The Android device sticky thread...

[Steve A.]

"Default Mobile Style" for MEF

I forget who mentioned this display option awhile back but it can be very useful when creating or editing a post while using a tablet or smartphone. I had looked into it briefly at the time but found the normal interface/display much better for navigating the site. I didn't realize how easy it was to switch back and forth between the two.

On the normal display you will find this box at the lower left corner of the MEF window....




To return to the normal display you click on "log out | FULL SITE | top" at the bottom of the window...



A big thanks to whoever brought this to our attention!

Steve A.

[Steve A.]

I can vouch for the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014) -- I "won" one for filling out an evaluation of something or other. It's definitely a nice display, but too large/heavy for convenient holding with one hand. The pen capability is interesting, but I haven't found it very practical for anything I want to do...

I have been using the Nexus 10 strictly for watching videos. I originally got it for making 2560×1600 screen captures of pages from songbooks on SCRIBD but unfortunately learned that the images available on their site are not much better than 1024×600.

However I found that they are GREAT for watching movies and TV shows... if you have a stand that can support their weight!

I did find another use for them. I am creating my own fakebook with the songs I am learning for a cover band and while secured to a heavy duty music stand*** with a bungee cord it sure beats the binder of 4×6 index cards I used to use back in 2009.

Steve A.

*** Image and link to follow

[Steve A.]

Another Google conspiracy!

Damn you again, Mr. Google! Your Chrome Browser for Android no longer lists a local company or store's phone number when you Google them! And when you click on their name in their listing for more information you get a bunch of irrelevant bullsh*t like pictures of their parking lot from Google Maps. I just want the goddamned phone number, you bastard! (If you are lucky they might have a Yelp review which usually lists their phone number prominently.)

Since Google gets paid by the click there is an ulterior motive behind this: they do not want you to quickly find the phone number and call the store since they make more money if you click away and perhaps decide to buy the item on Amazon.

However there is a simple workaround to undermine Google's nefarious plot to give them even more money and power: from the "hamburger menu" (3 horizontal lines or dots) to the right of the search bar click on the checkbox for "Request desktop site"... that will bring up a Google search page similar to the one that you would get on a PC, which for me today had a sidebar on the right with all of the basic information, including their phone number!

[Rant mode:OFF]

Steve A.

[Steve A.]

RAM Monitor in Samsung Tab 4 7.0

I've been using Tab 4 7.0 (aka SM-T230NU) tablets for over 3 years but only recently noticed that the Application Manager under Settings includes a RAM monitor to show you how much RAM is currently available and how much each app or process is using. This information can be very helpful in fine tuning your basic setup as well as telling you when its time to reboot (Android calls it "restart") — a process that takes less than 30 seconds but you do have to spend time reloading the apps you plan to use.

I hadn't realized the big difference between available RAM and available disk space, focusing only on the latter since I never had any idea how much RAM was available. (I guess I should have read the manual!)

Note: In Android you need sufficient available internal disk space to run apps smoothly, if at all. The Tab 4 7.0 has only 1.5GB total internal disk space and the OS takes around 300MB of that. When the available disk space drops below ~400MB things get a bit sluggish so it is important for me to regularly prune files downloaded or created by me, usually by uploading them to Dropbox which transfers them to my desktop PC where I can archive them if I want to. (Yes, I am a digital pack rat — or hoarder, to be blunt about it.)

Here are some screenshots showing how much RAM was available running a sh*tload of apps, right after restarting with only Settings running, and right after loading and running Evernote.

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BEFORE REBOOT (446MB):



-=÷=◇=÷=○=÷=◇=÷=-

AFTER REBOOT w/ Settings running (653MB):

]

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AFTER REBOOT w/ Settings and Evernote running (509MB):



-=÷=◇=÷=○=÷=◇=÷=-

After learning more about available RAM I have a good reason to go ahead and root at least one of my two Tab 4 7.0 tablets: to be able to uninstall or "freeze" some of the "system" apps that cannot otherwise be turned off or removed. ("System" apps are not just the ones needed for the OS but also include bloatware apps like YouTube or Netflix which can be deleted on other tablets. You do need to be very careful about what you delete on a rooted device.)

"Swiss Army Knife" utility apps like 3C Toolbox allow you to "freeze" apps that use a lot of RAM even when you aren't running them. By freezing apps they use no available resources besides disk space until you (or another app or service) request them to run. (An unrooted device doesn't allow you to freeze apps along with many other operations available only on a rooted device.)

