Android Stuff

Travellinman has written a Windows Application to extract conversation with a contact into a easy to read text file. I am hosting it here on my blog so that it can be easily accessed by anyone interested.

Updated version 0.2 can be downloaded by clicking here.

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Google has recently updated its Maps App for Android to 4.1.0. Normally the update process in the market is straight forward, but some times it can get tricky, specially if you are using a custom ROM as most of the ROMs come with the Maps App pre-installed and that can make it difficult to update them.

When trying to update to the new version, if you get an error message like “Package file was not signed correctly.” or “Package was not signed correctly.”, then you need to uninstall the previous version of the App first and then install the new version. To uninstall the previous version, run this command from the computer:

adb uninstall com.google.android.apps.maps

After this install the new version from the Android Market.

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Just finished moving the site from Blogger to WordPress. Hopefully all the links and pages are working correctly…

For anyone interested, here’s what I did:

1. Looked at the instructions on the Installing WordPress page.
2. Installed WordPress on IIS6 from the Microsoft Web Apps Gallery.
3. Imported the posts from Blogger using the built-in import function of WordPress.
4. Installed the Eos theme by SRS Solutions.
5. Installed a few mobile themes and settled at WordPress Mobile Pack plugin for now. One of the main reasons being that it has support for Admob ads
6. Since I was moving my site from Blogger and wanted to make sure that all the old links to my old site were still working, I needed a redirection plugin, so installed the Redirection plugin and created entries for all the redirects I needed to work with the permalink structure of my new site.
7. Found out that redirections won’t work that easily on IIS as it doesn’t have Apache’s mod_rewrite functionality.
8. Tried isapi_rewrite lite which could do the required but then found it gets installed as a global isapi filter which could mess with other sites on the server.
9. Found the article at Caspian IT and quickly downloaded IIRF but could not get it to work initially, the documentation and the page at Caspian IT still has reference to IsapiRewrite4.dll and IsapiRewrite4.ini files which seem to have been renamed to IIRF.dll and IIRF.ini in the current release. Another thing to note is that the IIRF.ini file needs to be in the root of the actual site, rather than in the same folder as the IIRF.dll file.
10. Installed the Google Analyticator plugin to get Google Analytics support.
11. Installed the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.
12. Installed the Social Bookmarks plugin.
13. Installed the Link to Post plugin.
14. Modified the Eos theme to add a Paypal button

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A simple App to backup and restore Call Logs, useful when doing a factory reset or installing custom ROMs. The backup is stored in /sdcard/CallLogBackupRestore folder.

This App is a must if you need to keep a history of all the calls you’ve made from or received on the phone since Android only keeps a history of the 500 latest calls and any calls older than that are automatically deleted from the phone.

Please report any problems you are having with the App here in the comments section or email me with the details as I cannot respond to problems in the Android Market. My email address is on the market.

Features:

• Backup Call Logs / History in XML format.
  • Choose a scheduled time to automatically backup everyday.
  • Choose the name of the file to backup to.
  • Option to add and XSL style sheet to the XML file, so that the file can be opened with a browser for viewing easily.  Click here to download a sample XSL Stylesheet for Call Logs. Copy it in the same folder as the Backup XML file and then open the XML file in a browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox.
  • Option to add the date in readable format.
  • Backup format is independent of the Android version so the calls can be easily moved from one phone to another, irrespective of which version of Android it has. Tested with 1.5, 1.6, 2.01, 2.1.
• Restore Call Logs
  • Option to select the backup file to be restored from the folder.
• Delete all Call Logs on the Phone.
• Email a backup file.
• Delete existing backup files.
  • Option to delete old files automatically after specified number of days.

Download:

This app can be downloaded from the Android Market, search for it or scan this QR code with a Barcode Scanner app:

User Interface:

The screen has 5 buttons:

• Backup Call Logs: Backup all the Call logs on the phone to the xml file.
• Restore Call Logs: Reads the xml file and creates a new Call log for every entry found in the file. Duplicates are checked based on number, duration and date/time of the call.
• Delete Backup Files: Allows selection of backup files to be deleted.
• Delete Call Logs: Deletes all the Call logs on the phone, so that a Restore can be performed.
• Donate: If you wish to donate for the App via PayPal.

Menu Options:

• Help: Help information about the App.
• Preferences: Opens the Preferences Screen.
• Send by Email: Allows you to send the backup file by Email.

