Problem connecting Android to ADB (Android Debug Bridge)

I use the free version of EasySMS a lot - simply because it feels good to write an SMS on the nice browser interface. This way I do not have to take my eyes of the computer screen.

Both the ADB and the EasySMS files was on my Xperia - and with a desktop shortcut in Windows and the Android USB driver installed, my expectation was that I did not need to install the full Android SDK on every PC I get in contact with.

With the USB driver installed, the EasySMS installation on my phone worked fine - for a while. I tested the setup on 3 computers and I thought it was a success.

Then suddenly my script would not open the webinterface - with a sad message that the webpage could not be found. It did not take long to figure out that the problem was the ADB - it could not locate the phone connected.

To make a long storry short:

• Make sure AdbWinApi.dll is available for adb.exe
• Make sure AdbWinUsbApi.dll is available for adb.exe
• Make sure adb.exe is restarted
• Make sure the phone has the USB Debug connection activated

Somehow the DLL's AdbWinApi.dll and AdbWinUsbApi.dll had disapeared from the directory on the phone where I had adb.exe. After putting the DLL's back, the adb.exe would happily recognize the Xperia attached to the USB port.
Another issue is that the adb deamon running in windows sometimes seems to get "stuck" on a previous connection and won't accept a reconnect. In this case the ADB need a restart. (I read somewhere that the Linux version also have this problem - and on top it needs to have the SUDO command added in front of the adb command to make sure it is performed with root rights):

• adb kill-server
• adb start-server

ADB should then return the messages
* daemon not running. starting it now *
* daemon started successfully *

After this, a call to adb devices should show the connected android device, like:
List of devices attached
CB511H16LQ       device

(Secret) Service Menu in Xperia X10

All the mobile phones I have had from Sony Ericsson would have a service menu, where the basic hardware could be tested. The X10 is no different.

When the phone screen is locked (The "Lock Screen" - the one with the blue rainbow! ), you push the physical buttons in the following succession:


Menu, Back, Back, Menu, Back, Menu, Menu, Back
 

Nothing is shown on the screen until the service menu pop up. Here you can test most hardware, like GPS, Compass, WiFi, touchscreen etc.
 

Connecting X10 to PC via USB

Simple... When you know how... Like everything else in life:

1) Connect USB to your X10

2) Open the top status bar on the X10

3) Select the "USB Connected" on the list

4) Select "Mount"

5) The SD card is now disconnected from your X10 and mounted as a disk drive in Windows. (Here seen as drive "F:")

When disconnecting the X10 from your PC, please remember to "unmount" the connection on the phone - if this is not done, you could risk loosing all files on the SD memory card.

1) Like before, start with opening the statusbar at the top

2) Select the "Turn off USB storage"

3) Select "Turn off" in the dialog

That should cover the basics...

Extending battery time

Like so many other owners of smartphones, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 needs to be charged often. In my own case the battery will last a little more than 24 hours if I do not have GPS and BlueTooth activated at all times... If I play games or surf the net, the battery time goes down further. Added to that, I often have my X10 connected to my PC at work and thereby charge the phone during the day.

My old and trusty SE 902 would hold a charge for about 2 days and I never turned off the 3G - until I spend a week in Florida, where the 902 was able to hold the charge during the entire trip - because I would not let the 3G go roaming...

So how can a user extend the battery time on their X10?

On Sony Ericsson support page, they have this list of tips (Edited):

In order to maximise your battery performance, make sure you switch off functions you don't use, such as Bluetooth™, and lower the screen brightness.

Other useful tips to maximise battery performance:
- Only use location services when needed.
- Turn off push email and synchronise your mailboxes manually.
- Minimise the use of third-party applications.
- Charge your phone often. The battery lasts longer if you charge it frequently.
- If you are in an area with no coverage, your phone repeatedly scans for available networks. This consumes power. If you can't move to an area with better coverage, turn off your phone temporarily or use Flight mode.
- Turn off 3G, Bluetooth™ wireless technology and the Wi-Fi™ connection when you do not need these functions.
- Don't cover the phone antenna when you are engaged in a call or when transferring data. The antenna is located at the back of phone
- Browse the web with Wi-Fi™ rather than mobile data networks, and turn off Wi-Fi™ when not in use.
- Close running applications when not in use.

