Galaxy S II Bible: Complete reference

Tutorials & Guides

How to build a perfect ROM

Know the Basics
Without knowing what you are getting yourself into will only make things worse even before you start off. To build a good Rom is different and to atleast build a fully functional Rom is different. So make sure you are fully aware of the technical fundamentals of building a Rom to enough extent so that you are able to fix the bugs and know what and where can things go wrong and how to solve them.

Performance, Memory, Stability and Battery
These are the four defining points which decide the pros and cons of the Rom that you develop. The Rom should be Fast, Have enough storage and program memory, should be stable and have a good battery backup. Trying to get a good balance of all these is very important. So make sure you keep all these things in mind while developing your Rom.

Be Patient and Polite
Building a good/perfect or bug free Rom wont come immediately. It’ll take many releases, experiments, testing and knowledge till you reach a nearly perfect Rom. So be patient as it sometimes takes weeks or sometimes months. Dealing with the public is not an easy job. You’ll find all sort of people of various characters. The can be nice as well as rude, but do remember that their critics are the only way you can improve. All they want from you is a good Rom, just keep this in mind and ignore the negatives.

Make it User Friendly
There are many ways in which you can make your Rom user friendly. Integrating useful apps. Prepping Eye candy themes, Important shortcuts etc.

Stay Motivated
This is the only driving force behind every Rom developer to continue doing their work with ease and success. Stay motivated and alert so that you can deliver the best with every release. Its hard sometimes but its it important.

Give Time to your Work
Most of the developers are either students or work some where and building Roms is some what like a hobby for us. Its correct that we are not supposed to spend all the time on building Roms but if we want to have a good working Rom we should manage considerable amount of time for few alternate days to work on this project.

Make it Different
You Rom characteristics should be some what different from what is already been provided by other developers. If its nothing different and Catchy then it’ll be hard to get users trying your Rom consistently. I still remember the days when i used to try alot of different Roms but still couldn’t find one that was nearly perfecting my needs. I tried alot of Roms that time.

Join Hands with another Developer
This is what i like the most. Join hands and team up with other developers and thus improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your Rom. The mind of two can bring together wonders. You can even team up with Developers of other devices and build a Rom for device that you personally do not own but you you widen your work area.

Don’t be ignorant
Make sure you are attentive and up to date with all what is discussed about your Rom, all bugs, all tests, reports, etc. so that you do not miss out on any bug possibly to be fixed for next release. If you ignore or avoid fixing the important bugs, the users will think that you are not really capable of solving them or not really interested in this Rom.

Get Testers
Testers are users who like to test the Rom and report you the bugs before you go public with the release. They are very helpful if you like to avoid the criticism after the release of the Rom as before itself you’ll be able to get rid of maximum number of Bugs and issues present in the Rom. That is where testers come in handy. Jus give a notice and many would love to try and test your Beta releases.

Keep Detailed Changelogs
Changelogs keep track of your developments over the time. They come in handy when ever you need to check for prolonged bugs. For example you may not notice it but if someone reports that he has been having an issue since your 3rd Rom release, then you can check out what all changes you made on that release and cross check whether one of those changes cause that bug.

Be Active on the Rom Page
This is the most important part of being interactive with the users cause there is alot that they want to be done in your Rom. Talk to them, answer their questions and discuss the pros and cons of the Roms with them. You can learn alot from them. Being active to the discussion will make them feel that you are eager to further develop and make this Rom improve further.

Add only Useful apps and Regularly Update them
Make sure the application you add to your Rom are useful by the people. Adding two Music Players in the Rom is not a good choice. Choose one that is best and use that only. But make sure you add one possibly best Application for all needs of the users. Keep track of all the applications that you have included in your Rom and make sure the latest versions are included. It keep the user feel updated with your Rom. Many times there are applications which are important to add but have some bug. Later these bugs are fixed in their next releases, so even you should add those updated fixed Applications. Use only Genuine Licenses and No Warez Applications. Warez is like a virus to the development of your Rom. Copyright issues and illegal use of cracked applications make pose a ban on you Roms by the Blogs and threads where you list them. Either you use development licenses to use the in your Roms or use an equally good free Application.

