We’ve all been in a situation before where we needed to either factory reset our phone, send it in for a warranty replacement, etc. Not a big deal by itself, but you’ve got 3 stars on 80% of Angry Birds levels, and who would want to lose that accomplishment? You want to be able to keep that data forever. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to do, and this guide will help you get started. You’ll even be able to start transferring some app data to new phones when you upgrade.
Koushik Dutta, developer of popular apps like DeskSMS and Clockwork Mod recovery, has been teasing up with betas of his new app, Carbon. Those betas have expired today, but the official app is now available in the Play Store in two versions, a free and paid app. The app backs up your apps and data to an SD card, or cloud storage if you don’t have enough memory on device to store all of your apps. Rooted devices can just use the application itself, but unrooted users will need a companion desktop application to get it working. Motorola users are left out in the cold on this one, though; there’s a bug in Motorola’s software the breaks Android’s backup features.
The free version of the app is ad-supported and lacks a few features of the premium version, such as Android-to-Android sync and cloud sync. There’s also a scheduled backup feature planned soon for the premium version. If you’re running Android 4.0 or above, hit the links below to try out the app.
Play Store Download Link (Free)
We recently reviewed Moborobo, which allows you to manage and sync your Android phone with your desktop, but I wanted to tell you about another one that I found called SnapPea. SnapPea has a clean and easy to use interface that is perfect for the Android beginner, but advanced users might want to check it out as well. It has some pretty cool features and you will most likely want to recommend it to your newbie friends and family since it’s a great application to backup and manage any Android phone or tablet. » Read the rest
This morning I woke up to the “updates available” notification on my Android devices. Among them was an update for Superuser, bringing the version number to 3.0. Now I couldn’t even remember the last time Superuser had an update so I took a moment to check the change log. To my delight, this update packed a handful of great new features in addition to the usual bug fixes. What’s in the new update you ask? Straight from the changelog:
Starting today Sprint is offering customers access to McAfee mobile security applications. Sprint users can hit the Sprint Tab in the Android Market or by clicking on McAfee in the Sprint Zone. The cost will be $30 per year, but you will get a 7-day free trial. It will locate your lost phone, remotely wipe data, backup contacts and other data, and of course protect against malware.
Sprint is also offering McAfee Family Protection for $20 per year after a 7-day trial. It will filter mature websites and protect kids from accidentally removing apps from your device.
“Sprint takes mobile security very seriously, and we are working to provide tools for our customers that can help protect their devices from viruses and give them the ability to lock or wipe data from their device remotely if it becomes lost or stolen,” said Fared Adib, senior vice president-Product, Sprint. “McAfee is recognized as a leader in this space, and we are pleased to be working with them and to feature the McAfee Mobile Security software in Sprint Zone.”
Full press release after the break:
There is no doubt Google is working hard on their next release of Android, called Ice Cream Sandwich. What we do know is that Ice Cream Sandwich will probably be version 4.0, and it will end the need to have different versions of Android for tablets (Honeycomb) and phones (Gingerbread and below). Google execs said this would be Google’s “everywhere” OS for mobile phones, tablets, and other connected devices. The only other rumor we have heard is that phones will no longer need physical hardware buttons.
Is this all that we can expect? If the answer is yes, then it is going to be a boring release because Honeycomb is cool, but simply bringing that to the phone is not enough. I am pretty sure there is going to be a lot more UI enhancements and features.
There are two things I would like to see with the next version of Android, and that is the ability to log in with different accounts on each device and more cloud syncing.
If you’re the owner of a Samsung Captivate (SGH-i896, SGH-i897), and you love to flash, but fear the brick, fear not my comrades. AdamOutler, XDA Recognized Developer, has created a One-Click Unbricking tool for the Captivate that will save you from going through the painful task of unbricking your device after trying to flash without a JIG handy, thus giving you a bad taste in your mouth for further flashes.
This app is part of his Heimdall project, used for flashing Captivates, and will work on several OS’s. Here’s some of the features;
- Will work on all Samsung devices which use Odin
- Is a single, portable executable
- Is the first one-click anything for our devices on Linux
- Works on Mac
- Works on Windows
- Is open source
- Is programmed in JavaDeploys and installs Heimdall for your OS
- Is super easy to use…. Only one button!
So flash away Samsung Captivate owners, if you wish. Just always be sure to run a nandroid backup, Tibackup, and make sure you have this tool downloaded in case you need. If you have any issues or see any bugs, please report them to the developer here.
[via xda developers]
HTC has partnered with Orange UK to get their HTC Desire HD owners onto a better Android OS with an update for Android 2.3 Gingerbread rolling right now. The update should be OTA, so if you’re with Orange UK sporting a Desire HD Chocolate, check your notifications and taste that sweet Gingerbread goodness!
Just as a reminder, any time you’re about to install an update, it’s best practice to backup your apps and your OS just in case. I recommend Titanium backup for your apps which you can grab here for free. You’ll also need to root your device to use Titanium among many other awesome apps. You can follow here to get it rooted.
[via intomobile]
This isn’t the first time someone has come up with a way to save your Angry Birds game data, as we’ve shown here, but it is another pea in the pod regardless, and people love to have options. That said, there are really only a couple of files that need to be backed up, so if you have your device rooted (it must be rooted) and you have a rooted file explorer like ES File Explorer, you should have no trouble with these backups.
- First of all, use root explorer to go to
- /data/data/com.rovio.angrybirds (use corresponding names for seasons and rio)/files
- Copy these two files:
- highscores.lua
- settings.lua
- Now you can go to same location on the target device and paste them; however, make sure you rename the original files first.
- This step is the most important: fix the permission. Make sure both files have three read and write, and NO EXECUTE (X) because it will cause reboot when you run the game!!!
- Done.
There are many other methods, like Titanium Backup for example, that many are satisfied with, however, there have been users who’ve reported tb not working, and thus having to start over in Angry Birds after flashing a new ROM….that sucks! So, save yourself hundreds of hours of gameplay and stress by using the method above. Thanks mingkee!
[via xda-developers]
There’s many an app available on the Android Market for anyone who wants to back up their devices features, apps, or documents. What about your SMS messages? Yup, there’s a way to do that too. XDA member Pyr0TeK was kind enough to write up a little guide over it, with the aid of two apps available on the Android Market, which you’ll be able to download below.
You’ll need to download the following apps to get the process started. Simply scan or click below to grab and install.
