Root the Amazon Kindle Fire

Things You Need

• A PC running Windows Vista or Windows 7
• The Android SDK which has to be installed in your PC (click here for install details)
• SuperOneClick v 2.2 (get it here) — This is the software you will use to root the device.
• USB cable for connecting your tablet to your PC
• Amazon Kindle Fire

Step-by-step Procedure

Step 1: Install the Android SDK into your PC. The details about how to install the software development kit will not be discussed here because it’s a totally different subject on its own.
Step 2: You now have to turn on “Allow Installation of Applications From Unknown Sources”. This can be done by tapping the Settings icon at the top right corner. Then, go to More->Device. You can turn on the setting from there.

Step 3: Connect the Kindle Fire to your PC using the micro USB to USB cable. If the connect screen comes up on the screen of the Kindle Fire, please do not tap on connect for this will enable USB connection.

Step 4: Modify android_winusb.inf

1. Go to the folder where the SDK is installed.
2. Open Extras->Google->USB Driver.
3. Right click on android_winusb.inf and choose “Open with” then select Notepad.
4. Look for [Google.NTx86] and [Google.NTamd64] in the text that you just opened.
5. Copy and paste the code below right beneath [Google.NTx86] and [Google.NTamd64] line (make sure to save the file after editing):

;Kindle Fire
%SingleAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_1949&PID_0006
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_1949&PID_0006&MI_01

Step 5: Create adb_usb.ini and save it into the .android folder.

1. Open Notepad.
2. Type 0x1949 and then save the file as adb_usb.ini
3. Open Computer.
4. Go to Users.
5. Open the user login name folder you are using.
6. Copy and paste adb_usb.ini into the .android folder which you will see under the login name folder.

Step 6: Update the USB driver for the Kindle Fire.

1. Open Device Manager from the Control Panel window.
2. Look for Kindle under Other Devices.
3. Right click Kindle and select “Update Driver Software”.
4. Select “Browse my computer for driver software”.
5. We now have to browse for the USB driver file we edited earlier, which should be located under Android SDK folder->Extras->Google.
6. After choosing the directory, just click Next and a prompt saying “Windows can’t verify the publisher of this driver software” will show up. Click “Install this driver software anyway”.

Step 7: Check if Android SDK will now recognize the Kindle Fire.

1. Open up a command prompt window.
2. Go to the folder were the Android SDK is installed using the cd command.
3. From the Android SDK folder, access the platform-tools folder by still using the cd command.
4. Under the platform-tools folder, issue the adb kill-server command.
5. Next you have to issue the adb devices command. This will give you text similar to the one below. This will indicate that the SDK recognizes the Kindle Fire.

* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached
5246002600000001    device

Step 8: The last part of the process is to root the device. Since we already downloaded the software from Shortfuse, we just have to extract it. After extracting the software, you just have to run it and it will automatically do its charm.

Now that rooting is done, your Kindle Fire will now be open for endless possibilities. More third-party apps can now be installed on the device

Check Screen timeout / KeyGuard Lock

Check for the Screen timeout or not!


PowerManager pm = (PowerManager) getSystemService(Context.POWER_SERVICE);


if(pm.isScreenOn())
{
      Toast.makeText(this,"Screen is not locked", 20).show();
}else
     Toast.makeText(this,"Screen is time out", 20).show();

Activity Launch Modes

Activity Launch Modes - A simple explanation in a table.

An Android Activity launch mode dictates to which Task an Activity is created and how it is instantiated. Its a tiny bit confusing to figure out exactly what launch mode you need from the official documentation so I've created a small table to help.

First of all here is a brief definition of some of the terms:

Task - A "stack of Activities" in your application. If an Activity is sent to the background (by pressing the HOME key whilst viewing it, for example) then the whole Task (and all the Activities inside it) will be sent back as well. If the user then clicks on your application, the task (and the order of its activities) come forward.

Root of a task - The first Activity in a Task. There is always one of these in a Task.

