rooting - How to root Nexus 5

How to root the Nexus 5?

What precautions to take? I have never tried it before.
Also suggest me what type of back up I should perform before rooting.

2.3 gingerbread - How can I free up RAM automatically?

I'm very tired of seeing my RAM used up by unwanted apps which I don't launch regularly, but they continue to appear in the taskbar. Every time I closed them and free the memory. After I restart my phone I have 200 mb of free RAM but after I start closing apps the free memory decreases. I used a task killer but it works the same way. Is there any way to automatically clear out my RAM periodically?

Answer

See also: How can I stop applications and services from running?

When you free the memory you're just killing the apps using it or that Android has stopped and put in the background. The only real solution is to not use apps, or to accept that every time you switch apps your position in the old one will be forgotten. You'd probably need a custom-built ROM that entirely altered the way Android does memory management in order to get around this; having something auto-clear the RAM would end up killing the app you're currently using. Another alternative is creating a swap partition, though how to do so is a different question.

factory reset - What's the most complete way to erase all the data from my phone so it cannot be recovered?

I just got my replacement Droid and will be sending my current Droid back to Motorola. I'm sure they are going to refurbish it and resell it. I've backed up everything and I'm going to be keeping my microSD card, but how to ensure that all the data is completely wiped off the internal memory so there is no chance that it can be recovered by someone else?

Answer

Perform a factory reset then write to the memory and reset again. This is the best way I have found to prevent data remnance.

I was aware that with a magnetic based drive there is almost always data remnanace. I believe the standard to effectively erase info on a magnetic drive is erasing and re-writing over the drive 7-20 times (don't quote me on those number). I was under the impression that once you erased data from flash storage it was gone for good but recalled the story of a woman finding porn on her refurbished Evo. So, I asked about data remnance at Superuser on flash memory and found that data sometimes can remain after it is deleted. The recommendation there was: formatting, writing to the memory and formatting again.

To format, as the answers above suggested, I performed a factory reset. This can be done one of two ways on the Droid:

1. Go to the "Settings" menu, choose "Privacy" then choose "Factory Data Reset"


2. Do a hard reset

Ultimately I just did the Factory Reset because I was too lazy to load the system memory up and I suspect that 99.99% the Factory Reset is sufficient, but it's good to know what the risks are.

How can I manage contacts on my SIM card with an Android phone?

How can I add and manage contacts on a SIM card with an Android phone (HTC Magic)? I'm aware of 1 application which is capable of doing this but it cost 4€ for SIMPLY managing SIM contacts o_O

bootloader - Booting to recovery

I have Xperia mini pro (4.1.B.0.587 Stock ram), and my bootloader is unlocked. But I could not boot to recovery mode by pulsing volume down button. I press it after phnoe shakes and before displaying "SONY".

What is wrong?

Update: Whene I install stock ROMs (using .ftf) files The recovery mode is wiped.

Answer

It is not clear whether you had flashed CWM's recovery (through boot image). If you had done, you have to press vol up and down while powering on. If not, you do not have a recovery mode at all. You have to flash it using fastboot as described in CyanogenMod's How to install CM in Sony Xperia Mini Pro.

2.1 eclair - "Cannot download, not enough space" when "Phone Storage" clearly lists enough space

I just installed Android 2.1 on my Pandigital Novel. Anytime I try to download an app (via WiFi), I get this error: Unable to download. Not enough space on phone. However, the phone lists the free space as being 125.57Mb, about 25 times the size of the file I wanted to install.

I took the APKs I was trying to download and put them on my SD card. I was able to install them to the device from there proving it does indeed have space.

What should I do?

Answer

This doesn't answer why it doesn't work, but...

As a workaround, if you have an SD card, you can insert it and it will automatically download to the card instead.

How to turn off Opera Mini "discover"/"top stories" news feed?

I installed Opera Mini and was surprised at how slow it was to open. I figured out this was because it was automatically filling the home page with "Yahoo"-style random news headlines.

I couldn't find any way to turn this off. Long-pressing on the panel of headlines didn't give any "remove" option, the "Customise" button at the bottom of the feed didn't allow turning off the feed even when I deselected every type of story, and the only relevant thing I could see in the settings menus (Advanced > Feeds) was already set to disabled.

Searching online, all I could find was people on Opera forums being snarky at anyone who didn't want this feature, or, guides for different versions of Opera that don't apply to Opera Mini. Some sources say it's impossible. Is it?

Answer

There is an option under Settings, but it's tucked away under Advanced settings and the wording might not be intuitive to people unfamiliar with browser jargon:

• In the popup settings menu from the Opera icon in the bottom right, (or menu button if you have one), choose Settings > Advanced > Start page content


• Switch from Default to Speed Dial only

This turns off the news feed on the new tab home page.