Good looking User Interface and Graphics
This is the major aspect that defines your Rom and makes it distinct from others. Work on that graphics that can be changed in your Rom, try different themes and skin enhancements in different aspects of os like dialer, lockscreen, fonts etc.

Keep Polls and ask Questions
Polls and asking questions from users is a very important way by which you can interact with users and get their feedback. Polls can be asking them about their preferences. Which applications they like or dislike, asking frequents questions on that changes you will be making in the Rom cause at the end of the day it is them who will be using them.

Learn from Competition
I don’t call the fellow developers a competition and usually many share their work and are supportive like i am to each other’s work. But you can learn from what is included in their Rom and if its catchy and important then you can add it to your Rom aswel. There might be many new and useful applications and features that other developers might be using and you are not even aware of that. It can be very helpful in evolving your Rom completely.

Listen and Learn from Users
Listening what a user has to say about their experiences on using your Rom is very important. They might have something very important to share from their experiences which you can incorporate in your Rom. It really helps in fixing bugs and improving your Rom further.

In the end you are the Decision Maker
Its you who has to take the decisions in the end. There will be many people wanting you to do this or that and add this or remove that but in the end you have to keep an unbiased judgment on all the requests, ideas and suggestions and bring forward the changes that you feel the masses are going to appreciate. And for that you will need to take care of all the above mentioned points in mind.

Give Credits
Not to forget that 70%-80% of your work is inspired from that of other developers. And it wonk charge you anything to be humbly give credit or some appreciation to the help you have got from other developers in terms of guides, tips, tricks, applications, UI Enhancements, etc. It just shows your character as a person as well.

Latest samsung USB driver

Latest samsung USB driver

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Attached: SAMSUNG_USB_Driver_for_Mobile_Phones.exe (23mb)

As I am traveling, I wanted to use another computer to use Odin/ADB. For establishing the USB connection I looked for the USB driver only, but did not find it. Ultimately had to download Kies_2.2.0.12014_18_8.exe (88mb) on the data plan!

So uploading the USB driver only from the Kies package if you need only the USB driver for Odin/ADB, but not Kies.

Tested working from Galaxy S2 with Odin and ADB, should work for other Android phones too.

Cheers

Download links -

http://multiupload.biz/i8710zazg3q7/...ile_Phones.exe (if this site is up, you will get all the links below from here)

http://depositfiles.com/files/42tijy38q
http://multiupload.biz/ca12cm8e
http://www.zshare.net/download/9947083493b9185a/
http://www.sendspace.com/file/m6btv6

Source : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1564104

[25/06/2012][TOOL] Samsung Network/Sim Unlock Code Generator/Patcher (SGS1/2/3)

[TOOL] Samsung Network/Sim Unlock Code Generator/Patcher (SGS1/2/3)

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Hello fellow Dev's,

Today we present a unified/streamlined and simple as (some words here) SIMLOCK/NetworkLock unlock code generator by stock+ team!

Mytool generates ORIGINAL unlock code without modyfying any files!(like most of unlocker program does)
or PATCHES The file directly, removing simlock without code!

Feel free to read README.NOW file and post your comments / infos here!



Link:

Download Version (1.4-GPU/Patch) With UI (as on screenshot)

If you like it, consider donation by clicking "donate" button in my profile

NeatRom + Siyah Kernal. Optimization for Better Battery

NeatRom + Siyah Kernal. Optimization for Better Battery

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Disclaimer alert: I am in no way responsible for any damage inquired while performing any of the changes listed below. If you are not comfortable with tweaking your device please feel free to use built in option in Siyah's Kernal. This is just an option and it is something I have tried on my phone with success. I am not using a stock battery, but rather a 2000MAH.

I have NeatRom Lite V1.1 + Siyah Kernal (Slick Sale) installed on my phone. This was created by Sale (his work on this rom is increadible). Samsung's stock kernal has been replaced by Siyah's kernal SGS2v.3.3.2. This version has touch CWM which makes flashing fun. To tweak the kernal, I installed ExTweaks (from the market. Extweaks has the option for battery, performance and defualt settings (these are enabled after a donation). This same settings can be performed in recovery. Siyah has the kernal tweaked for optimization for battery and performance. You can select this in recovery (scrolling down to kernal specific options and the choosing either battery or performance) and it will be impleted during boot up.

