8 Best Android File Manager And File Explorer Apps

Android’s file manager app is a vital piece of software on the device. The user-visible file system allows you to browse files, downloads, manage storage space, move things around and lot more. Although some manufacturers pre-install an Android file manager app on their devices, they are not robust and lack many features compared to other third-party file managers. Here, we provide a list of 8 best third-party file managers which are rich in features and also safe to download.

8 Best Android File Manager Apps

Note: This list isn’t in an order of preference; it’s a compilation of the best file managers. You’re advised to choose one as per your need.

1. ES File Explorer File Manager

ES File Explorer is a great Android file manager that covers a multitude of additional features a user might desire. Including the essential file management features like copy/paste, cut, delete and add files or folders, it comes with a Space Analyzer that can clean up memories to restore space. It provides the service of sharing files such as music, pictures or videos with other ES File Explorer users. It also has an App manager where you can uninstall or backup any app you like.

The app is entirely customizable to different themes and colors, and you can manage files on network storages as well such as DropBox, GoogleDrive, SkyDrive and much more. Additionally, it has a root explorer for a rooted device and also a Bluetooth file browser.

2. X-plore File Manager

With its unique interface, X-plore File Manager provides a dual-pane file explorer where users can manage two windows at the same time, copy/paste files from folders are quickly accessible. The app is available for free with some in-app purchases and is ad-free.

This Android file explorer comes with many additional features like cloud storage, network storage, root support, app manager, pdf viewer, Auto-ZIP file creator and ZIP unpacker, hex viewer, video player with subtitles and much more. It provides additional support for LAN and Web storage.

3. ASUS File Manager

Asus File Manager is the default file manager for the Zen UI Asus smartphones, but it is also available in the Play Store for all other Android phones. It is free with no in-app purchases and even ad-free. The interface design is simple and easy to use where the various categories are perfectly displayed; you can tap on any one of those and view the associated files.

Asus File Manager comes with a built-in recycle bin to help you recover files after you delete them. Other included features that make it one of the best Android file managers are LAN and SMB access, Cloud storage, search option, compressing and extracting files and more.

Also, it provides you the service to hide any of your private files within its Hidden Cabinet. Even, the storage analyzer let you clean up space when needed.

Also read: 10 Best Google Play Store Alternatives: Websites And Apps

4. ASTRO File Manager

Astro File manager is a fully-featured Android file manager and file explorer app where you can organize files between internal memory, MicroSD and Cloud networks. It has a smooth, intuitive interface that displays the various categories like storage location or Cloud services. It has an inbuilt download manager which helps you if you are downloading large files.

Astro File Manager comes with an SD Card Usage Manager that will let you manage your space and clear memory, Task Killer to clean task that kills battery life and App Manager where you can easily uninstall or backup apps. Additionally, it can compress and extract files, move files between cloud storages, access LAN or SMB and provides you with all other necessary features.

5. Total Commander

The Total Commander File manager equips all the necessary features that a user might prefer. Its dark built-in interface makes comparing and moving files quite easily manageable.

The app supports various types of files, cloud and network storage, a plugin for FTP and LAN support, root functions, bookmarking, filename sorting and lot more. Total Commander is entirely free with no in-app purchases and also no advertisement.

Also read: 7 Best Android Launchers To Customize Your Device: 2017 Edition

6. File Manager+

It has a straightforward and pleasant looking user interface where the various categories are evenly displayed. File Manager+ is easy to use and comes with all the essential features that a file manager should carry.

It supports both local and cloud storage including NAS (Network Attached Storage). It has a smooth file management feature to transfer files from different folders. File Manager+ has a built-in storage analyzer to identify which files/folders are taking most storage and also a recycle bin. It is free and completely ad-free.

7. Amaze File Manager

Amaze File Manager might still be in the beta stage, but the app is pretty good and rich in features. It is available for free with no ads. It is an open-source app which focuses on light and smooth user experience.

The interface is quite handy with a side drawer consisting of shortcuts to frequently used folders like movies, music, pictures, and downloads. The folders are customizable; you can even bookmark and add folders if you prefer. Also, the app supports FTP and SMB file sharing, app manager, navigation drawer, root explorer for rooted device and more.

