How to handle the Android Market Application force close?

We all love Android Market. I am sure all of us visit the Android Market on our Android Phones at least once a day, to install new Apps and to update the old ones. And we love it when there is an update for the Market itself, when it surprises us with a new look when we launch it sometimes. However, for many of us a new update can be often frustrating. Many users are complaining that the Android Market tends to force close or crash every time after a new update.

Yes, you get that frustrating message about the forceclose. Processs.com. android.vending force closes on your face. And to think about a life without the market! Now, what can you do when Android Market crashes after an update? Following are some of the things you can do, when Android Market force closes on you:

• As usual, reboot your phone. Switch off the phone, remove the sim card and battery and reboot. Try the Market to see if it is working!
• If reboot does not work, head over to your settings! Go to Settings > Applications> Manage Applications and find out Android Market! After you find out market, clear the cache and remove data on the Application. Reboot and see if  the market is working!
• If clearing the cache and removing data do not help to revive your Market, head over to settings and go to Android Market again. There is a button to uninstall updates. Uninstall updates and reboot your phone. This helps 99% of the time. Android Market will install the updates later.
• If uninstalling the updates does not help, you need to find out a wifi network you can use. Once you are near a wifi network you can access, turn on the wifi for your phone and use your phone for sometime. The issue is with the Market downloading a faulty update file because you have a slow network connection. Reboot the phone after sometime and see if Market works!
• If none of these are helping, you may need to do a Factory Reset! Head over to your Settings> Privacy and do a Factory Reset and hopefully this will solve the problem. But remember to remove your sim card and memory card when you do this as Factory Reset will wipe all your data.

Update: One of my readers pointed out that, you can try changing the language of your phone to stop Android Market Forceclose. [Thanks for the tip]

How to enhance Android battery life?

Batteries that drain so fast are always an issue when it comes to Android Phones. Most of us forgive Android the embarrassing battery life as it gives us the freedom and openness that other mobile platforms cannot give us.

They say Flash and Air are responsible for this pathetic battery life that Android phones have. However, Flash is something you cannot live without, at least till html5 hopefully becomes a standard across the World Wide Web. And for the sake of allowing developers to create apps that look good, we need to put up with Air.

So now that Flash and Air are out of the danger of being deleted, what is left that can save the battery life? You need to figure out which are the applications that use your battery heavily even when you are not using them. Multi-tasking capability of Android opens up another problem. It simply will not close certain applications that it thinks need to run in the background. And these applications eat up your battery. But how do you find out which are the applications that eat your battery in the most unacceptable fashion? How do you find out which application runs in the background and drains your battery drastically?

Android's built in power management and monitoring system has its own limitations and it does not show you which applications are draining the battery. So you have to look to other places for help. And help comes from Chinese Developer, NetQin Mobile. NetQin's Android Booster is available in Android market for free. You can download NetQui Android Booster from here.

 NetQin Android Booster makes your Android phone faster. Helps you save battery power. Monitors traffic your traffic use so that you do not use more data than you can afford.It helps you reclaim memory, save battery power, kill tasks and give you an easy way to uninstall unwanted apps.

Let me give an example. For a long time, after using several Android Booster Apps, I was not aware which are the applications on my phone that use a lot of power than necessary to run. I always used to clean the RAM, clear the cache and kill my GPS, Bluetooth and Wifi, hoping that will save me some power. After I downloaded NetQuin, and ran a scan to understand my battery usage, I was stunned.

We never expect popular Applications to run smoothly without consuming a lot of power after they are closed. Now, Pulse is a very popular Application. I am sure there is no one who uses an Android Phone, that does not use Pulse as their news reader app. What more should I say, even the great Steve Jobs showed Pulse as an example of a great Application. I was stunned to find out after I used NetQuin Android Booster that, Pulse uses 48% of my battery even when I am not using it when you compare it to Chat Applications like Google Talk that always have to be online and they use less than 1% of the battery when I am not using them.

Now, go ahead and install NetQin Android Booster and let me know which are the Applications you found eating up your battery.

Type and Read Malayalam on Android (Samsung Galaxy Phones)

Are you looking for a way to read and type Malayalam on your Android Phone? Here is a solution!

Opera Mini is a great source of comfort for people who want to read Malayalam on their Android Phone. Type "opera:config" in the address bar and change "Use bitmap for complex scripts" into "Yes" and you are ready to go. Now, that is good enough to read Malayalam on Opera Mini Web Browser. But what about those people who want to read and type in Malayalam, no matter what Application they are using?

Android does not provide any support for Malayalam. However, there is a workaround if you want to read Malayalam and type in Malayalam using your Android Phone, if you are using a Samsung Galaxy Phone. Following are the steps you need to follow, if you would like to do that, if you are using a Samsung Galaxy device:

1. Download "Font for Galaxy SP" (Fontomizer) from the Android Market
2. Go to your Settings > Applications > and make sure that Unknown Sources is checked. Checking Unknown Sources allows you to install Android Applications from sources other than market.
3. Download "Akshar Unicode" from "Font for Galaxy SP" and install on your phone. "Font for Galaxy SP"  lists fonts in alphabetical order. Click on alphabet "A" to download Akshar Unicode font
4.  After installing Akshar Unicode, go to Settings > Display > Font Style and select Akshar as your display font.
5. Download PaniniKeypadMalayalam IME from the Android Market
6. After installing PaniniKeypad Malayalam IME, go to Settings > Locale and text and check PaniniKeypad Malayalam so that the key board is enabled on your phone
7. Now, when ever you want to type in Malayalam, long-press on your text box and choose PaniniKeypad Malayalam as your input

Remember: Akshar Unicode is not that evolved a font. Malayalam may not render as good as it does on your computer. However, something is better than nothing.

Remember: Fontomizer works only on Samsung Galaxy devices. I have not tested this workaround on any other device than Galaxy. If it does not work on your Galaxy Phone, it is probably because of the Android fragmentation issue. The fonts from Fontomizer are based on Flipfont library. Now if your phone has Flipfont function, it may work on your phone even if it is not a Galaxy device. [Try and let me know, please!]

I hope Android will soon start supporting Malayalam Font in its full glory and we will be able to seamlessly type in Malayalam and read Malayalam without much stress.

Note: This workaround will not void your warranty as you are not rooting the phone or unlocking the boot loaders when you install a font from Fontomizer. If you have a rooted phone and do not care about warranty , I suggest you to download a Malayalam .ttf font like Karthika or Meera and replace your Droidsansfallback.ttf with it.

Update Again:  looks like Fontomizer has more Malayalam  fonts than Akshar. Check out!