Two long-time Android apps that I used to use a lot bit the dust recently: Hipmunk, the airfare aggregator is just dead. Tapingo, the skip-the-line-order-ahead app for campus dining, has been subsumed into the Borg that is Grubhub. (Weirdly, most people around here pronounced it “tap-ingo” while I perhaps wrongly said “tap-n-go”. Guess that’s totally academic now.)
Coincidence? Or have we reached a new stage in the lifecycle of even established apps?
The HTC One (M8) is a good phone except that it is a sealed box and you cannot replace the battery. My battery has been acting up – it goes from 30+% charge to zero in seconds. I had this once before and fixed it for a couple of months by doing this:
To recalibrate battery and HTC charger when battery rapidly or erratically discharges, this procedure clears all battery stats, coordinates and normalizes charging.
Turn off Fast Boot in settings. 1 Power off phone.
Plug phone into HTC charger and charge for two minutes or more
While charging, hold down volume up+volume down+power button and continue holding
Phone will turn on and off repeatedly every 15 seconds or so while continuing to hold all three buttons
Keep this going for 2 minutes, then release buttons when phone is ON
Now, let phone charge fully normally (with phone either on or off–doesn’t matter) and battery level reporting, charging and battery life should be normalized.
I got this from XDA and am posting it here to make it easier to find again since I may have to do it every month….
As a public service,
This QR code will invite your Android phone to install Disconnect, a privacy app that Google has banned from its ‘play store’. (More info here.)
To install the app you will need to navigate to your device’s Settings, select Security or Applications (depending on device) and check the Unknown Sources box.
There is also an iOS version.
That big bug looks fixed as of the new version of “Android System WebView” they pushed out yesterday or today. I downloaded the new version 42.0.2311.137 and things seem to be working fine.
You may have noticed in the last few days that some apps don’t work right on your android phone – they close as soon as you open them, or in the middle of using them. I had this problem with Handcent, and also with clicking on (most) articles on some (but not other) apps from online news sources. Many other apps are also closing unexpectedly. This is certainly a problem in my HTC One M8, and I gather it has hit some android tablets too.
The source of the problem is an update Google did to the “Android System WebView” app. Despite looking like an app, this is really part of the Android operating system: Google is moving to transition from having all Android updates come in Android version releases and spinning off parts that it update more quickly (and behind the back of the phone makers and cell phone companies) via the Play Store.
To solve the problem you must do 3 things:
No word from Google yet when they will fix this. You’d think HTC would be on to them about it.
Jotwell Blenderlaw