Shared Preferences Example (Run application from last Activity after Home Press)

Shared Preferences

Preferences are typically name value pairs. They can be stored as “Shared Preferences” across various activities in an application (note currently it cannot be shared across processes). Or it can be something that needs to be stored specific to an activity (which is not discussed here). 

The context object lets you retrieve SharedPreferences through the methodContext.getSharedPreferences(). 

In my example, I will set 2 preferences i.e. MyName and MyWallpaper in one activity i.eManageSharedPref.java. Retrieve these values in the next activity – ViewSharedPrefs.java. The second activity displays my preferred name in a list view and also resets the android wallpaper to the image that I had set as a preferred wallpaper in the first activity. When you run this application, if you come back to the home, you will see the wall paper is reset. 

Here is the code in ManageSharesPrefs:

SharedPreferences myPrefs = this.getSharedPreferences("myPrefs",MODE_WORLD_READABLE);

        SharedPreferences.Editor prefsEditor = myPrefs.edit();

        prefsEditor.putString(MY_NAME, "Sai");

        prefsEditor.putString(MY_WALLPAPER, "f664.PNG");

        prefsEditor.commit();

        

First, I obtain a SharedPreferences object making it readable by all. The first parameter is a name of a file that stores my preferences. This automatically creates the xml file if it does not exist and then stores in the same. 

Next, I edit it. That creates an editor object, using which I input my preferences. Here, for the wall paper, I have put an image name. I also need to push the actual image file into the android storage which I do this way.

adb push <local> <remote>

In this case it is 

adb push f664.PNG /data/misc/wallpaper/f664.PNG

This command creates a folder called wallpaper in /data/misc and copies the f664.PNG file from my current location to the android storage.

When I click the “View Shared Preferences” button, I am taken to the next activity. Here is the code in ViewSharedPrefs that gets executed:

        SharedPreferences myPrefs = this.getSharedPreferences("myPrefs",MODE_WORLD_READABLE);

        String prefName = myPrefs.getString(MY_NAME, "nothing");

        String wallPaper = myPrefs.getString(MY_WALLPAPER, null);

        

        if(wallPaper != null) {

            try {

                  Bitmap bm = BitmapFactory.decodeFile("/data/misc/wallpaper/"+wallPaper);

                  Log.d(getClass().getSimpleName(),"Wallpaper name is: "+ wallPaper);

                  setWallpaper(bm);

                  Toast.makeText(this, "Wall paper has been changed." +

                              "You may go to the home screen to view the same", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

            } catch (FileNotFoundException fe){

                  Log.e(getClass().getSimpleName(),"File not found");

            } catch (IOException ie) {

                  Log.e(getClass().getSimpleName()," IO Exception");

            }

            

        }

        ArrayList<String> results = new ArrayList<String>();

        results.add("Your Preferred name is: " + prefName);

      this.setListAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1,results));

There are 3 steps to understand here:

1.    Step 1: Retrieve the shared prefs data from the object.

        SharedPreferences myPrefs = this.getSharedPreferences("myPrefs",MODE_WORLD_READABLE);

        String prefName = myPrefs.getString(MY_NAME, "nothing");

        String wallPaper = myPrefs.getString(MY_WALLPAPER, null);

2.    Step 2: Display the name

        ArrayList<String> results = new ArrayList<String>();

        results.add("Your Preferred name is: " + prefName);

      this.setListAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1,results));

3.    Step 3: Reset the wall paper.

        if(wallPaper != null) {

            try {

                  Bitmap bm = BitmapFactory.decodeFile("/data/misc/wallpaper/"+wallPaper);

                  Log.d(getClass().getSimpleName(),"Wallpaper name is: "+ wallPaper);

                  setWallpaper(bm);

                  Toast.makeText(this, "Wall paper has been changed." +

                              "You may go to the home screen to view the same", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

            } catch (FileNotFoundException fe){

                  Log.e(getClass().getSimpleName(),"File not found");

            } catch (IOException ie) {

                  Log.e(getClass().getSimpleName()," IO Exception");

            }

            

        }

It is this simple. The complete code is available here.

By help of Shered Prefrences we can solve the Problem of 

Show last viewed Activity When press Home