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[Update: Now With ICS Source] Gold For Android Developers: Add AOSP Source Code To Eclipse With The "Android Sources" Plugin

Artem Russakovskii — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:16:00 +0000

As an Android developer, the first thing I do when I set up Eclipse with ADT on a new machine is hunt down the Android source for the API level I'm working on.

Earlier this month, I added a request for Android 4.0 source to be added to the plugin, and I'm pleased to report that the plugin maintainer just added it to the latest version.

Honeycomb sources are being worked on.

Note: If you already have the plugin installed, you'll need to re-install for this addition to show up.

Developers should understand what I'm talking about, but for ...

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[Update: Now With ICS Source] Gold For Android Developers: Add AOSP Source Code To Eclipse With The "Android Sources" Plugin was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

PSA: No, This Is Not MSN 2012, Angry Birds 2, Or Modern Warfare 3 For Android - What You Can Do If You See Malware In The Market

Artem Russakovskii — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 22:28:44 +0000

In my continuous hunt for new apps, I sometimes run into such obvious malware/crapware that it causes an immediate virtual gag reflex. Sometimes, however, this malware is cleverly disguised and to an unsuspecting user it may seem legitimate.

Here, have a look at what I found today:

If you briefly scanned this page, you may have missed the fact that the publisher's name is MicrosDft Corporation (in all caps), or that it's requesting a permission to directly dial phone numbers without your intervention, or that the website in the listing is msM.com.

Thankfully, the amount of 1-star user reviews is ...

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PSA: No, This Is Not MSN 2012, Angry Birds 2, Or Modern Warfare 3 For Android - What You Can Do If You See Malware In The Market was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Tip: Is Your Android Market App Loading Slowly, Especially On Wi-Fi? Give This Fix A Try

David Ruddock — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:01:00 +0000

The intrepid folks over at XDA are always tinkering away to try and make using your Android device a better experience. And a few weeks ago, one of them (namely, temasek) found that the Android Market has some issues trying to resolve DNS servers when your device is connected over Wi-Fi. This can cause the Market to load slowly, and it's definitely something I've experienced on my own phone.

The solution? A popular app called Set DNS (note: root is required), which forces your phone or tablet to use a particular name server when connecting to the ...

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Tip: Is Your Android Market App Loading Slowly, Especially On Wi-Fi? Give This Fix A Try was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Device Frame Generator Allows You To Drop Screenshots Into Actual Android Device Frames, Giving Beautiful, Polished Results

Liam Spradlin — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:30:00 +0000

Roman Nurik, an Android engineer, recently gave the Android Asset Studio an awesome new tool that allows users to create gorgeous, high-res PNG images of any screenshot framed by actual press asset photos of Android devices.

The resulting images are, well, pretty. Gone are the days when developers or designers have to spend time in Photoshop layering up images and fabricating gloss, just to get an appealing graphic to show an app in action. Heck, even if you aren't a developer, this tool is still fun to play around with.

At the moment the selection of device frames is ...

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Tip: App Icon Pinching In GO Launcher EX - Can Your Launcher Do This?

Artem Russakovskii — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 07:01:35 +0000

As a fan of first Launcher Pro Plus, then ADW EX, and now GO Launcher EX (which is absolutely free, by the way), I wanted to show you guys a recent addition to the latter that made it stand out from the rest of the pack even more than it already does. Lately, LPP hasn't given me any reasons to continue using it whatsoever - the app seems to have been abandoned by Fede, and ADW EX, while a very worthy opponent, also fell victim to GO team's fine offering.

Imagine that you want to organize your busy homescreen ...

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Tip: App Icon Pinching In GO Launcher EX - Can Your Launcher Do This? was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Updated: Experiencing Issues After Updating Your Sprint LG Optimus S To Gingerbread? Here Are Some Potential Workarounds

Aaron Gingrich — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:02:15 +0000

On September 14, Sprint revealed that an update to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) was rolling out for the LG Optimus S. Seems like a good thing, right? Not so fast, actually - it turns out there are some fairly substantial bugs that weren't worked out before rolling out the update. Sprint is aware of the keyboard issue but has yet to acknowledge the other problems users seem to be experiencing, such as issues charging and using USB storage.

Update: Sprint pulled the Gingerbread update for the time being.

We've already had over 150 comments relating to the update, issues, and ...

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Updated: Experiencing Issues After Updating Your Sprint LG Optimus S To Gingerbread? Here Are Some Potential Workarounds was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Download: Android 2.3.7 (GWK74) With Google Wallet For The Nexus S 4G

David Ruddock — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:00:00 +0000

WARNING: This file is only for the Sprint Nexus S 4G. To flash the update, the phone must be stock - that means no custom ROMs. Rooted handsets are OK, though this might reset root permissions (you just need to re-root). We've included a link to a full, flashable ROM which will probably require a wipe, as well.

If you find yourself still without the Android 2.3.7 (GWK74) update for your Sprint Nexus S 4G, have no fear - we're here to help. Thanks to Omar over on Google+, we've got a direct link to the update.zip from ...

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Download: Android 2.3.7 (GWK74) With Google Wallet For The Nexus S 4G was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

[Tip] Add Events To Google Calendar With SMS And Voice Commands

Cameron Summerson — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:47:00 +0000

You could continue to add events to your Google Calendar the old fashioned way, or you could use this super cool (and fun!) method of SMSing things to your GCal.

The process is so easy a caveman could do it, so follow along and you'll be one step closer to speaking (almost) directly to your calendar:

Add GEvent (48368) to your contacts, name it “Magic Calendar”
Click and hold the Search button to bring up Google Voice Search and say, “Text to Magic Calendar, Pick up kids 2pm at the Cliffs in Valhalla, New York” (or, you know, whatever

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[Complete Guide] Root, Custom Recovery, Backup, And De-Bloat Your DROID BIONIC

David Ruddock — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:15:00 +0000

WARNING: We are not responsible for any destruction of data, phones, or small animals resulting from your use of these instructions. Utilize them at your own risk. If you brick your BIONIC, head to this link.

OK, DROID BIONIC owners - I think it's finally safe-ish (well, as safe as it can be for the moment) to start tinkering with your phone a little. There's enough information out there now to reliably root, backup, and de-bloat your phone - with the ability to unbrick if you screw something up. So, let's get this party started. Also, these instructions ...

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Captain Unobvious Tip: New Facebook For Android Has Swipe-To-Delete For Wall Posts And Comments, Swipe-To-Archive For Messages

Artem Russakovskii — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:37:35 +0000

If you belong to the dying breed of people still using Facebook (at least that's what everyone on Google+ seems to think), I think you will find today's tip quite handy, to say the least.

As it turns out, you can actually delete wall posts and comments (on your own wall or ones you created) as well as archive messages all by swiping away the item in question. Both left-to-right and right-to-left gestures seem to work, though left-to-right is a bit more reliable and natural.

Note: The gesture doesn't work everywhere - for example, it didn't work when I ...

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Captain Unobvious Tip: New Facebook For Android Has Swipe-To-Delete For Wall Posts And Comments, Swipe-To-Archive For Messages was written by the awesome team at Android Police.