Android

Phil's wife dropped her HTC Android phone into the water. They recovered the phone, but there are images on it that they'd like to get back.

Leo says that's by design. What he needs to do is put the phone into "disk mode," or "MTP mode" so that the computer will see it as a disk to mount. This should be in the settings. If it doesn't mount, try a different cable. If that doesn't do it, then there's something wrong and it could be hardware or software at this point. A driver may not be loading that the phone needs to broadcast that it's there. Resetting the phone will reload that. If that doesn't work, then take the phone back.

Don dumped his iPhone for an Android Galaxy Note 2, and he loves it. Now he wants to move his music from iTunes to Google Play. Some of his music is protected by copy protection, though.

Leo says copy protection has been recently dropped by carriers, but if he has songs that have DRM on them, the easiest way to remove that is to turn on iTunes Match to match all his copy-protected songs. They'll upgrade them to DRM free songs at greater quality. Then he can delete all his copy-protected songs. After he does this, he should be able to import them into Google Play with no trouble.

Chuck is a truck driver and he uses a Droid 2, but he's switching his phone service. Leo says it won't work as a phone, but if he removes the sim, it essentially becomes like an iPod. All the apps will still work as long as he has Wi-Fi access.

Steve likes HTC One, but the only phones at Verizon that have Jelly Bean (4.1) are the Galaxy SIII and the Note II. Leo says that's an ongoing issue for Android as each carrier and manufacturer gets to decide when an update gets pushed out, and what phones will get it. The reason is that carriers charge manufacturers for the bandwidth to update it. If they can afford to avoid it, they will. Samsung does allow updating the OS via WiFi and an application.

In Android 4.0 (ICS) and above, Greg can set limits to data usage or monitor what he's using. The chatroom suggests Data Usage Defender and Watchdog.

This can happen with a smartphone if it's a faulty unit. Leo advises taking it back to Verizon and asking for a new one. It's under warranty and Verizon should replace it for free. She was wondering if she should have gotten the warranty on it, but Leo says it should already be covered by a warranty. Purchasing anything additional would merely extend that warranty. So she should be able to get that phone replaced without having to purchase any additional warranty coverage.

Alan is thinking of getting a Samsung Galaxy Note 2. He's planning on getting DoubleTwist and moving his Calendar and Contacts to Google. Is there anything else he needs to add? Leo says that there's also Locale, which is an equivalent to the Siri geo-fencing. It's $4.99. Leo also says that there's a todo list that works with Locale, called Astrid, that will work as well.

Bruce is a truck driver and would like to do voicemail and text hands-free on his Android phone. Leo says that both Android and Samsung have features for that. Samsung's Velingo will do it, but Google's voice feature is better. The key is to set it up where he can launch it from his headset. He can put his phone into car/driving mode. There's an app called Iris that will do it as well.