Android

Android is a Linux-based mobile phone operating system based developed by Google. It is very similar to the iPhone, with a touchscreen for some or all user interactions, depending on the hardware, and a market for third-party applications.

Contents

Synchronization

Synchronization of contacts, calendar events and email is possible through three mechanisms.

Google Web Applications

Google web applications are the default on some systems like the HTC Eris. Beware that giving your phone your Gmail credentials can result in your phone contacts being drowned in a flood of email contacts imported from Gmail. If you don't want to use Google's services, navigate to Settings->Data synchronization->Google and uncheck Auto-sync and Background data.

ActiveSync

Located under Settings->Data synchronization->Exchange ActiveSync, the originally proprietary ActiveSync protocol allows for fully configurable over-the-air synchronization thanks to the open source Z-Push project.

PC

Synchronization over a cable is the third available option. A walkthrough on how to do this from Linux would be nice.

SSH

To connect to a remote server over secure shell, use the ConnectBot application available from the Android Market. To insert a tab character with the virtual keyboard, press the trackball and then the i key. To insert an escape character with the soft keyboard, press.the trackball twice. To page up and down, scroll with the touchscreen on the left side. Further special key instructions can be found in the ConnectBot documentation.

Editing Wiki Pages

The default browser handles editing large text boxes in portrait mode very poorly. The workaround is to use landscape mode for editing large text boxes such as those found on wikis. Additionally, the vertical bar or pipe on the soft keyboard is a ¦ character rather than a |. Copy and paste provide a workaround for this bug, but it's surprising that Google couldn't properly map the keys on its software keyboard.