As a test I disabled 3G, GPS, WiFi and Blootooth and rebooted the X10 saturday morning this weekend and the battery was charged to 100% at 10:00. Please understand that the phone was not in "Flight mode", I would still be able to send/recieve SMS and call the outside world and "the world" could call me back if needed.
Sunday evening at 22:00 the batttery charge had only dropped to 74% and after 48 hours since saturday morning the charge had dropped to 66% charge...

What does it mean?

If you only use your X10 as an SMS device and once in a while use the phone as... well... a phone - it is possible to extend the battery time a lot - but then all of the fun in having a X10 (or any other smartphone for that matter) would be gone.

Applications like JuiceDefencer should give a better battey time than the default, but I'll have to look into that at another time.

The Android 2.1 upgrade should also improve battery time a lot so we just have to be patient.

Other than that, use your X10 wisely :-)

Trouble with the Wndows XP driver for Android?

For normal file transfer to and from my Xperia X10, Windows XP does not need any specific drivers - just:
1) Connect the X10 to the USB port
2) Go into the phone, open the top menu and find the 'USB Connected' and select it.

3) Chose 'Mount' in the textbox that appears on the phone

4) et voilà - the contents of the SD memory card on the X10 is visible as a drive in Windows XP.



For those people who need more - like access to the file system on the X10 it self or need the ability to grab screenshots from the X10 or do some development work for Android, a driver is needed...

When in Windows...

On my laptop the revision 3 USB driver for android (located in the Android SDK package .\android-sdk-windows\usb_driver) works fine, but on my 'real' developer PC, I got the sad message that the driver package did not contain anything usefull for my Xperia X10...

Why...? Ooooh.... Whyyyy....?

Based on the information found here (thank you mlohbihler) and here (thank you Jonas Petersson), it was posible to work around the problem.
1) Activate the 'USB Debugging' option on the phone (found under settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB debugging)
2) Connect the X10 to Windows (Yes, using the USB cable...)
3) Use the installation files found here or here.
4) Tadaaah.... (At least it worked for me)

The case of the flipped login screen

A mystery...

The trusty login screen of my X10 had suddenly become ... reverse...

I did not ask for that...

But luckily the answer was easy - when you know how...

On the login screen put your finger at the top of the "rainbow" and drag it to the other side of the screen - and the top of the rainbow will follow..




Of course this is also usefull information for people who want to unlock their X10 with their left hand.

Custom music playlist in Mediascape

A rewrite of the posting by user Baggyb found here:

It's seems that as good as MediaScape is, it doesn't offer the basic ability to create playlists.

The help page on the subject at Sony Ericsson:

Mediascape has automatically generated playlists in the music home screen. You can also create your own playlists. Use the Media Go™ application to maintain your music library and to create playlists. Playlists that you create yourself have to be in the m3u format and have to be stored on the memory card in the phone. When you connect the phone to your computer using the USB cable, the memory card appears in the Media Go™ application.

To copy playlists to your memory card:

a) On the computer: Start the Media Go™ application.
b) Connect the phone to the computer using the USB cable.
c) Locate the memory card in the Media Go™ application.
d) Copy existing playlists from your computer to the memory card by dragging and dropping the playlists.

Now there are workarounds for creating playlists on the x10 itself which MediaScape will recognise.

1. Install Astro file Manager from the market (free)

- Navigate to your Music folder on SD card
- Locate a track and long press, you should get a "Music Options" button.
- Within Music options you can either set as "ringtone" or "Add to a Playlist". (Please note this only seems to work with certain files i.e MP3)

2. Install Astro file Manager from the market (free)

- Navigate to /System/app
- Locate the sndroid Music player called "Music"
- Long press and select open as
- Select Audio

This will bring you into androids bult-in media player that SE have carefully hidden.

It loads your media library and allows you to create playlists easily, which will be instantly picked up by MediaScape.

You can always create shortcuts to the music app.

I suggest that Sony Ericsson upgrade the MediaScape functionality when they send out the Android upgrade to our Xperia X10 phones...

Changing the name of a folder on the desktop screens

With only 3 screens available on the X10, I wanted to use folders for grouping items, tools and games... But how was that done?
Stupid as I am, it took a while to figure out:
Create a new folder by opening the menu and select "Add"

Select "Folders"

Select "New folder"

and the new folder "Folder" pops up on the screen...