Another reason for me to root my Tab 4 7.0 is that I can make a complete backup which can be restored on a different Tab 4 7.0 if I manage to lose another one or just want to clone a new one. (Two's company, three's a party!)

Steve A.

P.S. I have no idea how many other Android devices have RAM monitors under Settings | Application Manager. BTW the RAM monitor shows the available RAM after switching from the app you were using to Settings and it usually goes up a bit for a few seconds — so it only gives you a rough idea how much RAM was available while running a particular app.

In any case it seems like my tablet does run better after rebooting it rather than just closing unneeded apps when the available RAM gets low (under 300MB for mine.)

P.P.S. I've reading up on this topic and the main point seems to be to not treat RAM in Android as you do in Windows (where the more available RAM, the better.) It is good that the Android OS is using RAM — it is not just wasted overhead as I had thought earlier today. Android (built on a Linux kernel!) is a much more efficient manager of resources than Windows.

I found an interesting article from Que Publishing on Managing Memory on Your Galaxy Tab 4 linked here:

Managing Memory on Your Galaxy Tab 4 | Managing Memory on Your Galaxy Tab 4 | Que

I converted the article to a PDF file which I attached below...

Managing Memory on Your Galaxy Tab 4.Que.pdf

NOTE: Funny how the link and the attachment displayed above look so similar, at least on my tablet. Nasty people could use that similarity to trick users to download malware. Perhaps future updates of the BBS software used here could use a different color for attachments than the blue traditionally used for links.

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P.P.S. Reading up on Android's use of RAM it looks like the experts usually say leave it alone and that Android versions 4.0 and up handle RAM very well, swapping it to the internal SD card as needed.

I see things differently. My biggest complaint about having too few resources available (either RAM or internal SD card space) is this: while composing a post here at MEF or Facebook I'll decide to research a particular item and when I return the post I was composing is gone because the page had been swapped to disk. ***

When something like that happens it tells me that I have too many apps or browser tabs open which overtax the fairly limited resources on the Samsung tablet that I love to use. For starters I need to close some of the apps and browser tabs, and if that doesn't help much then I need to restart the tablet.

Yes, Android 4.0+ handles RAM much better than Windows but in swapping some browser panes to the internal SD card the unsaved activities on that page are lost. The tabs come back just fine but they are sometimes refreshed, just like hitting the Refresh icon on the URL bar.

-=÷=◇=÷=○=÷=◇=÷=-

*** There is a very simple workaround for this issue, especially on my Tab 4 7.0 with its expanded clipboard: I need to save the contents in the edit window before leaving the MEF or TB page. With up to 19 free slots on the expanded clipboard I can copy many links and quotes and then add them to what I had already written in a text editor that recognizes the expanded clipboard (not all apps do, darn it!* * )

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P.P.P.S. One other really cool thing about the expanded clipboard on my Samsung tablet: the contents are persistent and are still there after rebooting ("restarting") - too bad that the contents of the Windows clipboard are not persistent, or that the Windows OS doesn't support an expanded clipboard with 20 slots. One other problem with the Windows clipboard: I can copy text and it is usually still there after copying and pasting files in Windows Explorer, suggesting that there are at least 2 independent clipboards in Windows — but sometimes the text clipboard is cleared when copying and pasting files. Why is that?!?

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I like the new delimiter line I just created! I got tired of looking at the old one I'd been using:

%=%=%=%=%=%=%

Bor-r-r-r-r-i-i-i-n-n-n-g-g-g!!!

[Steve A.]

Clearing default application settings in Android

This has been one of the most confusing dialog boxes in Android, at least for me...



It pops up when you click on a file to run it and select ALWAYS instead of JUST ONCE in the following dialog box — if you select the first option the highlighted app becomes the Default Application which will run whenever you click on that file type...



What was so confusing to me was that there are Settings menus in each app as well as the Settings menu for your device. So in the second picture it could be referring to the Settings menu for the selected app (Gallery), the app you were using which brought up the dialog box or the Android device you were using.

After 5+ years I finally figured out that the dialog box was referring to the Settings menu for your device. With 20-20 tunnel vision Google — who designed the Android operating system by customizing the basic Linux kernal — just assumed that we would know that the dialog box was referring to the Settings menu for the operating system of your Android device. Doh!


