Wrong Image Count On Android Gallery

Does your image count in Android's Gallery app show that you have 3500 pictures in a folder that only has 5? Here is a hopefully a quick fix to get this reset:

From your phone settings select applications>manage apps>all>media storage> and then clear data. Reboot your phone and it should reset after you media has been scanned.

If you are using custom ringtones for users, they will be reset (even with Ringo). So be ready to correct the settings.

This may only resolve the issue for a short period of time, but it will clean it up. Another fix that I've done that seems to have resolved the issue is to format my external SD card (this is where I store my camera photos).

Connect to your phone using your USB cable. Be sure you have access to your storage as a drive. Copy all the data from your SD card to a folder on your computer. Disconnect the USB cable and then format the SD card using the settings in your phone. Reconnect the USB cable and then copy your data back to your SD card from your computer. Reboot and you should be in business.

Norton Power Eraser -- A Tale Based On True Events

So your neighbor calls you up frantic that he can't get onto the Internet.  What do you do (other than not helping)? Download NPE - Norton Power Eraser and go to his rescue.  I had never used this product (or knew about it) until the other day.  Using this was a quick an easy fix to a PC that was being hijacked by another "spyware removal" tool.  It was the only thing that could get to the Internet, asking for money to "remove" infections that didn't exist.  I hate these types of spyware infections.  A less than savvy user could end up giving away personal information to clean their PC.

After starting the program up, I simply selected the scan type that I wanted and then NPE do the rest.  The offending application was listed and removal options given.  A few reboots later and I had my neighbors PC up and going again.  I will caution you that you really need to pay attention to what is listed as a "bad" piece of software in the final list.  On his machine, it was spot on.  However on my personal machine I got a false positive when running it to get some screen shots for this article.  To be honest, when in doubt you may want to just remove the things you are 100% sure of and then reboot to see if your issues have been resolved.  If not, scan again and remove more.  I was thrilled to get his issues resolved in less than an hour.  I even took the add step of removing a non-functioning version of AVG and replacing it with Microsoft Security Essentials (a free AV solution from Microsoft).  Now he's up and running with some decent protection on his PC.

There are other commercial applications that can do this same sort of thing, but I'm all about open-source or freeware considering the economy (and personal choice).  These types of applications are just as good or better as their commercial counterparts.  Don't be afraid to try them, even if it's just to get you through a project or solution.

Amazon Appstore for Android - Free Stuff!

I was skeptical when Amazon added their own appstore for Android.  I love my Android phone.  It is by far the best phone I have ever had.  The only real challenge is that you can't purchase software and have it billed to your phone account.  But along comes Amazon's appstore and now you have an easy way to make purchases using your Amazon account.  But by far the best feature is the "a paid app for free everyday". 

You can get some great stuff for free.  This makes me check everyday to see what's being given away.  Today was TweetCaster Pro.  I can only hope that QuickOffice is down the pipe.  I love this feature.  Not only do you get some great stuff, but apps you may not have looked at are brought to your attention. 

Now there are issues with this store.  The apps installed are not "seen" by the Android Market.  And if you uninstall the Amazon appstore your apps go with it.  But that's not really a big deal because once you install this you're not going to want to get rid of it.  And of course, your carrier may not allow you to install an additional app like this since it's not in the Android Market (perhaps a root -- but I'm not advocating that.  Read all the stuff on killing your warranty when you do root).  You'll have to download it direct from Amazon.

But in the end, I think this app is worth all that it brings to your phone.  Get it and start getting some great apps for free.