Random thoughts

I was looking for a budget tablet with decent hardware (except for the screen which is crappy) so I settled on the Allview Speed City . This tablet is similar to the Chinese Onda 701 with the small difference that the Speed City does not have Volume Up/Down hardware buttons. The same hardware may be marketed and sold under other names in various countries, so check the specs before attempting to root it. The tablet is running a custom ROM based on Android 4.1.1 that includes some bloatware (like an antivirus) next to the standard apps. Fortunately, it has a recovery ROM that lets you install zip files, so, it doesn't appear to be fully locked. So, as any power user, I wanted to root the tablet and be the master of the software installed. Problem is - there was no known root available when I bought it. Note: before proceeding make sure you understand the risks of rooting, and also be advised that you may lose your warranty. Rooting instructions for the impacient So withou...

I keep hearing in my dreams a sort of "ding" sound made by my phone (running Android 4.1). It's trying to tell me to disconnect the charger from the wall socket (to be greener), but unfortunately it's doing this in the middle of the night, and it's annoying. There is no risk to damage your phone if you keep it plugged in beyond this point anyway. Well, there seem to be apps that let you manage the notification sound (like Battery full notification ), but they seem overkill for what I want. Luckly, I found this thread in my searches: http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s2-international/331058-stopping-fully-charged-sound.html#post2819281 If you have a rooted phone, you can follow the instructions in the thread, or follow these steps in a terminal emulator on your phone: su cd /system/media/audio/ui mount -o remount,rw /system mv TW_Battery_caution.ogg TW_Battery_caution.ogg.bak mount -o remount,ro /system exit exit  It renames the notification s...

I have recently received an android smartphone, and one of the first things I did with it was to root it :). This allows power-usres to get the most out of their hardware. The next thing on my list was to set up a SSH server and to be able to transfer files between my Linux system and my phone (by the way, I'm running Android 4.1 and it seems USB mass storage support has been removed. MTP/PTP modes have either horrible transfer speed or are poorly supported in Ubuntu). With the above in mind, the plan was to: Enable tethering on the phone Run a SSH server to support issuing remote commands and file transfer (FTP might have been an alternative, but I'm a SSH adept). Browsing the market I found  SSHDroid which does all that it advertised. Problem is - the free version conflicts with my add-blocking apps and requests that they are disabled to run. For me, this is a big nuisance, so I kept looking. I found Dropbear SSH Server 2 , which is completely free, but doesn'...