I was playing around with Calendar on my phone the other day and realised whole calendars had gone missing from my schedule. I have 4 Google accounts with at least 4 calendars each in them to keep events organised, and clearly this was a big problem (one that went missing tells me when my bills are due, so quite a big issue).

Following a lack of working fixes online, I have come up with this process for completely nuking just the Calendars on the device so that it fixes it itself. Follow the steps in the screenshots or in bullet points below.

• Open Settings. The easiest route to this on any device is to open Notifications and hit the little Settings icon.
• Select Apps from the menu
• You need to perform this action both on the Calendar and Calendar Storage apps. You will find these listed under the “All” tab (third one on the top bar).
• Open Calendar from the menu. Hit Force stop (accept any popups). Wait, then when it’s done, hit Clear data. Observe that all the storages go to 0B (zero bytes).
• Repeat above procedure immediately for Calendar Storage.
• Go back to Settings and select Accounts & sync, then check your Google accounts are doing Calendar sync. This is only really to give it a minute to download the calendars.
• Open up the Calendar app from a widget or from the menu. You should see this screen. Select Not now, as you already have all your accounts set up.
• Calendars gradually appear (may take a few seconds to start downloading them). This is madness, so let’s clean it up. Select which calendars you want displayed from the menu.
• Much better! All fixed.

This post was provided by Expansys – Be First on all the latest smartphones, tablets and all manner of technology.

Image courtesy of Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson has announced the upcoming release of the next phone in its Xperia range with the Xperia Neo V. The announcement is bound to excite fans of the mobile phone giant, and not least because it will come preinstalled with its new Android Gingerbread 2.3.4 update.

The phone will pack the 1GHz processor that has become standard across the Xperia range, but will not be able to boast the same photographic power as its predecessors with a scaled down 5MP camera in comparison to the older 8MP. It will, once again though, have a front-facing VGA camera for video calling.

This complements the addition of the new Google Talk Video Chat feature that is included in the Gingerbread update. The update is also compatible with HDTVs and 3DTVs, too, as it supports the 3D panorama technology that Sony has also recently announced.

The 3.7 inch TFT screen keeps it closely related to the previous Xperias, while the camera has the ability to shoot video in 720p. Further features include the ability to do a screen-grab, improvements to the Facebook app and a swipe texting technology called T9 trace.

The Neo V is not necessarily a ground-breaking release from Sony Ericsson, since it packs no significant improvements to the previous Xperia, but what it does do is increase widespread accessibility to smartphones. It is due to be released in Q4 later this year, while the Gingerbread update is being extended to the whole Xperia range in October.

The release of the Neo V means that users in the UK will have a much more affordable yet equally powerful smartphone on their high streets. It packs pretty much all of the same features as the original Neo, but has been designed to fit into the rung below its father. Details of costs of mobile phone deals for the new Xperia have not yet been confirmed, but it is expected to retail at about £20 per month.

Would you like the chance to get your hands on Beginning Android 3?

This book is an excellent guide to getting started building Android applications, ramping up from installing the SDK and setting up Eclipse right through to advanced Android APIs and development practices. We’ve got a copy to give away thanks to the lovely folks at Apress.

To enter: simply add a comment on this post telling us why you love Android (don’t forget to leave your e-mail address or we won’t be able to contact you!) and we’ll pick a winner at random. Don’t forget to say “hi” on Google+ too (not required for entry).

Rules: Closing date is 9pm UK time on Friday 19th August 2011. Winner will be picked at random. Prize will be available for collection from Reading or London; if you want it shipped to the UK or abroad please get in touch and we’ll see what we can do. One entry per person: multiple entries will void all of them.

Not lucky this time? Grab it on Amazon.

Beginning Android 3 is a fantastic introduction guide by Android developer and CommonsWare founder Mark Murphy.

This book is an almost essential text for anybody who wants to get started with building Android applications and who has some programming experience behind them already. Presenting topics covering everything from getting the Android SDK installed to the most advanced Android programming and design discussions, this book presents an excellent ramp-up for just about anyone with a little programming behind them who wants to find out just about everything you could possibly want about Android.

It is currently held that if you want to make a move in mobile, you have to build native applications. This means Java for Android, .NET for Windows Phone 7, and Objective-C for iOS – all completely different and requiring very different skill sets and tools. However, since the rise of HTML 5 on the desktop, developers are starting to push the boundaries with web apps on mobile devices. Google, for instance, push not only search but document viewing and editing through the browser onto mobile devices. The great thing about HTML 5 is that if you build an app once, it should work just the same on whichever mobile phone people are using.

The Pro Android Web Apps book, published by Apress, is a fantastic guide to just about everything you could want to know about optimising web applications for Android-powered devices.