However if you feel bold you can tweak the kernal using Ex Tweaks. These are my settings below ( they are by no means a rule of thumb)

GUIDE To Maximize Galaxy Nexus Battery

[GUIDE] To Maximize Galaxy Nexus Battery

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This guide is not meant to be as a whole and is not meant to be followed from beginning to end. There are several recommendations based on my own experience, some of them will give you big battery savings, some of them minor ones; I tried to recopile every config that helps to save battery, but every config is not suitable for everyone. (I´ll point it at the beginning of every section in bold blue).

You'll need a Rooted Galaxy Nexus, with a custom ROM and a custom Kernel.

The custom ROM will give you the ability to make a deep configuration of the device in terms of options. I'm actually using Liquidsmooth v1.25, but AOKP, CM9 and SlimICS have the same options (if not more) than my actual.

Some custom Kernels will give you the ability to change the CPU frequency and voltage, kernels are the main reason of some drainings or fantastic battery life, choose wise.

The normal Galaxy Nexus battery life is about 4 hours screen time. If you are not achieving this, the main reasons could be:

1. Some apps are draining your battery due to a continuous use (no deep sleep or continuous wake ups).
2. Screen too bright.
3. Bad kernels with draining problems.
4. Weak signal connections.

Jellybean Information Galaxy Nexus

Jellybean Information

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Hi everyone! A Jellybean OTA has been released for Google I/O, so in order to keep things organized all new discussions about it will be redirected here. Please keep in mind that this is a developer preview, as such it will likely have bugs and you must root in order to install it. If you don't wish to root you'll need to wait for Google or Samsung to release an OTA for your device.

If you have anything you feel should be linked here feel free to shoot me a PM with it.

Cheers!

Information & Guides:
Information about JellyBean
Introducing Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) preview platform, and more
Android 4.1 for Developers
Differences between 4.0.4 and 4.1
Screenshot Gallary + Change List
[HOW-TO] Install official JRN84D (Jelly Bean 4.1) on your GSM Galaxy Nexus
Jelly Bean Flash Update 11.1.115.12

Jelly Bean related Guides
How to regain root after updating to 4.1

Firmware & ROMs:
GSM
[ROM][CWM] Jellybean 4.1 JRN84D Stock, Rooted, Busybox, Deodexed + New Radio!
Direct Link for takju IMM30D to JRN84D OTA
Torrent link for OTA
New Radio XXLF1
[REF] [BOOTLOADER] Bootloader Collection - Look for PRIMELC03

Toro
[ROM]Team Liquid Vicious-Toro-JellyBean Fully 100% Fucntional Deodex

Toro+
[ACS][ROM] Jelly Bean R U Jelling official thread - Shabby Penguin/DreamsForgotten

Other Useful Guides
[HOW-TO] [GSM & CDMA] Convert to latest yakju/takju/mysid build / Return to stock

[TUTORIAL] Setting up and Compiling JB and ICS from AOSP

[TUTORIAL] Setting up and Compiling JB and ICS from AOSP

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Quite a few people have asked about compiling ROMs from source, so here's a guide.

This guide is directed mainly at compiling JB or ICS for the GSM Galaxy Nexus.

It will show you how to set up the building environment really quickly with a few simple commands in the Terminal, then show you how to sync up with the repository and compile a ROM.

http://www.freeyourandroid.com/guide/compile-ics

It can also be done in a Virtual Machine.

Thanks Nathan (nprussell) for the write up!



My XDA TV Video Guide:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_ReU...14FUAAAAAAAZAA


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Here are the steps:
(There are additional things you can do via the link above).



======================




IMPORTANT NOTES:

- For the purposes of this guide, you MUST be running 64-bit Ubuntu. This can be set up on a VM (it will compile if set correctly).
- If using a VM, ensure you give it at LEAST 2gb RAM and 2xCores (it'll take 3-4 hours at best)
- The source download is approximately 6gb.. you're going to need 25gb HD space for a single build.