...but having 4 or 5 folders named "Folder" is not helping grouping my games... So let us rename the folder... to My folder... Brilliant name...

So open folder


Then select folder title bar and hold it (for about 4 seconds)...

...until the "Rename folder" window open

Enter new folder name and push the 'OK' button


Tadaa - renamed folder...

MP3 ring tone - alternative, the Sony Ericsson way

The solution in my previous blog was not something I wanted to do - too technical for the average user (but then again, what I find exciting about the X10 is that people can get very nerdy and technical with it, so how many 'average users' choose an Xperia X10?)...

Anyway - I just stumpled uppon this way to do it:
1) Copy the 'to-be' ringtone to your SD memory card (Like the 'Music' folder)
2) Open the song in Mediascape
3) When the song starts to play, push the menu button and select option "Set as ringtone")
4) Go into your phonebook (you can turn off the music if you want to)
5) Locate the person you'd like to add the new MP3 ring tone to
6) Edit the contact and under 'Ringtone', select your MP3 song that now has magically appeared on the list.
7) Save contact information
8) Call the victim and ask them to call you back
9) Enjoy :-)

MP3 ring tone

Soo.... why can't I put Amy Winehouse "Rehab" as the ring tone for my wife? Well... There is a solution to everything on Android. Not perfect, but it works:

Copy the MP3 files from your “music” folder to the “ringtone” folder, if you can’t find the “ringtone” folder, you can create one yourself, than go to contacts, choose one contact and tap “edit” > “ringtone”, you can find the MP3 you just added there.

Source:
http://www.android-cellphones.org/how-to-set-mp3-as-ringtone-on-sony-ericsson-xperia-x10.html/

Reset to factory settings

One day, while playing with the settings for Android and the X10, I quickly got the phone into a state where I no longer knew if I was doing something wrong or the phone just hated me. And I felt I had to do something: Reset to the factory settings.

Music, pictures and other stuff saved on the memory card would be safe, but all settings for google, timescape, mediascape and installed applications would go where unused bits go when bits die.

But where is that option?

I found it here:
Settings -> SD card & phone storage -> Factory data reset

Beware of the data graveyard - make sure the bits don't come back to haunt you.

Instant "keyboard" lock

On my previous Sony Ericsson telephone, I had a two-key combination that would instantaniously lock the keyboard so I would not call someone in China or Mars by accident when I threw the phone in my pocket.

I found a setting in the X10 that would set the timer for when the screen would lock up to protect itself from unintentional input (Settings -> Sound and Visual Effects -> Timeout for the screen) - but setting the timeout to 15 or 30 seconds would be annoying, too.

After a while, I discovered that pressing the top on/off button briefly would lock the screen instantly - just as I wanted it to.

Simple, once you know how.

Beginning the journey into the X10

I'd like to document my xperience with my Sony Ericsson Xperia X10... But how can that be easily accomplished?

This was my first hurdle.  How do I document the screen shots?

I quickly found a way (although a sort of nerdy way), via the Android software developer kit (SDK):
Written walk through
Video walk trough on YouTube
It requires a little more of the user, because it needs other tools installed before the Android SDK can be used (jdk 5 or 6 is one requirement I did not realize until later in the process). But it is not too complicated. I managed, so can you.

Alternatively, there are some applications for the Android that will do the job too:
Screenshot (Android) 1.0
Koush's Screenshot app
They all require root access to the X10 - and how to do this on the X10 seems to not yet be public knowledge.

I guess the method preferred will depend on what is needed. I don't like the idea of installing too much "crap" on my phone, but see the possibilities in being able to make a screenshot as it happens, on the train or elsewhere, miles from the nearest PC connection.

For now I'll settle for the Android SDK.
The SDK is not the only thing I need, though.

A version of the Java Development Kit (JDK for short) is needed... I feel I had a lot of benefits installing the eclipse development environment as well, since it made it easier to install the Android platforms Windows drivers etc - but if you are not afraid to use a command prompt, you can do without eclipse.

The JDK is easy to install - and so is eclipse and Android SDK. Just follow the links I mentioned in the beginning - or use my personal favorite here. It worked perfectly for me.