Example on how to create a static handler in an Android Activity so that there are no memory leaks and we can support orientation change and still have messages with a long delay delivered to the activity in the foreground.

Android Using Handler With Orientation Change

package com.alimuzaffar.android.handlertest;

import java.lang.ref.WeakReference;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.os.Message;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

  private static int COUNT = 0;
	
	static LoginHandler	mHandler;

	private static class LoginHandler extends Handler {
		
		private WeakReference<MainActivity>	mTarget;

		LoginHandler(MainActivity target) {
			mTarget = new WeakReference<MainActivity>(target);
		}

		public void setTarget(MainActivity target) {
			mTarget.clear();
			mTarget = new WeakReference<MainActivity>(target);
		}

		@Override
		public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
			// int duration = Toast.LENGTH_LONG;
			// process incoming messages here
			MainActivity activity = mTarget.get();
			activity.update(msg.arg1);
		}
	}

	@Override
	protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
		
		if(mHandler == null)
			mHandler = new LoginHandler(this);
		else
			mHandler.setTarget(this);
		
		((Button)findViewById(R.id.button)).setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
			
			@Override
			public void onClick(View v) {
				Message msg = new Message();
				msg.arg1 = COUNT++;
				mHandler.sendMessageDelayed(msg, 3000);
				
			}
		});
		
	}

	@Override
	public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
		// Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
		getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
		return true;
	}
	
	private void update(int count) {
		((TextView) findViewById(R.id.hello_world)).setText("Hello World @ "+ count);
	}

}

line 37 you forgot to check if activty is not null after getting value from WeakReference.