• Android Central Editors’ App Picks for May 19, 2012

  Android Central Editors’ App Picks for May 19, 2012, ,

  Jared DiPane

  Ready to check out some more of our favorite apps? Each week we bring to you some of our favorites in hopes that they may become your favorites, and we want you to do the same. Drop a line in the comments and let us know some o [Read More…]
• Total Commander for Android reaches Version 1.0

  Total Commander for Android reaches Version 1.0, ,

  Michael Crider

  If you’re a Windows junkie like me, you’ve probably heard of Total Commander at least in passing. Though it’s been in development for what seems like ages, the popular file manager has finally graduated to versio [Read More…]
• Straight Talk, Unified eMail, Signal drops [From the Forums]

  Straight Talk, Unified eMail, Signal drops [From the Forums], ,

  Chris Parsons

  We've blown through a bunch of content for you all this week so be sure to get yourself caught up if, for whatever reason you missed out on anything. In addition to the news and editorials, we also managed to do u [Read More…]
• Motorola Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich schedule updated

  Motorola Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich schedule updated, ,

  Chris Parsons

  Motorola device owners have been pretty vocal about their want for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on their devices. Motorola in response to that, has kept an ICS rollout schedule updated and recently they made some change [Read More…]
• NVIDIA TegraZone Anniversary Reminder – get your Sonic 4 Episode II on!

  NVIDIA TegraZone Anniversary Reminder – get your Sonic 4 Episode II on!, ,

  Chris Burns

  This month we’re celebrating with NVIDIA and ASUS the best way we all know now – with Tegra 3 and next-level mobile gaming! This time around we’ve got a brand new Sonic the Hedgehog game as w [Read More…]
• Samsung Galaxy S III sees 9 million pre-orders

  Samsung Galaxy S III sees 9 million pre-orders, ,

  Kevin O’Quinn

   

  Yes you read that correctly, according to a report from ​Korea Economic Daily​ a Samsung executive let it slip that 9 million units have been pre-ordered.  Let that sink in for a minute.  It wasn't th [Read More…]
• Best Buy sending e-mails saying EVO 4G LTE preorders ship May 23

  Best Buy sending e-mails saying EVO 4G LTE preorders ship May 23, ,

  Phil Nickinson

  Our inbox and our EVO 4G LTE forums have just lit up with some potentially good news — Best Buy is letting pre-order customers know that they're expecting a May 23 release date of the phone that's curren [Read More…]
• How can Android vendors compete with Samsung?

  How can Android vendors compete with Samsung?, ,

   Industry research firm Gartner just released its latest data on mobile phone sales for the first quarter of 2012. There are some interesting points to be pulled out of this report that I wanted to address. Samsung dominates Android. Gartner’s [Read More…]
• Late-night poll: If Google releases a Nexus line, will you jump carriers for it?

  Late-night poll: If Google releases a Nexus line, will you jump carriers for it?, ,

  Jerry Hildenbrand

  We can't be sure that Google is really going to be selling what amounts to a Nexus line of devices, no matter how reputable the source. It's just too big of an idea to pretend to know a [Read More…]

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Ready to check out some more of our favorite apps? Each week we bring to you some of our favorites in hopes that they may become your favorites, and we want you to do the same. Drop a line in the comments and let us know some of the awesome applications you have installed on your device, so the rest of the Android Central community can check them out as well!

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If you’re a Windows junkie like me, you’ve probably heard of Total Commander at least in passing. Though it’s been in development for what seems like ages, the popular file manager has finally graduated to version 1.0 in its Android port. You can download the app from the developer’s forum here – unfortunately it’s not yet on the Google Play Store.

For the uninitiated, think of Total Commander as an alternative to that old favorite Root Explorer. There’s three crucial differences between that app and this one: Total Commander is more powerful, admittedly uglier, and it’s absolutely free – it has been since it was introduced on Windows and later WindowsCE and Windows Mobile. I must admit that the interface is pretty awful, but then, power users won’t be too concerned by that.

Total Commander supports all the bells and whistles of most advanced file managers, including support for compressed files. It’s also got something that most others don’t: a dual-pane view, perfect for moving lots of files around quickly. To activate it, just tilt your phone into landscape mode. This feature works great on high-end phones with 720p screens. Total Commander can also use root permissions – check the settings menu.

