title: What is MINI_THUMB_MAGIC and how to use it?
body: <h2>Background</h2>
  
  <p>I've noticed a weird column for <a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/MediaStore.Images.ImageColumns.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><strong>MediaStore.Images.ImageColumns</strong></a> called "<a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/MediaStore.Images.ImageColumns.html#MINI_THUMB_MAGIC" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><strong>MINI_THUMB_MAGIC</strong></a>" .</p>
  
  <p>the documentation says just that :</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>The mini thumb id.</p>
    
    <p>Type: INTEGER</p>
    
    <p>Constant Value: "mini_thumb_magic"</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <h2>The question</h2>
  
  <p>my guess is that this field is related to <a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/MediaStore.Images.Thumbnails.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MediaStore.Images.Thumbnails</a> .</p>
  
  <p>Is it correct ? if not, what is this and how do you use it?</p>
  
  <p>if it is correct , i have other questions related to it:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>Is it a mini sized image of the original one? does it use the same aspect ratio or does it do center-cropping on it? </p></li>
  <li><p>how come the size of "MICRO" is square (96 x 96) and the size of "MINI" is a non-square rectangle ( 512 x 384 ) ? </p></li>
  <li><p>How do you use it? My guess is that it's done by using "<a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/MediaStore.Images.Thumbnails.html#THUMB_DATA" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><strong>THUMB_DATA</strong></a>", which is a blob, so you use it like <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/15849939/878126"><strong>this</strong></a>, but then what is the purpose of using "<a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/MediaStore.Images.Thumbnails.html#getThumbnail%28android.content.ContentResolver,%20long,%20long,%20int,%20android.graphics.BitmapFactory.Options%29" rel="nofollow noreferrer">getThumbnail</a>" if you already have this field?</p></li>
  <li><p>does it get a rotated thumbnail in case the orientation value is not 0 ? meaning that if I wish to show it, I won't need to rotate the image?</p></li>
  <li><p>Is it possible to do a query of the images together with their thumbnails? maybe using inner join?</p></li>
  <li><p>Is it available for all Android devices and versions?</p></li>
  <li><p>Why is it even called "magic" ? Is it because it's also available for videos (and for some reason doesn't exist for music, as it could be the album's cover photo, for example) ? </p></li>
  </ol>