Good apps gone bad: QuickPic and ES File Explorer sold out

QuickPic sold its soul to the devil

QuickPic used to be a great gallery app. Fast, simple, no-nonsense, just your pics and movies.

But then Cheetah Mobile took over. This mob with the business ethics of an investment banking corporation guises as a bunch of different companies, all with the word "Cheetah" in them. It litters the Play Store with questionable apps. Whether file manager or launcher, they all have a "speed booster" and anti-virus app built in. Because that's what Cheetah's apps are for: a way to sell junk, usually in the form of notification bar ads and similar sneaky tactics. I doubt Cheetah's virus scanner ever managed to find a virus anywhere.

So now QuickPic is part of Cheetah's spam empire and the size of the app more than doubled. So far the damage is limited to some aggressive pushing of their cloud storage plan, because your pictures are worth a fortune to advertisers. I wonder what's next?

Fortunately, you can say no to spam. Just get the good old QuickPic without the bloatware from apkmirror.com and make sure to tell the Play Store not to update it.

• QuickPic at apkmirror.com (version 4.5.2 is still bloat-free)
Alternative:

• F-Stop (try with an ad blocker)


ES File Explorer adds "features," asks money to remove them

ES File Explorer was the gold standard of Android file managers. Unlimited tabs? Check. Root? Check. All the major cloud services? Check. Sharing files over your local WiFi? Check. USB On-The-Go? Check. Opening ZIPs and RARs and more? Check.

And all of that for free. No task killer, no fake virus scanner, no dirty Cheetah Mobile tricks.

But then its maker changed its name to "ES Global" and the app got infected with junk. A page full of "recommended apps," a storage cleaning feature that pops up on the startscreen to delete files that you don't want to lose, and spam in your notification bar to make sure you don't miss out on the other spam.

And no way to hide the bloatware. The old ES File Explorer let you set all default startup tabs yourself, exactly the way you wanted them to be. The new ES File Explorer shoves a homescreen in your face that you can't delete anymore.

Unless you're willing to pay to remove some of the added junk. Yep, that's the business model now. First fill your app with spam so nobody trusts you anymore, then ask money to remove what nobody wanted anyway. Those new "features" are just nagscreens to get your money. The possibility to add useful new features (like automatic cloud storage sync, full-blown encrytion, or deleted file recovery) that you can pay to use, rather than pay not to use, somehow escaped ES Global's mind.

And guess what? The "similar apps" section of ES's Play Store entry starts with "File Manager HD" from Cheetah Mobile. Oh, the irony!

The good news? Old versions of ES File Explorer version still let you set your tabs the way you want without startpage spam. Just keep in mind that one day DropBox, Gdrive, OneDrive etc. will update their APIs and the old versions will stop working, or Google will change Android's file permissions system and break things. Until then, get the good old ES File Explorer from apkmirror.com.

• ES File Explorer at apkmirror.com (get version 4.0.2.3 (237) or

To tame ES File Explorer, I used Lucky Patcher (MyAndroidTools works too) to switch off the "features" I don't want. Of course you need a rooted Android for this.
Activities: RecommActivity, RecommItemDetailActivity, RecommItemImageViewer, InstallMonitorActivity, UninstallMonitorActivity, AppCheckUpdateList, ESStatisticsActivity, SocialLoginActivity.
Receivers: CampaignReceiver, ShareReceiver, EnableOEMConfig, InstallMonitorReceiver, StartServiceReceiver.

Free alternative:

• X-plore (tons of useful features, but only two tabs and a horribly designed user interface)

ES File Explorer adds Google Drive

Android file managers are getting more and more cloudy. X-plore and ES File Explorer recently added SkyDrive, and X-plore has Google Drive too. It looks like these two apps are in a sort of "I have more cloud storage servers than you" contest. That's a good thing for anyone who uses those apps. ES and X-plore, keep fighting!

ES File Explorer took the lead again, so now it has Google Drive too. This in addition to Dropbox, box, SugarSync, and SkyDrive.

ES File Explorer also has an FTP server in addition to its FTP client. The FTP server is still burried deep down in the settings menu, but now you can send an FTP server shortcut to your homescreen to get in there a little faster. It's better than nothing, but a future update would improve things a lot if it adds an FTP server toggle to the FTP tab.

Not that I want to complain too much, because ES File Explorer is the best file manager for Android and X-plore has a long way to go before it can compete. ES File Manager makes and extracts zip archives, opens rar files, backs up apps like Titanium (which won't back up itself), talks with Samba servers, and sends shortcuts to files and folders to your homescreens. And in true Android spirit (does anyone pay for apps?) ES File Explorer doesn't cost a penny.

• ES File Explorer

The competition:

• X-plore

X-plore adds SkyDrive

X-plore for Android started as an unusable app, got fixed, and is now fully functional. Swiping between two explorer screens makes moving files a lot easier than with the classic single screen setup of most file managers. X-plore is still ugly as hell and things like FTP servers deserve their own screen, but maybe the next few updates will do something about that.

