Android Homescreen Icons Disappeared -- Fixed

Have you ever picked up your phone and noticed that all your homescreen icons and widgets disappeared? Well it happened to me a few times and I figured out what causing it and a better way to get the icons back than restarting your phone.

Droid with no icons showing up. Closing the "Home" Application fixes the issue

What was causing it? I downloaded some junky weather app and the widget randomly caused the "Home" application to crash. It seems that there could be many widgets that cause this issue. Remove any newly installed widget from your homescreen and hopefully the problem will go away.

How to get your icons back?

• Go to Settings > Applications > Manage applications 
• Menu Click and Filter for "Running"
• Find "Home" and click on it
• Click "Force Stop"

Your icons/widgets should now reappear.

Android Speed Test

I wanted to test the bandwidth of my Motorola Droid on Verizon Wireless. I downloaded speedtest.net app from the market and surprisingly got a 1 Mb/s download .5 Mb/s upload in the Washington DC area. What are other people experiences on different phones and networks (Sprint, T-Mobile)? The iPhone also has speedtest.net app so maybe we could get some AT&T comparisons as well.

Note: To get an email containing the link to your results go to "Results" and then select a Result History, menu click and choose "email results".

Amazon MP3 Store and Gift Card Issue

If you are a user of Amazon MP3 and want to purchase Mp3s on your phone using a gift card, beware. I just got off the phone with tech support and they informed me that there is a bug in their system that does not allow for gift card processing on mobile devices. There is a helpdesk ticket for this issue and the representative said he will follow up with me when its resolved, although he gave no timeline on when that would be.

In the mean time I would suggest downloading the music on your computer and copying the files over manually.

Their website incorrectly states:

Paying With Gift Cards
If you've redeemed an Amazon Gift Card, Gift Certificate, or Promotional Certificate to your Amazon.com account, any available balance will be used for your digital orders before your credit or debit card is charged.

Converting Videos for the Droid using Ubuntu Linux

One of the first things I wanted to do once I got my Droid was to try out the display by watching high-res videos. Unfortunately, mostly all my movies are in DivX or Xvid formats and will not work without converting them. I am a Ubuntu Linux user so I knew I would be able to find some software to do it, but its not always easy finding a simple, easy to use program. After tying a few, Arista Transcoder is definitely easy and works great. I would suggest converting using the "Apple iPod" device format but try it out and see what works best for you.

If you are a Mac/Windows user try out Handbrake (its free open-source software) and check out androidforums.com for the conversion instructions.

Arista Transcoder on Ubuntu Linux

To Transfer your videos make sure to mount your SD card. Once this is complete just create a "Videos" directory and copy the files over.

Once the files are copied to the SD card you should be able to open them though the gallery.

Converted Videos on Motorola Droid

Please note that acceptable video formats are: 30fps playback, MPEG-4, H.263, H.264

Android 2.1 on the Motorola Droid

I was able to get a Nexus One Rom port for the Droid. Droidforums.net has instructions on how to do the install. Most of the links to the files you need are dead but if your interested send me an email and I can send them your way. The rom I have is really good and only has minor bugs. The only issue I have come across are that Live Wallpapers crash the phone. But turn them off and everything else works great. Here are some of the new features on Android 2.1

• 5 Home Screens with little circles on each side to show which screen you are on. Long press the dots to bring up the each of the 5 screens in a card like view.

• Updated Photo Gallery UI has new look and feel. Its very slick and the images tilt when rotate the phone left and right. The background also changes colors based on colors in the photos you are looking at.
  

• Updated App Drawer UI also has a new look and feel. The drawer has a 3D effect that make the icons appear to flip over and under the current set of icons.
  

• News/Weather Widget - Awesome widget that gets the weather based on your location. The news is separated into predefined categories or can be customized just like in Google News. The widget can also be customized to be on one widget for Weather and News or separated out into two.
  

• Speak-to-Text in all Input screens

Motorola Droid ZAGG Review

ZAGG invisibleSHIELD is an "invisible" case for many cell phones and other devices. It has a lifetime warranty and comes in two coverages:Full Body ($24.99) and Screen ($14.99). I had the verizon screen protector but didn't really like it so I decided to try out the full body ZAGG. I really like the screen coverage much better and would not recommend the full body as it protects too much (i.e battery door, sides). He are my thoughts/pictures on the ZAGG full body coverage.

• Pros:
• You put it on wet so you can slide it around until you get the correct fit
• Easy to remove any air bubbles
• Liquid dries clear
• Screen coverage is very thin and can barely tell its on
• Cons
• Slow shipping. Took about two weeks to get my order
• Hard to put on little pieces
• Full Body has too many unnecessary pieces. I'm not interested in covering every crevice of my Droid.
• The small pieces dry hard and make the Droid uncomfortable to hold
• Smudges Easily   

G-Backup

G-Backup is an Android application that automatically backs up your Calls, SMS, MMS, Photos and Videos to your Gmail account. The application will assign labels to each of the conversations as they are imported. A 21-day free trial is offered, and the full application costs $4.99

I've been using the application for 5 days now. I love having images sent to my phone via MMS stored in my Gmail account. I often forget to save the images to my phone before I delete the messages! :)

Swype for the Droid

You may have seen the Samsung Omnia II commercials for the new swype keyboard. Well lucky for you I have found the leaked preview application for the Droid and other high resolution android phones.

droidmuff.in has the installer and instructions for getting it installed. I've given it a try and its very cool and very fast. Just slide your finger over your keyboard and it writes the word for you, accurately too. It takes some getting used to with punctuation and such but once you go though the tutorial and practice it becomes quite intuitive. Check it out and let me know if you have any questions or comments.

 

Image from droidmuff.in