I feel like it has been ages since we last asked everyone what their current launcher of choice was. Is everyone still using one of the old standards like ADW and LauncherPro or have you gravitated towards some of the more frequently updated replacements like GO Launcher? Is there a chance that some of you have adopted the current crop of stock launchers that Moto, Sammie and HTC are tossing out? I feel like there is some sort of new home replacement that is dying to be found that we just haven’t heard of yet. If you answer “Other”, please let us know in the comments which launcher you are using.

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It has been a couple of months since we last had everyone share their crop of most recently favorited apps. So let us go ahead and do that today to see what has received a little extra attention on your smartphones and tablets. We saw the release of some top tier games like Shadowgun, an app from our friends Android and Me called Photobooth, Google Offers, and a whole bunch of old timers that were overhauled. After thumbing through our Apps section, I was amazed at how many of some of our long time favorites had been completely redone.

So this time around, feel free to shout out of some of your all time favorites that may have received new looks. Still try to toss out as many newbies as you can though, since after all, that is the whole point of this post.

For me personally, I’m really loving the newest release of Screenshot ER. After snapping a shot, you get a mini preview in the top right corner that can be saved, shared or discarded. Long gone are the days when taking screenshots either took over your whole screen or disappeared without your approval.

I’m also really addicted to WidgetLocker again ever since they released the Ice Cream Sandwich lock screen.

What else have you guys been obsessing over lately?

Mobile security on Android certainly seems to have become a much bigger niche than I think most of us figured it ever would. In fact, Lookout Security today, announced that they have gone global and are now offering products in the UK, Australia and Canada to compliment their U.S. offerings. If that doesn’t scream success, then I don’t know what would.

There was a time when we all laughed at anti-virus programs, but should we continue to? You have read the few reports here or there of malware creeping in and out of a variety of markets, which can only mean one thing – that the problem isn’t going to just go away and could get worse. Dirt bag developers and scam artists have made it pretty obvious that they feel as if Android could be their next gold mine, and that’s frustrating.

So we are wondering, what security apps are you using? The poll below is just a simple yes/no question on whether or not you are using some sort of security app, but I would love to hear which apps in particular through the comments. And when we say “security,” we mean remote lock apps, anti-virus apps, etc.

Personally, I haven’t found a need to use an anti-virus app, but I usually have something like SeekDroid installed just in case I were to lose it (knocking on wood) and need to remote lock, wipe or locate it.

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Keep it clean, peeps. But yes, we want to know what the first thing is that you plan to do with your Samsung Galaxy Nexus (whenever it finally arrives, that is). Since this will be the first Nexus device for many of you as long time Verizon customers, and the first stock experience since the OG, we are curious to hear what you are most looking forward to. Are you going to pop open the camera and see if it really can take a series of zero-lag pictures in a row? Are you going to Beam something to your friend who bought the device as well? Maybe just sit back and admire the beauty that is ICS? Watch a video on the gorgeous 720p HD screen? Or are you simply going to turn on USB debugging and OEM unlock that bad boy through fastboot – something you haven’t been able to do ever, on a Verizon smartphone?

Let us know in the comments.

A number of readers have been asking, so we decided to do it one last time. With all three of Verizon’s mega-phones receiving official announcements, it’s time to do the poll prior to them all hitting store shelves (hopefully they all do). You were all asked back in early October if the Galaxy Nexus was going to be your phone no matter what. Almost 60% of you were willing to say “yes” at that time, prior to it even being announced. Now that the RAZR and Rezound are also on the way – and possibly a couple of weeks before the G-Nex – has your mind changed at all? Tell us which phone will be your next.

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Too hard to decide? Can you come up with just one? And we are ruling out Gmail, Google Maps, the Market, or any other app that is or was at one time native. If the game was on the line and you had one app that was guaranteed to give you victory, what would it be? Can there be just one? When you reach into your pocket, grab your phone and unlock it, what is the app that you almost instantly gravitate towards? An alternate keyboard? A cloud storage service? A 3rd party dialer? Twitter app?

Since we are not allowing you to choose native apps or ones that were once native, you can’t choose the text message app, but you could go with something like ChompSMS for example or another app that powers something native.

Have something in mind? Drop it in the comments below.

The DL choices: Tim went with Swype. Eric went with DropBox. Dan with Pandora. I went with Google Voice because there are far too many phone numbers and phones to keep track of these days.

With bootloaders continuing to be a popular topic these days, we started asking ourselves questions like, “Does a locked bootloader matter as much anymore?” And of the topics that were brought up, one was whether or not people are using custom ROMs and kernels like they once did back in early 2010. As someone that lives and breathes Android, I’ve got to admit that I get the feeling that as phones become more powerful and have more polished software, that custom ROMs and kernels may be less popular in the future than they once were (I’m sure the CM team will do their best to crush that prediction though).

Rooting on the other hand will always top everyone’s list of things to do as it allows you to take screenshots, wireless tether, etc. But, is Android as a mobile platform becoming optimized enough that less and less needs to be done to your phone out of the box to make it live up to your standards? We once tossed in custom kernels and ROMs with new features to help out our under-spec’d phones. With dual-core processors, loads of RAM and things like native screenshots, what does the state of the ROM world look like today? Going forward?  We ask you just a simple question below to get a feel for it.

And if you would, feel free to sound off on your thoughts on custom ROMs, whether or not you still use them, and if so, which you continue to use. Should be interesting to see if folks with newer phones are still opting to use a ROM rather than stock software.

Update:  Changed the poll slightly. Please re-vote if you will.

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