The latest update expanded its cloud support. X-plore already talked to Dropbox, box.net, SugarSync, and Google Drive, and now it connects to SkyDrive too. Good stuff, because SkyDrive comes with more free storage space than the competition.

The back button still takes you to your homescreen instead of to the previous folder, which is completely useless. We already have the home button to go to our homescreen.

While X-plore is cleaning up their app you may want to give ES File Explorer a shot.

• X-plore
• ES File Explorer

ES File Explorer adds SkyDrive and an FTP server

ES File Explorer is an excellent file manager to handle files and folders on your phone and in the cloud, and to pingpong them back and forth to your computer. It creates and extracts zip archives too, and it opens rar files. It comes with a couple of optional plugins. The app manager can back up apps like Titanium (which won't back up itself), and the bookmark manager is very good at sending shortcuts to files and folders to your homescreens.

ES File Explorer already connected to Dropbox, SugarSync, and box, and now it lets you into SkyDrive too. That's good news, because SkyDrive gives you more free storage space than its competitors.

Of course it still supports Samba servers, and it still works as an FTP client. The FTP client now does FTPS too, which helps keep your files safe from eavesdroppers.

Great new feature: ES File Explorer now comes with a built-in FTP server! This makes it a lot easier to transfer files from your phone to your computer and the other way 'round. Unfortunately the new FTP server is very well hidden. You have to open the settings, then go into the remote settings screen, and only then you'll find the on/off switch for the FTP server which is counterintuitively called "remote manage."

Urgently needed in the next update: an on/off switch for the FTP server right in the main menu. Even better: just give the FTP server its own tab next to the local file manager, the FTP client, and the cloud storage tab. That tab could have an on/off switch with plenty of room left for the IP address, port number, etc.

Keep in mind that if you enter system folders with root access enabled ES File Explorer will generate a bit of network traffic. The amount of data is barely enough to send out some usage statistics, but unfortunately the developer of ES File Explorer leaves us guessing what's inside those bytes. If all of you ask about it in your Google Play Store comments or email the developer (contact@estrongs.com) maybe we'll find out?

• ES File Explorer (Google Play Store)

File manager X-plore learns about touchscreens

X-plore was the best file manager for my Nokia back when Symbian was the best mobile operating system.

Times changed, Symbian died, touchscreens grew up and became useful, and X-plore failed to catch up. Its first Android attempt was a disaster.

But a few updates later X-plore got the hang of it. Their lineup of cloud storage services is growing (it's got Dropbox, box.net, SugarSync, and Google Drive), and they figured out that what works for keypads doesn't work for touchscreens.

The user interface still looks like a construction site after a hurricane, but at least it's usable now. The useless on-screen menu button is gone, you can select multiple files and folders (it only took some checkboxes), and X-plore will use your own media apps if you don't like its built-in player.

Swiping between two explorer windows is a great feature too.

There's still a lot to fix, though. Making the app look less ugly shouldn't be too hard, and it would really help if the back button of my phone would take me back to the previous folder instead of duplicating the function of my home button.

Keep the updates coming in. And if you uninstalled X-plore upon first sight, you might want to give it a second chance. X-plore is no match for ES File Explorer, but I'm sure they're working on it.

• X-plore (Google Play)
• X-plore (Lonely Cat Games)

• ES File Explorer

File manager ES File Explorer adds more cloud: now talks with box.net too

ES File Explorer is an excellent app to manage the files on your SD card, and if your phone is rooted it lets you into your system files too.

It doesn't stop at your phone. ES File Explorer doubles as an FTP client (not as an FTP server, though), receives files over bluetooth, talks to Samba servers, and it connects to your Dropbox and SugarSync cloud storage as if they were standard FTP servers. The latest update got even more cloudy: now it does box.net too.

Something that didn't change: the plugins. The most useful are the app manager to back up your apk installers, and the bookmark manager to send shortcuts to your files to your home screens.

It still makes and breaks ZIP archives, and it unpacks RARs.

A great app indeed, but it has one bad habit: mystery network traffic when you enable root access. Does it collect usage statistics or what? If all of you ask about it in your Android Market comments or email to the developer (contact@estrongs.com) maybe we'll find out?

• ES File Explorer (Android Market)
• ES File Explorer (EStrongs)

ES File Explorer now has Dropbox and unpacks RAR files

ES File Explorer is a great file manager for Android. It has a built in ftp client, connects with Samba servers, does bluetooth ftp, lets you put shortcuts to files on your home screens, and much more.

And now it comes with Dropbox built in.

The official Dropbox app for Android sucks, and Awesome Drop is not much better. Both apps are good enough if you want to copy files to or from Dropbox, but they won't let you move entire folders.

ES File Explorer will let you do that. You can move files and folders to and from your Dropbox account, or delete them from the Dropbox server. It's like having ftp access to Dropbox!

Other new stuff in the latest update: extract rar archives, make and open zip files with passwords, and an app organiser. Now if it would only come with an ftp and http server and make its root explorer work with all ROMs...
Update: the root explorer works with all ROMs, but think twice before you enable it.


• ES File Explorer (Android Market)
• ES File Explorer (EStrongs)
• Dropbox