Preferences:

• Use Scheduled Backups: If automatic backups should be performed everyday.
• Time of Backup: When performing automatic backups, at what time should the backups be performed.
• Days to Keep Old Backups: When performing automatic backups, backup files older than these many days will be deleted after the backup is performed. To keep an older file rename it so that the file name starts with _ (underscore).
• Disable Vibration: Disables the vibration on completion of an operation.
• Add Readable Date: Add the date in human readable format.
• Add XSL Tag: Add Xsl tag to view backup file in browser. Click here to download a sample XSL File. Copy it in the same folder as the Backup XML file and then open the XML file in a browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox.
• Add Contact Names: Add the name of the contact to the backup file.
• Filename Date Format: The format for the auto generated file name.
• Enable Logging: For troubleshooting purposes, logs any errors encountered to the system log.
• Do not show Ads: Removes the Ads from the App.

Known Problems / Issues:

• If you are running any “Task Killer” app that kills apps on a schedule (like Advanced Task Manager), make sure that you exclude SMS Backup & Restore from it, otherwise the Scheduled Backups may not work properly. This App displays a notification every time it backs up with the details of the backup, make sure you are getting those notifications.
• Android only keeps a log of last 500 calls and the app can only backup the calls which are in those logs. If you have configured the app to automatically delete the backups after a few days then you’ll loose that call history.

Change Log:

v1.6:

• Added preference to backup Contact Names as well.

v1.5:

• Scheduled Backups.

v1.4:

• Added Scheduled Backups (experimental).
• Added Preference screen.
• Fixed rotation bug.
• Lots more

v1.3:

• Added button to facilitate selection of files to be deleted.

v1.2:

• Fix for the wrong month in the auto-generated file name.

v1.1:

• Support for multiple backup files:
  • Backup asks to input a file name.
  • Restore asks to select a file.
• Added Menu option to send the Backup file by Email.
• Added prompt during restore to confirm if duplicates should be checked.
• Faster restore when not checking for duplicates.
• Backup xml is now properly indented.
• Now does not ask to delete (and does not delete) calls before restore.

v1.0:

• Added warning before overwriting existing backup file.
• Minor bug fixes when writing the file.
• Now Ad supported.

v0.1:

• Initial release.

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APN Backup & Restore is a simple App to backup and restore APNs. The backup is stored in the /sdcard/APNBackupRestore/ folder.

Please report any problems you are having with the App here in the comments section or email me with the details as I cannot respond to problems in the Android Market. My email address is on the market.

The screen has 4 buttons:

• Backup APNs: Backup all the APNs defined on the phone to the xml file.
• Restore APNs: Reads the xml file and creates a new APN for every entry found in the file.
• Delete Backup Files: Allows selection of old backup files to be deleted.
• Delete APNs: Deletes all the APNs defined on the phone, so that a Restore can be performed.

Menu Options:

• Help: Help information about the App.
• Send by Email: Allows you to send the backup file by Email.
• Donate: If you wish to donate for the App via PayPal.
• Enable Logging: For troubleshooting purposes, logs any errors encountered to the system log.

MMSProtocol: It seems its an optional setting, the G1 doesnt even have the setting for it in the APN screen. By default the value for this setting does not appear in the backup xml because “WAP2.0″ gets displayed even if nothing is selected in the APN Setting screen. If you go into the details and explicitly select a value then it will be correctly backed up and restored.

NOTE: If you have deleted all the APNs by mistake and want to go back to the defaults then you can always do so by going to Settings -> Wireless Controls -> Mobile Network Settings -> Access Point Names, then press the Menu button and select “Reset to default”.

Backup format is independent of the Android version so the messages can be easily moved from one phone to another, irrespective of which version of Android it has. Tested with 1.5, 1.6, 2.01, 2.1.

Change Log:
v1.5:

• Fixed bug with Send by Email.

v1.4:

• Support for multiple backup files:
  • Backup asks to input a file name.
  • Restore asks to select a file.
• Button to facilitate selection of files to be deleted.

v1.3:

• Backup xml is now properly indented.
• Option to send backup file by email.

v1.1:

• Minor bug fixes, now handles missing SD Card while backing up.
• Now Ad supported.

v1.0:

• Now handles invalid APN settings (missing MCC & MNC) in some custom ROMs (CyanogenMod, MyHero etc)
• Added menu option to enable/disable Logging.
• Added button to donate via PayPal.
  

v0.4

• Now asks to delete existing APNs before restore.
• Checks for duplicates and overwrites any existing APNs based on Name, MCC and MNC
  

v0.3

• Now handles the missing mmsprotocol setting on the G1.
  

v0.2

• Changed the xml tags a bit, not compatible with the previous version.
• Better handling of null values.

v0.1

• Initial release.

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