my resolution to this problem:
1. airdroid 104 was working fine...
2. the update (which I'm sorry I did) caused this problem on two separate comps linux and win7... so I know it's the buggy 105 that did this...
3. you can only get version 105 on "google play"
4. I couldn't download any apps from any other place, so... I got another "download app" program... think I started with 1 Mobile ...which I think I could get with a "search" on "google play" ...anyway...then I think I was able to get a more robust download app called "Android App Store" ...once I got that on the phone...I was able to access the "airdroid.com" website...and could "directly download" AIRDROID 2.0.1
the above was all because I was only using "google play" for app downloads... and didn't exactly know how to use other download app sites on the phone itself...
ANYWAY ALL WORKS PERFECTLY NOW...
there is a competitive lighter type program with the basic features of Airdroid... called "SnapPea" that works similar to Airdroid...but has a much more limited feature set...but it does work well... I had put that on the phone and computer... because I mainly use these type of programs...TO TYPE INSTANT MESSAGES...
...I hate using the keyboard on the phone...and the voice dictation sometimes needs editing...so I like to be able to "use the full size keyboard on the computer to type and send my instant msgs" etc.
...also another tip: I switched by t-mobile carrier to "Google Voice" and now my incoming voice messages all show up on the computer on googles website (no longer come in on phone)...this is cool because you get an auto email from google with a "voice and text rendition" of your incoming voice msgs...
so you don't have to CHECK YOUR VOICEMAILS ON THE PHONE...you can scan thru the emails for pretty good text translations and click on the actual voice recording ALL FROM YOUR EMAIL...
so between these two methods...one for "instant msgs" and the other for voicemails... I can do all this from a webpage, emails, etc. USING A FULL SIZE KEYBOARD...
the other neat program is "google keep" syncs a NOTEPAD on both phone screen and comp screen THAT IS SYNCED...so I can voice dictate a note on the phone and it appears immediately on the comp screen ...back and forth I can edit, etc....to do "shopping lists" and access "to do list" very quickly etc....