To learn how to setup a Ubuntu 64bit VM on your Windows PC, use THIS GUIDE. I recommend using 10.04.

So... let's assume you're running Ubuntu 64 bit for the first time, and start right from the beginning.

NOTE : You're probably better of copying and pasting these commands, as some are quite long! All commands are in RED!


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[ROM][10AUG][CM10]BrassDroid, Trinity, MODS[GSM+TORO][Clean][Fast][PowerSaver]

[ROM][10AUG][CM10]BrassDroid, Trinity, MODS[GSM+TORO][Clean][Fast][PowerSaver]

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A BrassFeet ROM for Galaxy Nexus.
Here we have BrassDroid, a collaboration between PjFlo and DeeToTheVee.
This is a CM10 Kang [All props to them, they always do a fantastic job!],
compiled with the brilliant and energy effecient, Trinity Kernel by, Morfic.
I have found this to be a great combination of power and battery life.

This rom also includes a few build.prop tweaks aswell and some shaven fat.



Stable CM10 Source
Trinity 1.3ghz, 307mhz.
Choice between Modified Launcher2 or Trebuchet.(See 'Guides'.)
Ability to move clock to the centre.
Extra browser controls.
Extra camera controls.
Improved scrolling.
Improved dithering.
Google apps included!

[GUIDE] T-Mobile US One S - How to ROOT and flash ROMs

[GUIDE] T-Mobile US One S - How to ROOT and flash ROMs

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So I know there's been some controversy and scares going around about the US version, since it JUST came out. I'm here to calm you guys down. I have now rooted mine, flashed an interim CWM touch version (not permanent) and have flashed a ROM......ALL successfully.

Here's what I did:

UNLOCKING:
Unlock your bootloader by registering at HTCdev.com and following the unlock instructions. Under device, choose "All other devices", as the One S is not yet listed. It'll walk you through getting your unlock token and flashing it.

ROOTING
Follow Paul O Brien's instructions on rooting your phone. I flashed the r3 superboot file he had. The first time it didnt take and just booted the phone back up. Second time it took, and seems to have stuck, at least for apps. Please note that my phone says *TAMPERED* along with the *UNLOCKED* notification. I have no idea what that means exactly, but everything works great for me.

This means if you dont want to leave Sense but want to get the tons of useless and annoying T-Mobile and other bloatware apps out, you can. T-Mo are dicks and make almost 100% of the apps on it by default SYSTEM apps, therefore unremovable. So you'll need root and Titanium Backup to freeze or delete them. I'd recommend freezing the non-TMo one's just in case.


FLASHING ROMS
1. Flash Paul O Brien's intermin CWM touch version. You MUST use this interim CWM version for the moment, as the others do not work properly. Some things like USB mount dont work in this interim version, but the important functions like wipe and flash, backup and restore, and restart do work. The CWM recovery seems permanent, based on my initial trials, so no worries about reflashing it each restart.

2. Flash your ROM of choice from Clockworkmod Recovery. I'm using Black Dragon right now, but there are others out there as well. I'm personally looking forward to CM9, but its a little ways away, usability-wise.

[SAMSUNG GALAXY S3 TOOLKIT V4.0] Drivers, Backup, Root, CWM, BusyBox + MORE [GSM]

INTRODUCING THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S3 TOOLKIT

IMPORTANT: DO NOT USE THIS TOOLKIT TO ROOT OR FLASH CUSTOM RECOVERY ON A SNAPDRAGON MODEL SGS3 AS THE INCLUDED IMAGES WILL NOT WORK ON IT.