[via Android Police]

We've blown through a bunch of content for you all this week so be sure to get yourself caught up if, for whatever reason you missed out on anything. In addition to the news and editorials, we also managed to do up a Android Central podcast for you all and if that isn't enough — be sure to check out the Android Central Forums:

• HTC One X Forums - Anyone having signal drop issues?
• HTC EVO 4G LTE - Should HTC/Sprint give good will gesture?
• Samsung Galaxy S III Forums - No Android Experience, Tempted by the S3
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus Forums - Straight Talk MMS problems
• Droid RAZR Maxx Forums - Non-Unified eMail inbox possible?

If you're not already a member of the Android Central forums, you can register your account today.

Motorola device owners have been pretty vocal about their want for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on their devices. Motorola in response to that, has kept an ICS rollout schedule updated and recently they made some changes to it that will either excite you or upset you, depending on which device you own.

Droid RAZR, Droid RAZR MAXX and XOOM 3G/4G owners have the most to be excited about as ICS updates for those devices should be rolling out at just about any moment right now. Atrix, Atrix 2, Droid Bionic, Droid 4 and XYBOARD owners will be waiting until the next quarter for their updates.

Own a Droid 3 or Droid X2 though? Looks as though you better start looking towards some ICS compatible ROM's as those devicse will be stuck on Android 2.3 Gingerbread for the remainder of their lifecycle, minus some bug fix and maintenance releases.

Source: Motorola, Android Central Forums

This month we’re celebrating with NVIDIA and ASUS the best way we all know now – with Tegra 3 and next-level mobile gaming! This time around we’ve got a brand new Sonic the Hedgehog game as well as an Anniversary Tegra Pack to remind you of whose birthday it is: the NVIDIA TegraZone is one year old! You’ll be rolling out with no less than your very own ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 tablet made amazing by the games popping up on the regular right inside the TegraZone app – soon and very soon!

The first year for NVIDIA’s TegraZone has been a fabulous one, jam packed with amazing game releases optimized for the Tegra platform first and foremost. On top of these releases have come tablet and smartphone after tablet and smartphone, and this event is no different! Head to our TegraZone Anniversary Tegra Pack Giveaway Google+ thread for the full set of details on how you’ll be grabbing a pack for yourself right this second. Next have a peek at how NVIDIA is doing something very similar with their own TegraZone mobile voting site where you’ll have your choice of awesome NVIDIA-powered games to choose from in an event that also yields a Transformer Pad pack of goodies!

The NVIDIA TegraZone Anniversary Tegra Pack we’re pushing out to you courtesy of ASUS and NVIDIA consists of no less than an ASUS Transformer Pad TF300, a TF300 keyboard dock, a Logitech game controller, and a Jawbone Jambox Speaker in slimy awesome NVIDIA green. Then it’s time for some awesome Sonic action.

Have a peek at Sonic 4 Episode II, aka Sonic 4 Episode II THD in our hands-on look both above this paragraph and in our hands-on experience pre-release post – and note that it’s on the market right now as well – grab it from the TegraZone!

Yes you read that correctly, according to a report from ​Korea Economic Daily​ a Samsung executive let it slip that 9 million units have been pre-ordered.  Let that sink in for a minute.  It wasn't that long ago that the Galaxy S II hit the 20 million mark, and now we have its successor reaching half that lofty goal ​before it's been released.  Impressive to be sure, especially since the US, a large smartphone market, won't see it released until June at the earliest.

With Samsung taking the lions share of phone sales worldwide is there anything that can be done to stop their dominance in the market?  With all the rumors, hype, and expectations leading up to the launch, we already knew Samsung would have a hit on their hands.  Even after the initial euphoria wore off, we were still impressed with what Samsung has done with the Galaxy S III.  While the vote was almost dead even between this and the HTC One X, odds are good that the Galaxy S III won't get stuck in customs.

Jealous of our friends overseas?  Have questions about the phone?  Find your answers in the forums.