I am posting this here just in case someone else has been confused as how to clear default applications in Android 4.4.2 KitKat.


Steve A.

[nickb]

Hey Steve, have you have much in the way of problems with the GPS lock, particularly when the WiFi is off? On all the Android devices I've ever had it sometimes takes 15-30 mins or so to lock, and often takes several restarts to get there.

[Steve A.]

Question on Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 Android tablet (circa 2015)

Question on Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 Android tablet (first sold in? 2015)

Any owners of this tablet out there? I've been looking for information on the tablet's expanded Clipboard feature which stores the past 20 items copied to the clipboard. (Once all 20 slots are used the oldest clip is deleted when you add a new one.)

Some of the Samsung tablets allow you to "lock" up to 10 of the items until you manually delete them (when you long-click on the item you get the option to either delete it or lock it.) Most of the tablets only give you the option to delete the item. Of the current Samsung tablets I checked last night only the Galaxy Tab S3 9.7 allows you to lock up to 10 clips. And my circa 2014 Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 does, too, although with it running KitKat 4.4.2 it doesn't handle modern websites and apps very well.

The expanded clipboard is great for saving multiple URLs and text copied from webpages for your own documents. At least the older versions of Windows only allowed a single item to be stored in its Clipboard although there have been add-ons to allow you to store more, but none as integrated into the UI as well as I've seen in the Samsung tablets. There are also add-ons for Android but I find them to be a bit clumsy.

Perhaps someone can suggest a different brand tablet that has an expanded clipboard like Samsung. The ASUS ZenPad S8 Z380M has such a clipboard but you cannot lock the entries. Even worse it doesn't always work and some clips do not show up in the pull-down list although I can paste them manually.

Here is one trick I learned about the Z380M which might apply to other tablets as well: the on-screen keyboard was too sensitive and I was getting false clicks galore.

Go to Settings | Languages & Input | Mouse/Trackball | Pointer Speed

The factory setting seems to be right in the middle. Move the indicator/circle to the left to make your digitizer less sensitive or to the right to make it more sensitive.

Steve A.

P.S.Thanks for reading this - any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. The ASUS Z380M running Android 7.0 Nougat is pretty slick compared to my ancient Tab 4 7.0 for browsing and I've been tweaking the on-screen keyboard so that it is more like the Samsung (you can adjust the size and location so I don't have to make wide jumps between the P and A keys for the 8" tablet.)

One way the ASUS clipboard is better than the Samsung one in my Tab 4 7.0 is that it works in more apps and text boxes, like here at MEF. With the Samsung it works in the address/search bar near the top of the window in Chrome but not in the dedicated search bar further down the page, nor on most webpages. It's one of those things that you learn where it works and where it doesn't be because there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.

EDIT 03/12: I did find some information about the Galaxy Tab S2... like several Samsung devices it has a feature called "text shortcuts" independent from the Clipboard. You can assign blocks of text to specific letter combinations and when you type those letter combinations the assigned block of text appears in the suggestion bar at the top of the online keyboard. It looks pretty slick.

The following video shows how the feature works starting at 11 minutes 20 seconds:

Watch "10 Hidden Features of the Galaxy Tab S2 You Don't Know About" on YouTube

https://youtu.be/XtPdBLdeuRk

MORE: I found an on-screen keyboard app which also features "text shortcuts": Smart Keyboard Pro for $2.49 (lifetime registration for all of your Android devices using same gmail address.)

Keyboard app works great but horizontal width is not adjustable which makes it awkward to peck out letters on 8" or 10" tablets in landscape mode (the stock ASUS ZenUI keyboard allows you set height, width and horizontal & vertical position) however it does work well with 8" tablet in portrait mode.

SwiftKey is one of the most popular add-on keyboard apps but it has one fatal flaw which it has never addressed after many years: when you hit the period or some other punctuation keys it automatically inserts a space. While acceptable for typical word processing it is a pain in the neck when typing in, say, filenames which immediately follow a period with the file extension. Offering the option to turn off that "feature" in Settings would solve that problem but the developers are evidently blinded by tunnel vision, which is a bit strange because adding spaces after periods can create problems with programming as well!

BTW I used to have an old-style PC keyboard (Keytronics?) which supported what they called keyboard macros for the F keys... to make it even better this keyboard had two sets of F keys, with one to the right of the alphabet keys. I used several of the macros for typing in cheat codes for multiplayer games I used to play with my son 20 years ago (we always played as team mates never as competitors in what were called "death matches".)