INTERNATIONAL [I9300] SUPPORT THREAD HERE

AT&T US [SGH-I747] SUPPORT THREAD HERE

SPRINT US [SPH-L710] SUPPORT THREAD HERE

TMOBILE US [SGH-T999] SUPPORT THREAD HERE

FUNCTIONS OF SAMSUNG GALAXY S3 TOOLKIT V4.0 [GSM][24TH JULY 2012]

• Install drivers automatically
• Backup/Restore a single package or all apps, user data and Internal Storage
• Backup your /data/media (virtual SD Card) to your PC for a Full Safe backup of data
• Perform a FULL NANDROID Backup of your system via adb and save in Custom Recovery format on your PC
• Pull /data and /system folders, compress to a .tar file and save to your PC
• Auto Update ToolKit to latest push version on startup (donator feature)
• Backup/Restore your /efs partition
• Dump selected Phone Partitions, compress to a .zip file with md5 and save to your PC
• Install BusyBox binary on phone
• Root any public build (different options available)
• Flash Stock Recovery
• Flash CWM Touch Recovery (thanks to TeamEpic) or CF-CWM Recovery (thanks to Chainfire)
• Rename Recovery Restore files if present
• Flash Insecure Boot Image for adb mode
• Flash Stock Boot Image back to your phone
• Create tar file to flash via Odin with 1-click process
• Download, Extract and Flash Stock Rom (full DETAILED steps) ESSENTIAL FOR WARRANTY RETURNS
• SIM Unlock phone to any Network (thanks to Adam Lange)
• Rip cache.img to zip file in CWM format for editing and flashing (thanks to Adam Lange)
• Install a single apk or multiple apk's to your phone
• Push Files from your PC to your phone
• Pull Files from your phone to your PC
• Set Files Permissions on your phone
• Dump selected LogCat buffers to your PC
• Dump BugReport to your PC (if installed)
• Help, Information Screen for various tasks
• Mods Section to Modify your phone
• Reboot Phone options in adb mode
• Change background, text colour in ToolKit
• Activate Donator features from within the ToolKit

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LG P350 Optimus ME-CyanogenMod-7.1.0-RC1, Gingerbread 2.3.5 ROM

LG P350 Optimus ME-CyanogenMod-7.1.0-RC1, Gingerbread 2.3.5 ROM



This is my first ROM, I bought P350 last August 2011 and I was trying to learn. Last week I started to port gingerbread into P350. It is really fast as compared to stock ROM.

Please alert me if you find any bugs, I will fix it and improve the ROM.


What is not working
1. Orientation Sensor
2. Bluetooth not working
3. Keyboard covers text

What is Working
1. CALL
2. WIFI
3. GPS
4. MUSIC
5. FM
6. VIDEO
7. CAMERA
8. ANIMATIONS


Do not forget to wipe data/cache.

OFFICIAL UPGRADE I570EXXJCE - Android 2.1 - March 2010

WARNING ! DON'T TRY IT IF YOU DON'T HAVE A MINIMUM OF KNOWLEDGE IN PPC FLASHINGS !

First : write your APN adjustments (Home > Menu > Settings > Wireless & Network > Mobile networks > Access Point Names).
Normally, the APN are already included in this version, but in case, it could be better to write it !
I remind you that the upgrade installation will erase all your personal datas saved in your device ! Think about saving all this on your computer. (Tyhe SD card we be reseted as well !)

Well, now we will check if we have everything :

- The archive file called I570EXXJCE that you'll find in attachment. This contain a file .tar which is this upgrade.
- The flashing software called Odin. The 4.03 version is available in attachment. This is the most recent. But for flashing my device, I needed the old 3.95 version which is in attachment as well.
- The archive file spica_jc3, also in attachment, which will be our OPS.
- A computer (and not a MAC)
- A SAMSUNG I5700 Galaxy Spica (really ?!)


WELL, LET'S GO !

Trick to change without hard reset your Google Account android galaxy

Valid almost in all Android

1.      Go to Home (Click the Home button)
2.      Click on the menu
3.      Select Settings> Applications> Manage Applications
4.      Choose Google Apps.
5.      Select the "Clear Data"
6.      When asked "All information you've saved in this application will from be deleted permanently", click OK
7.      Next, click the back button three times and then click "data synchronization". Or, click Home> Menu> Settings> Data synchronization.
8.      This will start the wizard that will ask for your Google account baru.Wizard this is the same as you'll see when you first turn on (after you buy it) or every time you remove your phone data.

Very usefull when buying a 2nd Android

Android Themes Lemon's Better Keyboard skin

Better Keyboard Skin – Blood Red | sweeterskins.net
"Lemon" of sweeterhome.net came out with a new blood red keyboard because he wanted to see more attention to detail.

