How to use WiFi while in airplane mode on Dell Streak
Although many phones allow the use of WiFi and Bluetooth while in airplane mode by default, the Dell Streak is not one of them. So if you want to save battery life by disabling the cell radio when you don't need or can't use it, don't expect to be able to surf the web, check email, or browse Android Market on WiFi. On the Dell Streak, enabling airplane mode means disabling all of the wireless radios.
There's an app called Airplane Mode Wi-Fi Tool that's designed to let you use WiFi in airplane mode, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to work on the Streak. I tried many times and always get an "application has stopped unexpectedly" error message. So is all hope lost?
Of course not!
Here's how you can use WiFi while your Streak is in airplane mode:
1. Install Any Cut from Android Market.
2. Press and hold an empty area on the Streak's home screen and tap "Shortcuts" from the window that appears.
3. Now go to Any Cut -> Activity -> Phone info. Rename it if you want to then press OK.
4. Tap the Phone info (or whatever it's called if you renamed it) icon.
5. Scroll to the bottom and tap the "Turn off radio" button.
6. If you were already connected to WiFi before you turned off the radio, you'll still be connected. If you weren't, then WiFi will be turned off. Use the preinstalled Power Control widget or any other WiFi widget available in Android Market to turn it on. You need to use a widget because all the wireless options in the settings menu will be grayed out and inaccessible.
And that's it. You can now use WiFi while in airplane mode. If you tap the status bar, you'll see "Unknown problem with SIM card" listed under Phone Signal, but don't worry about it. Once you repeat steps 4 and 5 above and turn on the radio, everything will be back to normal.
