Google IO announcement: 18 Android Phones by end of 2009
See also android/hardware/ril/include/telephony/ril.h for more details of RIL functions which needs to be implemented. Also you can get a reference implementation in android/hardware/ril/reference-ril/. That's probably the closest you will find to "documentation".
A: No. Currently, the kernel is fully opensourced. However there are still some some proprietary userspace bits, which include:
htc RIL (radio interface) library and data files
(this is glue between the telephony layer in android and the AT/QMI
control channels provided via GPL kernel drivers)
libhgl.so - qualcomm/ati opengl ES library
libqcamera.so - qualcomm camera library
akmd - software to process and adjust compass/accelerometer events
qualcomm h264 codec frontend (does some processing the dsp cannot do)
A: SEND-MENU-END
A: A reflash protocol for android devices, or source code at , or cheat sheet at
To get a fastboot binary that you can run on your Mac or Linux PC, follow the directions for building Android here:
(It will take you a long time to download the source and build the Android tree). Please note the binary will be installed to ./mydroid/out/host/darwin-x86/bin/fastboot
A: Linux, OS X, and Windows are all supported by fastboot.
A: The file format for splash screens.
You probably want to create a 320x480 image.
It is unsupported by any other image software, so the only way to create one is to start with a raw rgb888 file (8-bit raw, the default format in gimp or photoshop when saving as "raw image") and run it through . Alternatively, you can save as a png and then run
by RyeBrye on it (assumes you have working ImageMagick as well as a compiled version of rgb2565 in your path.)
If you run rgb2565 with no flags, it will create an uncompressed rgb565 file which should be exactly 307200 bytes.
This file can be used for replacing the initial screen you see when you start up the phone, which is done by flashing it via fastboot ().
If, instead, you specify the -rle flag, rgb2565 will compress the image using a simple RLE algorithm.
This file can be placed in the root of your boot image and named initlogo.rle, and it will show up after the initial boot screen but before the animated android screen ().
Do not attempt to use rle compressed files to flash the initial boot screen. See
to look at source.
A: Hardware acceleration is available for h264 at certain bitrates. (link needed with specs)
A: Nope. You have to tell it to load it manually (see )
B: My phone couldn't open the update.zip file and it was downloaded from this site.
A: See instructions here:
(You will still need these instructions as well:
(Update: See this link for a complete overview: )
(With compiling instructions to boot!)
To browse the GIT repositories go to:
A: Gerritt is an open source issue tracker, and repo is a wrapper around Git. See the following link for more details.
A: Git notes:
A: run "adb logcat".
A: Yes. Check out logcat.apk
A: Pull down the notification bar using a top to bottom finger swipe (like a windows shade), then hit the clear notifications soft button.
A: It's a browser based on the open source Webkit engine, which is the same engine used by the Google Chrome browser.
A: Download it, the only place you can save downloads is the SD Card.
A: It seems that it does. Check the following link for details.
A: Secondary Program Loader, typically, a second stage bootloader. Not a term actually used by Qualcomm for msm7k has a more complex boot path involving both CPUs. Initial/secondary program loader is usually in reference to nand/onenand boot setups where you have a very small initial bootloader (1k to 16k typical), that is just enough to load a much larger secondary bootloader. Often there is something that runs first, in-rom, on-die (this is true of omap and msm chips for example) that is responsible for getting the IPL loaded.
A: Yes, Hitachi has come of with a set of extensions to Android that incorporate SELinux enhancements. See
by Yuichi Nakamura, and the youtube video
A: Not likely due to security concerns.
A: Android Market application Wifiscan will scan for access points and tag them with the built in gps. Information is saved to a kml file for later use.
A: wpa_supplicant is listening on UDP port 9000. wpa_supplicant provides authentication services for wireless networks (WEP, WPA, etc.)
A: If you press menu on the home screen there is a Notifications button that will pull down the drawer for you.
A: Android uses a special subset of OpenGL called "OpenGL ES", currently maintained by the Khronos corporation. More info here:
. OpenGL ES 1.0 had some distinct differences from 'normal' OpenGL, although it generally conformed to OpenGL version 1.5. However OpenGL ES 2.0 is much closer to the ordinary version of OpenGL that it corresponds to: OpenGL 2.0. Note that by 2011, when GL ES 2.0 was widespread on new phones, the most current specification of OpenGL itself was at 4.0. In general OpenGL on Android is 'behind' OpenGL on desktop computers.
#Android IRC logs
A: Yes. See the following link for details.
2D barcodes
Other wikis
GSM AWS - related to 3G
RyeBrye's Android boot image jpeg:
Other websites:
Engineering bootloader forum discussion:
New OpenHandset alliance members
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