Source: Korea Economic Daily; via: Engadget

Our inbox and our EVO 4G LTE forums have just lit up with some potentially good news — Best Buy is letting pre-order customers know that they're expecting a May 23 release date of the phone that's currently hung up in Customs. We just checked back in with HTC, and it's got nothing new on its end, but at this point any movement is welcomed. 

The EVO was supposed to be released at 8 a.m. Friday, May 18. But it and AT&T's HTC One X, which has been listed as out of stock for several days, have been held for review by the International Trade commission over issues with patents own by Apple. (If you haven't seen it, The Verge has nice piece showing that HTC has worked around the patent in question, so it's unclear whether there's a substantiative holdup, or if the delay is bureaucratic.)

On Wednesday, Sprint on its Community blog acknowledged that the EVO was being delayed by the Customs hold. All other questions have been referred to HTC.

More: EVO 4G LTE forums; thanks, Rodrigo, and everyone else who sent this in!

 Industry research firm Gartner just released its latest data on mobile phone sales for the first quarter of 2012. There are some interesting points to be pulled out of this report that I wanted to address. Samsung dominates Android. Gartner’s data says that Korea-based Samsung shipped over 40 percent of all Android handsets last quarter. So that still leaves 60 percent of the market to other vendors, right? Yes, but according to Gartner none of these other vendors make up more than 10 percent of Android volume. None. In terms of handset brands, Samsung is also now the No. 1 phone maker in the world, ahead of Nokia. Nokia may have the No. 2 position in the market, but we need to remember that most of Nokia’s volume is based on the dying Symbian OS. Very little is based on its Windows-powered future at this point. So, considering that we’re looking at the death of the dumb phone over the next few years, let’s look at smartphone vendors and volumes. Samsung is the #1 player, having shipped 38 million smartphones. Most of these are Android powered, with a smaller number of Bada OS phones. Here’s how smartphone market share looks, by vendor, based on the Gartner data:

1. Samsung with 26 percent market share
2. Apple with 23 percent
3. RIM with 7 percent

These are essentially the top three smartphone players right now. I realize that ZTE, LG and Huawei have a larger portion of the mobile market than RIM, but RIM is a pure play on smartphones whereas these three are not. Remember that other Android vendors have less than one quarter of Samsung’s volume.

What these data mean to Android manufacturers

If you look at the Gartner chart we’ve shown above, it’s crystal clear that most Android manufacturers are not having a lot of success right now. Even HTC, who was a former darling of the stock market, has been getting hurt. At the high end of the market, competing with Samsung is difficult. It’s tough to differentiate from an OS perspective because everyone’s using Android. There are only so many UI skins you can bring forward. I think one way to compete in the Android space is to develop amazingly useful middleware that turns your brand into a platform more than just a piece of hardware. But even then, Samsung is already heading down this path by recruiting Android developers for cloud-based middleware. At the low end, the biggest opportunity remains killing Nokia’s positioning. There is a lot of low hanging fruit here. Symbian is dying, and the only real challengers here are Android and BlackBerry right now. Windows Phone isn’t going after the low end yet, and neither is Apple. The bottom line is that Android manufacturers can’t think of themselves as competing against other Android manufacturers. That’s a recipe for disaster. They need to compete against Nokia’s 20 percent market share or build cloud services that differentiate their product from Samsung at the high end. Otherwise they’ll just be commodity hardware makers who earn no profit. But hey … that’s still all good for consumer smartphone adoption.

We can't be sure that Google is really going to be selling what amounts to a Nexus line of devices, no matter how reputable the source. It's just too big of an idea to pretend to know all the particulars, and would be too big of a heartbreak should it not pan out, so being a bit skeptical is a wise choice. I'm sure something is going to happen, maybe even something wonderful, but nobody is sure exactly what that is just yet. There's a lot of speculation about this project being GSM only, at least at first. There's a pretty good reason for that, considering the last Nexus debacle.

So let's pretend that this will be the case. That means Verizon and Sprint are going to be on the outside looking in when it comes to using these mythical GSM-only Nexus phones. There's a whole lot of Android users on Verizon and Sprint, and plenty of them will be lusting after any type of pure Google offering.

If this sounds like you, will you switch? Sound off in the poll.