Unfortunately this keyboard (my "magic keyboard!") died when I spilled Coke on it back when I'd drink 6 to 12 or more soft drinks with sugar every day (one six pack at work and another at home.) I would usually drink a quart or more of whole milk every day from 1990 to 2009 so I'd usually be consuming over 2,000 calories a day in just my beverages, which was one reason my weight eventually reached around 360 lbs back in 2009 (best guess estimate as my scale only went up to 330 lbs.)

[TANGENT ALERT!] Judging by my weight people just assumed that I must really enjoy eating food but it was my craving for soft drinks and milk that put me over the top. I used to think I was "big-boned" but my weight has dropped to around 150# ever since surgery and chemo for esophageal cancer in 2016 and my shirt size has dropped from 3XL to medium and my pants size dropped from 54/29 to 32/29... FWIW from 2009 through 2015 my weight had been dropping slowly but surely so I had been burning more calories than I was consuming since I stopped drinking sugary soft drinks.

That is one reason why I support sugar taxes on soft drinks - not to punish customers or discourage their habits (sin taxes!) but to help mitigate added expenses to our health system for obesity. While fiscal conservatives complain about practically any taxes and fees I believe in having people and businesses pay reasonable mitigation costs for the things that they do. Like when builders add thousands of houses putting more vehicles on our freeways it is fair to ask them to help pay for the infrastructure as well as any required improvements or upgrades.

[Steve A.]

Hey Steve, have you have much in the way of problems with the GPS lock, particularly when the WiFi is off? On all the Android devices I've ever had it sometimes takes 15-30 mins or so to lock, and often takes several restarts to get there.

I thought I replied to this months ago but I guess I didn't post it. My bad!
I never use GPS on my tablets to save battery life.

Steve A.

[nickb]

I thought I replied to this months ago but I guess I didn't post it. My bad!
I never use GPS on my tablets to save battery life.

Steve A.

Thx. The primary use of my tablet is walking / hiking using detailed maps. The GPS is a boon, when it works. I just can't seem to pinpoint why it's so troublesome. My wife's iPhone or car GPS lock within a minute.

[Steve A.]

Thx. The primary use of my tablet is walking / hiking using detailed maps. The GPS is a boon, when it works. I just can't seem to pinpoint why it's so troublesome. My wife's iPhone or car GPS lock within a minute.

What tablet are you using, the Samsung Tab 4 7.0 you've mentioned in the past? That model was released almost 4 years ago and doesn't work well with a lot of modern websites and apps. I finally added an Android 7.0 tablet to my "stable"... an ASUS ZenPad S8 Z380M which was first released in 2015 but the OS has been regularly updated by ASUS unlike Samsung which would rather you buy a new device.

You might check around for recommendations for a tablet that works great for GPSs and maps...

Steve A.

[nickb]

What tablet are you using, the Samsung Tab 4 7.0 you've mentioned in the past? That model was released almost 4 years ago and doesn't work well with a lot of modern websites and apps. I finally added an Android 7.0 tablet to my "stable"... an ASUS ZenPad S8 Z380M which was first released in 2015 but the OS has been regularly updated by ASUS unlike Samsung which would rather you buy a new device.

You might check around for recommendations for a tablet that works great for GPSs and maps...

Steve A.

Yes, that one. I guess I've had it four years! Still seems new to me I hate obsolescence.

[Steve A.]

Ode to my Samsung Tab 4 7.0

What tablet are you using, the Samsung Tab 4 7.0 you've mentioned in the past? That model was released almost 4 years ago and doesn't work well with a lot of modern websites and apps. I finally added an Android 7.0 tablet to my "stable"... an ASUS ZenPad S8 Z380M which was first released in 2015 but the OS has been regularly updated by ASUS unlike Samsung which would rather you buy a new device.

You might check around for recommendations for a tablet that works great for GPSs and maps...

Steve A.

Yes, that one. I guess I've had it four years! Still seems new to me I hate obsolescence.

I really love my Samsung Tab 4 7.0 — they'll have to tear it from my cold bony fingers after I die because I'm not giving it up before then! It fits in my left hand perfectly as I punch away at the on-screen keyboard with my right index finger.

Having been limited to single clipboard entries on all of my Windows PCs I've gotten spoiled by the expanded clipboard with 20 clips. I can bounce back and forth between sites copying text and URLs and then go put them all together in an Evernote document. Other tablets have similar features but none of them integrated as smoothly as on the Tab 4 7.0.