8. MK File Explorer

MK File Explorer is yet another Android file manager app that carries a simple but pleasant user interface. It has two windows (panels) to view files, moving files between different locations within the two windows can be performed quickly. The side drawer provides a shortcut to any folder that you add to bookmarks.

The app features a material design and its underlying file management features like copy/paste, delete, hide, create shortcuts are easily accessible. Although the app does not support cloud or network storage, it includes other necessary features like search tool, ZIP and RAR support, built-in text editor, music player, gallery and it also has support for different languages. Overall, it is excellent and free to download file manager tool.

Did you find this list of best Android file manager and explorer apps to be useful? Let us know in the comments below.

Google Fixes The KRACK WiFi Exploit For Android, Download OTA Now

Google has released a new security patch to make Android devices fool-proof against the KRACK exploit which affected around 41% of Android devices. KRACK attack takes advantage of critical WPA2 vulnerabilities which made almost every WiFi-compatible device weak against attacks.

Back then, it was known that the KRACK attack Android fix would be coming in a few weeks. The details about the WiFi bug have been shared in the November Security Bulletin. Owners of supported Google Pixel and Nexus devices can find the Android patch in the November Update.

Affected users can download the security patch through OTA update by visiting Settings > System > System update. Alternatively, they can manually flash system images for their devices. System image for Google Pixel 2 XL is currently not available.

Google has you covered for their range of devices. But the question about the security patch for the rest of Android population is still a big concern. It worsens when different manufacturers don’t push security update for months, leaving the devices vulnerable to attacks.

Apple and Microsoft have already released the fix for KRACK attack. Also, various affected Linux distros were also covered in a security patch released earlier.

Kotlin Programming Language Will Surpass Java On Android Next Year

At Google I/O 2017, Google announced the newly added support for Kotlin programming language in Android, along with the existing languages Java and C++. As per the experts, Kotlin came as a breath of fresh air in Android development ecosystem to make “Android development faster and more fun. But, what about the numbers? How many developers are making a shift to Kotlin? Let’s find out.

Realm, a mobile development platform, has shared its latest edition of the quarterly report. This report offers useful insights of current mobile development ecosystem.

Will Kotlin surpass Java on Android?

In case you look at the major programming languages being used for mobile developments, you’ll find languages like Java, Swift, Objective-C, C#, JavaScript, and Kotlin. As you can see in the graph below, Swift is making strides at a faster pace and making Objective-C disappear. This wasn’t the case too long ago. Android is about to undergo a similar change.

Image: Realm.io

Since Google I/O 2017, Kotlin’s growth rate has entered into a new dimension. The percentage of developers learning and shifting to Kotlin is increasing as no one wants to be left behind.

In geographical terms, in Android ecosystem, Asia leads the pack. However, as the developers in Asian countries are more conservative in pursuing new technologies, this huge shift in Android development is expected to benefit the American developers in future.

The year of Kotlin: 2018

As per data, 20% of the apps built with Java before Google I/O are being built in Kotlin, which is a fast growth given the timeframe of 4-5 months.

“Kotlin may even change how Java is used on the server, too. In short, Android developers without Kotlin skills are at risk of being seen as dinosaurs very soon,” the report states. As per predictions, Kotlin will overtake Java in December 2018, which would be about 17 months after the official support announcement.

Why choose Kotlin? How to learn it?

As said above, Kotlin is expected to make Android development a faster process and make it fun. The language is interoperable with Java. A major benefit of Kotlin is the lesser number of lines of code. Its compiler can automatically infer types in variable declarations which can save time and improve productivity. You can read about major features of Kotlin in our dedicated “Why learn Kotlin” article.

There are tons of useful Kotlin courses available on the web. For instance, you can check out this cost-effective beginner course available on Udemy. Further, feel free to visit Fossbytes Academy and start learning with the help of following hand-picked Kotlin bundles at attractive discounts:

How To Code Like The Top Programmers At NASA — 10 Critical Rules

The developers at NASA have one of the most challenging jobs in the programming world. They write code and develop mission-critical applications with safety as their primary concerns.

In such situations, it’s important to follow some serious coding guidelines. These rules cover different aspects of software development like how a software should be written, which language features should be used etc.

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Even though it’s difficult to establish a consensus over a good coding standard, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) follows a set of guidelines of code named “The Power of Ten–Rules for Developing Safety Critical Code”.

