This post is lengthy as the steps I've taken are lengthy, as was warranted by the bug. These are listed bellow under 'Candidate solutions i've tried'. So it is a different case, albeit with similar symptoms. I've created a new post for a few reasons: There are several other stackoverflow posts that reference the 'Failed to install.' error.
If I avoid eclipse, and just use the command line, I'm also unable to install an. apk is not found on the emulator nor physcial device (Samsung Galaxy S2, rooted). apk from Eclipse, whether to an android emulator or to a physical device (via USB), I get a 'Failed to install *.apk on device '*': timeout' error.