Friday 23 November 2012

Choosing a File Manager for your Nexus 7 Android Device: ES File Explorer vs ASTRO File Manager

You have your Nexus 7 or any other Android device for that matter; you sure need a way to navigate your device and access your files. I will pitch two well known apps, ES File Explorer and I ASTRO File Manager, head to head.

ASTRO File Manager
This was the first app I tried so I'll review this first. When you launch ASTRO it opens up the home screen which provides 3 tabs: location, searches, and recent.


From the Locations tab, you can choose to browse your local storage, scan the network you are on, or access your Google drive and Dropbox cloud storage. Yes you can browse Google drive and Dropbox directly from ASTRO.
I found it difficult to discover my network at work with ASTRO, something that was simple with ES. All I got is this screen shot below. 

However, browsing your local storage works as expected; your folders are displayed and you can tap to access your files. One place I find ASTRO lacking is bluetooth sharing.
Long pressing a File or folder brings up a menu at the bottom where you can choose to copy, move, delete, or rename your file or folder. It also presents the three bar options menu. The options menu brings up options which allow you to perform tasks such as: select all; open as; check properties of a file or folder; share; or zip your files.


The share option is where my focus is now. As the screen shot below shows, it gives you the option to send to file to your cloud storage (Google drive, Dropbox, and Sky drive in my case), and it also allows you to send files to Gmail, Evernote and Skype. One feature that is conspicuously missing is the ability to share via bluetooth. This was the very reason I had to get another app. 



Besides browsing through your files, ASTRO also allows you to perform some tasks. A swipe from the right brings up the tools pane where you can analyse your SD card usage or kill running tasks. A swipe from the left brings up the locations pane where you can quickly navigate to specific locations.


Along came ES File Explorer
The home screen of ES isn't as clean as that of ASTRO but it is feature packed. The top row presents your locations as tabs. You can tap the tabs or swipe to flip your screen between Local, LAN, FTP, and Net.



The Local tab displays the contents of your device. LAN allows you to navigate the network you are on and copy, move, or read files from another computer. You can discover other devices on your network by hitting the search button on your LAN screen.



The next is the FTP tab. I haven't actually used this but I believe you can add an FTP server just as you can add a network device.
The last is the Net tab where you may wish to add your cloud storage. Where ASTRO only supports Google drive and Dropbox, ES supports box, sugarsync, dropbox, skydrive, Google drive (gdrive), Amazon s3, yandex, and Ubuntu one. You do agree with me that ES File Explorer has the better of ASTRO here.



Besides the various screens, Sharing files are a lot easier with ES. While browsing your local files and folders; long pressing a File or folder brings up a context menu as an overlay, with a long list of options: open as, cut, copy, rename, etc. Scroll to the bottom to access the share menu. Tapping the share menu brings up the "share via" screen and mine shows I can share this file via: Bluetooth, Google drive, Dropbox, Evernote, Gmail, Skydrive, and Skype.



My verdict
Both ES File Explorer and ASTRO File Manager are great apps, packing all these great features for a free app, however, ES File Explorer does come out on top. It has more features and they mostly work as expected. The ASTRO team continue to develop the app as it has a greater updated frequency compared to ES. However, my goto file manager is ES.

Saturday 15 September 2012

Connecting your Nexus 7 using a Symbian phone and BlueVPN


I was keen to get hold of my Nexus 7, knowing it didn't have 3g support, I knew I will have to rely on my phone for internet connection. Well that's where the problem starts. It is a Nokia E63 I have had since 2009.

Joikuspot was an option but it only created an ad-hoc connection which is no good for my Nexus 7 or Kindle e-reader. My joy ended instantly but I continued in my search for a solution.

Enter BlueVPN. BlueVPN let's you connect your tablet to the Internet by pairing it with with a bluetooth enabled device with Internet connection. To begin, head over to Google play and install the latest version of BlueVPN. Once installed, open up the app.




On the screen that appears, tap settings. On the settings screen tap "Access Point". On the screen that appears, you will be configuring the access point that use in connecting your phone to the Internet.


For your phone, the access point is usually set by your network provider and all you have to do is enter the exact address you see into the BlueVPN access point setting. On my phone, Nokia E63, it can be found at: Menu -> Tools -> Settings -> Connection -> Access points. You will see a list of both network defined and wireless access points. Open up one of the network defined access point, in my case "MTN WAP". Locate the "Access point name", open it if necessary to see the access point you need to enter into BlueVPN, in my case it is "web.gprs.mtnnigeria.net".


Once the access point name is entered, return to the BlueVPN home screen where you will find a list of paired bluetooth devices. This should include the phone you are to use to tether your tablet. Ensure that your phone's bluetooth is turned on. Then click on the name of your phone in the list of paired devices. You will get a prompt asking to allow BlueVPN to create a VPN. Well that's why you are reading this post so the answer is obvious. Then you will get a prompt on your phone asking to allow your tablet connect to your phone. You are also to allow this.



Then BlueVPN starts to create the connection and if it is successful, you get a screen as shown below.


Congratulations you can now browse Web pages, tweet and connect with your folks on Facebook. However your tablet still shows "No Internet connection", open but most apps still work as expected. The last time I checked, the following apps did not use the Internet connection: Current - which refused to sync and get new content; Google play - this one is funny, it connects and you can search for apps as well as check which appears needs to be updated. However, you cannot download any apps as it continues to wait for internet connection.

Well, it's far better than not having access to the Internet at all, until you get an alternative, enjoy BlueVPN. Don't forget to drop a feedback or ask questions if you are having difficulty using BlueVPN.