This guide focuses mainly on code written in C programming languages due to JPL’s long association with the language. But, these guidelines could be easily applied on other programming languages as well.

Laid by JPL lead scientist Gerard J. Holzmann, these strict coding rules focus on security.

NASA’s 10 rules for writing mission-critical code:

1. Restrict all code to very simple control flow constructs – do not use goto statements, setjmp or longjmp constructs, and direct or indirect recursion.
2. All loops must have a fixed upper-bound. It must be trivially possible for a checking tool to prove statically that a preset upper-bound on the number of iterations of a loop cannot be exceeded. If the loop-bound cannot be proven statically, the rule is considered violated.
3. Do not use dynamic memory allocation after initialization.
4. No function should be longer than what can be printed on a single sheet of paper in a standard reference format with one line per statement and one line per declaration. Typically, this means no more than about 60 lines of code per function.
5. The assertion density of the code should average to a minimum of two assertions per function. Assertions are used to check for anomalous conditions that should never happen in real-life executions. Assertions must always be side-effect free and should be defined as Boolean tests. When an assertion fails, an explicit recovery action must be taken, e.g., by returning an error condition to the caller of the function that executes the failing assertion. Any assertion for which a static checking tool can prove that it can never fail or never hold violates this rule (I.e., it is not possible to satisfy the rule by adding unhelpful “assert(true)” statements).
6. Data objects must be declared at the smallest possible level of scope.
7. The return value of non-void functions must be checked by each calling function, and the validity of parameters must be checked inside each function.
8. The use of the preprocessor must be limited to the inclusion of header files and simple macro definitions. Token pasting, variable argument lists (ellipses), and recursive macro calls are not allowed. All macros must expand into complete syntactic units. The use of conditional compilation directives is often also dubious, but cannot always be avoided. This means that there should rarely be justification for more than one or two conditional compilation directives even in large software development efforts, beyond the standard boilerplate that avoids multiple inclusion of the same header file. Each such use should be flagged by a tool-based checker and justified in the code.
9. The use of pointers should be restricted. Specifically, no more than one level of dereferencing is allowed. Pointer dereference operations may not be hidden in macro definitions or inside typedef declarations. Function pointers are not permitted.
10. All code must be compiled, from the first day of development, with all compiler warnings enabled at the compiler’s most pedantic setting. All code must compile with these setting without any warnings. All code must be checked daily with at least one, but preferably more than one, state-of-the-art static source code analyzer and should pass the analyses with zero warnings.

About these rules, here’s what NASA has to say:

The rules act like the seatbelt in your car: initially they are perhaps a little uncomfortable, but after a while their use becomes second-nature and not using them becomes unimaginable.

Source

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Student Hacked Grades 90+ Times, Stole Almost A Dozen Test Papers

If you ever get a chance to change your school grades, how many times would you do that? Maybe one or two times. But for some people, it’s like a daily routine. And one such person was a university ex-student of Lowa University, named Trevor Graves.

Graves changed his grades more than 90 times between March 2015 and December 2016, according to an FBI affidavit, NY Times reported. Additionally, he also allegedly changed grades of five of his classmates on multiple occasions.

A professor accidentally discovered his hobbies. She tipped the IT security department after she noticed that Graves’ grades were changed multiple times without her authorization. Graves was arrested by the FBI in the last week of October, charged with computer hacking and knowingly transmitting a computer program to cause damage. There is a maximum 10-year prison time for both the charges.

Also Read: Malware Programmer Pays College Fee By Creating Massive Spam Botnet, Gets No Prison Time

To fulfill his intentions, he installed keyloggers, which he likes to call “Hand of God” and “Pineapple,” in many computers in labs and classrooms. The low-cost devices enabled him to get the credentials of professors’ accounts as they can log anything typed on the keyboard. Keyloggers are also very easy to obtain and using them isn’t a rocket science at all.

An unnamed student told FBI that Graves also intercepted upcoming exams and shared copies of almost a dozen test papers with other students. The student also took the paper copies as he/she didn’t want the grading curve to affect their grades.

The university spent an amount of $68,000 for the investigation and bumping their security, they told FBI. Houses of two other students were searched during the investigation but they didn’t face any charge. The university students were warned of possible expulsion earlier this year if they were found involved in the matter.

via Naked Security

What are your views on this? Can you suggest something to prevent such events? Drop them in the comments.

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