Compare a typical keyboard skin


with the detail on his

Motorola Droid X Battery life tips (30% after 40 hrs unplugged)

I received my droid X on launch and been loving it. but battery life was not as amazing as I had read. I would unplug at 5 in the morning when i got up for work, and would need the juice by the time i got home at 7. while this basically worked for me i would have liked more battery life so i did some research and messed with some settings. now i dont need to charge every day if i dont want to.

1. set the power management to battery saver. all this does is shut down the 3G radio if it is unused for 30 mins.

2. on power management also set screen to minimum default brightness, no auto. do this in both the battery saver screen and the regular display setting, dont know why it mattered but it did.

3. I brought up the droid power widget and turned off auto sync. just manually sync your contacts, calendar and email, saves alot of life.

4. lastly i gave up live wallpaper.

these four things and i have more than doubled my battery life, and you can too. cheers!

DROID X Android 2.2 Lock Screen

If you were unable to grab Android 2.2 for the Droid X before Motorola starting harassing websites, then you have missed out on the new lock screen that comes with it (pictured above). While this isn’t a big change, it does come off as slightly more appealing than the original grey version and can be pushed to your 2.1 DX now if you’d like.

*Note 1* – This is for ROOTED 2.1 Droid X owners only.
*Note 2* – This will mess with your framework-res file which can be dangerous and possibly leave you at a standing M logo on reboot. You may need to flash an SBF file to recover should something happen.
*Note 3* – Since you have to be rooted, downloading Koush’s Bootstrap and flashing Clockwork Recovery with a backup before doing this is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Channel-style Sony Ericsson's Android Market

The Sony Ericsson smartphone users based on Android to get new bids. A special channel to the Android Market that is connected to the handset user.

This channel will replace the option 'My Apps' in the Android Market and provides recommendations to help users find games and applications that are suitable for their handsets.

There is also an easy way to find the original application of Sony Ericsson like plugins Timescape and others. This channel also allows Sony offers its application and exclusive games and displays developer who became a partner of Sony Ericsson.

As quoted from the post Sony detikINET in his blog on Friday (04/15/2011), this feature depends on operator who used his mobile phone users. Thus, this channel can only be 'on' if your service allows it.

Motorola Droid X Just a bump of performance gain for your X

Some have noticed that all your history remains in "Contacts" if you swipe left. It seemed to be fixed with the leaked 2.2, you delete elsewhere and it does leave the phone BUT if you have things from 2.1 still in there there is an option to delete history. Go to contacts>swipe left>settings>clear history. I cannot confirm that this option is on 2.1, I didn't check when I had it. But hopefully this helps some people, I know when I delete something, I want it off the phone.

But anyway to my Title, when I did this I noticed an increase in performance, at least navigating through the phones functions, placebo, possibly but it can't hurt - unless there is truly some history you still want around.

Hope this helps some folks

How to 100% CPU Usage, Poor Performance, Poor Battery Life Motorola Droid X

Greetings! I searched this forum for a similar issue, but I don't think any of them compare to what I was experiencing. Sorry for the long post, I am writing this in case anyone has a similar problem, and hopefully this solution will work for you.

My X recently (within the last week) started having extremely poor battery performance under the same usage conditions as the previous week (K-9 syncs every 15 min, maybe 2 texts per hour, 2-3 emails per hour, maybe 5 total minutes of phone use). After 4 hours, the battery would be at 20-30%

To make matters worse, most functions were extremely slow to respond (contact loading, test message loading, recent calls, bookmarks, any scrolling was choppy, etc.) The delay when trying the most basic things (opening the browser, making a call) was getting unbearable.

Find your phone motorola droid x without having any tracking software installed!

Lost your phone and do not have any tracking software installed on it (ie Lookout, Seekdroid, etc)?

1. Install Plan B to the phone that you are trying to find from the Android Market website: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lookout.labs.planb.
2. Plan B will start automatically and send your phone’s location to your Gmail address.
3. If it doesn’t start, borrow a friend’s phone and text the word “locate” to your lost phone.