I'm on my 3rd Tab 4 7.0 having left my first one in a shopping cart in the Fry's parking lot a year and a half ago.***

What a hassle! Since I never had the screen locked with a password I had to change ALL of my passwords. About 2 months later someone back East tried to log on to my Google account. (I found out later that it had a Samsung app I never activated that would have allowed me to lock or reset it remotely. D'oh!)

I need to have two of them so that I can swap when the battery on one runs down. I also split the resource-intensive apps between the two of them because they only have 1.5GB RAM and 8GB internal SD space.


Steve A.

*** That was actually the third time I left it behind at Fry's only the first two times it was after they closed at 10 and it was still in the shopping cart when I drove right back.

[Steve A.]

The Google Nexus 10 P8110 (made by Samsung in 2012)

The Google Nexus 10 P8110 has been great for watching videos with its 10.1" 2560x1600 pixel display. There is no SD card slot so I've been using an OTG (On The Go) USB thumb drive adaptor to copy video files to its 16GB internal memory. I tried connecting it to my PC with a USB cable but the interface allowed me to copy just one file at a time. Ugh!



https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_goo...p8110-5084.php

I had bought a special app from the Play Store to access the OTG drive but I found that my preferred file manager — ES File Explorer (ver. 3.2.5.5) — works even better. By all means avoid ALL versions of that app starting with 4.0 — they began to add a lot of unneeded crap and it just kept getting worse.***

I just discovered a new use for the Nexus 10... with its high resolution 10.1" display it is the perfect comic book reader for CBR and CBZ files. I'm using the Astonishing Comic Reader app but there is a wide choice of apps out there. I had tried reading comics on smaller tablets but with the lower resolution it did not work very well. Only downside to the Nexus 10 is that it is pretty damn heavy. But at $89.99 for a manufacturer refurbished unit (current price from BlueTek in NY w/ free shipping) I'll build up my muscles. You will want to get a fake leather folio case for it because it is hard to hold... I got a Roocase Google Nexus 10 Ultra-slim Black Leather Folio Case for $4 last summer on eBay.

Steve A.

*** Review of ES File Explorer version 4.1.7.1.24 by dennisk 4 months ago...

Installs horrible annoying pop up that occurs anytime.
I like nearly everything about this program and have used it for about 5 years. Unfortunately they have decided to Overlay any program that runs with an app that displays advertisements and annoyances that interferes with the app I really want to run. I have uninstalled ES File Explorer and until I find that they have removed this horrible annoying piece of advertising malware I will not be using it. Sorry ES File Explorer this is too much.

Sorry to hear that, Dennis K., but you need to turn off automatic upgrades in the Play Store. Version 3.2.5.5 is still working great for me. (One reason I switched from iOS to Android in 2009: you can sideload whatever version of an app you want... I call that Freedom! )

Here is a link to version 3.2.5.5:

https://es-file-explorer.en.uptodown...ownload/262379


.

[Steve A.]

Samsung TAB 4 7.0 Email Display Problem

Samsung TAB 4 7.0 Email Display Problem...

What I mean is you have the folder pane on the left and the email list pane on the right. Then anytime you touch the screen the left older list pane widens until you can no longer see the email pane at all.

The only workaround is to use it in portrait mode.

The display in the Email app in my Samsung tablet stopped working right today... I could no longer view the email list in the left pane and the selected email on the right. When I clicked the button for 3 panes I only saw 2, and when I clicked for 2 panes I only saw 1. Rebooting did not help.

So I went into tablet Settings | General | Application Manager | All and scrolled down to Email where I clicked on Clear data and Clear cache... everything returned to normal. Hooray!

Steve A.

[nickb]

Samsung TAB 4 7.0 Email Display Problem...



The display in the Email app in my Samsung tablet stopped working right today... I could no longer view the email list in the left pane and the selected email on the right. When I clicked the button for 3 panes I only saw 2, and when I clicked for 2 panes I only saw 1. Rebooting did not help.

So I went into tablet Settings | General | Application Manager | All and scrolled down to Email where I clicked on Clear data and Clear cache... everything returned to normal. Hooray!

Steve A.

Steve - you're a star! I deleted the cache and ta da. I didn't do the data as that would have deleted by accounts and as it turns out I didn't need to.